Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers
Please R&R
(Uh, hi everybody! I kind of dropped off the map for a month or two as RL was... difficult. None the less, I am back in the saddle with my writing and i hope you all enjoy the stuff I will be posting in the future.
Thanks to Ice Fata for looking this over for me. Enjoy!)
===Years Later===
"Let me get this straight." Prowl said, a servo covering his optics, as a guilty trio of mechs stood before him, mud covering every inch of their plating so that it was almost impossible to recognise them. "You took the younglings, younglings I must emphasise that have just learned to transform, up the mountain for a nature lesson. There, they somehow managed to get you all tripped up and rolled in the mud before running, driving or flying off as if they were the Road Runner from those Wile E. Coyote cartoons, while you three were trying to get the mud off your optics?"
"Uh, yeah, that about sums it up." The middle mech vigorously nodded, spraying slimy mud all over the floor and onto some of Prowl's precious data-pads, some of his green paint just becoming visible under the grime.
"Mirage, Hound, Trailbreaker, I expected better." The Tactician sighed with disappointment, his doorwings flicking down a fraction that made the three muddy mechs that looked as if they were trying to be mud monsters look down at their pedes like scolded children caught out after curfew. "Now, do you know what direction they went in?"
"If it helps, Magpie was the ring leader again." Trailbreaker said, finding the floor very interesting, a pede scuffing the metal underfoot as he shifted nervously, making sure not to make optic contact with the now vaguely annoyed Second in Command.
"As usual." Muttered Prowl, rolling his optics, a gesture which he had picked up from Spike a while ago. "Go get yourselves cleaned up, I expect you all out searching with the rest of the crew in a joor."
"Yes, sir." The three bots nodded before slipping and sliding out the office, leaving trails of squelchy earthen mud behind them, a surprised Sideswipe, making his way around the corner to Prowl's office screaming like a femme in surprise at the mud blobs grumbling as they passed.
"Before you go catatonic with idiocy, no, the mud blobs aren't the Swamp Cannibals from that horror film Smokescreen made you watch last night." Prowl said as the red and black frontliner skidded into his office at a run, ending up slipping onto his aft with a loud clang in the mud all over the floor, as he pointed back out of Prowl's office with a mouth working like a goldfish. "That was the result of the Younglings doing their version of the Great Escape again."
"Oh thank the Primal Source." Sideswipe sighed in relief that Wheeljack hadn't been trying to make the TV monsters and creatures he regularly watched in the rec-room come to life again. The last time that wondrous occasion happened; the Ark had been plagued by the Fairy Tale creatures from Shrek complaining about some person called Lord Farquaad. "So who is the ringmaster this time?"
"Who do you think?" Prowl snorted rising an optic ridge in surprise that his brother's lover even had to ask, "The sparkling with the naturally formed Battle Computer in her helm."
"Magpie it is then." Sideswipe snickered wobbling to his pedes, making sure not to end up on his aft again in the mud, "You really need to get her a leash."
"I'm tracking the order as we speak." The black and white mech sighed in minor despair. "The only reason it is taking this long is that Jazz couldn't decide between pink or blue. So in the end he went for purple." The tactical genius hissed with narrowed optics as he almost spat the name of his most hated colour. "I sent it back, so now we are getting one with pink and blue stripes. Plus it had to be custom made for Magpie's size. So that added two weeks minimum." The elder mech almost ranted, beginning to move his servos with his tirade, his doorwings swivelling to and fro as he gestured.
Sideswipe cleared his vocaliser, jerking Prowl back to the present and back on track. "So where do we search first sir?" the red frontliner asked.
"I'll have to check the map." The SIC sighed, standing from behind his desk and locking his terminal, "The scraplets never strike the same place twice."
===Command Deck===
"Go to Blue Alert. The Younglings are loose." Prowl ordered as he entered the spacious Command centre, accepting a call on his communication link from one of his human Officer friends from the local police station as he waved Sideswipe off to gather a search party.
"Blue Alert engaged." Sunstreaker said with an expectant drawl as the strip of blue light began to flash on the readout above the huge screen on the wall that was currently displaying the locations of various children's parks and play restaurants in the nearest vicinity with bright red dots. The various automatic alerts of the situation getting sent out to every Autobot currently off duty by Blaster from his spot at the Communications corner.
"I've changed my mind, go straight to Red Alert." Prowl suddenly said as he finished listening to his panicking friend over the line.
Sunstreaker cast the tactician a dubious glance, looking over his shoulder, "Are you absolutely sure Prowl? It does mean changing the bulb."
"Just do it!" Snapped the black and white mech as the golden frontliner pulled a red coloured light bulb from the labelled box on top of his workstation and set about changing the readout strip from blue to red. "It turns out the Younglings have stolen the spare water hoses from the Fire Station and are now trying to set up their 'water war' on the main street. So far, they are still trying to figure out the fire hydrants so we have about ten minutes maximum to find them before they figure it out. "
"Oh, that does warrant the bulb change." Jazz chirred, bouncing cheerfully into the room oblivious to the search party thundering past the door he just entered. "So what's our little Maggie done this time Prowler?"
"She's convinced Electrum that Bluestreak's rules are fun to break and you know that any spawn of Smokescreen and Sideswipe's cannot sit still for three nano-clicks without causing some form of chaos, so Risk is on it too. And don't get me started on Skyfire and Starscream's brood." Prowl grumbled, doorwings fluffing up in agitation. "I'd go and join the search party if I were you, Jazz."
"Never a dull moment." The saboteur snorted in amusement splaying his palms on his hips as he shifted his weight, "The mission went well by the way. I managed to crash Soundwave by giving the mainframe a virus that plays 'Hawaiian Rollercoaster Ride' from Lilo and Stitch over and over for ten hours. I figured if it was good enough to give me a killer helmache after watching it with Magpie so many times, it was bound to cause Soundwave some problems."
"That's nice Jazz." Prowl commented distractedly as his set about ordering search and recover teams to scramble as their ten minute window shrank to five. "Just upload your findings on the mainframe after we have Magpie and her group of criminal masterminds back in the crèche room please. I'm about to have a coding induced panic attack."
"I think you'll find that it is actually Magpie that is the criminal mastermind, brother." Bluestreak said with a smile as he entered the Command Deck clutching some data-work he had to drop off, "Electrum, Risk and the others just go with her insane plans for World Domination because they get to cause some chaos while Maggie is on the lookout for shiny things."
"I resent the fact that you think my daughter will be a super villain when she reaches maturity." Prowl scowled as Jazz gave a suspicious squeal of delight at the thought.
"It's inevitably going to happen." Sunstreaker commented on his way out to join the weekly search for the group of Younglings, earning agreeing hums and nods from the other bots staffing the Command Deck.
"She's got your smarts and Jazz's poorly disguised lunacy." Bluestreak continued for his lover, rising to his pede tips to gift Sunstreaker with a kiss to the cheekplate as he passed the gunner. "Of course she's going to end up as a Super Villain."
As Prowl seemed to wrap his helm around Bluestreak's explanation of the SIC's daughter, the screen flickered as Teletraan-1 brought up the Channel Five News. Prowl almost dropped his data-pad in shock, because there, sitting on the news desk chewing on a lead cable and vibrating on the spot with visible shocks of electricity arching around him every few seconds as he nibbled, was Risk. The blue and red youngling with the black chevron twitching with the excess energy he was chewing on. Electrum, Bluestreak's own daughter, was spinning madly on the News Reader's chair so fast that she was practically a gold and silver blur, making race-car noises, while Starscream and Skyfire's sons and daughter streaked from side to side of the screen appearing to be fighting over a fluffy boom mic.
At the epicentre of the madness was Magpie, her doorwings fluttering happily, draped in what appeared to be Tinsel as she baby talked through the day's news standing in front of the desk. The papers left by the scattered, stressed looking humans running to and fro in the background, in her servos, clutched to her chestplates as she scrunched up her faceplate to try and pronounce the words on the autocue.
"Well, at least we now know that they didn't follow through with their Water War idea." Jazz shrugged as Prowl clattered to the floor in a crash.