In which Optimus cares, Prowl is cunning and Jazz is not as good as he thinks he is.
Oops, my hand slipped.
-"And Then he told meh tha' mah reports were slag in th' most polite way possible. Givin' meh all th' reasons why filin' good reports mattered in law enforcemen' effort. " Jazz threw his servos up in defeat. -"Ah couldna even argue wit' tha'!"
Blaster listened lightheartedly as he and Jazz were headed towards their offices after sharing a morning cube of oil.
-"But he is forensics, why would he be reading yours or any of the investigator reports?" Blaster rubbed his chin deep in thought
-"OP asked his assistance ta deal with th' workload?" Jazz shrugged, equally confused.
-"Makes no sense."
-"Ah know. 'S like there is somethin' more ta it tha' we dunno."
-"Could he be a government plant? I could have Eject take a look at his personal file."
-"Nah, tha' woul' imply we don' trust 'im. Bad fo' morale, ya dig? 'Sides, he's too good at forensics."
They rounded the bend of the corridor.
-"Could be a plant good at….Good orn Prowl!"
Jazz wisely stopped before walking into the Praxian and mirrored the greeting.
Prowl looked at both of them with a mildly suspicious squint. -"Good orn to you, too. There is an office meeting starting in a few clicks, are you coming?"
Both Jazz and Blaster remotely changed their statuses to 'attending' on their office intranet.
-"Sure thing mech." Jazz winked at him.
-"I will see you there then, if you excuse me I still have a couple of tasks to finish."
When Prowl was out of Audio range, Blaster commed Jazz for safety's sake.
::Told you he is a plant.::
::Nah, jus' a mech who thinks he runs th' place.::
The meeting was headed by Inferno - their arson specialist who also happened to be a part-time firefighter. This meant meant that every once in awhile he would brief them on office safety. Since Ratchet had banned him from doing fire extinguishing demonstrations on site after that one time when Wheeljack suggested they set their energon dispenser on fire by shooting it, these meetings had become dull.
This particular one was about how not to extinguish energon that has caught fire by dousing it with coolant - textbook example of how one put a mech to sleep. Though it also was sort of warranted after Rodimus had gone and done that just a few weeks prior.
Rodimus - the reason why they were all there - absentmindedly doodled in his notepad.
To bide their time Jazz and Blaster traded speculations about Prowl's affiliations. They spanned anywhere from neighboring precincts to gangs, to aliens. It had to be over short-range though, murmuring would have been disrespectful.
In the meantime Prowl and Bluestreak politely sat at rigid attention but judging by their steadily drooping doorwings even they found it difficult to keep alert.
The tactical decision of the twins to position themselves behind the Praxians was paying dividends now as they both were fully invested in the movement of the doorwings in front of them. Following each drowsy flick with rapt wonder whereas otherwise they would have already been in light recharge.
Optimus did a valiant effort at taking notes and asking questions but received a mild reprimanding comm from Ratchet. The medic advised him not to draw the meeting out longer than it was absolutely necessary.
Probably the only one who was completely engrossed in the meeting was Red Alert and Ratchet; probably because it was their job to make sure nobody got offlined inside the building.
Finally Inferno was done but just between sighs of relief and getting up from their afts, Optimus took place at the lectern with another announcement. Jazz and Blaster barely paid attention to it until Optimus summoned Prowl to the front, too. Now this was interesting Jazz, tuned back in.
-"And with this I would like you to welcome our new second in command."
The world stopped for Jazz. Wait what? Was the mech not into forensics?
Prowl thanked Optimus and continued.
-"As some of you may know I joined this precinct as a new addition to the forensics department. However, I am sure some of you might have wondered this sudden change. I want to be perfectly clear that this is not a promotion." The Praxian paused to let the statement sink in. -"I wanted to know you in a work environment as a colleague rather than a superior before I started with the duty I was assigned for." Prowl canted his doorwings just a little lower. -"I offer my apologies for misleading you but I hope now you would be more at ease to address me with any issues you might have."
Jazz gulped and eyed Blaster from the corner of his visor. The tapedeck had a little disbelieving smirk on his face. Well slag him, the little doorwinger was full of surprises. Jazz was enchanted; nothing was as interesting a challenge as a cunning mech.
::Shut yer intake before you drool all over yourself.::
Blaster, always a friend.
After the meeting was over Jazz slid beside the twins in the mess hall. From what he knew they were the mecha that knew Prowl better but were probably not as close as Bluestreak - being Praxian and all.
-"Soo Prowl was ya mentor."
-"Mm…?" Sunstreaker reacted first, lazily eyeing Jazz over the rim of his energon. Holding the cube artistically between his steepled fingers. -"What about it?"
-"How was 'e as a mentor?"
Sunstreaker quirked a smile and Sideswipe slid in place beside him with his energon. In moments like these one could see the striking resemblance between the two as the red twin stretched just as lazily next to his brother and took up the talking duties.
-"He's gooood." Said Sideswipe with a drawl in his voice that was completely out of place when talking about mentoring.
Jazz rubbed his forehelm.
-"Real good." Sunstreaker joined in after seeing the effect they had on Jazz.
-"Ah'm guessin' ya're not 'bout ta jus' tell meh."
Sunstreaker shrugged and Sideswipe elaborated. -"It's strange of you to ask all of a sudden."
-"Ta be honest ah'm a lil' fascinated wit' 'im now." Jazz took the sincere route, the twins were doubly perceptive when mood struck them.
-"Prowl's wary of rumors." Sunstreaker axed.
-"If you want to know anything about him you will have to ask him yourself." Sideswipe mirrored his brother's body language and gave Jazz a cheeky grin.
Jazz was a bit envious of how much respect the twins had for Prowl while the rest of the precinct was struggling to keep them in check. But there were several ways of skinning a turbofox so he opted for another approach.
-"How 'bout ya two then? How didya get inta th' same academy?"
-"We're riot." Sunstreaker stated as if that explained everything.
-"Yeah, what Sunny means is that we were not enlisted for our tactical planning skills or our way with words. We're big, crazy and we can work in unison."
At Jazz's disbelievng expression Sideswipe huffed.
-"Hey, we Can when we wanna!"
-"Ah'll trust ya word on tha' one." Jazz smirked.
Sunstreaker waved him off in a dismissing manner and a roll of optics. Sideswipe continued with their story, eager to share it with someone who seemed at least vaguely curious.
-"So in academy we were seen as sort of grunts. Looked down on much. Many riots deserved it, too, but we got in trouble the most."
Jazz smirked -"Naw ya didna, coulda fooled meh."
-"Shut up." Sunstreaker stated in a peeved tone, annoyed that Jazz had interrupted his brother.
-"That's where Prowl comes in. You know, all perfect student, super smart, top of class, a 'bit condescending for it. Told us off for doing dumb slag. After that.. We sort of..." Sideswipe gestured wildly, trying to find the right words.
-"Glued doorwings together." Sunstreaker supplied.
Jazz winced in sympathy. For a Praxian that had to be incredibly painful.
-"Yeah.." Sideswipe rubbed the back of his helm in rare display of regret. -"Still apologizing to him 'till this day."
-"Wax and polish. Never accepted."
Sideswipe nodded in confirmation to what Sunstreaker had said. -"We were so bad then that if he filed a formal complaint against us we would be back out on streets of Kaon." There was a hint of past desperation in the red twin's voice. Most likely the feeling was still somewhat fresh.
-"Ah'm guessin' 'e didna." Jazz supplied, trying to move the conversation along without letting the twins dwell too long on that.
-"Na, he didn't. Instead he offered mentoring as an alternative disciplinary action."
-"Wanted us as field ops."
Jazz blinked -"So ya actually 'ave a field op' trainin'?"
-"It's a mix." Sunstreaker inclined his helm.
-"With twin spark link and all; he thought we would be more valuable. In fact he was a bit disappointed we were not field ops here."
Jazz wondered that too. -"Tha's generous o' 'im."
-"Told you he's good." Sunstreaker gave him a predatory grin.
Jazz shot the mech one of his infamous smirks, happy with the little pieces of puzzle he'd gotten despite the twin's initial reluctance -"Seems like it."
-"Yeah, he told us we could tell mecha this part." Sideswipe wore a grin identical to Sunstreaker. -"Sorry to burst your bubble."
Everyone's out to get Jazz.
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