Nexus; Arcee's apartment. Bearing the weight of bad news.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

((The SP-X Nexus thread may go another tag or two. Starting this here as the inevitable in the meantime.))


Seeking shelter from all the noise and hustle of the Nexus, Prowl finally finds his way to what he believes is the entrance to Arcee's apartment. Taking the key Ratchet gave him from a hidden compartment, he crouches on the ramp in front of the garage-style door for a moment, wondering if there's anyone home or not and if he'll be intruding. Still...he's not ready to return to Detroit. His thoughts are jumbled and the noise closer to the sign is making it harder for him to regain his composure. Keeping his wounded right hand closer to his chassis, Prowl uses the key to get the door unlocked before opening it, putting the key away after. He slips inside without even raising the door all the way, silent as a shadow before pulling the door shut after.

Comments

[random_xtras]

"What're you hiding from?" She sits up, stifling another cough as she leans back against the wall. "You don't hit me as the sort to get fazed by much."

At least if the stuff she watches on the screens is any indicator.

Yes, she's trying to change the subject. Yes, he probably has seen that tactic before too.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Prowl frowns, arching a ridge behind his visor. He can't help but wonder if Arcee has met an alternate of his, previously. For the moment, however, he allows the exchange about her current condition rest. He is, after all, in her home... An explanation of why he is there should be provided.

"On the short end of things, the noise," he responds. "I am not a fan of crowded places and commotion, and right now all of it is making it difficult for me to think. As to the long end of it? Ratchet and the others. I've bad news to take home and after losing my temper earlier, a malfunctioning hand. I ran it into the anti-violence field, trying to strike someone." Prowl holds up his right hand, his fingers dented, twitching and sparking a little. He lowers his head a bit, ashamed. "I do not know the dynamics between you and Ratchet, nor if he has ever gone into detail about our group structure but... We lost one of ours. I came into the Nexus looking for them and it seems I am too late."

[random_xtras]

"We're friends," she says absently as a thrill of alarm and concern makes her stiffen even as she's getting off her berth to go to the cupboard for her tool kit. She looks at him for a moment, her processor going over those animated episodes that she's watched so faithfully, then steps toward him and asks in a low voice, "Who is it?"

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"You were the first he mentioned when I inquired about possible allies in this place." Prowl watches as she gets up, noting her movements with a practiced optic. Exhaling heavily through his intakes, he glances back at his hand. "...Eleven. The facility she came from has taken her somehow. She had been missing two days and Optimus Prime would not allow Ratchet to search the Nexus for her as he is exhausted and recharge deprived, so I volunteered. I lurked about until two of who I assume to be Eleven's fellow prototypes appeared, one of them gloating about her recapture. He goaded me into a rage, telling me what they were going to do to her..."

[random_xtras]

"Primus...." Arcee puts a hand over her mouth, then has to steady herself against the wall as she thinks about how this must be affecting her friend. She'd been given only hints of how Ratchet feels about the human girl, but she knows him, and she knows especially how he takes people to spark. "Slagging $%#$% ^T$#@ *#$%@#$ %E$@#@...."

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

A bit taken aback by the sudden outpouring of profanity, Prowl blinks at Arcee from behind his visor, but he quickly settles into a funk again, if just out of frustration. "If what they told me is true, Eleven will be deprived of sleep, starved and tortured until all we have taught her is wiped from her memory. She will not remember us. She will not remember what it was like to have freedom. It's hard for me to know this...and it will be harder for me to tell the others. Ratchet was closer to her than any of us. She roomed with him. She was like his shadow. ...he will not take it well and I cannot blame him in the least."

[random_xtras]

She hides her optics for a moment, but then steels herself and continues to the cupboard, where she grabs the tool kit before going to him. Her voice is terse and clipped when she speaks. "Let's see that hand."

Inwardly, she's a muddle of feelings and wondering and half formed plots. There has to be some way to rescue the little femme, surely?

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Prowl hesitates; it's been a long time since anyone besides Ratchet or Sari have done repair work on him. But he does allow her to see after a moment.

[random_xtras]

"You have the key?" She takes it and turns it over gently, then takes out a pain relief over ride and applies it.

Finally, she manages to push away thoughts and worries of Ratchet and applies her mind to Eleven. "Are the other two still there?"

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"Your key? Yes. I will return it if you wish to have it back." The corner of his mouth twitches as she examines his hand, but as the override does its job, he relaxes a bit. "As for the two prototypes, they may still be there. I can't really be sure, seeing as how I finally fled the area before they could goad me into a second attempt to breach the anti-violence field. One of them, the male, is called 'Seven.' I did not catch a designation for the female."