The Start of Something Interesting...

[lastonepercent]

The day was calm, with no recent Decepticon attacks, and none suspected to be incoming for some time.  The cons were too busy licking their wounds from the last battle, one that the Autobots had decidedly come out ahead on.  The celebrations had gone on long into the night and the recreation room was already a mess.

Thus, it was the perfect chance for a lone Autobot to slip casually outside.

Mirage had no shift currently scheduled, so he was free to spend his time as he pleased.  He certainly made no move to hide his departure, greeting his comrades in the halls on the way out, but the box in his hands remained unopened despite any passing curiosity.  It was quietly shifted into subspace before long, and  the former noble shifted into alt mode just as smoothly when he reached the doors.  Despite the completely inappropriate earthen race car mode, the mech had little trouble self-adjusting before driving off into the forest covering the mountain, for business unknown...

Comments

[cliffjumper]

"A... garrote?" he stared for a moment, optics brighter than default, then Cliffjumper nodded, "Uh, yeah. Sure. Just continue the same way?" Pointing down the corridor where Skywarp had come from, Cliffjumper pulled his processor away from the realisation that Mirage didn't just have a garrote on his person, but obviously was well-versed in its use.

It wasn't a weapon he'd ever have thought to connect to the noble, though maybe it did make sense. If someone found him out but a gun wasn't advisable, a garrote would work to not just disable - or kill - the enemy, it'd also be distracting enough he probably wouldn't be able to use the comm and compromise Mirage that way.

It was, still, am utter surprise that Mirage had a garrote.

[lastonepercent]

"Indeed." Mirage had already turned away, starting down the hall, so Cliffjumper probably didn't get to see the noble's expression turn into a full, amused grin.

"And yes: this leads out to the human's service entrance, with the large bay doors on the side. We should have cover fire."

Rifle raised back up and at the ready, he lead the way down the thankfully still deserted hall.

[cliffjumper]

Dashing aside to pick up his glass gas gun, Cliffjumper gave it an evaluating frown before deciding it hadn't suffered too much damage to force him to toss it away.

Twitching the fingers of his broken hand as he ran after Mirage, Cliffjumper winced and had to accept that yes, it was still just as damaged as before. But he did have enough control he could... well, probably not lift anything, hardly grasp something if it had much weight, but... it was something.

"That's good..." Trailing off, he frowned up at Mirage's back and then switched to comm. ::Ya know he was aimin' for you?::

Cliffjumper was rather sure that if Skywarp had gotten hold of Mirage first, he'd just have teleported away.

Well, if he could've resisted the temptation of scrapping the injured minibot, that was.

[lastonepercent]

::...I suspected as much, yes.::

Mirage sighed, wondering how much he should bother to tell the minibot. He didn't actually think Cliffjumper had anything to do with the mission failure; he had no access to the SpecOps files or briefings, and if he had, he certainly wouldn't have helped him against Skywarp.

Speaking of...

::You didn't have to do that, you know.:: Mirage glanced back over his shoulder with his good optic.

::Not that I'm not grateful, of course...::

[cliffjumper]

It was hard not to snort audibly, and the noise ended up muffled and cut off as he finally had to pit his vocaliser in neutral to nullify it.

::Didn't have to, nothin'!:: Cliffjumper said with a glowing roll of his optics. ::I'd have done it even if he was just gonna get close, but since he was aimin' for ya, better make sure he didn't get what he was after!::

Even if he didn't like Mirage, he'd have done it. Anything else wouldn't be right.

[lastonepercent]

Oh. That was....certainly nice to hear.

::Well then. Thank you.::

Mirage smiled, expression bright and briefly seen before he turned back to face the hall in front of them.

How positively pleasant.

But there was little time for such a small pleasantries - still running, they were already upon a junction in the hall, and Mirage lead them unerringly to the left. Daylight could be seen up head.

::The bay doors will be on the far right of the next room - we will have to unlatch them, as they have been reinforced to withstand Cybertronian attack since the last incursions onto this facility. Hopefully, no one else is ahead of us.::

Unlikely. But he could still hope.

[cliffjumper]

He hadn't expected that.

Maybe he should have, but he hadn't, and Mirage had a really nice smile--- Cliffjumper ducked his helm, trying to hide the flare of his optics and to not shift his grip on his gun. They were still running and there would probably be enemies at some point soon, so he couldn't afford to be fragging flustered.

Even if Mirage did have a nice smile.

::Yeah, well.:: Trying to cover up the mumble, Cliffjumper huffed and then shook his helm, firmly relegating his squiggly flustered charge to a lower priority.

::Sounds simple enough...:: Trailing off, Cliffjumper cocked his helm and cast a glance behind him as they ran into the cargo room of the facility. ::Think we're gettin' company.::

Jerking to a stop in the middle of the room, Cliffjumper whirled around and aimed his gun, spraying down the entrance they'd just gotten through, the walls around it and the floor.

"At least they're behind us, yeah? And we can make it unpleasant for 'em."

[lastonepercent]

::Agreed! Keep them at bay as long as you can - I'll get the door and cover your retreat!::

Mirage was already rushing to the huge doors, searching for the controls. The human-grade padlock holding the latches in place he was able to smash off with a fist. The gears holding the door closed were heavy, even for a Cybertronian of his size - the humans clearly used the offline electronics to open it, but they had no time.

Retching it open after a moment of struggle, Mirage raise the bay door from the bottom- only to be greeted by Jazz's smirking face on the other side.

"Welcome to the party," Jazz laughed, propping the door up with a piece of rebar.

::Cliffjumper! Time to go!:: Mirage shouted back, aiming his rifle at the hallway door, where approaching Decepticon shadows could be seen.

[cliffjumper]

::Uh--- sure.:: Cliffjumper's reply was rather distracted as he glanced over to Mirage, nodding before tossing something and turned on his heel in the same movement, sweeping up his glass gas gun and running across the room.

::Get out!:: Waving at Mirage to move it, which he hopefully would because as soon as the 'Cons got close enough, the motion-vibration sensitivity of the bomb he'd just thrown would make it go off.

Not that it was strong enough to do a massive amount of damage - it was technically an 'emergency distraction' bomb, and could inflict some good surface damage, but that was all.

Of course, it didn't need to be capable of a huge explosion when Cliffjumper had sprayed the area around the door with glass gas. The Decepticons would hopefully appreciate the shrapnel.

[lastonepercent]

"Glad you could make it," Mirage quiped happily as he and Jazz both laid coverfire at the doorway to cover Cliffjumper's escape.

::Going!:: Mirage called back, ducking under the door and jumping down to the loading dock, immediately resuming fire.

::We'll drop the door as soon as you're though!::

[cliffjumper]

::Comin', comin'---:: Throwing himself the last bit of distance partly to get under the gap but mostly to avoid the fire coming from the 'Cons behind him, Cliffjumper slid out from under it the same moment the bomb went off.

There was a lot of shrieking, but sharp metal shrapnel flying everywhere and lodging itself into your chassis was unpleasant, so Cliffjumper thought they might have a right to their yelling.

Might.

"So what now?" Cliffjumper asked even as he looked around to see if there was anything needing shot at - even if the only thing he had available was his glass gas gun.

[lastonepercent]

Jazz chopped the rebar out from under the bay door the moment Cliffjumper was safely under and out, and not a moment too soon. A handful of shots - and even a few sharp 'pings' of ricocheting metal - sounded off the improvised shield after their own shots were forced to halt.

"Now? We get on out of here, my mech!" Jazz said cheerfully, the implied command not entirely hidden underneath the jovial tone.

Mirage, well aware of his mission's importance, nodded curtly, already checking the surrounding area for signs of the previous battle. He and Jazz transformed at almost the same instance, the commander taking the lead.

::I'll head the path out - we've got cover.::

[cliffjumper]

Giving a quick salute, Cliffjumper transformed just a moment after Mirage and Jazz, throwing a glance behind him at the now-closed baydoors and the Decepticons behind that, and the terrain around them.

What he wanted to do was whoop their afts and help make sure they'd get back properly, but with only one hand there wasn't much he could do. Jazz would probably not lend a blaster, which meant all he could do was to go after the other two.

So, with a reluctant grunt and another glare, Cliffjumper did so and sped after the other two, easily catching up - he might not be Blurr or anything, especially not in rootmode, but he was among the less than a handful who were the fastest that were currently on Earth.

[lastonepercent]

Jazz led them on what was obviously a carefully chosen path across the battlefield. The fight was winding down, but the occasional laser-fire could still be seen or heard around the human buildings. Whatever Jazz had done afforded them cover fire all the way back to the front lines and the safety of the bulk of the other Autobots.

Ratchet and First Aid were immediately on-hand, the former hissing at Mirage's face when he and Jazz transformed on their arrival.

"Get back here-" the medic started, only to be halted by Mirage himself with a wane smile.

"A protected scan would not be amiss, beforehand. To be on the safe side, of course."

The medics stared, and Jazz let out a low whistle at the virus-laden implications.

"Think I'm gonna need that report as soon as Ratchet gives the all-clear."

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper, coming in right after that, missed the exchange and didn't even have the chance to try to ask whoever might listen for a blaster before First Aid swooped down and pulled him closer back against the bulk of the ship.

"Hey! I can---"

"Stand there and let me have a look, please," First Aid said softly, but with surprising firmness as he pulled up Cliffjumper's arm by his lower arm to get a look at the injured hand. With a grimace, Cliffjumper looked away with a muttered grumble.

"Well, this isn't something we can fix in the field. What happened?"

Glancing back up at First Aid from stealing a glance at Mirage, Cliffjumper shrugged.

"Skywarp stomped on it."

[lastonepercent]

Setting Mirage down almost forcefully, Ratchet hooked up a proxy-device between them before beginning his scan safely through a firewall.

"...Soundwave?" Ratchet said grimly, question more statement than query. Mirage simply inclined his head, and Ratchet swore under his breath. The way his face only darkened as the reading's came in only reinforced his dire attitute.

Soundwave's viruses were a genuine pain in his skidplate.

Jazz, meanwhile, hovered close to Mirage's form; kneeling down to remain at hand as the noble was scanned.

::The computer console?:: Jazz questioned, switching over a secure, short-range comm-frequency.

::Indeed. It was armed and waiting for me. They knew.::

[cliffjumper]

::Which means it was either a lucky guess,:: and by Jazz's tone, he believed it was a lucky guess as much as he believed in sparkeaters and leprachauns, ::or we've got a little glitchmouse somewhere.::

Cliffjumper, on the other hand, was meeting First Aid's brightly stunned look with a roll of his optics... and made a rude gesture in Ratchet's direction when the CMO snorted.

"How do you manage, Cliffjumper?" First Aid asked with a slow shake of his helm, fingers gentle as he felt around the demolished hand.

"Had to give him some time to get loose," Cliffjumper said with a huff and a jerk of his helm at Mirage, this time definitely not looking directly at Mirage.

[lastonepercent]

::I know which bet I'd lay my credit chits on,:: Mirage agreed with a sigh.

Swearing under his breath, Ratchet didn't even have to glance from his work with the proxy to return the gesture in Cliffjumper's direction.

"Well, he did a number on you, that's for sure. Nothing I can't fix, but it's going to take some time. I'm sure you noticed not to use your mods?"

Mirage made a face, but nodded. Ratchet jabbed a finger in his direction.

"Good mech. Make sure you keep it that way until I've got it all purged."

Mirage nodded obediently yet again, before matching Jazz's questioning glance.

::The virus shut down half my systems involved with my invisibility mod, which is how I knew he was targeting me specifically. We should probably sweep the vents again first off, of course. Ravage and the others could have found another way in. Again.::

[cliffjumper]

Jazz chuckled dryly, a brief smile twisting his mouth before it smoothed out again.

::Me too. And yeah. They might, but I'm startin' to wonder... And 'sides, if that all was tailored for ya, how much of this was a legit operation or just a cover to get ya.:: Jazz tilted his helm, the glow from his visor flickering a little.

"Are you done starin' at my hand? It ain't gonna magically get uncrushed enough to repair right here, even if I'd sure want it to. Just gimmie a---"

"An order to walk straight back into the ship and wait for takeoff," First Aid said cheerfully, pointing first at Cliffjumper and then back to the ship's ramp.

"... Fine," Cliffjumper said with a mutter and got up, stomping off - he knew better than to argue with medics, even if he really, really wanted to.

[lastonepercent]

"Any further repairs and diagnostics can wait until we get off this battlefield and back to base!" Ratchet said, giving First Aid an approving glance.

Mirage made a face.

::Not an idea I really want to think about...::

Not that he'd get much choice in the matter.

The CMO, catching sight of Jazz and Mirage grimly staring at one another with the faint crackle of close-range comms between them, threw himself between them with a flurry of angry hand gestures.

"Enough of that - get on the ship. You two are the last of the triage patients to arrive - once they're on board, we'll be clear for the return flight, Jazz."

Mirage wasn't a fool, and immediately found himself following after Cliffjumper toward their ride. Jazz - commander of the current mission, apparently - stood up and waved to the surrounding mechs guarding the camp.

"Alright 'Bots, let's move out!"