Ambition

It's the first day of the rest of his life.

Optimus goes around and makes an attempt to be friendly with his boot camp classmates. There's five of them altogether. One of them is Sentinel. Sentinel already has a bit of a reputation among select groups of Autobots; from what he hears, he's something of a protégée, so he makes a point to introduce himself.

'Yes, it is an honour to meet me, isn't it?' Sentinel beams. 'Yup, you're talkin' to a future Academy graduate, Elite Guard member, second-in-command, and then – Magnus.'

Optimus suddenly feels ashamed that his long-term goal is to visit Maccadam's and survive a round of their infamous brew.

Good enough

When he recovers his senses, Optimus and his boot camp classmates are covered in dents and scuff marks, not to mention he can barely stand up. The solitary optic of the drone blinked, seemingly mocking them.

'That's not good enough,' says Kup. 'Keep trying. We're not quittin' until you beat this thing.'

To Kup, nothing ever seems to be "good enough."

Curiosity

Blurr knows they shouldn't be sneaking out, but for some reason they're doing it anyways.

'Cliffjumper,' Blurr turns to his classmate. He doesn't know him well; they only met because Highbrow personally selected them as candidates for Cybertron Intelligence. That only adds to the reasons to not sneak off. 'Why exactly are we doing this?'

'We're going to Maccadam's,' answers Cliffjumper.

'…But…we could've done it tomorrow, which would have resulted in us not getting in trouble for sneaking off of campus in the middle of the night…'

'Well, duh, I know that,' Cliffjumper rolls his viz scanners. '…I just wanted to see if we could sneak off without getting caught.'

Bane

'A favour?' Optimus repeats.

'I'll never ask for anything ever again!' Sentinel pleads. 'If you don't help, I'll get kicked out of boot camp! I'll never get into the academy! C'mon, you gotta help me out here!'

'I'm not – well, I, uh…okay, fine. I can't stand you looking at me like that. Just don't ask for any more favours.'

The Good Ol' Days

'We should get together sometime!'

'Yeah, we should! Whatever happened to those good ol' days?'

Ratchet answers the question in his mind. The war happened.

Roots

While Sentinel was protoformed in Iacon City and knows all the hot spots, Optimus and Elita are new to the area, so they decide to cut out on their usual routine and tour the local museum. It's a strange, vacant place that seems to carry a great burden that Optimus can't quite explain as he sees the exhibits and learns more about the history of Cybertron.

'It's hard to believe that 'bots actually lived through this,' says Optimus. '…And to us, it's just a story. A piece of the past.'

Elita grips his arm, looking absently at a photograph of a ruined skyline. 'Let's hope it stays that way.'

Imagination

Optimus can't count the number of transform-ups they've done, and just as they've finished another set, Kup has decided that they need to do a few thousand more. He fully believes that that's why two of his boot camp mates drop out, leaving just him, Sentinel, and Elita.

Kup's drills leave nothing to the imagination.

Unethical

Blurr stares down at the smoking Decepticon that Cliffjumper had just shot a hole in.

'…Wasn't that a little unethical?' he asks.

'Was what unethical?' Cliffjumper replies unflinchingly.

Zenith

This is the highpoint of everything.

All Optimus can do is question. Will he be accepted? If he isn't, what will he do next? If he is, will he excel or fall behind? What if – if he does get into the academy – he'll drift apart from Sentinel and Elita, who he has become good friends with?

At last Kup comes forward with the results.

'You're all in,' he announces. 'Welcome to the system.'