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TF: Prime -- Of Sparks and Cons :23:

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Of Sparks and Cons
Chapter Twenty-Three


Stepping through her doorway into the common area, Quicksilver stopped and looked at the three small bodies that were lying close to one another, focused on a game board. Moving closer, she looked down and watched silently as Duskwalker soundly defeated the other two sparklings, much to a scowling Windsplitter’s chagrin.

“You cheated,” Windsplitter accused and Duskwalker looked at her, hurt.

“I did not,” Duskwalker stated firmly, “I don’t cheat, it’s not right.”

“There’s no way you could have beaten both of us without cheating,” Windsplitter insisted while Wildcharger looked between them in disbelief.

“I used my lessons,” Duskwalker said and her voice broke a little.

“Cheater,” Windsplitter pressed on and Quicksilver stepped in, causing all three to look up.

The look on Duskwalker’s faceplate hurt Quicksilver’s spark and she turned her attention on the cerulean blue femling, “Windsplitter, just because Duskwalker beat you at a game does not give you the right to call her names.”

“But, she couldn’t beat us both,” Windsplitter argued and Duskwalker got to her feet.

“With the proper knowledge, one can do anything,” Quicksilver stated, “Dusk pays attention to her lessons and is able to use what she learned when doing other things.”

“I still don’t believe her,” Windsplitter pouted, crossing her arms over her chestplate and looking away.

When the femling did not look back over at them, Quicksilver knelt down and set a hand on Duskwalker’s shoulder plating, “Where is everyone?”

“Resting still,” Wildcharger answered instead and looked at Duskwalker, “How did you beat us so soundly?”

“I studied strategy not long before we came here,” Duskwalker shrugged. Her voice was slightly stronger, but she still seemed sad to Quicksilver.

“Then I will too, cause I am going to defeat you next time,” Wildcharger challenged with a large grin.

Duskwalker smiled slightly and released a small laugh, “You’ll have to study hard then.”

“I will,” Wildcharger promised, tapping the button on the side of the board so the pieces reset themselves, “You want to play, Silver?”

Quicksilver glanced at him before standing up and shaking her helm, “No thank you. I would prefer not to get trounced by a sparkling not even half my age.”

“Oh, come on, you can’t tell me you’re afraid of little Dusky,” Wildcharger poked.

Looking at him with a smirk, Quicksilver responded easily, “Afraid of Duskwalker? No. Not feeling like showing my vulnerabilities? Yes.”

“I think you’re scared,” Windsplitter piped up, her pout gone now that she was focused on Quicksilver.

“Not going to work Windsplitter,” Quicksilver responded without bothering to look back over her shoulder as she approached the storage area.

“Now I know you’re scared,” Windsplitter announced.

“Mmhmm, yes, this is what I look like when I’m scared,” Quicksilver deadpanned, coming up with four cubes of energon. Returning to where the three of them sat around the board, she handed each one cube before taking a seat herself.

“Is there another game you’d want to play?” Duskwalker asked before taking a small drink of her energon.

“…I never really played many games as a sparkling,” Quicksilver admitted, feeling silly.

“Never?!” Wildcharger’s jaw dropped as he looked at her incredously.

Shaking her helm in the negative, Quicksilver moved one shoulder up and down before looking down at her cube of energon.

“Didn’t your creators play with you?” Windsplitter asked, curious as the other two.

“No, they didn’t,” Quicksilver said, starting to wish she had simply played a game of Strategy with the sparklings.

“Why not?” Wildcharger pressed further, still clearly in disbelief, “Even my creators played with me and they were always busy doing stuff.”

“They just didn’t,” Quicksilver responded, trying hard not to snap. It was not their fault that they did not understand, all three of them had creators who cared about them and wanted to be with them.

“Then we should teach you some,” Duskwalker piped up, overriding whatever comment Wildcharger was about to make.

“Like what?” Windsplitter asked.

“Hm… well, she can play tag,” Duskwalker suggested, looking at the other two for help.

“She’d win, she’s faster than us,” Windsplitter pouted.

“Not necessarily, I mean, she can’t fit under the table or skirt around the couches as fast as we can,” Duskwalker said with a grin.

Holding her hands up, Quicksilver stemmed the flow of ideas and looked at them all curiously before asking, “What is ‘tag’?”

Three tiny faceplates turned toward her, each with a different expression of sheer shock. The first to recover was Duskwalker who sat back on her aft and looked at Quicksilver with a steady expression of calm. Though her body was shaking slightly.

“Tag is a game where you chase after the others, attempting to touch or tag them,” Duskwalker proceeded to explain in a professional, relaxed manner, “If someone is tagged, then they are out until the next game or we could play so that the first person tagged is then it.”

“It?” Quicksilver felt like an idiot, but she also enjoyed seeing Duskwalker happy and she seemed to be while explaining the game.

“Whoever is in charge of tagging the others is it,” Duskwalker stated. There was no sign that the femling thought Quicksilver was slow or stupid. She was stating the facts of the game and that was all.

Venting a sigh, Quicksilver looked down at them all and considered the game, “All right. I’ll play.”

A chorus of shouts of glee made her wince as Windsplitter and Wildcharger both jumped up to their feet and stood staring at her. Duskwalker joined them more sedately with a smile. Reaching over to the Strategy board, Quicksilver tapped the button and watched as the pieces disappeared and the board folded itself up. Once it was finished, she plucked it from the decking and carried it to the large workstation table, setting it down gingerly before turning back to the sparklings.

“Okay, how do we do this?” Quicksilver asked. Not two nanoseconds after the words were out of her mouth, the sparklings darted away, squealing as they ran toward her before dodging in the opposite direction. It reminded her rather strongly of the ‘game’ they’d been playing the cycle before.

Feeling foolish and glad there were no adults around to see her, Quicksilver chased after Wildcharger, trying to touch him. It proved harder than she thought as the mechling angled around the couch tigher than she could have and disappeared. He reappeared at the other end, grinning and sticking his glossia out at her with a laugh. Watching him run off, Quicksilver crossed her arms and watched him for a moment before smirking and slipping around the other couch, kneeling down so that she was hidden behind it.

It was not long before she heard Wildcharger running back toward the seating area, no doubt seeing why she hadn’t followed him. The moment he was in front of the couch she was hidden behind, she jumped up and over it, wrapping her arms around him and startling a yell from his vocodor as she turned in mid-air and landed with a thump on the decking, her legs still propped up against the seat of the couch, laughing.

“Where’d you come from?!” Wildcharger shouted.

“From behind the couch, I can’t believe you did that!” Duskwalker giggled as she launched herself and landed on Quicksilver’s upper chestplate even as Windsplitter clambered up her side and sat down beside Wildcharger.

“Didn’t hitting the decking like that hurt?” Windsplitter asked, staring down at her from her perch.

“No,” Quicksilver answered, shifting slightly to relieve her wings of some of the weight, “I don’t remember this being part of the game Dusk described.”

“It’s not,” Wildcharger said with a broad grin, “You wanna go again? It’s my turn to be it.”

“All right,” Windsplitter was up and gone before anyone else responded.

“I’m glad you three are happy,” Quicksilver said softly with a smile, helping Duskwalker down so that she could dart away as well. Wildcharger slid off and laughed as she disentangled herself from the couch, climbing back to her feet and dusting herself off.

“Are you having fun?” Wildcharger asked suddenly, startling Quicksilver into stopping what she was doing and looking down at him.

“Yes,” Quicksilver answered, “Why?”

“Because you deserve to have fun too,” Wildcharger stated firmly before running off to chase after Windsplitter after the femling dared to run close by them.

“I don’t deserve anything,” Quicksilver responded quietly, watching as Wildcharger barely missed Windsplitter and Duskwalker ran past him with a laugh before he could recover.

The game went on for four more rounds before any of the adults emerged. The first to wake was Cascade and he focused on finishing the work on the residence, skirting around the wildly running sparklings, laughing when Quicksilver nearly tripped over Windsplitter, but caught herself on one leg. He said nothing to any of them, aside from a boisterous good morning. Quicksilver watched as he entered Wildcharger’s compartment with tools in hand. Once he was gone, she resumed playing the game with the other three until they were all too tired to keep running around.

By the time Renegade and Dunestar emerged from their compartment, the sparklings were sitting with Quicksilver in the center of the seating area, reading pads that held chips from her personal stash. Feeling their gazes on her, Quicksilver looked up shyly while Duskwalker got to her feet and ran to her creator with a broad smile and giggled as he lifted her up and tossed her into the air.

“Well now, what is this?” Dunestar asked, bending and lifting the pad that Duskwalker had set aside to read it’s contents, “That is an ancient story.”

“…It was one of them that Aero brought me,” Quicksilver supplied, feeling awkward. She was not sure if she should have shared the story with Duskwalker or not.

“I have not read it since I was a youngling myself,” Dunestar said. Her smile put Quicksilver a little more at ease and she relaxed a little. Stepping around her, Dunestar patted her helm lightly before taking a seat on the other side near to Windsplitter and Wildcharger.

“Aero used to bring me a lot of older data chips… mostly novels…” Quicksilver said shyly.

“I’m surprised that old grouch ever thought about things like that,” Dunestar stated with a smile, “He used to get frustrated with me because I wanted him to talk.”

“He wasn’t so bad, really,” Quicksilver defended the old mech and Dunestar looked at her with her brow ridges raised slightly.

“Maybe you’ll get to see him again,” Dunestar said cryptically and Quicksilver looked up at her curiously, “The next stop we will be making is Altera.”

A sharp, cold spear of fear ran through Quicksilver’s spark and she had to wrap her arm about her midsection to keep the shaking under control. The last planet she wanted to go to was Altera, but she had no choice in the matter. There was only one good reason for her to go back there and that had to do with the same old mech she had been speaking of.

“We have a lot to discuss before then, however,” Renegade spoke for the first time, venting a sigh as he took a seat on the other side of Quicksilver. Feeling slightly closed in by their legs, Quicksilver scooted forward and managed to remove herself with more than a few grunts from Windsplitter and Wildcharger. Once she was free, she stood and moved to the other side, leaning against the couch front and tucking her legs to the side.

“Like what?” Wildcharger asked, looking up from the story he’d been reading.

“The rules and the consequences for not following them, your set schedules, and where you stand in your lessons,” Renegade supplied, setting his hand down closer to the couch’s seat so that Duskwalker could get down. She sat down and looked up at him expectantly.

“Will we get to start lessons soon?” the amount of enthusiasm in Duskwalker’s voice drew a drawn out groan from Windsplitter. Duskwalker huffed at her slightly before looking back up at Renegade.

“Yes, tomorrow, as a matter of fact,” Renegade stated, “And no arguing.” The latter was directed to the two sparklings at his feet.

With a broad grin, the little femme ran across Renegade’s lap and took back her data pad from Dunestar before settling into the space between the two adults, reading her novel once more. Quicksilver watched her silently, still amazed the femling had chosen that particular novel. It was one of the more difficult ones to understand, though enjoyable once the reader got the hang of it.

“I went over your test this morning,” Renegade told Quicksilver and she looked at him in slight alarm. She hadn’t had time to finish it with the tour and going to the bridge. After Dunestar had taken it from her, she had not seen it again.

“Don’t worry, you were only a few from the end. Not enough to affect anything,” Renegade reassured her. He’d properly read her expression and she didn’t know how she felt about that.

“And?” Quicksilver asked, figuring she was some way behind Duskwalker, but would at least be ahead of the other two, she hoped.

“You’ve done impressively, considering. I’m only truly concerned about your mathematical skills and Tactical studies,” Renegade said, offering her a soft smile. She wished she knew how to trust that smile but she’d been fooled before and wasn’t going to be again.

“I never really liked tactics and math makes no sense,” Quicksilver admitted, looking down.

“However, you have bypassed Dusk in a number of areas and are forcing me to update my data chips,” Renegade said with a chuckle and she looked at him in shock.

“I’m sorry… I can buy them myself,” Quicksilver offered, feeling bad that she was making him spend his credits.

Renegade held up a hand and shook his head, “No, I will buy them. I’m the adult and your guardian, it’s my responsibility to make certain you have a well-rounded education that will serve you well in the future.”

Before Quicksilver could offer an argument, Wilcharger’s door opened and Cascade exited, dumping his tools onto the workstation near the Strategy board. He stopped for a moment, glanced at the cube that would become the board, and then turned toward them, looking at them in surprise.

“Don’t tell me you all have been waiting on me for something,” Cascade quipped, dusting his hands off as he moved to take a seat near to Quicksilver, but far enough away that she wouldn’t feel like he was sitting on top of her.

“We were discussing lessons… now that you have joined us, we can get down to business and get the rules out of the way,” Renegade stated, lifting a data pad that he had setting beside him. All of the sparklings turned to look at him; Windsplitter warily eyed the pad while Wildcharger chewed his lower lipplate and Duskwalker waited expectantly.

Quicksilver leaned back and waited, expecting to hear that everything was either off limits or required approval. She was soon surprised as Renegade began to outline their rules, reiterating that the ventilation system was off limits. Two vented sighs met this declaration, but both were ended prematurely from twin looks of disapproval from Renegade and Dunestar. A short laugh that Quicksilver tried to cover as expelled air escaped her and a smirk from Dunestar told her that it had not worked.

“Any questions about the rules?” Renegade asked when he finished outlining them. No one responded and he took that as a sign to move ahead.

As the large mech began to outline the consequences of their actions, Quicksilver looked at him in disbelief. The most severe punishment seemed to be being placed on supervised restriction, which meant that the one in trouble had to follow an adult around all the time. If that was not feasible, then they were left in their compartment for the duration of the time that they were unable to be with the adult. Renegade made it clear that he expected to be able to trust them if that happened. He looked over at her and tilted his head slightly at the expression on her faceplate.

“Do you have a question, Quicksilver?” Dunestar asked, preempting Renegade.

“…Extra lessons, extra chores… restriction,” Quicksilver reiterated, ignoring the groans from the two sparklings at the adults’ feet, “Are those really the only punishments?”

“Yes, they are. You do not have to fear punishment, little one. I will never raise a hand to you and neither will either of these two,” Renegade promised firmly. His optics were focused on her faceplate and she vented a sigh, uncertain of how to respond.

“We’re all agreed on this point, Quicksilver. None of us will ever hurt you for any reason, we’re here to protect you,” Cascade said, setting a hand to her shoulderplating.

She jumped slightly at the touch, but looked up and smiled slightly. There was still a part of her that did not believe them, but she would wait and see what happened. Not that she had any intentions of testing them.

“As to your schedules, they are subject to change. If something does not work out for you that does the others, we are not against changing things,” Renegade stated, stopping when Windsplitter spoke up.

“Soooo, if we don’t want to study as long as everyone else, we don’t have to?” Windsplitter asked, hope clearly shining in her optics.

“Oh, not so fast, sweet spark,” Cascade responded, “the only schedule changes will be in when you do something,not how long, unless you need more time.”

“Scrap,” Windsplitter bit out, leaning back against the couch.

“For now, all of you will be on the same schedule,” Renegade continued, patting Windsplitter on the helm, “You will get up from recharge, refuel, and go to training with your mentor, Dunestar, Cascade, or myself. After which you will return to the residence to do lessons.”

A small set of groans followed this announcement and Wildcharger settled his chinplating onto his upraised knees as his small wings lowered slightly.

“Following lessons, you will complete your chores and then, you will be free until the dark cycle. However, you are to return to the residence before dark cycle to refuel. Then it is to recharge with you all. Quicksilver will be the exception to that rule, as she’s too old for an early bedtime,” Renegade finished.

“Chores?” Windsplitter looked up at Cascade with an expression of utter distaste, as thought the word had left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth.

“Yes, chores. Namely the cleaning and general upkeep of the residence and your compartments,” Cascade stated mildly, looking at Renegade for confirmation. Quicksilver watched as Renegade nodded, barely perceptible to her, but there none-the-less.

“Oooh,” Windsplitter moaned, utterly dejected.

Quicksilver looked over at her in disbelief. Cleaning was nothing compared to some of the things they could have told them to do.

“If you keep them up, then you won’t have to worry about it taking away from your free time,” Cascade stated calmly, “And with Duskwalker’s help, you’ll get it done in no time.”

“Great, so now Dusky is teaching us how to clean too,” Windsplitter muttered, “Know it all.”

“I am not!” Duskwalker cried and Quicksilver looked up at her. It was clear that, no matter how much fun she’d had playing ‘tag’ and reading, the little femling remembered Windsplitter’s words from earlier.

“Windsplitter, that is enough. Do not be mean to Duskwalker,” Cascade scolded and Windsplitter glowered up at him, crossing her arms and leaning back against the couch in full-on pout mode.

A shudder ran through the ship and everyone stopped for a moment to look around, as though they could see the cause of it. Once it had passed, Renegade looked back down at them all and offered a small smile.

“We have a surprise for the four of you,” Renegade stated and the sparklings looked up at him expectantly, “Cascade and I are going to take you to the training center and we will spar.”

“That won’t be very fair,” Wildcharger stated instantly, looking between the two of them.

“Why’s that?” Cascade asked without missing a beat.

“Cause he’s a lot heavier and got more armor than you do,” Wildcharger answered, “He could crush you by simply landing on you.”

“There’s more to fighting than size and strength,” Renegade explained, looking at them all in turn, “Have you refueled?”

“Yes sir,” was the chorused response and Renegade rumbled slightly with laughter before standing to his feet, “Then let’s go to the training center.”
First ** Next

Millenia prior to arriving on Earth, Megatron searches for an Autobot spy at a colony that serves primarily Decepticons and Neutrals. What he gets is far more than he bargained for.

Original characters (c) :iconkyavalentine: and :icontclindsay:
Transformers (c) Hasbro

Cover art (c) *TCLindsay
© 2013 - 2024 KyaValentine
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TCHaerdth's avatar
;; poor little Dusky. I'm guessing Windsplitter might end up harder on her then before now that 'Charger is there and she doesn't *have* to play with Dusk just 'cause they're both Sparklings. Hopefully Silver will let Dusk hang out with her, even if they just sit around and read, that'd be nice methinks yes yes

Ooo sparing >D It'll be so cool to see what they're going to do :D

Loved how the Sparklings had to teach 'Silver how to play Tag XD it was cute and really sad at the same time D: At least Silver doesn't have to worry about Dusk wanting to know more if she doesn't want to tell... the other two I'm not so sure about D:

LOL Lessons, chores, more lessons. Windsplitter and 'Charger are gonna be doing a LOT of groaning XD