The black shadow stood on the wall, looking down at the impressively laid out home. Silently the black figure smoothly climbed down, tense and alert for the sounds of the patrolling guards. A turbo-hounds head rose briefly, sniffing the air. The mech froze, optics wary in case it caught his scent.

The hound whined for a moment, before at last padding away, and the mech breathed a sigh of relief. Slowly he stalked around the statues, careful to keep from brushing any of them, and always wary for patrols.

The mech stopped dead as two guards stopped nearby his hiding place. "So, do you have any reason why we're standing here? Or why we have such a high patrol then usual?"

"No. I heard something about a new security test, but other then that-" The other mech shrugged, and the hiding mech settled down to wait them out. They were obviously going to be there for a few breems.

One of the guards leaned next to his hiding place, optics dark and considering. "Well, have you heard the rumors?"

"Rumors? About what?"

"You know that really expensive company which the boss was talking about?"

"Yeah?"

"Apparently, after they refused to the payment he offered them, someone else offered to do it."

"So, someone else should be coming out to test the security system sometime soon?"

The hidden mech smirked. Test the security? Oh, yes. That's what I'm doing.

The mech who had spoken first nodded. "Yep. The boss hasn't said anything more about it however, and the rest are all rumors flying about."

The two slowly began to wander off, leaving behind the blackened mech to his own devices. Silently he rose up, and once again began traveling through the home. He stopped beneath a camera, observing it, yet standing perfectly in its blind spot. For someone who boosted about having the best security on Cybertorn, he has a really old modle of cameras. The lazy, whispering thought drifted through his CPU, and the mech shook himself, forcing himself to pay attetion to what was going on around him.

Silently he reached up to the camera, twisting a small microchip into the base of it. With a single move, he pulled out a tiny computer, which connected to the micro-chip. With three clicks, he had taken over the entire security network.

Quickly he skimmed through the cameras, piecing the house together from both the cameras and the building plans that he had managed to scrounge up. Let's see, what I want is on the second floor, third door to the right. The mech thought, and nodded. Commencing loop inside of the house… now.

Loop spread through the system inside of the house, leaving all of the hallways blank and empty as he casually strolled through them. He smirked. All too easy. One camera is connected to the rest. Take out one, and you have control of the rest of the system.

The blackened mech paused outside of the door, searching it for any booby traps. To his pleasant surprise, he found that an alarm wire had been attatched to the code pad. If he had tried tapping in a code without first disarming it, he'd of set off enough alarms to wake up the whole city.

Silently he bent, his fingers craftily twisting the wires while he placed his own special wire connecting the two of them. Anyone trying to place the wires back would find out that they had set off their own alarms.

With a quiet snicker, he hacked into the code of the door, making the door slide open silently. Easy easy.

The mech waltzed in, optics searching for any more booby traps that may be laid out. He found none. Puzzled, he regarded the item he had come to get. It was a beautiful little sculpture, no more then two feet wide, and delicately encarved with various runes and symbols. The mechs hand reached out, wishing that he could touch it, but at the last second he paused.

Footsteps were approaching. With a snarled curse he slammed the door shut, and prayed that they didn't figure out the wire had been switched. The footsteps went right by the room without pausing.

The mech sighed in relief, before once again turning back to the sculpture. Silently he regarded it, optics searching for any traps or wires that may set off an alarm. Quietly he picked up the sculpture, optics narrowing as they attempted to search for any broken wires. Nothing. The mech stared at the sculpture for a few moments, wondering why, when suddenly he smiled. Of course.

With a quick yank, he had found and gotten rid of the tracker device.

Silently he turned and left the room.

0o0o0o0o0o

The next day, the owner of the house entered the room, checking up like he did everyday, to see if the so-called expert had broken in and managed to steal the statue. I sent the message a week ago. By now he had to of received it. The mech thought grumpily, pausing before the door.

Silently he bent to disable the alarm, when he froze. It had been tampered with. Silently he touched the fused together wires, and then in a sudden burst of rage, he tugged them apart.

Sirens and wails instantly began reacting.

Red Alert sighed, staring at the wall. Recharging and dreaming about his job before the war was an interesting thing, but he wished that he hadn't dreamed about it. Calm down Red Alert. No one knows what you did before the war. They all think that you were simply a security director, and the reason why they haven't heard about you was because of some odd, obscure reason.

With a grumbling groan, he rolled out of his berth, and moved towards the door. Inferno and a large group of mechs had been sent out on a patrol on this small planet which they had currently landed on, because of rumors of Decepticons being hidden somewhere upon it.

The rest of the Arks crew who were still left onboard were slowly stirring, getting ready to receive those who had left. Red Alert sighed, thinking musingly to himself, You know, Inferno has been asking me more and more lately about what I did beore the war. Should I tell him?

Red Alert hesitated, and then shook his head. He wouldn't believe me. No one would.

The door to the control room opened up, and Red Alert nodded to Blaster, who grinned back. "Get some good recharge Red Alert?"

"Yes, I did Blaster. How was the watch?"

"Quiet. The others left, and I haven't seen any activity yet."

"None?" Red Alert paused in conusion. "That's odd. The cameras should've picked them up coming in already."

Blasters optic ridges rose, and he shrugged. "Didn't see them Red Alert. Sorry."

Red Alert nodded, distractedly peering at the screens,and at last he shook his head, settling into a seat with a sigh. Blaster viewed the security director carefully. "Not meaning to sound nosey, but did you get any recharge? You still look tired."

Red Alert surprised Blaster by actually smiling. "I'm fine Blaster. I got a lot of recharge last night, more then I'm used to. This is just a hangover of that."

Blaster nodded, and stood up. "Alright, I'm off for some energon. You'll tell the Ark when they come into view, right?"

Red Alert was about to say anything when his optics froze on one of the screens. Blaster frowned, and turned, but it was too late. The screen Red Alert had been looking at had vanished. Red Alert lunged for the keyboard, frantically typing in something that Blaster couldn't see, and then the camera Red Alert had been looking at came up on another screen.

Both mechs stared at the scene, both not believing what they were seeing. Then, Red Alert cursed, pressing the alert button, while getting onto the comm. link with Ratchet. "Ratchet, we need you now! The entire patrol looks damaged and…" Red Alerts vocalizer ground to a stop or a moment as he realized something. "We're missing two. Inferno and Prowl."

Blaster looked over the confusing mass of mechs, and struggled to see if he could spot the two. He couldn't. Ratchets fluent cursing could be heard across Red Alerts comm. link, and Red Alert motioned to Blaster. "Come, we must get out there and escort them the rest of the way in."

Blaster stared at the screen or a moment longer, and then the two moved out with an ever growing group of the Arks crew.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Bumblebee shook his head. "We found the 'Cons base, however its heavily fortified. When we got too close they managed to plant snipers without us noticing, and they captured Prowl and Inferno."

Red Alert, at the very edge of the room, twitched slightly, as Jazzs face grew grim. "I see." Optimus Prime said sotly, optics considering different ideas quietly. "We'll need to mount a rescue mission as soon as possible."

Red Alert suddenly stood up, and stalked out of the room, ignoring all of the odd looks. They captured Inferno. How dare they lay their hands on Inferno. His CPU seethed, and he stormed down the hallways, optics narrowing with each step he took. First I have to get Inferno out of there. If we attack foolishly, they'll just offline the prisoners.

With that thought firmly entrenched in Red Alerts CPU he threw open the door to his room. There was a reason why he didn't allow anyone in. It was because it was still filled with the items he had used to break into some of the most secure security systems ever created. Red Alert smirked as he picked up a can.

It was filled with light absorbing paint, perfect for what he was about to do. Silently he spread it on himself, and then he picked up the next item. It was a special type of visior that he had specially designed. It let the light in, but his optics would be unseeable from the other side.

Red Alert picked up a few more of his specially designed devices, cackling like mad inwardly.

When he was at last done, he drited through the hallways, practicing keeping out of his own camera ranges. He passed by the commanders room, and not a single optic flickered. Red Alert thought he might actually get out of the Ark without being spotted, when he paused. Jazz was up ahead, silently standing by the doorway.

Time to test how good of skills I have. Red Alert thought, and slowly slid up behind Jazz. "Jazz, what a pleasant surprise."

Jazz jumped, and turned, hand reaching for his blaster. And stopped dead. The black, shadow like thing that stood behind him looked a lot like Red Alert, but he moved with a swift grace that wasn't Red Alert. "Surprised?"

The voice was slightly muffled, but Jazz recognized it. "Red Alert?"

"One and only."

What could be considered a smile appeared on Red Alerts blackened faceplate, but Jazz considered it more of a demented, twisted smirk. "So, would you like to come with me? I trust that's why you're here."

Jazz hesitated. He had originally come here to make sure Red Alert didn't do just this, but Red Alert had sneaked up on him, something that took a lot of practice. "Red, what exactly did you do before the war?"

"I tested security systems." Red Alert replied, strolling past Jazz. "by breaking into the houses."

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Red Alert stared down at the base, optics tracking each camera sweep, and each patrolling officer. They were in a large canyon, with a lot of shadows, making Red Alert nearly unseeable. Jazz beside him didn't shift. Both knew well what went on in breaking into a base. Red Alert at last slithered back into better cover, and subspaced an odd looking chip. "Let's see here, Jazz, think you can get this chip into one of those cameras while I take out the main power?"

Jazz frowned. "Why do ya want this in the cameras If you're going to be taking out the power?"

"The power will only be off for a moment, and then it'll flick back on. However, with that-" Red Alert said, his twisted smirk growing just a little more.

Jazz eyed Red Alert, and nodded. Red Alert nodded back, and both slipped away. "Wait, Red, where do you want the chip?"

"Just stick it on the bundle of wires. I can do the rest." Red Alert hissed back, beore vanishing into the shadowy cannon in which they were in.

Jazz glared at the camera as he edged closer, and the power unexpectedly stopped for a split moment. Hurriedly he attatched it to a camera, and began making his way back to safety. He reached it just as the power flickered back on. There he found Red Alert with a small, flat datapad like computer in his hands, but on the pad was each and every single one of the cameras. "The mech who designed this made it so if you control one camera, you can control them all." Red Alert said, his visor glinting slightly.

A maniacle humming sound filled the air, and Jazz realized Red Alert was actually humming to himself as he worked. "Red Alert, you haven't done this for vorns, not since the war started, have you?"

"Nope. I've just been breaking into my own system." Red Alert said happily. "This is so much more fun."

Jazz considered backing up as Red Alert messed with the cameras, humming softly to himself. Red Alert has hidden depths to him that I did NOT want to know about. And this is one of them. "Alright Jazz, be prepared to have the 'Cons to be swarming the otherside of the canyon in five, four, three, two, one."

There was a soft beep, and moments later an alarm went off inside of the base. Instantly Decepticons swung around to the back of the building, and Red Alert leaped forward, heading for the nearly unguarded door, passing well within the camera range. "Come on Jazz, the camera can't pick us up anymore."

Jazz followed Red Alert as he sped into the building. "Where are we going?"

"Third floor-" Red Alert threw open a door revealing stairs. "Fifth cell from the right."

"Why stairs?"

"Because the elevator is being guarded. Only three down there." Red Alert said.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Inferno glared at the bars, ignoring Prowl. It wasn't hard to do, the datsun hadn't twitched since they had been captured and thrown into the prison. Distantly Inferno could hear some sort of alarm going off, and the mech that was guarding their cell looked rather nervous, as did the two guards guarding the elevator. However, they were all keeping themselves under control, and the one guarding their cell had his gun leveled at the two prisoners.

All three were so intent upon the elevator, they didn't notice how a black, flittering shadow seemed to drift out of a slowly opened door. Nor did they see the figures hands descend upon them. They all did however, feel the sudden searing pain before they crumpled to the floor.

The mech guarding the prisoners only had time to wonder what was going on beore a foot slammed into his face, and Jazz grinned at Prowl. "Miss me Prowler?"

"Jazz. The rescue mission was mounted this early?"

"Well…" Jazz hesitated and grinned. "Kinda."

"You didn't come to rescue us alone, did you?" Prowl demanded suspiciously. Jazz pointed at the other mech.

"Blame him. He's the one who originally began sneaking out, and I joined him."

The black shadow that had knocked out the two guards came gliding over, and he knelt, hands fiddling with the code, before the door to the cell opened. Inferno strolled out, looking at the black, indistinct mech closely. And suddenly, "RED ALERT?" Inerno asked, gaping.

Red Alerts teeth flashed in the light as he grinned manically, and he nodded. "Got it Inferno. Let's get out of here now. The nonexistent fire alarm I caused in the building behind this one should be stopped any moment now."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Optimus Prime stood waiting by the doorway. He had heard that Jazz had vanished mysteriously, and that Red Alert was, so far as any one knew, still locked up in his room. He sighed, and then came the excited call. "I see four mechs approaching Prime."

Prime looked up to see dust slowly rising. "Who all is in there?" He asked.

"Prowl, Jazz, Inferno, and someone else. I can't see them."

'You can't?"

"Well, their completely black, and I can't get a very good picture on them. Red Alert probably could, but he still refuses to respond to anything."

"Yeah," Sunstreaker broke in. "He hasn't even twitched when I threated his cameras."

Prime frowned, as Ironhide, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Bumblebee joined him at the Arks entrance. The four cars pulled up, and transformed as one to salute Prime. "Welcome back. Prowl, Inferno. Now, who are you?"

The last question was addressed to the black mech, who pulled off his visor to salute Prime. "Red Alert sir."

Ironhide crashed, as Bumblebee looked horriffied. Wheeljack was much more interested in the visor, and Ratchet struggled to hold onto his composer as he rebooted the weapon specialist. "Red Alert?" Prime repeated, wondering if someone had created another mech, named him Red Alert, and sent him here to taunt Prime.

"Yes, Red Alert. Security Director." Red Alert said, and he began rubbing off the black paint. Prime watched as the black paint slowly peeled away to reveal the paranoid security director he had worked with for so many vorns.

"Red Alert… how- have you been lying to us about your occupation before the war?"

Red Alerts optics grew wide as he looked up at Prime. "I was hired to break into security systems to test them. After awhile, you accumlate a lot of items, that you don't want to throw away."

Red Alert hesitated, shuffling in the dirt. "And then when someone made me glitch on the first day, well, I decided to keep up the act. It's worked so far. No ones connected me to the Red Alert of before."

"No wonder you're one of the best security directors. You just thought like you would if you were breaking in." Ratchet murmured, staring at Red Alert, who simply shrugged, suddenly embarrassed.

"Yeah... Well, I-I always liked breaking in."

"You shoulda heard him while we were breaking in." Jazz said. "Knowing that everyone was gone made him start humming, and I don't even want to know what song he was humming."

Red Alert grinned, and rubbed a little more at the paint. "May I be dismissed?"

"Yes... Red Alert... Don't tell anyone else, got it?"

Red Alerts optics shuttered and Prime nodded. "If it comes down to it, you might be our last resort."

Red Alert shook his head. "Now there's a scary thought."

As the security director padded away, Inferno on his heels, Prime turned to Jazz. "Jazz, I want a full report."

"You got it sir!" Jazz said nodding.

Hidden depths to Red Alert indeed. I haven't been this surprised since I graduated from school. Prime thought dryly.

SsSsSsSsSsSs

Red Alert, cat burglar. Man, now I totally agree with those on LJ bunny farm about wanting to see Red Alert in a kitty suit.