Transformers © Hasbro. Not mine.

AN: I love one-shot series, because if I forget to update, I don't have to worry about forgetting the plot.

Bay-verse AU. Prowl/Jazz centric. Basically I took G1 Transformers and stuck them with the Bay-verse humans, because I love Lennox. Ignores DOTM, not because the movie sucked, but because I love Mikaela much more than Carly. (Wow. Never thought I'd say that .. . )

Chess

It had been a long, hard day. Working with the Autobots was never easy, but today seemed unusually challenging. At least things had calmed down with the addition of Prowl. Prowl, being the tactical officer and official SIC (Jazz apparently had been a stand-in) had a gift for organization and keeping the Twins in line.

Jazz had been oddly happy to see the SIC arrive on Earth. From what Lennox had been able to piece together from Ratchet and Ironhide, Prowl and Jazz had been close friends on Cybertron before the war had forced them to different stations. They hadn't worked together since, but Cybertronians had a long, long memory. No one anticipated problems.

Lennox walked into the rec room, Sam and Mikaela on his heels –

And was narrowly missed by a tiny chess piece.

He looked up. Prowl and Jazz were alone in the rec room (which was probably a good idea) and on opposite sides. An abandoned chess board was in the center of the room, and the floor was littered with chess pieces.

"Um, guys?" Lennox asked hesitantly. "What's going on?"

"Jazz challenged my aim." Prowl said easily.

"Ah did not! Ah merely stated tha' – "

Prowl launched a pawn at him. Jazz eep-ed and ducked under his makeshift barricade. The pawn struck the wall behind him and ricocheted into his head. "Ow! Does that qualify as a hit?"

"I think so." Prowl said with a smirk.

"Tha' ain't fair!"

"I do not play fair, Jazz."

"I thought Prowl was more by-the-book than this." Mikaela whispered.

Sam grinned. "Hey, we can get the teachers doing some crazy stuff sometimes. Prowl's no different."

Jazz grinned and chucked two pawns at Prowl. Once bounced off his shoulder, the other struck the wall. "'m the master at dirty tricks, Prowler."

Prowl's optics lit. "Bring it."

Which was how Prime and Ironhide found them three hours later, the humans picking up pieces and throwing them back to the mechs to continue the war. They paused and watched with no small amount of amusement.

"At least there won't be dents." Prime said dryly.

Ironhide laughed. "Yeah, but I'd wait fer a while before going in there."

Prime nodded and smiled faintly. "I have no desire to slip and bust my aft."

Suddenly a chess piece pinged off of Prime's chassis. Prowl smirked unrepentantly. "Either move or join." he said.

For a moment, the humans froze, studying Prime. Optimus calmly bent down, picked up the pawn, and lobbed it back at Prowl, narrowly missing his helm.

"Jazz isn't the only one who fights dirty, Prowl." he warned lightly.

"A challenge!" Jazz cried, grinning maniacally. "Ah say we take 'em down!"

Prowl grinned. "Agreed."

/-/

"Ratchet – you have to see this!"

"Please tell me it's not something that's gonna make you glitch." Ratchet sighed, standing up and following Red Alert to the monitors. Red Alert offered a half-smile.

"Actually, this kind of crazy I can handle."

Ratchet stared at the monitors for a moment. The security camera in the rec room had a wide-angled view, perfect for capturing all the action.

Equally perfect for seeing the all-out chess war pitting Prowl and Jazz against Ironhide and Optimus with the humans running around gathering pieces.

Ratchet shook his head. "At least there won't be any dents."