Sabotage: Alternates

Prowl continues to give Jazz a hard look. Jazz just stares right back. "What?"

"You're subtle when it counts." Prowl says pointedly. "I really don't want to have to rescue your ass."

That makes Mirage and Hound burst out laughing while Jazz protests. "Oi! That was once!"

"And once made an impression."

"Once got us Prowl." Mirage says, still laughing.

Prowl aims one last hard look at Jazz, who brushes it off with practiced ease. "Relax, Prowler. Ah'm reckless, not stupid. Ah'm not dumb enough ta go up against Shockwave without ya at mah back."

"Hmm." Prowl relaxes a little, but still keeps an optic on Jazz. Just in case.

Not-Jazz hums in thought. "What were to happen if Ah went?"

"Ya'd be caught, then experimented on, which is why Prowler over here is babysittin' us." Jazz says with a grin. "He don' trust that Ah won' run off on mah own."

"Experience taught me that. If he thinks a mission is too dangerous, he'll go out and investigate, get himself into trouble, and need to be rescued because it goes to hell."

"Once. That only happened once, an' ya never let a mech live it down." Jazz complains.

"You did get torn up. A lot." Bee points out. "I don't know what you were expecting, going up against Cyclonus like that."

"Ah wasn' expectin' ta get caught, an' Ah wasn' expectin' ta have ta defend a bunch of Neutrals while Ah was at it." Jazz says with a grin. "Th' Neutrals gettin' caught was what got meh outta hidin'."

Prowl sighs with exasperation. "That was not my favorite thing to do, by the way." he says dryly. "I would rather not have to do that again."

"Oh, I don't know about that." Mirage says with a small grin. "It was rather hilarious watching you make Cyclonus lubricate himself."

Not-Jazz blinks. "Say what? What happened?"

"You guys act that like was something special!" Prowl protests, which just sets everyone else off. "Besides, I'll have you know I was not the only one involved in that!"

Blue grins. "It was a rather excellent performance." he says with a chuckle.

Not-Prowl and Jazz exchange a long look. "When this is all over, an' ya'll have some free time, we're gonna have ta sit down an' have a little chat. Ah feel like there are stories here that mah Prime would get a kick outta."

"Either that, or he'd lock up, and that's hard to do with a functional processor." Not-Prowl comments, his hand going up to his helm briefly. He grins as Not-Jazz tracks the movement. "I'm fine, I'm not locking up."

"Just so you know, you upset Jazz when you did that to him the first time you met." Mirage says with a laugh.

"Not so much upset as confused meh, if we're bein' honest." Jazz says with a grin. "Ah didn' know what ta do, so I kinda just poked ya till ya moved."

That sets Prowl off. "You poked him?"

Jazz just shrugs helplessly. "Ah've never seen anyone lock up before! Ah don' know what ta do if someone does! Ya'd jus' been switched wit him, an' Ah didn' know him from a hole in a wall!"

"I'm so glad to know there's a version of myself out there with a battle computer that doesn't screw with their processor's normal functions." Not-Prowl says dryly.

Prowl flashes him a grin. "You mean a non-existent one."

"Whatever works. I'm just saying."

"Ta be honest, Ah'm surprised ya haven' locked up more." Not-Jazz comments. "Gettin' used ta it?"

"More like I managed to convince my computer that for this world, this is logical. So far it's working."

Prowl tilts his helm. "Is it anything like that code they teach you that's supposed to convince your processor that your doorwings aren't actually part of your body? Because that code never actually worked long enough to be useful."

Not-Prowl grins faintly. "A better code. I wrote it."

"Glad to know you're better at it than I am."

"Ya'll gonna be swappin' codes before the end of the night?" Jazz asks with some amusement.

"Maybe. That doorwing code would be damn useful in the upcoming fight." Prowl says with a grin. "Shockwave likes the doorwings."

"Ya mean he likes to ruin 'em, yeah." Jazz mutters under his breath. "'S a waste of perfectly good doorwings."

Not-Jazz catches the mutter and bursts out laughing. "A fan, are you?"

"Ain't ya? Or is it other attributes that got yer attention?" Jazz laughs outright as Not-Jazz and Prowl smack him. "Hey now, easy on th' merchandise!"

"That was rude, Jazz." Mirage comments.

"Was not! It's an honest question!"

Prowl just laughs. "Jazz says it like it's only my good looks that caught his attention." he teases. Jazz just grins and throws a good-natured punch at him. Prowl swats it aside with a laugh. "If you're gonna do that, I'm pulling you into the ring."

"We do not have time for that." Blaster says suddenly. He's got one hand on his audio, his helm tilted to the side. "Chatter has Shockwave on the move. Apparently he's tried locking on to your spark signature and can't, so now he's coming to us."

"How?" Jazz demands.

"Not sure yet. Sounds like the plan is in the infant stages of things. We should move out before he figures it out. I really don't wanna see what happens when we give him time to be creative."

Jazz looks over at Prowl. "That plan th' two of ya'll were workin' on - are ya'll done with it?"

"Not quite - but something tells me that you'll be using it anyway." Not-Prowl says, glancing over at Prowl, and getting a nod of confirmation. "It was a basic outline, nothing concrete."

"Well, we learn by doin'!" Jazz says cheerfully. "Blaster, is Shockwave still in his base, or is he on the move now?"

"Chatter has him packing up and getting ready to move. If you're gonna do something, now's the time to do it. He'll be on the move in about two hours."

"Sheesh. Not long at all to get going." Mirage muses. "It's a good thing we tend to keep our gear with us at all times."

"No time for chit-chat! Let's go mechs." Jazz gets to his feet, pulling Prowl up with him. "Remember, Prowl an' Ah will go first - clear th' area an' hunt Shockwave down. Raj, Hound, ya'll gonna be with our counterparts. Get them ta th' computer banks, see if they can hack it. Bee an' Blue - ya'll gonna be outside, watchin' th' doors an' makin' sure Shockwave don' try an' escape through a side door. Ya see him, ya take th' shot, got it?"

"Got it!" Blue says cheerfully. With that, the group heads out.

Not-Prowl watches the interactions and the listens to the banter, keeping his observations to himself. These are mechs he knows, but at the same time, they're not, and the differences still throw him.

He really just wants to go home.

They make it to the base and stop just outside of sensor range. Prowl immediately resumes mech form, swords drawn. The others follow suit, the reflections not too far behind. Jazz glances at him. "Prowler?"

"Remember the first time we walked into Shockwave's lair?" he asks abruptly.

"How is that pertinent?" Not-Prowl wonders.

The others ignore him. "You think this is another trap?" Hound asks.

"Maybe. Just if it were me, I would have patrols. And probably a lot more than that scanner. We know he has all the drones he wants."

"If they're not out here, then they must be inside." Bee says. "Which means either he set us up, or he changed his mind about attacking us."

"Either way, we still gotta get in." Jazz says sourly. "So how's th' plan gonna change?

Prowl runs a few mental calculations, and shakes his head. "It doesn't. We have to go in there if we want to take Shockwave out, and send them home. There's no other way to do that."

Jazz nods. "Okay, slight change to the plan, then. Prowler an' Ah are gonna go in, with our live feeds goin'. Hound, Raj, if our feeds cut out, ya send Bee in yer place. We can't have th' dampener messin' with yer bond. Otherwise ya'd be spending days in Ratchet's medbay."

Not-Prowl raises a hand. "Is sending Bumblebee with us a good idea?"

"Yeah - he ain' got th' kind of specialized equipment that gets fried by th' dampener yet, so he's th' best choice."

"What does the dampener do?" Not-Prowl asks.

Mirage answers for Prowl and Jazz. "Nothing good. It's gonna fry the sensors in your doorwings, and it might actually short his visor." he nods at Not- Jazz. "Our Prowl and Jazz are ready for it, mostly because they're not believers in being surprised by anything. Hound and I can't go in there, it'll frag our bond up, and unfortunately there's no upgrade to get around that."

Not-Prowl makes a sound of agreement. "Being ops and bonded is not the most logical move." he says, but it's more of an observation than a reprimand. Hound just grins at him.

"Yeah, but damn, does it have it's perks."

Prowl laughs at that. "As you two like to keep reminding us. Come on, Jazz. We'll never get this done if we just sit here." With that, the two of them turn on their live feeds and head off. Blue watches as they go.

"20 minutes, tops." he says suddenly.

Bee, Hound, and Mirage crack up laughing while the reflections exchange confused looks.

((It sucks, but it's up!))

They approach the door with understandable caution, then flank it. Jazz carefully pushes it open, peeking around the edge into the interior. "Ah don' see nothin'. Looks like he's closin' up shop here - none of 'is usual traps are lyin' in wait."

"Then let's get this over with." Prowl says, nudging his door open as well. They step inside together, and the wash of the dampening field is not a surprise. Jazz glances at the screen on the inside of his visor.

"There goes th' feed. Looks like Bee's gonna be th' one guidin' our twins. Let's find Shockwave an' rid ourselves of him once an' fer all. Ah'm gettin' sick of 'im pickin' on ya."

"I imagine he feels like he's being picked on a little." Prowl comments. "Not that I particularly care." He leads the way into the auditorium like room, weaving his way through bodies on the ground. He pauses at one, and cocks his head. "This is the drone Blue shot when I came back."

"Yeah, and?"

"The bullethole is gone. Blue shot half his helm off, I saw it happen, but there's no damage to it's helm. Prowl turns to Jazz. "It's almost like the shot never happened."

The sound of scuffing behind them gets their attention. Every dead mech and drone in the room starts moving.

Prowl and Jazz immediately fall into position, standing back to back with weapons raised as the dead begin to stand. Prowl speaks first.

"Fuck."

Jazz laughs. "Yer tellin' meh." He doesn't even bother to glance at his partner. One look away could prove deadly. "Now what?"

"Kill them. Very, very dead."

"Ah'm down wit that."

At that moment, the drones attack. Not with weapons, but with fists, claws, and attempting to bite. Jazz yelps as one of them gets too close for comfort before he stabs it in the spark chamber.

"Ya know, mah reflection told me about these things humans have called zombie movies." he says casually.

"And?"

"Ah'm thinkin' Shockwave might have seen one or two."

"Maybe we can talk about this some other time." Prowl grunts as he kicks one away and cuts it's head off. "I think we need to concentrate." A dagger flies past his head to bury itself into the forehead of a drone coming up on Prowl's blind side. It drops like a stone.

Jazz nods in satisfaction before dodging another one. "Ah'm just gonna say - when we kill Shockwave, Ah'm cuttin' 'im inta tiny, bite-sized pieces an' feedin' 'em ta his drones if any are left."

Prowl starts to reply, but a gunshot rings out, and the drone he was about to kill drops like a stone. Both mechs turn and find Bee and their reflections standing on the other side of the room. Not-Jazz mimes blowing smoke off the barrel of his gun, and grins. "We figured ya'll could use th' calvary!" With a whoop, he darts into the fray, shooting everything that moves, Not-Prowl right beside him. Bee stares in horror for just a moment before sighing and running after the other two mechs.

((It's SUPER crappy, but it's up!))

"Wasn't there a plan somewhere that involved you two not being here?" Prowl says dryly. Not-Prowl shakes his head.

"You know Jazz."

"Yes, that I do."

"Kinda nice to know that some things are always true, no matter what universe." Bee says casually. "But right now, I really want to know what the hell is going on with these guys."

"Once we kill 'em dead, we'll let ya know, mech." Jazz replies dryly.

((Is, oh, almost three months too long to go between posts?))

Prowl's optics narrowed as they continued to fight. The drones were coming from the hallway they were trying to get down. He swung his sword and cut two more down that were going for Jazz's back. He glanced at his reflection. "Can you clear the hall? That's where they're coming from, and that's where we need to be!"

Not-Jazz and Prowl nodded, and aimed their guns down the hall, firing as more drones surged down the hall. "Ah don' know how long we can keep it up, though!" Not-Prowl called back to them.

"Just get us to the end of the hall! The hall splits in two directions - you two will go right, Jazz and I will go left." Prowl said, moving to cover their backs, Jazz at his side. Bee was in the middle, keeping an eye for any surprises.

((It's super shitty, but it's up!))

Suddenly, shots ring out from the ceiling. Prowl just rolls his optics. "Seriously, why the hell is no one staying in place where they belong?"

::We got chased inside.:: Blue says. ::We also kinda noticed that there's a shit ton of power being pulled from the basement level, so Mirage and Hound are going down there to check it out.::

"Th' dampener?" Jazz wonders.

::Maybe. But it's big and out of place, so naturally, we're gonna break it.::

"Good mechs." Prowl says with a grin. "Can you help us clear a path?"

::Yeppers!:: The rain of bullets stops for just a moment before something falls out of the ceiling and rolls away from the team. ::Bombs away!::

The explosion isn't big, but it does clear a bit more of a path for them.

A few floors below, an explosion rocks the base, making the floor beneath Prowl and Jazz's feet rumble. ::Raj, Hound!::

::We're fine! You keep going - we're gonna catch up to Bee and the others.:: Mirage's voice cuts across the panic in Jazz's. ::Get your counterparts home, then you can worry about us.::

As they run down the hall, they come to the T-junction. Jazz and Prowl look over at their reflections. "Ya'll know what to do?"

"Yes. Hack the computers and find Shockwave's backup files and delete them." Not-Prowl says with a faint grin. "We remember."

"Good. Stay out of sight. We're going to find Shockwave himself." Prowl grins, and it's not a nice smile. "I think we need to impress on him how bad an idea it was to come back."

Not-Jazz flinches a little at that. "'s weird seeing a Prowler that likes fightin'." he says quietly. Not-Prowl grabs his wrist and the two take off down the hall.

Jazz glances over at his partner. "Think we got this?"

"We had it last time. It's gonna be hard, but we have it this time."

"Good. Cuz Ah gotta tell ya, Ah don' like Shockwave being in mah neck of th woods."

Prowl just nods in return as they sneak down the hall

((It's super shitty, but here it is!))

A drone pops up in a doorway to Not-Jazz's left as they carefully navigate the halls of the building looking for anything that might be a control room. He jumps about a foot in the air and shoots it very dead before his intakes go back to their regular pattern. Bee's still with them, watching their backs, and he appreciates the mini's silence regarding his jumpiness. "'S like a regular house 'o horrors, man."

Bee nods. "Yeah. He's redecorated since I was here last. I liked the old decorations better, they didn't move."

Not-Jazz has a feeling he's about to regret asking. "Old decorations?"

"Yeah. The drones weren't active at the time, and along the amphitheater were steel cages used to keep his experiments. That's where he kept Hound, Raj, and I while he tried to jack Jazz's CPU."

"Primus." Not-Prowl mutters. "Well, we'll try to stay out of his line of sight."

"He already knows about me." Not-Jazz mutters back. "Ah was with Prowl when he came back. He might correctly assume that ya're here."

In their own neck of the base, Prowl and Jazz slowly make their way down the halls. Jazz glances at Prowl. ::Ya know, Ah'm half expectin' ta get jump-scared down here. Like those damned holo-vids that Sides loves.::

Prowl smirks. ::Well, you know how to best survive a horror movie?::

Jazz grins in return. ::Switch genres.::

::Hell yes.::

The hall dead ends at a door. They come to a stop. Jazz activates a new filter on his visor and grimaces. ::Rigged ta blow.::

::How unoriginal. Any way to disarm it?::

::Just detonatin' it.::

::Okay then.::

Not-Prowl winces, and Bee has to agree with the unspoken sentiment. He mentally reviews the schematic Blaster had sent all of them, and takes a right hand turn. It dead ends at a doorway. Bee stops a few feet short of the door, Not-Prowl and Jazz doing the same.

Not-Jazz's voice is barely a whisper. "Somethin' wrong?"

"I don't know. Can you see through that door, tell if it's trapped?" Bee's voice is just as quiet.

Not-Jazz frowns as he flicks through the settings in his visor. "Yeah - it ain' trapped, but there's movement in there. D'ya know if yer Prowl an' Jazz have run into Shockwave yet?"

"No. Comms are down until we get out of here. The dampener kills them."

"Well, we got a problem if that's him. That's where the computer banks are." Not-Jazz slides a sidelong look at his partner. "We need in there."

Bee glances back at them. "How good are you two with those guns of yours?" The answering smiles make him nod thoughtfully. "Okay. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm going to open the doors, and you're going to shoot from right here. Light that room up, and try not to kill the terminals or me. Whoever's in there is fair game, though."

As both mechs draw their weapons, Bee moves closer to the door, and bracing himself, kicks it in. He rolls out of the line of fire as Not-Prowl and Jazz open fire. The drone spins around in surprise, but doesn't get to do anything else before a well placed shot in it's helm kills it. Bee pokes his head out as the gunfire stops.

"Good job!"

Not-Jazz blows smoke off the barrel of his gun and shoots Bee a grin. "Thank ya. Ah'll be here all night."

Prowl and Jazz back up down the hall. Jazz pulls out a throwing knife. ::Ya wanna try yer hand at it?::

::And miss?::

::Ah'd only make fun of ya a little.::

::Nope, I'm good.:: Prowl grins.

Jazz grins back. ::Wuss.:: With that he throws the knife.

The entire hallway explodes into flames. Prowl yelps as the edges of the explosion scorch his doorwings. When it's over, both of their audios are ringing and the air is filled with smoke.

Jazz just stares. "That's one way ta open a door."

Prowl laughs. "Let's go before Shockwave comes to investigate that." The two head down the hall through the now-exploded door, weapons drawn.

And of course, there's Shockwave in the next room. Prowl sighs. "Really. Directional charges, huh? That's lame."

"That really should have killed you." Shockwave scowls. "Do you not know how to die?"

"Ah could ask th' same thin' about ya." Jazz points out. "Let's try this dismemberment thing again, yeah?"

Not-Prowl strides into the terminal room, and moves to one of the monitors, Not-Jazz splitting off and going to another. None of the terminals had been hit, so the sound of furious typing soon fills the air. Not-Jazz mutters quietly to himself as he accesses the central database.

"Found 'is spare code. He had a drone rebuild 'im from the ground up, copy this code ta a spare drive that he stole from some poor sap he caught on the street an' had it installed. Ah can delete it, an' prolly set up a failsafe ta keep 'im from tryin' ta retrieve the data."

Bee glances back at him. "Can you do it fast?"

"Fast-ish. It'll take some doin'. Why?"

Not-Prowl joins Bee at the doorway. "Because we have company coming. Can you delete, set up the failsafe, and find out how to get us home in ten?"

Not-Jazz shoots Not-Prowl a peeved look. "Are ya serious right now? Ya want all that, in ten?"

"Faster would be better." If Not-Prowl's bothered by the look his partner is giving him, he doesn't show it. "We have at least thirty five drones coming for us, so I would advise doing this quickly, Jazz. I'm not certain we can hold them off for long."

"Primus damn it an' all below!" Not-Jazz swears, then begins typing furiously. "Buy meh as much time as ya can."

Bee exchanges a wide grin with Not-Prowl. "What are our odds here?"

Not-Prowl considers. "Fifty-fifty."

"I'll take those odds." Bee says, cracking his knuckles.

Shockwave just sighs. "Do you think I don't know your plan? I will have your counterparts killed if you don't surrender."

Prowl snorts. "And lose out on the chance to study two sets of us? No, you won't."

Jazz just throws another knife at Shockwave. The knife passes straight through him, and the hologram fizzles out. Prowl glances at Jazz, who shrugs. "What? Ain' like him ta monologue."

"Shit. He's buying time."

Jazz's visor brightens. "Fuck. An' there's no way ta warn Bee."

"The dampener has to be around this place somewhere. I can hear the hum. Let's see if we can find it and take it out. It'll at least be a distraction."

"We ain' got time fer that, mech."

"Ah, hell." Prowl pulls out both swords. "Then let's run. If Shockwave's smart, there'll be drones between us and them."