Story: Prayer 2
Title: St. Francis Prayer 2
By: mmouse15
Rating: PG
Warnings: implied intimacy, slash
Spike leaned against Bumblebee, both of them keeping an eye on the activity around Jazz's table. Prowl was seated at the head of the table, his hands cupping Jazz's helm as Ratchet and Wheeljack worked on the saboteur. Perceptor was out of the medbay, getting supplies from storage for them.
"Wow. I just never would have thought." Spike said.
"Thought what?" came a quiet voice. Spike whipped around to stare at Ironhide.
"Oh, uh, Prowl and Jazz." Spike motioned toward the cluster of mechs.
"You've only just found out about them?" Ironhide asked.
"Yeah, and I'm still having problems getting a handle on it. I mean, Prowl told us a story and said at the end of it that they hated each other, so…"
"Ah, must have been when they first met and they were both trying to be the team's tactician."
"Yeah, it was." Spike looked back at the red warrior. "Do you know more stories?"
"Well, I know a couple, but! First things first. Bee, you haven't sent your report to Prime, and he's about to come down here and reconfigure you into a typewriter, whatever the pit that is, so would you please transmit that over and I'll tell you the story?"
"Oh, I forgot. Sure 'Hide, give me a second." Bumblebee's eyes started flashing, a sign to Spike that he was communicating with someone or something in the Ark. "Done. Now tell."
"Well, it was before your time Bee, so I don't know if you've ever heard this story. Now Prime wanted both Jazz and Prowl on his team because they were the best at what they did. But after the battle when Prowl rejoined us, Jazz made it very clear that he didn't trust Prowl at all. He would make himself obnoxious in officer meetings, questioning every plan Prowl came up with. Well, one time he pushed too hard. Prowl had come up with a plan to rescue an important Neutral official, someone that had some pull in the Neutral camps and would bring a lot of mechs to one side or the other, because the war had gotten to the point that you had to choose if you hadn't already. Anyway, Prowl had come up with this plan. Now the fortress that this Neutral was held in was the same one that Prowl had been stationed at while he was undercover with the Decepticons, so he knew it pretty well. Also knowing Prowl, he'd probably hit the database to find out if anyone else had any information about this particular outpost. So he comes up with this plan and both Optimus and I reviewed it and think it's solid. Prowl presents it to the officers and Jazz…"
"Oh, no," breathed Spike.
"Oh, yes. Jazz tore the plan to shreds. It turns out that he and his team had infiltrated the fortress, but they hadn't noted it in the database so Prowl's search came up empty. Jazz really got lyrical as he described the many and varied ways that Prowl's infiltration team would get slagged if we followed Prowl's plan. Prowl was embarrassed, of course, and I could tell that Prime was getting madder and madder. I think the final straw was when Jazz leaned back, folded his arms, and put the smuggest smile on his face. Prime lost it."
"Optimus lost it?" came from Bumblebee and Spike.
"Well, yes. It does happen. He chewed Jazz out for withholding vital information and for not being a team player."
"Ouch," said Spike.
"Yeah. Anyway, he then got a brilliant idea and told Prowl and Jazz that they had two joors to come up with a workable plan and present it to the officers."
"Two joors? That's not very much time, Ironhide." Bumblebee looked amazed.
"No, it's not, but it was critical that we do our best to rescue this Neutral. See, Optimus felt that he should have a chance to choose which side he wanted, not be forced into choosing one side or another. So anyway, the two retreat to Prowl's office. Now, I happen to know that they spent the first joor fighting with each other until Prowl lost his temper."
Silence met this statement. Ironhide grinned. "Yes, he really did Bee. Now Prowl, he gets all cold and clear when he's mad, and he told Jazz that their leader was expecting them to behave like the soldiers they were and to have a plan ready at the appointed time. He then said that if they worked together they might be able to cover each other's weaknesses but that they certainly weren't going to accomplish anything of any importance continuing they way they had been. Well, that was a prod to Jazz's pride, and they modified Prowl's original plan with all the information Jazz and his team had gathered and were able to present it to us on time. Then they had to pick their team, and Prowl insisted on one 'bot and only one 'bot. He gave way to Jazz on everyone else, but he insisted that he bring along his engineer."
"Who was that?" Spike wanted to know.
"Wheeljack. Prowl wanted him because Wheeljack was a genius at explosives."
"Never would have guessed that!" laughed Spike.
"Well, yeah, it's kind of obvious now. Prowl had done his research and had hooked Wheeljack up with Grapple and they had come up with a plan for bringing this particular stronghold down around the 'Cons heads. Now Jazz disagreed with this part of Prowl's plan, and he brought his objections to the meeting. His argument was that they already knew this particular fortress and could get in and out, but if Prowl blew it to bits they'd have to start all over again with a new place and that would mean a large number of deaths as they explored the new stronghold, since the sector was too valuable for the 'Cons to abandon it. Prowl agreed, but pointed out that it had to look like they tried to bring it down or the Decepticons would get suspicious. It was agreed and they headed out soon thereafter. Prowl got an introduction to Jazz's way of doing covert operations. For one, Jazz always took a back-up team that was left at a rendezvous point so that he had fresh troops to cover his retreat."
"And provide medical help before we get back to base." Bumblebee interjected.
"Right. Anyway, they dropped off the team and headed toward the fortress. They got in with little fuss, and Jazz worked his magic on the holding cells and found that chief in a right mess. Jazz told me later that the mech was almost off-line from all the damage. Wheeljack was working on him before they'd even opened the other cells, trying to get him stabilized. The 'Cons had captured and brought in almost all of this chief's followers, so they had twenty Neutrals to get out."
"I don't envy them that job. That's a lot of civilians to move!" Bumblebee was fascinated by this tale.
"Yes it was. Wheeljack got the chief stabilized and a couple of his people had some medical training so they took over while 'Jack rigged his explosives. Jazz sent a couple of mechs to set up a diversion and they started getting those Neutrals out. Well, it turns out that one of the Neutrals really wanted to become a Decepticon, and he started raising a huge fuss once they'd cleared the cells. Jazz dropped him with a paralyzing shot, but the damage was done. The diversion started, but the noise had alerted the wrong 'Cons and the whole party was in trouble. Most of the neutrals had damage and all were low on energy. However, Wheeljack had the answer. He pulled out some of his special bombs and started passing them out, warning everyone to throw them and not look back and to get the pit out of there as fast as they could move."
"What were these bombs?" asked Spike.
"For the most part, they're smoke bombs but they have surprises in them - some had a flash explosion, some blew up, others let loose a high-pitched tone that temporarily incapacitated any nearby mech."
"Hey, we use those for Special Ops now!" Bumblebee said.
"Yes, but this was Jazz's introduction to Wheeljack's ability to make very useful tools for an infiltration unit. Believe me after we got back from the operation, Jazz spent the next orn closeted with Wheeljack picking his CPU for any useful tools for his teams."
Bumblebee was laughing. "Wow! How did Prowl know about them?"
"He'd known Wheeljack before the war. He was always blowing up his lab back then, too, because he was one of the more famous pranksters at the academy. Most of his most useful inventions came out of his pranking days. These smoke bombs were one of his first inventions that worked exactly the way they were supposed to, and Prowl knew about them because he'd gotten caught by them. The sonic ones were the worst, because they disabled your comms as well as your audios, and you had to reboot your comms to have any communication. Anyway, 'Jack let some of these beauties go, which allowed our folks to make a hasty retreat. They took damage, but both teams made it to the rendezvous where the back-up team covered for them as they continued to retreat. Back at base, we took all the neutrals to the medbay for virus scans and check-ups. The chief neutral was so impressed that we'd come to rescue him that he joined our forces that very joor. Most of his fellows also joined, and the few that didn't chose to leave Cybertron, hoping to find a planet they could colonize. I don't know what happened to them, I was glad they had the choice."
Spike thought about the story, then asked, "Did Prowl and Jazz ever make up after all that mess?"
"They did. Jazz was a gentlebot and apologized to Prowl and Prime at the next officer meeting as a first order of business, since without Wheeljack and Prowl's planning, many of the Neutrals and some of our mechs would have been lost. Prowl accepted his apology immediately and went on as if nothing had ever happened. After that, though, Jazz treated Prowl's plans with a lot more respect. He also was given his own area on the database that was secure to put his intel in. No one could access it without Jazz's permission, not even Prime. But it would ping when there was a match from one of Prowl's queries and tell him the data was under Special Ops passkeys, and Prowl could go to Jazz and get the data if Jazz thought that Prowl really needed it. Plus, Prowl started running his plans by Jazz first, then by me and Optimus before taking them to the general officers meetings. Prowl also started helping Jazz plan his covert operations. All in all, they did start getting along a lot better during working hours, and I suppose that was a good start.
"Primus damn it!" came Ratchet's voice, and Prowl stood quickly.
"Perc, get that lead in here now!" Wheeljack was emphatic but quiet.
"Yes, yes, Wheeljack…there!" Perceptor stepped back.
"Yes, that's good. Damn. Perc, we're going to need another pump, would you…?" Ratchet asked, his hands flying over Jazz's chest. Spike felt a bit queasy, watching Ratchet's hand fold into tools so quickly that he blurred as he moved. His human eyes couldn't follow and Spike was forced to look away before he became ill.
"I'll get it Perceptor." First Aid was moving to the door of the medbay.
"Ah, thank you 'Aid." Perceptor turned his attention back to the energon lines he had been sealing.
"Ratchet?" came Prowl's quiet voice.
"Nothing major, Prowl, his secondary energon pump failed, probably due to all the shrapnel that got in his lines. His primary is still good, it was just a surprise."
"Thank you." Prowl slowly resumed his seat, and Spike released the breath he'd been holding.
Spike curled in closer to Bumblebee and waved good-bye to Ironhide as he left the medbay.
End of Prayer 2. Prayer 3 can be found here.
By: mmouse15
Rating: PG
Warnings: implied intimacy, slash
Spike leaned against Bumblebee, both of them keeping an eye on the activity around Jazz's table. Prowl was seated at the head of the table, his hands cupping Jazz's helm as Ratchet and Wheeljack worked on the saboteur. Perceptor was out of the medbay, getting supplies from storage for them.
"Wow. I just never would have thought." Spike said.
"Thought what?" came a quiet voice. Spike whipped around to stare at Ironhide.
"Oh, uh, Prowl and Jazz." Spike motioned toward the cluster of mechs.
"You've only just found out about them?" Ironhide asked.
"Yeah, and I'm still having problems getting a handle on it. I mean, Prowl told us a story and said at the end of it that they hated each other, so…"
"Ah, must have been when they first met and they were both trying to be the team's tactician."
"Yeah, it was." Spike looked back at the red warrior. "Do you know more stories?"
"Well, I know a couple, but! First things first. Bee, you haven't sent your report to Prime, and he's about to come down here and reconfigure you into a typewriter, whatever the pit that is, so would you please transmit that over and I'll tell you the story?"
"Oh, I forgot. Sure 'Hide, give me a second." Bumblebee's eyes started flashing, a sign to Spike that he was communicating with someone or something in the Ark. "Done. Now tell."
"Well, it was before your time Bee, so I don't know if you've ever heard this story. Now Prime wanted both Jazz and Prowl on his team because they were the best at what they did. But after the battle when Prowl rejoined us, Jazz made it very clear that he didn't trust Prowl at all. He would make himself obnoxious in officer meetings, questioning every plan Prowl came up with. Well, one time he pushed too hard. Prowl had come up with a plan to rescue an important Neutral official, someone that had some pull in the Neutral camps and would bring a lot of mechs to one side or the other, because the war had gotten to the point that you had to choose if you hadn't already. Anyway, Prowl had come up with this plan. Now the fortress that this Neutral was held in was the same one that Prowl had been stationed at while he was undercover with the Decepticons, so he knew it pretty well. Also knowing Prowl, he'd probably hit the database to find out if anyone else had any information about this particular outpost. So he comes up with this plan and both Optimus and I reviewed it and think it's solid. Prowl presents it to the officers and Jazz…"
"Oh, no," breathed Spike.
"Oh, yes. Jazz tore the plan to shreds. It turns out that he and his team had infiltrated the fortress, but they hadn't noted it in the database so Prowl's search came up empty. Jazz really got lyrical as he described the many and varied ways that Prowl's infiltration team would get slagged if we followed Prowl's plan. Prowl was embarrassed, of course, and I could tell that Prime was getting madder and madder. I think the final straw was when Jazz leaned back, folded his arms, and put the smuggest smile on his face. Prime lost it."
"Optimus lost it?" came from Bumblebee and Spike.
"Well, yes. It does happen. He chewed Jazz out for withholding vital information and for not being a team player."
"Ouch," said Spike.
"Yeah. Anyway, he then got a brilliant idea and told Prowl and Jazz that they had two joors to come up with a workable plan and present it to the officers."
"Two joors? That's not very much time, Ironhide." Bumblebee looked amazed.
"No, it's not, but it was critical that we do our best to rescue this Neutral. See, Optimus felt that he should have a chance to choose which side he wanted, not be forced into choosing one side or another. So anyway, the two retreat to Prowl's office. Now, I happen to know that they spent the first joor fighting with each other until Prowl lost his temper."
Silence met this statement. Ironhide grinned. "Yes, he really did Bee. Now Prowl, he gets all cold and clear when he's mad, and he told Jazz that their leader was expecting them to behave like the soldiers they were and to have a plan ready at the appointed time. He then said that if they worked together they might be able to cover each other's weaknesses but that they certainly weren't going to accomplish anything of any importance continuing they way they had been. Well, that was a prod to Jazz's pride, and they modified Prowl's original plan with all the information Jazz and his team had gathered and were able to present it to us on time. Then they had to pick their team, and Prowl insisted on one 'bot and only one 'bot. He gave way to Jazz on everyone else, but he insisted that he bring along his engineer."
"Who was that?" Spike wanted to know.
"Wheeljack. Prowl wanted him because Wheeljack was a genius at explosives."
"Never would have guessed that!" laughed Spike.
"Well, yeah, it's kind of obvious now. Prowl had done his research and had hooked Wheeljack up with Grapple and they had come up with a plan for bringing this particular stronghold down around the 'Cons heads. Now Jazz disagreed with this part of Prowl's plan, and he brought his objections to the meeting. His argument was that they already knew this particular fortress and could get in and out, but if Prowl blew it to bits they'd have to start all over again with a new place and that would mean a large number of deaths as they explored the new stronghold, since the sector was too valuable for the 'Cons to abandon it. Prowl agreed, but pointed out that it had to look like they tried to bring it down or the Decepticons would get suspicious. It was agreed and they headed out soon thereafter. Prowl got an introduction to Jazz's way of doing covert operations. For one, Jazz always took a back-up team that was left at a rendezvous point so that he had fresh troops to cover his retreat."
"And provide medical help before we get back to base." Bumblebee interjected.
"Right. Anyway, they dropped off the team and headed toward the fortress. They got in with little fuss, and Jazz worked his magic on the holding cells and found that chief in a right mess. Jazz told me later that the mech was almost off-line from all the damage. Wheeljack was working on him before they'd even opened the other cells, trying to get him stabilized. The 'Cons had captured and brought in almost all of this chief's followers, so they had twenty Neutrals to get out."
"I don't envy them that job. That's a lot of civilians to move!" Bumblebee was fascinated by this tale.
"Yes it was. Wheeljack got the chief stabilized and a couple of his people had some medical training so they took over while 'Jack rigged his explosives. Jazz sent a couple of mechs to set up a diversion and they started getting those Neutrals out. Well, it turns out that one of the Neutrals really wanted to become a Decepticon, and he started raising a huge fuss once they'd cleared the cells. Jazz dropped him with a paralyzing shot, but the damage was done. The diversion started, but the noise had alerted the wrong 'Cons and the whole party was in trouble. Most of the neutrals had damage and all were low on energy. However, Wheeljack had the answer. He pulled out some of his special bombs and started passing them out, warning everyone to throw them and not look back and to get the pit out of there as fast as they could move."
"What were these bombs?" asked Spike.
"For the most part, they're smoke bombs but they have surprises in them - some had a flash explosion, some blew up, others let loose a high-pitched tone that temporarily incapacitated any nearby mech."
"Hey, we use those for Special Ops now!" Bumblebee said.
"Yes, but this was Jazz's introduction to Wheeljack's ability to make very useful tools for an infiltration unit. Believe me after we got back from the operation, Jazz spent the next orn closeted with Wheeljack picking his CPU for any useful tools for his teams."
Bumblebee was laughing. "Wow! How did Prowl know about them?"
"He'd known Wheeljack before the war. He was always blowing up his lab back then, too, because he was one of the more famous pranksters at the academy. Most of his most useful inventions came out of his pranking days. These smoke bombs were one of his first inventions that worked exactly the way they were supposed to, and Prowl knew about them because he'd gotten caught by them. The sonic ones were the worst, because they disabled your comms as well as your audios, and you had to reboot your comms to have any communication. Anyway, 'Jack let some of these beauties go, which allowed our folks to make a hasty retreat. They took damage, but both teams made it to the rendezvous where the back-up team covered for them as they continued to retreat. Back at base, we took all the neutrals to the medbay for virus scans and check-ups. The chief neutral was so impressed that we'd come to rescue him that he joined our forces that very joor. Most of his fellows also joined, and the few that didn't chose to leave Cybertron, hoping to find a planet they could colonize. I don't know what happened to them, I was glad they had the choice."
Spike thought about the story, then asked, "Did Prowl and Jazz ever make up after all that mess?"
"They did. Jazz was a gentlebot and apologized to Prowl and Prime at the next officer meeting as a first order of business, since without Wheeljack and Prowl's planning, many of the Neutrals and some of our mechs would have been lost. Prowl accepted his apology immediately and went on as if nothing had ever happened. After that, though, Jazz treated Prowl's plans with a lot more respect. He also was given his own area on the database that was secure to put his intel in. No one could access it without Jazz's permission, not even Prime. But it would ping when there was a match from one of Prowl's queries and tell him the data was under Special Ops passkeys, and Prowl could go to Jazz and get the data if Jazz thought that Prowl really needed it. Plus, Prowl started running his plans by Jazz first, then by me and Optimus before taking them to the general officers meetings. Prowl also started helping Jazz plan his covert operations. All in all, they did start getting along a lot better during working hours, and I suppose that was a good start.
"Primus damn it!" came Ratchet's voice, and Prowl stood quickly.
"Perc, get that lead in here now!" Wheeljack was emphatic but quiet.
"Yes, yes, Wheeljack…there!" Perceptor stepped back.
"Yes, that's good. Damn. Perc, we're going to need another pump, would you…?" Ratchet asked, his hands flying over Jazz's chest. Spike felt a bit queasy, watching Ratchet's hand fold into tools so quickly that he blurred as he moved. His human eyes couldn't follow and Spike was forced to look away before he became ill.
"I'll get it Perceptor." First Aid was moving to the door of the medbay.
"Ah, thank you 'Aid." Perceptor turned his attention back to the energon lines he had been sealing.
"Ratchet?" came Prowl's quiet voice.
"Nothing major, Prowl, his secondary energon pump failed, probably due to all the shrapnel that got in his lines. His primary is still good, it was just a surprise."
"Thank you." Prowl slowly resumed his seat, and Spike released the breath he'd been holding.
Spike curled in closer to Bumblebee and waved good-bye to Ironhide as he left the medbay.
End of Prayer 2. Prayer 3 can be found here.