A/N: In case anyone was wondering, the holopads that Stealthshadow always seems to be looking at are comprised mostly of pictures of femmes. I just imagine him as a happily retired soldier enjoying looking at feminine figures. I also made mention of his having a wandering optic previously when he discussed TC's mother-creator as 'a beautiful streak of blue across the skies and one of the best fliers in the corp' and then makes half of a comment about 'what he would have given to-' before he catches himself and realizes that there are two younglings listening to him ramble. Stealthshadow has a dirty mind XD.

As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and reviews are given much love! And now I bring you another chapter of our favorite Seekers!

Chapter 8 – Call it Destiny

A slight smirk spread across the blue youngling's faceplate - he was still having problems with schooling his emotions to throw his opponent off guard, but that was a minor problem when placed alongside his speed. He readied his stance and shook out his small shoulders, placed his left foot in front of the other, and centered his lithe body over his hips. A deep intake of air steadied his systems and focused his attention on the much larger flier kneeling in front of him.

Stealthshadow motioned with just his fingers for the youngling to come at him. "I don't have all day to wait for you, Thundercracker. Are you going to attack me or are you going to stand there shivering like a sparkling? Bring it or let one of the others attack."

Using his right foot to propel him, Thundercracker darted forward at the flier. Purple optics narrowed as he saw the older mech's arm shoot out to catch him, but the youngling was prepared for the move. He dashed to one side and crossed his arms in front his chest in a defensive posture ready to block the other mech if need be; but his feigned dodge did what he intended it to do and took the flier by surprise. The extremely agile youngling planted his left foot and launched himself into the air, somersaulting gracefully over the Stealthshadow's shoulder and tagging the back of his ebony wings with both hands. He nailed a perfect landing some feet away from the flier and pivoted sharply on his toes to face the mech with his fists raised.

"WHOO! You got him good, TC!" Skywarp cheered for his best friend.

Worldly green optics gazed proudly at one of his young protégés; the blue youngling's skill and grace spoke volumes of his potential as a flier, and Thundercracker would easily surpass his own flying skills in maybe a vorn. Not that he was out of shape for flying by any means, the Wraith only chose the elite for a reason, but the youngling was that good. The Guardian Fliers would be tripping over their own wings just to get Thundercracker to join their ranks.

The blue mech relaxed as he stood there grinning, exchanging hyper glances between his friends and his teacher. Stealthshadow chuckled and pointed at Thundercracker, "You keep that up and I won't be able to catch you…" His black leg shot out from behind him and swept the startled youngling off his feet.

Thundercracker blinked in shocked surprise as the black flier stood and walked over to the stunned youngling. He offered his hand to the blue mech, who stared at him. "You can't stand there admiring your work. You complete your attack and keep moving, because the instant you stop or hesitate is the moment they will hit back."

The youngling got up and took his place over by Skywarp on the mats, nursing his slightly bruised ego. The usually mouthy black mech patted his best friend's shoulder, "You'll get him, TC. Don't worry."

It was Starscream's turn next and he looked nervously between his friends and the much larger black flier. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…

Stealthshadow beckoned to him, "Come on, Starscream. I know you've been studying this, lets see if you can put some action to those words."

"But…"

"No 'but's. Plant your feet and go."

He moved into the defensive position that Stealthshadow had schooled them on and took his stance, crossing his arms in front of his chest and steeling his jaw. The red mech was, for the most part, able to keep his emotions in check and his face calm, but there were occasions when the youngling's face twisted into an angry snarl right before he made his attack; those attacks usually failed, but his defenses improved exponentially.

Starscream circled air through his systems as his optics roved over Stealthshadow's frame looking for a chink in his armor. Out of all three younglings the red mech was the most calculating, looking for an opening in his opponents defenses before committing to an attack. Each youngling had developed specific strategies for attacking and defending. Skywarp usually attacked head-on using speed and brute force in an attempt to overwhelm his opponent, while Thundercracker used his agility and speed to swoop in and hit, and Starscream planned his moves before committing an attack. If all three simultaneously attacked, their target wouldn't stand a chance in the Pit for coming out of the fight in relatively one piece.

The red youngling centered himself and his purple optics locked with the worldly green optics of the flier; Starscream obviously thought he had found an opening in his defenses.

"Life is passing us by, Starscream. Are you going to do some-"

The red mech rushed towards him – a brash move that was very unlike his usual attacks; he must have assumed that a change of tactics would throw the flier off guard. Stealthshadow reached out to grab the youngling when Starscream dropped to the mats and slid the remaining distance towards the flier on his side. The larger mech lunged to grab at him when both of the youngling's feet struck his bad knee. Using the momentum from the double kick to the older mech's knee, Starscream launched himself into a practiced back flip away from the flier, landing on his feet some distance away and out of Stealthshadow's reach.

The rotten youngling had found the weak point in his defenses. Years of training and fighting in the Scintillian war kept Stealthshadow's features from demonstrating any pain he felt, but that wasn't to say that the kick the sparkling had dealt him didn't smart. "Why you little-"

Purple optics widened in horror and the youngling back peddled across the mats and away from the flier.

Stealthshadow slowly got to his feet with a mental complaint that he might not be able to keep up with the sparklings as he trained them. And he didn't mean to scare the youngling, but the little fragger got him good. He limped over to where Starscream cowered by the other younglings and offered his hand to help him up. "I think I'll take your advice on getting a medic to fix my knee," He looked at the red mech expectantly. "I think that's enough practice for today."

"But we were just got started."

"Why are we stopping now? We always work for three joors."

"I wanted to try again!"

Starscream had finally taken his hand and he lifted the youngling to his feet. "Tomorrow," He glanced at the disappointed younglings. He had started them out on the basic defensive moves, and they had graduated to light attacks at a rapid pace with relatively few injuries; but if they continued to improve at this rate he would need to move beyond the basics. "We'll work on attacks again tomorrow."

There was the hiss of a subspace pocket opening as Stealthshadow pulled three data pads out of virtually nowhere. He passed the data pads out to the younglings and sat down in front of them, "Turn them on, femmes."

"The Cybertronian Elite Guard's Survival Guide?" Thundercracker looked up at the flier while Skywarp peeked at Starscream's data pad, "What is this for?"

Stealthshadow easily leaned back on his hands with a mischievous grin spreading across his faceplate. "Homework."

Three sets of wide purple optics looked up at him and intoned in unison. "Homework?"

"That's right, femmes. Surviving in a fight is one thing, surviving in a hostile environment is completely different. And since I can't take you three out and dump you in the badlands like I should, you'll have to learn how to survive and take care of yourself by the book. Which means homework." He pointed to the data pad in Thundercracker's hands. "First three chapters read with the corresponding questions completed and ready to be returned to me by tomorrow. Show your work and don't cheat. Oh," The grin spread further. "Did I mention there will be a test?"

All three younglings groaned and the flier got up slowly and shooed them out of the training room. "Go play for a bit, but don't forget to do your homework."

They shuffled outside with data pads in hand and walked slowly back to Thundercracker's house where they slumped against the stoop. Skywarp threw his arm over his optics dramatically and sighed. "I can't believe he gave us homework! We're supposed to be learning how to fight and defend ourselves, not this stuff!" He waved his data pad in the air and moaned, "This isn't fair!"

Thundercracker just shrugged as Starscream turned the data pad back on and looked over the contents on the chapters. "It could be worse…"

Skywarp gave a martyred sigh as he shut his optics, "What could be worse then this?"

"He could be lecturing us while we took notes."

--

"Thundercracker? It's getting late. You need to start getting ready for recharge." The dark blue femme called up the stairs to her sparkling.

"I will after the next flier patrol!" He tried to keep the slightly panicked feeling out of his voice as he knelt over the data pad with a stylus in his shaking hand. The youngling had read and reread the three chapters and was now proofreading his answers. He wasn't quite sure how detailed of answers he needed to give – especially since the other two were taking completely different approaches in showing their work.

"Hey 'Screamer, what's the answer to number nine?" Skywarp's voice came over the comlink.

"Will you please keep your voice down, 'Warp?" Starscream hissed back at the black mech. "And you're supposed to be doing your own work!"

"Fine. Hey TC? What's the answer to number nine?"

Listening to the two of them bicker over their new com-system was just fueling his panic, "Do it yourself, 'Warp. I have to get ready for recharge and I'm not done yet." He could hear the familiar thrumming from the flier patrols as they made another pass across the night skies. "'Screamer? How detailed do you think the answers need to be?"

"Well, I've written out the exact definitions and cross-referenced the sections with footnotes to the pages where the answers are found…"

Thundercracker groaned loudly as his spark sank, "I'm not doing this right! I've got the answers down, but it doesn't look right and I've reread the chapters in case I missed something… I'm going to fail this!"

Starscream's voice was surprising calm and level. "You are not going to fail, TC. Everyone learns in a different way. There is no wrong way to learn this; the answers are explicitly in the reading, so even if you're like 'Warp you can still find the information."

Skywarp growled, "Okay you dirty slagger, so if it's in the reading, then where in the Pit is the answer for number nine?"

"YOU ROTTEN GLITCH!" A furious and deep voice bellowed from somewhere in the background of the red youngling's house. "WHAT THE FRAK ARE YOU DOING?! GET YOUR SLAGGIN' AFT DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"

"I've got to go!" Starscream's voice jumped a few octaves higher than normal before the comlink cut off completely.

Skywarp and Thundercracker were silent on their ends of the com-system for a few nano-kliks.

"Hey, 'Warp?"

"Yeah, TC?"

"What was that about?"

"I don't know."

There was a soft knock on the doorframe to Thundercracker's room. "It's time for recharge."

The blue youngling shut off the data pad and stowed the stylus he had been using, "I have to go, 'Warp. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait TC!"

"What?"

"What's the answer to number nine?"

Thundercracker sighed, "It's in the reading. Reread the chapter and find the section that deals with it. I'll see you tomorrow." The youngling didn't wait for Skywarp to ask again and turned off his com-system.

"Did you finish the work Stealthshadow gave you?" Thundercracker's mother-creator sat down on the edge of his recharge berth as her sparkling got up from where he sat by the window.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if I did it correctly." The blue mech looked up into her kind smile after he crawled onto the berth. "It's hard to tell if I did what I was supposed to do. I tried to find out from 'Screamer, but… well, he's 'Screamer. And 'Warp wasn't much better because, well, he's 'Warp."

She ran her hand down his cheek comfortingly, "Did you try your best?"

Thundercracker nodded. "I even reread it and went back over all my work."

"I'm sure you did just fine." She got up from his berth and walked over to the door to turn out the lights. "Goodnight, love."

"What if-"

His worried voice prompted her to flick the lights back on, "What if?"

The youngling pursed his lips trying to put his thoughts into words. "What if you think something is wrong… but you're not really sure if it is…wrong. What do you do?"

She walked back over to him and sat down on his berth, "Well, I would tell someone I trusted about it."

He nodded slowly.

"Is there something wrong?"

"I'm not sure…"

She caressed his face, "You know that if you ever need to talk to someone you can come to me or to Skywarp's father-creator for help."

He still seemed troubled and she placed a kiss on his forehead, "If it still bothers you tomorrow we can talk about it, okay? Try to get some recharge."

The light went out in his room, but Thundercracker could not fall into recharge with the yelling he heard from Starscream's comlink playing over and over again in his mind.

--

Skywarp bounded down the stairs and over to where his father-creator was sitting at the table. The black flier didn't look up from the holopad he was reading, "Did you finish your homework?"

The youngling threw himself in the chair across from him with a sigh, "Yes and no."

Worldly green optics looked at him over the top of the holopad, "No?"

"…I can't find this one answer." Skywarp tossed the data pad onto the table. "I even tried to ask 'Screamer and TC about it, but they wouldn't help."

"What did I tell you about cheating?"

"I wasn't cheating! I just couldn't find the answer and it was only for one question!" He crossed his small arms in front of him and sulked. "I got the others all by myself."

Stealthshadow set his holopad down and picked up the data pad, "Which question?"

"Number nine… I even reread everything."

The flier flipped through a couple of pages until he found the right one, "It's in this section. And that's all the help you're getting from me." He handed the data pad back to his sparkling and went back to reading his holopad.

Skywarp read over the text but found himself unable to concentrate, tapping his stylus restlessly on the table. He glanced at his father-creator as the mech lounged there with his feet up; the youngling set the data pad down and stared at the table. "Hey."

A green optic appeared over the top of the holopad again. "Hey what?"

"What if…" Skywarp stopped and debated if this was a good idea.

"What if what?"

"What if… No, what if you… Well…"

"Spit it out already."

The youngling gave his father-creator a dirty look. "Fine. What if there is something wrong and you're not sure what you can do about it, what do you do?"

The holopad went down again and Stealthshadow looked at his sparkling, "Depends on what exactly is wrong."

Skywarp pushed his data pad around the table with his fingers. "I heard something… that I don't think I was supposed to hear."

"When?"

The black youngling didn't meet his creator's gaze and decided this wasn't as good of an idea as he originally thought. "While we were playing. I heard some yelling."

Worldly green optics narrowed. "What did you hear?"

Skywarp glanced up at his creator, "Just some yelling."

"Just some yelling?"

Skywarp put the end of his stylus in his mouth, "Mmm-hmm. What would you do?"

"There would be a couple of things I would do," He leveled his gaze at Skywarp. "If it sounds like someone is in danger, then I would call for help. If I suspected someone might be in trouble, then I would tell someone about it."

The youngling stopped pushing his data pad around and glared at the table, obviously weighing his thoughts.

"Skywarp."

The youngling's head snapped up suddenly at the sound of his name. "Yeah?"

Stealthshadow had a feeling that he knew where the yelling had come from and there was no careful way to broach this subject; but if anyone knew for sure what was happening, it would be the younglings. "Is someone in trouble?"

"Huh?" Skywarp was thrown by the question.

"Do you think someone you know is in trouble?"

The youngling hesitated and screwed up his face in a frown. The yelling he heard sounded pretty bad, but maybe 'Screamer had done something his creator wasn't happy about. Like sneaking into the forbidden closet. He cast a glance to the door of the room, "I don't think so…"

The flier watched his youngling and noted the turmoil in his face. "You would tell me if you thought someone was in trouble, right?"

"Yeah," Skywarp turned and looked at his father-creator. "I would."

Worldly green optics held the gaze of purple optics for a few moments before Stealthshadow tapped his finger on the data pad. "Finish your homework and then get ready for recharge. You have a long day tomorrow of practice and tests."

With the mention of homework, the black youngling gave a martyred sigh and pulled the data pad towards him. Homework and a test! How was he going to learn to fight if he had all this silly homework to accomplish!

--

Starscream held on to his data pad tightly as if it were the most precious thing in the universe to him. He had read and reread the texts nineteen times and had annotated and footnoted every piece of information he decided was necessary for the assignment. Ever since Stealthshadow had started giving them homework, Starscream made it his sole mission to study his hardest and strive for the praise the older mech heaped on him. Granted the flier gave each of the younglings' equal praise, but the red mech reveled in the much sought after approval.

The flier held out his large black hand for the data pads, "All right, femmes. Let's see what you've got."

The trio wouldn't find out how well they had done until Stealthshadow had a chance to look over their assignments, but the older flier was always pleased with their progress. He did rib them at times over their work and progress, which was to be expected from Skywarp's father-creator, the youngling had to have learned it from somewhere, but it was all in jest and even the slightly panicky Thundercracker and the fearful Starscream became used to his type of humor.

"Looks somewhat okay coming from a bunch of femmes like yourselves, but don't get too comfy with thinking you're anything special. I still have to grade them." He stashed the data pads into a subspace pocket for later.

There was the briefest hint of worry on the red mech's face until Skywarp shoved him playfully to remind him that his father-creator was teasing them. And after the first few assignments Thundercracker had eased up on his own nervousness about screwing up his homework. Once he knew what was expected of him, he stopped worrying and began to enjoy his studies. He also started to push his own expectations in his work to new levels. He realized early on from watching Starscream that he wouldn't improve his skills if he only accomplished the basic requirements.

As for Stealthshadow, he was proud of his charges and considered them as his own sparklings, often bragging about them to the other mechs that came by the recreation center to work out. He pushed them in both their studies and in their training exercises, and was never disappointed by their work and ability to achieve new heights even with his growing expectations.

"Hope you got a lot of recharge last night, femmes, because today I'm going to put your sorry afts through the wringer. All three of you will be crying by the end of the day. So up off your tailpipes and follow me." Without even waiting for the trio to get up, the flier strode out of their little padded training room and into the main area of the Guardian Flier's recreation center where he gave a notoriously triumphant smirk to the mech at one end of a sparkling-sized obstacle course.

"This," Stealthshadow spread his massive black and silver arms wide as the younglings moved to stand beside him. "Is your new playground, femmes. When you sparklings can get through this course in under three kliks is when I take you to get your first upgraded protoforms. And I'm not talking about training wheels here, femmes. I'm talking about your first set of wings."

Three completely shocked gasps filled his audios and Stealthshadow could feel the floor beneath his feet thrum with the excitement that filled the younglings. He grinned to himself knowing that it would take some time for the trio to complete the training course in three kliks, but he also knew that they would stop at nothing to get their wings. Working the sparklings through the physical challenges during most of the day and then giving them more and more homework to be completed at night would ensure that they'd be in top form for when they entered the University; and would also guarantee that they would out shine and out perform every other mech and femme there.

He glanced down at his rapt charges and felt an enormous amount of love and pride swell in his spark. They were something special. They were going to be something special when they grew up. It was a something that Stealthshadow couldn't put his finger on the exact reason, but he could feel it deep down inside of his soul. Primus had these three earmarked for a reason that even the old war hero couldn't fathom. Call it destiny if you will, but Skywarp, Starscream and Thundercracker would be the best Cybertron had seen in eons.


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