Author's Note (Mini-Story): Allora came running out of her office.
Allora- "I'm so sorry my readers. Work changed my schedule recently so I was thrown off my game for a bit. But good news. I will have an extra day during the week to work on this story, so there shouldn't be any late updates anymore. This chapter would have been here sooner if those two *Glares at Deep Thought and Cliffhanger* weren't dragged their peds."
Cliff- "But Allora, this chapter is so."
Allora- "Don't you but me. "
Thought spots Lancer dragging her foot in the dirt, "Lancer you ok."
Lancer- "Um, no not really. Listen, guys, I have a lot of stuff going on right now in Real Life. I'm not sure if I'll time to help you guys out anymore."
Allora- "It's ok Lancer. Real life comes first. Do you know when you will come back?"
Lancer- "No."
Allora- "That's ok. You ready to do one more chapter together before you go?"
Lancer- "Yes."
Allora- "Ok then, reviews will be answered at the end."
Ch.36 Homework
Seaspray was waiting with a cube of energon by my office door.
Seaspray held the cube out to me, "Hi Prowl."
I grabbed it while unsubspacing a medicine vile, "Hello Seaspray and thank you."
I mixed the medicine in and took a sip. Sour!
Seaspary- "Sir! Are you ok?"
Keep a straight face! Don't twitch. "I'm fine.*Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Are you sure?"
Prowl- "I'm fine. In the future, when you bring a cube to a bot taking the air intake medication, add some Manisidian to the drink for them."
Seaspray's optics widened in shock, "Is your drink super sour? I'm so sorry. I can go back and get you a better cube. Or..."
Prowl threw back my helm and finished off the cube in one gulp. Subspacing the cube as I answered, "It's fine, Seaspray. I don't require another cube. *Puffs* Now lets head inside."
I opened the door and motioned Seaspray to take a seat at one of the guest chairs while I went to my desk and got the computer set up.
Prowl-"Now I believe the best way to get your training started is by using the same battle training program as me. The game is to capture the flag with your team of dots. Each dot has a unique color and characteristics. Each level has a certain number of enemy character's to fight as triangles. The number of Computer-Generated Characters you will have to fight will increase with each level. I suggest that you try to earn three stars on a level before moving on. If you hit a snag don't be afraid to ask for my assistance. The point is to learn battle strategist, not to prove how good you are already at it. Also use your designation for your game profile, the game records our results and adjusts based on the player.*Puffs*"
I handed him my computer with the game menu displaying create a new user screen.
Seaspray smiled, "Wow, playing a game within a game. How far did you get in this."
Prowl-"Level 15.*Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Only 15? Shouldn't you be past 30?"
Prowl- "Even if your characters outnumber the enemy, it doesn't necessarily mean that your team's strength will overpower them. *Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Oh. What are you doing to be doing while I play?"
I went over to my new mailbox just as a datapad dropped in. There were quite a few sitting there.
Prowl- "Paperwork. I'm behind on it.*Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Ok then."
Seaspray went off to his gaming while I tried to keep from crying. Now you would think that being inactive for two days, Thursday was prepare for Gave shift and Friday was grounding, in the game, wouldn't generate that much paper. But sadly I was mistaken.
Not only did I have reports for the two days I wasn't present in the game. I also had Perceptor's report that I didn't complete on Wednesday along with some late reports.
Since there wasn't really a chain of command in place for reports yet, I ended up with everything cause no bot had any idea of up this was going to work. And I do mean everything.
Reading the reports, I had a section at the beginning of each report where I would write a short summary of the report. So other bots didn't have to read the whole thing like me to get the main points.
Redalert- Security- Monday, Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
The systems shouldn't be trusted, even though no one has had access to them before we logged for the first time and they are working perfectly. There is no real locks on the doors. Nothing is secure and the Decepticons have most likely planted a boom already. We need to have someone monitoring everything 24/7.
Redalert- Security Update- Monday, Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
Prowl's glitch is clearly was caused by the Decepticons. The Auto-Battle App was clearly implanted by the Decepticons to offline Prowl. We're trapped! The door is blocked.
Inferno- Security- Monday, Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
Redalert and Inferno checked everything and found it to be functioning despite the crash.
Ratchet- Medical Emergency- Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
Prowl experimented with a faulty program and is now being watched. Everyone has been informed that the program shouldn't be used. Perceptor came in due to Wheeljack's explosion.
Firstaid- Medical- Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
Prowl got hurt but we think he's going to be alright. We have begun to download the medical database to the Earthside computers.
Skyfire- Wheeljack Exploded- Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
Earlier the Science bots found that the walls were made of a cheap metal that is naturally orange. Wheeljack looked up how to process the metal so it wasn't orange and tried to replicate the process. He exploded and Perceptor received some bumps.
Inferno and Redalert- Night Shift- Day 1 of Gaming. (Late)
Redalert stayed up all night along with assigned bots for the Grave Yard shift. There was no unusual activity but Inferno had to "Drag me (Redalert) away while the Decepticons could be infiltrating our base at this very moment don't you see?"
Brawn- Door Maintenance- Tuesday, Day 2 of Gaming. (Reviewed Wednesday, Day 3 of Gaming).
Two crews were formed to work on the clean-up of the main door. Cosmos, Skyfire, Gears, and Cliffjumper worked the morning shift. Beachcomber, Powerglide, Seaspray, Warpath the afternoon. As debris was removed, support beams were welded in place. The extra rockewas moved into unused corridor F7. Warpath's cannon isn't designed well for this kind of work, but its lazor setting is helpful for wielding. Brawn managed both shifts. Bots that are suggested to help in the future are as follows; Ironhide, Optimus, Hound, Trailbreaker, and Windchanger. Optimus has already volunteered to help with future shifts.
Ratchet- Medical- Tuesday, Day 2 of Gaming.
Prowl's condition is stable but he isn't allowed to train with Ironhide till Friday for safety. Medical order for Prowl to not train is in section B. A list of current medical supplies are listed in section C. Firstaid's report attached in section D.
Ironhide- Training Schedule For This Week- Tuesday, Day 2 of Gaming. (Late)
The completed training schedule for the first week. Prowl has been banned till Friday due to medical order and by Arms Master. See both medical and Arms Master orders in Section B. Section C contains information need in battle planning.
Inferno- Security- Tuesday, Day 2 of Gaming. (Late)
Redalert was in bed for most of the morning. Nothing has changed. Bots assigned to Grave Yard shift reported in and were trained before being left on their own.
Redalert- Security at Night- Tuesday, Day 2 of Gaming. (Late)
Bots with no experience at security shouldn't be left alone at night. But this opinion was overruled by Optimus since be was one of the bots assigned to Tuesday night's shift. He stated, "How are bots suppose to gain experience unless they do it. Besides you need sleep Redalert."
Brawn- Door Maintenance- Wednesday, Day 3 of Gaming.
Morning crew was Beachcomber, Skyfire, Optimus, and Powerglide. Lead by Optimus. Afternoon crew was Cliffjumper, Trailbreaker, Windchanger, and Cosmos. Lead by Brawn. Crews that have a Carrier class frame like Skyfire and Cosmos of Heavy class frames like Optimus and Ironhide, have more of the rumble moved then other crews. Suggest that there be at least one Carrier or Heavy frame on each shift from now on.
Ratchet- Medical- Wednesday, Day 3 of Gaming. (Late)
Everyone still reporting in for check ups. Prowl still appears to be fine after the incident from Monday. Bumblebee, Steeljaw, and Prowl got into an accident and are the first bots to be taking medication in the Game.
Perceptor- Explosion by Wheeljack- Wednesday, Day 3 of Gaming.
Wheeljack tried to mix Sodium Metal with Energon. See sections B1 through B5 for why an explosion happened. See sections C1 through C20 for why it shouldn't be tried again without clearing it with other officers. See sections D1 through D30 for possible experiments in the future that need to be approved. Experiment E25 is the safest and would test the safety of High Grade that has Sodium Metal mixed in. But that would require making High Grade in the first place.
Ironhide- Training- Wednesday, Day 3 of Gaming. (Late)
Bots reported in for training on time. Information for planning battles in Section B.
Redalert- Security- Wednesday, Day 3 of Gaming.
Still no obvious breach in security but staying vigilant. Bots assigned to night shift reported in on time.
Brawn- Door Maintenance- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming.
Brawn delivered the Ground Penetrating Sonar to the sight shortly after the morning crew started work. Work was halted while the sonar was set up and everybot was moved to a safe are. The sonar took images of the rock wall and it is believed that door should be cleared in three days. It was decided to halt work till Friday afternoon. This is to give time for the rock wall to settle back into place and to prevent cave-ins.
Beachcomber- Crystalhouse Review- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming.
List of pure crystals that can be found on Earth, Section 1. Section 2 are for mixed Earth crystals. Section 3 for pure alien crystals. Section 4 for mixed alien crystals. Note: The lists are incomplete due to the fact that we don't completely understand the properties applied to crystals in Cybertronian standard.
Skyfire- Crystalhhouse Review- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming.
A detailed explanation on how to neutralize the chemicals present in the Crystalhouse followed by how to safely clean and store the waste.
Huffer- Inventory- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming.
Wheeljacik requested and signed out one spare energon producer. We now have 19 spares. Other items that were requested today include soup, wax, ammo for Ironhide and Warpath's cannons, paint in various colors, and blank data pads. An updated inventory is attached along with the bots who requested and receive the items above. Note : Not everyone has approached Huffer for supply requests and thus we have supplies that are missing. This should be brought up during an officer meeting.
Wheeljack- Explosion- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming. (Late)
Wheeljack tinkered with a spare energon producer in order to attempt to create High Grade. The machine exploded when turned on. It is believed that the device itself was faulty already since Wheeljack followed a datapad on the subject of making the energon equivalent of Moonshine. Moonshine making on Earth is already risky business so it's no surprise that Cybertronian version would be just as dangerous. Note: Huffer should be notified that one of the spare energon producers is now nonexistent and should not be registered in the inventory. Note: The datapad in question has since then disappeared from its shelf in Science's Reference Library. If there's another explosion outside the labs, we will then know where the datapad is.
Ratchet- Medical- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming.
A few bots came in today due to minor injuries from hand to hand training. Wheeljack exploded again and came in for minor repairs. The medication given to Bee and Steeljaw appears to be working fine. Prowl will have a check up on that front when he is able. Everyone is still able to report to shifts.
Redalert- Security- Thursdays, Day 4 of Gaming.
Redalert believes that the Decepticons have somehow infiltrated our number already and are currently mining information about us. But nothing indicates this.
Blaster- Communication- Thursday, Day 4 of Gaming.
Blaster has been training with Teletrran-1 and his cassectibots on the communication system. He should be able to begin testing this coming Tuesday.
Ratchet- Medical Order- Friday, Day 5 of Gaming.
Prowl was grounded from the Game this morning due to disobeying a medical order from Firstaid. Prowl is only allowed to report to Ironhide for training. Prowl isn't allowed to go anywhere but to the training rooms and straight back to his quarters.
Brawn- Door Maintenance- Friday, Day 5 of Gaming.
Work started again in the afternoon. The door could be close to complete Monday morning. We are still on schedule.
Ironhide- Training- Friday, Day 5 of Gaming.
Prowl was 15 minutes late. He didn't give an explanation but it should never happen again. Infomation for planning battles included in section b.
Percep
Seaspray- "Umm, Prowl? Can I get some help with this?"
I had to offline and online my optics a few times. Wow, I was really neck deep in paperwork.
The datapads themselves if shrunken down to human size were about the same thickness as two DVD boxes held together. The length and width of the datapads resembled a table.
A stack of 10 datapads reached my neck plates, so with me having completed 28 reports. I had round three neck height stacks of completed work. Along with my last stack of reports, my desk had been taken over by reports. This was excluding the makeup reports I would have to make about the events I observed in the game, reports that would be turned in later today, and me getting Jazz and his gang to make reports about their training excesses.
Yeah, I was so ready to be distracted.
Walking around my desk so I could get a look at Seaspray's screen, "What is it that you're having a hard time with? *Puffs*"
Seaspray pointed at various bots, "I have my team set up so that 3 teams can block the enemy while a fourth gets the flag but that strategy doesn't seem to be working no matter what I do."
Prowl- "Let me see your battle history.*Puffs*"
Seaspray pulled up the history page for the program. Skimming over the battles, it didn't take me longer to put two and two together.
Prowl- "Seaspray, you do know the secret behind the colors on the dots? *Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Just that if the dot with the wave symbol dies, it's game over even if I win the round."
Prowl- "That's part of it. That dot is you. *Puffs*"
Seaspray- "That dot is maaWait! Your saying that these dots represent us?"
Prowl- "That is correct.*Puffs*"
Seaspray- "If that's the cause, then that would mean that some dots are weaker when grouped with certain dots because the character strengths wouldn't be a good match."
Prowl- "Yes. I do believe that you now have the information you need to complete this level. *Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Thank you."
Prowl- "You're welcome. *Puff*"
Proximity alert- Optimus is now standing outside the door.
Knock Knock.
Prowl- "The door is unlocked, Optimus. You can come in."
The door opened and Optimus walked in to see the mess that was my desk. If I wasn't mistaken, there was a fresh dent on his helm on the left side. A wrench sized dent.
Optimus- "Prowl, Seaspray. Has the workload been too much?"
Seaspray- "Not for me, Sir. I've just been trying to catch up with Prowl on training. Prowl's been the one with too much paperwork."
Prowl- "It hasn't been too much. I just received some late reports and due to my absence from the game the reports have merely pulled up. I'm almost complete.*Puffs*"
Optimus pulled out a huge box from his subspace as he was walking around to the back of my desk. "Then you wouldn't mind if I take them off your hands now."
Prowl- "Wait! The Summaries I've written aren't to standard! *Puffs*"
Too late. Optimus had already swept the piles of datapads into his box and subspace the whole thing. The nicely sorted pads were now mixed up inside his inter-dimensional pocket.
Prowl- "Why, did you do that?*Puffs*"
Optimus rubbed his bump, "I was reminded that part of my role is the read the reports too. Besides, I'm sure your summaries aren't that bad. Have a good rest of the day you two. I believe Jazz will be by soon."
Optimus left and Seaspray patted my arm in sympathy, "I'm sure that they aren't that bad."
Prowl- "I wasn't writing them for anyone else to read. They were simply to help me find the right datapad when I needed to reference them later.*Puffs*"
Seaspray- "Oh...Well, I'm sure it won't matter. Wow, I can't believe it's almost lunch. My tanks sure are empty."
A comlink from Optimus appeared.
Optimus- Oh, I almost forgot. Prowl, you should send out an email stating that it's ok to miss your morning shift tomorrow if your attending Church. Can't wait for your service tomorrow.
Groan.
Author's Note (Mini-Story): The gang pulled to a stop a transit station that had buses to the real world. Lancer had her bags tired to give back her conductor hat but Allora wouldn't let her.
Allora- "You keep it. For the memories."
Lancer- "Thanks."
She gave everyone hugs before getting onto her bus and driving off.
Cliff- "Will we see her again."
Allora- "I hope so."
Thought- "Me too."
Allora- "Ok, enough being sad. Reviews. Mywinx14, hugs and strength to you. BIackrose13, yes he is always up to something. Lol, Op being sneaking looks super cute in my head. adelphe24, I totally agree with you but sign someone had to do it. CMDOBlizin, lol Wheeljack really does need to stop while he is kind of ahead. I wonder why he hasn't lost an arm yet? praxian, see you when you get back.
Well, that's it for this weekend. Hugs and Strength to everyone and see you all later."