Disclaimer: Wide Spread Panic doesn't own the Transformers… are we all agreed? Good.
Ch.12: Laser Carnage
"I just don't get why I can't play!" Joey yelled with her arms crossed. She was standing below the control panel for the Autobot training room and staring up as Ironhide program obstacles for the upcoming exercise.
The big red mech shot her an irritated look. "Because you're tiny and I'll never hear the end of it if'n one of them smears you into a greasy spot."
She huffed and stomped off angrily.
Ironhide rolled his optics and turned back to the training room's screens. The eight younglings in the training room were toying with mech-sized laser tag guns and wearing laser sensor harnesses. Blurr was merrily miming he was shooting Sunstreaker in the head, until the yellow twin became agitated and slapped him hard enough that he fell on his aft.
"Are we there yet?"
"Not yet, Jazz," Hoist replied from his perch driving the miner.
"How about now?"
"No, Jazz."
Mirage, walking alongside the swaying saboteur waited for it. He knew it was coming. The black and white mech couldn't not do it.
"Are we there yet?"
"Will you mute it?! You have asked that question two hundred and sixty-five times!" Mirage snarled his composure lost.
Jazz adopted an innocent expression. "Me thinks I'm beginning to get to you," he sang at Mirage.
"Absurd!"
"Just a little?"
"No!"
Hoist and Grapple snickered merrily and Jazz danced around the irate spy.
"Come on, admit it!" He leaned into the other mech's face and blew a kiss at him, making his stumble backwards with an angry rev.
Wheeljack looked up from his work at the sound of a tiny high-pitched scream. He leaned around his work bench in time to watch Joey dart by and throw herself under a table, with Snarl and Sludge in hot pursuit.
"LOOK! Me Sludge see squishy thing!"
"Squishy thing is mine Snarl's!"
"I do NOT belong to anyone!" She snarled at the two sparklings. "WOULD YOU CALL THEM OFF ALREADY?!" The little human shrieked at him as both Dinobots crouched down in an effort to figure out where their new plaything had gone to.
"Kids, leave her alone," he admonished. The two giant mechs looked up owlishly, before slinking back to where the other three were recharging. "You can come out now."
She poked her head out with an irritated and wary expression. Cautiously, she climbed out from under the table. "I need a favor," she muttered as she made a show of dusting herself off. "I need you to make me something."
He tilted his head to one side. "Like what?"
Mirage gritted his dental plates. He'd had to put up with the saboteur's pestering, but the two architects had announced that they were about to break through. He flinched at the sound the drill made as it grazed metal. Host and Grapple both backed the drill up and swung down. They reached around to pull welding guns from the drill's interior and the two set to work.
"Hopefully, we'll break through in some unused corridor or storeroom," Grapple called over his shoulder to the two waiting mechs.
Jazz grinned. "Be one Pit of a party if we crash through their rec room or into someone's quarters."
Mirage glared at the careless mech and rubbed his helm.
Sideswipe tugged his gun up to his shoulder and snuck around a corner, pausing to drop to one knee and peer around the wreckage to see a silhouette moving stealthily amid the smoke and dim light. Ironhide had gone all out with the simulation this time, he thought. He smirked, took aim, and fired.
The shrill squeal of a sensor filled the room. "Fraggit!" Tracks snarled angrily as he threw down his gun.
Bumblebee suddenly tore by as a small yellow flash; he used his small stature to his advantage, weaving and ducking around debris. Sideswipe fired after the minibot, but knew he'd missed.
He heard a loud thud and a scuffled and then a yell. He spun on his heel, gun raised in time to see Blurr run by being chased by Bluestreak. Sideswipe watched them from his hiding spot and then deliberately picked off both of them.
"Aww, Sides," Bluestreak muttered, but Blurr only kept running, with his sensor vest shrieking.
Sideswipe laughed at Bluestreak, but then yelped as his vest went off too. He turned to see Drift with his gun raised. The red and white mech dipped his head at the red twin, before disappearing again.
Bumblebee stalked along the outer wall of the training room, trying to keep on the lookout. He turned at a loud whoop and Hot Rod jumped down from a pile of debris and shot him pointblank. The minibot threw up his hands in defeat.
"Slag," he grumbled.
Hot Rod grinned at him. "Mess with the best," he purred in amusement.
Bumblebee spotted movement and smirked as Sunstreaker slipped up behind Hot Rod and shot him.
Sunstreaker chuckled darkly. "What was that about the best?" He demanded.
Hot Rod folded his arms and huffed.
Ironhide, watching the entire exercise, grinned to himself. The younglings had been right; this was more fun, though he'd never admit it to them. He made a note to ask Wheeljack to make more of the laser guns and sensor rigs.
He jerked as something pink zipped by him at eyelevel. His brow furrowed in confusion. His confusion deepened as the door to the training room slid open and the little pink blur zipped inside.
What the frag?
Sunstreaker and Drift circled in the training room, both egotistical mechs unwilling to let the other win. Sunstreaker slinked behind more debris, listening for the sound of footsteps. Drift seemed to have found himself a place to hole up.
Suddenly, the sound of sensor alarm filled the air. Sunstreaker froze in confusion. He and Drift were the only ones left playing, so the alarm had to belong to Drift, but he certainly hadn't shot the red and white mech.
He straightened, puzzled but ready to claim victory anyway.
Something pink whizzed into his line of sight. He belatedly realized it was the human. Wearing obnoxiously pink armor, a tiny jet pack, and a tiny laser gun. As soon as his processor grasped that fact, the human raised the gun and shot him point-blank.
"Woot! I win! I win!" She squealed. "I shot you! I own your shiny metal butt!"
Sunstreaker stared at the human in disbelief. He opened his mouth, shut his mouth. Then he raised his gun and shot her.
"Hey!" She snarled as her vest went off. "The game's over, you can't shoot me!"
"Yeah," He drawled. "I don't care. You're dead."
"But!"
"Not listening to you. You're dead."
Jazz pulled his gun and slinked down the dark corridors of the Decepticon base, with Mirage flanking him. They had burned into what seemed to be an unused corridor and know, they only had to find where Skids was being held. That was the plan anyway.
Unfortunately, Thundercracker chose that moment to round a corner right in front of the two Autobots.
Author's note: What do you guys think? Love to the readers and the reviewers! You guys are awesome! Please review!
Also if you're interested, I've posted some Transformers fan art for my stories on DeviantArt. The link is in my profile page. Check it out if you want to. Thanks! –Wide Spread Panic
