4. Starscream: Wing Waggles.
Starscream 'humms' as he reads the words on the data pad, it was another assignment from Perceptor and this one looked interesting. It was about creating a device that instead of doing any harm to a bot will instead just paralyze them, something like that could be very useful in the field of crime fighting, Prowl would be interested.
Next to the invested seeker were Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak who were watching as Starscream hummed to the data pad. "Must be something good seeing how Star's wings are twitching like that."
Being friends with the seeker so long, the three had learnt to recognize many, if not all, of Starscream's wing movements. One twitch could mean something small as he just remembered something or something big like he was furious with something.
Sideswipe just eyed the wings that were bobbing up and down, he and his twins were hypnotized by the metal sheets while Bluestreak was unconsciously moving his own door wings copying the motion, Starscream noticed but saw no reason to stop.
"Quiet everyone! It's time for a pop quiz!"
"What? You didn't say anything about a test!" exclaimed Sideswipe standing from his desk staring wide optic at Moonracer.
"It's a surprise pop quiz," sighed Moonracer as all the younglings moan and groan, "yes you all have to do it, it will be about the history of Iacon during the last war, if you did all your homework then you will all pass this easily."
"Oh slag!~ I don't know anything about that stuff," whined Sideswipe pouting, "when did we even do it?"
"Like pit I know," Sunstreaker scowled and crossed his servos, "knowing her, if we fail this one then we'll get detention and have to write an essay about it or something."
"Would we really have too? I don't really wanna stay back cause I have music lessons with Jazz next cycle, I can't have detention and miss it. I don't want to have detention either cause then Prowl will be disappointed in me and then he might ground me and-"
"We'll all do fine," interrupted Starscream calming down the panicking Datsun, "just copy my answers, it's nothing important anyway."
"Aw thanks Star! You're my best friend," Starscream smacked away Sideswipe's servos as he dove in for a hug.
"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak I want you three to sit away from Starscream."
"What? Why?"
"Cause I know he will give you the answers to this test and I want you to do the tests on your own," warned Moonracer shaking her servo, "now move please."
Sideswipe let out another whine, Sunstreaker scowled and glared at the teacher and Bluestreak wrung his servos nervously while his door wings lowered. Starscream just gave the teacher an annoyed look before getting up, sub spacing his data pads, he sent the other three a look before moving off to sit in one of the front seats. "Better miss Moonracer?"
"It's fine, but you three should sit away from each other as well," Moonracer crossed her servos when Sideswipe let out another whining sigh, Sunstreaker sent her another glare and Bluestreak rocked nervously.
Finally sitting down, Starscream was at the front in the middle directly in front of Moonracer, Sideswipe was at the back left side, Sunstreaker was at the back right and Bluestreak was sitting in the middle of the classroom. "Alright I'll be passing out the test now, I don't want any of you cheating, if you fail then we'll have a study session together, just try your best."
As Moonracer walked around the class passing out the data pads to the depressed younglings, she didn't notice a certain movement that caught the attention of three younglings.
"Alright you can all start now and I need you all to do it in silence."
Moonracer watched at all the younglings picked up their stylus and started to write down what they thought were the answers. Moonracer knew that none of them were really prepared for the test, so she went easy on them and made the test a multiple choice one, she wouldn't normally just present them with a surprise test but this was an important topic about their history so she had to make one. Moonracer gave a quick look over at Starscream, Bluestreak, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker to make sure that they weren't communicating before looking around at the other younglings, those four were notorious for helping each other in any situation.
What she didn't notice however was that they were communication with each other, she just didn't know how to look for the signs.
Right in front of her sat Starscream, what passed her notice was that the two wiggling wings that sat on the back of the unique youngling, the movements to her meant nothing but to three other younglings meant a sentence full. Watching and bobbing wings discreetly Bluestreak picks the choices and circles the answers while copying the motion of Starscream's wings with his own door wings sending the information to the twins.
Bob up twice, waggle, bob down three times and spread wide.
The answer to the second question was the third choice, wait for the next.
Bluestreak, having door wings, has learnt to read Starscream wing movement though they were different modes, their wing movements weren't that different and being with Starscream so long only further taught him to read them. The twins though lacked wings themselves of any form were quick learners, though they didn't show it, being with two that did for so long they demanded for them to teach them as well to the surprise of Starscream and Bluestreak, it took them longer then Bluestreak but in the end they fully learnt to understand it.
Their creators were surprise then they found out about it.
Skywarp and Thundercracker were pleasantly surprised at how the three grounders were learning a part of the seeker language so fast, they found it amusing watching the three seem hypnotized to the twitching wings and encouraged it by teaching them how to read more complex wing movements and also some seekercant phrases.
Prowl found it strange when one cycle watched Bluestreak twitch his own door wings, at first he thought something was wrong, bending down and rubbing them only got Bluestreak looking at him in confusion while his engine purred at the patting. Asking him about it, Bluestreak just cheerfully told him that he was practicing some seekercant that Starscream's creators had taught him, surprised Prowl could only give his wings one last caress before sitting down in his seat again, unknown to him his own door wings were copying his creations movements. This in turn caused Jazz to caress Prowl's door wings and ask what was wrong.
Ratchet found it suspicious when he saw the twins trailing after Wheeljack one cycle, this wouldn't be strange, but they had been doing it all cycle. When he questioned it about it, they just replied that they were listening to Wheeljack, their sire had no idea what they meant because for half the time he hasn't been saying anything at all. Being accused as a liar by Ratchet they quickly and loudly denied the accusation and said that they were reading Wheeljack's wing movements. Wheeljack could only blink while unconsciously twitching his wings, which Sideswipe correctly declared as Wheeljack being surprised. Ratchet and Wheeljack could only stare at their creations before looking at each other and shrugging, it was a strange thing to learn but at least it wasn't as crazy as the pranks the twins could pull off.
"Alright times up, put all your stylus down and wait for me to collect them," Moonracer walked around the class picking up the data pads while watching as the younglings groan and moan to each other, "alright you can all go to lunch now."
"That was a waste of time," heard Moonracer muttered by Starscream as he waited for his three younglings to trot up to him, "I mean a multiple choice? And meches think it's amazing that I'm top of the class."
"Heh! Says you! You're the only one who really pays attention in this class!" declared Sideswipe pointing at the seeker, "that was a hard test and it was so not fair that it was a surprise one."
"Feh, what do you care now Sideswipe? It's done and over with, who cares about it now," Sunstreaker crossed his servos while glancing at Bluestreak, "you did them right, right?"
"Uh huh!" Moonracer had no idea that Sunstreaker meant the wing movements, "I know I did the questions right, I practiced."
"Good, lets got out of here and get some energon. You three have Ironhide's gym class next and I have to sit through another lecture with Blaster about programming, I swear it's easier just to have Soundwave listen and tell me the details, he's always blunt and straight to the point."
Moonracer watches as the three younglings made their way out of the class room still chatting, no one still knew how those four got along so well.
Moonracer sighed as she sat down and begun to mark the tests, better get them done now and out of the way. As Moonracer started to correct them she noticed that most of the younglings had received low marks, it was an important point in Iacon's history and most of them knew nothing about it, nearly smacking her helm onto the table she let out another sigh mentally adding a note to make a study session.
Moonracer put the data pad she was holding down on the done pile, which scored a 20% to her disappointment, she picked up another that was obviously Starscream's as the seeker had a distinctive writing style. Leaning back she could only go down the data pad ticking at each answer, not to her surprise the seeker got full marks, though it was not one of his favorite subjects the seeker still knew the importance of history and still tried to score high.
Placing it on the pile she picked up another pad that was Bluestreak, going down the data pad, to her mild surprise, he too got full marks, well Bluestreak said he had 'practiced' so she guessed it wasn't strange.
Shuffling through the pile she searched until she picked up Sunstreaker's test and Sideswipes, putting them both next to one another, she read through both. Now she was suspicious, both the twins had gotten all the questions right also and she was sure that the at least Sideswipe would get a few wrong.
This can't be right.
Moonracer let out an angry sigh as she realized that even though she separated them, Starscream was still able to send the others the answers. She would need to have a talk with them.
As the end of the day approached, the four younglings were lazing around in their last class barely listening to Hook as he was instructing them in how to build a small scale model of a bridge, they had already finished building theirs, chatting to each other about what they were going to do on the cycles break.
"Attention: Can Starscream, Bluestreak, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker please report to Moonracer after school."
The class 'ooh-ed' as the four younglings glanced up at the speaker them at themselves, "slag what does she want now?"
"Do ya think she figured out about the wings?"
"She couldn't have right? She doesn't have any herself and she hasn't been around any meches that have any to learn. We're not going to get in trouble are we Star? I don't want to get into trouble, Prowl would be mad and me and Jazz would be disappointed and-"
"Calm down Blue, she couldn't have figured about us knowing seekercant yet. She probably suspects something but she can't prove anything."
"Yeah you heard Star, what she gonna say to the principle? They were twitching their wings? Me and Sunny don't even have any so she can't say that."
"Plus, we're too young to communicate through the comm. yet so she's got nothing on us."
"But what happens if she tries to test us or something?"
"Easy," replied Starscream as the bell rung, "we keep up the 'wing twitches' and innocent look."
Moonracer stared down at the four younglings that were looking back up at her with different expressions, Sunstreaker was glaring at her, Sideswipe was looking bored, Starscream was looking annoyed and Bluestreak was looking nervous. "Alright I know you know why I have called you four here, all four of you out of the whole class passed your test with full marks."
"So how is that a crime?" asked Sideswipe rolling his optics.
"All the other younglings barely passed."
"So? We're smarter than them, big whoop," glared Sunstreaker, "can we go now?"
"No," sighed Moonracer rubbing her helm, "I know that at least with three of you, you would get some questions wrong, so when you all got full marks I knew that something was up."
"I don't understand," muttered Bluestreak with big innocent optics, "how is that bad? It was an important test wasn't it? It counted for half of our whole year marks right? What's so bad about getting all the questions right? It's that what we're suppose to do? Get high marks? What about-"
"She's accusing us of cheating Blue," interrupted Starscream glaring at the feme, "you can out right say it, you think that somehow I passed all the answers to Bluestreak, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker causing them to get full marks as well as me."
"It had crossed my mind," Moonracer cringed at her upcoming processor ache.
"Well test them then."
"What?" Moonracer blinked as Starscream just rolled his optics.
"As them a question, then tell them a few answers and let them choose the right one," Starscream gave her a 'are-you-stupid-look', "if you are accusing them of cheating you have to give them at least a fair chance of proving that they know their history."
"Um very well," Moonracer cleared her vocal before turning to Sideswipe, "what was the designation of the general in the war? Silvershard, Ironbulk, Icestream or Rockbreaker?"
"Ironbulk duh," replied the red youngling rolling his optics, "too easy."
"What stellar cycle did the war occur? 4th, 6th 7th or 9th?"
"7th of course," replied Sunstreaker with an annoyed sigh.
"How many cities were involved in the battle? 5, 8, or 3?"
"It was 5," chose Bluestreak looking up before replying.
Moonracer looked over at the four younglings closely, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak had answered them correctly and Starscream had made no movement to help them. "What mode did the enemy general of the second wave have?"
The younglings waited a click before realizing that Moonracer wasn't about to give them any choices, Bluestreak gave a discrete look at Starscream's wings, "he was a flyer!"
Moonracer looked surprised before clearing her vocal, "where did the last battle take place?"
"Here of course, in Iacon," replied Sideswipe noticing the movement of Bluestreak's wings.
"And was it Ironbulk who won the battle?"
"No," replied Sunstreaker making it look like he was looking off to the side not caring, "it was…er Rockbreaker that won that one."
Moonracer gave them all a long stare trying to figure out how they were getting all these questions right, looking over at Starscream only got him to look at her with an annoyed and distained look. With a long sigh, Moonracer realized that though she was quite sure they were somehow cheating off one another, she couldn't prove anything, there were no actions or comm. Communications between them so she couldn't say anything to the principle. Giving them separate tests and making them doing it at different times will only get the attentions of their creators, Moonracer did not want to deal with two protective seekers, a hot headed medic and a police bot.
"So have they proven to you that they are not cheating or do we have to call our creators?" asked Starscream looking at his claws like he didn't know that she came to the same conclusion, "we're too young to have comm.s and make no movements that tell each other anything, I don't think my sire Skywarp will be happy of me being accused as a cheater."
"…Fine, you can all go now," sighed Moonracer rubbing her helm as her processor ache just increased, "no we don't need a meeting with them, I just needed to make sure that you all really knew your history."
"Finally."
"We get full marks right?."
"Yeah Blue, cause we know our stuff."
"Let's just go, Skywarp is wondering where we are and he has energon goodies in the oven."
"Yay!" cheered the Datsun and the twins hearing about sweets.
The four younglings walked out of the class chatting to one another about spending time with Starscream's creators. Moonracer could only let out an angry sigh before smacking her helm onto the desk. "Tried to prove that they cheated or something?"
Moonracer only looked up to see Blaster peeking through the class, "I tried."
"But you couldn't prove it right?" asked Bluestreak with a lazy smile, "yeah, we all know that they're somehow cheating off one another, can't prove anything though. Too young for comm.s and they don't talk to each other."
"Doesn't anyone have any idea how their doing it?"
"Well I asked Soundwave once," Blaster rubbed his helm, "you can't use it though and can't prove it either."
"What is it?"
"Well, Soundwave said it had something to do with Starscream's wings."
"His wings?" asked Moonracer in confusion, "what could Starscream do with his wings?"
"I asked Soundwave that too, but he wasn't sure of the specifics either, it could be that the twins and Bluestreak learnt how to read them? But the problem is that their all different types of meches and two of them don't even have wings."
"..And you can't move them anywhere in the class to block their vision of wings," sighed Moonracer.
"Yeah," smiled Blaster, "the only thing you can do is let them be."
"But they are cheating!"
"Can't be proven though, what are we going to say? The Datsun and the Lamborghini twins have learnt Starscream's wing movements? That doesn't sound convincing to me."
"So what we just leave them?"
"Only way," Moonracer just let out another sigh before resting her helm on her desk while Blaster just gave her a sympathetic smile before moving on.
"Oh yeah! We passed and we're free!" cheered Sideswipe, "and all because of seekercant!"
"We're lucky that Starscream taught us it," said Bluestreak smiling, "thanks for dipping your wings when the right answer came up Star."
"Like I was just going to let her fail you three," Starscream looked over at Sunstreaker, "nice to know that you chose Rockbreaker from me just motioning 'ground pounder'."
"I didn't at first but whose designation is even close to 'ground pounder'?" muttered Sunstreaker, "she'll be suspicious of us for a while though."
"Who cares," replied Starscream waving to his Sire, "she can't prove anything and can't do anything to stop us."
"Oh yeah! ultimate way to pass classes," cheered Sideswipe.
"Why did she want you all at stay back?" asked Skywarp when they walked up to him.
"Nothing important Sire," replied Starscream engine purring as he was patted, "just teachers trying to prove, and failed, something."
"…Oh the seekercant, it just history who cares?" declared Skywarp reading the trine bond, "now who wants energon goodies? I have a fresh batch back at the unit!'
"Us!" shouted the four trotting off after the larger black seeker.
"Good! It can be a reward for you all doing well on your history and seekercant," the younglings snickered and chuckled at the 'history' part, "come on, Thundercracker is wondering where we are, and we can keep the history test a secret from your other creators."
"Thanks Skywarp!~"
