Seeing And Believing 5/6
Verse: G1
Characters: Prowl, Jazz, assorted Decepticons
Pairings: Prowl/Jazz
Rating: PG-13 for mild slash and violence
Warnings: erm... Jazz snark and mentions of country music?
Summary: When you're as different as Prowl and Jazz are, working together becomes an interesting prospect
Notes: This was written at a time when just about everyone was debating the matter of Jazz's optics/visor. The theories were everything from them being green/gold/magenta/neon orange, to being Decepticon-red, to him being blind, to the visor being his visual center. I never bought into any of those. So this was written partly to counter all those theories.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, they own me.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Prowl led the way, guided by Jazz’s hand on his arm, but it didn’t take him long to find the Command Center. It had a big purple Decepticon symbol on the door that you’d have to be blind to miss. Prowl smirked at the pun, but decided it was better not to voice it to Jazz.
“How do we know if anyone’s inside?” he asked instead.
In response Jazz rapped on the door hard with his fist. Prowl started at the sudden noise and glared at Jazz even though he knew the saboteur couldn’t see it.
“What are you doing?!” he hissed.
“Shh… do you hear that?” Jazz asked.
“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. There’s no one inside.”
Prowl resisted the urge to smack the already battered Porsche. “And what would you have done if Megatron had indeed come out?”
“Don’t know, but he ain't here right now, so why’re you worryin’?” Jazz felt around for the access panel and found it, then jacked in using a small cable linked to his wrist.
The tactician shook his head as he watched him. Sometimes the mech could be maddeningly unpredictable. It was what made him so good at his job. It was why Prowl loved him. His thoughts were rudely interrupted when Jazz let out a pained hiss and touched the bleeding side of his head with his other hand.
“Jazz, are you alright?” he asked, concerned.
“Headache,” he replied, still focused on breaking through the door lock. He put a finger to his lips to indicate Prowl needed to be quiet. “Gotta concentrate.”
Prowl looked on worriedly. Whatever damage Jazz had taken to his head, it looked to be concentrated to his central processor. Up to this point, everything else Jazz had done had been pre-planned for and executed either by reflex or memory. It was only now that the saboteur needed to access his own battle cortex - the part that held all the codes and processes he needed to hack the lock.
Prowl’s worry deepened when Jazz’s focused frown became a pained grimace. He was about to tell the Porsche to stop, they’d try another way, when the saboteur disengaged and stepped back from the lock. The doors slid open. Jazz looked exhausted and leaned against the wall.
“Jazz…” Prowl started.
“It’s a migraine, but nothin’ t’be done for it. All up to you now, Prowl.”
The tactician drew his lover close and kissed him gently, feeling a little relieved when Jazz smiled into it and kissed him back. He held the other black-and-white for a moment longer, then let go and led him into the Command Center.
The doors slid shut behind them and Jazz remained beside them, jacking into the lock again to change the security codes so that if anyone wanted in, they’d have to get past him first. Prowl’s worry returned anew when he realized what Jazz was doing, but he shelved it. Jazz was right. They had a mission to complete.
He crossed the room and it didn’t take him long to locate the dinosaur fossils. Of course, Megatron would want to watch everything his scientists were doing to make sure no one tried to double-cross him - especially given that one of those scientists was Starscream. Carefully he subspaced them. They would be returned to the human archeologists if they ever got out of here.
Trying not to worry about Jazz standing by the door with a hand touching his head, Prowl crossed the room to the console. Bringing up the screen, Prowl jacked into the console using a cable from his wrist in much the same way Jazz had done. He was immediately met with strong firewalls that tried to stop his progress.
Quickly he set about writing programs to take them down, and re-writing codes that would allow him to access more classified files.
While it was similar to what Jazz did with the lock, they both knew that Jazz’s codes and programs were not strong enough to bring down a whole main terminal. The saboteur’s codes were more for breaking-and-entering types of work, and to get into systems far enough to leave viruses. Hacking and information retrieval were more Prowl’s forte.
So focused was Prowl on what he was doing - slowly and methodically breaking down the computer’s defenses - that when Jazz suddenly spoke, he jumped.
“Y’gotta hurry, babe.”
“Understood.” Prowl forced himself not to look away from what he was doing and so distract himself. “Is someone outside?”
“Just Soundwave.”
So much for no pressure.
Prowl knew Jazz was in no condition to withstand a counter-hack assault at the present moment. He quickened his search for the blueprints, ignoring with some reluctance a few other files with interesting subject matter. They were running out of time.
“I can’t hold this forever, Prowl.”
The tactician risked a glance over his shoulder and saw Jazz go down on one knee, holding his head in his free hand. Hastily he turned back to the screen, not daring to think of what Soundwave might be trying to do to his lover.
“I’m almost there, Jazz. Please hold on.”
Jazz grunted, keeping his concentration on the door and the enemy. “Doin’ my best.”
“I’ve got it!” Prowl initiated the fastest download he’d ever done in his life. “How do we get out of here?”
“Hatch above ya. Accordin’ to the security layout, the bridge is right above us. Just gotta blast the hatch open.”
Prowl looked up and saw the aforementioned hatch a good few meters above his head. How Jazz proposed they got up there, he didn’t know, but decided to trust his partner.
The download finished and Prowl retreated from the terminal, but not before planting a nasty little virus of his own. He ran over to what he suspected was a weapons closet and was glad to find at least a few usable weapons. Most were too big and heavy for him and Jazz to use, but there was a lone null ray that Prowl could wield easily.
Picking it up, he ran back, aimed at the hatch and fired a few rounds. He supposed he could have blasted a few more things in the room, but the null ray required him to power it and he didn’t want to waste precious energy reserves on actions that would not aid their escape.
He shielded himself from the chunks of debris that came crashing down, then looked back up at the sizeable hole he made. Now they just needed to get back up there.
Jazz staggered over to him not even trying to hide the pain he was in. His free arm searched for Prowl who immediately caught hold of it and drew him closer.
“Jazz…?” All of Prowl’s questions and concerns were in that one simple word.
“I’ll be fine once we get home,” Jazz replied. “Let’s just get home.” His right hand retracted and was replaced with his grappling hook and line. “Point me in the right direction and tell me when to fire.”
“Suddenly I’m very glad we’re not human because that sounded so very wrong,” Prowl said as he took the arm.
Jazz choked on a laugh. “Did you just…?”
Prowl fired the line. “Yes, I made a dirty joke. No, it does not leave the confines of this ship.” He held on to Jazz and glanced at the door. “How long do we have?”
“However long it takes Soundwave to solve a crossword puzzle.” Jazz tugged on the line, made sure it was secure, and started to reel them up.
“A crossword puzzle…” Prowl said flatly.
“Hey, don’t snub it. The topic’s country music.”
Prowl stared at him for a moment. “You have a point. If the lyrics don’t short out his processor first, the sentence structure definitely will.” Prowl hauled himself onto the landing, then pulled Jazz through. “I managed to contact the Ark. Skyfire has been dispatched to pick us up.”
“Then we’re in the right place. The controls to raise the tower should be around here somewhere.”
A blast echoed in the room below them and they glanced back at the hatch. Jazz grinned and Prowl marveled that the saboteur could find something amusing even in such a situation.
“Guess Soundwave’s not a country music fan. Wonder how he’s gonna explain that one to Megatron?” As Jazz thought about this, Prowl noticed movement by the hatch. “What could he say? ‘Country music: too powerful’? Yikes!”
He felt, rather than saw, the beam of the null ray go over his head and hit something that let out a squawk. Probably one of Soundwave’s buzzards. Prowl watched Buzzsaw drop back into the hole he came out of, then fired off another shot at Laserbeak who came up to take his place.
“Where are the controls, Jazz?” he asked urgently.
“Not too sure. Ain’t been up here all that often t’play with them,” Jazz replied.
Prowl stared at the blind saboteur for a moment and debated knocking him out just to wipe the grin off his face, when he realized Jazz probably had enough head damage for one day. Instead he growled out a curse at his lover and went to look for the controls.
Jazz meanwhile got to his feet somewhat unsteadily and carefully staggered his way over to Prowl. The tactician stretched out his arm and drew him closer, pressing a kiss to the battered helm. It was then that they heard a door his open from somewhere further in the room.
“Drop the weapon, Autobot.”
Jazz snapped his fingers. “So THAT’S where the controls are!” He nudged Prowl. “Drop the weapon.”
Prowl stared at him incredulously. “What?!”
“Just drop it.” There was an unspoken ‘trust me’ in his voice. Prowl dropped the null ray beside him.
“I thought you might try escaping this way so I stationed myself here. Turns out I was right.”
“Screamer, ol’ boy, how unpleasant t’hear ya again,” Jazz quipped. “Y’wouldn’t shoot unarmed mechs, would ya?”
“Oh, I rather think I would.”
“But where’s the fun if ya can’t see it comin’?” the saboteur waved a hand in front of his face. “Dead optics and all.”
Prowl sensed a moment’s hesitation in the Seeker and tightened his grip on Jazz when Starscream took a few steps towards them. Jazz however remained completely relaxed. Starscream eyed them curiously.
“Weren’t you the one with the burnt optics?” he looked at Prowl who wore the visor.
“I might have been,” Prowl replied evenly.
“Then how did you…”
“We’ll let ya figure that out.” Jazz cut him off.
He had been listening to and tracking Starscream’s footsteps, and as soon as he felt the Seeker was close enough, he unleashed a short, but powerful burst of light from his beacons. Prowl being protected by the visor, and Jazz being blind, were unaffected, but Starscream went down with a screech that made both Autobots wince.
Prowl wasted no time, snatching up the dropped weapon and all but dragging Jazz towards the tower elevator.
“I’ve always wanted to see what it was like,” he said.
“Glad you enjoyed the show,” Jazz replied, and Prowl noted his voice felt much weaker. “Ain’t feelin’ too good for an encore though.”
They were almost at the doors.
“Hold it right there, Autobots.”
Enjoy! Just one more chapter to go ;)
Characters: Prowl, Jazz, assorted Decepticons
Pairings: Prowl/Jazz
Rating: PG-13 for mild slash and violence
Warnings: erm... Jazz snark and mentions of country music?
Summary: When you're as different as Prowl and Jazz are, working together becomes an interesting prospect
Notes: This was written at a time when just about everyone was debating the matter of Jazz's optics/visor. The theories were everything from them being green/gold/magenta/neon orange, to being Decepticon-red, to him being blind, to the visor being his visual center. I never bought into any of those. So this was written partly to counter all those theories.
Disclaimer: I don't own them, they own me.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Prowl led the way, guided by Jazz’s hand on his arm, but it didn’t take him long to find the Command Center. It had a big purple Decepticon symbol on the door that you’d have to be blind to miss. Prowl smirked at the pun, but decided it was better not to voice it to Jazz.
“How do we know if anyone’s inside?” he asked instead.
In response Jazz rapped on the door hard with his fist. Prowl started at the sudden noise and glared at Jazz even though he knew the saboteur couldn’t see it.
“What are you doing?!” he hissed.
“Shh… do you hear that?” Jazz asked.
“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. There’s no one inside.”
Prowl resisted the urge to smack the already battered Porsche. “And what would you have done if Megatron had indeed come out?”
“Don’t know, but he ain't here right now, so why’re you worryin’?” Jazz felt around for the access panel and found it, then jacked in using a small cable linked to his wrist.
The tactician shook his head as he watched him. Sometimes the mech could be maddeningly unpredictable. It was what made him so good at his job. It was why Prowl loved him. His thoughts were rudely interrupted when Jazz let out a pained hiss and touched the bleeding side of his head with his other hand.
“Jazz, are you alright?” he asked, concerned.
“Headache,” he replied, still focused on breaking through the door lock. He put a finger to his lips to indicate Prowl needed to be quiet. “Gotta concentrate.”
Prowl looked on worriedly. Whatever damage Jazz had taken to his head, it looked to be concentrated to his central processor. Up to this point, everything else Jazz had done had been pre-planned for and executed either by reflex or memory. It was only now that the saboteur needed to access his own battle cortex - the part that held all the codes and processes he needed to hack the lock.
Prowl’s worry deepened when Jazz’s focused frown became a pained grimace. He was about to tell the Porsche to stop, they’d try another way, when the saboteur disengaged and stepped back from the lock. The doors slid open. Jazz looked exhausted and leaned against the wall.
“Jazz…” Prowl started.
“It’s a migraine, but nothin’ t’be done for it. All up to you now, Prowl.”
The tactician drew his lover close and kissed him gently, feeling a little relieved when Jazz smiled into it and kissed him back. He held the other black-and-white for a moment longer, then let go and led him into the Command Center.
The doors slid shut behind them and Jazz remained beside them, jacking into the lock again to change the security codes so that if anyone wanted in, they’d have to get past him first. Prowl’s worry returned anew when he realized what Jazz was doing, but he shelved it. Jazz was right. They had a mission to complete.
He crossed the room and it didn’t take him long to locate the dinosaur fossils. Of course, Megatron would want to watch everything his scientists were doing to make sure no one tried to double-cross him - especially given that one of those scientists was Starscream. Carefully he subspaced them. They would be returned to the human archeologists if they ever got out of here.
Trying not to worry about Jazz standing by the door with a hand touching his head, Prowl crossed the room to the console. Bringing up the screen, Prowl jacked into the console using a cable from his wrist in much the same way Jazz had done. He was immediately met with strong firewalls that tried to stop his progress.
Quickly he set about writing programs to take them down, and re-writing codes that would allow him to access more classified files.
While it was similar to what Jazz did with the lock, they both knew that Jazz’s codes and programs were not strong enough to bring down a whole main terminal. The saboteur’s codes were more for breaking-and-entering types of work, and to get into systems far enough to leave viruses. Hacking and information retrieval were more Prowl’s forte.
So focused was Prowl on what he was doing - slowly and methodically breaking down the computer’s defenses - that when Jazz suddenly spoke, he jumped.
“Y’gotta hurry, babe.”
“Understood.” Prowl forced himself not to look away from what he was doing and so distract himself. “Is someone outside?”
“Just Soundwave.”
So much for no pressure.
Prowl knew Jazz was in no condition to withstand a counter-hack assault at the present moment. He quickened his search for the blueprints, ignoring with some reluctance a few other files with interesting subject matter. They were running out of time.
“I can’t hold this forever, Prowl.”
The tactician risked a glance over his shoulder and saw Jazz go down on one knee, holding his head in his free hand. Hastily he turned back to the screen, not daring to think of what Soundwave might be trying to do to his lover.
“I’m almost there, Jazz. Please hold on.”
Jazz grunted, keeping his concentration on the door and the enemy. “Doin’ my best.”
“I’ve got it!” Prowl initiated the fastest download he’d ever done in his life. “How do we get out of here?”
“Hatch above ya. Accordin’ to the security layout, the bridge is right above us. Just gotta blast the hatch open.”
Prowl looked up and saw the aforementioned hatch a good few meters above his head. How Jazz proposed they got up there, he didn’t know, but decided to trust his partner.
The download finished and Prowl retreated from the terminal, but not before planting a nasty little virus of his own. He ran over to what he suspected was a weapons closet and was glad to find at least a few usable weapons. Most were too big and heavy for him and Jazz to use, but there was a lone null ray that Prowl could wield easily.
Picking it up, he ran back, aimed at the hatch and fired a few rounds. He supposed he could have blasted a few more things in the room, but the null ray required him to power it and he didn’t want to waste precious energy reserves on actions that would not aid their escape.
He shielded himself from the chunks of debris that came crashing down, then looked back up at the sizeable hole he made. Now they just needed to get back up there.
Jazz staggered over to him not even trying to hide the pain he was in. His free arm searched for Prowl who immediately caught hold of it and drew him closer.
“Jazz…?” All of Prowl’s questions and concerns were in that one simple word.
“I’ll be fine once we get home,” Jazz replied. “Let’s just get home.” His right hand retracted and was replaced with his grappling hook and line. “Point me in the right direction and tell me when to fire.”
“Suddenly I’m very glad we’re not human because that sounded so very wrong,” Prowl said as he took the arm.
Jazz choked on a laugh. “Did you just…?”
Prowl fired the line. “Yes, I made a dirty joke. No, it does not leave the confines of this ship.” He held on to Jazz and glanced at the door. “How long do we have?”
“However long it takes Soundwave to solve a crossword puzzle.” Jazz tugged on the line, made sure it was secure, and started to reel them up.
“A crossword puzzle…” Prowl said flatly.
“Hey, don’t snub it. The topic’s country music.”
Prowl stared at him for a moment. “You have a point. If the lyrics don’t short out his processor first, the sentence structure definitely will.” Prowl hauled himself onto the landing, then pulled Jazz through. “I managed to contact the Ark. Skyfire has been dispatched to pick us up.”
“Then we’re in the right place. The controls to raise the tower should be around here somewhere.”
A blast echoed in the room below them and they glanced back at the hatch. Jazz grinned and Prowl marveled that the saboteur could find something amusing even in such a situation.
“Guess Soundwave’s not a country music fan. Wonder how he’s gonna explain that one to Megatron?” As Jazz thought about this, Prowl noticed movement by the hatch. “What could he say? ‘Country music: too powerful’? Yikes!”
He felt, rather than saw, the beam of the null ray go over his head and hit something that let out a squawk. Probably one of Soundwave’s buzzards. Prowl watched Buzzsaw drop back into the hole he came out of, then fired off another shot at Laserbeak who came up to take his place.
“Where are the controls, Jazz?” he asked urgently.
“Not too sure. Ain’t been up here all that often t’play with them,” Jazz replied.
Prowl stared at the blind saboteur for a moment and debated knocking him out just to wipe the grin off his face, when he realized Jazz probably had enough head damage for one day. Instead he growled out a curse at his lover and went to look for the controls.
Jazz meanwhile got to his feet somewhat unsteadily and carefully staggered his way over to Prowl. The tactician stretched out his arm and drew him closer, pressing a kiss to the battered helm. It was then that they heard a door his open from somewhere further in the room.
“Drop the weapon, Autobot.”
Jazz snapped his fingers. “So THAT’S where the controls are!” He nudged Prowl. “Drop the weapon.”
Prowl stared at him incredulously. “What?!”
“Just drop it.” There was an unspoken ‘trust me’ in his voice. Prowl dropped the null ray beside him.
“I thought you might try escaping this way so I stationed myself here. Turns out I was right.”
“Screamer, ol’ boy, how unpleasant t’hear ya again,” Jazz quipped. “Y’wouldn’t shoot unarmed mechs, would ya?”
“Oh, I rather think I would.”
“But where’s the fun if ya can’t see it comin’?” the saboteur waved a hand in front of his face. “Dead optics and all.”
Prowl sensed a moment’s hesitation in the Seeker and tightened his grip on Jazz when Starscream took a few steps towards them. Jazz however remained completely relaxed. Starscream eyed them curiously.
“Weren’t you the one with the burnt optics?” he looked at Prowl who wore the visor.
“I might have been,” Prowl replied evenly.
“Then how did you…”
“We’ll let ya figure that out.” Jazz cut him off.
He had been listening to and tracking Starscream’s footsteps, and as soon as he felt the Seeker was close enough, he unleashed a short, but powerful burst of light from his beacons. Prowl being protected by the visor, and Jazz being blind, were unaffected, but Starscream went down with a screech that made both Autobots wince.
Prowl wasted no time, snatching up the dropped weapon and all but dragging Jazz towards the tower elevator.
“I’ve always wanted to see what it was like,” he said.
“Glad you enjoyed the show,” Jazz replied, and Prowl noted his voice felt much weaker. “Ain’t feelin’ too good for an encore though.”
They were almost at the doors.
“Hold it right there, Autobots.”
Enjoy! Just one more chapter to go ;)