Transformers: Before We Were Warriors Ch. 2

Transformers: Before We Were Warriors
Chapter 2
(Prowl and Bluestreak)


Slowly Prowl started to reboot. Blinking to clear the static from his optics from his recharge Prowl realized he needed to get up soon or he would be late for his shift. But when he tried to rise he realized there was a small weight on his mid-section. Looking down the former enforcer found Bluestreak curled up on him.

Prowl put his arms around the small frame as he sat up, "Bluestreak one day you really must recharge in your own berth."

Ever since Prowl had become the sparkling’s guardian Bluestreak had been very quiet and clingy. Not that anyone blamed him. The only survivor of an entire city. When Praxus had fallen at the Decepticons hands Bluestreak had lost everything, Prowl knew it would take time for him to come to terms with it but ‘Primus’ it had to happen to a child. Many were worried since Bluestreak had barely said anything since his arrival to Iacon. Prowl shook the depressing thoughts from his head as he stood, Blue sleepily opened his optics and gazed at him. “Come Bluestreak we must be going.”

They left Prowl’s hub suite and made their way towards the makeshift care center for sparklings and younglings. There was only a few currently on the base but everyone felt sure there would be more soon. The Decepticons attack on Praxus had showed that nowhere and no one was safe, not even the youngest among them.

A very unsettling thought Prowl couldn’t keep from him processor as they reached their designation. Placing Bluestreak on the ground he gave the young meching a pat on his helm. “Be good Bluestreak, I’ll be back soon.” Prowl turned to leave and almost tripped as something grabbed one of his legs. He sighed, "Bluestreak please let go of my leg." Bluestreak shook his head and hugged harder. "I cannot take you with me, you will be fine here till I returned."

Reluctantly Bluestreak let go and watched Prowl walk away. Before he was out of sight Prowl looked back and offered Blue a rare smile. When he left Blue walked into a corner and curled up to await Prowl’s return.


*****


"Prowl. . . Prowl. . . Hey! Are you listing?"

"Of course," the former enforcer replied not looking up from his datapad. The other mech gave a huff of annoyance as Prowl continued to ignore him.

Jazz snickered. Unlike others he knew Prowl had his mind on other things. As the other bot stomped away grumbling Jazz gave Prowl an amused look, "Mech, we need ta work on yo’ people skills.”

“Thank you Jazz but I prefer my ‘people skills’ the way they are,” the door winged mech replied.

“Will see ‘bout tha’. Now come on, will be late fer th’ meetin’,” Jazz said with a wave of his hand as he walked away.

Prowl followed, part of his attention was on his report for the meeting but the rest was on Bluestreak. He liked to keep Bluestreak close and usually he did but he couldn’t take the sparkling to a meeting. Especially with all the higher ups. Something suddenly thumbed against his helm. Startled he turned and glared at the saboteur, “Jazz.”

“Just seein’ if ya were still in there,” was the cheeky replied.

Prowl gave him his best ‘I don’t approve’ look. “Jazz I have to say, you’re the most childish person I’ve ever known and it amazes me that you were promoted to head of Special Operations already. And yet this hasn’t curbed you of your childishness yet. I'll let you compute that as you will."

"Ya know most bots would take tha’ as an insult. . . good thing A'm not most bots," Jazz replied. Prowl ignored him as they continued towards the meeting room.


*****


Meanwhile at the care center Bluestreak began to twitch after some time. He kept looking up hoping Prowl would walk through the door any minute. He didn’t.

Blue looked towards the caretakers and saw they were all busy when a fight had broken out between two younglings. Slowly he began inching towards the doorway, luckily it was open. When he was sure no one was looking Blue took his chance and dashed out the door before he was spotted.

Now free to roam the Autobot base the small gray and red form made his way through the corridors. Bluestreak looked around the corner. Good, no one was around. The little Praxian sparkling rushed down the hall keeping his optics open for the target in his quest. He knew the caretakers wouldn't like that he had snuck out but he needed to find. . .

“. . . Jazz and Prowl will be there as well,” a deep voice spoke up in another corridor.

Bluestreak almost jumped but struggled to keep his calm, the unknown voice had said Prowl! He edged towards the corridor and peeked around to see a pink armored femme talking to a tall blue and white bot. The femme he recognized as Elite One, she had often come to see him when he had been recovering. But he didn’t know the other bot.

“Anyone else?” Elita asked.

“I don’t think so and everyone should be there soon. Shall we proceed?”

“After you Ultra Magnus,” Elita gestured down the hall.

As the two bots walked away Bluestreak followed them trying to make sure they didn’t see him. They had said Prowl would be where they were going, if he followed them and wasn’t caught they would take him straight to his guardian.

The two stopped by a doorway to talk to another bot, making sure to be as small as possible Blue ducked onto the room. Seeing no good hiding places he ducked under the table and curled up on the floor to wait for Prowl’s arrival.  


*****


Jazz and Prowl arrived to find Elita One and Ultra Magnus talking to Kup. The five entered the room and took their seats thought Jazz glanced around when he thought he heard something.

Ratchet arrived followed soon after by Red Alert and Blaster. Then Perceptor and Wheeljack. Optimus Prime arrived not long after them followed by Ironhide. Everyone rose when he entered but he waved for them to sit as he and his bodyguard took their seats.

“I won’t waste time on pleasantries, we all know why we’re here. Prowl you may begin.” Optimus nodded to the Praxian who stood.

Glancing at his datapad he began reading, “As everyone knows three Deca-cycle’s ago the Decepticons attack the neutral city Praxus. It’s believed that the attack on Praxus was the Decepticons to show their strength. That nowhere is safe.”

“If you don’t join you’ll die,” Elita stated.

“Yes.”

“That sounds like him,” Ironhide grumbled. Then he slammed his fist onto the table, “An entire city. . . AN ENTIRE CITY!”

“Genocide, plain and simple,” Optimus uttered softly in disgust.

“While it weight’s heavily on all of us,” Ultra Magnus spoke up, “All we can do now is prepare for the Decepticons next strike.”

“Which could be anything,” Kup snapped. “They just showed there willing to do anything! Even mass murder!”

Jazz spoke up, “Were gatherin’ as much info as we can. For now th’ Cons are stayin’ pretty quiet.”

“No doubt to let the weight of what they’ve done seep in,” Optimus uttered, “Hoping despair will spread among Autobot’s and neutrals.”

“How is the little one?” Elita spoke up. No one needed to ask who the ‘little one’ was.


Ratchet looked at his notes, “He’s coming along. Slowly but he’s opening up, mainly to his guardian Prowl here.”

All optics shifted back to Prowl. He continued to give his report, which included Bluestreak’s recovery. “He’s still quiet and stay’s by my side. We’re hoping he’ll be well enough in a few weeks to begin sessions with Rung but with the trauma he’s endured it will take a long time.”

“Let’s just hope it’s not permanent,” Kup muttered.

“I’m no psychiatrist but something like this will stay with him for the rest of his life,” Ratchet cut in. “All we can do is help him endure.”

“Is it wise to let the sparkling get so attached to one mech?” Magnus spoke up. Jazz gave him a sour look and a flash of worry passed through Prowl’s optics but no one saw it.

“I agree.” Ironhide was one of many who didn’t think Prowl would make a good caretaker for little Bluestreak and he made his opinion known. Even now Prowl stood there all calm and controlled, not showing much emotion while talking about his own city that was just destroyed.

“It would be worst to force him to spend time with others right now,” Ratchet snapped.

“I’m just making sure Bluestreak is receiving help,” Magnus argued.

Ratchet just muttered something that sounded like, “Wait till you raise kids.”

“Sir,” Prowl addressed the Prime, “Permission to continue.” At Optimus nod he went back to his report. “There has been a rise in recruits for the army since Praxus.” Out of the corner of his optic he noticed Red Alert looking around.

“Th’ only good thing ta come out of this tragedy,” Ironhide muttered.

“How are these new recruits settling in?” Elita asked.

“Very well,” Magnus answered “They’ve passed. . .”

That noise was heard again, louder this time. Now everyone looked around. It sounded like door wings, but Prowl was the only one with door wings and his hadn’t moved.

“What is that?” Ratchet demanded.

“Is it coming from outside?” Magnus asked.

“The rooms are soundproof,” Red Alert informed them.

“No. I think it’s coming from under here,” Elita said looking under the table, “Oh!” She exclaimed causing everyone to tense but that quickly faded when she said, “Hello little one, how did you get in here?”

That caused everyone to join here in looking under the table where they were greeted with the sight of Bluestreak huddling there, his door wings twitching. As soon as everyone looked at him he scooted closer to a shocked Prowl and grabbed his leg.

Everyone was quiet for a long moment till. “D’awww, that’s cute,” Blaster declared.

Not knowing what else to do Prowl scooped up Blue and held him. Some of the looks he was receiving were a mix of annoyed, worried and just plain amused. Prime looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh.

Magnus who looked unamused by the whole thing asked, “Did you know he was here?”

“No,” Prowl answered. “I. . . he should have been with the caretakers. He. . . must of snuck away.”

“He’s surly missed by now. As his guardian you weren’t alerted?”

“As is mandatory for these meetings I had turned off my comm.” Prowl answered. He quickly activated it to find twenty worried messages about Blue’s disappearance.

“This is a complete breach of security!” Red Alert cried.

“Yo’ head of security,” Blaster joked earning a very nasty look in return.

“If everyone will calm down, I highly doubt this counts as a disaster,” Optimus calm voice got everyone’s attention. “So if we can proceed. . .”

“Sir!” Magnus spoke up, “We cannot continue with the sparkling present, it’s a complete disregard of. . .”

“Ah, come on Magnus. He’s ah kid,” Jazz spoke up. “What’s he goin’ do?”

“I don’t see the problem with letting Bluestreak sitting through the rest of the meeting,” Elita replied.

“Yeah,” Wheeljack shrugged, “It’s not like we’re talking about anything top secret. He’s already sat though half the meeting anyways.”

“As long as he’s quiet I see no reason not to let him stay,” Perceptor spoke up not bothering to look up from his datapad.

“Then if we may continue,” Optimus nodded to Prowl.

Sending a reply that Blue had been found and was okay to the caretakers Prowl still holding Bluestreak who started to doze in his arms returned to finishing his report. “Were trying to put extra security in the cities, the ones that want our help, but we may not be able to protect them all. For now the best we can do is keep an optic on the Decepticons movements and make sure everyone is on high alert.”

“Were tryin’ to gather as much info as we can,” Jazz spoke up, “But it’s hard ta crack their databanks.”

“My teams are also trying to gather intel as well,” Elita looked off into the distance, “But we haven’t been able to gather much either.” She glanced at Bluestreak who gave her a small wave and a smile came to her face.

“Then all we can do is be prepared,” Optimus sounded graver than usual.

“Will be ready for them next time,” Kup declared. He noticed Bluestreak watching him. Blue then gave Kup a wave as well. Surprised the old warrior returned the wave.  

With a big grin Blaster gave an enthusiastic wave earning an annoyed look from Magnus.  

Prowl decided to wrap up his report, “As you stated all we can do is be prepared. Tactical is already working on a number of plans but without knowing their next move it’s challenging.”

Optimus nodded, “Alright does anyone have anything to add?” No one did. “Alright everyone, meeting dismissed.” Everyone rose and began filling out the door.

“Well, that was thoroughly embarrassing,” Prowl declared

“I don’t know, I think the little guy liven things up,” Blaster laughed as he and Jazz followed Prowl out. “It sure fritz Red’s nerves.”

Wheeljack laughed, “He sure did.”

Before Prowl could respond Optimus halted him. “Prowl, a word.”

The others gave him sympatric looks which did not help, the former enforcer turned to his Prime. Yes sir.”

“At ease Prowl, you’re not in trouble.” Now Prowl was sure Optimus was smiling under his battle mask. “I agree we shouldn’t push Bluestreak but for situations like these maybe you should see if there’s anyone else he’ll be comfortable with when you can’t be there, he might not be ready to be left in a big group yet.”

Prowl nodded, “Yes sir, I will look into it.”

Optimus nodded, “Good.” He gave Blue a pat on the helm. “Not that I mind him sitting through a meeting, mind you. You may return to your duty’s, I will see you later.”

After Optimus left Prowl looked at the little one in his arms, “What am I going to do with you?” A yawn was his only answer.