Little Gladiator

Chapter 5: Watch and Learn

Note: Dirt broke 'cause I OWN NOTHING!

x x x x x

Dagger's words turned out to be true. The five newbies who thought they could train in their space were easily frightened by the sight of an angry Megatron and a faceless Soundwave. But one mech was stupid enough to try and hit on Scythe while he scrambled away.

Correction: tried.

WHAM

Scythe always hit back.

"AHH!"

Right in the ball bearings.

"When will they ever learn?" Soundwave asked, feeling a ghost of the newbie's pain no thanks to his telepathic abilities.

Ignoring the other three, Megatron set the pet carrier down and let Bumblebee peek his helm out.

"Your training starts now, Bumblebee. Watch us. Try to copy us. Okay?" Megatron said. Bee nodded and tried to reach up for him. "If you want to be with me, you'll have to stand up."

Bumblebee tilted his helm and clumsily tried to get to his pedes. By now, the others had started to pay attention to the interaction between the tough gladiator and the helpless newspark. Megatron guided Bee's tiny servos to the edge of the crate. Being a smart little scraplet, Bumblebee managed to hold himself up with the crate on shaky legs.

"Well look at that," Dagger said with a half smile. "The little fragger- OW! SCRAP, FEMME! WHAT'S YOUR DEAL?"

"We've got little audials listening in, Dags! Watch your language!" Scythe scolded him.

If looks could kill, Dagger's optics would be throwing knives at the femme that kicked his crotch. "It's not like he knows what we're talking about."

"This morning, he told me he was hungry by rubbing his midsection and pointing to his intake," Megatron said with a hint of... pride? "He's a smart little scraplet."

"That's for sure," Scythe agreed. "Come on, boys. We've got a whole corner to ourselves and four joors to enjoy it until break. Close range or servo-to-servo?"

"The latter would be more useful for Bumblebee to watch," Soundwave said.

"Good enough for me." Dagger clapped good servos together and stretched to remove some last minute kinks in his protoform before lunging at Scythe, who merely sidestepped him.

Megatron sneaked a word to Bumblebee. "Watch and learn, little one."

The four joors passed by in a flash of sharp claws and quick movements. Bumblebee watched it all, enraptured by the deadly dance. He especially paid attention to how Megatron moved. He noticed how his new caretaker dodged and ducked, weaved and waited for the right moment, then struck at certain places.

He didn't know how he could or that he could even do it, but Bumblebee recorded it and stored it in an important part of his processor to analyze it when he could figure out how. For now, the bitlet was content to wave his arms in an attempt to mimic the bigger bots' moves. Once in a while he collapsed onto the frayed mat floor, but he was quick to get back up as soon as he could.

By the time mid morning break rolled around, everyone was ready to collapse.

"Whew! I feel alive!" Dagger exclaimed.

"That's a very good thing, Dags," said Scythe. "It means I can still kill you next time."

"Oh ha ha ha. You should become a comedian. Go live in Altihex, or something."

"At least she'd get out of this pit," Megatron said dully. He approached the swaying newspark and smiled. "It seems Bumblebee had a busy training session too."

"Aw," the femme cooed. "He's all tuckered out. I wonder how hard he trained."

"You call standing in one place training?" Dagger scoffed. "I wish!"

Soundwave stepped up. Security footage of their session came to life on his visor's screen. The gang watched as little Bee tried to mimic the moves they had made. When they looked back, Bumblebee had literally fallen into recharge. They sighed at his antics and Megatron moved to put him back in the pet carrier.

Suddenly, a rancid odor assaulted his olfactory sensors. "What is that smell?" He asked.

"Must be Dagger. I know he didn't go to the washracks last orn," Scythe jested.

"Hey!"

"But in all seriousness, it's probably Bee. It must be time to change his waste tank."

Megatron pushed the bitlet into her arms. "You agreed to change him this morning. You do it."

"Fine, but you're coming with me," she said while dragging him behind her.

"Aw, scrap- OW, FEMME! WHY?"

"SWORE!"