About two Earth weeks later

Sweetie's training was going very well. She was learning to talk in complete sentences now, and her flying/transforming skills were near excellent (considering the fact that they were instinctive, which means they don't need to be taught). Sweetie was getting quite good at shooting her fake lasers, and was now learning to shoot her guns. She had mastered walking a long time ago.

Of course, the Seekers were helping her learn all this. One time, outside, they had been teaching her some complicated flight maneuvers. (Those weren't instinctive; only simple flying skills were). However, Sweetie seemed to have a natural aptitude for flying, so they figured she would pick them up quickly.

Starscream wanted to demonstrate these, since he loved flying and he was very good at it, too. Spaceflower held Sweetie while her boyfriend zipped around the sky, performing his flight maneuvers (and showing off a little) as if he was trying to escape from an Autobot, or another Decepticon (like Megatron). There were more complicated maneuvers he knew how to do, but he was demonstrating simpler ones for now, because of Sweetie, who was still learning.

To display how he might escape from an enemy, he called Sunstorm into the sky (since Sunstorm was the least likely to protest). Sunstorm chased after Starscream, shooting at him and flying fast. Starscream flew faster, turning around every so often to shoot back. Sunstorm never caught Starscream and, after the "battle" was over, Starscream transformed into robot mode again and landed on the ground. Spaceflower and Sweetie were both cheering and applauding.

"That was absolutely wonderful, my love," Spaceflower told her boyfriend. "Sweetie couldn't ask for a better teacher."

"Except for me, of course," they heard Thundercracker say. "I make an excellent teacher."

"No you don't," Starscream said back. "I didn't see you volunteering for my fake aerial battle demonstration."

"That is because you are simply unworthy," Thundercracker snapped.

Skywarp was cowering…again. "I just didn't want to volunteer because it looked scary! Did you see all those null-rays shooting? I could have gotten shot! I was so scared! And…and I have a fear of heights, too, did you know that?"

"How could you have a fear of heights when you're a fragging Seeker?" Starscream asked, irritated.

"That makes plenty of sense," added Ramjet.

"Don't forget, Skywarp, there might be a gorilla hiding somewhere in the forest," Slipstream told him, smirking and gesturing to the nearby forest. "You know gorillas like to live in forests even more than they like to live in basements…right?"

"But gorillas are—"

"Scary, yes." Spaceflower sighed, rolling her optics. "Slipstream is just messing with you, Skywarp. There are no gorillas in the forest. Now, let's just see how well Sweetie can perform these flying maneuvers."

"Okay, Sweetie…transform and rise up!" said Starscream.

Sweetie did. She transformed into a little jet and flew all around the clearing, copying her father's relatively simple moves—the first one she tried out was the barrel roll, and everyone was shocked at how well she did it. She increased her speed and even shot her lasers, pink paint splashing all over the ground.

"Try and catch me, Sweetie!" Spaceflower cried out, and transformed herself. Sweetie laughed and flew after her mother, trying to catch her. Spaceflower was going at a pretty high speed, and Sweetie almost caught her a few times. Finally, though, Spaceflower slowed down. Sweetie transformed into robot mode and hovered in midair, as if to say, "I caught you!"

"Good work, you two," Starscream told them.

"Ha!" Thundercracker scoffed. "Totally not worthy of my brilliance."

"Oh, shut up," Spaceflower mumbled.

"I think she's got flying down, though," Starscream told her. "I mean…there's still a lot she could learn…but she knows a lot already."

"What else does a Seeker-in-training have to practice?" Spaceflower asked.

"Next, Sweetie should practice with her weaponry some more," Starscream replied.

Starscream, Spaceflower, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Slipstream, Ramjet, Sunstorm and Sweetie were all gathered in the same clearing to help Sweetie practice using her fake weaponry. Sweetie was standing on the ground, and Spaceflower was pointing towards a random tree.

"Now, Sweetie, hit that tree with your gun," Spaceflower explained.

"Okay!" Sweetie replied, and enthusiastically shot her gun right at the tree. Pink paint exploded all over the trunk, and Sweetie laughed.

"Direct hit!" Spaceflower cried happily, rushing to Sweetie to give her a hug. Starscream was applauding, Sunstorm was saying something about how "honored" he was to educate Sweetie, Skywarp was squealing with terror, Slipstream was rolling her optics, and Thundercracker was crossing his arms, probably thinking, These fools are not worthy!

"Now for the lasers," Starscream continued. "Who's going to pretend to be the Autobot?"

At this moment he had a disturbing flashback to the musical rehearsals, when he had been forced to be the oppressive Autobot, but he tried to shake it out of his CPU. The musical ended up going very well, he reminded himself.

No one volunteered, so Starscream added, "Well, I guess I'm just going to have to pick somebody then."

"Who are you going to pick?" Thundercracker asked disapprovingly.

"Why, you, of course," Starscream replied, like it was obvious. He deserved it, after all.

"What?" Thundercracker screeched. "No way!"

"I AM YOUR COMMANDER!" Starscream screeched back. "And you are a clone! Of course you will do it!"

"Go frag yourself," Thundercracker said. "Everyone knows I am the original Starscream."

"YOU ARE NOT THE ORIGINAL STARSCREAM!" Starscream yelled. "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT?"

"As many as you like," Thundercracker replied airily. "But that doesn't make it true."

"Of course, I know the real reason why you're not doing it," Starscream said. "It's because you're too scared."

"WHAT?" yelled Thundercracker. "I fear nothing!"

"Obviously you fear flying, just as Skywarp does," Starscream countered. "Otherwise you would be in the sky right now."

"I'll show you flying, you son-of-a-glitch!" Thundercracker hollered, and soared right into the air. Starscream grinned. His reverse psychology had worked.

As Thundercracker flew around angrily, Starscream bent down next to Sweetie. "Now, Sweetie, pretend he's a flying Autobot and he's trying to attack you. What are you going to do?"

"Shoot lasers?" Sweetie asked uncertainly.

"Yes," Starscream replied. "And your guns, too. In the air, as fast as you can go."

Sweetie took off into the air and shot pink paint repeatedly at the egomaniacal clone, who screeched with fury every time it happened. Sweetie just laughed and chased after him, shooting again and again.

Finally, Thundercracker transformed into robot mode again and landed down on the ground. Sweetie followed, still laughing. Spaceflower ran over to her, picked her up, and squeezed her tight.

"Excellent work!" Spaceflower told the sparkling, looking over at Thundercracker, who was scowling and covered in Sweetie's pink paint. "You know what this means, don't you?"

"Cyberberries?" Sweetie asked hopefully. (If Sweetie performed very well in her training, her parents sometimes gave her candied cyberberries as a reward.)

"You bet!" Spaceflower replied happily. Sweetie cheered and followed her parents and the rest of the seekers into the base again. They were excited for the treat, too.

"I have a surprise for you all today," Starscream said, walking out into the main monitor room and holding something behind his back. "This is something I made that will really help Sweetie in her training."

All the Decepticons were there, including Megatron, Lugnut, Blitzwing and Blackarachnia. They were all waiting to see the surprise.

"So what is it?" Megatron asked. "I grow impatient."

"Look!" Starscream held out a mini-droid, about the same size as Sweetie. "It's a practice fighting robot. I built it for Sweetie. It has a very primitive processor and it isn't self-aware, so we don't need to worry about it turning evil or anything."

"What a fabulous invention," Sunstorm commented. "I would be most honored if you would tell me what its important purpose is. What does it do?"

"This robot will train Sweetie to fight," Starscream explained. "It will stay at her level at first, but progress as she progresses, too, upgrading itself based on her skills. Eventually, with the help of this fighting drone, she will be able to raise her fighting prowess to a very satisfactory status."

"Let's see a demonstration, then," Megatron said.

"Yes, my liege," Starscream replied. He gently kicked the little robot, and it kicked back. He kicked a little harder; so did the robot. "You see? It adjusts itself to the particular attack moves of its opponent. This way it will never be too hard for Sweetie to learn, but it won't come without a challenge, either."

"You're sure it won't hurt her?" Spaceflower asked, looking worried.

"I've triple-checked it for technical glitches and viruses," Starscream reassured her, "and, like I said, it's at her level. Only when Sweetie moves up a level will the robot upgrade itself, too. It will never be able to hurt her."

"Have Sweetie attack it," Megatron commanded.

"If you're sure," Spaceflower replied, nervously, and led the sparkling to her new fighting drone.

"Remember, the fighting she's learning here is without weaponry," Starscream reminded her. "That's an important skill to know."

"What are you waiting for?" Lugnut asked. "Obey Megatron!"

Sweetie kicked the robot, just as Starscream had. The robot kicked her, too. Sweetie threw a tiny fist at it and knocked it down onto the ground. It got up and punched her back—not hard enough to hurt, just hard enough to let her know that, well, it meant business. Sweetie, looking angry, punched her opponent yet again.

"Atta girl!" Starscream yelled. "Destroy that robot!"

"How do we know when the battle is over, my love?" Spaceflower asked.

"Its processor can only take so much in one setting," Starscream told her. "Once it has had enough, its systems will automatically shut down and restart. As it upgrades, its systems will hold out for longer periods of time, making for longer practice battles."

"I see," Spaceflower replied, turning to look at her daughter, still fighting the battle droid. It seemed that she was winning. She was attacking it with relatively standard kicks and punches, and everyone was watching, cheering her on, until finally, the robot collapsed on the ground.

"Bye-bye robot!" Sweetie chirped, waving.

"Great job, Sweetie!" Spaceflower cried. "You beat the robot! You're great at fighting."

"Thank you, Mommy," Sweetie said.

"Don't thank me, thank your daddy," Spaceflower told her. "He's the one who built that robot for you, you know."

"Thank you, Daddy," Sweetie said, hugging Starscream's legs.

About one decacycle of training later, everyone was sitting in the kitchen and casually enjoying their breakfast, either energon or motor oil, when Megatron said, "Before Sweetie goes through the Branding Ceremony, I suggest we show her how it works, by means of demonstration."

"An obviously flawed plan," Thundercracker scoffed. "Besides Sweetie, there are no new recruits. How are we supposed to have a Branding Ceremony for her to watch?"

"That's why I said 'demonstration', you downgrade," Megatron told him. "We would just be pretending. And besides, that way I don't have to heat up the branding iron."

Every Decepticon at the table winced. The branding iron was very painful.

"You think she's ready for branding?" Spaceflower asked.

"Not just yet," the Decepticon leader replied. "But I can tell she will be soon. After breakfast, we will have a…rehearsal, of sorts."

So, once breakfast was over, everyone headed out into the main monitor room, where a real Branding Ceremony would take place. Megatron stood up and said, "Now then…who wants to be the 'new recruit'?"

Seriously? Starscream thought. What kind of idiot would willingly—?

"I'll do it, oh wise and brilliant Megatron!" Lugnut volunteered, jumping off the couch. "I'd love to!"

"Not you, Lugnut," Megatron told him. Quite possibly, Lugnut would mess the whole display up. And Megatron was most likely considering that fact when he dismissed Lugnut. "Now sit down."

"Yes, my liege." Lugnut sat down sadly. "I'm sorry, my liege."

"Silence, fool!" Megatron snapped. "Is there anyone else?"

"I'll do it, my Lord!" Sunstorm called out in his oily voice, waving his arm all around in the air. "It would be an honor to perform an important event such as the Fake Branding Ceremony."

"Fine," Megatron said. "Get up here, um—"

"Sunstorm," Sunstorm told him.

"Right, Sunstorm." Megatron shook his head. "Now, the first thing you must do is display your vehicle mode."

Sunstorm quickly transformed into a jet and back.

"Now, demonstrate your weaponry and your special talents."

Sunstorm shot his null-rays (not at Megatron) and then flew around for a little while in robot mode; then, he did the same thing in jet mode.

"You see, I have null-rays," Sunstorm explained, "and I can go quite fast in both vehicle and robot mode. Of course, these meager skills are not worthy of your excellence."

"Perhaps not," Megatron replied. "Nevertheless, we need to continue with the fake ceremony. Next up is the most important part—the part in which you, a new Decepticon recruit, take the Decepticon Oath."

"As you wish, oh brilliant Megatron!"

"Repeat after me," Megatron ordered. "I pledge my unquestioning loyalty to Megatron and the Decepticon cause."

"I pledge my unquestioning loyalty to Megatron and the Decepticon cause," Sunstorm repeated.

"I shall devote my spark to achieving our goal of a Decepticon-controlled Cybertron…by any means necessary."

"I shall devote my spark to achieving our goal of a Decepticon-controlled Cybertron…by any means necessary."

"And annihilate all who have driven us from our rightful home world…"

"And annihilate all who have driven us from our rightful home world…"

"Surrender is not an option."

"Surrender is not an option."

"Then welcome, new, brave Decepticon," said Megatron, pretending to press the Decepticon branding iron against Sunstorm's wings. Sweetie would have to get branded four times—on both sides of both her wings—and she had no idea what she was in for. Almost everyone felt sympathetic towards her. However, it was tradition, and initiation was, well, unquestionable.

Sunstorm was still standing there. "Um…yes, Megatron. I am honored to—"

"For Spark's sake, Sunstorm, in all the time I have been online I have never seen such terrible acting!" Megatron thundered. "Act like you really have just been scorched by a flaming-hot branding iron!"

Sunstorm looked around for a few cycles, then screamed as loud as he could, falling back on the floor.

"Now rise up and serve your Master!" Megatron hollered.

"Y-Yes, my liege," Sunstorm mumbled, and went back to sit on the couch.

"Surrender is not an option!" Sweetie piped up happily.

"Erm…yes, future Decepticon, that is correct," Megatron told her. Even he looked surprised.

"At Sweetie's ceremony, we're also going to have candied cyberberries and low-grade motor oil," Spaceflower cooed, kissing Sweetie on the head.

"And, for the not-so-young 'Cons, some free, high-grade energon," Starscream added enthusiastically.

"Candied cyberberries and low-grade motor oil?" Lugnut looked shocked. "Megatron, I didn't know you liked those things."

"I don't like those things and I never will," Megatron snapped.

"Candied cyberberries are Sweetie's favorites," Spaceflower explained. "And we figured she would want something to drink, too."

"So, Megatron, when do you think Sweetie will be ready?" Starscream asked.

"Perhaps after another lunar cycle we shall see where she stands," Megatron replied. "For now, let us continue her training, for her usefulness to me as both a Decepticon and a Seeker seems most promising."