[ti]Ep 3.5[/ti]When I look at myself in the mirror [ Closed || Prowl ]

[Hot Rod]

... I can see clearer

Timeline: Week 02. Day 03

---

Things had been weird ever since the clash with that Decepticon seeker. He wasn't sure if he had won or lost, or if it had even been a draw. Either way, afterwards he had somehow blacked out and ended up in the middle of nowhere. Had it been an intentional departure from the Autobot base? Not really, but maybe it had been some sign from Primus himself for Hot Rod to have a very in-depth coming-to-Primus-moment. 

Had he taken it? Maybe not the best way. He'd had an up now and then but most of what he had experienced had been downers. A couple of times he had thought about radioing for help from base, but would anyone actually respond? Considering things in general, he didn't really think anyone would even send out a rescue. His processor told him he wouldn't be missed and that everyone was just happy that he was gone- one less smear of dirt to get out of their gears. The only one there that had even given him the time of day had been Bee- an experience that he was sure he didn't leave a good impression on. 

So Hot Rod had decided to just stay away. Maybe it was for the best. He changed his designation ( slightly, self-made and maybe a bit more egotistical than one would appreciate ), as well as his color scheme. If he wasn't driving around with blazing warm colors he wouldn't be noticed. Not that his current one wasn't something to admire but at least it wasn't ( as) screaming as it was before

In that time away, his self doubts had decided to be even more rude to his psyche. He'd crashed a couple times during his 'recovery'. 

In the end, the social needs of the mech outweighed the need to lick his wounds, and he had started on the long drive home. To save energy he had opted to ride without his holoform unless he was driving through town, and even then it was minimal. He'd driven past the base a couple of times, finding that he couldn't just waltz in like he'd hoped. Part of him just wanted to sneak in and pretend he'd been there the entire time and play it off that everyone was just missing him.

Then again, no one had come looking for him either. Maybe it was intentional? Good riddance to bad rubbage and all that?.. .

... Maybe this was for the best? Some other sign that he otherwise would have missed?

He'd driven past base one more time, slowing briefly to take in the view, before continuing on his way with intentions of just leaving the dust bowl of Nevada. What he'd failed to notice was that he had been watched, had been for a couple of the times that he'd been around the area. A couple of times he had assumed he was in the clear and had driven without his holoform had raised suspicions he hadn't paid attention to. As he sped around some of the backroads around the silo to get to the open highway, a call was made to the base command about the 

'Suspicious vehicle with no driver snooping around the base, sporting a dark and broody Decepticon-eques color scheme who didn't respond to hailing on the Autobot line.'

[Prowl]

While the paint job was different (and definitely Decepticonesk), there was no mistaking the outline of that altmode.

Hot Rod had come back.

Any later and he would have been marked as a deserter, and orders would have been cut to terminate on sight. Or at least, that’s what Prowl would have done if he had his way. More than likely Prime would have amended that to ‘detain on sight’ and would have marked him for a tribunal.

Prowl was still on guard though. He had no way of knowing what Hot Rod had gotten up to since he’d disappeared weeks ago. For all that they knew he could have well and truly deserted and gone over to the Decepticons, and was just attempting to draw Prime or other high ranking individuals out into the open so that the Decepticons could execute a decapitation strike before storming the base. Or MECH could somehow be controlling him for the same purpose...

But his core programming couldn’t help but override his senses. He needed to ascertain the situation and make contact.

So after leaving instructions to put the base on combat alert as well as to be ready to institute the emergency evacuation plan, Prowl had groundbridged out a ways away from the base then doubled back, just in case someone was watching. His holoform would be activated, the clean cut police officer driving with sunglasses over his eyes. Upon laying eyes on Hot Rod he would turn on his lights and sirens, pulling in behind Hot Rod as he did so.

Hopefully he took the hint.

[Hot Rod]

Roddy was perfectly fine with leaving town and not looking back, which had been the plan now that he'd made a final drive around the Autobot base to see that things pretty much hadn't seemed to change in the time he'd been gone.

Then he heard the sirens over the music that had only been playing for a couple of minutes. The rearview and side mirrors pivoted to make sure that he had heard correctly- just for an added bonus to really sell the look, the holoform glanced in them. Immediately the lights reflected back to confirm his suspicions- ridiculously blinding in all of their flashing glory. Why the hell was he being indicated to pull over? His music wasn't all that loud, he hadn't even been speeding! He'd made sure to be as inconspicuous as possible, so he couldn't really figure out what The Law wanted with him. Were his windows tinted too dark? No, that wouldn't have even been noticed since the two he had were rolled down.

Red flags all around- his fight or flight started to kick in. Or... was it flight or comply? Whatever it was, there were a couple options with this scenerio that ran through his processor. He knew he could outrun any cruiser on this dirt ball planet, let alone in this dust-bowl city, so realistically he could just put the pedal to the metal and go without looking back. The only issue he could forsee with that would be one cop radio communicating with another, which would put his very attractive, custom designed alt form on notice which would risk being put on the morning news as a 'wanted' fugitive. That would reflect poorly on the Autobots and probably ruin any chance he may have of trying to get back into the faction should he need them in the future. There was also the risk of the Decepticons finding him as well. He'd already survived, unscathed, one up-close-and-personal with Megatron and Starscream back on Cybertron ( closer interaction with the needle-weasel Starscream ), which had been more than enough for him. He just didn't feel like risking a round two.

Not to mention he didn't have the energy left to really pull off a high speed pursuit indefinitely, not without proper resources to recover the depletion.

The other option was to just comply with the very obvious demand, if just to see why the hell he was being pulled over in the first place. Maybe it was something simple like... low air in a tire or a busted taillight. There was a possibility that this could have been a Decepti-jerk in disguise and pulling over could be the worse idea ever, but it wasn't as if he had much of a choice in the matter.

So, against his better judgement- and what he actually wanted to do-, Roddy turned on his blinker and slowed down until he finally came to a stop and pulled over to the side of the road, making sure to keep his tires on level ground rather than in a ditch so he didn't have to take the added step of transforming to get himself out of that problem first.

Then he'd just sit there and wait, windows down, with his solid state holoform waiting ever patiently to turn on the charm with a "Hello officer, can I ask why you pulled me over?" which would include far less choice words than he wanted to use. No sense in getting a ticket for being lippy.

[Prowl]

Well...either Hot Rod had taken the hint or this was just a normal human driver who wasn’t in the mood for a high speed chase.

He chose to believe the former.

Prowl pulled in about ten feet behind the mystery car and put himself in park, angling his front so that he was pointing somewhat into traffic. Since coming to Earth and assuming a police cruiser as his alternate mode Prowl had been doing research into what human enforcers did, and this position seemed to be the best for a human police officer to park his car. And right on cue, Prowl opened the door and his holoform stepped out.

He walked up to Hot Rod, pausing to place a holographic hand on the trunk of the car like he'd found out local enforcers liked to do before speaking to an individual (something about putting fingerprints or DNA on the car if it speed off or the enforcer was killed) before approaching the window, noticing that it was already lowered. Figuring it was time to throw the charade out the window, he spoke plainly.

“Where have you been Hot Rod?”

He'd better have a good explanation for this, that was for sure.

[Hot Rod]

If the color could have drained from Roddy's holoform's face the moment he heard his designation being said, and said that way, it would have in that instant. The cocky smile faded from his face as he turned his head to get a better look at the officer in question, only to realize that he really should have been paying far closer attention to who was pulling him over.

Was it too late to gun it? The holoform's hands gripped the steering wheel for a moment as he just sat there tryin to weight out his options. Realistically he had the upper hand- speed and agility on his side-, plus it would take the Enforcer some time to actually get up to any sort of speed to even keep up. Problem with that was the low supply of energon he already had. Did he have enough to keep his excessive speeds up long enough to gt away? Then what would happen thereafter?

"Well, fuck Primus..." Roddy muttered under his breath, the sound coming from the holoform rather than his speakers as did most. Now it was time to explain things, and he really didn't feel like spending twenty years doing just that. So just to save himself further aggrivation, he put his engines in park rather than idle and pretty much put himself dead in the water as not to waste more energy thinking this would just be a quick stop and go traffic citation.

"First off, don't touch the merch. It's really rude to just go around touching someone's ass like that, ya know. Secondly," he slowly looked at the Enforcer, his holoform's very unimpressed gaze reflective of his feelings about this whole encounter. "It's just Roddy now. And last time I checked, I wasn't a sparkling, so I'd like to see in my contract where it says I gotta check in every two seconds on my whereabouts."

Maybe a tad rude given the circumstances, but he didn't really care. Clearly.

"If you really need to know, I was recovering from my run in with a Decepticon that didn't end too well for me. Seemed like the base was handling itself just fine without me, so I didn't think my damaged subframe needed to make things even more complicated. Figured no one would even notice either way." The holoform disengaged then, so for any passerby it would look like a cop just sitting there inspecting an abandoned car. He rolled up his window a bit, just to give his empty seat some privacy.

"So what can I do for you, officer? Did I leave the shower running back at home or something?"

[Prowl]

Prowl was already in somewhat of a foul mood...

Hot Rod’s insolence was just the icing on the cake to an already irritated Prowl.

“First off, *Hot Rod*, despite what some individuals seem to think we happen to be robots in disguise, meaning that we have to keep up appearances. And if that means I have to haul your holoform out of you and throw him in the backseat of my alt form in handcuffs I will do that. Secondly, the name on your file back at base is Hot Rod, and until that changes you will be referred to as Hot Rod. Thirdly, you act like a fragging sparkling you will be treated as such. You’re lucky I’m even here talking to you and that I haven’t shot you for desertion, which I wouldn’t have any problem explaining to Optimus given the circumstances.”

His voice was getting louder, but Prowl didn’t care all that much at the moment. Two deca-cycles of frustration was boiling up to the surface here. He might have been reaching somewhat with the last one, but he didn’t care. Thing was he probably could get away with it if he wanted to...

“So you got yourself injured facing Decepticons, without authorization, then took a whole deca-cycle to make your way back here to base and expect to get away with it without any repercussions? That’s not how this works, Hot Rod.”

There was a pause as Hot Rod disengaged his holoform and rolled up the window. Prowl’s holoform paused, narrowed his eyes and stepped back.

“You can follow me through the groundbridge portal.” He said before walking back to his car.

::Prowl to Omega, I need a ground bridge portal in an obscure location. Provide coordinates.::

[Hot Rod]

The final bit did give Roddy some pause. Had this dude just threaten to shoot him for desertion? He hadn't even deserted anything! Not like anyone had really made that much of an effort to find him either, nor reach out on his comm. There weren't any messages stored while he was shut down, so at the end of the day who really deserted who?

"Guess changing your file at base will be the first thing I do then... asshole," Roddy muttered the final bit under his breath. There were certain types he never got along with no matter what side they were on, and Enforcers just happened to be one of those types. Unfortunately for him that was exactly the type he was dealing with, who happened to also be reminding him as to why he had those feelings about them. As he was being given his 'stern talking' he couldn't help but grumble at the rather belittling attitude in which the messages were being delivered.

"Next time I wanna have my tailpipe kicked by a Decepticon, I'll ask for 'authorization' first. Just direct me to the proper paperwork."

The holoform was already on his way back to the car, and Roddy had to think fast. He didn't know if it was a good idea to go with someone who had just flat out tell him he could shoot him and get away with it. Would Optimus really allow that? Surely there were limits, right? Optimus hadn't really decided to go that direction with his leadership to keep everyone in line, had he...?

:: Roger that, Prowl. I have a groundbridge opening just to the left of your location, coordinates are in route. What's going on? Do you require an assist?:: Just as ordered, Arcee had opened a bridge to an abandoned site in Caliente, Nevada. She waited by the comms to hear if he needed backup, curious to why he needed to be sent off somewhere else.

Roddy was tense as he followed, the shifting of his gears evident of this as he followed Prowl to and through that portal. Seeing what was awaiting him on the other side only made him more uncertain about everything, and his fight or flight instincts kicked into high gear as his old insurgent behaviors rose to the surface at the very threat of being off'd and left somewhere in the middle of nowhere where no one would hear him, let alone find him.

Just before crossing the final threshold, all logic left his processor and his pedal slammed down, screeching tires the only hint given to what was happening before he suddenly accelerated out of the groundbridge like a whipcord past Prowl and took off across the loose rock and hillscape with a cloud of dust in his wake.

[Prowl]

::Understood. En route with Hot Rod now.::

Whether or not he had heard Hot Rod’s snide remarks, Prowl would never let on. Instead once his holoform had returned to his altmode he had gently pulled back onto the road and turned off his lights and sirens, calmly driving to the coordinates that had been sent to him by Arcee. At least with her had had a dependable soldier, someone who could take orders and get things done without asking too many annoying questions.

The sudden screech as Hot Rod pulled a U-turn and raced out of the ground bridge and back out into the Nevada desert caused him to look through his rear view mirror only in time to see Hot Rod’s taillights disappear out of the vortex. Letting out a series of curses he slammed onto the breaks and swung himself around, gunning it as he headed out in pursuit.

::Omega, this is Prowl. Hot Rod is going rogue!::

As he exited the groundbridge portal Prowl flipped back on his lights and sirens as he sped off in pursuit of Hot Rod.

::Alert Sunstreaker and Skirmisher. Have them standing by, and I want updates on Hot Rod’s position if you can get his signal back.::

Measured response Prowl. No need to get everything in an uproar just yet. Plenty of time for that later.

::Hot Rod. What are you doing?::

[Hot Rod]

:: What do you mean going rogue? You were just in route with him, what happened?!:: A pause before she continued. ::Notifying Sunstreaker and Skirmisher. Currently tracking his location. He's due North of you.::

Due North and still going. He wasn't at a level where he could sustain these level of speeds for long, but slow and steady wasn't going to win this race. He just needed to keep himself off his turbo drive to keep as effiecent as he could be under the circumstances. Take him out the middle of nowhere and shoot him? 

No way.

He didn't want to believe that the Autobot leader would allow something like that to go down, let alone allow someone on his team pull that off, no matter how hard someone pushed. The only thing was that he needed to actually get through this stupid move first. Sure, maybe running wasn't the best idea, but he wasn't going to be caught somewhere alone with a mech who had threatened THAT against him. And for what? Because he made some snippy comments? If everyone was allowed to offline anyone who looked at them weird or didn't fall into immediate line there wouldn't be anyone left on the Autobots! 

Screw that.

If he managed to get back to base in one piece, he'd raise holy hell until the Prime finally saw him so he could report the slagger.

He wasn't quite paying attention to what was ahead of him, lost in his headspace of cussing out a particular cruiser who was a good distance away and not catching up anytime fast, so when the vortex opened in front of him all he could really do was go right on through it...

.... ending up face-to-face with the broad side of a very sudden... wall. 

"SCRAP!"

Brakes, screeching tires, all the bells and whistles. He drifted sideways until he was slowed down enough to transform safely. When he did he still had some momentum so he stumbled a few steps sideways until one hand slammed down on that rock wall dead end as he came to a complete stop. His eyes looked around to see where he could go, but the only option was right back through that groundbridge that had opened suddenly in front of him and ended him up here. The canyon walls stretched high enough above him that unless his little decorative wings suddenly turned him into a seeker, he was pretty dead in the water.

With a few mumbled cusses under his breath, he turned to fully face the vortex and stood with his hands up in surrender. 

If he tried to shoot him? Oh, Roddy would have some hot stuff magic in store for him. If it were the last thing he did, Fire under the ass would get a very literal meaning.

:: Manged to cut him off with a bridge to route him to one of the dead ends of the Grand Canyon. Unless he can fly, he's stuck there. Try not to lose him this time, and let me know when you're ready to get a bridge back to base.::

[Prowl]

::He turned around in the bridge and took off back into the desert.::

There was another pause as Prowl considered his next line of thought carefully.

::Understood. Notify medical as well. It’s possible Hot Rod could be suffering from a processor injury.::

Consider all the angles, leave nothing uninvestigated. Because if you disregard something because you have an already drawn up conclusion, you will usually be wrong. Only by considering all the possibilities and by eliminating them by sound evidence and reasoning was one able to determine the truth.

Such was Prowl’s programming.

Arcee’s report caused him to smile mentally. That was quick thinking on her part. Part of the reason why she was on his short list of trustworthy individuals. If only she didn’t have to watch over that human...

::Understood. Bridge me within one hundred yards of his position.:: Prowl ordered as he sped along.

[Hot Rod]

:: Turned around? His signal showed him driving past you.::

That was that, nothing more from Arcee. There was some other talking on the line, then a familiar voice came up on the line.

:: We don't have the resources to keep beaming you around like Star Trek, Prowl. Just use the bridge set up ahead of you that the kid went through.:: Jazz, still pissed at Prowl over the situation from a few days prior, and not too kind in his tone over the comms either. :: I'm monitorin' the situation now, by the way. Go there, escort him home. Once you're there with him I'll bridge you guys back. Daylight's burnin'.::

Clearly Jazz didn't trust Prowl to go unchecked, not after the Knock Out saga. He'd decided to make it a point to be at each turn the Enforcer made, if just to remind him that he wasn't clear of fault either.

Meanwhile, Roddy lowered his hands and made a noise. He thought that the pursuit would be over by now for a different reason, like... actually having the patrol there since the countering bridge had happened so quickly and he was pretty much a sitting duck? Maybe if he had a pair of climbing picks he could have been out of this canyon at this point, but here he was, pretty much stuck, waiting to see what the next moves were going to be. So, instead of letting himself get tired standing around and waiting like a statue, he decided to take a seat at the cliff base and rested his chin his hand with his elbow on his knee, staring at the bridge.

He could have probably just drove back through and driven circles around him if he was really this slow.

[Prowl]

Oh great...

Prowl still hadn’t fully forgiven Jazz for that incident that had occurred earlier over Knock Out.

::Arcee, if Jazz tries to speak on the commlink again, place him under arrest until I get back to base with Hot Rod.::

He didn’t need someone who’s priorities were out of order questioning his decision making process. Not now, while a serious situation that threatened the bases’ survival was in play. If Hot Rod escaped, there was a chance he could be picked up by the Decepticons, the base would be uncovered, and the Autobots would lose the momentum of battle even more than they’d already done.

Was he the only one who seemed to care about this?

Sometimes he wished he had an army of Vehicons and Erradicons like the Decepticons. At least those drones didn’t seem to question orders or throw emotional temper tantrums like fragging sparklings.

Without another word Prowl drove through the groundbridge portal, transforming into his root mode once he was on the other side. As the transformation sequence finished and he was standing on his own two peds, he registered that Hot Rod was sitting there with his chin in his hand and elbow on his knee, seemingly waiting for him.

Odd.

Prowl did not draw his weapon, instead placing his servos on his hips as he regarded the other bot.

“What was that all about?”

[Jazz]

:: I'm not an Enforcer, and not only can I not justify arresting him for talking, but I'm not getting in the middle of your break up. I'll pass the message along to Optimus and you can discuss it with him.::

Jazz offered Arcee a small salute as she walked away, probably to go talk to their commander about Prowl's little request that he was bold enough to just announce like that. Of course he'd take the higher ground and not respond, since he didn't seem to be in the mood to talk to him anyway. That was fine with him, honestly. If Prowl wanted to act like a brat by holding a grudge over something that happened days ago, then that was up to him. Either he'd get whatever was stuffed up his exhaust pipe out, or he'd stay grouchy. Not that Jazz could do anything about it but carry on.

Probably laugh about it later as well.

:: Anyway, we're here and ready to receive Hot Rod back home, so hurry up and get there so I can beam ya home, Scotty. I'm sure Bee will be happy to have some younger company' round again.::

The base was full of old crew, so it'd be nice to at least bring someone in that Bee could relate to in age a little more, even if the experience wasn't the same. He'd have to let him know that the kid was back.

[Hot Rod]

"Sorry, excuse me? What was that? I hope you're not asking about the whole 'running away from you' thing." Roddy looked at Prowl from his spot on the ground with a raised optic ridge, causing his left optic to squint slightly as he stared at the Enforcer before him like he was trying to grow a second head. "You know what? I'm not even gonna ask if that's what you're asking about, because if you don't get it, then maybe the rust is starting to set into your processor."

Roddy stood up, brushing off his arms first, then patting his thighs to get the gross red dusty dirt off his frame as it stuck to the newly painted cool tones. When he stood straight back up he took the time to blow off his servos, palms first, then the backs of them, to get the collected stuff off before he turned his attention to Prowl once more. 

Even then, he only kept his optics on him briefly until he was sure he had most of the dust off. He could rinse the rest of it off under some water as soon as he got either back to base where he could hit the washracks, or was allowed to go and could hit up a car wash. 

"Excuse me Mister 'I could take you out to the middle of no where and shoot you then come up with an excuse for Optimus that will let me get away with it, then suddenly bridges said mech to the middle of no where'. Anyone with half of a working processor wouldn't trust you enough to allow themself to be allowed to just be zipped off to Timbuckto after you said something like that without freaking out." Roddy put one fisted servo on his hip and the other went up in the air with the index finger pointed to the sky. "Flight and survive, dummy. I wouldn't have survived this long if I didn't keep enough wits about me to turn tail when my instincts start screaming at me."

Roddy moved both arms to cross them over his chassis, upper lip curled at the corner slightly so that he looked as unimpressed as ever.

[Prowl]

There was no reply to either Jazz or Arcee. Nothing in words anyway. There was something that could only be described as a wordless expression of irritation before the comm line went silent as Prowl closed it for the time being.

He merely folded his arms across his chest and listened to Hot Rod, his optic ridges furrowing in irritation as Hot Rod took the time to remove the dust before launching into a tirade about what Prowl had said. When the young bot had finally finished, Prowl stepped forward, keeping his servos across his arm as he spoke.

“Well I’m sorry you feel that way Hot Rod. But from my perspective, you have been absent without leave for an extended period of time, during which we have lost two medics and suffered a number of attacks that have crippled members of the team, as well as attaining a valuable prisoner. So forgive me if I don’t give a damn about your feelings while I am trying to keep this team from disintegrating under the weight of the stupidity that seems to be overcoming some of you.”

There was a pause before he started speaking again.

“You don’t get to walk away until the job is done Hot Rod. None of us do. You signed on for the duration of the war. And if that means we all die, then so be it. I won’t let you’re survival instincts endanger the mission.”