Toy Spies

Disclaimer: Usual routine, do not own Transformers in any way shape or form, they all belong to Hasbro and Paramount and the comic guys. Not making any money out of this either so don't sue me okay? Butterfly's mine and most of the inspiration comes from the series of sparkling fics that are cropping up all over the place.

Authors note: Well I'm back and no this is not a sequel to Curse of the Furby (though if anyone would be kind enough to suggest some toy that I could torture the Autobots with it would be appreciated) but another little ficcy idea I've had for some time but never really managed to get going. Hopefully I've got everything quite right now and fingers crossed we'll get something good out of this.

Genre: Family/humour

Rating:

Plot: Growing up in war is never an easy thing, especially if you're supposed to be on neutral ground. Bringing up sparklings though almost rivals it in its complexity.

Setting notes: This is pre-movie/series/books and is set on Cybertron so things will be a bit on the odd side. Also I don't actually know if there was a Youth Zone Protection Force but it just makes things easier. Right I'm going to shut up and start writing now.

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Chapter 1 – Sneaking

The command deck was surprisingly quiet for once, a thing that Jazz was glad of. Usually there were computers going on the fritz, bots arguing over something or other, a recent invasion of five sparklings and thousands of reports streaming in from every last sector about Decepticon's attacking, pillaging or generally causing some form of disaster that was proving to be a big strain on every last resource on the planet.

Even the power plants were having trouble keeping up, which probably explained why it was so quiet.

Or it could be that little cassette had gotten loose again.

Jazz sighed and ran checks on all the systems, finding nothing wrong except the power output was indeed down to only 25. That was bad.

He leaned back, exhaling loudly and failing to hear the sound of shifting metal. Tonight was just not his night, with the power down it would be next to impossible to keep track of anything that was going on which would mean the stupid fraggin cons could do some real damage without them noticing.

A shadow crept silently towards his exposed neck.

Sitting up, Jazz contemplated his options. Leaving was out of the question whilst trying to communicate any distance required a lot of energon, which they clearly did not have.

Unseen, a several long fingers reached forward, hardly making a sound in the slithers of light that came from the nearby moon.

"Life's not fair!" he grumbled out loud and sat forward, still unaware of the presence behind him.

The fingers continued to creep towards him, a second set joining the first and creeping towards the lower leg plating. Jazz ideally began tapping into the console in some vain hope of getting a coded message across to Prime who was somewhere over in the eastern sector.

"JAZZ!" came a high pitched voice, followed by the simultaneous insertion of the long fingers into his neck and leg which sent a jolt of shock, fear and instant movement towards the floor through the first lieutenant so quick that he thought for a second that everything was going crazy and they were under attack by some hyperactive ball of heated plasma.

He stared panic-stricken at the new figure of half-a-nanosecond and then glared dangerously, "For Primus sake! Butterfly you little fricking microchip of doom! What you do that for!"

Butterfly just chuckled and grinned good naturedly, "The opportunity presented itself. What can I say more than that?"

Jazz regarded the youngling closely. True she was no longer considered to be a youngling as she had reached maturity a couple of vorns ago but she would always be a youngling to him. Even her appearance suggested that with her small height – she was actually smaller than Jazz, which he was secretly pleased about -, basic armour arrangement, and curious crystal eyes that proved she was yet to choose a side.

And the prosthetic plat that ran down the length of her back, something which should have disappeared automatically once she stopped being a sparkling but for some reason it had stuck firmly to the back of her head and neck joints.

"I could have damn well shot you, or worse" he grumbled, trying to be angry but failing dramatically. Jazz hated to admit to anyone that he felt a certain fondness for the crazy fem but he regarded her as a sort of distant relative. "What would you have done then?"

She shrugged, "How am I to know? Besides, you're fun to scare" the grinned that crossed her face reminded him of Sideswipe, "and I'm still allowed to have a little fun right? You don't want me being serious all the time"

Jazz sighed, deciding to change the subject quick before this conversation got out of hand, "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were on patrol tonight?"

Shaking her head, Butterfly pulled out a small round object from a hidden compartment under the blade release on her right arm and threw it across to him, "Optimus may be interested in that"

"Why?" Jazz looked at the small tube, turning it this way and that in thought.

The Fem smiled, "It's just some plans I managed to swipe, pretty important ones to I think" she frowned a little but shrugged at the half-glance Jazz gave her before he began work on getting the information across, "All I know is that it took some hacking to get at it, I don't think even that idiot Starscream had access to it"

Jazz began uploading the information, "I'll check this out. If it turns out to be Eggheads diary though I'm going to seriously do you some harm"

Butterfly rolled her optics and started off towards the exit, instinctively hitting a side panel to boost up the power output in the building, "You should get Tapes to have a look at that, before the whole system blows". She didn't get a reply and instead decided to head off in the direction of a certain little mini-bot that made her look like a little angle.

--

"I order you to come out this instant!" grumbled Ironhide, trying to reach under the re-charge cubical to grab hold of Bumblebee who was yet again refusing to go into stasis. Normally this wouldn't have been to much of a deal for the heavy arms specialist but since the little one had virtually been left unattended for half of the day with a stack of video-chips and a rather large bottle of extra boost energon the little bouncing metal ball had gone literally into hyperactive mode.

"No! Play play play!" screeched the tiny figure, jumping from the top of the recharge unit and landing rather haphazardly on the older mech's shoulders.

Two astroseconds later, Prowl opened to door in order to help his friend out. There were just some things that required a bit more manpower. "Bee…" he started, sounding as threatening as he dared.

"No, don't…" before Ironhide could even finish his sentence the mini-bot terror was out the door and halfway down the corridor.

"Nice going!" he shot before charging after the youngling with a rather irritate Prowl in tow.

--

Finding the nearest hiding place, Bee had to stop himself from giggling out loud as the security officer went straight past him and Ironhide disappeared down the corridor. This was certainly going to be a fun game with no reset option.

Waiting for a few moments, just to ensure that everything was fine, Bee crawled out from his hiding place and headed back the way he had come until he reached a rather dented panel. Knocking it aside, he clambered in and tunnelled about quite happily.

It would take them hours to even get a hint of where he was and there were plenty of opportunities for spying around here.

Had Bee actually taken time to notice his surroundings he may have noticed that the old ventilation system was definitely not the place to play in as it was starting to show a lot of rusted areas. But he was barely out of sparkhood, which meant exploration, making mistakes and scaring the fritz out of any processor of anyone whom was supposed to be watching him.

"Hee hee, Imma likkle Bee!" he crooned childishly to himself.

--

"Ratchet!"

The medic looked up from his current work and frowned at the annoyed Prowl, "Before you ask, no he's not anywhere around here. Please tell me you didn't open the door?"

The green mech glared dangerously at the medic, "When I get my hands on that fraggin microchip" and then promptly disappeared down the corridor, cursing away to himself in cybertronian.

Elita shook her head, trying to suppress a smile, "You boys certainly have a lot to learn about raising younglings"

The medic sighed and nodded in agreement, "I still say he should be with the others in the youth zone. It would be a safer place"

"Not going to happen anytime soon, I can promise you that. Besides, he's a born Autobot" Elita sounded quite proud of that fact and Ratchet would have agreed but the circumstances around Bee's heritage was enough to make him hold his tongue.

"Let's just hope he remains that way…now, give me that hand before Prime finds out or else we'll both be in a whole heap of a lot of trouble"

--

After almost three orns of searching, or at least what felt like three orns, both Ironhide and Prowl were exhausted beyond relief and those that had been 'recruited' to the cause were trying to think of sensible ways to get out of both the two older mechs way. Sideswipe in particular after cracking one to many jokes that had earned him a sharp bonk on the head.

"I swear that little micro-monster is going to…" started Prowl, growling angrily only to find himself clipped around the audios.

"If you wake him up, Prowl, I'll ensure that you get stuck on duty with fifty little micro-monsters!" stated Butterfly in a half-hushed whisper of annoyance.

Prowl blinked at her, "When did you get here?" he noticed that some of the others were slipping away as quietly as they dared.

"And how did you get him to recharge?" Ironhide said, moving towards the bed where Bumblebee lay in a deep stasis clutching a rather much loved and battered bear tightly.

"A short while ago and he's nothing compared to some of them in the zone" replied Butterfly with a smile and a gentle wave to Sides before crossing back across to the booth.

Prowl sighed, "I'll believe that when I see it" he was fed up of looking after the sparkling right now. Everything was going crazy and the security officer wanted to spend more time concentrating on what he should be doing.

"Fancy swapping shifts?" teased the little fem, before running a hand over the little creatures head.

"Not a chance in the pit-slag.."

"Language!" shot the other two mechs before falling into quiet laughter.

Finally everything subsided and Butterfly sighed, "I'd better get going, who knows what mess those little blighters will have caused"

Prowl waited until she had disappeared before addressing Ironhide, "You think she would stay longer…I mean, he is…"

"Don't press it. She made her decision and now lives with the consequences" Ironhide gently nudged the security officer out of the room, "One day things will change, but for now, she's happy".

--

The Youth Zone emblem glimmered slightly in the fake light of the local street lamp as Barricade silently watched the entrance. This idea was probably one of the worst that Megatron had come up with but it was one that would deal a great blow to Autobot and Neutral alike.

However, his spark felt a little heavy. It would mean the loss of the one thing in his life that was important but what was life without sacrifice? "Barricade reporting in…Youth Zone infiltrated"

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Authors note: Well a bit random and strange but I promise there will be a bit more sparkling mess next time around. Particularly if I give Sunny and Sides detention duty with the little blighters. Please review and tell me what you think or give me an idea or two.