Before you guys chew me out, I have a reason for not updating practically a whole month! English Exams. I had to study, and prepare all month long for it, and they only ended last week. I'm going to spare you the agonizing details, but let's just say...it's been a long month for me.

But anyway, thanks to the following for reviewing (love ya!): MidnightRaineStorm, DarkshadowsXsunny-sides, emzydatffan, Coolgal02, Alice Gone Madd, xVentressx, Lunarburst23, HeartsGuardianSol, Sunstreaker's Squishy, Reader103, Bee4ever, Hanniban, Beck3490, Guest, and 99luftballonsx.o.x! Thanxs to you all and I'm sorry this is so late! To make up for it, I might be able to get another chapter in between the span of Sat-Mon, but it will be shorter. If that's possible.

Anyway, go ahead and read! I know it's probably the only thing you actually care about ;)


Chapter Fourteen: Training

(Charlie's POV)

When my eyes fluttered open again, I found myself not quite in my own room, but Jenna's room instead. What happened? How did I- Oh, yeah...Sunstreaker happened. Reluctantly, I pulled myself from out of the covers, stretching my arms and yawning just as Jenna's bathroom door swung open, revealing a pretty ginger with her hair tied up in a messy bun at the top of her head, emerging into the room with only a plain white bra and shorts.

"Well, welcome back to the living." Jenna teased and I rolled my eyes, snorting as she wondered over to her dresser.

"How long was I out?" I asked groggily, pulling my own matted hair into a low ponytail.

Jenna shrugged, "Not long, a couple of hours at the most. You came in here freaking, mumbling about 'yellow killing you', and I assumed you were a little too sleep deprived and let you crash on my bed. Hoped it helped."

"It did, actually." I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

"Good. Now that you're speaking coherent english, mind telling me why you were freaking out?" Jenna asked, pulling on her mechanic's jump suit, which was a little loose on her, so she always had to roll the pant legs up. I didn't want to tell her, I couldn't. She might tell Lennox, and no doubt Lennox would inform Optimus and, lord forbid, Ratchet finding out how Sunstreaker treats me. If anything, it'll only make the situation worse; it'll give him yet another reason to kill me.

So instead, I just shrugged, hoping to sound as nonchalant as possible, "I don't know, probably was just me being sleep deprived."

"Are you sure?" Jenna asked, her teasing expression slipping from her face and she turned serious, closing the drawer full of her jump then walked over to me, crossing her arms as she evaluated me carefully, "Is someone bothering you, Charlie? Cuz I can just kick their ass for you, if you want."

I actually laughed at that, albeit still very nervous and uncomfortable, "No, not really. And well, even if there was, it's not really much you could do to help."

Jenna huffed, puffing her chest out like a defiant toddler, "Oh yeah? Who says I can't? What's the asshole's name, tell me, and I'll swear it'll be the last time he ever does anything to you."

I laughed quietly as Jenna got into a lazy fighting stance, punching the air between us as she made punching noises. If only she knew how big this 'asshole' really was. But I just sighed aloud, shaking my head as Jenna finally quit her obnoxious 'fighting style.'

"Sometimes, its hard to believe you're older than me." I said, crossing my arms, and Jenna just rolled her eyes and shrug, before re-arranging her messy bun into a high ponytail. After she was done fixing her hair, she zipped her jumpsuit up all the way. "Well, I got to go to work, see ya around dinner."

I nodded.


After sitting in Jenna's room for an hour and a half, bored out of my mind, I went down to one of the main hangars, leaning my elbows on the high metal railing on the platform and looking down below at the soldiers training. The group was divided in two, one part was sparing with each other, and the other part was sparring with a heavy, black robot whose enormous cannons were glowing a bright, pale blue while whirling on the inside. At first, I thought they were crazy, and I was sure that they were going to die. But as the session continued, the scary robot apparently named Ironhide didn't once actually fired his cannons. Only really using them as motivation to keep moving and to not screw up. I didn't even register someone behind me until they spoke.

"Surprised to see you in here." I turned around to see Major Lennox with his casual warm smile.

I shrugged, "I got bored, there's nothing else to do around here."

Major Lennox nodded, "I can relate."

"Then why don't you guys do anything fun?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He just shrugged, "It's a federal top-secret military base."

I rolled my eyes, looking back down at the soldiers training with Ironhide. And then, the sudden idea hit me. I faced Lennox again, "Do you think I could train with them?"

He cast a nervous glance down at Ironhide who let out a cackle and some soldiers started running away. I stifled a laugh while Major Lennox paled, before looking back up at me with a worried expression, "Why would you want to do that?"

"Because," I said, crossing my arms, "I'm sick and tired of not being able to defend myself, especially against Decepticons, if the time ever comes, I'll need to be able to fight them." I also wanted to be able to defend myself just in case Sunstreaker took up on his promise to kill me one day. But of course, I didn't say that part out loud. I looked over to the other group who were sparring with each other, fighting and chatting with each other at the same time. It looked like enough fun, and it'll probably fill up my mostly blank schedule.

Major Lennox sighed, "Are you sure you want to do it? I'm not gonna lie, Ironhide is a hard ass, and he's not going to take it easy on you just because you're a girl, or a civilian."

"So? I don't want him to take it easy on me, do you think the Cons will take it easy on me? No. I want the real-deal, blood, sweat, and tears kind of training. And if it has to be with cannons over there, then so be it." I said, making sure that my voice was firm enough to let him know it didn't bother me.

Major Lennox sighed again, shaking his head, "You're crazier than Jenna. But oh well, if that's what you want. I can put you in a beginner's class."

I grinned up at him, "Really? Thank you!"

"Don't thank me yet."


"Alright you miserable, puny little worms," Ironhide growled, as he paced back and forth in front of us, "I am your instructor, Autobot Weapons Specialist Ironhide, and you are my pupils. I will be training you on defending yourself against larger and stronger beings, like me," He said, pointing to himself, some of the people murmured nervously around me, but I wasn't nervous at all. "The first step is courage and bravery; enough courage that you would go up against an enemy larger and stronger than you knowing that all odds are against you. You need to be physically as well as mentally prepared, and you need to be brave. Do you all understand?"

A chorus of "yes sirs" rang out through the crowd, but all I did was nod my head with determination.

"Good." Ironhide simply replied to the nervous crowd, "The next is being alert, and shrewd.. You all must be able to avoid whatever the enemy tries to throw at you, or use what they throw at you against them. For today's lesson, you will all be focusing on being alert and shrewd. Each one of you will go separately, but this will be a test to see how well you can avoid being shot at or stepped on." Another nervous murmur ran through the crowd. And Ironhide rolled his eyes, "All right, enough sitting around and waiting, you all line up and get your guns, then wait against that wall over there!"

Without another word, we all lined up to take our guns which were actually filled with pellets, and waited against the wall, and I tried to focus and memorize everything Ironhide said about courage, and being alert. Believe it or not, it was a lot to take in. Ironhide began to call the first person up, and I watched as the large robot eased down into a fighting position, his large cannons out and whirling.

"This is crazy," The guy next to me whispered airily, fumbling with slinging his gun across his shoulder, "He's gonna kill us!"

I rolled my eyes, slinging my own gun, "No, he won't."

The guy looked at me, as if surprised I actually answered him. He then shook his head, swallowing as he watched the first person began running in the opposite direction. "Always run towards your enemy!" Ironhide roared over the sound of his cannons, "Between the legs is where we can't see you!"

In between the legs...run straight forward...got it. To let loose of some of the excited energy buzzing inside me, I began to lightly jog in place, watching as the guy facing Ironhide finally stopped running away from him, and timidly charged forward, raising his gun and firing blindly as he ran towards his right leg. Little did that guy know, Ironhide had subspaces a missile from his leg, and the guy shrieked switching to the left leg instead. Ironhide circled around him, making sure to keep him in his sights while the guy ran around shouting and shooting. But Ironhide managed to flick his gun away, and pin him down with just a finger. "You're dead."

"Did you see how easily he could beat us? He didn't even have to use his weapons!" The guy next to me whispered frantically.

"Didn't he tell us that the first thing we had to do was have courage?" I hissed, narrowing my eyes at him, "If you don't have any courage or bravery or anything, how do you expect yourself to fight out on the battle field, huh? Yeah, sure he's huge and trigger-happy, but he knows what he's doing, he's done it before. They wouldn't have him teaching the class if he didn't."

The guy just stared at me for a few seconds, before finally nodding, "Yeah, yeah. You're right," He the paused, looking at me again, "Wait, how old are you?"

I gave him toothy grin, "Almost eighteen."

His brown eyes widened, and my goofy grin only spread as I laughed at his shocked facial expression before turning back to the class where Ironhide just "killed" another person. That person got up with their weapon and ran over back to the wall.

"Anyone of you actually capable of fighting?" Ironhide growled, even though his voice was full of irritation and exasperation more than hostility.

No one moved, or said a word. Well except for me, that is.

"I'll do it." I said, stepping forward and Ironhide's hard, cobalt optics landed on me.

"Really?" He drawled sarcastically.

"Yeah, sure." I deadpanned.

"Then get over here."

I grabbed my gun and jogged forward as he eased down into another fighting stance. I don't have any experience with guns at all, so I decided that it would be better if I didn't at all. So I slung the gun back over my shoulder before charging forward with determination, just as Ironhide started shooting. I managed to dodge a blast, before lunging outwards and throwing myself on top of his foot, luckily the one that didn't have a subspace on it. Praying that I was fast enough, I began to climb up his foot, hooking on to the large metal plating and crawling up, determined to get to the destination.

In my many times in the Med Bay, Ratchet tole me about a motor relay wire under a softer part of their armor. Yeah, I know, not the conversation you'd imagine I'd have with him, but it was brought up somewhere. If you managed to fracture that wire, the limb will be temporarily immobilized, and I was aiming for the motor relay in his foot. I felt around for the motor relay, while clasping on to a peace of his armor for dear life as he tried to shake me off his foot, cursing and shouting at me. I crawled shakily up a few more pieces of armor, feeling for it, and once I finally found an opening, a wicked grin spread across my face as my hand slid between the soft plates of armor and with a flick of my wrist, I fractured it. Ironhide stopped in mid-curse, and froze as his left foot powered down. Quickly, I crawled down, and as soon as I was close enough to the ground, I jumped off and landed on my hands and knees, panting heavily. Man, was that a workout.

Ironhide froze, his facial expression dumbfounded before his blue optics filled with panic, "What did you do?! I can't feel my fragging left pede!"

I cracked my knuckles, casting him a taunting smile, "I disabled the motor relays in your left foot. A little trick Ratchet taught me."

Everyone seemed to be staring at me, with wide eyes, and suddenly, I felt a little uncomfortable with all the attention on me, but I stared directly back at Ironhide to ignore them.

Ironhide just glared at me for a long moment, before finally he sighed, "You did good, kid."


"Really? You actually did that?" Jenna asked, her eyes just as wide with shock as I retold her the events from training earlier.

I nodded, "Yup, everyone seemed so surprised."

"Well, yeah!" Jenna said, as if it was obvious and I was stupid, "Hell, I'm a mechanic being trained for standard Cybertronian repair and I didn't even know that!"

Really? So no one else knows how to do that? I thought it was basic understanding, the way Ratchet talked about it. Shrugging it off, I went back to twirling the pasta on my fork, just as Major Lennox sat down at our table.

"I heard about what happened today," He immediately said, without any greetings.

"And a hello to you too," I muttered, "I'm not surprised if the whole base hasn't known yet. Why is it such a big deal anyway?"

"Because you basically defeated freaking, huge, scary, trigger-happy Ironhide!" Jenna squealed, "That's like, practically unheard of!"

"You're better at defending yourself than I thought you'd be." Major Lennox added with a nod of his head.

My face heated up from all the attention I was getting.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Major Lennox said, pulling a white envelope out of his pocket and giving it to me.

"What is it?" Jenna wondered aloud.

I turned to envelope over, only to freeze at the table. Tears instantly gathered in the corners of my eyes, and my heart leapt into my throat, "It's from my parents."


Well, what do you guys think? We'll stop there for now, but please review!