Title: Transformers Animated – Untitled

Author: LJ

Summery: Prowl is working on advancing some of his holograms, especially his human forms. With Sari's help he develops holographic human forms for each of the Autobots, unfortunately when they're activated, the holograms trap their sparks outside of their robotic bodies.

Rating: PG

Author's Note: Inspired by Prowl's holographic form and Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor being a tangible hologram. Oh yes, and the fact that I just got back from Botcon 2008 and got an Animated! Prowl toy. ;) Takes place just after Nature Calls but before Megatron Rising. Also, MUCH thanks to Ookami at the SDGF Fansite for help on the 'transfer' scene! I bow to my living muse!

Disclaimer: I own nothing! (except for the toys of Prowl and Bulkhead. X3)

Chapter one:

Prowl frowned and looked over the pictures of himself in the paper. He was always fairly recognizable due to the fact that he was a motorcycle driving itself. Even if he used his hologram, it still flickered when something would go through it. It wasn't tangible and didn't react normally to the insects that flew through it and the occasional rock that was kicked up. He put the paper down and sighed rubbing his temples.

"Hi Prowl!" Sari cried walking over to the ninja bot. Prowl blinked and smiled at the eight year old. "Reading up on your latest success against that lame-oh bank robber?" Prowl smiled a bit and shrugged.

"Not entirely. I'm not used to being in the spotlight like this. I'm a martial artist, not a super hero," he said simply. Sari hopped up onto the make shift couch and smiled.

"But you are to everyone in Detroit." Prowl chuckled and nodded.

"True, but I would much rather not be noticed. Bumblebee may like the spotlight, but I prefer to stay in the shadows. I should try and create a more realistic hologram. Maybe then I won't be as noticeable." Prowl frowned and stroked his chin in thought. Sari blinked and smiled.

"I can help!" she said smiling and leaning against Prowl's thigh. "After all it sounds like your holograms need a boost right? Well maybe the Key will help!" Prowl blinked and rose one edge of his visor. He knew and agreed with Prime and Ratchet that use of the Key should be limited, but at the same time, if with her help he could create a better hologram, it would be a boost for the Autobots to have a disguise in case of Decepticon attack.

"All right. This will be our little secret for right now, all right?" Sari smiled and nodded. Giving the black and gold ninja bot a wink.

"Gotchya!" Prowl smiled and got up.

"Meet me in my quarters in an hour okay? I need to get some information from the others, it would be a good idea for all of us to have a holographic 'driver' just in case." Sari smiled and ran off giggling. Prowl smiled and headed off to the quarters of his fellow repair-bots and proposed the idea, conveniently leaving out the fact that Sari would be helping.

"So can I see what the others are gonna look like?" Sari asked sitting on the root of the tree in Prowl's room smiling. Prowl nodded and activated her holographic program. The first that appeared was his own hologram, although not in a police outfit and without the mustache.

"I've adjusted it to be a more civilian outfit as well as getting rid of the mustache, it didn't quite fit me." Sari smiled and looked around the hologram and nodded.

"Looks good! Okay! I wanna see Bulkhead next!" she bounced up and down and smiled at the gold and black Autobot. Prowl smiled at her and nodded flipping to the next hologram. Sari giggled as she looked at the hologram Bulkhead chose for his driver. He had bright blue eyes and shaggy brown hair. He was about six foot five in height and was pretty muscular, but not overbearing. He looked like a pro-wrestler, but also the kind of person who you could run up to and get a big hug from.

"It fits his personality fairly well." Prowl smiled, enjoying Sari's company. She usually was off with Bumblebee, but her infectious love for all things machine and organic made her more than welcome in Prowl's usually off limits quarters.

"Yeah it does!" Sari giggled and bounced up in excitement. "Ooh Ohh! Ratchet! I bet he looks like an old man!" she said snickering. Prowl chuckled and gave her a raised optic ridge.

"You'll be surprised," he said flipping to the next hologram. Sari stared at the older gentleman, about ten years older than Captain Fanzone but much more in shape. He was about Fanzone's height and had salt and pepper brown hair with a long scar running from the right eyebrow to the hair line. His skin tone was tanned and there were a few scars on his arms from what she could see.

"That's what Ratchet chose?" Prowl nodded and smiled.

"Yes, it's very accurate actually. Except for maybe how fit he looks." Prowl and Sari laughed a bit and flipped to the next one, which was clearly Optimus. He was about six two with black hair and bright blue eyes. He was fit and looked about 28 years old. Sari grinned widely.

"Wow! Looks good!" she said with a bright smile. "I guess that just leaves Bumblebee huh?" Prowl nodded and flipped to the next hologram. There, between 15 and 17 years old was boy who looked a lot like Sari only with bright yellow and black pants and jacket on, bright blond hair and inhumanly bright blue eyes.

"He said that he wanted to look like he could be your brother," Prowl said smiling at the red head's wide eyes.

"Oh cool!" she said bouncing excitedly. "Come on then! Let's get working on this!" Sari smiled widely her brown-red eyes sparkling. Prowl smiled and nodded.

"Of course...let us." Prowl went into a small chest and retrieved four other small holographic drives. Loading in a copy of each Autobots' holographic forms he prepared them for a boost from Sari's key. Sari walked over and took the key off from around her neck and put it in the holographic drives. As the glow from the key settled down Sari took out her key and grinned at Prowl.

"Let's go and give the others the stuff!" she said putting her key away and picking up Bumblebee's hologram projector. Prowl chuckled and picked up the other hologram projectors and walked along with her.

"Just be careful, Sari. These are very delicate instruments." Sari nodded and continued walking.

"I know I know. I'm always careful!" she said as she nearly tripped over her own two feet. Prowl gasped and quickly grabbed her shirt and kept her on her feet. Sari giggled nervously and smiled up at the black and gold ninja-bot. Prowl sighed and continued on setting down the holographic projectors and watched as everyone started to come in.

"That was quick, Prowl," Optimus said walking in and looking at the four projectors on the make shift table in their 'living room'. "Let's get Ratchet in here and get started." he said with a smile. Prowl nodded and got up heading to the Medical bay.

"Ratchet, I've finished modifying the holographic drives. They're ready to be attached." Ratchet looked up and nodded.

"Right, let's get this done and over with." The older mech got up and got the equipment needed to attach the modifications to themselves. Prowl smiled and went back out to the group assembled.

"He's ready," he said. Bumblebee grinned and grabbed his own holographic drive and headed into the med bay.

"Never thought I'd be happy to go to Ratchet's med bay," the yellow bot said grinning. Sari laughed at him and sat on the concrete couch. Prowl looked at her and picked up his own holographic projector. Carefully removing his temporary projector, he installed the more permanent one on himself easily. After all, he learned from one of the best how to do regular maintenance on the delicate structures.

"So where'd you learn how to do this?" Bulkhead asked looking over his own projector.

"Be careful with that Bulkhead. They're delicate mods that should only be handled by a medic or a holographic technician. I learned from a mech at school, before I went into the life of martial arts. His mods all had to do with holograms, and they were amazing. His name was Hound. I was impressed about his abilities to manipulate the images, and he taught me how to work with one. It's no where near as complex as his, but it has helped a lot." Prowl smiled a bit and looked over the temporary one making sure that it was fully functional still and stored it in the 'backpack' like hold on his back.

"Cool..." Bulkhead said grinning. "This is gonna be awesome!" Bulkhead was practically bouncing in his excitement, carefully holding the green holo-projector. Prowl chuckled at him and smiled.

"I'm going to test out the modifications that I made to mine, just to make sure it works properly. Tell Bumblebee to do the same when he comes out. I'll be in my quarters." Prowl got up and walked off.

"Have fun Prowl!" Sari called before turning to Optimus and Bulkhead while they waited for Bumblebee's addition to be done and have their own mods added, which wouldn't be long.

Prowl sighed and meditated for a while before finally feeling prepared enough to activate the changes done to his holographic projector. Prowl transformed, deciding its be easiest if he was in vehicle mode, since he wouldn't use it other wise. He was hesitant at first, but knowing that the only way he'd know if it worked was using it. He took a deep breathe and let the holographic generator turn on. At first he thought he had a bit of an itch, which was an odd sensation, but he ignored it. He could see the hologram start up, but he didn't feel quite right. The hologram came in bars, slowly building. He felt his legs begin to ache as the holograph gained legs. He felt like the metal was being ripped off of them and the wires were being cut. He tried to ignore it, but he pain started to travel to other areas as the hologram grew. His entire lower body felt like it was on fire.

"GAAH!" he let a yelp of pain escape, tying to ignore this weird sensation and tried to turn off the hologram, but it wouldn't shut off. He watched as the hologram grew he was engulfed in pain, building from his legs up.

He couldn't help it anymore, he tried to move, but when he did try to move, the hologram did. It sent waves of sickening pain through out him. He tried to control it, but couldn't. The hologram was almost finished, all that was left was his face. Prowl couldn't take it any longer the pain was building into unbearable levels.

"GAAAHHH!!" he yelled out in pain. He felt like he was being torn apart, slowly, by an unmerciful adversary. He felt all his joints freeze up, the mechanical cords tightened almost to the point of ripping. He felt a sharp, piercing pain in his chest. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!" He saw a hot, blue wave burst through his vision and he couldn't feel anything for a while. Nothing was around him, everything was black, no sight, sound, nothing at all. When his senses finally came back, he tried to move, but with shocking results. His whole body was sore and painful, but he propped himself up, keeping his eyes shut. He put a hand to his pounding head and felt strange, padded fingers wrap around a rather soft and squishy nose. His eyes shot open to see he was moving a human hand. He swallowed and began to panic, standing up he stumbled back into a solid object. The ninja-bot turned around and paled. His vehicle mode was there, standing as if nothing had happened. The most terrifying part was that he couldn't feel his vehicle mode.

The others... he thought before going to rush out of his room, winching as he ran in his human form. Just as he exited his room, he heard the screams of his fellow Autobots, and saw Sari running towards him, tears in her eyes.

"Prowl!" Prowl stared in shock as the eight year old plowed into him wrapping her arms around his waist. "Not you too!" Sari bawled and was shaking clinging to the once ninja-bot like a life line.

"Sari...what happened to the others?" he pulled her away and knelt down looking in her eyes. Sari sniffled and cleared her eyes.

"When the holograms started up, something strange happened. They all were starting to hurt and they couldn't move or transform. Then there was a bright light and they were screaming and I didn't know what to do!" Sari sobbed again and jumped into Prowl's arms wrapping her arms around his solid and strong neck. "I'm so sorry!" she cried. Prowl swallowed and hugged her close, wanting to comfort the girl.

"It's all right, we'll figure this out. Come on, let's make sure the others are all right." Prowl reached down and cleared her eyes with his thumb. Sari sniffled and cleared her nose and nodded trying to control herself.

"Okay..." she said her voice shaking. Prowl got up and hurried towards the living room where the others were last he knew. There, parked as if nothing had happened, were Optimus, Bulkhead and Ratchet's vehicle modes. Bumblebee was sprawled out across the couch in robot mode. Sari gasped and went over to Bumblebee. She stopped short seeing Bumblebee's hologram sitting on the floor looking a little panicked.

"W-what happened?" he asked looking at Sari his blue eyes portraying all of his emotions, terror being the foremost one. Prowl looked at Bumblebee and frowned.

"I'll explain later, let's find the others..." Bumblebee stood up and with Sari's help walked over to Bulkhead's vehicle mode. Bumblebee carefully climbed up and opened the door to the cab and saw Bulkhead groaning in the front seat.

"Ow..." Bulkhead grunted slowly sitting up and blinking in confusion at the world around him. Sari and Bumblebee looked at him worriedly.

"You okay big guy?" Bumblebee asked offering him a hand. Bulkhead blinked and nodded sitting up.

"Uh...I think so. Where's everybody? And why am I stuck in the hologram?"

"Prowl and I are going to explain in a minute, right now we have to get Optimus and Ratchet out of their vehicle modes," Sari said, trying not to cry again. Bumblebee put a hand on her shoulder and jumped down out of the cab allowing Bulkhead to follow.

"Hey, don't worry about it okay? Prowl and Ratchet can fix this," he said smiling and supporting the young girl. Sari sniffled and nodded hugging the yellow clad teenager.

"I'm just really sorry that this happened," she whispered fighting back tears again. Bulkhead frowned and put his hand gently on her head.

"It's not your fault Sari. Don't blame yourself." Prowl looked over at the others and frowned before opening up Optimus' cab.

"Optimus? Are you all right?" Optimus leaned back from being draped over the steering wheel and looked around in a bit of shock.

"I...I think so." Optimus said looking at the blue eyed man next to him and frowned. "This wasn't suppose to work like this was it?" he asked looking to Prowl. Prowl nodded silently and helped the other out of the cab.

"I'm very sorry about this Optimus," Prowl said sincerely bowing his head a bit. Optimus shook his head.

"It's okay. Let's just get Ratchet and get this fixed." Prowl nodded and went over to the ambulance finding Ratchet was getting out on his own.

"What the slag happened Prowl?" Ratchet asked, obviously a bit angry. Prowl frowned and watched as the others walked over.

"Yeah Prowl, I thought you said you were an expert at holograms," Bumblebee said furrowing his brows. Prowl looked to Sari who walked over and sighed.

"I asked Sari to borrow her key," he said taking full responsibility for what happened. Everyone gaped at the young man, even Sari gasped surprised that he would take the full blame away from her.

"What?!" Ratchet and Optimus both cried shocked at his irresponsibility. Ratchet glared and clenched his fists.

"I would expect this sort of thing from Sari or Bumblebee, not you!" he cried glaring at him. "How reckless can you be Prowl? I mean for the love of Primus that key is not a toy!" Sari started to sniffle and spoke up finally.

"It's not Prowl's fault!" she cried rubbing her eyes. Prowl frowned and looked at her not wanting her to get in trouble. "I offered him my key to make the hologram's work. M'sorry..." Prowl frowned and walked over kneeling down and putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Sari, you didn't have to do that," he whispered to the girl. Ratchet frowned and looked at them.

"I'm disappointed in both of you," Optimus said, with a sigh. "What's done is done, though. Now we just need to fix it." Sari looked up to the now human Autobots and sniffled.

"Yeah, it's okay Sari, you were only trying to help." Bumblebee smiled at his friend and tried to help her cheer up. Sari sniffled and whipped her eyes on her sleeve and shrugged.

"Guess so..." she said softly. Ratchet sighed and went over rubbing her head gently with his hand.

"Relax, Sari, you were just trying to help...anyway," Ratchet looked around and sighed. "It shouldn't be too hard. I just need to run some scans on the hologram projectors. And I'll need your help, Prowl." Ratchet gave the once ninja-bot a look. Prowl swallowed and nodded, knowing that the medic didn't blame Sari, but him, and Prowl didn't blame the medic for it either.

"I understand, Ratchet." Optimus sighed frowned turning to the others.

"While they're working, I suggest we stay out of their way, as well as out of the view of the public. If the Decepticons get wind that we're unable to fight, well...I don't think any of us want to think of that."

"Gotchya, boss bot," Bumblebee said with a nod. He glanced over at his body and shivered. "It's kinda creepy seeing myself in robot mode like that..." he muttered under his breath. Bulkhead nodded in agreement and sighed.

"So what do we do?" he asked looking at the others. Ratchet and Prowl were already getting to work, removing the scanning equipment from Ratchet's vehicle mode.

"As long as it doesn't interfere with my work, I don't care," the older man said waving his hand and holding a scanner over his shoulder as though it wasn't as heavy as it looked.

"We could play video games, or maybe play some music," Sari suggested with a grin, obviously not as upset as she had been moments before. Bumblebee perked up at the thought and grinned widely.

"Sah-WEET! Come on let's play that Dance Dance Revolution thing, maybe now I won't break the pad with my feet." Sari grinned and ran over to the game station and turned on the TV, as well as the player. Bulkhead watched as they went over and looked to Prime. Optimus shook his head and smiled.

"At least they're making the best of it. I'm going to monitor Teletran-one's computer system. Last thing we need is for someone to get the drop on us." Bulkhead nodded and watched as Optimus walked over to the massive computer station and paused, looking up at the extra ten feet over his head where the console was. Bulkhead smiled a bit and blinked.

"I think I'll watch you two play..." he said going over and sitting on the floor carefully. Prowl watched as everyone began to split up and try to make the best of the situation and helped Ratchet with the scans.

"I think you've been taking too many of these risks lately, Prowl," Ratchet said going over to Bumblebee's form on the couch. "I know you like to work alone, but it almost got you killed once, remember? You can't do this kind of slag anymore." Prowl sighed and nodded silently taking the criticism and punishment for what it was; concern.

"Holy slag! They have a song with my name in it?!" Bumblebee cried as Sari flipped through the song choices. She giggled and nodded.

"Yeah! I figured you'd want to do that one." She smiled and started the song. Bulkhead laughed as the song started bouncing his head to the upbeat tune and glancing back at the others. Prowl and Ratchet had begun the scans and Optimus, after a moment or two of thinking, finally made himself a stairway up to the controls and was busy working on scanning the city for any Decepticon trouble. The young man sighed and looked again to his vehicle mode parked on the other side of the room. He hoped that they would be back to being normal soon.

"SLAG IT!" Then again...that didn't sound supportive of that hope. Prowl held his ears from Ratchet's yell and both Bumblebee and Sari stopped dead in the middle of their song. Optimus was rushing over.

"What's wrong? What happened Ratchet?" the Autobot leader asked. Ratchet frowned and looked to the others.

"We're in deep slag, bots..." he said seriously. His blue eyes portrayed his own terror. "Our bodies are sparkless."