Oh hai, welcome to the next installment. Again, if you see any mistakes tell me, thanks in advance.
Also, Bumblebee in this story might appear a little ooc, but that's cuz in my mind this is how I see him. I think he is like Jazz, friendly to everyone on the outside, but hiding a darker personality on the inside that comes out when he is on missions. I also don't like thinking of him as being the youngest, again I think it is a ploy to make others underestimate him, and in my fics he is actually about the same age as Jazz or a little older.
Enjoy and please rate n' review.

Vorn = 83 years
Decacycle = 3 weeks
Orn = 1 day
Joor = 1 hour
Dark-cycle = nighttime
Light-cycle = daytime
Klik = 1 minute
Nanoklik or Astroklik = 1 second

Chapter 2:

The arduous inspection continued after the unfortunate Gravwell was dragged off by Ironhide. Prowl had finally completed the visual inspection and was moving on to the perusal of the contents of everyone's subspaces. Cry after cry of indignation was heard as Prowl confiscated every object of even slightly contrabandish nature. Jazz found himself very glad that Blackshot had seen fit to warn him. His special subspace was filled with items the SIC would have been happy to relieve him of. When said mech reached Jazz and asked him to empty his subspace, the Polyhexian clumsily opened all four regulation spaces onto Prowl's pedes with a feigned "Oops." It was part of his mission to appear normal and a normal grunt would be terrified in the presence of such an authoritarian commanding officer.

The other recruits snickered at his blunder and waited with baited intakes for the impending reprimand. They were disappointed however, when Prowl calmly accepted Jazz's nervousness as genuine. The SIC glanced over the spilled belongings, removed a few illegal items that Jazz had purposely left exposed, and moved on.

At the end of the assessment the soldiers received a long-winded speech on why contraband was not allowed and what the consequences would be if such items were found again. At long last they were released to go to their quarters, but not without a stern reminder that a mandatory orientation would occur just before that orn's dark-cycle in the northside rec room.

When Jazz reached his room he was surprised to find he had been assigned not one, but two roommates. The first, a small yellow and black minibot, gave his designation as 'Bumblebee' and seemed to be quite friendly. The other, a slender white and blue mech, turned his olfactory sensor up at Jazz and disappeared in a haze of light pixels. The door to the room opened and closed as the mech gave the illusion of walking out. Jazz, while stunned, was not fooled. His extra sensor array and audials told him that the mech had remained seated on the berth. Not one to spoil another's fun though, Jazz turned to Bumblebee and inquired, "He's got ah phase disrupta'?"

Bumblebee just grinned and nodded, "Yup, that's Mirage, he used to be a noble from the Towers. That little talent used to allow him to avoid unpleasant conversation with his peers. I think his creators had intended him to use it to spy on their enemies and collect information to further the house's political standing."

While Bumblebee explained Jazz had slowly inched towards the empty bunk under the pretense of stowing his gear. When he was standing next to it he reached and snagged something mid-air. His movement had been almost too swift to be processed visually and the air under his servo shimmered to reveal Mirage, who was pouting at having been detected. He turned to the Polyhexian, further irritated, when Jazz would not release his scruffbar. "Would you be so kind as to remove your filthy servo from my clean armor." His cultured voice dripped with disdain at the idea of having been touched by a 'lower' bot.

"Can't have ya disappearin' on meh again. Would prevent us from getting' ta know one anotha'." Jazz countered, but complied with a smirk. The noble quickly checked his armor for scuffs and dings that might have been left by the other. The minibot sank onto his own berth with a gasp. "Thank Primus, you passed."

Jazz quirked an optic ridge and waited for an explanation. It was the noble who supplied the answer, "Our beloved commander did not want you to enter the mission field without backup and has assigned us to be your team. However, while we have read your file, we have not been afforded an opportunity to see you work. Therefore, we determined to test you to ascertain whether we would be capable of working as a cohesive team."

"So, mah test was ta find ya when ya was 'nvisible?"

"Yes," Bumblebee interjected, "Mirage's ability makes him virtually undetectable to the enemy, but the same can be implied of our own side as well. Because of this many simply write him off as a wild card instead of trying to utilize his gift, and the few who did see his potential didn't know how to use it correctly. Mirage has been shot at least six times by our own soldiers because one of our unit commanders told him to secure something on the other side and then forgot he was there. After we nearly lost him in the last fiasco, Blackshot gave the order that Mirage was not to work with any agent that could not detect him whilst invisible."

" 'N ah take it you can sense 'im too?"

Bumblebee nodded pointing to his small sensor horns. "Minibots come online equipped with advanced sensor arrays to prevent us from being crushed or damaged by larger mechs. A few minor tweaks to those systems make us some of the most formidable spec ops agents available."

"Ah see. Well, since ya two gen'lmechs are more aware o' the situation than ah, would ya mind givin' meh a briefin' ah what ya know."

Both of them straightened into 'mission-mode' as Bumblebee began their first official team meeting. "First, according to the records, I am your only roommate. As far as anyone else knows, Mirage is still back at ops. Since we cannot go near that sector without raising suspicion and the comms are likely to be hacked, we will give our report to Mirage to servo-deliver. Second, this room has been upgraded secretly by ops and is now a secure room so we can converse freely."

Jazz nodded in approval and Mirage took over to finish the brief. "As far as can be determined, the leak we have been assigned to source and plug is not an officer. Nor is it a member of tactical or security, all of them have checked out clean. Whoever is leaking the information on our troop movements is well informed but not part of the groups who would have that data. How this is being accomplished is to be our primary focus. We know how the information is getting out though. One of the communications mechs, designation Rapidburst, has been discovered sending coded databursts out under the guise of warming up our comm systems before battle. He is unaware that we have discovered him and we hope to backtrack to his informant from him."

"Then ah guess its tahm ta make some friends in comms. 'Bee, where are ya stationed officially?"

"In the Requisitions Department. I tried for Comms when I took my aptitudes but the powers that be decided I would be better suited elsewhere."

"Ah'll be tryin' for tha same when Ah take mine tamorrah. Primus-willin' Ah'll pass. It'll save us tha trouble of comin' up with excuses for bein' there all tha time."

The two accepted the plan as a good preliminary starting point and with it the meeting was concluded. The specs ops bots disappeared leaving the cheerful minibot and snooty noble in their place.

"Now that we're all up to date, why don't you let us help you unpack and then the three of us can mosey down to the northrec for your orientation Jazz." segued Bumblebee.

"Won't it raise ah bit o' suspicion for 'Raj ta be seen wit us?"

"The key word there being 'see'." Bumblebee said while snickering at the noble's indignant response to his new knick-name. Jazz grinned in agreement and the three got to work.

Jazz collapsed on his berth completely worn out by the Orientation-from-the-Pit. It had started out normal enough; get a download of the base map, listen to a short introduction of the important officers, get a download of the shift schedule, and be given a short reminder of the fact that a military base has rules and regulations. Short… yeah… right. Reminder… pfft… right. Prowl had been in charge of that section and he had droned on for three and a half cycles before the Prime had gently stopped him. Jazz remembered feeling a slightly vindictive amount of amused satisfaction at the tiny rush of emotion that had crossed Prowl's face as he informed the matrix-bearer that he was only a third through the most pertinent rules and was denied continuance anyway. Optimus Prime had generously compromised with his SIC by requiring each recruit to download a complete copy of the regulations en masse before they were permitted to leave.

Jazz decided that something had to give. If this had been a temporary assignment he would simply have ignored the rigid tactician. His patience was endless in most situations, but since his assignment to Iacon was permanent, Jazz felt it was his duty to improve the lives of his fellow soldiers. Primarily by enlightening their stiff SIC upon the world of fun and emotion. With that comforting thought in processor Jazz powered down into recharge.

-TBC-