were-cars six

[dragonofdispair]

summary: 2007 movieverse. mostly pre-earth: some archetypes are universal. some legends transcend species. and sometimes there's nothing left to do but out race the moons.

disclaimer: names, places and concepts that are recognizable aren't mine. since i shamelessly raided a list of mini-cons from armada for names, i don't even own the oc's. i do own the plot, though.

warnings: battle violence. cussing. lots of weirdness. eventual male pronoun robot / male pronoun robot romance.



Were-Cars of Cybertron: part six

Reviewing the files on the two were-jets in preparation for talking to them later today, Prowl didn't look up when someone walked into the room. It wasn't unusual after all -- this was a common workspace, with individual desks set apart by partitions, if the owner of the desk even bothered with them. Red Alert did, but many of the desks didn't have the partitions. He was far more concerned with the information on the two jets -- mechs by the names of Skyfire and Starscream. Most of it dealt with the territorial dispute Red Alert had mentioned earlier. In his head he was also reviewing everything he knew about were-jets. He'd dealt with the jets in Praxis often enough, but that was a five-jet strong flight, which he knew was very unusual. Most jets couldn't stand sharing territory with more than one or two other jets, the other members of a pair or trine.

So other people entering the room weren't all that much a concern to him -- until Red Alert looked up and hissed out a string of meaningless static. "What the frag's he doing here?"

Prowl looked up, and silently had to agree. Rhythm was making his way through the room. Once he apparently stopped another officer to ask something. The officer looked surprised, but replied with a gesture in Prowl and Red Alert's direction -- apparently Rhythm hadn't been able to see them beyond the partition around Red Alert's desk, though they saw him just fine. The silver were-car looked over and thanked the officer before starting toward them. Prowl calmly stood as he came near.

Red Alert also stood, bristling. "What are you doing here? I won't stand any of your usual tricks! Bad enough -- "

"Enough." Prowl cut him off.

Rhythm ignored Red Alert like he wasn't there. "Can I talk t' you, Prowl?"

Not entirely surprised -- he didn't think someone with such a seeming antagonistic relationship with the police in general and Red Alert in particular would civilly enter the station looking for be looking for someone local -- he nodded, then offered an extra chair before sitting back down himself.

For the first time Rhythm's body language acknowledged Red Alert's presence -- his optics flicked to the red and white, then to Prowl, then to the chair. Trying to decide, Prowl surmised, which was more important: maintaining the aggressive position in relation to Red Alert, or maintaining the equality he'd established the day before with Prowl. He whirred his fans a bit in resignation and sat in the chair. It seemed Rhythm was determined to continue throwing Prowl off balance. He'd expected the were-car to take his cue from Red Alert's aggression and continue standing.

"Passed your message up," Rhythm started, "First was fragged off, just like I said he'd be."

Suddenly a bit worried for the safety of his informant, Prowl asked, "He didn't take it out on you, did he? If so, I apologize for putting you in that position."

A quick grin. "Naw, It's cool. He was stressed, but barely touched me."

Prowl accepted the statement as true, but wasn't reassured. He didn't think it meant much -- from what he'd heard, if this Track's First wanted one of his underlings punished, one of the enforcers would do it rather than the First himself -- but Rhythm wasn't obviously injured and if he didn't want to admit anything, there wasn't anything Prowl could do. "Still, I do apologize."

"Ain't none of it your fault... First said he'd come t' you in a few days. Can't vouch for the rest, 'cause Third wasn't there when I talked t' First, and Second didn't say. It ain't my place t' speculate on them."

"Of course."

"I'm sure you noticed it -- Second's the one who did the background check on you. Told me that 'cause I'm assigned t' helping you."

"Help!?" Red Alert's incredulous screech attracted the attention of several of the nearby police-mechs. One or two looked over the partitions to make sure Red Alert wasn't calling for assistance. "How the frag do you expect to help us? By hindering the investigation like you always do."

Rhythm rose out of the chair, bristling and growling, "This is slightly more important than what'cha usually haul me in for -- ain't got nothing t' gain by playing my usual games." Then he visibly calmed himself, but didn't sit back down, and looked back to Prowl. "I can take you t' any member of the Track 'cept First, Second and Third. Can make them answer. Also got the names of the local tanks for you. I know where the motorcycles hang out, though I don't know all their names. And," he gestured to the holograms of the two jets still visible, "I can introduce you t' them. Starscream, at least, won't talk t' you if you go t' them cold."

According to the files, Starscream was the smaller red and white jet. And had been belligerent while the police had been sorting out the disruption caused by their territorial dispute. The other, Skyfire, hadn't been abrasive, but hadn't been particularly cooperative either. Prowl had been attempting to think of a way to approach them so they would be more cooperative -- and here, Rhythm was offering an introduction.

Prowl stood, and ignored Rhythm's reflexive bristling at the sudden movement. "Alright."

"Coolness." The silver car stepped to one side to allow Prowl to lead the way, then slipped in just behind and to the right of him -- a Second's place. Red Alert didn't notice the maneuver and simply followed them out.

For a few minutes, Prowl debated if -- no, of course he should do something about it -- what he should do. Finally he settled on softly calling Red Alert up next to him so the two police officers could go over the information on a datapad while they walked. Hopefully that was subtle enough that it wouldn't offend. Discretely, he watched Rhythm's reaction. The were-car just shrugged and continued to saunter along behind them, like it didn't matter that Red Alert was walking ahead of him.

Prowl didn't believe Rhythm thought it didn't matter, but for now it was enough that there wasn't going to be any sort of confrontation.

Rhythm's directions took them to a research center rather than to the seekers' home address. As they took the elevator up, Prowl hurriedly went through his data on were-jets again -- they were territorial, like were-cars. Were-cars got irrationally aggressive when a stranger walked into their private spaces, but he'd thought that the sense of being at 'home' made were-jets more confident and cooperative.

Rhythm knocked rhythmically at the entrance of a lab on the top floor of the center, then entered without waiting to be acknowledged. It was a xenobiology lab with terriums of various plants and creatures not native to Cybertron dominating one wall. A large white mech looked up from his notes at them as they came in. He didn't have wings, but this couldn't be anyone except Skyfire.

Primus, he was big. The pictures in the police database had failed to prepare him for how large. Prowl could have fit comfortably in Skyfire's hand.

Still recovering from that realization, Prowl automatically reached back to grab Red Alert to keep him from advancing into the room and saying something that might anger the big mech. Which allowed Rhythm to take the lead.

"Hey there, 'Fire,"

"Good day, Rhythm," Skyfire returned. "If you're looking for Perceptor, he went to Praxis for the day to retrieve something. He'll be back tonight or tomorrow."

"Nice t' know. Came here looking for you, though." Rhythm gestured for Prowl to come further into the room. Skyfire's attention switched to the two officers and Rhythm introduced them. "Prowl's on loan from the Praxis police t' look into something here. He wanted t' talk t' you, and since I kinda like him, I decided t' introduce you. And you already know Red Alert. Prowl, meet Skyfire."

Prowl nodded in greeting.

"Nice to meet you." Skyfire returned the nod.

"Likewise."

"Well," Rhythm grinned, "since you two seem t' getting along fine, I'm going t' find something else t' do." On his way past Red Alert, he leaned in close and whispered mischievously, "And if you don't come t' keep an optic on me, I'm going t' do something suspicious."

Then he sauntered out of the room with a slight bounce. Red Alert sputtered, and shifted, then finally growled in a way eerily similar to a were-car and agitatedly followed.

There was a moment while Prowl waited for Skyfire to start the conversation.

"What did you do?"

Prowl just tilted his head in question.

"He just manipulated Red Alert into following him so that my impression of you isn't colored by his attitude, which he wouldn't do if he didn't like you more than he dislikes Red Alert. So what did you do?"

"I'm not sure." It was only the truth. Prowl didn't know what he'd done to earn Rhythm's acceptance. And now it was time to change the subject. "Have you or your partner seen anything suspicious lately during your flights?"

Skyfire dimmed his optics in thought. "I'm not sure what you're asking about. Starscream and I see a lot of things -- a great many of which could be classified as suspicious. But something tells me you're not asking about breaking and entering, vandalism or mechs interfacing on rooftops."

"Shapeshifters where they wouldn't normally be on the significant nights of the month?"

Something to the side beeped insistently. Skyfire apologized and explained that he needed to check some reading on several of the xeno-habitat tanks on a strict schedule, and could he hold on a few minutes while he did so? Prowl didn't have a problem with that.

"Those nights," the big mech said, a bit randomly a bit later so it took Prowl a moment to realize the were-jet was answering his question, even as he took his reading on the fourth tank, "Starscream and I don't stay in the city for long. There's more room to fly when there's no buildings in the way, and we're usually feeling a bit wild from the forced change." He moved on to the next tank. "Still we see the patterns ... motorcycles racing through the city streets and cars racing on the wild roads. The tanks --" The next habitat. "-- I know that one always spend those nights just recharging so we never see him. The other two ..." Skyfire paused, "That's strange -- I don't remember seeing them for the past month or so." He continued the checks. "They're a bonded pair, and usually play just outside the city -- between the city limits and the roads used by the were-cars." He finished up with his last habitat. "Does that help?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"Anything else you wanted to ask?"

Prowl drew out a datapad with a map of Iacon and the surrounding wild roads. "Would you be willing to help me figure out the patterns of the ground-vehicle shapeshifters' movements on those nights?"

Skyfire hummed as he considered the request. "I won't tell you where the cars' moon alter, the motorcycles' safe zones, or any of their homes are."

"I wouldn't expect you to."

"Then sure."

tbc