Neos Mnestis

Part 2: Asper Hum

     Arcee stood with the rest of team prime—excluding Wheeljack and Knockout—and Miko and Jack, nervously watching as the shuttle came to a halting landing. She could see that the little ship had gone through a lot of scrap: all of the finish plating on the exterior had been torn off, many hastily done welds on the exposed armor, and on reentry one of the three engines died. The rattletrap of a ship skidded to a stop, Jack and Miko covered their ears in a futile attempt to block out the grinding screech, the fact that it stayed on the landing strip was a testament to the pilot's skills. Arcee guessed that Jazz was the one behind the controls, he was an excellent flier from was she had seen and heard.

     Team prime stood in almost complete silence for a moment as they waited for Prowl and his group to emerge. After a moment there was a loud banging from the inside of the shuttle and the door—which seemed to have melted shut—was forced open. Out stepped a tall, brawny mech who at one time had been a striking red but was now mostly just a grey gray, the cannon mounted on his shoulder and the triangular glass panle on his chest plate gave a hint toward his alt mode. Behind him came a once blue mech, considerably thinner and smaller than the first, his large optics gave him the appearance of a sparkling, angular helm giving him a slightly rapter appearance; Arcee recognized him as the messenger Blurr, though she had never actually met him.

     She instantly recognized Lieutenant Prowl when he emerged. Tall and lean, the slight movements of the handsome Praxian's door wings just as enthralling as when she had first met him in Icon, before the city had fallen to the Decepticons. Arcee felt a little guilty for the way she was thinking about her old crush when he could still be alive somewhere in the universe. But those little wings were no longer help high and proud, now they sagged with fatigue; though, when his optics alighted upon Commander Magnus Arcee could tell that he made a genuine effort to raise them to attention. Ultra Magnus waved the attempt away, even he understood that protocol could be put aside at times.

     "Prowl!" It was so hard to talk formally when she was around him. "I thought you said medical assistance was unneeded!" This was exclaimed by Arcee when she saw that another mech was draped over his shoulder.

     Jazz looked up from his spot on Prowl's side at the sudden shout and Arcee could clearly see he lacked the optical visor he'd be using to see since long before she met him. He claimed to have been blinded as a youngling though Arcee had a feeling the Polyhexalon was lying. Glowing white optics swept around the flat area as the Polyhexalon tried to pin-point where the sound had come from, Jazz then put his helm right next to Prowl's and in a faux whisper drawled, "Prowler, ya didn't tell meh tat hah femme was gonnah beh here. Yah li'l trickster." He lightly stroked Prowl's cheek plate.

     Arcee was shocked by Jazz's appearance: not only was his visor gone so were the knife-like horns on the sides of his silver helm, and his dagger shaped fingers were not much more than filed down digits; his black paint looked to have been scratched off, leaving the mech mainly silver and gray; his frame was covered in old and new welds, all small but the majority of them were in joints, which would make it painful to move—Arcee knew this from almost-personal experience.

     While she was distracted staring at Prowl and Jazz one more mech stepped out of the ship. He was as large as the first who came out though notably thicker, his optics dark blue--almost purple in color--and his digits were clawed. His body was mainly back with small gold decals on his heavily plated armor and white finials on his helm, his Autobot insignia, which was white, seemed to be painted over another.

     Miko, who was seated firmly on Bulkhead's shoulder, turn to him with one of her speed interrogations. "Dude, who are they? What with the waco gay guy? Was that black man a Decepticon?"

      Before Bulkhead could try to answer any of the rapid questions the once blue mech appeared by his side and did it all for him, he had mastered the human language in less than a second once he found it in the Autobot language database, and he did so with a speed that left even Miko breathless. "I-am-Courier-Blurr-he-is-Wrecker-Perceptor-he-is-Wrecker-Drift-he-is-Lieutenant-Prowl-he-is-Special-Operations-leader-Jazz-Jazz-is-unwell-in-the-processor-Drift-was-once-a-Decepticon." Blurr pointed to each of the mechs in turn.

     "Wow." Was all the woman could manage. Arcee had a feeling the Japanese girl and Velocitronian mech would get along just fine.

     "Commander Magnus, Sir." Prowl began, his voice tired and worn—nothing like it had been when he commed Arcee. "I request that I be allowed to take Sub-Commander Jazz to a recharge room before the debriefing."

     Ultra Magnus looked down at the lieutenant. "Request granted." He began to say but was interrupted by Jazz latching himself onto Prowl's side and screaming.

     "NO Prowlly!" Came the screech. "You can't leave me behind! PLEASE don't abandon me! I'll DIE, I'll die. Don't leave me behind." He broke down in tears, and whatever else he had to say was lost.

     Prowl instantly changed from attempting to be stiff to... well, to something that Arcee had never seen from him before. Twisting around the lieutenant clasped the weeping mech tightly to his chassis, one servo gently caressing the back of his helm. "Shh Jazzy," He murmured, "I wasn't gonna leave you alone, I'd never do that and you know it Jazzy." Jazz began to stop crying and lifted his mutilated helm to look at Prowl, his sightless optics fixed on the point where the sounds came from. "Percy's gonna stay with you. Isn't he?" The last part was directed mainly at Perceptor, who was standing next to them, and sounded more like a demand than a request.

     "Oh, of course I am." The larger mech softly slid his arms around Jazz, slowly lifting him off of Prowl. "We hang out together all the time. Remember? I tell you stories about-" Jazz interrupted him.

     "Ice ball Earth, ice ball Earth! Tell me story, tell me story 'bout fire'n'ice! " Moments ago he was weeping and now Jazz sounded like a young Polyhexalon begging for a tell from his nanny. Miko probably would have wanted to hear a Cybertronian story about her planet, but the majority of what the transformers said was in their native tongue.

     "By your leave." Perceptor turned his mismatched cyan optics on Ultra Magnus.

     "Dismissed soldier. Smokescreen," said 'bot snapped to attention, "show Perceptor to Jazz's quarters then return to your duties. Bumblebee and Bulkhead, you are to return to your duties as well, take the human civilians with you. Dismissed soldiers." He said that part in English for the benefit of the humans, the said beings left, Jack stepping to Bumblebee's palm, Miko complaining loudly that she wasn't a regular old civilian—another sign that she was growing out of being that girl who accidentally saw Arcee, since she didn't say a word about wanting to stay.

     "The rest of you, are to come to the council room."