Deuce

Chapter One: Training

Loco the Exclaimer

X.x.X.x.X

The mountains were mostly quiet that day; birds chirping, wind blowing by – aside from that, the only noise that could be heard was one’s own self, breathing, walking, talking.

Unfortunately for Prowl, the “one’s own self” he had agreed to train happened to be determined to make as much noise as possible, making it next to impossible to concentrate on actually training him.

“Quiet, Bumblebee!” He said for the umpteenth time. “You must have your mind on your opponent, or you have no hope of winning.”

“I do!” Bumblebee insisted, pausing from attacking. “I mean, you can walk and talk at the same time, right?”

The next thing he knew, he was pinned to the ground, a very unamused Prowl glaring down at him. Not like this was the first time this had happened, but it didn’t stop Bumblebee from blushing. “Walking isn’t fighting.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get in one sneak attack…” Bumblebee mumbled as Prowl let him up, dusting off his chassis. “Now lemme try again!”

Prowl shook his head. “It’s obvious I rushed in too quickly. We need to start with the basics before we can do any actual fighting.”

“Uh, hello? I covered basics when I was training with the Elite Guard!” Indignant, the younger bot put his servos on his hips.

“Nonetheless, training takes time.”

“Ugh.”

Prowl stood straight, looking Bumblebee in the optics. “Now, attack me.”

A laser suddenly hit him in the back, causing him to fall to the ground. He didn’t even have the chance to turn or make a sound.

“My pleasure, Autobot.”

Bumblebee stared, optics wide, at the newcomer. Starscream! What was he doing here? No time to wonder; Bumblebee rushed over to stand between the Decepticon and his friend. “Back off, Decepticreep!”

“Ha! What are you going to do about it? Same thing you did last time, I presume?” Starscream taunted, giving a self-satisfied smirk. He strode over, lowering his null-ray, clearly not seeing Bumblebee as a real threat. Pushing Bumblebee aside, he bent beside Prowl.

“Hey! Get your filthy servos off him!” Bumblebee protested, giving the Decepticon a strong kick in the side.

Starscream let out an irritated grunt, barely glancing at Bumblebee before lifting Prowl by a servo. Pulling out his stingers, Bumblebee attacked once more.

“I said, let him go!”

“As I recall, you said ‘get your filthy servos off him’.” All of his attention on Bumblebee as he gave his taunt, he didn’t notice Prowl reaching down to grab a throwing star until the last moment. By that time, the ninja was already flipping the small weapon forward, ramming it into Starscream’s chassis.

Starscream yelped, more from surprise than from the sharp pain, and dropped Prowl to pull out the throwing star. Prowl landed neatly on his stabilizing servos, flipping backwards out of range and throwing four more throwing stars.

His enemy dodged neatly, slipping aside and tossing the one that had hit his chest. Bumblebee darted between his feet, knocking him to the ground; unfortunately, Starscream was quick, and grabbed the younger Autobot before he was more than a few feet away. Bumblebee fell to the ground, Starscream’s long claws wrapped tightly around his stabilizing servo.

Raising his null ray, Starscream gave a smug grin. Either way, it was still an Autobot. But Prowl wasn’t going to just stand by and let that happen. He leapt forward, raising another servoful of throwing stars, only to be knocked to the ground as he was hit by Starscream’s null rays once more. This time, the Decepticon continued to fire, hitting over and over until there were fluids all over the Autobot’s chassis, pouring onto the ground beneath.

“Tough luck, Autobots.” Starscream said with smug contempt, tossing Bumblebee aside. Bumblebee landed on his chassis with a grunt and scrambled to stand – but by that time, Starscream had Prowl flung carelessly over his shoulder, and was flying away.

Bumblebee touched a finger to his comm-link, his wide optics never leaving the Decepticon, the fear never letting go of his spark.

“Bumblebee to Optimus! Or Ratchet! Or Bulkhead! Anybody, come on!” He begged into the comm-link. All three had picked up before he’d finished his last sentence, rushed by the urgency in his voice.

“What?” Ratchet barked into the comm-link. “What is it, Bumblebee?”

“I saw Starscream! And he has Prowl!”