THE NEXT DAY…
Megatron led Tomato out to the practice site again, bright and early. Tomato seemed more nervous than the last time, which Megatron thought was understandable, until Tomato started trying to pull his hand out from Megatron's and run back onto the ship.
"Don't be a coward!" Megatron commanded, whacking Tomato on the head. "Decepticons are not cowards."
"But I can't—" Tomato was saying, but Megatron interrupted him.
"Tomato!" he yelled. "If you go offline, you shall go offline with courage!"
"The barbed wire will make me go offline?" Tomato started crying again, even though Megatron hadn't meant that the barbed wire would kill Tomato. What he was referring to was if he died in a real battle with an Autobot.
"No, Tomato, the barbed wire is not going to make you go offline," Megatron told him. Then he sat down on the ground and motioned for Tomato to sit next to him. Tomato did so, but he turned away and crossed his arms.
"Look at your master when he's speaking to you," said Megatron.
"What?" asked Tomato.
"Listen…" Megatron took a deep breath. "What did the Autobots tell you about the war?"
"What war?" asked Tomato. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, you lived with the Autobots, didn't you?"
Tomato nodded.
"For many, many years now, the Autobots and Decepticons have been fighting over who should control Cybertron," Megatron continued darkly. "The Autobots think of themselves as heroic and they think of us as savages. But they aren't all holding hands and singing in a circle all the time, either, are they?"
"Um…I don't think so," said Tomato.
"Well, they are persuasive," Megatron warned him. "But they can be savage too. And they claim they are fighting for the 'greater good', when really they are fighting because they think they're right and everybody else is wrong, just like anybody else."
"But…but can't we rule Cybertron together?" asked Tomato, and Megatron shook his head sadly. He had never heard someone ask such an innocent question before, but then again, he'd never trained sparklings before, either.
"They don't want to do that," he said. "Remember? They think they're the best. They don't want to cooperate with us. They want to destroy us."
"I bet you could destroy them," Tomato told Megatron sincerely.
Megatron laughed, because Tomato was probably right. Then he looked over at the barbed wire, and remembered why he had decided to explain the war to Tomato in the first place.
"Now do you understand why completing the training course is so important, Tomato?" asked Megatron. "If you want to be strong and ruthless like I am, if you want to destroy puny Autobots like I can, then you have to train. You're already a gun, now, remember?"
"I'm a Decepticon," said Tomato, standing up proudly. "I can defeat the Autobots, even if they harm me…with their barbed wire!"
Megatron watched as Tomato jumped into the barbed wire, and of course he got all tangled up again.
"Try NOT to get tangled up," said Megatron.
Tomato started pulling as hard as he could to get out of the sharp wires. Immediately they started to draw energon, but Tomato just winced and screamed, "You won't defeat me that easily, Autobots!"
Megatron was starting to laugh at Tomato's battle experience. He was wrestling with the barbed wire, and it was hard to tell if he was getting less tangled or more tangled. He tried to pull himself across the ditch, even though he wasn't halfway through it. He kept on saying things about how he would rule Cybertron, and how he would win the war, and about how all of the Autobots were scum.
"YAHHH!" screamed Tomato, pulling as hard as he could—and Megatron was surprised to see that he had actually untangled himself (sort of).
Megatron took out one of his swords and waved it around. "Go! Come on! Move it!"
Tomato's feet were still caught in the wire, but he moved his arms toward the middle of the ditch, ignoring his many cuts and bruises all the while. Finally, though, after about a megacycle, Megatron called "Time-Out".
"All right," he said, pulling Tomato's little feet out of the wire, and Tomato hoisted himself out of the ditch, only to fall back in again. Megatron lifted him out and set him on the ground.
Tomato was covered in cuts, bruises, and (especially) dirt, but he was smiling. "I did good, didn't I?"
Megatron frowned. "Well, not good, but at least you're improving. Now we have to work on something else."
"What?" asked Tomato. "Does it involve more barbed wire?"
"Um…no," said Megatron, then brandished his swords again. "You see these swords?"
"Wow!" Tomato cried happily, running up to Megatron. "Can I touch one?"
"They are very thick and as sharp as they come," Megatron told him. "I guess you can if you want to."
Tomato reached out and touched the needlelike tip of the sword. Luckily, he didn't poke it hard enough to give himself a puncture wound (like he needed more of them), but he did look rather amazed. "Wow…that is sharp."
"Anyway, take one of these," said Megatron, handing Tomato one of the swords—or, he attempted to, but the sword was bigger than Tomato, who stumbled backwards when it landed on him.
"Stand up, Tomato," Megatron ordered. "Lift the sword for practice."
Tomato tried to lift up Megatron's sword. It was almost comical to see little Tomato struggling to lift up a weapon that was at least twice his weight, like he was actually going to be able to do it. Megatron sighed. This was supposed to be the next practice, sword practice.
"Don't you want to have a sword like mine?" asked Megatron. He had been thinking that Tomato might like having a sword as one of his weapons, but he couldn't have one if he wasn't even able to lift it up.
"That would be—ahhh!" cried Tomato, as the sword knocked him over again.
As Tomato was extracting himself from underneath the sword, Megatron called Shockwave on his com. link. "Shockwave? Shockwave! Do you read me?"
"Yes, my Lord?" asked Shockwave, as soon as the line picked up.
"Please report to the outside of the ship to the location of Tomato's training course," Megatron told him. "We need your help."
"What did you want Shockwave for?" asked Tomato curiously, finally popping out from underneath the sword and standing up.
"You'll see," was all Megatron said.
After several cycles, Shockwave came out of the ship and headed over to them. He waved to Tomato, then bowed to Megatron. "What is it that you need, Lord Megatron?"
"We have to do a sword demonstration," Megatron explained. "I was going to do it with Tomato himself, but he's too small to lift the sword."
"I shall help," said Shockwave. "I assume you wish for me to be the Autobot, then?"
"Of course," said Megatron, and gave Shockwave the sword. He then slashed at Shockwave with the sword he was holding, but Shockwave quickly moved the sword he was holding to deflect the attack.
Megatron used his many sword-fighting techniques against Shockwave. Finally, Shockwave went down, and Megatron held his sword up high as the victor of the battle. "This battle belongs to the Decepticons!"
Shockwave stood up (he wasn't really damaged, obviously) and gave the sword back to his master. Megatron put both swords away and he and Shockwave turned to look at Tomato, who was watching, bug-eyed—he looked surprised at how good they both were.
"You guys are awesome," he said in admiration.
…
Tomato spent much of that solar cycle training, working on the barbed wire. He was working on not getting tangled, because he was learning that if he kept on getting caught in the wires, he would never be able to make it to the end of the ditch, much less make it to the end of the training course. Megatron wondered if Tomato could ever complete that.
When it finally began to get dark, Megatron looked down into the ditch. Tomato was crawling across the dirty ditch, trying to miss the wires as much as possible. Megatron snapped his fingers.
Tomato paused and looked up from his place in the ditch. His face was scratched and covered in dirt, as usual. "Huh?"
"It's time to come in," Megatron told him. "We can train more tomorrow."
"Okay," said Tomato, looking a little relieved. Trying not to slip on the mud, he reached his hands out and clawed the ground, and finally pulled himself out.
"Good job, soldier," Megatron said. "I didn't even need to pull you out that time."
Tomato looked happy and turned his head up. "Thanks, Daddy."
"What?" asked Megatron, taken completely by surprise.
"I said, 'thank you, Daddy'," Tomato replied, smiling again.
"Oh…um…" Megatron didn't know what to say for a minute, but then he took Tomato's little hand and led him back onto the ship. "You're welcome."