"Glad you could join us," Wheeljack called cheerfully as Jazz strolled through the medbay doors.
"Sorry, Blaster's busy and Inferno's with Breakdown so Red commed me to handle Wildrider's latest scuffle," Jazz scanned Prowl habitually and offered the Praxian three of his favorite energon treats. They were the only non-medically trained present; Jazz would be briefing the other officers later.
"If the scuttle's settled let's get go discuss the sparkling's frames," Ratchet grumbled causing First Aid and Swoop to perk up eagerly and pay complete attention. They'd been watching with interest from the sidelines, and it looked like they were finally going to be more involved.
The six mechs obediently followed him into the back room where twelve frames of varying sizes were lined up on several large tables. Prowl settled on a waiting stool while Ratchet walked over and leaned against one of the walls. "Go ahead, it's your project. I'm just the supervisor."
"There's so many of them," Jazz said looking over the row of nearly monochrome frames with interest. A few of the larger ones had distinguishing features but most were nearly identical. "Why all these larger sizes? We already reached our decision before you built them."
"The smallest basic ones are what we've been leaving out for the Seekers," Wheeljack explained motioning toward the almost identical frames around Hot Rod's size. "There's no worry about rejection since the sparks will have time to adjust and adapt the frame to its needs."
"Sparks have needs?" First Aid asked Wheeljack as Jazz focused on the inventor's obvious topic change.
"Yes, it can take years or decades for a sparkling frame to be built inside the carrier. We learned millenniums ago that the process left the carrier vulnerable and resource hungry. That's why medics started building sparkling frames," Hoist explained as the younger mechs tried to imagine Prowl being confined for years and what that'd do to the war effort. "If you don't want a tiny sparkling slowly developing its frame you have to have a careful examination of the spark rate within the carrier by a trained medic. That can tell you whether the spark will thrive in a standard type frame or if it needs a beastformer, flight, or other exotic frame. Additionally the strength of the spark tells the medic how large a frame the new spark can immediately support."
"That's the reason all the current Dinobots are large beastformers," Wheeljack explained looking at Swoop almost anxiously. "It wasn't just because the Autobots needed warriors and you needed to be able to protect yourselves. It really was what your sparks were suited for."
"We Dinobots happy," Swoop reassured his creator even as he looked over the larger frames speculatively. "Why you medics make many large frames now?"
"Because Ratchet's carrying at least one beastformer spark," Prowl replied having finished his second treat. "There's a high probability that Wheeljack is sparked as well."
"Trees cause sparklings," Jazz nodded solemnly before ducking one of Ratchet's wrenches.