Bouncing Balls 8
Title: Bouncing Balls 8
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Mirage, Constructicons, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Jazz and Prowl
Universe: G1
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I, in no way, shape, or form, own the Transformers© franchise or the characters it contains. They belong to Has/Tak, No infringement intended.
Summary: The prank gets in the way and saves the day
The tiny brightly colored rubber balls just kept pouring out of the room and flooding their bouncing and rolling way out into the Nemesis’ repair bay. Mirage stared in shock for more seconds than were safe, in an attempt to fully comprehend what he was seeing and failing. It had been several trips since he had last visited Scrapper’s office as his chosen location for information gathering and he’d had high hopes for his visit this night. The routine OP, well as routine as infiltrating the Nemesis ever was, had gone as smooth as usual, right up to this point.
Apparently choosing the Constructicon Leaders office and, more importantly, opening the door had been a mistake, and as Mirage knew, mistakes got spy’s killed. Mirage heard an alarm sound, probably from the balls hitting that pressure sensor he had avoided a few steps earlier. With the clear knowledge that this OP had gone bad, Mirage tossed off the emergency code over his tactical line to Bumblebee where the minibot was waiting just outside the airlock with the skimmers. At the same time, the alarm continued to sound and Mirage could hear loud steps racing his way from further down, from the private quarters of the repair bay. Mirage reached down, scooped up a handful of the tiny balls, subspaced them, and headed for the bay doors. If he got out of this, he wasn’t sure anyone would believe the story.
All six Constructicons poured into the repair bay proper with guns drawn. As they hit the first section of rubber ball strewn floor Mixmaster and Bonecrusher went slipping, sliding and cussing down and across the bay where they eventually crashed into a couple of berths. Scavenger, to close on their heels joined them, belly flopping onto his front side and spinning sideways like a Frisbee.
None of this would have been a problem for Mirage, except that as Scavenger spun around his shovel flopped out and connected with Mirage knocking him hard into the last repair berth that was between him and his escape. The strength of the unexpected hit and himself crashing to the ground in another scattering of the balls caused Mirage’s cloak to cancel out. And he found himself staring across the bay at the three remaining Constructicons. Time seemed to slow as three sets of surprised optics stared at a fourth set of surprised optics for a long six seconds, then the moment was over and Mirage was scrambling, slipping and ducking under the berth, scattering balls in his wake as he tried to get back to his feet, all while trying to dodge blaster fire.
As he fled out the doors, two shots connected with his armor and he staggered with a wince. The armor held though, doing its job and better yet, he’d managed to write a program on the fly to get his cloak back up and running. Once again cloaked, Mirage bolted past confused Decepticons responding to the alarm and was cycled out the air lock in less than four minutes, pushing his skimmer to the maximum behind Bumblebee as the two raced for the rendezvous point where Broadside and Seaspray floated a good several miles off.
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The six Constructicons along with Skywarp and Thundercracker continued to stand at attention as Megatron exited the Repair bay, kicking at the scattered balls as he went. As the doors shut behind their leader, the eight mechs sagged in relief.
“Well that went better than expected. We only have one fusion canon blast to deal with, in addition to the blasts from our lousy shooting, and luckily, it’s in a wall also.” Scrapper turned, looking around at the scattered balls, crushed and blasted berths and blaster scored walls. What a mess. Megatron’s anger at the infiltration in general and specifically the failure of his warriors to catch the infiltrator had been eased -somewhat- by the fact that the spy had failed to get any information due to the seekers prank. Yes, they had gotten off very easy indeed, verbal intimidation, fusion canon in the face and one fusion cannon blast that thankfully had not been in any of his teams’ chassis. The Autobots had gotten too close to getting the current in progress plans not to mention the direct access to Nemesis’ mainframe that his office offered. Scrapper’s gaze focused on the two seekers who had been edging their way towards the exit. “And just where do you think you two are going?”
“Who, us? Um, well, we um, yes oh yes, we have a patrol right now. Actually was supposed to um start ah, 16 minutes ago. Yes and, we don’t want to be any later meeting up with Soundwave for call signs.” Then in a flash of purple Skywarp was gone, a pop sounding as air raced in to fill the space the black seeker had occupied a moment before.
Gee thanks Warp, Thundercracker miserably thought as he was left facing the Constructicons.
Scrapper moved a few steps towards Thundercracker, close enough to be in personal space and convince Thundercracker that making a break for the door was a bad idea. Thundercracker dared do nothing about it. “You. Stay put. We need to have a talk.” Then Scrapper turned towards his team. “You heard Megatron, he wants these things melted down, Mixmaster, transform, the rest of you start scooping.”
Scrapper’s voice when he turned back to address Thundercracker was calm and measured, with a cold undercurrent noticeable. “Thundercracker, I’m only going to tell you this once, and you may pass on however much, or little of it, as you wish to your glitch ridden counterpart. I’m giving you a free pass today on this stunt of yours. Most importantly because, as amazing and disgusting as I find it, this mess did save me and my team from our Leaders wrath. It also prevented all of our work of the past three weeks from being a total waste since the Autobots failed to gain access to the office. And we also found out how the Autobot got aboard. Just like Megatron, I have no doubt about this not being their spy’s first visit here, but hopefully it will be his last. And just like Megatron, I marvel that we have this prank to thank for saving the day. However, our…benevolence and gratitude only go so far, so get out, and do not set foot in here for any reason, unless you are carried here in pieces.”
Optics wide in shock and surprise plus the usual hefty dose of fear that was natural when dealing with the Constructicons, Thundercracker fled.
-+-+-+-
“And that’s what happened.” Mirage said as he finished his report to Jazz and Prowl.
“Alright, your dismissed Mirage. Head on over to the med bay, Ratchet should be waiting to clear you. And make sure you and Bumblebee get a written report to Prowl by the end of the day.”
As Mirage nodded and left, Jazz sighed with the cycling of air through his vents. He stared at the small handful of miniscule, yet colorful, rubber balls currently sitting on Prowls desk. “Well, it’s going to take a lot of work to regain access to the Nemesis. The Cons are sure to fix the glitch in that airlock we’ve been using.”
Prowl leaned back in his chair watching his mate where Jazz currently reclined against the wall. “Well, what’s done is done. We will manage and survive. We always have. Be glad they both got out unharmed for the most part.”
Jazz stared back at Prowl. “You're taking this whole thing a lot better than I would have thought. This is a pretty big blow to our gaining access to information that your tactical planning group uses in developing plans against the Cons plans.” Jazz paused to read Prowl, then added in a sly teasing tone, “especially seeing as how it was you who suggested these things be sent to the Cons.”
“First, I’ll remind you, it was you who encouraged me in that decision. And second, why should I be upset when, after all these vorns with you, my point has finally been so nicely proven?”
“Huh? What point is that?”
Leaning forward, Prowl scooped up some of the balls, and with a rare smile, offered them to Jazz who held out his hands. “Rules Jazz.”
“Huh?
“See what happens when you don’t follow the rules? Now the Decepticons are using our own miscreant’s pranks against us.”