Lesson 2: Paintball
Today was a boy's day out. Will, Fig, Epps, Sam, and even Miles had all gone out into the hills for a game of paintball. The drive was a good half hour, but it was totally worth it.
Sam had previously introduced his quirky friend to the idea of the Autobots, and couple that with the knowledge of the Mission City disaster that the government scrambled to cover up, it didn't take much convincing or therapy for him to accept it with little more than a shrug. Besides, having a team of special ops guys as friends was not something that he would have been able to explain without going into the whole robot thing.
"I'm going to get owned so badly," the blond whined as he thumbed the straps of his mask.
Sam came over with a grin on his face and gave him a good slap on the back. "Well, yeah. If you stand around and complain, of course you'll be an easy target. Now put on the mask and load up."
Each of the guys had different colored ammo: Sam had red, Miles had pink, Will had green, Fig had orange, and Epps had a bright blue.
Will tied a bandanna around his neck so he wouldn't get burnt in the California summer sun. "You two are with me," he said, gesturing to the pair of boys, who in turn walked over to their new teammate.
"Hey!" Sam called out to Fig and Epps as they headed away into the rocks to secure themselves some kind of cover. "Hope you guys brought ice packs for the welts you're gonna have when this is over!"
Epps laughed. "You watch what you say, man, 'cause we're the ones that actually know how to shoot!"
"I, uhm, I think he's right," Miles said.
Will chuckled, ushering the two boys to head on over to their rock outcropping. "Hey, don't forget I'm on your team too. Now move it or we're sitting ducks just standing here." The team maneuvered behind their starting point, and Will crept up to peer over the top. "We ready?" he shouted. The other team called back from their start about 60 yards away. "All right, let's go!"
The captain was first to creep out from behind the rocks, walking in a crouch behind another boulder for protection. Sam was making his way around the other side, and upon catching a glimpse of Epps, darted behind some sagebrush. He looked sidelong at Miles, who was still cowering behind their initial pile. "Come on!" he shout-whispered. His friend inched slowly in his direction until they heard shots being exchanged. Sam rolled his eyes. "Fine! Stay there!"
The brown-haired boy peered around the brush to see green spatter on Figs' arm as he jumped behind some rocks. But somewhere between the sounds of the freeway about a mile away, Sam could discern vehicles approaching where they were parked. After a moment of listening, Miles heard them too.
"Great!" he huffed. "I'll bet it's the cops, man."
"Look, I don't think we're doing anything illegal here. If we clean up when we're done, it should be fine." Sam jumped when a blue paintball flew past his face and exploded on a rock in front of him. "Shit!" He whipped around to see Epps closing in, but he headed for cover as soon as Sam turned around and fired a few shots, and managed to get him in the shoulder. Unfortunately, the only hits that counted were on the torso, from the waist up.
Sam heard Will shout a "surrender!" from somewhere; he probably had Fig. Just because they were playing a hard game of elimination, that didn't mean they weren't playing with courtesy rules. The surrender rule was to prevent more experienced players from sneaking up on newbies and shooting at them point-blank, but it really benefited everyone, seeing as how no one likes to be shot at point-blank.
"We'll just keep playing , and if it is cops, they'll stop us when they stop us," Sam said to a panicking Miles. "Let's go get Epps." He moved out from the cover of the brush, marker held up offensively. He looked around, saw Fig shooting at Will out of the corner of his eye, but Epps was nowhere to be found. He decided to risk a few seconds on some high ground to look around. Just as Sam was clambering to the top of a rock pile, though, he was shot in the back of the arm, and the spatter was black. Who had black paintballs?
"Sam!" shouted Miles. "Two of your friends decided to join us!" The blond boy scrambled over to Sam's rock pile, and he turned around. There stood Ironhide. Sticking out from each of his arms was a 5-gallon water drum, filled to the brim with paintballs, and the cannons were trained on the two boys. Beside him stood Bumblebee, a single 5-gallon reservoir protruding from his arm cannon. Both of them had big, robotic smirks on their faces.
"Surrender!" Bumblebee said.
Sam hissed. "Oh shit... Miles, find cover!" The two of them leapt off the pile to the other side, a barrage of paintballs scattering about them. The robots laughed. "Will! Fig! Epps! We've got company!" Then: "Come on, we've got to regroup."
"Dude, no way! I don't wanna be covered in welts tomorrow, you kidding?"
"Don't be a quitter, Miles!" With that, Sam jumped up and darted through the rocks and sagebrush as fast as he could to get within a decent range of the other guys. Yellow paint splattered all around him, before he was hit twice in the rear. "Real funny, Bumblebee!" he shouted at the top of his lungs before ducking behind some other rocks, right next to Fig.
"Did you invite those guys?" he demanded.
"No, I didn't invite those guys!" Sam flinched as black paint spattered a nearby rock.
"Will!" Fig shouted. "Epps! Change a plans! Five of us against those two!"
Sam was huddled up and scowling. "Augh, Ratchet's gonna get it for fitting those two lunatics with five gallons of ammo..."
Will came rushing over to their little hideout, covered in black and yellow paint. "Christ," he said, panting. "I'm going to be one big bruise tomorrow!"
Sam looked around. "Where's Miles and Epps?"
"I think your wimpy friend surrendered already," Will said, checking the ammo on his marker.
"Yeah, probably." Sam could hear one of the Autobots come closer. "What's our objective at this point? It's obvious we're playing a different kind of elimination now."
"I say we go for their faces," Fig piped in. The other two nodded.
Sam was about to add in a little tactical input, but Bumblebee was standing over them and the three guys scattered. The boy managed to wedge himself between two rocks pretty good, while Bee was distracted by Will and Fig. It was now or never. Taking careful aim from his shadowed crevice, Sam landed three shots to the back of the Camaro's head.
"Hey!" Bumblebee whirled around and playfully shot in Sam's direction, getting him once in the leg. Sam scrambled out of the gap and sucked behind another rock when his guardian came walking over. "Come out, come out..."
From what the boy could see, Ironhide was having a blast shooting at the others. Neon paint of a rainbow of colors littered his black body like some god-awful Pollock piece. "Surrender!" he heard the trigger-happy Autobot shout, and in no time, out stepped Epps and Will, markers raised above their heads. Ironhide laughed victoriously.
Bumblebee was drawing nearer, cannon raised. "Come on, Sam! How many times do I have to shoot you in the aft to get you to surrender?"
Sam sighed and stood up, hands held up high. "Fine, fine, you got me. Next time though? Pick on someone your own size."
Grinning, Bee lowered his arm and called out over his shoulder. "Hey 'Hide! I think we won this game!"
The two 'bots herded the five of them (Miles had indeed surrendered a while back) into something resembling a semi-circle. "Better luck next time, humans," Irohide said with devious mirth. Sam looked sidelong at Will, and gave a small wink. Will nodded slowly. As if on cue, the four of them (excluding Miles, of course) opened fire at the Autobot's faces. The captain laughed just as maniacally as his truck had done. "How's it feel to get pelted by something one eighth your size!"
"Ackthpth!"
"Raaghspth!"
The two Autobots staggered backward in momentary disorientation as the four humans emptied their reservoirs at them. "C'mon!" Will barked, still laughing. "Get to the car! Get to the car!" His good humor was contagious, and it seemed the whole group (...aside from Miles) burst into adrenaline-charged laughter as they made a break for their safe haven parked about 20 yards away.
