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Cybertronian time units to Earth time units:

Astrosecond/nano-klik = 1 second

Klik = 1 minute

Breem = 8 minutes

Cycle = 1 hour

Quartex = 1 week (or a quarter of any time unit)

Stellar cycle = 1 year

Millenia - 1.000.000 years (or 1 year of Cybertronian age)

Chapter 2: Adjust

Not only did my alarm wake me up at exactly 5 cycles in the morning, but the whole facility had an integrated alarm into it. Boot camp life started early and I had to get used to waking up at such times.

I rolled on my side and turned off my audios. Just five more minutes.

I felt a harsh shaking on my shoulder. I turned on my audios immediately. "Get up." It was Silvershot.

I shoved him away with my arm. "Five more minutes." I sleepily said.

"Get up now or I'll push you out of berth." He added sharply.

I propped myself up on my elbows, sitting up on the berth. "Fine, killjoy." I sent him a glare.

"Learn to respect the rules." He lectured, crossing his arms. "Prowl has sent us the data packet about this camp's rules. It would be wise if you read them."

"You're acting overly mature, I'll tell you that." I swung my legs over the berth, noticing how my silver paint was badly chipped. Railgun's doing.

When one part of my processor thought of Railgun, the other part of it thought of Vectra. I hoped my momma was alright. I didn't like the fact that I could do nothing to see if she was alright.

He only sighed and crossed his arms across his silver plated chest. "Read."

I focused my optics on the screen on the wall. There were lines and lines of rules that had to be respected at all times. "This is boring." I said, barely finishing with reading the second rule. "Rules are meant to be broken." I said in a tone hinting on me wanting to break the rules.

I felt a nudge on my shoulder. "Rules are meant to be obeyed, you glitch." He glared at me. "And hurry with reading. Refueling is in thirty kliks." Silvershot said and exited the quarters, taking the key to them with him. At least I could open the quarters from the inside, from the outside they were locked.

So I read the rules on the screen. Couldn't hurt, right?

'Onlining: 5 cycles. Refueling: 5 cycles 30 kliks. Preliminary training session: 6 cycles. Hand to hand combat training session: 10 cycles. Refueling: 12 cycles. Stealth training session: 13 cycles. Medical research: 17 cycles. Strategy training sessions: 19 cycles. Refueling: 21 cycles.'

Are they serious? I gaped at the screen. I read the information again. "I'm supposed to go over six cycles without refueling?" I talked out loud. "And that's just in between the first and second refueling!" I whined to myself. "Well, it is what it is, Goldstreak." I muttered to myself once more, getting off the berth and walking towards the door. "Better get used to this." I took a screenshot of the schedule so I wouldn't forget the timetable.

I walked out of the quarters, making sure the door was fully closed. I needn't check my tank levels to know I was hungry. Prowl said the refueling area was down the hall, on the right… right?

Well, there was only one way of finding out.

While I was walking down the hallway, I heard someone walking behind me, but I paid them no mind.

"Hey." I heard somebody say as my helm turned towards them.

"Hi." I said, stopping in my tracks and turning towards the yellow mech. "What's your designation?"

"I'm Bumblebee." He said, taking a bow. "You?"

"Goldstreak." I said, bowing with my helm in return.

"You headed for the refueling room?" he lightly said, starting to walk towards it.

"Yes, actually." I said, walking side by side with him. I noticed that he had blue optics and black striping all over his frame. It suited him, but he was a little short for my liking. I was entering a completely unfamiliar area.

"I didn't know we had a femme here. You're new here, aren't you?" he asked me good naturedly, adding a smile.

I smiled in return. "Yes, I am."

"Wow, we actually have a femme here." He said in amazement, eyeing me from top to bottom. It felt a little weird. We finally entered the refueling room and I immediately spotted Silvershot at a table in the corner with two energon cubes in front of him. "Want a cube? I'm buying." He said.

I smiled at him, trying to decline his offer as polite as I could. I noticed that the bot had manners. "Thank you, but no thank you. My brother already got one for me." I said. I put my hand on his shoulder, seeing his optics dim just slightly with rejection. "You can sit with us, if you'd like." I offered. I hoped Silvershot didn't mind.

His optics immediately brightened to their normal level. "Sure, why not? Just let me get a cube and I'll be over there in an astrosecond."

I smiled as I turned on my heel and walked towards Silvershot, having to pass rows of tables. And with every table I passed, I felt the other mechs' gazes all over me.

I sat down beside Silvershot as he pushed the cube slowly towards me, with the back of his hand. "This one's for you." He said as he took a sip of his own cube.

"I met someone in the hallway, kliks ago." I said, sipping my cube slowly. "His name is Bumblebee and he'll sit with us."

He snorted. "You idiot."

My brow plates furrowed. "Why am I an idiot? You're the idiot." I retorted.

He put his cube down, if not a little too harshly. "Do you not see that I chose this corner on purpose? See how it's secluded from all other tables and how there are very few mechs on the tables surrounding ours? I thought you had more perceptive skills than that, Goldstreak." He lectured me again.

I rolled my eyes. "What's with you? All of a sudden you're all grim. Stop it. Be nice instead."

"Goldstreak, you fail to understand me."

"You're not giving me material to understand."

"Enough." He sternly said, giving me a glare. He wasn't a patent mech and testing his patience was not something I liked to do, knowing what would come after. "Your friend is coming. I'll be…" he said, turning towards Bumblebee. He narrowed his eyes suddenly, scanning the whole room. Some mechs were still having their helms turned towards us. "I'll be here."

There was something off with him. I could feel it. I lowered my voice as Bumblebee approached us with his cube filled with the blue substance. "Silver…" I said softly, looking at him, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.

"I'm staying right here." He sternly said, crossing his arms. He looked at Bumblebee.

"Hi." He lightly said. "I'm Bumblebee." He slightly bowed his head towards Silvershot. Silvershot did the same, uttering his name as well.

"Silvershot." But I heard a change in his voice. It grew deeper. Aggressive.

What the frag was wrong with him?

"Bumblebee, sit down." I gestured with my hand towards the chair in front of me and Silver.

"Please, call me Bee." He politely said, taking a seat and drinking his energon. "So… What made you guys want to become Autobots?"

I shifted uncomfortably as I glanced at Silvershot. He was looking in the other direction, arms crossed, pretending to not hear our conversation. I was on my own. "It's not exactly one of the happiest stories." I said. I didn't know if he wanted me to tell what happened to us.

"It's okay if you don't want to say. I mean, we just met and all." he said, almost drinking his entire cube. I drank half of mine. "Where are your quarters? Mine are 4A." he said.

"A?" I asked. Where was A?

"It's just on the other side of the hall. You must be B then, right?"

"Yeah." I nodded, downing all of my energon. It was only logical. A on one side of the hallway and B on the other. "You're actually the first one we've met here."

He smiled, finishing his energon as well and leaving it on the table. "There are a lot of good mechs here. But seeing a femme…" he said, looking into my optics. "It's almost surreal. The boot camp has only had two femmes here, but that was a long time ago."

"Really?" I asked. "Who were they?"

"Elita One and Chromia."

"Aren't they part of the Cybertronian Elite Guard now?" I leaned forwards, resting my elbows on the table, truly intrigued.

"Yeah, they are. They're pretty close to the high commanders." He explained. I didn't know that. "But we learn about them during the strategy training sessions. It usually involves studying politics and biographies, too, not just logical thinking and logical conclusions, which is pretty boring."

I quickly checked my chronometer, seeing it was only 3 kliks until the beginning of the preliminary training session. "Bee, what's the preliminary training like?"

"Just some warming up, nothing to it. Hand to hand is tough, though." He noted.

"Let's go." Silvershot suddenly stood up, his silver and dark grey paint having a dull tone to it. "We don't want to get on the teacher's bad side in the morning." He said grimly, staring towards the door. What was happening to him? He's really worrying me with all of his 'untouchable and invincible' attitude all of a sudden.

"He's right, we better go." Bee said, getting up. I got up last, following Silvershot who was following Bee. Silvershot suddenly moved aside at a gap between the tables and I stopped walking. "You'll be in the middle." He simply stated, moving me in front of him so that he was the last one.

"Why this attitude all of a sudden, Shot? It's not like you to be this way."

"Maybe I've changed."

Worst excuse I've ever heard. "Like slag you have." A hit landed on the back of my head. I stopped in my tracks, pointing a finger at him. He has no right to hit me, even though I am his younger sibling. "I may be younger than you-"

"No swearing." He simply said, a glint of mischief in his optics since he managed to catch my attention.

"But you aren't going to embarrass me, Shot. Not now and not ever. Got it?" I tried playing tough, but I could see it in his optics that it wasn't working on him.

"Move it, Gold." He simply said, turning me around by putting his hands on my shoulders.

I hate him.

I followed Bee all the way outside, where the lights were on everywhere, lighting the entire planet, including our field on the boot camp.

One thing I immediately noticed is that there were all mechs lined up on the field. I was doing more than just standing out.

So I stood in line right in the middle of Bee and Silvershot. There was a superior officer in front of us, walking back and forth until the chronometer struck 6. Bots were casually talking to one another in the line, although I saw quite the number of looks headed towards me.

"This is our coach for the preliminary trainings. His name is Tradewind and he's really easy. Just do what he asks you to and you'll be good." Bee told me. "His trainings aren't hard and I honestly think he gives us less work out to do than he should." He said.

"Good to know." I replied, looking at my surroundings, taking in everything. The field was clear on this side, no obstructions, no machines. Just a clear patch of land.

Suddenly, a monotone sound erupted through the speakers of the camp, indicating training was about to start.

"And one more thing, be quiet. The teachers don't tolerate-"

"Attention!" Tradewind spoke up as I saw everybody straightening themselves up. I followed suit, but I had no idea what I was doing. I felt nervous, if anything. "Salute!" he formally said as I caught in the corner of my eye the bots bringing their hands to the top of their helms, arms bent at the forearm. I quickly did as well. "Turn to the right and march!" he said as I turned to the right and didn't know whether I should start with my left or right foot.

I felt a sudden tugging at my spark. I knew it was Silvershot trying to soothe me through the bond. "Right foot, go."

I followed suit as soon as he started walking, and I was following him. Even marching wasn't that easy as it sounded, because it had to be done in perfect synchronization. I had to try hard to not trip myself, not trip Silvershot and to look as normal as possible while doing it. "Distance yourself!" Tradewind ordered as I saw the line in front of me grow longer, the bots distancing themselves from one another. I did the same, marching at the same pace. "Start running!"

I didn't need to be told twice. We were following a circular pattern across the entire field of the camp, which took a while to run entirely. After the first round, I started to feel a little out of breath. And just as we passed Tradewind at the end of the first round, I heard him say we needed to repeat this two more times.

I was really out of breath when I was done jogging the three rounds. Really, I've never ran at such great distances and the field was anything but small. But as we finished the third round, the mechs started slowing down to a march once again. It had taken me a while to march in sync with the rest as at the first half of the fourth round, I felt my breathing even out. As we soon ended the fourth round, we stopped right in front of him, at his order.

"Hit the ground and give me twenty pushups!" he ordered.

This isn't good for me. I can barely do two and a half.

But I lowered myself to the ground and took a stance. "One!" he said as I lowered myself to the ground, feeling my chest plates touch it as I returned up, arms shaking. I wasn't built for this. "Two!" he said once more as I lowered myself. I pushed myself back up, already feeling void of energy. And this was just the preliminary training. I had a whole day to fulfill! "Three!" he said as I lowered myself once more, but could barely bring myself up. "Four!" I lowered my arms, but I could feel that my position hadn't been correct anymore. My bottom was sticking out amongst the others that were lowered. "Lower yourself!" I could see his black feet in front of me. He was talking to me. "Five!" he ordered once more.

I really didn't have the strength. I stood in my same position, not moving up, not moving down. I really couldn't do it. It was too much for me. I never did pushups in my entire life.

"If you can't do mech pushups, then do femme ones." He said, a mocking tone in his voice. I could hear the rest of the mechs chuckling at that, secretly glancing at me. Apparently he didn't notice that I was a built as a femme, perhaps his optics betraying him, hence the reason why he tried to degrade me.

"Serves me right for being a femme." I said, kneeling on the ground. This was much easier than the mech ones. Some of the mechs heard me, others would spread the rumors soon enough.

"Do not answer to me." he said in a deep voice.

I barely nodded as he continued to count all the way to twenty. I stalled my way to twenty. I don't think even one of the femmes pushups were done right. I stood up after he had counted out the number of pushups we had to do, trying to breathe. I could feel my spark beat erratically because of the training. "Twenty squats!" Tradewing ordered again.

I suppressed rolling my eyes, because I knew he was watching me intently. Instead I brought my hands in front of me and started doing crouches on his count.

"Nice work, cadets. You have a 5 minute break, then we repeat." He said, eyeing me carefully. I immediately knew I was peculiar amongst the mechs.

I saw that all the mechs sat on the ground, so I followed suit, sitting next to Silvershot. "I didn't realize you were so weak." He said.

"I'm not weak. Silver, I've never worked out in my entire life and you expect me to do all of this without catching my breath?"

"You need to toughen up. Do not embarrass me." his blue optics pierced through mine. Everything was just so strict here.

"You want to see embarrassment?" I mocked. If he wanted it, he should have just asked, even though I knew he didn't want me to embarrass him.

"Behave yourself." He scolded. I knew he had his moments when he wanted to show off by showing how superior to me he was, but it seemed to me like he had changed overnight.

"What's wrong with you, Silvershot?" I brought my knees to my chest. He looked to the side, pretending to not hear me. But I knew he heard me loud and clear. "Hey, I'm talking to you." I said, but he continued to ignore me.

I felt a touch on my back, somebody was gently poking me, asking me for my attention. I diverted my attention from Silvershot and turned around. It was Bee. "How'd you like it? I told you it was very easy."

I almost laughed. "Easy? I guess I need to toughen up more." I lightly said, Silvershot's words sinking into my processor.

"It won't be hard. After some time, you get used to it."

"Well how long have you been here?" I asked him. He was younger than me and still had more endurance than I did.

"Not long, only a quartex of a stellar cycle. But once you get the hang of it, it's really easy. Oh and more thing, there are also these extra trainings."

"Extra?" I asked. Who would want extra trainings after this?

"Yeah, there are pain toleration trainings and endurance training. They're uh… not so good."

"How many cadets go there?"

He thought about it for a moment. "I think about two? Maybe three."

"Among how many?"

"Well there are 18 of us here. But the number keeps shrinking."

"Why?"

He shrugged. "From what I've heard, a new era is coming and at the birth of every Cybertronian, they'll be permanently assigned to a certain function. No questions asked."

"Bots should have the right to choose." I said.

"I think the same way." He nodded. "But there are some who support this and others that are against this."

"I see." I said.

"Get up!" Tradewind suddenly yelled as everybody jumped to their feet. "You know the drill, run and workout! Go!" he said, putting his hands behind his back and monitoring us as we soon started running, skipping the marching process.

The second time we were running was somewhat easier than the first one, the pushups were harder than ever and the squats were a piece of energon cake. My knee joints would crack every once in a while, while I was doing squats. I had to lubricate them soon.

As we stood up in front of Tradewind, he ordered for us to salute him once more and then he dismissed us.

While I really needed to catch my breath I tried not to show it. Instead I walked side by side with Silvershot, all the way to our quarters. He opened the door as we both got in. The lights were 100% on as I left the door ajar.

"We have hand to hand combat training in two cycles. It would be best if you prepared yourself for it." He said, starting to stretch himself.

"Prepare? You know I don't have any combat skills on me."

"Which is why I will teach you something." He said, cracking the joints on his knuckles.

"When?"

"Now."

"Now?"

I gulped. He was going to break me in two.

Some of you may wonder why Bee and Gold bowed to each other. I wanted that to be the universal greeting. Like humans shake hands, Cybertronians bow to each other in acquaintance. It's a sign of mutual respect. It's not a 90 degree bow, but anything that can remotely be considered a bow, then that's a Cybertronian greeting.

And if you're wondering what the new era is about, I suggest you do some research as I will be following the Transformers aligned timeline. Up to a point. If anything, you'll be learning an interesting part about Cybertronian history from the Golden Age.

As to why has Silvershot changed so suddenly in attitude, it's because he has taken the responsibility for both of them and needs to be there for both him and Goldstreak, all the time. It's not easy being the older sibling, so sometimes he can get away with lecturing and annoying his younger sister. It's what older siblings do, really. But Silvershot would never admit his problems.

Written:

22.04.2014.