#the fact that Jazz considered fighting Prowl for this blaster

[keferon]

THIS FUCKING MOMENT

[anon-e-miss]

Intransigence 4

Sooo... I forgot about this... Have some more...

Survival protocols burst through the static, and Prowl was instantly in motion. Outnumbered three to one he had no real hope of fighting, that left flight. Clearly they had not expected him to be functional and as the Praxian sprang up from his back, he caught them off guard. Before they could react, he leapt over the barricade. It was the exact same spot where he had pulled that half-clocked operative over, this was unlikely to be a coincidence. He ran as soon as his peds hit the road below. Blaster fire kicked up pavement where he had been standing less than a nanoklik earlier. Though the bulk of his training had been in pursuit and capture, Prowl was well familiar with evasion, and he ran under the overpass, using it as shelter from the projectile and laser fire. With precious little time, the Enforcer came up with a plan. Using his martial arts training, he scrambled up the support. His attackers scrambled down the overpass several nanokliks, perhaps even a klik after him. Unlike them, Prowl knew his enemies, there training and their weaknesses. Garboil and Nightstalker had tested poorly for their athleticism, their frames were built for strength, not for speed or aerobatics.

“He’s gone!” Garboil called.

“What do you mean he’s gone?” A voice called from above their helms. Barricade was the only other Praxian Enforcer in Iacon, and Prowl had worked with him very briefly at his posting in a precinct on the west side. His presence offered more questions than answers. Prowl had found him to be aggressive, and insubordinate, his involved in this scrap was not startling. The next nanoklik there was another clatter of armour as Barricade leapt off the overpass, and the cool helmed Praxian froze. Unlike his friends, this Spawn of Unicron was athletic and quick. He was also considerably more heavily armoured that Prowl. Calling for back up from the Enforcers would be a fool’s errand, there was no way to know who else might be in league with these three. Instead, Prowl initiated his comms and entered that operatives ID. Static was the only answer he received. That shock stick must have fried his comms, Prowl was on his own.

“He’s gone,” Nightstalker said. “Look.”

“You dumbafts, he can’t just’ve disappeared,” Barricade snapped, and he stalked under the overpass, and out the other side. “He has to be here! How could you fraggers have lost him? H’uh?”

Prowl only had nanokliks to act. As quietly as he could, the Enforcer shuffled along the support structures of the over pass until he reached the edge. Barricade stalked back, cursing his quarry’s designation under his ventilations.  With the other Praxian just metres below him, Prowl was forced to freeze. The other two were too close, jumping on Barricade would be reckless, and suicidal, and the slighter Praxian was neither. Not even daring to ventilate, Prowl waited until Barricade stalked off again, waited for him to stop and snarl at Garboil, and then he made his move. He swung from underneath the overhang, and began to quickly climb the side. Just before the tactician could make it safely over the side, blaster fire scored his leg. A damage report flashed across his HUD, Prowl ignored it, despite the sparks, he transformed successfully and raced at full speed back down the highway.

Rather than the precinct, he raised full speed for the Autobase. Someone could comm Autobot Jazz. If they would not let him on base, at the very least they would not let him get shot... in theory. First, however, Prowl needed to get there. His tactical systems displayed a path. Barricade and the others were unlikely to continue their pursuit into the bustling downtown where the bars, clubs and streets were filled with mechanism, a high number of whom would be Autobots, and armed. Taking the next left, the Praxian demanded another burst of speed from his frame. The laser fire that had scored his leg had damaged one of the main cables there, in his altmode it served as part of the support for his undercarriage. It was weakened, it could snap. He only had a nanoklik’s warning before a crushing weight smashed against his hood. A well aimed elbow triggered his transformation sequence, and as the Praxian was forced to violent transform, that cable snapped.

“You put up a better fight that I’d thought,” Barricade sneered against his audials. Prowl felt a nose of a blaster pressed against the back of his helm. “Not good enough...”

With a quick slash of his servo, Prowl knocked the blaster away from his helm, it went off, the sound so loud the tactician’s audial buzzed with static. To their right there was a scream of pain, Prowl did not pause to consider who might have been shot. Barricade was off balance, the smaller Praxian used that to buck the mech off. He rolled and true his rifle all in one motion and levelled it at his attacker. Over the other Praxian’s shoulder Prowl saw Nighstalker writhing in pain, Garboil was nowhere in sight. If the mech had any sense, he would be making his escape, but the damaged Enforcer could not know for sure. His frame ached from the forced transformation, never mind his leg, but Prowl did not allow it to distract him. Half on his chassis, and half on his knees, and arms outstretched, Barricade’s blaster was pointed away from Prowl. They were so close, however, so close that if the slighter Praxian was not quick on the trigger his attacker could still make the drop on him. As Barricade watched him from the corner of his optics, Prowl wondered which of them would break first.

“Drop your weapon, or I will shoot you,” Prowl ordered. “If you so much as ventilate, I will shoot you.”

“I just might shoot you first,” Barricade hissed, false bravado to the end.

“Have ever been hit with an acid round?” The tactician asked. “Even if my first shot fails to kill, the acid will continue to eat away at you circuitry.”

“Frag you,” the other Praxian snarled, but he dropped his blaster, but it was still within arm’s reach. Nighstalk’s whimpers stopped. Prowl was fairly sure he was dead.

“Servos behind your back,” Prowl ordered. Still snarling, Barricade did as he was ordered. He must have expected Prowl to close the gap to cuff him, his frame was tensed, ready to react, but to his misfortune, his smaller compatriot was not an idiot. “Do not move.”

Rather than inch forward, Prowl inched back, never taking his rifle or his optics off the other Praxian. There was no doubt in his processor that Barricade had other weapons, a shock stick at least, and almost certainly other blasters. With his leg crippled, Prowl would not risk attempting to secure the larger Praxian, so long as he kept his distance, their stalemate was in his favour. Prowl waited, completely silent. Surely someone must have heard the gunfire, and yet there was no sound of sirens, no bystanders, nothing but silence for what felt like an eternity. Ped steps echoed down the pavement, and Barricade lunged forwards; Prowl fired. The other Praxian screamed in pain as Prowl’s should hit him high in the back. Twisting around, awkwardly, and rifle still raised, the Enforcer faced this new threat. He found himself staring down a hulking red mech with a very large gun, and the Autobot insignia embossed in the centre of his chassis.

“Now what the frag’s goin’ on here?” The mech demanded over Barricade’s increasingly garbled howl. “Enforcers havin’ a shoot out wit each other?”

“Bit more complicated than that, ‘Hide,” Jazz jogged up, and he brushed the far large mech’s weapon down. “This one’s ours... Sorta.”

“Ya got ops in the Enforcers now?” Hide, as Jazz had called him, asked.

“Nah,” the operative replied. “Reinforcement’s comin’ can ya check the fragger o’er there? See if he’s scrapped?”

“Yah, fine,” the Iaconian said. “In the streets Jazz? They’re gonna have fun wit this one.”

“I have a neutralizer,” Prowl offered, having lowered his gun when Jazz had arrived on scene. He cocked his doorwing at Barricade. “If the damage is not too grave already.”

“Hand it over,” the Polihexian replied, and Prowl did exactly that. Jazz dumped the vial into the gaping would between Barricade’s shoulders. His vents were still wheezing, there was a chance he would live yet. “Don’t look like y’re goin’ anywhere under y’re own steam.”

“No,” the tactician confirmed. “The cable in my leg has snapped. There is one other on the lose. Garboil, one of the Enforcers at my precinct. He, Nightstalker and Barricade attacked me in the same spot as I pulled you over.”

“Same spot Nightstalker liked to pull over his victims,” Jazz replied. “Fragger’s consistent.”

“Was,” Hide corrected. “This one’s scrapped... Not an acid round.”

“Barricade shot him in error,” Prowl explained. “He intended to shoot me in the helm.”

“‘M sorry I brought ya into this, Prowl,” the saboteur said as he examined the prone Enforcer’s leg, and then the rest of his frame for additional injuries. “Didn’t expect ya to be a target.”

“I was already a target,” the Praxian replied. “They had a plan, Barricade appeared in command of the ambush. He is assigned to a different precinct. The fact that you requested copies of their schedules yester-cycle, and I was attacked this mega-cycle are merely coincidences.”

“Flatfoot maybe?” Jazz asked, as he his digits brushed against the burn out wires at the Enforcer’s side. “You outta lay down ‘til the medics get here.”

“I am fine,” Prowl replied, the other mech’s touch was light enough that it barely hurt. Still, the burn from the shock stick was beginning to throb in time with his spark. The pain only temporary, the injury was grievous. “It is possible he could be involved. Though it strikes me as an overreaction to my criticisms.”

“Unless he had somethin’ to do wit this slag, ‘n he’s afraid ya gonna figure it out,” the Polihexian replied.

It was a possibility. Prowl had no respect for the Praefectus, thinking the mech an egotistical PR hound, but he had never considered that Flatfoot could actually be corrupt, certainly not on that level. If the Polihexian Enforcer was involved, he no longer had Prowl to worry about, but the Autobots, which meant if their was something to Jazz’s suspicion, something would be done about it, an Autobot commander was not so easily ignored he himself would be. That was a more frustrating thought than the Enforcer would have expected, so far as he was concerned, it should not have taken an arm of the army to address the dysfunction in Iacon’s Enforcers, it should never have gotten this bad. Even if Flatfoot was not involved, he could not be entirely innocent. There was a reason the Praefectus personally managed Nightstalker and Garboil’s schedule, though he did not know what it was.

“Flatfoot personally wrote the schedule for both Nightstalker and Garboil,” the Enforcer said, and finally thinking of that dataslug, he opened the hidden compartment in his arm. “I believe he did the same for other Enforcers, in other precincts, but I do not know for certain. I have the records you wanted... here.”

“Smart,” Jazz hummed. “Not the sorta trick I’d expect from an Enforcer.”

“When I decided I was going to leave my in-laws’ compound, I to find a way to save credits,” Prowl explained. “I was not permitted to work at that point, or to even have my own accounts, though I had an allowance meant to spend on Smokescreen. Every quartex I transferred some onto an unlisted credit   chip. I had to hide it, so I fashioned this compartment.”

“Slick,” the operative said, approvingly.

“How was it you found me?” the Praxian asked. All of a sudden he was looking up at the stars. Jazz supported his helm as his back made contact with the grown. He frowned, he was fairly certain he had not collapsed, no this mech had herded him and he had not even noticed. Before Prowl could sit back up, purely in defiance, Jazz pressed a firm but gentle servo against his chassis.”

“Better safe,” Jazz declared. “Burn that deep means that shock stick weren’t standard issue, ya shouldn’t’ve gotten up after.”

“I have strong survival coding,” Prowl replied. “Again, how did you find me?”

“That shock triggered the slug’s recovery signal,” the Polihexian explain. “I tracked it, ‘n ya. Ya got some moves.”

“It could have gone better,” the tactician replied. Sirens blared in the distance, and Prowl could not help but sigh, Smokescreen was not going to be happy about this.

[fleetingfan77]

The Flaw in Every Crystal Chapter 4

'Welcome to Praxus' Part 4

aka The Great Escape, Plan A

aka My work schedule finally lightened up a bit

Gotta admire Jazz’s spirit and resourcefulness, even if it did result in him blowing himself up...multiple times..

You can really feel how desperate Jazz is here to just get out of the room and away from the house even if he doesn’t have a real plan and already knows what will happen if he tries to leave the city. 

This is really kinda a no win for him. Praxus doesn’t seem to have a homeless population he could blend in with, his frame type is different enough to get him spotted immediately, and he doesn’t have a lot with him. Even trying to get someone to help him could just leave him in a worse position of being someone’s “pet” and being blackmailed with arrest and becoming property of Praxus.

So Prowl took a while to find out that the source of the smell of hurt mech and recent explosion was THAT ROOM, which makes me worry a bit about the real possibility that Jazz could have been forgotten in there. Not for long mind you, and Jazz wouldn’t have realized, but still. Kinda darkly funny to imagine Prowl about to go to sleep, then suddenly his eyes light up with an “oh shit!” expression as he goes to check on Jazz.

Poor Jazz completely lost track of time it seems while injured, and couldn’t have gotten the door open by himself. Its good there was nothing else flammable in there or he would have gotten out of Praxus in the most permanent way possible. And from how Prowl describes what he finds, Jazz did almost make that trip.

“Prowl, what happened to that mech you worked so hard to get as a mate?” “Oh, he exploded....quite tragic...”

Probably the creepiest parts of this story is just how much Jazz’s terror and sadness are down played by everyone around him. Even here Prowl is treating this more as a costly annoyance, seemingly not even thinking that Jazz just admitted he was desperate enough to cause a small explosion to try to escape the room. The fact that the medic automatically goes to “trouble training huh?” like a firefighter called to deal with a kitchen damaged after a cooking accident/fire. I worry what something “too extreme” would be? An outright suicide attempt? Even that I could see as being spun as “oh, guess that mech just wasn’t a right fit/guess he had prior emotional problems/these things happen.” Not to mention trying to comfort someone when you’re the one causing them to be in pain. 

Prowl says the medic wears traditional colors, but is it the same colors or lighter/grayer shades of them since she is the sub in a prior relationship?

 Kinda wish there was a time glossary at the top of the chapter. Otherwise I associate joor = about an hour while orn = about a day to a transformer. So Jazz says he was locked up for an hour, medic says a few hours and Prowl says he was gone five days? I know that I’m probably reading that wrong but I don’t really have a reference. Jazz isn’t complaining about low fuel and we don’t read him refueling so I don’t think it could have been more than what they would consider a day to be...

We also see Jazz send out comms to both his friend, Blaster, and his boss. We later see Blaster trying to help out but never the boss. I wonder if the boss doesn’t know, didn’t get the comm, or got some kind of compensation to “fire” Jazz and no longer care about his employee? Maybe even a forged note from Jazz saying he quit and decided to stay in Praxus? That one I could very easily see happening.

We also see that although the medic is in a loving relationship, she can still get talked over, with Prowl stating that he would talk to Derby to come up with compensation for her mate being damaged by Jazz. I’m almost surprised that Prowl listens to her being so flippant about saying how no compensation is necessary even if she does say that her mate allows her to make some of these decisions. It does really show even in a good relationship overall the system only works because the dominate mate “allows” the sub some say in her life. It does lead to the worry of what would happen one day if the mate decided that being a medic was too dangerous and decided that she should quit. There would be really no recourse for the medic, would there?

It’s like Triage understands perfectly what danger Jazz is in and her only advice is to stop fighting and just give in. It’s especially ironic since that would probably be the fastest way to have Prowl lose all interest in him, since a Jazz who doesn’t fight back is pretty much dead inside.

 Ah yes, Jazz wanting to see Praxus “as a citizen” and the through review that included never talking to Jazz about it. “You probably misunderstood something” but too bad because its already done and you have no rights now!

You know, this type of bonding seems like a fast and easy way to get some nice, skilled personal slave labor. 

I love that Prowl sees alerting the medic to a stuck door as overly cautious but still was willing to leave Jazz alone in a room. Though I guess for him he was thinking he would only be gone for a few minutes and what could Jazz possibly do in that amount of time? Though now that Prowl can drop Jazz in an instant it really wasn’t much of a problem.

And now Prowl has a new, harder to break out of room. Yaaayyy... we also see how adaptable Jazz can be, now going along with it since he doesn’t want to die and starving out of spite won’t get him to his goal. We see Prowl almost treating Jazz like a child, feeding him, petting him, and then saying “Are you going to be good now and behave?” In pretty much the same wording my parents would say to me after a time out.

And it seems like at one point Jazz did read the bonding datapad. We see Jazz trying to discuss things with Prowl and Prowl not rejecting, but still acting like he’s indulging Jazz in this. Odd Jazz mentions seeing his mentor, yet he didn’t try to comm him. Could it be the mentor is worse off than Jazz and couldn’t help?

It’s really sad to see Prowl react to what he wants from Jazz. It seems like he wants only Jazz’s good traits. Its almost like he wants two different mechs. The perfect sub in public and the Jazz he finds interesting in private. I could almost see that working and Jazz going along with it if it was an outside force keeping Jazz there rather than Prowl. 

Prowl mentions training almost like its an arms race with wound returned for wound until you just wear the other down. Prowl really thinks too highly of himself. Jazz point blank tells him, no, this isn’t going to work, continue and you will lose me. And Prowl just waves it off saying Jazz could still have goals that he may even get to keep if a third carries. Though I cannot imagine Jazz with another in the house. He would either hate/try to hurt the third if they didn’t go along with trying to escape. 

And then Jazz lashes out at Prowl again after Prowl says how much better Jazz will have it here. Only to be locked away again. I wonder if one of the other things Prowl secretly likes about Jazz is how Jazz can get so much of a rise out of Prowl, even having Prowl leave while flipping Jazz the middle figure in door speak. And Jazz is left in the dark trying to soothe himself.

Thus ends another chapter. Till nex time!