I believe this one is first chronologically. Written for Purajo's birthday it features her three characters, Ari, Aki and Adi who are triplet cheetah tranforms. Nocturne and Trace are mine. Trace is a Snow Leopard transform. Nocturne is a ground pounding light duty vehicle. The Black Ops were created by Tirya and Shades.

Reunion

It was a training mission between the various Black Ops teams the Autobots sponsored. The teams seldom met since secrecy was a top priority but about once a vorn the teams would come together to train, drink, share stories, critical information one or more teams might've dug up, supplies and new techniques developed to fight the Cons. This particular session involved several young trackers and warriors honing their skills in a relatively safe environment.

Nobody knew who was involved and few knew each other personally.

Nocturne, on her first training mission, and her uncle, Trace, an older, more experienced tracker, followed the trail laid down by the trainers. It wasn't a hard trail, in fact it was rather easy but Trace knew the consequences of over confidence and stuck to protocol, leading his young niece through the maze carefully.

"Don't let your guard down, Noc.* Trace's whisper could barely be heard over the sounds of the wind in the trees and the rushing river nearby.

Nocturne nodded and kept her optics moving. She wasn't as comfortable in this environment as her cat like uncle who could move through the woods like a ghost.

Trace crept forward, hunkered down to keep a low profile, his skin color shifting and blending into his surroundings until he had nearly vanished. Use to this strange affect she kept close so she wouldn't lose track of him

and nervously shifted her blaster from one arm to the other trying to keep alert.

The cat tracker suddenly froze, nose twitching. "Keep down," he whispered and batted at her with his tail. She ducked down instantly, listening intently.

Lifting his head, Trace sniffed the air. "We're definitely not alone… but I can't pinpoint his location." He glanced around, blue optics narrowed, listening and sniffing.

The young femme, trying to stay calm and focussed, crouched down beside him and stroked his back. "Maybe he's moving around really fast. I can't hear a thing except the wind.*

"Could be…" Trace slunk forward, his paws making no sound at all on the leafy ground. "Or… more than one." They both glanced back but only saw trees and bushes. They looked at each other and grinned. "Well, no going back anyway, forward, always forward on these tests."

"Right… forward… " Nocturne got to her feet and started walking again, moving ahead of Trace, placing each foot carefully on the ground, and trying to be quiet like both her uncles had taught her. She shivered suddenly, the feeling of optics on her very strong. Glancing back at Trace, she blinked. He'd disappeared.

"Trace?" Her whisper sounded loud in her audio sensors. No answer. He was gone and she hadn't heard a thing. "slag…"

A rustle to her left froze her in place. She lifted her blaster and pointed it at the sound. It could be Trace so she lowered it but brought it up again when a rustle to her right startled her. She crouched down wishing at that moment that she could fade out like Trace but she was stuck with her night black armor that never changed color. When no more sounds reached her audios, she stood and started forward again, keeping an optic out for Trace and another optic on the trail.

She went on for several minutes trying to take over Trace's job and do hers as well but she was not tracker and soon gave up worrying about who was following her even though she was very sure she wasn't alone. All she had to do was get to the end of the course in one piece and if she could stay out of trouble long enough she would make it. She picked up her pace, trotting along heedless of what was around her.

Her focus gone she let her blaster droop and before she could bring it back up, there was a sudden flurry of motion and something hit her from behind, knocking her face first into the ground. She lay there stunned, unable to dislodge the weight on her back.

A male voice chuckled in her audio and her head was pressed into the ground by a pawlike hand. "Hey, come look what I caught," shouted the mech in the the light tenor of youth.

She heard more rustling and the soft padding of more pawlike feet but couldn't move her head to see. "Mmmmph," she managed to get out.

More laughter and two more voices joined her captor. "Looks like you caught yourself a little mouse." The second voice sounded a lot like the first but a bit gentler.

"No, no, brother, not a mouse, a fine little femme. And I do believe I know her.* A third voice answered from her left, this one cheerful.

Nocturne struggled to knock the mech off her back but he merely chuckled and patted her helm condescendingly. "Arrgh!" she growled and tried to hit him but could only flail uselessly.

"Ooo, she's a feisty one," the cheerful one observed.

"She's always been a feisty one, don't you remember?"

"Feisty and silly."

"Oh, yeah, I remember. A lot of tail pulling too."

"Now look at her, armed and dangerous."

"And still hanging out with that tracker."

"He never liked us."

"Actually, I think he liked us. Served with ketchup."

"I remember. He's the one who nicknamed us McNuggets."

At that, Nocturne stopped struggling and started pounding on the ground. She knew them all right.

The mech on her back shifted slightly and chuckled again. "I think she recognizes us. Hello, Nocturne, it's been a while."

The weight left her head. She looked up and shouted, "Get off me, you mangy scrap of cat."

All three mechs, rangy looking cheetahs, laughed together. "She does remember."

"How could I forget? Ari, get off me, now!"

Ari looked at his brothers, who grinned back at him. "What do you think, boys? Should I let her up?"

Aki trotted over and crouched down to gaze into her optics. She glared back but the mech barely flinched. "She looks pretty mad to me. Adi, get over here, what do you think?"

Adi, who'd been keeping watch, got up and walked over. He nuzzled her and grinned. "Hi, Noc, how're you doing? Life treating you good?" he asked her pleasantly.

Nocturne tried to glare at him but his gently smile softened her a tiny bit and she shook her head. "Not one of my better days so tell your brother to get off my fraggin' back. He's squishing me."

Aki laughed again. "Only if you promise not to shoot us."

"Okay, okay, I promise." Her blaster was under her so she couldn't toss it away to prove her good faith.

Ari shifted slightly as if to let her up but paused a second. "Cross your spark?"

"Yes, yes, cross my spark."

"Okay." Ari leaped to the side and out of her reach.

Aki pulled Adi back and Nocturne got to her knees. She brushed the dirt and leaves from her front and scrubbed more dirt from her face before frowning at the three cheetah cassettes.

"Trace okay?"

"He's just fine. Kind of an easy take down though. A little disappointing actually after all we'd heard about how he was such a wonderful tracker and all," Ari replied smirking.

She stood up, hands on her hips, and glared at them. "In that case…" She opened her arms and grinned at them. "is that anyway to say hello?"

With a shout, all three tackled her, knocking her to the ground, and nuzzled her. Adi started licking her, and soon three cheetahs were washing her thoroughly while she giggled and tried to push them off.

Finally exhausted, they flopped over and made a cuddle pile. Nocturne nestled between Adi and Aki while Ari settled on top of them. "Have to head back soon," Nocturne reminded them. "You guys want to get credit for the capture."

Aki cocked his head at her, ears flicking back and forth curiously. "You don't mind losing? If we stayed here a while longer we'd all be disqualified…"

"Hey, we lost fair and square. You should get the credit. And Dad won't be upset if we lose. This is my first time out and he's not expecting a whole lot. Basically told me to have fun."

Ari nodded. "If you don't mind. Mama and Papa will be please."

"I don't mind a bit but Uncle Trace might have a thing or two to say about it."

Adi twitched. "Um, maybe we'd better let him go. It took all three of us to hold him down and tie him up. He may have more than a thing or two to say." His ears flattened unhappily as he thought about that.

Ari snickered and rolled off the pile. "I'll do it."

He trotted into the trees, ears forward, tail twitching. A few minutes later there was a commotion, some hissing and growling, a few swear words and a muffled yelp. Nocturne looked at Aki and Adi and they looked back at her and they both looked at the spot where Ari had vanished. The brush rustled violently and Adi came barreling out with a leopard close on his heels. They leaped over the three friends and vanished into the woods on the other side of the trail.

"Better him than me," Aki chuckled and settled down to wait.

"At least you're all too big for him to eat now," Nocturne said with a smirk.