Lyric 15

Jazz and Prowl gave their creation a few more days after the last trip to the medbay, to allow her to recover the rest of the way, and to learn to move around with the extra weight.

They soon realized that that was beginning to be a big mistake, as she started growing bored with the larger hours she spent awake, roaming around their quarters, finding meager tasks to do.
She had probably memorized the room by now and every item in it.

Today was particularly unsettling as she sat on the couch, glaring at the vid set, foot bouncing rapidly in the air while a finger tapped on the opposite forearm in a nervous fashion.

The two traded nervous glances, silently wondering what to do about, discussing every option expect the one they were most reluctant to accept, and the most likely.
They needed to let her out.

It was around noon by earthen times when Jazz couldn't take it anymore, always the first to give in when it came to their creation. He got to his pedes, and lightly stepped over, trying to look as casual and cheerful as he usually was, while hiding the anxiousness inside.

Lyric glanced his way briefly, before returning to glaring at the screen.
Jazz rested his servos on his hips, considering her for a moment, there was no beating around the bush with her, painfully straight to the point she was, just like Prowl.

"Lyric? Mind sparin' a moment of yer infinite patience?" he tried cheekily.

With a huff, she reached for the remote and turned off the "tv" looking back at him defiantly, expecting him to speak his piece.

He chuckled, taking a seat next to her.
"Cool it girly, Ah was jus' gonna make ya a proposal."

"What kind of proposal?" she asked, visor dimming slightly, signaling her suspicion.

"Well, seein' as yer feelin' better now, an' ya clearly need ta burn off some energy, we were wonderin' if ya would like ta have a go aroun' the base? We can't take ya outside yet, but it'd be good fer ya ta get used to the base other than our quarters..."

She sat there scrutinizing him long enough to make him uncomfortable, and when he thought she wasn't going to dignify him with an answer she finally looked away with another huff, her armor puffing proudly.

"Fine."

"Great! Ah know Blue's showed ya aroun' before, but ah figure it'll be a bit different seen from our perspective."

"Other than the tiny and giant difference whats so special about this time?" she said dryly, allowing herself to be dragged away from the couch. Prowl was shutting down the console at the desk, ready to leave as well.

"Well there's a lotta stuff ya can do now. Like the rec room, or the trainin' room."
"Lovely, a disco and a gym...just what I always wanted" she said rolling her optics behind the visor.

"Its not a disco" Jazz said with a pout.

"Only sometimes" Prowl corrected him "when we have something to celebrate about, which we haven't had in a long time." He seemed pleased with that however "as for the training room, it is not a gym, its a place for us to keep in shape and train the new recruits, or it was when there were new recruits, these days they are mostly used for us to perfect each other's skills. It is essential for our survival."

"Right right I get it..." she said with a sigh as they walked out, Jazz staying behind a little to lock the door. "I'm just going to make a fool of myself and be socially awkward." she grumbled as she stepped into rhythm along with Prowl.

"To be frank, I am still socially awkward amongst the crew myself. The same cannot be said about Jazz however." he said, briefly looking back as his mate trotted over with his usual cheer. "But it is good for you to meet others, we can't keep you locked in our room forever after all."

She hummed thoughtfully, the comment putting her processor in a muddled pile of thoughts, she hadn't fully come out with it yet, coming to terms with her body was hard enough, let alone wonder the rest.

Now seemed the right time though.
"What IS going to happen to me? You've said before that I can't go back to living amongst humans, so..."

"No need ta worry 'bout that yet, ya jus' focus on adaptin' fer now" Jazz said, crossing his arms behind his helmet.

"I can't adapt if I don't know what I'm supposed to adapt to though" She retorted. "I don't like the idea of just...existing. Of just being in a room all day and do nothing."

"When the time for it comes, you will be given the choice to chose what you wish to do with your life, within the limits of course" and at her glare, Prowl rose a hand to stop her from speaking "And we all have to abide to these limitations, it isn't just you. Its not like we all had dreamed to work in the army since younglings."

"Fine..."she huffed as they passed the crew quarters hall "So what ARE my choices and my limitations? I have to work for the army?"

"Everyone here has to contribute in one way or another. That doesn't mean however that you have to fight. I myself do not see the heat of battle as often as Jazz for example, as most of my work is organizing, managing and tactical planning."

She rose an optic ridge, then looked at Jazz.
"And you do...?"

Jazz grinned cheekily, looking confident. "Special ops, ah do the dirty an' risky work. Although many times ah gotta deal with the borin' paper work too." he grumbled that last bit.

"It would not be as bad if you did not procrastinate as much" Prowl countered.

"Says the mech whose pile of paperwork never ends." The other said playfully.

Prowl chose to ignore his little comment in favor to returning the conversation to his creation.

"In any case, before you mentioned your interest in being a police officer, perhaps you can find your equivalent of that here." he suggested, noting how her visor brightened ever so slightly more.

"And what would you have that would be an equivalent of it?"

"Bit of a mix up, since we defend the motto of "serve an' protect" Jazz commented "Ah guess patrolling, guard duty, security would be some o' the choices?" he looked to Prowl looking for the others' confirmation, which came in the form of a nod.
"All plausible."

"And I would be allowed outside if I took patrols?" both mechs stiffened at the question, realizing their mistake.
"Perhaps, patrols work with teams or partners, they require fast mechs who can get to and from quickly to warn anyone else."

"But I would be let outside" she said, an unsettling grin forming on her faceplate.

"If you succeed training for it." he agreed wearily.

"I think I'd like that." she said, her bad mood seeming to evaporate at the simple idea of going outside again.

"Ya gotta remember tho, we can't show ourselves like this on the outside of our grounds."

"Why HAVEN'T you yet by the way? It looks like you've been on earth for a while."

"The humans. Their representatives have agreed to let us stay on your planet peacefully and fend off the decepticons that might cause trouble here, but forced us to live in seclusion for it, so as to avoid a mass panic. We had agreed to slowly work into preparing the humans for our revelation, should the need arise some day, but it has...gone slowly." Prowl explained.

"A.K.A. They're not so keen on givin' up their toys to the public." Jazz input with a frown.

"I figured as much, I never heard anything to do with you guys, not even hints, nothing that feels like a "preparation". So why don't you just leave the planet?"

"For a large amount of reasons." Prowl said slipping into his statistics mode. "Lack of resources, lack of mech power, our ship needing repairs, not having anywhere to actually head to, and the ability to hide our creations within the humans, giving them some form of shelter from the Decepticons."

"Woah wait! Theres more?" She asked, quickly stepping in front of them and spreading her arms to stop them, looking them in the optics.

"To which do you refer?" Prowl asked confusedly, while Jazz hissed, realizing what had happened.

"creations, you said it in plural, there's others like me out there?" There was an edge of hope in her voice that twisted at Prowl's spark with guilt.

"Ah... yes. Four more" he said curtly, trying to recommence their walk.

"Where do they live? Do I know them?" she said quickly keeping up. "Are they nearby? Do they know?"

"Far from here, no, no, no." He said in order, looking uncomfortable with the subject, his armor tightening.

"Aren't you going to get them?" she asked surprised, feeling confused.

"Sweety..." Jazz started wrapping an arm around her shoulders, guiding her along their walk. "No. They're hidden, an' they will be while we can keep it tha' way. Ya were unfortunate enough to have been found out, but Ah doubt the cons will be lucky a second time at findin' one of the other two."

The downcast look on her face was more and enough to make them feel guilty, she turned away and continued to walk, as if they hadn't had the conversation, except now her body language sagged and expressed her disappointment.

"Lyric..."Jazz pleaded as the two followed, he was resisting the urge to reach out for her, but the warning look Prowl gave him, stopped him.

"Its fine...lets...lets just pretend we never talked about this. I'd rather do that" she said, without looking back.

They kept on walking quietly the rest of the way, her creators stepping up in front of her when they reached the recroom, in an instinctive way to protect her from the many mechs inside.

She immediately felt self conscious with all the optics landing on her, and followed after both mechs with her head low, one hand covering the side of her face, while the other was wrapped around her front.

Jazz and Prowl for the most part acted as if they didn't notice a thing, even though they were acutely aware of everything.
"Prowl! Jazz!" They turned to the voice who called them, spotting Bluestreak at a table, by himself, taking his energon. That was perfect.

They changed direction to join him, always making sure that Lyric would follow them.

"Good morning Bluestreak" Prowl greeted.
"Mornin' Blue!" Jazz did in his own way, plopping down into a seat, prowl following to sit next to him.
Lyric got the hint and reluctantly sat next to Bluestreak on the other side.

"Good morning! I wasn't expecting you guys to all come out so soon!" the young mech said excitedly.

"We figured that it was due time that we did" Prowl replied easily, used to his younger brother's constant blabbering.

"Well I'm glad for you!" Bluestreak said, flashing a warm smile at Lyric, who looked away, feeling a little embarrassed of the attention.

She was acutely aware of all the mechs in the room sneaking glances towards them. "Things have just been so chaotic lately without you to keep everyone in line Prowl! Not that Jazz is doing a bad job, he does a fine job, but no one does it better than you do, except maybe Prime, but that's Prime for you and-"

"Prowl! Jazz!" Ironhide's loud gruff voice shouted over the crowd. "Prime's callin' for a meetin', its urgent. He wants both of ya there."

"Well that's strange..."Jazz commented "usually we'd commed..."

"It must be important then "Prowl agreed, getting up from his seat, he then stopped briefly to look at his creation, a look of conflict forming in his features.

"I can stay with her" Bluestreak offered promptly, startling the young femme. "You don't have to worry about a thing, we'll just hang out a bit." he wrapped an arm around Lyric's shoulders to enhance his point.

The two parents switched glances, a quick conversation going on between them.

"Very well...but Lyric, as soon as you feel uncomfortable with anything, you can call on one of us." Prowl agreed, giving his creation a 'and I mean that' look.

She nodded hesitantly. "Alright...I think I can handle a few hours with Bluestreak."

Prowl then made his way to Ironhide, who waited impatiently by the door. Jazz made to follow, but stopped for a moment to come back and kiss her atop the helm, before hurrying off, leaving a very flustered femme behind with her uncle.

"So," Bluestreak started "How's things?"

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"They WHAT?!" Jazz voice repeated loudly through the meeting room.
"That...cannot be possible...the likely hood of them finding another one was of 1.47 % success rate..." Prowl added, stunned.

"I'm afraid not." Prime said, his hands intertwined, his chin resting above them. "The Decepticons have successfully identified another of the hidden younglings. Blaster has just confirmed this through the radar. They have been wondering too close to Hound's and Mirage's creation. They were already dispatched to go and keep watch for now."

"How could they have possibly known though? We made sure to separate them and keep our distance. No one but ourselves and the human government should know about it." Prowl mused, analyzing new possibilities.

"We thought that finding Lyric was just by chance..." Jazz agreed.

"It is possible that we have an inside source among us." Perceptor suggested, to which Jazz quickly shook his head.

"Ain't no way. We've been hangin' 'round with this crew too long, besides, mah department would have noticed by now."

"Actually that is technically not true..." Prowl interrupted, still thinking over the possibilities of how this could have happened.

"Prowl?" Prime inquired. Accusing someone of treason was a big deal, he trusted Prowl's judgement, but sometimes the mech failed to see things beyond logic that drove others to being loyal.

"I hate to say it, but we should consider an inside source...perhaps on the human side of our alliance."

A heavy silence fell, no one liked that idea.

"How likely is that?" the prime demanded, his optics paling at the thought, they had given everything to the humans, all they could allow themselves to give anyway, trusting them with their creations was the highest point of rust they could have given, to be betrayed in this way would be catastrophic.

"87% chance." Prowl spoke, his words sounding almost like a sentance. "They know our location, they know the youngling's locations, up until recently the cons had never known where our base was located, nor where our younglings were or that they even existed. As Jazz pointed out, our crew has been together for too long, it would be far too easy to notice an insider. The risk would be too high, while with the humans, the risk is minimal.
"In other words, there might be a spy within the humans, giving the decepticons all the information they require."
"Why would anyone do a stupid thing like that?" Ironhide grunted, displeased with the idea. "S'not like megs ta make a deal with organics an' honor it."

"Perhaps...but the humans are only vaguely aware of this, enough to try their luck." Prowl countered "there is also the possibility of doing so unwillingly, under a threat perhaps."

"We need to find out if this is the case then, WITHOUT the humans knowing so." Prime concluded. "Jazz, I know its bad timming, but I need the best I can get on this mission, plus you are more aware of the humans's habbits than the rest of us."

"Ya can count on meh boss bot" Jazz said with a firm nod.

The meeting went on for a few more hours, and then there was urgent work for both of them to do.
Prowl had briefly commed Bluestreak about taking care of Lyric longer, only to be surprised when his young brother told him it was fine and that they were having a fun time together.
With that easing their conscious, each went to their own departments, there was a lot of planning to do, and a lot of arrangements to be made.

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Ironically, Lyric found herself having a good time with her strange uncle, he had a thirst for talking, and boy were there stories to tell! Bluestreak knew everything, he kept on going from story to story about the bots on base, mostly focused around her parents, himself, his friends, and his other brother Smokescreen, every once in a while he would speak of Prime as well.

It was nice to know a little bit more behind the bots she was just getting to know, it made it easier to understand them.
"And then-" Bluestreak struggled to breathe, laughing so badly his vents were overworking. "and then, he all but grabbed his batton, you know, those old enforcer battons? Like the human police has? Okay, so- haha- he grabbed that dusty old thing from under his desk, jumped over it, and went all Thor on them!"

Lyric giggled from across him, trying to picture Prowl doing so, calm and collected Prowl...overreacting because of a prank.

"He what?!" she clutched her middle section, shaking with hysteria.
"I know! Sunstreaker and Sidsewipe were letting off small electric shocks for a whole week!" Bluestreak giggled. "Here I have a picture." He said, pinging her with a file. She was still trying to get used to this, Ratchet had given her enough firewalls to accept wi-fi based files, though she was still forbidden from directly connecting to any console or...bot. She wasn't sure if that was disturbing still.
Sure enough, she opened the window, and her optics started tearing, she tried to hold it in, she really tried, but the sight of Prowl jumping over his table with a shock batton in hand, going straight for a very frighted pair of twins was hilarious.

She all but threw herself back against the seat, laughing out loud so bad she fell to her side on the rest of the long seat, while Bluestreak joined her with more controlled laughter himself.

"Whats so funny?" Lyric couldn't even look up at whoever had just arrived to find them in their state, Bluestreak however made an effort.
"Bumblebee! Sunny! Sides! Oh nothing, just sharing a few memories." Bluestreak said with a cheeky grin while Lyric tried to recompose herself, as soon as she saw the twins however, she couldn't hold it, and broke into laughter again, Bluestreak still trying his best not to follow behind.
The twins exchanged looks between each other. Of all the reactions they expected her to have when seeing them, this was certainly not it.
"Uh...what kind of memories?" Sideswipe asked wearily, knowing all too well Bluestreak's tendency to talk about things he shouldn't.

"Shocking ones!" Lyric said all too suddenly. Bluestreak broke down into fits of laughter again, high fiving the young femme.

"Shocking ones?" Sunstreaker intoned, optics narrowing.

"For some reason I get the feeling they don't mean it like THAT Sunny..." Bumblebee input, blinking confusedly at the two. "What have you been telling her Blue?"

Bluestreak had to recover once again from his fit of laughter, heaving as he tried to make out the words.
"The batton incident"

Instantly, the pair of twins cringed, subconsciously reaching for their afts as if they could still remember it.
This only served to get them back into fits of giggles, Bumblebee actually joining them this time.

"Haha...Blue..." Sideswipe said dryly. "Its not as funny when you're in the receiving end."

"I'm sorry!" Bluestreak said, trying to hold back his giggles "but its still funny to everyone else!"

Sunstreaker snorted "Of course it would be..." he muttered.

"Aw c'mon guys! I'm just trying to get her to know the crew better. If it makes you feel better I have also told her about other bot's humiliations" Bluestreak said cheekily.

"What...kind of stories again?" Bumblebee asked, abruptly stopping his giggling.

"Oh he's been telling me EVERYTHING" Lyric said, her face so flushed from laughing they thought it was going to melt. "EVERYTHINNNNNGGGG" she tried very hard to make it sound dramatic, but it only got skeptical looks from the others.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you gave her high grade Blue" Sideswipe noted as they started to take their seats.
Bluestreak shrugged. "Sometimes you don't need highgrade to be this happy."