Chapter Thirteen - The Fight
Smokescreen walked swiftly across the playground, finally catching up with Steeldust.
The two younglings had been looking all over for Bluestreak, who had gone missing at the beginning of recess. Steeldust had unconsciously took the lead in the search, leaving Smokescreen to follow wherever the navy and black decided to look.
The older youngling huffed quietly to himself. Steeldust never went anywhere slowly, and even he with his longer pedes had trouble keeping up sometimes.
Poor Bluestreak probably had it worse.
"BLUESTREAK!" Steeldust yelled from the top of the slide, shielding his optics with one hand as he scanned the area.
Smokescreen winced as his younger friend teetered on the narrow ledge of the slide. He shook his helm. Since when was he worried about mecha falling off of high things.
And this was Steeldust, not Bluestreak. Not that Blue would do a lot of the things Steeldust would.
Smokey sighed. His teacher must be rubbing off on him or something.
"Do you see him, Steel?" the white youngling called.
Steeldust came zipping down the slide, landing neatly on his pedes next to Smokescreen. "Nope. He's-gotta-be-somewhere-'round-here-though. We've-checked-everywhere-inside," he said in a rush, his words almost blending together.
After taking a klik to sort out what his friend had said, Smokescreen replied. "Right. Maybe he's- "
Smokescreen didn't get to finish. Steeldust was already halfway across the front yard, likely heading to check where he was about to suggest.
"Hey! Wait for me!" Smokescreen protested, running after him once again.
As he rounded the side of the building, the nine-vorn-old's audios picked up mecha laughing. In addition, there was one yelling.
"That sounds like Bluestreak!"
Reaching the back yard of the school, Smokescreen's suspicions were confirmed.
"Not again..."
Bluestreak was in the midst of four older younglings, who were tossing his datapad back and forth over his helm.
"Give it back!" Bluestreak whimpered, jumping as the datapad flew over his helm once more.
"Aww, little Bluestreak wants his datapad back, mechs," sneered the leader of the group of bullies. "Hey Swerve, throw it here!"
"Hey!" yelled Smokescreen, approaching the group.
The five younglings looked up. Bluestreak was relieved, but the rest were unimpressed.
One of the bullies cackled. "Oh look, someone's coming to save you."
"Save me, Smokescreen," mocked another one, making his voice higher, poorly impersonating Bluestreak.
The third held the datapad aloft. "Whatcha gonna do? Make us give it back?"
Smokescreen growled; his hands curled into fists at his sides. He stalked right up to the leader of the group and looked him in the optic. "Why can't you four just leave Bluestreak alone? I'm tired of you picking on him!"
The green and black youngling looked down at him and sneered. "Yeah? Ah'm tired of ya botherin' us. Ya think ya can boss us around?"
"Let's show them who's boss!" exclaimed the second bully. He grabbed Bluestreak by a doorwing, pulling him away from Smokescreen.
"Oww! Wildrider, let go! That hurts!" whimpered Bluestreak, struggling to get away.
"Let him go!" Smokescreen growled, advancing towards the grey and red youngling who had his friend.
He was stopped by the other three bullies. The leader shoved him hard. "Get lost!"
Smokescreen stumbled a few steps back. Once he'd regained his balance, he charged the leader.
Within astrokliks, Smokescreen and Wheeler were rolling on the ground, hitting and kicking each other.
The other three bullies cheered their leader on. Wildrider kept a firm hold on Bluestreak, grinning like a nutcase.
"Where did Steeldust go?" Smokescreen wondered as he was kicked in the tank. Gritting his denta, he swung at the Wheeler's helm. His fist connected with the green youngling's jaw.
"Ouch! Why you," snarled Wheeler, pausing to rub his faceplate.
Smokescreen launched a pede towards him, kicking him off of him.
Wheeler landed with a thud. "Don't just stand there, ya idiots! Get him!" he growled in pain.
Before anyone could react, Steeldust arrived.
The speedster came rushing from the school's back entrance and leapt over Smokescreen. He tackled Swerve to the ground and then dove towards the next bully.
"You!" hissed Drag Strip. Tossing the stolen datapad to the side, he lunged towards Steeldust.
Drag Strip was fast, but Steel was faster. He ducked under the orange youngling's servo and in-between his pedes, tripping him.
Wildrider took one look and ran, shoving Bluestreak away from him.
Steeldust dodged Bluestreak and ran after the bully. "Get back here, Wildrider! I'll get you for hurting Bluestreak!" he screamed.
"I didn't hurt him! Get away from me, you're crazy!" yelled Wildrider.
"Liar!"
Meanwhile, Wheeler had gotten up again. He had watched, slack-jawed, as Steeldust took out most of his followers in mere astrokliks.
"Aargh!" he yelled, charging Smokescreen again.
The white and blue youngling was ready for him.
Taking a tip from Steeldust, he let the bully get close to him, and then tripped him. The youngling landed faceplate in the dirt.
Steeldust meanwhile, had succeeded in tackling his opponent and had now returned. He stood protectively in front of Bluestreak as the four bullies regrouped. Smokescreen backed up to join him.
Wheeler staggered to his pedes, wiping dirt from his bruised faceplate. "Yer gonna pay for that," he snarled.
Smokescreen raised an optic ridge as he readied himself. "You really want to go again?"
The rest of the bullies looked at each other, then at the Praxians and speedster.
Steeldust growled, baring his denta, and took a menacing step forward. His doorwings and shoulder plating flared, making him look bigger.
"We should go, boss," Swerve laughed nervously as he slowly backed away. "Come on, Drag Strip."
The orange and purple speedster glared at the trio, but followed Swerve.
Wildrider took one more look at the small navy speedster, then turned and retreated again.
Soon, their leader was by himself.
"Hey! Where ya goin'! Ah didn't tell ya mechs ya could leave!" he yelled after them. Turning back to face the trio, he pointed at Smokescreen. "This ain't over!"
With that, he followed after his group, limping as he went.
"You okay, Bluestreak?" asked Steeldust, turning to look his friend over. His shoulder playing laid flat again as he calmed down.
The grey Praxian nodded, his doorwings quivering. "But now we're gonna be in trouble," he wailed. He sat down on the ground and hid his faceplate in his knee joints.
"Hey, Blue," Smokescreen said, limping over to crouch beside him. "It's okay. They're gone. And really, you're not going to get in trouble, you didn't do anything wrong."
The school's doors opened and Silver emerged. She saw the three younglings huddled together and ran over.
"Are you three alright? Steeldust came and told me there was a fight?" she asked upon reaching them.
"So that's where he went," thought Smokescreen. "Yeah, Wheeler and a few others were bothering Bluestreak again."
Silver shook her helm. "Those younglings..." She knelt down on the other side of Bluestreak and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright, Sweetspark?"
Bluestreak lifted his helm and nodded.
"Smokescreen and Steeldust saved me. Silver, please don't get them in trouble! They were only trying to help!" he pleaded anxiously.
"Calm down, Bluestreak," the teacher said firmly. She glanced up at the two younglings in question.
Smokescreen definitely looked like he'd been fighting. He had dents and scrapes all over him, but other than that seemed to be fine. Silver wasn't so sure about Steeldust, but she thought he'd likely been some part of it.
"Unfortunately, I do have to send you three to the office. But Steeldust did come to me and request help. That was the right thing to do," she began. Directing her gaze towards the navy youngling, she asked, "Steeldust, did you involve yourself in the fight when you came back outside?"
"Yes, Silver," Steeldust replied unashamedly.
"Alright," Silver sighed. "Let's get you three to the nurse. After that, you will be going to the office."
"Yes, Silver," the three chorused.
"Here's your datapad, Bluestreak," Smokescreen said as he picked the device up. He handed it to the younger Praxian and pulled him to his pedes.
"Thanks, Smokescreen. Sorry I got you two in trouble," he murmured, following Silver and Smokescreen.
"It's okay, Blue," Steeldust replied from behind him. "We weren't gonna just leave you."
"Yeah," Smokescreen added, wiping energon from a cut on his servo. "Besides, those mecha need to learn to leave smaller younglings alone."
"But you got hurt cause of me," protested Bluestreak.
"Yeah, but I'll be alright. Don't worry about it, Blue."
Steeldust piped up again. "Smokey's tough. He'll be okay."
Bluestreak didn't look quite convinced, but he nodded. "Thanks for helping me. I wouldn't have gotten away without you two."
"You're welcome," Smokescreen said.
"Like Smokey said, we weren't gonna leave you alone," Steeldust added.
Silver waited up ahead, holding the door open. "Come on you three."
The younglings hustled along a bit, entering the building and headed towards the nurse's office.
"That wasn't exactly how I planned to use my recess time this orn. Oh well, at least Blue's okay. And I got to show Wheeler he's not so tough," thought Smokescreen. "But Blue is right, we're gonna be in trouble."
"Well, that could've gone worse," Smokescreen remarked as they left the office.
"What do you mean?" Steeldust asked, tilting his helm. "We got talked to."
"We could've got in more trouble. They let us off with a warning this time."
"Oh. I guess so."
"I'm sorry," Bluestreak said, hanging his helm. "I got you two in trouble. It's my fault."
"No, you didn't. We got ourselves into it and I would do it again," replied Smokescreen. "It's really okay, Blue. Don't worry bout it."
"Okay."
Steeldust meanwhile, had halted in the middle of the hall. The two other younglings noticed and also stopped several steps away.
"What's he doing?" Bluestreak asked.
The navy and black was staring up at something, his doorwings twitching.
"I dunno," replied Smokescreen, walking back to where they'd left Steeldust.
Bluestreak followed. "Steeldust? What're you looking at?"
Smokescreen looked at the ceiling to see what was so interesting.
"There's a vent," Steeldust replied matter-of-factly.
"Uh- Yeah," Smokescreen said. "So what?"
"They go all through the building."
"Your point?" the white and blue asked curiously. "What is he getting at?"
"If we got up there, we could go wherever we want and nobody would know," said Steeldust, still looking at the ceiling.
"Why would we want to do that?" asked a very confused Bluestreak.
"Cause it'd be fun!" Steeldust grinned, finally looking at his friends.
"That does sound like fun," agreed Smokescreen. "But how would we get up there? We can't exactly go get a ladder."
Steeldust narrowed his optics in thought. "I don't know."
Just then, the bell rang.
"If I think of something, I'll let you know," called the navy speedster as he ran to class.
Smokescreen watched as Bluestreak ran after Steeldust, quickly falling behind. Then, he turned to head to his own class.
Steeldust's idea sounded exciting. He would think of ways to get to the vents too.
Silver glanced up at her class to check on them. Bluestreak, she noted, looked worried about something.
She glanced over at Steeldust to see if he had noticed.
The femme sighed when she saw the expression on the navy and black youngling's faceplate.
"Well, that might just be why Bluestreak is worried. Or he is still upset about what happened earlier."
Silver knew that look on that youngling's faceplate. Steeldust was planning something. In all likelihood, Smokescreen was involved too.
"Poor Bluestreak gets dragged into all sorts of things by those two," Silver thought, shaking her helm. "At least the things they come up with aren't dangerous."
Usually.
She would have to keep an optic on them for the next few orns. Hopefully whatever Steeldust was scheming about wasn't anything to do with the bullies they'd fought with earlier.
"Steeldust, Bluestreak. Please try and focus on your reading."
The two younglings did as they were asked, and Silver went back to marking work.
There hadn't been too much excitement in her classroom since the petrorabbit incident a few decacycles ago.
Silver chuckled to herself. It would be too good to be true if that was the craziest thing her students did.
"Ah know dat look," Jazz said when Steeldust ran over to him. "Spill."
Steeldust placed his hands behind him and tried to look innocent. "What do you mean, Jazz?"
The investigator crossed his servos over his chest. He looked down at the youngling, optic ridges raised above his visor. "Ah know yer schemin'. What mischief have ya got planned, Steel?"
Steeldust grinned widely. "Nothing."
"Uh huh, sure," Jazz said. "Come on. We're gonna surprise Prowler with a visit."
"Yay!" Steeldust cheered. He hopped in Jazz's alt once the mech transformed and soon they were on their way.
"Jazz?"
"Yeah, Steeldust?"
"When you were my age, did you ever have to chase away bullies for Prowl?"
"Hmm, we didn't know each other when we were yer age."
"Oh," Steeldust replied. "But you would've, right? If someone was being mean to Prowl, you'd help him."
"You bet Ah would've. Ah still would now. That's what friends do, look out fo' each other," Jazz responded cheerily. He paused, then continued. "Why do ya ask?"
"Just cause."
"Okay."
The two were silent for a bit.
"Mecha pickin' on Bluestreak again this orn?" Jazz asked.
"Yeah. Me and Smokescreen saved him though. They didn't really hurt him."
"That's good. Are you an' Smokescreen okay?"
"Smokescreen had to go to the nurse, but he's okay now. And they didn't get me."
"Hmm, da two of ya fought then?"
"We had to help, Blue," Steeldust protested. "I-ran-and-got-Silver-but-I-beat-her-back. And-they-were-hurting-my-friends-so-I-had-to-help. I'm sorry for fighting, Jazz."
"Well, Steel," Jazz mused. "It was good ya went fo' help an' stood up fo' yer friends. Did someone already give ya a talkin' ya?"
"We got sent to the office. They headmaster let us off with a warning, but the bullies got in trouble."
"Ah see. It sounds like ya know where ya went wrong, so Ah won't say anymore bout it. No more fightin'?"
"Unless there's no other options."
"Good enough fo' me," Jazz said. Then, he added, "So how many did you an' Smokey fight off before Silver got there?"
"Four," Steeldust said as Jazz pulled to a stop in front of Prowl's house. He hopped out and Jazz transformed behind him.
They walked up the steps and the investigator knocked on the door.
"He's taking a long time," said Steeldust. "Maybe he didn't hear."
Jazz chuckled. "Ah just knocked a couple astrokliks ago, Steeldust. Be patient."
"Okay."
Steeldust stood as still as he could for a few kliks. His doorwings twitched as he tilted his helm, listening for pedesteps.
"Hmm, Ah guess he ain't home yet," said Jazz. He moved to sit on the bottom step, leaning back on his elbow joints.
The youngling came and sat beside him. "Think he's on his way?"
"Maybe."
Steeldust fidgeted in place. "How long does it take to get here from his work?"
"Depends if he's got ta make some stops on da way."
"Think he's lost?"
Jazz laughed. "Steeldust, Prowl knows Praxus better than Ah do. He's lived here all his life."
"Oh," Steeldust said, tilting his helm. "How come you don't live in the same place as always, Jazz?"
"Well, Ah'm da kind o' mecha who don't like ta stay put fo' long," Jazz began, looking out at the street. "There's too many things ta do an' see. An' ya can't do dat if ya stay in one place all yer life."
"You're kind of like me," Steeldust replied, looking up at his guardian. "I don't like to sit still for long. There's too much to do."
Jazz laughed again, returning his gaze to Steeldust. "Ah guess Ah am, aren't Ah?"
Steeldust nodded and grinned. "But I've only been to Polyhex and Iacon. And now here. You've been to lots more places than me."
Jazz nodded his agreement. He paused, pondering if it was wise to ask, but he decided to see where it would go. "Went ta Iacon ta see da races, Steeldust?"
"Yeah," Steeldust replied. "Carrier sometimes took me and my brother to see Sire race. He mostly won. He was a good racer."
"I saw him race a couple times. He was a good racer, wasn't he? Ah didn't know him, but he seemed like a good mech too."
"Yeah. Me and Blurr wanted to be like him some orn."
Steeldust continued for a while, talking about the races he'd watched and how his Sire would win. He seemed sad but talked like he wanted to tell Jazz about it.
Jazz listened quietly. If Steeldust was willing to talk about his family, then that was good. He was starting to open up, maybe starting to heal.
Prowl drove up and Steeldust abruptly stopped talking.
"Hi Prowl!" the little youngling yelled, almost smacking Jazz with his hand as he waved excitedly. Steeldust then launched himself off the steps and ran to hug Prowl's pede.
The enforcer walked awkwardly up to the steps and looked at the mech sitting there.
"Hey Prowl," grinned Jazz. "Funny meetin' you here."
"Hello, Steeldust. Jazz," Prowl replied dryly. "Any particular reason for this visit or is this a social call?"
"Ah just thought ya might've missed us," said Jazz with a shrug, rising to his pedes.
Prowl rose an optic ridge. "I see. Well, please come in and make yourselves at home. Though I suppose you do anyways."
The enforcer walked inside, Steeldust still clinging to his knee joint, making it rather hard to walk properly.
Jazz followed, snickering at the sight. He closed the door behind him and took his usual seat at the kitchen table.
"Steeldust," Prowl said, addressing the parasite that had attached to his pede. "I have missed you too, but I cannot move effectively with you doing that."
Steeldust peered up at him, not loosening his grip. "But this is fun," he giggled.
"I am not a playground, Steeldust," Prowl said, placing his hands on his hips. "You don't need to climb on me."
"Okay," Steeldust said. He let go and proceeded to flop onto the floor in front of the enforcer.
Prowl looked at Jazz for help. "Please tell me he does this to you as well."
Jazz smirked, leaning back in his chair so that it was standing on only two legs. "Sometimes. Ah think it's special fo' you though."
"You look tall from down here," Steeldust remarked from the floor.
Prowl sighed. "Excuse me, Steeldust." The enforcer carefully stepped over the youngling and walked to the kitchen counter.
Steeldust rolled over onto his tank and twitched his doorwings. They got uncomfortable if he laid on his back for very long. He watched as Prowl brought back three cubes of energon, one half full.
Prowl paused beside him. "Are you going to stay down there or are you coming to the table?"
"I'll stay here," Steeldust said, moving to sit with his pedes crossed.
Prowl set his cube down beside him and carried on to the table.
Steeldust drank his energon, listening to the two mechs talk.
That orn, Prowl had caught a bad mech who had stolen something. A thief.
Steeldust was proud of Prowl, he was a good enforcer who protected mecha.
Him and Jazz were both good mecha.
"I'm gonna be like Jazz and Prowl when I grow up," Steeldust thought.
Maybe he'd be a racer and an investigator or enforcer.
Credit Song: Cool Kids - Echosmith
Thanks for reading!
Note (PLEASE READ :)) Just a heads up, I'm going to be switching everything in this story over to the original Origin Steeldust to just have the story in one place on my profile instead of two. I'll keep all the existing chapters here for a bit so hopefully everyone reading the story will see this note. However, I will likely not post the next chapter here on this one, just on the original.
I hope that makes sense...