The Start of Something Interesting...

[lastonepercent]

The day was calm, with no recent Decepticon attacks, and none suspected to be incoming for some time.  The cons were too busy licking their wounds from the last battle, one that the Autobots had decidedly come out ahead on.  The celebrations had gone on long into the night and the recreation room was already a mess.

Thus, it was the perfect chance for a lone Autobot to slip casually outside.

Mirage had no shift currently scheduled, so he was free to spend his time as he pleased.  He certainly made no move to hide his departure, greeting his comrades in the halls on the way out, but the box in his hands remained unopened despite any passing curiosity.  It was quietly shifted into subspace before long, and  the former noble shifted into alt mode just as smoothly when he reached the doors.  Despite the completely inappropriate earthen race car mode, the mech had little trouble self-adjusting before driving off into the forest covering the mountain, for business unknown...

Comments

[lastonepercent]

In the middle of concentrating on his work, leaning in to give the rock what was likely far more artistic detailing than it deserved, Mirage was caught completely unawares.

He jerked at the unexpected yell, helm hitting the stone directly in front of him hard enough to draw sparks, soldering iron tumbling erratically down.

Mirage knew that outraged voice.

"Ow-! Cliffjumper?"

He jerked away from the rock, hand cupping his forehelm in pain as he turned to give the minibot a vicious glare.

"What in the molten pit is the matter with you?"

The swear slipped out in Primal Vernacular without Mirage even thinking about it, bristling as he was over the disruption to his already poor ceremony.

[cliffjumper]

"I think that oughta be my question! I ain't the one doing... smelt knows what to the mountain we have our base in!" Scowling, Cliffjumper threw his arms out and then pointed at Mirage, optics bright. Had the situation been different, he'd probably have found Mirage's crack into the rock momentarily amusing, however ill-advised that would be.

But right now he was just angry and maybe upset, and didn't even pay attention to the soldering iron more than to note that whatever Mirage had been holding he'd let go of. If he'd looked closer, instead of glaring lightning at the noble, he might have seen what it was.

"And what the frag was that, anyway? Code?" Stomping downwards towards Mirage, angry enough to not pay full attention, Cliffjumper almost lost his footing, stumbling briefly before he caught himself in a jump and crossed the last bit of distance between them with heavy steps.

[lastonepercent]

"The base? What- Code? Code?!"

Mirage hissed, optics flaring with righteous indignation as he climbed to his feet.

"Is that that this is? Another one of those 'let's try to claim that the damn noble is a Decepticon sympathizer' games?"

Mirage was still dealing with the fallout from the last time someone decided to sling unfounded accusations around. The Autobots were not terribly violent amongst their own, unlike the Decepticons, but the hazing could get rough, as he had well learned.

Mirage strode forward, fists clenched, field radiating anger and bitter disappointment. His ritual was ruined now, and he absolutely refused to tolerate another claim.

Not even from this mech.

"It's not my fault you don't recognize old Cybertronion, you ignorant, presumptive troglodyte!"

[cliffjumper]

The heavy field literally buzzing almost had Cliffjumper back up a step - but when he noticed that, it just made him angrier and he dug the back of his feet into the rock, pushing his field out in stubborn response.

"Wh---At least fraggin' insult me in a way I can understand, you stuck up, rusty cargo-hauler!"

He'd actually felt guilty for believeing the previous accusation, especially as he'd not particularly wanted to believe it... and now this.

"You're sneakin' around, doin' something weird and it ain't hard for ya to claim it could be 'old cybertronian', you fragger, 'cause how many on Earth can understand it?!" Cliffjumper yelled, the echo bounding around the mountain and it almost made him relieved he hadn't yelled what he actually thought Mirage was doing just yet, because that would make it more true than just going about it and trying to make him confess to it.

Treason. Spy - which, well. Mirage was, but, uh. Double spy?

[lastonepercent]

"Oh yes, because doing 'something weird' automatically means someone is secretly working for the Decepticons or some other nonsense?!"

Mirage growled, punctuating his words with a finger jabbed at Cliffjumper's chest.

"And given your disgraceful lack of respect and tact, as well as your complete inability to process rationally, I'll insult you any way I damn well please! Because you deserve it, you gibbering idiot!"

His engine was roaring as Mirage's voice rose up to a yell in turn. Field erratic with anger, his fans vented the rush of waste heat from the blue mech's rage-heated frame in the minibot's face, adding further insult to the words.

[cliffjumper]

Whacking the hand with the offending finger poking at his chestplate away, Cliffjumper snarled, his engine not particularly quiet either. And getting waste heat - which happened sometimes, mostly in passing - in his faceplate wasn't adding to his mood either.

"I'm processin' rationally, you're just actin' really fraggin' suspicious! We've got the blasted Insecticons on Earth, so you tell me sneakin' around and doing something suspicious and noone knowing why you're out here ain't grounds for---"

Cliffjumper's angry bellowing, underscored by his own jerky field which was causing a pretty unpleasant jangling static in the air between them, was interrupted by a loud, piercing whistle.

The noise sent whatever animals hadn't fled the mechanical roaring echoing around Mt. Hood scurrying away, and Cliffjumper jerked, stumbling a step back and rubbing his audials.

"Mechs." Jazz, whose arrival had gone unnoticed in all the noise, looked distinctly... unamused, arms crossed over his chestplates. Privately he was more exasperated than annoyed however, even if somebody would probably have to be assigned to soothe Mirage's scratched paint.

[lastonepercent]

"You-!"

Mirage hissed at the interruption, startled at the painful noise but forced himself to bite off his snappy response; his anger wasn't enough to make made him ignore the unspoken order.

Armor still defensively bristled, Mirage took a reluctant step back and turned toward the mech he actually still respected.

"Sir."

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper just knew that what was coming wasn't any sort of congratulations of a job well done of warning of something suspicious - not by Jazz's expression, because just their yelling wouldn't have caused Jazz to frown as he was.

"He was---!" So Cliffjumper attempted to get out his point of view as fast as possible, whirling to face Jazz and widly gesturing at Mirage, but Jazz just shook his helm and held his hands up.

"While I ain't gonna say you're not lacking in initiative, we can't go around mistrusting everybody of the crew who's found somewhere you don't know why they're there, Cliffjumper." Jazz eyed the minibot, who made a noise like his engine was dying and jerkily crossed his arms over his chestplates, glaring at the ground.

While he was sure he could deal with this normally, the situation required a different take than just telling, or not telling, Cliffjumper anything. So he shot off a ping to Optimus while he looked to Mirage.

::Prime, I ain't sure how much I can or should tell him, and I don't think Mirage's up for it, could ya mediate?::

"Sorry 'bout the interruption, Mirage. Your effort's appreciated, but while this is kinda similar to what happened before, a bit of moderation might be a good idea? Why don't ya take a break and finish this off when you feel up to it?"

Jazz didn't know precisely how or what Mirage was doing worked - he wasn't well-versed enough in Primal Venacular or the various ceremonies and prayers or the disparate religious orders that had survived to know the exactly what Mirage was doing. But he didn't need to know more beyond the fact that Mirage was from one of them - this had come at the behest of Prime, after all.

[lastonepercent]

Mirage sniffed irritably, shoulder-wheels bunching with noticeable agitation.

"I'm hardly inclined to finish at all at this juncture. The spirit is thoroughly ruined."

He carefully didn't glance at Cliffjumper at all, completely ignoring the minibot's existence with a sort of disdainful, purposeful obliviousness designed to shield his own wounded pride.

Even so, he strode back over to the rock to retrieve his discarded tools, replacing them in the box.

Over the commline, the Prime sighed with vexed resignation.

::And I suppose it would make for a more lasting impression if I was there personally.::

Because Optimus, as well as everyone else in the command structure, was tired of pointless, slag-stirring accusations. Against Mirage as well as others.

And he'd been looking forward to what Mirage had been working on, too. So much for that moral-booster.

::I'm on my way.::

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper would've missed Mirage's pointed ignoring of him if he hadn't been sneaking narrow glares up at Jazz and Mirage - and that ignoring both made him angrier and guiltier and he didn't even know why.

"Pretty please?" Jazz drove his pitch high up and visor going bright in an attempt at lighten Mirage's sour mood, before he sobered up again, grin small and dry as he gave Mirage a pat on the arm as he passed him. "Whatever works best for you."

::Got it in one, boss-mech! At least this time it wasn't done in front of an audience, even if I'm gonna have to do damage control with Red.:: Jazz glanced from former noble to minibot as he talked to Optimus, holding back an almost amused exasperated sigh.

Because if there was one thing Jazz was good at, it was reading people (but he didn't put up with whatever slag, contrary to what people might think. He'd shut down the twins more often than Prowl had actually), and if he was reading the signs right, well.

Cliffjumper didn't make it easy for himself.

[lastonepercent]

"Hrmph."

Mirage grumbled at Jazz's faux-plea, but he didn't say anything further as he gathered his tools. Jazz's enthusiasm always made it hard for him to turn the mech down, which is probably how he ended up stuck on board the Nemesis for weeks at a time.

And he was too angry to even entertain the notion of continuing at the moment.

Trusting Jazz to watch his back, the former noble stooped down in front of his ruined work. Thrown by the sudden, inexplicable urge to grieve, he covered the impulse by scoffing at the new scratches on the ancient detailing tool and sighing over the spilt, now-hardened gilding that had spattered with Cliffjumper's unexpected arrival.

So. Very. Ruined.

As for Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader had prudently already been heading toward the entrance of the Ark when Red Alert's call had come in, so dust plume of his arrival was already beginning to show on it's way up the mountain.

[cliffjumper]

Jazz was indeed standing quietly between Mirage and Cliffjumper, tapping a foot to the music he'd dialed in to - Cliffjumper didn't really seem ready to do much of anything than glare at the ground and squirm.

A squirming that sort of froze when the noise of the Prime's engine differentiated itself as it came closer; there was just no way to not recognise it, and Cliffjumper's expression briefly flickered into a wince.

That just wasn't fair, calling in Prime?!

He'd just been--- shoulders stiffly bunching up as his crossed arms tightened over his chestplates as Optimus arrived and transformed, Cliffjumper stared even harder at the ground.

[lastonepercent]

Mirage hastily stood back up when he heard the rumbling arrival, optics going briefly wide when he saw that Optimus himself had been called to the scene.

How humiliating.

"Jazz," Optimus transformed and stepped up to the gathered mechs, greeting his second-in-command with a nod before addressing the rest of the group.

"Well then. I hear that there is something going on that I need to know about?"

He addressed the circle of Autobots with a raised optic-ridge and a unusually cold tone. Mirage simply clutched at his box, shame burning in his fuel tanks.

[cliffjumper]

"Prime." Jazz threw a jaunty salute at Optimus, but was otherwise serious as he glanced from Prime to minibot to noble.

::Mirage, you can leave if ya want to, since ya ain't done anything wrong.:: And, frankly (and unfortunately) he doubted Cliffjumper would be able to apologise even if he should.

Cliffjumper couldn't quite contain the wince at Optimus' tone and had brief flashes of the other times he'd brought up accusations of espionage/treachery. Only one of them had turned out to be true, so maybe his sense of picking these things up was a bit wrongly calibrated, but frag it all..!

"Red Alert didn't know what he was doin' out here, and he was doin' somethin' weird and doing it on the rock where the Ark is buried, so what was I supposed to think?!" Cliffjumper spat out, engine grumbling beneath his tone as he glared at the ground, frustration, anger and a confusing mix of guilt and feeling like he was being picked on because of Mirage bubbled somewhere.

It wasn't his fault other people had gone further than he just had - but at the same time Mirage had been pointed out a fair few times and that had made him just throw his arms up the second time it happened (and yet, uncertain whether it was true or not, he'd behun to believe it right around when it was proven not to be true).

[lastonepercent]

"I think you were supposed to simply ask your fellow Autobot what he was up to. Or perhaps follow procedure and do proper recon if you had any reason to expect violence."

Optimus only gave the rock a passing glance as he approached, sighing and nodding to Mirage in turn.

::You are, of course, free to go, Mirage. Thank you for your attempt - it is appreciated.::

Whether or not he was already aware of Jazz's own comm, Optimus still gave Mirage his own blessing. With a finally adjustment of his box and a nod to his Prime, Mirage flickered into invisibility. The faint crunch of a single footstep against gravel betrayed his hasty retreat for only a moment.

::Thank you, Prime.::

[cliffjumper]

The sputter slipped out even if it probably shouldn't and he also probably shouldn't argue with the Prime, but.

Well.

"I did!" Tossing his hands up in the air, Cliffjumper stomped one foot and then crossed his arms over his chestplates again. "I asked, all right? Just 'cause he decided to get angry..." He hadn't 'asked' (demanded to know, more like) in the best way, perhaps, and quickly jumped to adding other things, but in Cliffjumper's mind, he had started out asking.

If in an overly antagonistic way.

Jazz had to look up at the sky to not make a noise or a not-helpful comment, because he could well imagine how that had went. Especially by how quickly it had escalated.

Diplomatic and good at hiding it when he was suspicious or letting his paranoia get the better of him, Cliffjumper was not.

STEALTH ACCOUNT SWITCH GO

[ichooseboth]

Optimus sighed again, waiting until he was reasonably sure that Mirage had time to make his way out of the clearing before continuing.

"And how did you ask him? Is there any possible reason why your phrasing might have upset your fellow bot?"

By Optimus' tone, it was obvious he had a pretty clear idea what that possible reason might be. But he rather wanted to see how deep a whole Cliffjumper was planning on digging himself into.

/GASP

[cliffjumper]

Cliffjumper opened his mouth, but his vocal processors ran on empty and he snapped it closed again.

While he was still upset, and even more so by this response, his processor contained more than two bits of processing power.

"Well, I didn't call him a traitor or spy or anythin'!" Cliffjumper muttered as he stared, stubbornly and narrowly, at the ground by the Prime's feet, his field pulled in tight.

Jazz, for his part, had almost made a noise at Optimus' question, and then again when Cliffjumper answered.

::Not as bad as it could be, but even without an explicit accusation it ain't hard to see how it went down considering 'Jumper's abrasive personality. They were very loud.:: Jazz knew he shouldn't smirk at that, and he didn't, but his tone was briefly amused.

Besides the seriousness of yet another accusation, it had, at least, not had the chance to have a huge fallout.

Except on a personal level for at least one of the two involved - he knew Mirage didn't have anything against Cliffjumper but nothing more than that... And it was probably "hadn't had" anything against him, unless Cliffjumper pulled himself up by his bearings and made amends.

[ichooseboth]

'Well, I didn't call him a traitor or spy or anythin'!'

Optimus' sigh was much more exasperated this time around, a hand going up to cover his face at Cliffjumper's words. He was angry, and disappointed, of course; but also embarrassed. For the Autobots, and the fact that this kind of 'misunderstanding' was still happening, this long after the two sides had been formed.

"Well that is one small mercy."

His comm to Jazz was equally vexed, and he shook his head.

::Not as bad as it could be, no. But still bad. I don't want to guess as to how many people might have heard them.::

"Cliffjumper."

His hand fell back, and he leveled a hard stare at the shuffling red minibot.

"I want you to tell me exactly what you thought you saw. And then, I want you to go over and look at that rock, and tell me what you really see."

[cliffjumper]

::From what I heard? Anyone who already was set against Mirage or had a grudge, won't change their opinion, but I think that likewise'd go for anyone who don't have any, or likes 'im.:: This whole thing was frankly more exasperating because he had to take time out of other tasks.

At least it wasn't an out-and-out emergency.

Cliffjumper had looked up when Optimus said his name, his expression mulish - and then he winced and dropped his gaze, shoulders inching upwards.

There was still a definitive stubborn set to his posture, however.

"Usin' some sort of tool on the moutain our ship is buried in, and it sure wasn't carvin' a statue!" He didn't really feel like going over to the messed-up squiggle that glinted in the afternoon sunlight, but slowly, reluctantly, he walked over.

"We've got the Insecticons on Earth, all right? He could've had somethin' happen with them, and this thing?" Whirling around, Cliffjumper waved at the glyph. "Could be anything! Even if it is an ancient cybertronian glyph, it could still be used as code, and if it's not, it could be, and how am I supposed to know? I ain't ever seen it to know, Prime! I was just worried!" he cut off his yell to stare at the ground again, arms and fists stiff by his sides.

Sure, he'd almost accused Mirage of being a spy or traitor, but his first thought had been that it was unwilling.

::Not that this is any better, but he does have a point 'bout the bugs. I suppose we shoulda taken more precautions about when we sent Mirage out and who might notice.:: Jazz barely kept the static sigh in and folded his arms under the swell of his chestplates.

[ichooseboth]

::Perhaps not. But that doesn't make me any less sick of it.:: Optimus argued with a electronic sigh.

::And Insecticons or not, we cannot afford to continue in this way. And if we are not safe from them right outside the base, we have even greater problems than that, Jazz.::

"While I am glad that you were considering more options that it initially appeared, if you had simply taken more time to observe you would have noticed that Mirage was in fact doing something very close to 'carving a statue'."

Shaking his head, Optimus approached the rock, kneeling down down to examine the markings with a unusual amount of care.

Reverence, almost.

"Why would he leave such obvious markings, if it were code?"

A large blue finger traced the now-hardened gilding, which glinted in Earth's sun.

"Why make it so obvious, so detailed, if it were not, in fact, meant to be noticed?"

Without standing, the Prime turned enough to give Cliffjumper a disappointed stare, low enough to look the minibot right in the optics.

"Such level caution and paranoia has a place. The barest of provocations is not it."

[cliffjumper]

::True. I'll make sure Red doesn't make it into a problem, 'cause if he wants to start making everybody clock in an' out for a walk around the mountain, we'll have rebellion on our hands.:: Despite the cheerful tone, Jazz would make sure Red Alert didn't add any further 'security measures' that he might have gotten ideas for from this.

Cliffjumper had been staring at Optimus tracing the glyph, and so his optics were easily caught when the prime turned to stare at him.

He tried to keep that gaze, but soon dropped his dimming optics to the ground, because Prime was right.

Even if he still couldn't tell what the glyph was, the fact that it'd been gilded was a bit... too much work for it being code.

"... right." Cliffjumper's engine skipped a cycle as he ground the word out and he hated being wrong. Especially about things like this.

Because it was obvious by now that he was wrong.

[ichooseboth]

::Good. See that he doesn't. We can add some sort of random medical checks for Bombshell's devices instead, which should help more for than just this sort of thing. It might frag off Ratchet a bit until he gets used to it, but would be better all around. Toss that idea around with Red and see what he thinks.::

Optimus shook his head as Cliffjumper's gaze dropped, disappointed in his 'bot and sad that he even had to have this conversation at all with the red mech. He was fond of Cliffjumper, but that didn't excuse his behavior.

"While blind optimism has no place in this war, much to my regret, please see that your preemptive caution is more restrained in the future, Cliffjumper. The fact of the matter is, I already knew what Mirage was doing. In fact, I requested this from him in the first place."

The Prime paused to let that sink in, slowly rising to his feet after one final pat against the half-carved rock.

"I'm afraid you'll be reporting to Prowl for an appropriate punishment detail - if this had happened in front of other Autobots, the fallout to both morale and Mirage's personal well-being here would have been very poorly effected. Dismissed."

[cliffjumper]

::Aye aye. Should probably have put something like that in effect the moment we found out they were on the Nemesis, really. Situation's been on here on Earth, though.:: Jazz twitched his shoulders and doorwings in something like a shrug.

Shifting on his feet to start, Cliffjumper twitched and then froze when Optimus said he'd asked for it, and he almost asked what Mirage had been doing - but then Prime was standing up and Cliffjumper didn't know how to ask anyway.

It made him annoyed again, though, because this hadn't had to happen and yet it had and now...

His shoulders sank with what Optimus said next and reflexively, his hands tightened into fists and his helm snapped up.

"But---!" Then he cut off his vocaliser so fast there was an audible click and dropped back into a nod. Because what if he hadn't confronted Mirage here, but waited until they were back?

He'd been wrong, especially since apparently Prime had requested it (whatever it was), and that meant Mirage hadn't been doing anything wrong... and while the noble fragged him off a lot of the time, he was also, well.

Well, he wouldn't want to put Mirage in danger if he was actually innocent.

"Yes, Prime." The salute was kind of brief, but both Optimus and Jazz got one before Cliffjumper whirled around and meandered down the side of the mountain, slowly disappearing from view.

"Ahhhh, what a mess. Fancy a walk back, Prime?" Jazz chuckled dryly, shifting his shoulders as the minibot disappeared from view.

[ichooseboth]

Nodding at Cliffjumper's salute, the Prime watched his retreat until the minibot vanished out of sight. Then he let out a massive breath, shoulders slumping under the invisible weight.

"A mess indeed. One that could have been worse, but has been repeated far too many times. A walk back sounds like a good idea, Jazz."

Giving his second a thankful pat on the shoulder, Optimus fell into step beside the smaller mech, ready to plan future precautions.

He also had to mentally prepare what he was going to say to poor Mirage, if he ever managed to track their best spy down.