Ch 11
Sweet As Honey
"Talk with your mouth full
Bite the hand that feeds you
Bite on more than you chew
What can you do
Dare to be stupid"
"Take some wooden nickles
Look for Mr. Goodbar
Get your mojo working now
I'll show you how
You can dare to be stupid"
-Weird Al Yankovic "Dare To Be Stupid"
I had wanted to officially join next as a soldier, but as I was still seventeen, I wouldn't be allowed until my next birthday.
Ironhide had at least agreed to teach me a few things, though he wasn't allowed to outright train me, which sucked.
Still, I was certain Sides would be more than willing to help me, and of course Streak would get pulled into it.
It was two weeks after I had arrived at N.E.S.T. and was slowly settling in. Which surprised me, as I'm not usually good with change. Perhaps it was because of who caused the change, that made it all bearable.
To pass the time in between my online school and working out, I had started a habit of watching the actual soldiers train.
Today was special, as six new recruits had arrived and were being initiated. I sat on the far bleachers, which were usually used for officers for observation.
The group of six, plus Will, entered from the opposite corridor. They had just been shown the human side of the base by Will Lennox.
I smirked. They would soon be meeting the Autobots. I was excited to see the fresh meats get scared shitless. Especially since the first 'bot they would be meeting was Ironhide, since he would be our cybertronian teacher.
And speaking of the devil, in drove a shinny black Topkick. The new recruits glanced at it curiously. I smirked knowingly.
"Alright 'Hide, your turn." Will said after a short description of the training room and what it was used for. He climbed up the bleachers and took a seat next to me.
"How you think they're going to do?" He whispered to me.
I shrugged. "Look a little fresh, but 'Hide'll be sure to toughen them up."
Our attention returned to the training when we heard loud gasps. The newbies stared in shock as the Topkick started to pull apart and shift. Before long Ironhide stood proudly before them.
I waved my hand at the large bot from where I sat. "Mourning 'Hide." I yelled.
Ironhide turned to nod back. "Good morning Katlyn." His attention returned to the six. "Alright fresh meats, I'll be your Autobot instructor from now on. You answer to me. No talking back, no sassing, no winning, and no quitting. I will not tolerate any such behavior."
"Next thing..." He paused for effect. "Thing fast!" And just like that he transformed his cannons and shot a blast at their feet.
I laughed loudly as most of the trainees jumped clumsily out of the way. One woman managed to roll semi-gracefully out of the way before leaping to her feet.
"It's a numb gun!" I shouted to the recruits in an attempt to help them out. Will mock glared at me. "Won't hurt you but hurts like hell after."
One of the men got hit. His muscles clenched as he fell. One down.
The blonde woman sprinted right at Ironhide and dove under his legs. He tried to spin around to get a shot at the girl, but as he fired she managed to push his cannon just slightly so that the blast connected with his toes.
IronHide sidestepped and the woman stumbled. She retreated a few paces, looking around. All but one of her fellows had been hit. She locked eyes with a brown haired man and the two attacked.
The man ran at Hide as a distraction while the woman snuck up from behind. While the man was distracting him, the blonde ran around to his back and reached for the wiring on Ironhide's cannon.
"Silver wire! Three inches from the nose!" I yelled from the stands. The moment Ironhide turned around to see who I was yelling at the woman struck.
In one swift movement she reached into the working of his cannon and tore out the wire I described.
The disconnection caused the gun to shut down. Ironhide straitened up to look over the two. "Very good." He rumbled. "You had no weapons, but enough wit to render me partially defenseless."
The group's mini battle over, Will tended to the downed soldiers. Injecting each with a pale blue substance, their muscles immediately unlocked, but they would be sore for a while after. Poor basterds.
I climbed down the bleachers and stopped next to Ironhide. I gave him a gentle pat on the leg to let him know I was there, then turned to look at the two victors.
The woman was tall, even more than me. Her light hair was long but pulled into a ponytail. She had pretty hazel eyes and tanned skin. She wore the uniformed hunter green tank top and cargo pants with combat boots, same as me.
The man too, was fairly tall with curly brown hair and green eyes. His face was lean and had a small amount of stubble. He appeared to be of european decent.
"Hey."
The two looked at me.
"Hello." Smiled to woman.
I crossed my arms over my chest. "You two actually did pretty good. What's your names?"
"I'm Marisa Spark."Said the woman, smiling kindly. I returned the gesture with a smirk.
"And I am James Binasco." The man had a very strong Italian accent.
I offered my hand to each of them. "Katt Singleir."
"Pleasure to meet you Katt." Smiled Marisa. James just nodded. We all turned our attention back to Ironhide as he began to speak.
"Now, what did Spark and Binasco do to allow them to secede where you failed?" Questioned Ironhide. Straight to the point like always.
One of the men, the last to be hit I believe, spoke up. "They didn't try to just run away. They were on offense."
Ironhide nodded. "Good."
I left as the group began to go over tactics and Cybertronian anatomy to show as to learn the best places to hit a target.
I instead made my way toward my room. I had a video chat scheduled with Alex.
I grabbed my laptop and sat down on my now blue covered bed, switching the device on.
A moment later a grinning face filled the screen.
"Hey Al." I said over the video chat. "What's up? How's your spring break going?"
The boy on the other end shrugged. "It's good, though it's kinda quiet here without you. I'm totally bummed I wasn't able to visit. Enough of that, what about you?"
"It's awesome. The bot's are amazing, and the humans are pretty cool too. I'm not old enough to officially join NEST, but they still treat me like one of their own, which is good."
"Yeah? Damn, you are so lucky Katt." His jealous facade quickly morphed into a mischievous grin. "Sooo... how's your boyfriend?"
My face immediately heated several degrees. "The fuck Alex?! Streak is not my boyfriend!" I yelled.
The black haired boy just laughed. A yell from the other room had him turn around in his chair. He looked back at me, disappointment on his face. "Sorry Kitty Kat, but I gotta go."
"Don't call me that." I grouched.
We said our goodbyes and logged out. I spun around in my chair. Now, what to do?
I sighed and left my room, aimlessly roaming the halls. I suddenly found myself just outside the Twin's room.
I had been there a few times in the two weeks, but had never stayed long.
After a ten minute walk I found myself in front of their door.
The door, like most used by the bots, was a sliding hanger door rather than a human swinging one. Each had a bot sized panel used to open it.
The door itself was about twenty feet tall, heigh enough to allow most bots to walk in without ducking. Optimus was an exception.
Walking up to the silver metal, I gave it a loud knock. I waited a moment, but no one answered.
"Must be out." I muttered.
Sighing, I turned and headed back to the human area. It was lunch time, and I was starving.
The cafeteria was almost full, causing me to have trouble getting my food, much less fining a table.
Finally I was able to take a seat and began eating my lunch. It seemed to be taco day. Again the food was better than it looked.
I saw Epps and Will eating at a table near mine. They seemed to be in deep conversation. Suddenly a small walkie-talkie looking thing beeped on Will's hip and he brought it to his ear. A couple seconds later he put the device up and said something to Epps. The two swiftly got up and jogged out of the mess hall.
Curiosity got the best of me. As they say, curiosity killed the Katt. So of course I got up and followed them.
They led me into the main hanger were all the military trucks and planes were parked. At the moment it wasn't very full, aside from every single bot, surprisingly. 'So that's where me twins went to...'
There were also a few humans, most of which I recognized as Will's former team from Qatar.
Suddenly a bright yellow camaro with black racing striped sped into the hanger. It squealed to a stop and opened both its doors. Two people got out, one a guy and one a girl.
The boy, I realized he was about my age, scowled at the car. "Bee, what did I tell you about breaking without warning?"
The car made a little twittering sound before speaking. "Sorry Sam." His voice was a bit of scratchy, but I could understand him well enough.
"Yah well, don't do it again."
Once the couple got a safe distance away from the car it transformed. He was rather short compared to other bots. Not as tall as my twins, maybe a foot or two shorter.
He looked, well... adorable. He had big baby blue optics and a cute round face. He pretty much screamed 'youth'.
The yellow bot, Bee I guessed he was called, looked right at me. He gave a little wave and I waved back.
All the other bots turned to look at me.
"Katt? What are you doing here?" Asked Will.
I shrugged. "I just followed you guys. Wanted to see what all the commotion was about."
I walked fully into the hangar and neared the bots.
"Katlyn, might I introduce you to Samuel Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, and our scout Bumblebee." Introduced Optimus.
"Hey." Mikaela waved at me. I waved back and stepped closer to them. Bumblebee waved before he walked over to the other bots and started talking to them in a weird clicking language. I managed to understand a few bits of it.
"So, you're Katlyn." Said the boy, Sam.
"Yah, but I'd rather you call me Katt."
"Sure. And call me Sam."
"It's really nice having another teenager around." Said Mikaela. "What are you doing here anyway? You're dressed like a soldier."
"My dad got hired as the humans new doctor. And I'm not yet. This is pretty much the only cloths I have until I can go shopping."
Mikaela smiled widely. "Maybe we can go together sometime."
I shrugged, not really sure if I would take her up on her offer. "So, how'd you get dragged into this mess?"
Sam chuckled. "Bought a car, turned out to be an alien robot. Bee's my guardian."
"Yah? Cool. You live here? I havn't seen you here before."
Mikaela laughed. "Heck no! We're just visiting. It's spring break. Bout a two hour drive from home."
"Really? Where do you live?"
"Tranquility Nevada." Answered Mikaela.
"Cool. I used to live in White Springs Colorado. Seems like forever ago." I sighed. "And to think it all started with a meteor." I laughed and looked over at Sunstreaker. He didn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation between Bee and the other bots. Instead he was looking at me with a mixture of curiosity and... longing? His gaze made me shiver. But not in a bad way.
Which was odd. Shouldn't that short of look make you feel uncomfortable?
"Isn't that the new guy?" Asked Mikaela next to me.
I jumped slightly at her voice. "Wha? Oh, yah." I glanced once more of the gold bot but his attention had shifted to the others.
"Yah, uh. His name's Sunstreaker."
Mikaela looked at me in a way that made my stomach clench. Like she knew something I didn't. "Really?"
"Y-yeah." I looked at her curiously.
Mikaela nodded. "He's attractive, for a robot."
"Cybertronian." I muttered, not really paying attention to the 'attractive' part. "I hate it when they're called robots."
"Sorry." Mikaela seemed genuine in her apology, but she was still smirking. What that meant, I didn't know.
I lay on my bed, Skullcandy earbuds snuggly in my ears. My eyes closed as I listened to Hollywood Undead's song City. It had in a way become my anthem.
"Let's watch it burn, Let's watch it burn, Let's watch this city burn the world. Let's watch it burn, let's watch this city burn."
"Let's watch this city burn, From the skylines on top of the world, 'Til there's nothing left of her, Let's watch this city burn the world."
"My body doused in ash with two empty cans of gas, The only evidence they have is a police sketch of my mask, And it's hard at times to ask if you can save my heart for last, And it's hard to face the facts when the darkness fades to black."
"It's not just make believe when they make me take a seat, And they put amphetamines in the air and make me breathe, So come on and grab your children, look out for burning buildings, And villains who pillage, they're killing by the millions, And billions of people die for a lost cause, So now I pray to my nation destroyed under god."
"It's the end of the world, All my battles have been won, But the war has just begun."
"The city looks so pretty, do you wanna burn it with me? 'Til the skies bleeds ashes and the fucking skyline crashes, They catch us with matches to ignite the flame, And all the hopes of a youth deemed fucking insane."
"They say, Take the pill, In god we trust, Go and kill, God loves us, As in life, as in death, Breathing 'til there is no breath."
"I will not die in the night but in the light, Of the sun with the ashes of this world in my lungs, But who am I to say let's all just run away, Grab your saints and pray, we're gonna burn this world today."
"Say it's the end of the world, As in heaven as on earth, We've been dead since our birth.
"Let's watch it burn, Let's watch this world burn, The city looks so pretty, Do you wanna burn it with me? The city looks so pretty, Do you wanna burn it with me? The city looks so pretty, Do you wanna burn it with me?"
"We use the trees as torches, Do you wanna burn it with me? Fill the streets with corpses, Do you wanna burn it with me?, Watch the city fucking bleed, Do you wanna burn it with me?"
The haunting music filled my senses.
"Bring the world to its knees, Do you wanna burn it with me?"
"Let's watch it burn, Let's watch it burn, Let's watch this city burn the world."
Three months passed quickly, then four, then five. I was slowly building my endurance and muscle beyond what I thought was possible for me. I could run faster, jump higher, and Sideswipe had somehow made me a human sized rifle but made like his own. I had to practice with that in secret with him at night. There was a little 'don't give alien tech to humans' rule.
But like most rules, Sides went out of his way to break them.
Ironhide was a good teacher, though he really whipped me into shape. But he wasn't my only teacher. Arcee decided she would take it upon herself to homeschool me. At first I wasn't thrilled, the online schooling was enough, but she convinced me to try one session. I never logged onto the schooling site again except to stop the program. She was that good a teacher. I learned more from her in one month then I did in my entire freshmen year.
Lastly, Sideswipe taught me how to race. That one only us two and Sunstreaker knew about. Kinda a no-no to go over 75mph at base.
If we ever got caught, we'd be in deep shit. But it was too fun to stop. If I had thought Sunstreaker was fast the first time we drove, I was wrong. I learned what 200mph felt like.
And thus grew my addiction for speed. Almost every night I would sneak out with Sides to race. I usually rode with him but sometimes Sunstreaker came out and I got to race with the gold twin.
And there were the prank wars.
Sideswipe started it. I blame the whole thing on him. It started out with Sides' holoform sneaking into my room and somehow dyeing my hair pink. It pissed me off.
The dye unfortunately ruined my bleached hair, so I had to let my natural dark brown grow out.
I recruited Sunstreaker to help me with my revenge. He distracted Ratchet while I snuck into the medbay to 'borrow' some strong tranquilizers. Drugging his energon was easy. As was keying him in his recharge.
Revenge was sweet.
The pranks became more heated after that. Lots of paint, booby-traps, blackmail, and slashed tires later, we called a cease-fire.
But the damage had been done. We were now the King and Queen of pranks. And we turned out on the others on base.
"Queen-T to Red-light, Project: 'Gitteriz' is a go. Over." I said into my comm piece.
"Red-light here, package is ready. Over."
"I'm moving in. Over." I quietly snuck from my hiding space in the corner and toward the giant black lump in the back of the room.
The hum of an engine lulled from the resting mech. Carefully I climbed onto Ironhide's chassis and crawled over to his left arm. I took out a screwdriver and a little something I whipped up to make slight electric pulses. Using both tools, I slid open the ammo lock on Ironhide's cannon. Being as careful as I could, I removed all the shells and laid them next to me.
The door to 'Hide's berthroom slid open and Sideswipe quietly rolled in. In his hand he held a cardboard box. He skated over and set the box down next to me.
I opened up the box and took out a sealed baggy of glitter. Grinning sinisterly, I set the bag securely inside, soon followed by another and another. Half the box gone, closed up the hatch and moved to the other arm.
That side went just as smoothly and soon the cardboard box was empty of glitter and replaced with bullets.
I grinned as Sideswipe picked me up and we snuck back out of Ironhide's room.
"Let's go Queen-T." Sideswipe snickered.
This would be fun.
