CHAPTER 7
A Danger in Their Midst

Mark tried to put what he had heard out of his head as another couple of days passed. Though he could tell he wasn't the only person with his mind on it. Hound kept his optics on him, and they were always filled with quiet wonder. Though Mark didn't know what to make of the whole situation, a small part of him did wonder what it would be like. How easy would it be to be raised by a giant robot? He was pretty sure the answer was "not easy at all", but that was up for debate. He hugged his legs to his chest, could he even trust someone to take care of him again? Hound had proved to be a good mech, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to put that much trust in him.

That evening, Mark was seated outside and out of the range of Cade's home. For no other reason than the fact that he needed some time on his own. He sighed, looking up at the stars silently. "Kid, aren't you supposed to be back in the barn?" Mark turned his head towards Crosshairs as he made his way beside him "I thought that was part of the deal."

"Hound said I can go out as long as I'm careful." Mark shrugged.

If Crosshairs thought Mark would listen to him, he may have argued otherwise. He seated himself down, and crossed his arms, watching out in the distance. Mark was clearly uncomfortable when the mech did, but tried to hide it. "If it means anything at all to you..." Mark told him calmly "I'm sorry for what my dad did to your friends. I'm pretty pissed off about it too."

"You?" Crosshairs snorted "What reason could you have to get angry?"

"You're living, breathing person. You all are. And killing is wrong, or at least it's supposed to be." Mark told him bluntly "Dad taught me that, but apparently he was a hypocrite." He explained "And besides... I kinda... Hero-worshipped you guys back in the day. Even after Chicago really..." He pushed his hair back in embarrassment "Don't tell Hound that, I don't want him to think I hung out with him because of that."

Crosshairs crossed his arms, and raised an optic ridge curiously. Why did Mark even care what any of them thought of him? He was only there for a short time, and before too long he'd be on his way. "I'm surprised that you even care considering the disposition of your father." Crosshairs snorted "Personally I expected you to mooch off of our kindness and make yourself scarce." He then added "I must say I am surprised in that regard."

Mark wasn't sure if it was meant as a compliment. In fact, he was almost certain that Crosshairs wasn't sure himself. But he stood to his feet, and put his hands in his pockets. "I never asked for his help." Mark admitted "He gave it to me himself, I was ready to go and leave you guys behind. Because I feel like I've let him do enough for me." He then added "He practically had to drag me here."

"Why?" Crosshairs asked "I would think-."

"Don't act like you know me like that, Crosshairs." Mark replied bluntly "Hell, you didn't even know my father if I'm going to be honest. You don't know what I'm like, you haven't even tried to learn." Crosshairs leaned back, surprised at the sudden outburst "You want to hold my dad against me? Fine. I don't care if you do because like I said, I'm just as mad at him." He then added "But don't sit there and assume I'm anything like that."

Crosshairs sat there for a long moment as Mark began to walk back towards the barn. He had to admit, if nothing else, he had to admire the fact that Mark didn't take anyone's "crap", including his. "You have real guts talking to someone as big as I am like that." Mark turned his head as Crosshairs stood to his feet "I didn't mean to upset you." He explained "I'm simply... Confused by you."

"What's there to be confused about?" Mark threw up his arms in confusion.

"You're complicated." Crosshairs explained "You reject your own father for something you were never even a part of. And yet, you mourn him every day. And don't think none of us have noticed." He then added "It's the same reason I'm not sure whether I can trust you, or Hound should be. Your loyalties are so confused that it's dangerous."

"What if I'm just neutral to the whole thing?" Mark asked.

"I find that impossible to believe when it comes to a child."

"What do I have to do to get you off my back, man?" Mark asked "Leave?"

"On your own? That'd crush Hound, and I don't want that for him."

"You're more confusing than I am then!" Mark shouted "You're not even making sense. Why would he be upset?"

Crosshairs was silent, leering down at the young human with a look of confusion in his optics. "You really don't understand just how much he cares about you, do you?" He put his hands on his hips slightly "I think it's fairly obvious that he sees you as a surrogate son. And the only way for this not to end badly is for him to give you up on his own time."

"Our friendship... Isn't like that." Mark replied uncertainly "We're just friends... Nothing else."

"You don't sound so sure of yourself there, pipsqueak."

At this point, Mark started off without another word, leaving Crosshairs with narrowed optics. He sighed, this was what he got for trying to have a talk with the kid and understand what his deal was, he supposed. He simply hoped that Mark wouldn't got to Hound about it, as the last thing he needed was to be yelled at for trying to talk to the kid.

...

Mark avoided Crosshairs for the rest of the evening and most of the next day. He didn't bring what they had talked about up to Hound, there was no reason to pit the two Autobots up against each other after all. But now, Mark couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt about the whole situation. If Hound looked at him as some sort of surrogate son, he didn't want to break his spark. But he didn't want to lie and say that he trusted him on that level yet either, because in all honesty, he wasn't sure how high his trust went for the Autobot yet.

So instead, he decided to keep his mind off of the situation for now at least. And simply enjoy what time he was spending with the Autobots at the present time rather than focusing on his or Hound's future. That day, Hound had taken Mark along when the Autobots decided to do some training some miles off from the Yaegar Farm. And for the first time, Mark got a good look at just what kind of arsenal that Hound seemed to have. "So..." Mark stated as Hound was loading up his weapons with rubber guns for the training "Why the small third world army, exactly?"

Hound chuckled slightly as he gave one of his rifles a once over. "Well... When the war began, I had just started my family." Hound began to explain "You could say I was a little overprotective of them. And so I kept a few guns around the house, just in case." He nodded slightly, and hung the riffle at his side "Then I left my neutrality to join the Autobots and discovered I'd become a pretty fragging good shot."

"So you became a what..."

"My official title is a "Commando". Though I also work as a regular soldier in the army." Hound noted "You ever learn how to shoot a gun, Mark?" He asked thoughtfully as he took his "cigar" out of his mouth and stared at him curiously.

Mark shook his head, his dad had offered before, but he had no desire. Even though he was tough, he knew that guns were mostly used for one thing, and he was not the type of person who could easily bring himself to kill someone. "I've never been a fan of guns. I mean, I get it, they do a lot of good... I just could never use it, y'know?" Mark commented "I'm too soft." He admitted.

"There isn't anything wrong with that." Hound replied calmly "It's perfectly natural to be a little afraid of what comes from firing a gun." He noted "Or using a knife, or any other weapon for that matter." He then added "Yer forgetting yer talking to the universe's biggest softy here. The first time I actually used one of these scared the pit out of me." Mark chuckled a little at that "I had to shoot to kill and I could barely live with myself that night."

Mark could imagine killing someone was definitely not something that was easy to live with. He looked over Hound's rifle with a bit of awe and fear at the same time, how many Decepticons had he killed using that? How many people did his dad kill with his own guns? Autobot, Decepticon, or human? "Mark?" Mark looked up at Hound "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Mark shrugged "So you're going to train with guns? With real bullets?"

"Rubber ones." Hound shook his head "They'll bounce right off of us, but the idea is the same. You'll need to keep a safe distance, it won't hurt us at all, but to a human even a rubber bullet will hurt." Mark cringed at the thought "But stick around, you're going to enjoy seeing your... Pal in action." He noted, loading up the rubber bullets into another gun "Maybe I'll even show off a little."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." Bumblebee quipped from the side with a little laughter following in the voice clip "We all know I'm the top gun around here, hombre."

"That's 'cause Ironhide and I trained ye." Hound noted "But I seem to remember I didn't teach you everything I know."

"Bring it on, old man!" Bumblebee replied with a beckoning motion.

"Wise-aft."

Mark settled in as Bumblebee and Hound paired up, and watched. He was stunned at the grace and stamina with which Hound moved himself in "battle". He'd clearly only seen some of that when Cyclonus had attacked, and now, he could see it in full. He was good, going through weapon after weapon without much difficulty. And while he put up a good fight, Mark had to cringe as Bumblebee went down for the count about a half an hour later after Hound had thrown him (carefully) over his back.

"Yeah, I'd say I'm still top gun here, Bee." Hound chuckled "Yer getting better with yer weapons though. Those stingers of yours nearly got me a couple of times." He helped Bumblebee to his feet slowly, and then turned towards Mark "So, what do ye think, shorty?"

Mark had to admit, he couldn't have not put a thumbs up at Hound even if he tried. "That was awesome." Mark shouted "I didn't know anyone could fire off that many of weapons at one time. No wonder that one freaky purple dude went down so fast!"

Hound chuckled at that, approaching Mark and patting the young human on the back. He began to reload some more rubber bullets into his guns before turning towards Bumblebee. "Give me a few minutes to reload Bee, and we'll go for round two." Bumblebee gave a thumbs up of his own and a "Bring it on!" sound clip "So you were impressed, eh?"

"Majorly. I never knew something so big could move like that."

"Ye making fun of my weight, younglin'?"

"No."

Hound carefully rubbed the boy in the ribs, causing him to chuckle a bit. "I think you were."

"Hound, I was not!" Mark shouted "Come on man, I'm ticklish!"

As the Autobot continued to mess with his young human friend, someone else watched from afar, on a large hilltop far from sight. Cyclonus crouched on one knee, using his optics to zoom in on the pair. The boy was still with the Autobot? That was most certainly an interesting turn of events for him. "Oh, Hound..." Cyclonus stood to his feet slowly "You should know so much better. It would be such a shame if he had to pay in return for how you humiliated me."

The smile that curved along Cyclonus's mouth only widened as he turned and made his way away from the scene. Allowing them, at least for the moment, to be blissfully unaware of the danger in their midst.