Lyric 14

Jazz came back later that day, at the end of the afternoon shift, feeling tired, sore from the chair he had to sit in all day, and with a huge craving for affection since he had spent most of the day by himself in the office.
As he reached the familiar door of his shared quarters, he straightened up a little bit, checked himself briefly and put in the code to enter.
It was no surprise to find Prowl at his desk, working away in his console, fully focused on what he was doing.
What surprised him was that Lyric was sitting up on the berth, leaning against a few pillows behind her, currently asleep with a remote on her hand. The screen in front of her was shinning light on her, but it was clearly on pause.
“Lil' missy wake up?” he asked, more out of a reason to start a conversation than to get an answer, that much was obvious.
“Yes, I gave her some of the videos we made when she was sparked.” Prowl answered him, clearly paying only half attention to his mate “Fell back to recharge a few hours ago.”
“Few hours ago? How long did she stay up this time aroun'?” The saboteur asked, making his way to Prowl, moving around him and resting his elbow's on the others' shoulders, getting comfortable between his doorwings.
Prowl let out a heavy vent, feeling his patience slip, and his concentration vanishing.
“For about four hours until she began to nod off, by which time I insisted she rested.”
Jazz let out a low whistle, looking back at his creation, she had a peaceful expression on her.
“Definitely recoverin' then, Ratch'll want to know.”
“I have already sent him a report about it, he will be coming by tomorrow for a check up.”
“Tomorow huh?” The TIC repeated thoughtfully, looking back to his mate. “So how'd she take the vids?”
“Hard to say. She was rather focused on them, that much was certain, and put up a bit of a fight when I told her to stop for today and rest. So I would assume she enjoyed them, or at least found them of some interest.” He paused his work momentarily “I am not certain but I believe she was also taking notes.”
“Notes?” Jazz asked curiously.
“Yes, notes. She would pause the video every so often in order to do something, I am guessing she was taking mental notes.”
“Clever girl, she can ask us about what she didn' get later.” He said, finally letting go of his mate, ignoring the sigh of relief and pulled a chair next to him where he sank into.
“How did it go at the office today?” Prowl asked, recommencing his typping.
“Borin'. S'no fun withoutcha.” Jazz said, bending his neck, letting his head fall back over the chair so he could look at the ceiling.
“'Least everythin's quiet. Twins haven't been prankin', the minibots haven't caused any arguments....”
“Sounds like an ideal day.” Prowl commented idly.
“Sounds like Borin'.” Jazz corrected him with a small pout. “Ah could've spent the day'ere with ya two!” he whined childishly.
“You know one of us needs to stay here and the other go to the office, we need to be available for the others, not just to Lyric. Its our duty.”
“Well why don't you stay in the office then? Ya love that place, yer perfect for it.”
“No, I am not, the reason for you being in the office is because if someone needs you you can communicate a lot better than I, and if anything like a prank of a fight happens, you are the mech for the job, not I, I can easily do the desk work from here. You know this Jazz.”
Jazz's pout only increased.
“Well its not fair, I wanna be aroun' too. Ah dun wanna spend all the orn by mah self in the office. The isolation is gettin' to mah processor!”
A small groan interrupted them, the two looking back towards the berth where their creation stirred. For long tense moments they waited, until they were sure she was still going to remain in recharge.
Prowl let out a vent of relief “I suggest you keep it down Jazz.”
“Righ', sorry 'bout that. Didn't realize that'd wake her up...hasn't so far.”
“She's recovering at a good speed, it shouldn't be too long before I can join you in the office again” Prowl said, gaining a cheeky grin from his mate.
“Aw! Prowler! Ah knew ya cared!” he said throwing himself back at the other in a casual embrace, briefly pecking his lip plates.

The next day Ratchet came at his expected time, they had to wake the poor femme beforehand, not wanting to surprise her with any scanning the medic might have to do.
She sat up against the pillows, muttering to herself in a low voice, in a bad mood for being waken up from peaceful sleep.
“Ratch'll be quick, then ya can go back ta recharge.”Jazz assured her, sitting down next to her, rubbing at her shoulder comfortingly, helping her stay awake.
Prowl went to the door, inputting the code to open it for the medic. Ever since the Decepticon's last attack, they had doubled security as much as they could, particularly their own quarters for Lyric's own safety.
“Why did it have to be so freaking early though? Doesn't he know teens like to sleep in?” she growled half heartedly.
The door slid open, allowing in the red and white medic.
“Good morning Ratchet.”
“Prowl” Ratchet said nodding to him and then turning to the other two “Jazz, Lyric.” the girl frowned a little at her designation, but let it pass this time, it was too early to argue. He stepped up to the berth, his optics already scanning a basic scan from afar.
“How have you been doing kid?”
“Sleepy still” she said dryly “but its getting better.”
Ratchet nodded at this, unsubspacing a small scanner, setting it down on the beside table and connecting a cable to it. The femme watched it all with apprehensive curiosity.
“I'm going to connect this to your head, don't worry, its just a diagnostic's scan since you can't use your own as of yet.”
“I have the ability to run diagnostics on myself?” she questioned, waking up a little bit more.
“Well, basic ones at least, every bot does, to get more advanced ones however you need to be a medic, its a more complicated type of software.”
“I see.” she said, looking a little nervous when he reached for her helmless head, connecting the cable to the side just under the audio.
“How're you dealing with movement?” The medic asked distractedly, while the machine started its work, his optics on the small screen, reading the messages popping up one after the other.
“Its still hard” she said, flexing her fingers experimentally “But I'm getting the hang of it. I could fully pick up the remote and press the controls yesterday at least.”
“That’s quite impressive” Ratchet noted. “I would have figured it would have taken you a few more days before you could do something that precise.” his optic ridges rose as he kept reading the machine, it seemed that with each message they would go an inch higher.
“Well its no fun not being able to move, I really want to be able to walk around again, staying in here all the time is going to drive me mad once I'm not so sleepy.”
At that, Prowl was strongly reminded of Jazz's own cabin fever over staying in the office, it seemed Lyric had inherited that much, though he took small comfort that like him, she had also planned ahead.
Ratchet snorted in mild amusement. “No I suppose you wouldn't like that, besides you have a new body, its a whole lot of new things to try and discover.” He turned back to Prowl “How often did you say she was recharging again?”
“She has only woken up about once a day for a few minutes for a while, its only been recently that she's been waking two to three times each day.”
“Stayed up aroun' four hours yesterday too” Jazz added, hugging his creation a little closer, worried about the medic's question.
“Huh...well that’s... interesting, for once I seem to have a good little patient.” Ratchet said, frowning at the scanner and tapping it, as if checking if it was broken.
“Is something... out of order Ratchet?” Prowl asked wearily, his doorwings raising a little, taking in the medic's actions.
“Well...no, not really, in fact, quite the opposite, the scanner's telling me she's recovered far more than she should have by now...when did you regain your speech?”
“This morning” she said, lightly rubbing at her neck cabling, it still hurt a little, and it was uncomfortable and scratchy, but she could at least speak again.
“You've an amazing recovering rate then.” he stated. “All that rest and proper refueling have given you a good boost, wish more mechs in our fragging base would do the same. He shut off the device, and moved to remove the cable.
“She should definitely start staying awake a lot longer now, I'd say its safe for her to try a few first steps once I have her doorwings back online.”
Prowl's own doorwings stiffened visibly at the mention.
“I can start walking again?” The femme asked, a small sparkle of hope appearing in her yellowish optics.
“Soon, I'd rather you start straight away with the doorwings, your balance is going to be very different with them, so its best to learn to move with them from the start.” he explained.
“When can I have them onlined then?” she asked hastily.
Ratchet didn't answer, narrowing his optics, evaluating the femme before looking at the creators uncertainly. “Welll....”
“If it were possible Ratchet, it would save us a whole lot of time if we took care of it immediately.” Prowl aided him.
“Fine. But I'm not shutting them off afterwards, and I leave you two solely responsible for whatever happens.” He said, still looking unsure about the decision. “Turn around, this won't take very long.”
Lyric promptly tried to turn herself around, Jazz having to help her keep her balance. She had a nervous expression on her faceplates, but determined to get things going. He could honestly sympathize with her, sitting in a berth so long had to be killing her patience.
Ratchet moved around her backplates, taking off the frail protective armor he applied to her body in the beginning, it would have to later be replaced for her real armor, which was at the moment in construction. It wasn't the kind of things they wanted to rush in, since it was her first frame, her body would have to adapt to it.
Right now she was sort of an uggly duckling, if he could put it in human terms.
Even the doorwings, which were a praxian's pride, they were nothing more than flimsy pieces of mechanics, barely covered and disguised by the temporary armor, once they were forged however, they would certainly look much better.
He moved around the sensory pannels, searching for the right nodes that he had to reanimate.
All the warning lyric got was a small shock on her back, before her mind was flooded with information. She let out a small yelp, forgetting all about sitting up and leaning heavily on Jazz for support.
The amount of data going into her processor, even though she couldn’t fully read and see all of it, it was astounding. It was like having a second pair of eyes on her back, yet not quite, those eyes also had the sense of touch, the smallest vibration, the smallest touch, everything could be felt. Ratchet's movements, applying back the armor were all too clear in her mind. It was an odd experience, seeing from your back, and yet not quite seeing, she didn't get any visuals at least, but she was being fed this sort of vague net of lines, kind of like a 3D program used when modeling a figure or character.
It was truly a strange experience.
“There we go.” Ratchet spoke, his voice sending vibrations up her doorwings, giving her chills. “They should be a LITTLE hypersensitive, you'll have to deal with that.”
She couldn't even muster up words, trying to deal with all the information being fed to her.
“They will mute it down in time, they are brand new after all, and once you get your final armor it should be a little better.”
“Feels like I'm in my time of the month...urgh...so sensitive...” she muttered, scowling at the sensations, it made her so emotional.
“Yes well, in your case that would have been the backlash of not having them installed when you were in your previous body, it made for a very convincing period.”
the femme growled at that, signalling she did not find it as much of a feat as he made it sound.
“You're telling me that was the ACTUAL reason for all those back aches? All that time?!”
The medic chuckled, subspacing his scanner.
“That’s exactly what I'm saying. Now, she should be fine for a while, Prowl you know more about this matter than I do, I'll leave you to instruct her the rest” he said to the SIC. “Good luck.”
“Thank you Ratchet” Prowl said politely, leading him to the door.
Jazz held his creation tenderly, smiling a little at her low growls, her optics shifting brightness as she tried to focus on the new appendages. He watched them move with curiosity.
They extended outwards in slow motions, as if stretching, then would flick right or left,  moving a little awkwardly yet still with that natural grace that Praxians had. In a way, it reminded him of some of the nature channels Prowl enjoyed watching sometimes, where they showed young birds, just out of their eggs, their tiny little wings stretching and curling, flailing clumsily as they came into the world. Lyric was reacting no different.
They rotated on their joints a little, like the roll of a shoulder, before giving a wide flap, staying in a laid down position Jazz knew to mean weariness. It wasn't often that he saw Prowl use it, but he'd seen it on Smokescreen and Bluestreak a few times.
“Ready ta go back ta recharge?” He asked her, looking back down to her face, she was pouting slightly, looking embarrassed.
“I'm not feeling sleepy anymore...and this...is going to keep me awake anyway.” she said grumpily.
He chuckled, hugging her tighter, noting that Prowl had shut the door again and was returning to them.
“They seem to have a mind of their own.” she said, sounding frustrated, and indeed her doorwings followed suit, giving a brusque flap, signaling such frustration.
“Doorwings aren't just mere limbs like arms or legs Lyric” Prowl spoke, sitting down on the other side, where he had a full view of her doorwings and back. “It is a bit like the expressions, they react almost instantly, to stop them from doing so requires a great deal of control. Most bots do not even bother trying to achieve such control.”
“Well yours don't act up all the time” she said as they made another frustrated flap.
Jazz had to laugh at that one, swaying a little back and forth as if cradling her.
“Prowler here would be one o' those exceptions sweetspark. No one knows self control better than 'im.”
“Can you teach me how?” she asked, her doorwings going up so fast the creak they made sounded, and looked painful.
“First, I believe we should focus on learning how to use them and for what” Prowl said, gently grabbing each of the ugly winglets and lowering him just a bit, setting them just at about the right height. “Try to keep them at that height, it will make it easier for you to gather your balance that way” he instructed.
“Right... if I can keep them that high.” she muttered, glaring back at them. They twitched and vibrated, but at least, it seemed she could control them enough to stay at the indicated height.
“Very good” Prowl praised, his hands under the wings in case they went down.
“When will I be able to go out?” She asked, trying to focus on stilling the new limbs.
“Anxious are ya?”  
“I've been stuck in here for...how long?”
“A few earthen weeks” Prowl supplied.
“Right, see? That’s a long time, and its starting to honestly feel extremely claustrophobic!” they had to search the web for an astro klik to look up the term, it was not that cybertronians did not have it, simply they did not know the humans had a term for it too, and it wasn't a regular word they would hear for the long time they had been there.
“Ya will be able to roam aroun' the halls soon, as soon as the doc gives the go ahead an' ya learn ta walk aroun'” Jazz comforted, squeezing his hold on her a little, resting his chin above her helmless head.
“And as soon as we can get you proper armor.” Prowl noted “we cannot have you simply going around in that state.” he lightly gestured to her. She followed the look to her body, then looked back up a little confused.
“What? Whats wrong with my looks now?”
Jazz hissed, knowing Prowl hit a subject they did not want to touch.
“You are still in protoform, what you have to cover it is merely temporary and highly inappropriate.”
The girl stared at him harshly for the longest time, the tension could be cut with a knife as her processor made just about the gist of what he was saying.
“You're telling me...that right now....at this precise and very moment, I'm NAKED?!”
For once, Prowl seemed at a loss of words, his features softening a little into worry.
“W-well... I wouldn't say... exactly...in those terms.”
“And you two have just been STANDING there, WATCHING ME while I SLEEP! WORSE! YOU'VE SLEPT WITH ME LIKE THAT!”
Suddenly saying that seemed to make her realize Jazz was still hugging her...chest. With a shriek, she pushed herself away, and grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be one of the rubber pillows.
“OUT!” she shrieked, hitting the saboteur with it to get him as far away as possible, and then glaring at prowl before swing it at him, the SIC having to duck back to avoid it.”OUT!DON'T LOOK AT ME YOU PERVERTED PAIR OF PEDOPHILES!”
The two looked at each other distressed, each seeking the answer in the other, though when the first pillow flew at them, and they saw the young femme grab the alarm clock, well... they knew what to do, they scrambled to the door under her shrieks of fury, the alarm hitting the door behind them just as it closed.
From outside, they could hear the young femme in a string of curses as she attempted to....do something.

Jessica grabbed the rubber sheet, quickly wrapping it around her torso just under the armpits and giving it a tight knot, making sure it covered her entire body, in fact, it was a little longer. It was a little complicated with the newly awakened doorwings, even the tiniest brush against them would send a burst of...frizzing data to her head, it was like having impossibly sensitive shivers. So eventually she found out she could flatten the ugly things against her back and THEN cover them with the sheet, keeping them still and in place. The next thing to do? Move to the couch. Like pit if she was sleeping with those two again, just thinking about it made her blush...uhh...could she blush? She touched her cheekplates, they felt warm but she obviously couldn’t see if they could actually gain a blush.
This whole ordeal just felt so...EMBARASSING, frustrating, irritating really.
She dragged her bottom to the end of the berth, the rubber sheet making some unpleasant squeaking along the way, and then glared at the couch....which was quite a bit away from the berth... she didn't know how to walk, she could barely manage hand movement, but somehow she had to get there.
Gently she set one pede down, and slowly took in the readings she got, yes, even pedes gave her readings, although she couldn't really consciously read them, but her brain knew what to do with the information, so she went on instinct, putting the other pede down and attempting to stand. Which was far more difficult than it should have been.
Honestly one would think she was having some kind of very awkward dance with the way she wiggled every which way.
After much effort, she stilled, finally able to get in some sort of balance, now, they did say the first step was always the hardest...” she looked forwards, and with her arms outstretched, she took the first step, tumbling to the floor with a loud thunk.
“Sweetspark? Are you all right?” Prowl called from behind the door, no doubt they had heard.
“Mind your own business!” she snapped, making an effort to pull herself back up with a huff.
It took her four falls, but at last she had reached that accursed couch, and let herself lay on it in exhaustion.
Prowl and Jazz waited outside for more sounds, when they called again and received no answer, they deemed it safe to peek inside.
Sure enough their creation was in recharge on the couch, wrapped up in the blanket in some sort of makeshift dress, looking thoroughly out of it.

It took Jessica a few days of getting used to the fact that she was going to be staying 'naked' for a while, and it took some time to trust her two uh...creators again. Though both had insisted on it so much, and were so willing to help her learn to walk again that she had to eventually give in.
She noted with some sadness, that she was starting to get used to them calling her Lyric, and that her body began to feel more and more familiar, like at some point, she knew she couldn’t live in another other than the one she was in now.
Today was a bit different however, today she was getting her 'armor' at last, this meant, no more hiding whenever someone came into the room, no more making sure that there was a crack in the blanket showing her hidden form.
The problem was getting to the medbay, she would not, under any circumstances, walk out in the halls in that state, nope, that wasn't happening.
Which was probably why she wasn't walking at all, and rather hitting Jazz's back with her fists while cursing him to hell and back as he carried her over a shoulder.
“Let me GO!” she yelled, trying once again to roll off the shoulder, only to be skillfully put back to where she was previously again. It was literally impossible for her to find a way to get off.
“Ya know, yer jus' atractin' more attention to yourself by screamin' right?” Jazz told her with his usual swagger, his mood not ruined by her tauntrum.
“we've already given the order to clear the hallways Lyric, no one will see you” Prowl said, trying to keep his patience and cool, over all that screaming it was a miracle he did.
“Tell that to the cameras!” she snarled, glaring at one as they passed by and giving it a rude gesture of the middle finger. Wether or not cybertronians knew what that meant, she didn't care.
“The cameras are shuttin' down as we go” Jazz assured “Prowler made sure o' that, no one's gonna spy on ya.”
Still the young femme growled, optics darting to the sides of the hall suspiciously, expecting to see someone coming at any time. She pulled at her blanket as best as she was able to cover her head as well, sulking the rest of the way.

They were all too relieved when the medbay doors opened for them, and they were out of the excruciating experience.
Now they could just leave Ratchet to deal with lyric’s warth, as she would snarl or hiss at him whenever she was suspicious of anything.
Miraculously, Ratchet actually had a huge patience for youngsters, or at least as huge as it could get.
He was patient enough to wait for her to calm down, snapping back  at her whenever she did the same to him.
It was sort of like their own language, which was a bizarre idea for the two autobots waiting anxiously.
Ratchet huffed when he finally made his point, and the young femme only sulked in return.
“Now, if we can get on with this, I would like for you to wear this armor today.” he said moving off to bring a cart. “Its not that far off of what humans do with clothing. You can put these on and off easily, though keeping them on will be most beneficial for you.” He continued “the only difference is how you apply them to yourself, latches in most cases. Although some parts, like the chest pieces, are usually locked by codes, to prevent anyone from reaching your spark. Other areas with this type of armor system would be your crotch and hip platting, as well as your doorwings.”
“Why the doorwings?” she asked curiously. The other two parts of her body, she could guess by now, but the doorwings? Were they some kind of sexual thing or something?
“Because doorwings, are highly sensitive, they function as scanners in a way, and because they are so sensitive, they can create strong emotions from their owner. Because of this, some lesser cybertronians see it fit to use it to control others.” he said walking closer to Prowl and Jazz, more specifically to Prowl.
“For example” he grabbed the praxian's wing without warning. Immediately Prowl's body language froze up, one of the wings going down, and the other trying to pull away from the hand that grabbed it.
His back arched down, almost in a submissive gesture.
“Ratchet! I would very much appreciate you let go of my doorwing and not use me as a lecture subject!” he said with an uncharacteristic growl.
Despite that however, he weakly pulled away from the hold, but Ratchet didn't let go, and there was little else Prowl did to stop him.
“Its very easy to take advantage of these appendages” he carried on as if Prowl had  not spoken “They're easy as it is with the locks on, you can imagine without them.
She nodded at this, understanding.
“Got it, never leave my back unguarded.”
Ratchet then let go of Prowl, leaving him to his mate who moved to comfort his abused doorwing.
“Good, you're learning fast. Lets get you started on that armor then.”
For about two hours they worked on getting her armor on. It wasn't that it took long to do it, Ratchet could have easily put it in place under five minutes, but instead he was making sure that she learned which pieces when where, why and how, so that he would never have to do it again.
Every once in a while either Jazz or Prowl would give some input on a piece or another, and by the time they were done, she couldn't recognize her old new body, over the new new body she wore now.
Her paint job consisted primarily of ebony black, with some orange details here and there.
She wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. Really how was she to feel about having wheels as part of her body? Sexy? Ugly? Regular? She didn't really have a concept of what was good looking or bad looking on a cybertronian point of view, and seeing as there were no other females around...
“I have also made this for you” Ratchet said, pulling out a smaller box. “I noticed you were putting a lot of effort and stress into figuring out your inner systems and working with everything, and it will take some time, possibly even years for you to fully adapt to it. “Wheeljack came up with the idea, and constructed most of it, I just applied the medical programming it needed to adapt to you specifically.”
“What is it?” she asked, looking down curiously, trying to figure it out by the shape of the box, which didn't really tell anything.
She failed to notice her creators's anxious looks, as they watched with anticipation.
Ratchet popped it open, revealing a piece of glass, one clean and shiny visor in it.
Without realizing it, her doorwings perked up a bit in interest, signaling her aproval.
“This little device can help you sort out all your systems with more ease, usually we make these for bots with either optic problems or for those who have far too many software installed.” Ratchet explained, holding it up for her to take.
“I see...” briefly she wondered Jazz's reason for wearing his.
She examined her new visor, flipping it over in her hands carefully, it was made of...crystal? Maybe? She wasn't sure, it certainly wasn't glass. It bore an orange color to match the markings on her armor.
After a few moments, she looked back up at them, as if uncertain, Ratchet waving her off.
“Well go on then, try it on!”
“Do I just...? How does it attach...?”
At this point, Jazz couldn't help himself anymore, and moved forwards to help her.
“Here, lemme give ya  hand” he offered, taking her hands.
She let out a little gasp when her hud shut off for a moment, but then came back on as usual, looking more spacy and organized than before.
“All right, I need you to follow the little light with your visor please.” Ratchet spoke, appearing in front of her, waving a little glowing object.
She did as ordered, the medic giving a satisfied huff, before straightning himself, how he knew she followed it while wearing that visor over her optics, she didnt know, but somehow he knew.
“It looks a little bit odd ...but I suppose its just my first impression” she said, looking around the room, taking in the details. This visor seemed to be able to catch them a lot better.
“By tendency, Cybertronians don't invest on their optics too much, as we move around mostly by sensors.” Ratchet explained. “On your case however, I guess its understandable to give you a visor.”
Jazz's hands were on her shoulders now, and they squeezed a little when Ratchet said that.
“Ya feelin' good ta walk back?” He asked her, as she shifted to get off the berth.
“Yeah... I'm good. Thank you Ratchet.”
“You're more than welcome, just don't get yourself damaged again anytime soon.”
“I will try not to trip over my face yes” she agreed with a small bit of amusement, as her creators made to guide her out.