"Come on, Tomato!" Megatron was hollering, as Tomato was continuing to struggle through the barbed wire. Every time he encountered another sharp string of wire, he tried as hard as he could to shove it aside, even as they scratched his hands. "There is no room in our ranks for those who fall behind!"

"We'll lick those monsters!" Tomato yelled, as he continued to get closer to the halfway point. As usual, the wires were sharp enough even to cut through his armor. They were thicker than the kind native to Earth, made of a very strong (and sharp) Cybertronian metal.

Fortunately, Tomato was getting better at battling—well, practice battling, anyway. For some reason, the Autobots hadn't attacked in a long time, but Megatron was still working on Tomato's skills. Over a time period of about two Earth weeks, Tomato had been practicing under the strict regime of Megatron's obstacle courses, sword fighting, and tough exercise sessions. Megatron was looking forward to one of Tomato's later challenges, the Hoop of Fire.

This particular solar cycle, Tomato was pretending that he was in a battle with an Autobot, to prepare him for when this really did happen.

"Escape if the wire catches onto your leg!" Megatron called.

Tomato reached his dark-red hand out, across the trench, and pulled himself free from a wire that had snagged his foot.

"If you're going to win this battle, you're going to have to do it an inch at a time, crawling through this dirty trench…" Megatron said. "Think you're mech enough to handle that, soldier?"

"YES!" Tomato cried. Soon after, a spike of barbed wire poked his arm; raw energon began to spray out of the wound, but he kept on going. "I CAN HANDLE IT!"

"Then let's see you do it!" Megatron hollered, waving his fist back and forth. "Who'll go home crying to their motherboards?!"

"AUTOBOTS!"

"And who will the battle belong to?!"

"DECEPTICONS!"

Megatron smiled a little evilly. The training was working.

…

Several solar cycles later, Megatron and Tomato were doing combat training. Tomato kneeled on the ground in front of Megatron so that Tomato was looking straight at the gun; Megatron had his "I'm going to kill you" look on his face. Megatron (no matter what) refused to be the Autobot in scrimmages, so this time Tomato had to be the Autobot.

"It's just you and me now, Decepticon scum," said Tomato, as menacingly as he could. He was still pretty small, so when he said this in his high-pitched little voice, Megatron had to fight to keep from laughing at him.

"You'll never win, weak Autobot," Megatron said back. One thing he was hoping for was that Tomato would start copying his "scary voice" (consciously or subconsciously), which would make him a much more threatening Decepticon. Of course, he didn't want the Autobots to think, Hey, this kid is weak, we can take care of him easily. Tomato should be fearsome.

Tomato stood up and punched Megatron's foot, to which his servo was smarting. Megatron was bigger than most fully-grown Decepticons, and most Decepticons, built for war, were slightly bigger than most Autobots, although there were exceptions (Omega Supreme springs to mind). So it went without saying that Tomato, an Autobot sparkling, wouldn't exactly be tall compared to his Lord Megatron.

Megatron was trying to teach Tomato how to use his body as a weapon anyway, to knock out an enemy using just his fists. It was obvious that Tomato, also, wanted to be able to kick the scrap out of people, so he tried to pay attention every time.

Tomato's appendages got bashed up every time he tried to use Megatron's foot as a martial arts-like punching bag, so eventually Megatron brought out a punching bag just for Tomato, only about a little bigger than he was and not made of tough Cybertronian metal.

…

Every so often, Tomato and Megatron would attempt to practice sword fighting, although it never worked—Tomato was just too small to handle a big sword, and Megatron was too good a swordsman. Finally, though, the Decepticons were relaxing right after lunchtime when they heard someone knocking at the door of the ship.

"Who is it?" Megatron called.

"Swindle," the voice replied. "I have the weapon you ordered."

Megatron got up from the couch and opened the air lock, where Swindle was standing with a small box in his servos.

"You ordered a weapon, Lord Megatron?" asked Tomato, as his Master led Swindle into the room.

"Yes," said Swindle, opening the box. Inside was a razor-sharp, curved sword. It was made completely of the strongest steel, and it looked positively lethal. Megatron took out the weapon and grinned. (Megatron really liked dangerous weapons.)

"I thought you already had swords." Tomato sounded confused again.

"Yes, I do," Megatron replied, walking over to Tomato. "That's why this sword is for you, not me."

Megatron handed the sword to Tomato, who managed to take it but was in complete shock, staring down at the sword, then up at Megatron, then down at the sword again. He could barely sputter a word of thanks. The sword, this time, was just the right size for Tomato, something that he could actually hold and practice sword fighting with. It would be useful if he ever got himself into battle.

Finally, after a quite long moment of silence, they heard Blitzwing say, "Did you ever see such big optics!"

Everyone started laughing (except Tomato), then Swindle added, "What do you say, Tomato?"

"Thank you!" Tomato cried. "This is the greatest thing any 'bot has ever done for me!"

"Every Decepticon needs a weapon," Megatron told his cadet, sitting down on the couch next to him. "And this steel sword shall be your first."

"Wow, it seems like every solar cycle I become one step closer to being a real Decepticon," said Tomato, running one finger down the blade of the sword.

"Technically, you aren't a true Decepticon until I give you your Branding Ceremony, you know," Megatron reminded him matter-of-factly as he looked over at Tomato. There was a sudden nervous look on the young 'bot's face.

"Don't worry," Shockwave told him. "It hurts a lot, of course, but we all get through it. The honor and glory make it all worthwhile."

"I was branded twice, on the most sensitive part of my body, and I'm still here," Starscream said. Everyone paused again, then he added irritably, "You do know I was talking about my wings, right?"

Swindle laughed, then coughed and held his palm out.

"Yes, yes," Megatron grumbled, getting up from the couch again and handing Swindle his credit card. Swindle charged the price of the sword onto the credit card, then handed it back to Megatron.

"Thanks for the sword," Tomato said again. "I can defeat any Autobot with this!"

…

The other 'Cons, too, slightly less threatening, mostly agreed to help Tomato with his training—they thought it would be good to have another warrior on their team, anyway. They tried to train him in their respective areas.

Lugnut just did whatever Megatron told him to do. Starscream was hoping that Tomato would shift his alliance to "where it belonged" (him), but he did also manage to teach him about flying in robot mode, as all Decepticons could. (This didn't work out so well in Tomato's alt. mode, a cannon.) Shockwave taught him how to deal with classified information (basically, how to keep it from landing in the wrong servos), and Blitzwing, of course, taught him how to dance. (Megatron suspected that Blitzwing was giving him fizzy energon, too, but he couldn't tell for sure.)

Fizzy energon actually seemed to be Tomato's favorite drink, now. Decepticons had no oilcake, and there had been no fizzy energon on the Elite Guard ship where Tomato was born, but Tomato (since he had been so young upon his capture) was beginning to think of the Nemesis as his real home, and he liked fizzy energon better than oilcake, and he liked the other Decepticons more than most of his old Autobot companions, and as he got stronger, he found his training becoming just a little bit easier with every solar cycle.