Chapter Text
Prowl forced down another vent through his heated systems. He was trying his best to keep his demeanor calm and even. A task which was becoming increasingly difficult this night as the perp beneath him struggled against the knee planted firmly in his back.
“Get off me mech!”
“Be silent,” Prowl growled, hand pressing the dark green helm hard enough to the ground to easily transfer paint to the dirty surface.
Back up was progressively late and this last call of his shift had turned out to be a huge time warp stealing away valuable time off with his young trio back home. Prowl had not had any accepted requested time off during his beginning training and now his first approval was slipping through his servos while spent with a most difficult mech in this undesirable section of the city.
“Officer Prowl, dispatched unit has been routed to a code 1 call. Hang tight for next incoming officers,” the comm unit in his audio buzzed.
Prowl scanned his surroundings with a disappointed sigh. Perhaps he should have stressed his situation more to dispatch about how precarious it was. That was the second unit to be sent to another call, granted both calls were serious code 1s, but he was becoming tired and fatigued holding a much stronger mech down for so long.
“Understood dispatch. Be aware the situation is hostile. I will be unable to detain suspect if he breaks free,” Prowl responded, doing his best to keep the resentment out of his voice.
“Copy,” was dispatch’s irritating response and mistakenly Prowl let out a frustrated grunt.
The mech beneath him chuckled and shifted yet again to test his captor’s hold, “no back up rookie?”
“I advise you refrain from speaking.”
With another laugh, the mech flexed his shoulders and tested the energon cuffs’ resistance before turning his head to look up at the enforcer and sneer, “oh my, a pretty noble like you out here is going to catch some attention soon enough. Once I am free, I will be sure to give you an experience you were truly made for.”
Prowl grimaced at him, “the existing physical exchange is sufficiently nauseating enough, thank you.”
“Huh?”
“Precisely.”
“Officer Prowl, this is Thuderclap, I am on-route to your position. Do you require assistance?”
With a sigh of relief, the young rookie was grateful to hear it and responded, “Yes, a timely response would be most appropriate.”
“Copy. Next time just ‘yes’ will work, Rookie.”
Before Prowl could reply, he was forced to throw his weight back down on the struggling suspect, slamming the mech’s uplifted helm back to the ground with a screech of metal against the rubble of the alley.
“Hey! Brutality!” the restrained mech barked, shifting enough to make Prowl’s spark skip uncomfortably.
“Quiet!” the enforcer snapped.
“Frag you!”
Prowl’s knee dug in more sharply, pulling a pained yelp from his suspect. This delinquent had ruined enough plans for the orn. Getting the opportunity to escape was not an option. Additionally, he could hear back up so close, distant sirens finally echoing in the enforcer’s audios.
Unfortunately, that relief was short lived as Prowl’s helm whipped around at a scream behind him. He instantly spotted a femme backing away from an open side door from the same club he’d dragged his perp from. A large mech loomed in its frame, his massive size nearly blocking the flashing lights and sounds from inside from escaping into the alley. In the huge mech’s proportionately massive hand was a personal blaster, almost appearing sparkling sized to the mech by comparison.
“Please, Rex, I… I will get you the credits!! I swear!!”
“Frag,” Prowl cursed quietly, wishing his back up was already present.
“What are you going to do rookie?” the criminal asked, purposely raising his voice a bit, “Is my life in prison worth having versus saving that poor innocent femme there?”
Hand clenching harder around dark armor, the young enforcer struggled at the thought of leaving a victim without help as her pleading voice broken down into terrified sobs, but he refused to give the captive mech any hope towards escape.
“You are not going anywhere, murderer, I cannot save everybot.”
Though Prowl’s words rang true, in his spark he wished the opposite. Could he live with himself to let a known killer loose just to prevent a possible murder right here, or would he risk his good conscious to suffer to let another life be taken so close by?
The crack of a hard slap, a cry, and a clatter to the ground made the enforcer flinch and look back at the violent scene unfolding before his optics.
The femme held a hand to her face, the other grasping the ground behind her frame as she tried to crawl backwards, away from her attacker.
Prowl could call out, distract the armed mech in order to give the femme time to run away to safety, but in turn he would be in a horribly defenseless position and possibly at the mercy of two dangerous and angry mechs. If only he had use of his other arm! The slagger beneath the ex-noble had severely dislocated it from it’s socket and it still uselessly hung at Prowl’s side.
Slowly, the blaster was raised up and aiming at the crying femme. Prowl’s optics could pick up the subtle movements of the blaster holder’s finger slipping in next to the trigger.
“NO!”
Prowl had made up his mind. He could not merely watch this occur before his own optics without trying in some way to stop this crime.
“Dispatch! Code 1! Current violent dispute at my location. Suspect is armed, dangerous, and has unidentified femme at gunpoint! Require IMMEDIATE assistance!”
Whatever response came next was lost as the shot went off. A scream of anguish and agony ripped out of the femme the next second and she fell back against the alley’s street curb holding her chest. Only after did the shooter acknowledge Prowl’s presence.
“Interesting,” he mused, keeping his weapon up and turning it towards Prowl next.
Adrenaline kicked into Prowl instantly and he shoved himself off his suspect just as the blaster went off again. The mech just under him cried out in surprised pain at the misplaced shot, but Prowl was already running for cover. His badge be damned, he was not getting himself killed over that sewer scum he left behind. There were three tiny mechs that needed him more than the presented heroic medals they would receive after an on-duty deactivation.
He dived around the corner as another shot rang off.
“Currently under fire, this is Officer Prowl!”
“Copy that, be advised, back up is on the way.”
Prowl ignored his urge to mutter explicit curses about finally receiving official back up and pulled out his issued weapon.
“I am a law enforcement officer! Drop your weapon or you will be faced with charges of assault on an officer and attempted murder!” he yelled over his shoulder towards the alley.
“Frag you little mech. I have a better idea. Why don’t you come out here and enforce the law?”
Prowl pressed the back of his helm to the wall and peeked out slightly to look at his now wounded prisoner. The mech was clearly suffering from a potentially lethal hit, his struggling nonexistent even though Prowl was no long on top of him.
Gaze quickly bouncing around, Prowl tried to find a way to encounter the armed mech with an advantage. Everything he calculated had horribly low odds, but the quiet whimpers of the dying femme urged him to ignore all reason. Still, he needed to think straight. There was certainly more than his life at stake if he made a rash decision right now.
“Officer Thunderclap, what is your position?”
“Sit tight Prowl, I am almost there.”
The rookie nodded to himself and looked back into the alley, only to find it empty. He slowly crept around the corner, searching for possible hidden spots and also saw the same doorway open and vacant. Fighting against logic, Prowl holstered his weapon and knelt by the original detained mech. His fingers felt along the bleeding mech’s lines for some sort of pulse until he found an incredibly faint response.
“Dispatch, be aware armed subject is no long in sight. Currently have three wounded. Urgent need of medical assistance.”
“Copy, use extreme caution. A perimeter will be established soon.”
Prowl ignored the rest of the chatter about an armed suspect loose and cautiously moved towards the wounded femme. He gave one last look around before dropping his guard and looking at the femme.
She laid against the curb, shuddering as a pool of bright energon spread out alarmingly fast around her hunched frame.
Prowl stepped over the deceased prisoner he was restraining earlier, and approached the femme. He took another critical look around the area before holstering his weapon and placing a hand on her helm.
“I’m here to help. What’s your name?”
“Frag off, mech,” she lifted her head to give him a searing glare, “you don’t care about a gutter mecha like me. You just want to clear your conscious after just sitting there and watching my murder. My name will change nothing.”
“I didn’t…” but the nagging sensation that he should’ve acted faster hit too close to home. He had spent those first moments debating stupid ethics.
“You really don’t think you thought out the best option for yourself first? Once a highborn, always a highborn. You’ll never be our equal.”
Prowl dropped his hand away from her and sat back. He looked over the street again this time realized a trail of energon followed him. Looking down at himself, he saw the source leaking from his lower abdomen. The mech must’ve hit him before he got to proper cover.
“Frag,” he muttered and put his hand over the wound, but honestly he didn’t feel any pain from the wound or his arm.
“Prowl!”
The shout of his name grabbed his attention and he looked up to see Thunderclap arrive at the end of the alley, weapon drawn.
“It’s clear,” he alerted, but stayed sitting where he was. A deep tiredness was beginning to weigh down on him.
“Dispatch, officer down, get that medic here now! Suspect has fled the scene. Assessing Officer Prowl’s condition now,” Prowl heard Thunderclap radio to dispatch as the bigger mech approached him.
“Rookie, the point of the job is to not get shot.”
Prowl waved him off and pointed at the femme, “she needs attention first.”
“She’s gone Prowl, as cold and grey as the other mech.”
“No. That’s not possible, she just said…” Prowl started but it trailed off as he realized the femme was indeed dead and probably had been once he noticed the wide gaping hole shot straight through the spark chamber.
“Ok, I think you’ve lost a bit too much energon. Causes hallucinations and such. Why don’t you lie back. Medics will be here soon.”
“Yeah…yeah ok. I need you to deliver a message to my family.”
“I’m sure it’s all on file at the office. Don’t worry.”
“No…they’re not. Needed to protect them from the towers…” as soon as Prowl laid back he felt his systems go sluggish as the adrenaline bled out of him.
Thunderclap paused in surprise; nearly missing the databurst Prowl sent him before he passed out. It was only a encrypted comm link. Tentatively he accessed it.
“Prowl, you’re beyond late. The sparklings are already in recharge, mostly. Ratchet pitched a fit about you being late so you’ll get an audio full in the morning.”
“Oh, uh, I am not Prowl. He gave me this link to comm his family?” Thunderclap responded back apprehensively.
“Who are you, where is Prowl?” the voice on the other end sounded familiar but Thunderclap couldn’t quite place it.
“Officer Thunderclap, Officer Prowl has been injured on duty.”
“Which location is he being transported to?”
“I am…not sure. The medics have yet to arrive on scene.”
If asked later, Thunderclap could’ve sworn he felt the tension increase tenfold in that short pause.
The mech’s voice hardened when he came back on the line, “Tell me his condition.”
“I only obvious thing I see is a gunshot wound.”
“Where?”
“Looks like his lower abdomen, he doesn’t seem to be bleeding too badly, but I’m not a medic.”
“No, you are not. When the medics arrive tell them to take him to the central medical station.”
“Look, I don’t think I have that choice…”
“Just do it Officer,” the mech said shortly, cutting the conversation and comm-line off immediately.
“Who the frag…?”
Thunderclap looked back at the unconscious mech now becoming surrounded by the arriving medics, “looks like there’s more to you than meets the optic rookie.”