The Things We Do For Love
Author: Thalanee
Verse: pre-Movie
Rating: pg-13
Word Count: about 2000 words
Warnings: Bad speeding Jazz…
Disclaimer: Still not mine, sorry.
Summary: What better way to catch a law enforcer’s attention than to drive by… twice as fast as you’re allowed to.
Author’s Notes: Thanks so much for your wonderful reviews J , and *does Prowl imitation* No speeding in real life!.
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Rush hour was over by now and traffic had trickled down to the occasional car or cycle former sedately driving by.
It was the perfect time and place for what Jazz had planned. Hardly anyone but him and the two parked enforcers was around so the risks were minimal. The dark silver car in the shadows revved its engines in barely contained excitement and anticipation.
During the past couple of hours he had watched the slender form of Prowl and his boxier partner while they had lain in wait for bots unfortunate enough to have decided to speed in their presence.
There had been less of them than Jazz had expected, either Praxians in general were more law- abiding than the average Cybertronian or most of them knew the enforcers were watching. Suspecting it was a mixture of both he filed the thoughts away for later contemplation. Most of the speeders, once they heard the wail of sirens behind them and saw the flashes of their red and blue coloured lights, immediately pulled over and more or less graciously accepted the tickets they were handed.
Only two racers, one red, the other golden, had actually tried to outrun the two enforcers. Emphasis on tried. Soon enough it had become apparent that they had met their matches.
Both enforcers were exceptionally fast on their hovers (Prowl much more so than Barricade) and had no trouble keeping up with the racers, though Barricade lagged behind some of the time on account of his more massive frame. More maneuverable than his partner, Prowl had smoothly weaved his way through and around any obstacles in his path, be they bots or drones or inanimate objects, herding the two racers and driving circles around them in an impressive display of driving, slowing them down until Barricade had caught up with them again. As soon as they had steered their targets into one of the less populated districts and clear of the heavier traffic both enforcers caught one perpetrator each with their inbuilt grappling hooks.
Enraptured the thief had watched it all, out of sight on the rooftops, but always near enough to see. During his observation one thing became clear to him: his enforcer loved racing. When he had crept nearer his sensitive audio-fins had picked up the low purr of Prowl’s engine, watched the graceful doorwings flutter minutely. It was then that he formed his newest plan: he’d give Prowl the best race he’d ever had!
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The high thrum of an engine preceded the dark silver form streaking by the enforcers’ lair at double the speed allowed, louder and higher the closer he got before fading again as soon as he had passed them, loudly calling out to them in a challenge: “Catch meh if ya can!” Loud whoops of joy drifted through the air as Failsafe weaved in and out of the thin traffic, always careful not to hit anything.
Almost before he even passed them Prowl and Barricade activated their sirens and went off in pursuit of their target, who was busy beeping his horn at the few other bots that were actually abroad so they would know to get out of his way.
Gunning their engines the two enforcers sped up trying to draw level with their quarry. Failsafe was too fast for that though. Barricade could barely keep up, though Prowl had fewer problems with that and as soon as he was near enough he called out to the other mech.
“You are exceeding the speed limit by a considerable amount, please slow down and pull over.”
“No can do, Sparkles,” Failsafe replied cheekily, knowing it would rile the smaller, even though he didn’t show it. “Ya wanna gimme a ticket, ya’re gonna have ta catch me.” Another burst of speed and he was ahead of Prowl again.
Prowl opened a comm. channel to his partner ::What is he thinking?::
:: Do you really need to ask that?:: Barricade queried.
::I only wish to know why he acts like this:: Prowl replied while swerving around a drone that had appeared in his path. ::It is almost like he desires to be apprehended::
::You really don’t see it… Anyway, I can’t keep up with him, he’s too fast. I’ll circle around and see if I can intercept him at some point.::
:: I will keep you informed about our course. Maybe I will be able to herd him towards the bridge.::
::I’ll wait at the other end. See you then:: Plan made, Barricade veered off into another alley, using a shortcut toward his destination, while Prowl sped up to gain on the thief, pushing his engine. The doorwinger was one of the fastest enforcers of this precinct, but rarely had to use all of it.
Turning down another alley both vehicles picked up even more speed as soon as they reached one of the high speed lanes of the city, Prowl always trying to slow Failsafe down, who in turn displayed amazing evasive maneuvers, sliding around Prowl, always teasing the enforcer by staying just out of reach as they barreled along the highway.
Irritated by the thief’s cheeky attitude Prowl pushed his engine to the limit and overtook the saboteur in an amazing burst of speed, braking abruptly in order to make Failsafe brake himself, only for the dark silver mech to glide around him and drive away, laughing in joy.
The thrill of the hunt was getting to Prowl too. He’d die several times over before admitting it, but he enjoyed the velocity, the maneuvering of their race. Catching up with him was proving to be a challenge, one he hadn’t had in a long time. He’d never met a bot who was able to keep up and make him work like that outside the race tracks. He could feel the buzz in his circuits, the way his near silent engines vibrated with the effort.
They were strangely lucky that no one was around, there were absolutely no bots out on the streets as the thief and the enforcer zoomed past.
Suddenly Failsafe turned, his tires squealing, and slid in behind him, playfully nudging Prowl’s rear bumper with his front, before careening past again, leaving a sputtering Prowl in his wake.
“What do you think you are doing?” Prowl shouted.
“Ain’t it obvious?” came the cheeky reply, “Ah’m racin’ ya.”
“I know that.” Prowl snarled. “But I cannot help but wonder what you are trying to accomplish. Do you wish to be arrested? If so there are easier and less harmful ways of accomplishing that desire.”
“This is more fun though,” the thief replied with a rev of his engine, turning left as Prowl came up on his right, turning onto the lane which would ultimately lead towards the bridge, where Prowl knew Barricade was waiting for the two of them.
“You are endangering the life and health of others. This is not a laughing matter.”
“What do ya think why Ah waited until hardly anyone was on the streets? Besides, no bot ain’t dumb enough not to get out of our way, mech.”
The enforcer bristled at that. “That is no excuse. Slow down and pull over!” Meanwhile the bridge was coming into view, which also meant they were on a long straight street, long enough to make use of his grapplers.
“Make meh!” the criminal taunted, revving his engine (and no, the tone of it didn’t sound appealing no matter what his treacherous spark felt), sliding this way and that aware of the grapplers every enforcer had installed, grapplers that sent a shock through a Cybertronian’s systems, temporarily shorting them out without damage to the individual, who even remained awake, but unable to move.
Prowl actually snickered. “Last warning. Pull over or I will have to use force against you.” They were on the bridge now and Prowl took careful aim, the sensors in his frame locking onto his target, who’d barely missed the rails at the side of the bridge in an attempt to dodge the sensor lock his systems had alerted him to.
Enjoying their banter, Failsafe laughed. “That a threat or a promise?”
“Suit yourself.” Suddenly the form of Barricade appeared in front, making the fugitive brake abruptly to avoid crashing into the other. At the same time Prowl shot his grapplers, which locked onto the dark silver form and proceeded to short out his systems.
With a whine from his engines the mech slid to a stop.
“Well, slag meh.”
“You are hereby arrested for transgressions against the Traffic Laws of Praxus and careless imperilment of other mechs.” Prowl announced, when the others transformation protocols were triggered by the enforced shock.
“Hey, Ah’m alright with the Traffic Law part, but Ah didn’t endanger anybot an’ Ah sure as pit wasn’t careless!” he piped up, while Prowl cuffed him.
“You raced us through the entire city. What if an unfortunate mech had crossed our path unable to avoid us in time?”
Failsafe snickered. “Ah knew ya wouldn’t like that, would have put a damper on our little race, so Ah hacked into tha traffic network an’ blocked all the traffic in our path.” Prowl stared at the criminal in astonishment. Now he came to think of it, it had been uncharacteristically quiet on the streets… “Wouldn’t have done to have our fun interrupted, after all.”
“You planned this?” he asked, doorwings twitching as he realized his partner was making another vid. As if he didn’t know about that folder on Barricade’s computer…
“Duh, of course Ah did. Ya’re one of the fastest bots in town, so Ah thought ya might appreciate an opportunity to use that speed,” the other explained. “so Ah watched ya, an’ when the timing was good Ah blocked the traffic and raced by knowin’ ya’d follow.”
Barricade added, “I contacted Smokescreen and he verified the hack. He,” the tall enforcer nodded toward the smug thief, “had the system automatically stop every traffic in your vicinity, wherever you were going.”
“In that case you are under arrest for transgressions against the Traffic Laws and hacking government systems.” Prowl dryly remarked. Secretly he was pleased that Failsafe had been considerate enough to think of the other traffic participants. Maybe there was some hope for the mech yet.
“Aw,” Failsafe pouted, lower lip sticking out in an (adorable his spark supplied) expression. “Ya at least enjoyed the race right?”
Prowl didn’t realize it, but the corners of his lips twitched and slowly drew upward, forming a tiny, barely there smile, that didn’t escape the other’s notice.
“Let us get you to precinct.” There even was a hint of warmth in his voice.
“Was that a smile?” Failsafe wheedled, leaning closer and grinning so broadly, Prowl thought his faceplates might crack.
Almost at once Prowl forced his smile down and scowled demonstratively. “No, it was not. Your imagination is most vivid.” He retorted, nudging the giddy thief along.
“Oh, yes, it was.” The visored mech sounded unbelievably smug. “It was a smile.”
“Believe what you will, Failsafe.”
“I do,” the mech snickered and winked his visor at the enforcer. “Just you wait, Ah’m goin’ ta make ya smile again. Ya won’t know what hit ya!”
Outwardly Prowl didn’t react to Failsafe’s declaration. Outwardly he displayed nothing, remaining his usual stoic self. Inwardly however, he was not as imperturbable as he appeared. Actually a tiny part of him couldn’t help but be a bit excited and wonder what Failsafe would come up with next.
To Be Continued
Author’s Notes: You didn’t really think, Jazz would endanger the other bots for a race, did you? Of course he made sure there was no one on the streets. He knew Prowl would appreciate that.