The Saboteur and His Puzzle

Chapter Seven

"I-I don't understand. You want me to give you information yet your a trucker and medic? How does that make sense?" Jennifer finger drifted over the two men. She then pointed to the two men dressed in a military uniform and a regular officer uniform. "I can understand you two but..." she trailed off, trying to gain any sense of saneness. The medic looked to the trucker before stepping forward.

"Have you heard of the Mission City attack?"

"The terrorists? Who hasn't?! What's this got to do with finding my boy!" Adam snapped with growing frustation. The medic sighed.

"Please, Mr. Cook. Allow us to explain." The trucker spoke calmly. Adam shifted with narrowed eyes but nodded.

"Come in then," he waved a hand in defeat. The six of them traveled into the living room, through the kicthen, and into the dining room. The table only held four but the officer and the trucker reassured them that they could stand. The table was wood so when they sat and rested their arms on it, it creaked loudly.

"Okay, tell us what's going on. How can we find Clinton?" Jennifer asked, rubbing her temples.

"Optimus, it's best if you explain," Lennox looked to the trucker. Said Optimus nodded.

"Thank you," Optimus looked down to the couple with a stern expression. "These, so called "terrorists" are spreading out into different parts of the world. This group has taken action to insure our military will not stop whatever they may be planning," His face began to soften. "However, due to unfortunate circumstances, a terrorist has wanted to take your son as leisure when he is caught red handed, so he may escape." Optimus told them. Jennifer frowned.

"That's...not right."

"We know, this is why we are here to-."

"No, no. It doesn't add up. We saw him get taken by a...by a...c-cop robot thing! It was a mechanical monster!" Jennifer sneered as she began to rise from her seat. "Not a terrorist!" She banged her fist onto the wooden table. Tears began to water her eyes. "Help me find my son!" Her lip quievered. "Don't play games with me. Cause then your playing games with my son's life." She began to sob. Adam rose and took his wife into an embrace.

Lennox felt guilt tear at his heart. He could understand what these two were going through. If Annabelle was ever taken...

A hand clasped his shoulder and he looked to find Optimus nodding his head at him. Lennox nodded back and cleared his throat.

"Alright, no more lies here. Considering your son has made contact with them, we have no choice." Lennox spoke dryly. Galloway was going to be breathing down his neck for a while, but they were humans too. They just wanted their son.

Jennifer looked to him with a red face and teary eyes. "What is it?" She asked with a cracking voice. "No choice for what?"

"Jennifer and Adam Cook, your son was taken by a Decepticon." Prowl spoke up.

"Now that we got that out of the way, here comes the...hard part for you two." Ratchet said as he flipped the vanilla folder over. He grabbed a pen from his uniforms pocket on his chest and clicked it.

"What hard part...?" Adam questioned cautiously. His eyes looked to Lennox but Lennox looked away.

"How was your son grabbed?" Ratchet inquired, his eyes to the paper, ready to write.

The scene flashed into Jennifers eyes and she began to choke up again.

...

Jazz paced back and forth in the training room. He had completed 14 rounds of his usual obstacle course (beating Sideswipe at least 11 times, making a very upset Sideswipe call for a rematch 3 more times which he was sure Jazz was getting out of it and let him win) yet his mind was still on the boy. Sideswipe watched with a bored expression yet he was getting a little concerned about Jazz. Jazz was never upset when he knew trouble was brewing. He never made it obvious he was bothered. Now he was...

It was odd seeing him this way and so Sideswipe finally decided he was going to do something about it.

"Doing that for an hour and a half has got to be boring."

"Starin' and watchin' meh do it for ah houah and ah half has got ta be borin'." Jazz retorted. Sideswipe shot a glare Jazz didn't see.

"Welp," Sideswipe stood. "Are you going keep sulking about it or are you going to go looking for him?" He asked crossing his arms.

Jazz froze.

Sideswipe smirked.

"Ah ain't sulking about no one." Jazz huffed stubbornly. Sideswipe shifted weight to his side and lifted his optic ridge.

"Not even that boy?" Jazz sighed.

"Ah can't help it!"

"Then go after him." Sideswipe shrugged. Jazz laughed.

"Sorreh mech but ah ain't gonna get into trouble like ya do." Jazz shook his helm.

"They won't know," Sideswipe snorted. "They're gone and probably won't be back for a while knowing those four. Go do whatever you need to do," he waved a servo. Jazz crossed his arms.

"Knowin' ya it can't be that easy. What ya want?" Jazz asked. Sideswipe smirked. "Yeah there's that smug look, there's ah catch ain't there?" Jazz pointed.

"I'm coming with."

"What makes ya think ahm goin'?" He questioned, placing his clawed servos on his hips.

"You've been pacing for an hour and a half, your going." Sideswipe wheeled back and forth. "Now let's go," he swiveled around and came face to face with Sunstreaker. Sideswipe grinned sheepishly. "Hey bro,"

"Where are you going?" Sunstreaker narrowed his piercing blue optics.

"Out," Sideswipe shrugged.

"Not," Jazz spoke up from behind.

"How was your patrol?" Sideswipe asked innocently. He wheeled back some but Sunstreaker only stepped further into the room.

"You're up to something." Sunstreaker rose an optic ridge. The silver speedster shrugged.

"And what if I am? Why do you care?"

"Because I'm your twin. I have every right to be when I want to be." Sunstreaker jabbed him with a digit. Sideswipe huffed.

"Fine...we're heading out to track Barricade down." Sideswipe confessed.

"Jazz?" Sunstreaker looked up for confirmation. His optics had widened slightly, he never knew Jazz would cared that much about a mission.

"Now calm down both of ya! Ah never said ah was goin' anywhere. We can't just go after 'em alone! Besides, where we gonna start!?" Jazz rambled, throwing up his servos as he continued his pacing. "Ah wanna go, ah really do, but ah know how bad ah idea dis is!" Jazz rubbed his forehelm with a clawed servo.

"Your a saboteur! You figure it out and I'll be by your side." Sideswipe shrugged. "If anyone can find him, it's you." He reassured with a small smile. Jazz groaned.

"Ah don't know, Sidesmech..."

"I'm going." Sunstreaker nodded. Jazz and Sideswipe even looked at him with surprise.

"You? Don't you hate humans let alone kids?" Sideswipe asked with wide optics. Sunstreaker shifted uncomfortably on his pedes.

"If Jazz is going then so am I...besides ever since Megatron offlined I've been looking for a little bit of action." Sunstreaker rolled his shoulders. "I'm tired of pathetic patrols." The twins looked to Jazz who was very torn. He finally sighed in defeat.

"Well...?" Sideswipe urged. Jazz ran a servo down his faceplate. He looked up at the waiting mechs with a very unsure look.

"Give meh ah few klicks ta locate tha signal, then we leave...but we're doin' it my way."