CIRCUTE, episode 2 "Lesson Number One"
The class in Yoketron Circuit-su Academy has already begun. Master Prowl was (trying) teaching his students how to throw shuriken with precision:
"Now you must concentrate. There are the targets. You must clear your mind, ignore the environment and focus. This way you shall never miss the target."
"Yes sir!" they all said, except Blurr, who was playing a hologame...
"Blurr, what are you doing?" Prowl asked.
However, he didn't even pay attention manipulating holographic miniature robots with his "fingers" being projected by a small gadget. Prowl got Blurr's game player.
"Hey, bring-me-back, please! Please! Please! Please! Please..."
Prowl held the player high and used his other hand to push Blurr away. Blurr continued trying to get his gadget back. Jetfire giggled, trying not laugh. The other apparently thought it ridiculous.
"I'll give you your weapons... after solving a problem..."
After finally hide Blurr's game, Prowl got some for razors shuriken hidden under his armor.
"That's cool, mech..." Ironhide was impressed.
Jetstorm thought it strange:
"Well, Master Prowl... Don't you sir think it's too dangerous for beginning students..."
"Perhaps you're right, Jetstorm. On the other hand, I am confident enough you are mature students to use it."
Meanwhile, Blurr was running everywhere cheerfully pointing the blades dangerously forward, cutting and sticking everything he could see behind his distracted master.
"Oh, I see, master..."
When Jetfire received his blade, he spoke excited:
"The ultimate ninja weapons...! That's awesome! This is the coolest cycle of my running time..."
"Brother... You said it last rotate cycle."
"I know... I don't care..." he was hugging and rubbing the shuriken closer to his helmet.
Ironhide whispered to Wasp:
"The white and orange twin seems to be homo-copulate, mech."
"Who cares? He's copulating preference is not of our business."
"You're funny, mech..."
Wasp didn't say a word in disdain.
Cycles later:
"Now each one of you have your own target to train... That is the technique. Pay attention, because I won't do this twice"
Suddenly, he threw fast a pair of shuriken, almost at the same time, both direct to the center of the target. All the students (except Wasp) looked impressive:
"The secret is the spin. You must spin your wrist while holding the razors before throwing."
"Good..." Ironhide told impressive.
"This is so cool!" Jetfire exclaimed, paying more attention to his teacher's prowess rather than the technique itself
"Any question?"
Once more Blurr waved up his hand.
"Blurr?" Prow asked.
"Did-ya-know-I-can-do-'this'?"
He stretched his black "tongue" and touched the tip of his nose, while he gathered his optics' bright "pupils" close. Prowl facepalmed:
"Oh, Primus..."
After this, each one tried to repeat the technique. Prowl walked around to see how they were going...
"Ironhide, you are throwing too hard. You have not hit the center yet, but you nearly dropped it down!"
"Isn't that the will? Cause when ya beating the Cons your motivation is too push 'em down, mech! I'm closer to do it, right?" then he missed a target "Oh, slag..."
Meanwhile, Wasp was pitching too soft, always missing the target.
"I'll never strike this stuff."
"Don't think like this, Wasp. A ninja must believe in his abilities and skills"
"Well, whatever..."
When he was almost throwing his last razor, he gave up, turned back himself and threw it backward like trash. He didn't realized that, doing this he "accidently" hit the center.
"Uh, Wasp... You just..."
"I don't care" he stood backward, with his shoulders down and curved back. He was too depressed to see his success.
Prowl was going to see the twins. While Jetfire was throwing then impatiently, missing the target and only hitting the borders, his brother was quit, pointing his first shuriken and calculating focusing the center. His brother was almost finishing, very upset with his first unsuccessful performance. Jetstorm was calm, with all the shuriken blades perfectly organized in his desk, only still thinking...
"Hey, Storm! I'm not doing this!" he was upset.
Prowl got closer and then he said:
"Jetfire, you are too impatient. You must calm down and concentrate..."
"Yes, 'just like your brother'... I know, master, but... I wanna become a ninja soon."
"You can't become a ninjabot for one rotate to the other, it takes time. And actually, I guess your brother is not a so good example. During a battle, you can't take too long before acting."
"Shhh..." Jetstorm made a gesture with his finger. "I need to concentrate... not too left... not too right... I must consider the wind direction..."
"Jetstorm... Prowl grumbled "We are indoors!"
"I know. I must consider this too..."
He pointed his shuriken close to his face and he used his other hand to cover one of his optics behind his visors.
"I hope you should get this tocycle."
Prowl walked away. He went to see how Blurr was:
"Blurr, what are you doing?" he asked when saw his student playing holo-game again.
"Now-ya-busted..." he said paying attention to the payer.
"How did you recover that? I hid it..."
"I-got-another..."
"Blurr, stop it! You didn't try a single shuriken yet."
"Wait-a-cycle...I'm finishing...now-I'll-crack-you...c'mon,c'mon,c'mon..."
Prowl got his payer once more:
"Now you must use all your shuriken before back to play."
"You-promise-master-Prowl-sir?"
"Yes, I promise."
Blurr got all the shuriken and threw away one by one very fast. In a few nanocycles he hit nearly all of then in the center, missing only a couple on the ring on the border to the center.
"Impressive! You are better than I first supposed." He put his both hands upon his own waist. "You may do it better with positive reinforcement..."
"Can-you-give-it-me-back-please? Please? Please?"
"Yes. Take it." He give Blurr's player back.
"THANKS-MASTER!" Blurr shouted
He jumped and cuddled Prowl. He actually hugged very tight.
"Blurr... stop..."
"Thanks! Thanks! Thanks-so-much-master... I-love-you-master-Prowl..."
Jetfire turned and looked the scene a bit... "jealous".
"Why Blurr got master's all attention?"
"Perhaps because he is actually 'doing' his job, brother."
"You always think you're right, Storm... But I have to agree..." he looked sad.
Then, he got a idea.
"Hey, Storm... May I try one of 'yours'? I used all my shuriken..."
"Well, go ahead. I don't mind."
Jetfire took a single shuriken from his brother, who was still occupied pointing the same he got first. Then Jetfire pointed, focused and shot. He hit the edge of the center ring. He celebrated:
"Yes! Look, master. I did it!"
Prowl was still suffering squeezed by Blurr's arms.
"That's good... Jetfire... you're on... the right... path..." he was trying to speak while he was being suffocated.
...
...
At the front desk of the dojo, the sales robot noted a red and blue tall robot with a canon over his back. He walked closer slowly, and then the robot saw he was wearing very small yellowing visors that badly covered his optics.
"Good cycling. My name is Perceptor." He spoke with a slightly British accent "I came here to finish the subscription of Jetfire and Jetstorm."
"So you're the twins' tutor-bot? They told me about you..."
"Yes, I am..." he said while receiving the electronic documents to write with his electronic pen.
"I am sorry what happened to your housebot..."
" 'Housebot'? Oh, you mean my old partner, Rodimus? That's okay, he had to follow his dream about being Prime..."
"He got a femme, right?"
"Yes, he did. Actually, we had 'nothing', do you understand? We were only friends. I mean I was involved in a survey about flying Autobots. I participated in the experiment, and he helped me to turn on the first protoform. However, somehow the spark we created and used has split in to. One went to a protoform that turned on first, and we called the sparkling 'Jet-1'. The other spark formed turned the other protoform on, and we called this 'Jet-2'."
"I see."
"They were really adorable sparkling. Rodimus helped me to nurse them, but he showed being not that good. He also took liking more Jet-1. I guess he forsake Jet-2 a little, so I cared more him to compensate."
"So you both acted like a homo-copulating couple?"
"We actually were only planning to tend them only while they were sparklings, and leave then on orphanage when they grown a bit older, about 10 to 12 suncycles..."
"But they are 16 now."
"I know. We were fond of them. I mean, 'I' was. Rodimus found a femme, and he is exo-coplate, he's always been. That ends easy to me and Jet-2, that we called later Jetstorm, but Jet-1, that's Jetfire now didn't accept it so long."
"He know about the femme?"
"No, he doesn't. Jetstorm knows, but we didn't tell it Jetfire yet. He is sensive, and that could ruin he's relationship with his former tutor-bot."
"I understand. Have you ever thought how would he react when he discover 'bout the femme?"
"Yes, I have. He met her before, but he had no idea about she being Rodimus's wifebot. I told Rodimus to not tell Jetfire, but I know this won't last forever. Some cycle he will have to face it..."
Suddenly, Perceptor listened to Jetfire's voice.
"Face what, Uncle Perce?"
"Oh... Nothing, Jetfire..."
He came with his brother. The class was already over.
"Uncle Perce... Jetfire continued "Are you telling him our life story?"
"Yes, why?" Perceptor was confused.
Jetfire looked furious.
"Uncle Perce, this is shameful! You're embarrassing me! Not everybody has to know about it!"
"Fire, 'you' are embarrassing us!" Jetstorm argued.
"Be quiet, brother! This is about me and uncle!"
"This is useless..." Jetstorm continued.
"I agree." Perceptor consented.
"Shut up!" Jetfire responsed.
The robot in the front desk whispered.
"It won't end up well."
...
...
Another class in Yoketron Academy. There was Ironhide, Wasp and the twins, but Blurr was absent (no surprise) and Master Prowl hadn't come yet:
"Oh, mech, it's kinda like Blurr is late again, right?"
"But Master Prowl hasn't come yet." Jetfire noted.
"Did he forget about the class?" Jetstorm spoke sarcastically
"No!" Jetfire shouted desperately.
"Fy... I was kidding..."
"Don't do this again, Storm!"
Fortunately, the eastern style doors opened. Master Prowl came in with Blurr riding his back in pig riding.
"As you bots can see, one of your classmates had a brilliant idea." Prowl was speaking sarcastically.
"Did-ya-know-I-like-coming-this-way-so-I'll-never-be-late-again..."
"Yes, of course. Now get off my back!"
He got down and went close to the others.
"I swear I'll never use positive reinforcement with Blurr anymore."
Blurr was smile annoying.
"I decided to make different now. I could see you all have 'natural' weapons. It can be useful during a battle. Nevertheless, it won't be worthy if you don't use your natural weapons wisely and correctly. I will observe and analyze each one's weapons, and the way you are using them"
He walked a bit.
"Let's begin with... Wasp. Show us watch you can do."
"I sting... he sad softly
Blurr laughed loud.
"You're-a-bee-then-you-can-sting..."
"I'm 'Wasp', not a 'bee'." he spoke shamed. "And those are electric stinger" he looked down embarrassed.
"No show us, Wasp."
"I don't want... Not now..."
"There's no need to hide your power. It's only for demostred."
"Whatever..."
He closed is fist, put his both hands inside his arm plates and showed, on their place, a pair of pointy split cones with bluish rings on it. He pointed them high up and shot electric discharges.
"Fascinating, this is an awesome ability..."
"Unless you are too fright to use it against big bots that are intimidating you too much."
Ironhide laugh softly.
"Haha, cool mech! This little guy is very funny, huh?"
"So Ironhide... Show us your ability."
"Yes, sir." He changed his arms into silver grey. "I can become solid metal. Because of this I'm called Ironhide, mech." he punched his closed fist against the other hand, opened.
"Very impressive." Prowl touched his chins. "It's very usefull, I guess. Now Jetfire."
"Me?" He became cheerful. "Storm, Master Prowl called my name!"
"He did it to everybody, Fire."
Prowl continue.
"So, Jetfire... Show us what you can do."
"I'm a firebender sir!"
"Fire... what?"
Jetstorm tried to explain:
"He watched too much a human bidimensional projected cartoon... that's a too long story, Master Prowl."
"You should tell us later, Jetstorm. Now I want your brother to show us his abilities, and after that you should do the same."
Jetfire was excited:
"Right, master!" he shouted.
He hid his right hand inside of the armor and changed his arm into a canon. The he shot a fire blast, setting fire on the floor.
"Interesting, but you should be careful. It seems too destructive..."
"And it is... Jetstorm replied.
Then Jetstorm did the same: he hid his hand, but the left instead, changed his arm into a canon and blew a powerful wind gust to extinguish the fire his brother started.
"Every time when brother is very heated, what is not so unusual, he sets fire everywhere he touched and walks around. I have to 'cool' everything, you know?"
"I see. But your power is very..."
"Ridiculous, I know." Jetstorm completed.
"Don't act like Wasp, Jetstorm."
Wasp grumbled
"Hey..."
"But master, I can't hurt a flybot. It's a weak and useless power."
"But have you ever heard about hurricanes? Tornados? Typhoons? And even a normal gust can be very destructive sometimes..."
"That's the problem: it's destructive and it messes everything around. I don't like mess neither disorder, you know. I just wanna keep things in order, each one on its place..."
"I understand. I know a robot, one of our teachers, that is also obsessive with order."
Jetfire asked.
"Is this Master Jazz, sir?"
"No, he is not. Jazz is a calm teacher. He never forces his students too much and he works with positive reinforcement and motivation. I am talking about Sentinel Prime. He is our tactics and strategies teacher. He is very tuff as a teacher. Trust me: none of you want him as a teacher for now. He is too severe."
Blurr waved his hand excitedly.
"Blurr, do you want to go to 'oil-changing-room' again?"
"No-master! You-didn't-ask-me-my-ability-yet."
"Then which is your?"
"Uh... I-donno...I-mean-I-think-I-don't-have-anyone,-master,-cause-my-matrix-said-I'm-too-young-for-having-one, but-I-don't-wanna-be-the-only-with-no-natural-weapons..." he stood talking very fast.
Ironhide whispered to Wasp:
"His ability is being a super-annoying bot."
But Prowl was confused:
"Wait, Blurr... Too young? You are almost a mech. So how long have you been working?"
"11-suncycles-sir!"
All the robots spoke simultaneity:
"WHAT?"
Ironhide spoke in disbelief:
"I have a cousin in this running time, and he isn't that tall! And you know, my heritage is of big bots like me, mech."
"And brother and me were not that size in 11 suncycles!" Jetfire protested.
"Matrix-said-I'm-growing-fast...
Ironhide spoke loud.
"This way he'll be by the size of a Con when full grown, mech"
Prowl was disbeliever too:
"That is very uncommon. You have an abnormal height for your running age. But don't worry about lacking of ability. I am sure you already have one..."
"What's-that-master? What's-that? What's-that? What? What...?"
"I have never seen a robot that could run that fast before. You know this ability is very useful for a ninja-bot. You can move fast without be noted...
Jetstorm corrected:
"Not being noted? I don't think so, master. He is too noisy and shown off for being a ninja-bot."
"Perhaps you are right, Jetstorm. But I am certain after a long training you all you be mastering your abilities and use than for the battle."
He turned back. Then he talked to his students behind:
"Now I suggest you keep our lessons and start training at your homes." He turned and pointed them "That will be called 'hometraining', and I want to see all of you making all the chores..."
However, and he looked at them, he saw he's students were using their powers to fight each other. Blurr was challenging Wasp to strike him. Wasp was discharging, while Ironhide changed his both arms into metal chasing Blurr. But Blurr ran too fast to be gotten or hit. Jetfire, however, was "playing" with fire cheerfully, burning everything "accidently", while his brother was extinguishing the flames behind.
"Those students are too undisciplined... Prowl whispered to himself. "I promise myself I'll be more severe with them starting from next class..."