In the previous book, Sari was asked by Optimus and Jazz if she wanted to go to the Autobot Academy. Of course she did, but in order to qualify, she must first make it through Autobot Boot Camp.

As soon as she arrived back on Cybertron, she left most of her things at her apartment and Jazz escorted her to the transport that would take her to the boot camp planet. She boarded the transport with four other bots, bid farewell to Jazz, and sat back, wondering what kind of an experience this was going to be. After a long trip, she found out…

"GET OUT OF MY TRANSPORT" yelled the drill instructor to the new recruits. Everyone jumped out of their seats!

"You grease smears have 10 nanoclicks to get your worthless skidplates in formation out on the tarmac!" Sari and the other recruits ran outside.

It had been a long trip to the far off planet where the Autobot Boot Camp was located. Jazz had warned her that it would be tough. "Remember, as a boot camp recruit, you are at the absolute bottom of the chain of command. Respect will have to be earned. The drill instructor's job will be to take the recruits apart and rebuild them into a confident, cohesive team that knows how to follow orders and look out for one another."

"Atten, HUT!" The recruits formed a line. Sari stood at attention.

"I am Tracks Minor, your Drill Instructor, but you linchpins will address me as SIR, is that clear?"

"Sir yes sir!"

"I can't HEAR YOU!"

"SIR YES SIR!"

One of the recruits started to snicker about the "eyeglass" attachment on Tracks Minor's optics. "What's up with that?"

Tracks got right in his face. "You got a comment, funny-bot?"

"No sir!"

"Why does a weak-jointed, slow-processing hunk of junk like you want to be a recruit, anyway?"

"Uh…"

"You couldn't kick my motherboard if I held it in front of your pede! Now drop down to the tarmac and give me 20 transformations! MOVE IT!" The recruit got down on servos and pedes and began transforming back and forth.

"Does that planet have breathable air?" Sari asked Jazz.

"It does, although maybe not the freshest," he warned. "I'm told by other organics that it's rather stale and acrid smelling. Until it was taken over by the Autobots, it was a smelting planet. Should you have to transform, try not to be too...repulsed."

"Yes, Sensei," she sighed.

"Each one of you, sound off - why do you want to be here?"

"To be a member of the Cybertron Elite Guard, SIR!"

"To be a Cybertronian Intelligence Officer, SIR!"

"To be an Autotrooper, SIR!"

Tracks Minor looked down at the recruit doing transformations. "What about you, funny-bot?"

"To be an elite guard soldier, SIR!"

"Put your servos into it! You call that transforming? I've seen protoforms transform faster than you!"

Tracks Minor finally stood in front of Sari. Looking down at the smallest member of his platoon, he said, "What about YOU?"

"To be a member of the Cybertron Elite Guard and a Cyber-Ninja, SIR!" Said Sari.

A couple of the recruits snickered, looking down at this tiny Autobot in their group.

"Mute it, micro-brains!" Snapped Tracks Minor. "We're all cogs here in a great Autobot machine, and if you tunnel drones last here long enough, you'll learn that the bot next to you can be the difference between you coming home and you winding up as a slag heap in battle!"

He stepped up to one of the recruits snickering. "You think large size makes a difference, big bot? How'd you like to take on a few Scraplets all by yourself?" Everyone shuddered at the sound of that!

"Let's see what each of you can do." He walked back to the first recruit. "Show me what you've got, cog!"

The first recruit's image faded away until she disappeared, and then after a few nanoclicks, re-appeared.

"Not bad! I'm gonna call you 'Mirage'."

He stepped over to the next recruit. "Now you!"

The recruit pointed his arms up and blasted flames from jets above his servos.

Tracks Minor nodded. "OK, I'll call you 'Sideburn!' Next!"

"Try and hit me, sir!" Tracks Minor hit the recruit with everything he could. His fist slammed into a force field about 10 cm from the recruit's body. "An invisible shield, eh? Alright, I'll call you 'Armorhide'! Next!"

"There's a target on top of that hill, sir!"

"Hill? Where?"

"Over on top of that hill to the right, sir. 6.25 hics away. Between the two towers."

Tracks Minor took out binoculars, found the hill, and located the target. "And?"

The recruit let off a single blast from his sidearm. "If you'll check, sir, I hit the bullseye."

"Confirming with the binoculars, he said, "So you did. OK, I'll call you 'Sniper'!"

Finally, Tracks Minor stood in front of Sari. "Now, let's see what YOU can do!"

Sari decided to use Processor-Over-Matter. She closed her optics, and putting her servos together, levitated the other four recruits into the air. "Hey! Whoa!" they all shouted, as they went about a meter up. She brought them down slowly.

Tracks Minor was uninterested. "Cute trick, little Ninja, now let's see something I could actually USE in combat!"

Somewhat disappointed by his reaction, Sari chose a more conventional weapon to demonstrate. There were a group of targets in the practice field nearby. Sari fired her orbs off, blasting two of them.

"Fine, you should have done that in the first place! Unless I can come up with a better name, I'll call you 'Micro'!" She didn't particularly like that name, but resigned herself to accept it. "I AM the smallest one here," she sighed to herself.

"Your quarters are behind you. Go stow your gear and be prepared for inspection at 1930 hours. I expect the barracks to be clean – do I make myself clear?"

"SIR, YES SIR!"

"Platoon, DISMISSED!" And with that, he walked away.

Sari and the other recruits broke ranks and entered their quarters. After Tracks Minor was gone, Sniper walked up and stood over her. "Hey, Micro! Next time you want to levitate someone, why don't you go levitate yourself!"

"Lay off, Sniper!" said Mirage. "She wants to be a Cyber-Ninja, so she was just demonstrating Processor-Over-Matter."

Sniper scoffed and walked away. Mirage went over to Sari. "Don't mind him, Micro. He's both a clown and a bit of a hot head – but a good bot underneath. We were protoformed at the same place and time on Cybertron, so I know him pretty well."

"Thanks, Mirage," said Sari. "So you know about Processor-Over-Matter?"

"I met Dai-Atlas once," she said. "He came to our region of Cybertron to talk about the Cyber-Ninja Corps. He was looking for candidates. With my ability to project illusions and disappear, I considered it and we talked, but in the end, I decided to concentrate on getting into the Cybertron Elite Guard. Maybe I'll think about the Cyber-Ninja Corps later – what do you think?"

"Hey, it's sure worth a try," Sari said. "I worked with Dai Atlas and helped him rebuild the Cyber-Ninja Dojo. When you're ready, maybe you and I can go talk with him."

"That'd be great! So, where were you protoformed?" asked Mirage.

"I was a sparkling protoform that wound up on the planet Earth," explained Sari. "I'm a technorganic."

"A technorganic? Wow. So you don't have an alt mode?"

"No. When I transform, it's into my organic half.

Sniper overheard the conversation. "A technorganic? Let's see your organic side!"

"Well, I knew I'd have to do it eventually," said Sari. "My Sensei said the breathable air here isn't the cleanest, but I might as well get a sniff…" and with a flash of blue, she changed into "human" mode.

The other recruits saw the blue flash, and turning, looked on in awe. "An organic?" Armorhide and Sideburn stepped back. "Where'd that come from?"

"It's Micro," said Mirage. "She's a technorganic."

Sari hesitated to take in a breath. She knew she had to, and when she did, it was about as bad as she expected. The atmosphere was not toxic, but it was air leftover from some ancient factory that, eons ago, had belched out exhaust that was sour, metallic, and pungent. "Ugh! This air stinks!" She held her nose. "What were they making here anyway?"

"They say this planet was used for smelting ore," said Sideburn. "It was run by an ancient race of organics that became extinct a couple thousand stellar cycles ago. When Cybertron took it over, all that was left were the empty factories."

She transformed back into "bot" mode. "Anyway, that's my 'alt' mode. I hope I don't have to use it too often while here. The air's breathable, but smells nasty!"

"So, what are you going to do when Tracks Minor tells you to do 20 transformations – or more?" asked Armorhide.

"I'll transform between modes, I guess," said Sari. "At least now I'll know what to expect from the air. Yuck."

"Well, we've got about a megacycle before inspection, so let's get this place ready," said Mirage. And with that, the recruits stowed their things, straightened out the barracks, and cleaned.

"Atten, HUT!" Came the voice from outside. Everyone hurried to stand at attention in front of their bunks as Tracks Minor entered the barracks. "Ready for inspection!"

He walked around and carefully checked every tiny area of their quarters. All areas were satisfactory, except…reaching up to a light fixture, he ran a digit. Looking at the soot, he said "This fixture is filthy!"

"But…" Sideburn began to protest.

"But what?" the drill inspector looked at him.

"Sir! We didn't know…we had to clean those."

"And why not? Aren't they part of your quarters?"

"Yes, sir!"

"So you thought you could leave them dirty? All of you drop down and give me 20 transformations, and make it quick!"

Everyone, including Sari, got down on pede and servo and began quickly transforming. Sari, from "bot" to "human" and back. Tracks Minor knew all about Sari, having been briefed on each of his recruits, so he already knew she was a technorganic.

Sari never had to transform so many times in rapid succession, especially in a prone "push-up" position - and soon realized how exhausting it was!

Then there was the matter of the air. By 10 transformations, Sari was breathing heavily in "human" mode. With each transformation, she took in the acrid smell of the boot camp air with each lungful. "I've got to tough this out," she thought, "and just learn to get used to it!"

"16…ugh…17…ugh…18…ugh…19." She said to herself, counting the transformations.

They finally got to 20! She transformed for the final time back into "bot" mode along with the others.

"Now, get those light fixtures cleaned!" and with that, the inspection was over. Everyone collapsed on the barracks floor.

"Formation is at 0500 back out at the tarmac. Dismissed!"

"Oh, my achin' pedes and servos!" groaned Sideburn. The others groaned as they pulled themselves up from the floor and staggered over to their beds.

"How you doing, Micro?" asked Mirage. "I heard you breathing heavily when you were in organic mode."

"I'm OK, thanks, Mirage," smiled Sari. "I think I'll use some of what free time we have forcing myself to be in 'human' mode – what you call organic mode – so that I can get used to this air."

"Sounds like a plan," Mirage smiled back. "Hang in there, Micro! And she walked back to her bunk and plopped down.

After a brief rest, the recruits took to cleaning all the light fixtures. Some were fairly easy to get to, particularly for the tall Autobots like Armorhide and Sniper. However, there were a few which were beyond even their reach. "How do we get to those?" asked Sniper.

"Here, let me take care of them," said Sari.

"YOU?" laughed Sniper. "And how do you plan to…?" Sari grabbed a cleaning cloth and with the micron boosters on her pedes, she jumped up to the rafters where the fixtures were attached, and cleaned each one. When she was done, she jumped back down. "There! All cleaned!"

Armorhide chuckled, "Not bad, Micro! Nice little spring in your step!" He turned to Sniper and slapped him on the back. "You can close your mouth now, buddy." Bit by bit, Sniper was starting to gain respect for this tiny technorganic. After the cleaning, he went over to Sari. "Hey, Micro? Sorry I was a glitch head before. Tracks Minor is right; in combat, the bot next to you can be the difference between you coming home and not. If I expect to be an elite guard soldier, I've gotta learn to respect all my comrades." He held out a servo. "Friends?"

Sari took his servo in hers. "Friends!" she smiled.

Sideburn suddenly called out "Hey! Sniper! Come check this out!" He smiled back at Sari and said, "Well I'm gonna go see what those laser lips are up to," and walked away. Mirage had been listening in and said to Sari, "told you he's a good one under all that clowning around," she winked. "He'll make a good soldier."

"That he will," said Sari, and rested after her first day of Autobot Boot Camp.

So begins the first chapter of "Sari Sumdac, Cyber-Ninja II". We'll take her through Autobot Boot Camp, then Autobot Academy, after which she will graduate and be an officer. From there, she may find her way to the Cybertron Elite Guard!

But that's a ways off. Right now she has to learn how to deal with being a recruit, putting up with the rancid air on this planet, and becoming a valued member of the platoon – although I suspect that last one won't be a problem. Thanks for reading.