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Prowl looked down over the edge of the wall at the mecha wandering below them, taking a quick count. “I count seventeen, and we know at least four are weremechs. After our last encounter with a pack of weremechs, I feel confident in saying that the two of us alone cannot handle them.”
“Yeah.” Jazz peered down, too, and activated the ability that let him detect if someone was a normal mech or magical. He frowned, when six mechs glowed for a moment with the blue-green aura that said they were magical. “Might be six weremechs, actually. But we ain’t gotta fight ‘em, we just gotta get you into the treasure vault, right?”
“Yes…” Prowl’s optics narrowed and he turned to jazz with a matching frown. “What are you thinking, Jazz?”
“Distraction. We get to the roof above the room, I crash through and get their attention, I lead them away, you drop through the hole and grab the mark, you climb back out and run the opposite direction, i lose the weremechs in the river, and then we meet up Mistral’s.”
“No. There are too many ways for that plan to go very wrong.”
“Yeah, I know. Do you have a better idea?”
“Well.” Prowl leaned back so that a casual look upward wouldn’t reveal his presence immediately. “We do have a few favors we can call in.”
“Be a couple days before we could get anyone else here.” Jazz shook his head. “The mark might be dead by then. Or moved. Or sold. We gotta move now, while we know where she is.”
“Very well, but we need a more detailed plan before you get yourself mauled by weremechs again.”
“All right.” Jazz finally moved away from the edge of the wall, too. “What are you thinking?”
-_-_-_-_-
“Okay, the six magical ones are closest to my position.” Jazz was whispering and hoping that Prowl’s hearing was still sensitive enough to pick it up. If not, the Praxian might not have enough time to pull off their job. “I’m going in three…”
The single mech they knew was a werewolf, and therefore the most dangerous of the group at the moment, drew closer to the door. “Two…”
The weremech stopped and turned around. “One.”
Jazz dropped from the roof of the vault as the weremech took a step away from the door. He plunged a blessed-by-Prima dagger into the mech’s back as several startled cries sounded around him. The weremech’s flesh bubbled around the blade as Jazz shoved him to the ground, and the paladin winced; that was an ugly way to die.
But he had been helping traffic the children of more than one frametype, so Jazz wasn’t going to lose recharge over it.
As the weremech fell to the ground, the other magical mechs ran toward him. Jazz pulled another dagger, this one blessed by Max himself, and asked nicely for enough holy smiting for the five mechs bearing down on him.
He lit up with a brilliant green aura a klik later and smiled. Then he charged the first of the oncoming mechs.
-_-_-_-_-
Jazz smiled as he stepped into the clearing and saw Prowl standing near a campfire and holding a small dragon in his arms. Then he hissed as the action pulled at the cut on his face and made it bleed again.
“Jazz!” Prowl’s head and wings shot up quickly in alarm. “You’re hurt!”
“Yeah. Ain’t weremech, though.” He moved toward the fire so that his friend could see him better. “Slipped in the water like a dumbaft and got cut by the rocks. Should be all right, as long as I remember I can’t smile right now.”
“Or I can stitch it closed now, because we both know you won’t remember not to smile.” Prowl held the dragon hatchling out to him. “Hold her while I work.”
“All right.” Jazz took the hatchling and then sat carefully down on the ground. His back protested immediately, and he sighed softly. “Probably ought to check my back for damage too.”
“Of course.” Prowl moved to his backpack and began pulling out first aid supplies. “And then I take the first watch tonight, and you will not argue about it.”
“Yes, carrier,” Jazz replied with a smile and an immediate wince. “And then we’ll get this little one back to her father first thing tomorrow.”
“Second thing. Because she will never let us leave before breakfast.” He could hear the smile in Prowl’s voice, and Jazz let himself relax just a little.