THAT EVENING…

The first training course was all set up. Megatron had been working on it all solar cycle, with Shockwave babysitting Tomato inside. (Of course, he was the only team member Megatron really trusted.) Finally, around the evening, Megatron came inside and found Shockwave and Starscream fighting over the remote, with Tomato sitting peacefully at the table, drinking oil out of a container with a straw.

"What are you guys doing?!" yelled Megatron. "You're supposed to be watching Tomato!"

"He's making me miss my show!" Shockwave and Starscream both yelled.

"They're good babysitters," said Tomato happily, slurping his oil.

"I was trying to watch Decepticon Spies Weekly," Shockwave said angrily. "And all Starscream wanted to watch was Wind Beneath My Wings. I saw you!"

"Liar!" Starscream said. "That show's for femmes and you know it!"

"Oh, so you just happened to come in to watch the Seeker channel at the time it's always on?" Shockwave asked snidely.

"Well, I think the pink one's kind of hot," Starscream mumbled, looking down, faceplates about the same color as Tomato's whole body.

"That's why he bought all that Super Seeker Miracle Cream," Shockwave told Megatron. "So he could be such a 'heartbreaker'."

"No, that was a chemical formula specifically designed to attract—oh, why am I even bothering to talk to you glitch-heads?!" Starscream put his servos over his ears, stood up, and stomped out of the room.

"Starscream really waswatching Wind Beneath My Wings," said Shockwave. "I had to turn it off. He was getting a little teary."

"I WAS NOT!" they heard Starscream screech.

"He did look like he was really enjoying it, though," Tomato added. "I wasn't really paying attention to whatever it was."

"Turn on Decepticon Spies Weekly, Shockwave," said Megatron, and he walked over to Tomato, picked him up, then set him on the floor.

"Are we going to train now?" asked Tomato excitedly. "Huh? Are we? Are we? Huh? Are we?"

"Yes, but we won't have much time today," Megatron told Tomato, feeling confused. Tomato was acting even more hyper than usual. Then Megatron looked at what Tomato had really been drinking. And it wasn't oil, either.

"Fizzy energon?!" hollered Megatron. "Who gave you this?"

"Uncle Blitzwing," Tomato responded happily. "I love it!"

"Oh, for Spark's sake!" Megatron slapped himself in the forehead yet again. "No time to punish him now, though. We have to get to the training course now."

They walked outside, and there was Megatron's training course. There was a ditch with barbed wire, a climbing wall with sharp rocks, and a huge set of metal teeth that was chomping open and closed.

"These training sessions will become more intense as you advance," Megatron explained. "For now, though, you will complete this course. Once you complete it successfully, you will receive the Branding Ceremony."

"What's that?" asked Tomato curiously.

"It's where you say the Decepticon Oath and get branded with the Decepticon insignia," Megatron told him. "It can cause slight discomfort, but don't worry."

"It doesn't hurt," Tomato contradicted. "They put an Autobot sticker on me, and it didn't hurt at all! And when you took it off, it didn't hurt, either."

"Well, it's going to hurt this time, because I don't use stickers, I use a branding iron," Megatron told his trainee impatiently. "And it's not going to come off, because it's branded on."

Tomato shrugged. Megatron took his hand and led him to the ditch with the barbed wire.

Brimming with curiosity, Tomato curiously reached out and touched one of the sharp coils, then snatched his hand back in pain. "What do I do with this?"

"You have to crawl across it, even if you get damaged, climb over the wall, then escape the metal teeth without going offline. You probably won't be able to master it in one solar cycle, but you are expected to complete it eventually."

Tomato smiled and jumped into the ditch, attempting to crawl through it, and immediately getting tangled in the barbed wire. Caught relatively by surprise, he started screeching and waving his arms all around, eyes closed.

"Keep going!" Megatron told Tomato.

"I'm caught in the—ouch!" Tomato shrieked. As he continued to roll around, the coils started to draw raw energon.

"Untangle yourself, soldier!" Megatron called. "What kind of operation am I running here?"

"But I can't—ouch!—get out of this stuff!"

"If you keep squirming like that, you're only going to get more tangled!" Megatron told his trainee. He knew not to jump in and rescue Tomato just yet, because if he rescued him every time, he would never learn how to be a good warrior on his own.

"OW!" Tomato screeched. "OW! OW! OW!"

"GET OUT OF THE BARBED WIRE!" hollered Megatron. "AND I MEAN IT!"

Poor Tomato started crying then, so eventually, Megatron had to come in and pull him out. He was still bleeding so Megatron took him inside the ship.

"I'm ashamed of you, soldier," Megatron told Tomato strictly, even though Tomato was still just crying. "You got tangled in a little wire, and you start crying over that? What are you thinking?"

"It…it was kind of sharp," Tomato said, sniffing. "It gave me cuts."

"You were barely scratched!" Megatron hollered. "Your self-repair will take care of that within a few solar cycles!"

"But I don't like getting cuts," Tomato explained.

"You won't be able to defeat an enemy on the battlefield if you run off crying as soon as you get some damage," Megatron insisted. "Tomorrow we're going to work on this some more, and this time I want you to be ready."

"But what if my cuts haven't healed yet?"

"No more 'buts'!" Megatron told him. "You have to be strong, and tough. You have to be able to deflect any attack that comes your way."

…

Just before bedtime, Megatron was walking through the hallway to his bedroom when he heard voices down the hallway. He looked, and there was Blitzwing, holding some ice from his freeze ray, which he gave Tomato for his cuts from the wire. Starscream was carefully bandaging the wounds with medical tape.

"Don't let Megatron get to you," he was saying. "He damages me all the time."

"Well…he said he was going to turn me into a great warrior," said Tomato. "I don't feel like a great warrior if I couldn't get through the barbed wire."

"Zee barbed wire is sharp," Blitzwing told him. "He started you off on zee advanced level."

"Should I keep training?" asked Tomato.

"You could go back to the Autobots, but if you don't, well, Megatron gets kind of…angry when you don't obey him," Starscream replied. "He's damaged my wings so many times they've got multiple scars. If you think your cuts hurt…"

"Shut up and stop complaining," said Blitzwing. "Poor Tomato, he is just a sparkling."

"Thanks, guys," said Tomato, heading towards the door. "I guess I'll stay here for now."

Megatron caught Tomato as he appeared in the hallway. Tomato tried to run away but Megatron grabbed his arm. "Where are you going, Tomato?"

"To my room," said Tomato, looking down. "Sorry about the wire today. I didn't mean to be bad at it."

Megatron sighed and leaned down next to Tomato, remembering what he heard Starscream and Blitzwing saying. "Tomato, look…I know your training didn't go too well today, but you know why I'm doing this, right?"

"No," said Tomato, sounding almost like he was going to cry again. "Why?"

"I'm doing it for your own good," Megatron replied. "It's just like anything else. When you keep practicing and training, you'll improve. If you don't challenge yourself, you won't."

"But I don't think I'll be able to do the barbed wire tomorrow, either," protested Tomato. "Maybe I can never do it."

"You don't improve overnight, Tomato," Megatron told him. "It takes time…and hard work. Do you think you can at least try tomorrow?"

"Okay," said Tomato, and Megatron didn't exactly know why, but he was relieved when he saw that Tomato was smiling again.