Coherent: Chapter 4
A Spark, Remembrance got a couple of comments on AO3. It kickstarted me to have a look back at my work and in one night, an entire chapter just came pouring out. Which is weird, because I drifted off since the characters I needed weren't talking to me and suddenly I had a surprise appearance from the one mech that was stalling the plot. And look! Look at all the world building stuff coming together. Yoketron, you are such a gossipy old mech.
So. Here's chapter four. Or maybe chapter four part one. Depends how inspired I am to continue writing over the next couple of days. It hasn't been betaed yet, so all mistakes are mine.
Coherent Chapter Four
“Something the matter?” Solder had not anticipated being dragged out of Iacon on such short notice but the medic had come as quickly as he was able after receiving Immobilizer’s comm call. As soon as he’d arrived at the batch’s temporary residence, without fail he’d been dragged to see the most troublesome new spark he’d ever had the pleasure of onlining.
“How is he?” Immobilizer asked. The enforcer looked calm but this close the medic could detect a large amount of turmoil hidden away in his field. Solder studied him carefully then glanced back at Prowl, who was staring up to him serenely. Solder rubbed his faceplates in exasperation.
“Fine,” Solder answered shortly, unplugging his cable from the new mech. “Well. What passes for fine for him anyway. In fact, better than usual, which is a relief. Maybe I should just be assigned to him permanently if you’re going to drag me out after you every time you think there’s a problem.”
The enforcer shuttered his optics before contrition filled his field. “My apologies. There are plenty of medics here who could have done-“
“But they haven’t handled him before,” Solder tossed the new spark a problem cube he’d bought whilst waiting for a shuttle. “You know, ever since Fuse-Link got his data-scans, he’s been hard wired into his lab databanks.” Trying to get the scientist to surface had been…difficult, to say the least.
“Does he have anything?” Immobilizer asked anxiously.
“Nothing new has come up,” Solder frowned in concern at the mentor. “But from what he’s been able to tell me, the spark imprint was a good move and it was fortunate we did it in time. Now. Is there something wrong with you?”
Immobilizer flinched reflexively as he recalled the revelations the trip to Yoketron’s dojo had uncovered. In truth, he did not remember much of the visit. He knew that he’d illegally accessed the spark memories he’d taken away from the imprint but he could not recall them. Yoketron had learnt of what he’d done somehow, perhaps he’d confessed the truth to his old master. He knew that he’d had memories edited in order to rectify the situation. Something about it left him uneasy but he was unable to determine what exactly. The only other thing he could recall was how much Prowl was at peace in the dojo.
“Nothing,” he answered shortly. Then, an idea occurred to him and reluctantly he decided that the medic would be the best person to ask. “How much do you know about circuit-su?”
It was not a question that Solder was expecting. “The martial arts? Not much. A cyber ninja is the one to ask about that stuff. But it has been used quite extensively as a form of therapy for-” the medic broke off and turned and looked behind him at his patient. “Hmm.”
Prowl looked up from the puzzle cube. “I liked it,” he said, a glint of excitement in his optics.
“You met a cyber ninja, huh, new spark?” Solder asked, sounding impressed. “Is that where you disappeared to a few orns ago and gave everyone a nasty fright?”
“My old teacher, Yoketron, runs a dojo in Praxus,” Immoblizer interjected. He levelled a disapproving look at his mentee. “Prowl found his way there somehow.”
“I’m sorry,” Prowl apologised. “I did not know that it would cause so much distress.”
“Yoketron,” Solder sounded out. The name was not familiar to him but, with barely a thought, he reached out and had his answer from his Praxian counterparts. He was well known and respected here with many going to his dojo to find peace and stillness. The circuit-su master had taught all sorts of mechs and helped them find the means to take control of their life. It seemed like a good match, if anything.
“I could apply to have Prowl transferred to him,” Solder said thoughtfully. “Yoketron would need to be evaluated, of course, to determine whether he is suited to mentor a new spark. But I don’t like the idea of separating Prowl from the rest of his batch. He has started to open himself up to them and I want that to continue.”
Prowl deflated at this announcement but Immobilizer looked relieved. “Is it possible to have another mentor assigned to the batch?” the enforcer asked. “They are starting to develop a sense of identity and are requiring more work to keep them in line. And it isn’t fair to the rest that I’m dedicating so much of my attention to Prowl.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, there are always plenty of mechs who would be happy to volunteer their time,” Solder reached over and flicked teasingly Prowl’s audios. “There is so much of Cybertron to see and learn about and you want to stick yourself here when you haven’t even seen the rest?”
“It is very pretty here,” Prowl replied. He paused for a moment, thought about that statement then amended, “Illogically beautiful.”
A burst of amused static escaped the medic as he turned back to Immobilzer. “Nice try Prowl but I don’t think you quite pass as one of your batchmates. You like the crystals.”
“They are shiny,” Prowl agreed. One hand disappeared into his subspace and returned with a whole cluster that he held out to be examined. Immobilizer gave a startled grunt and Solder quickly turned his attention back the new spark.
“That’s impressive,” the medic remarked as he examined the crystals carefully. They were professionally cut and shaped into the city state’s icon. He wondered where the mech had found them from. The answer came a few astroseconds later.
“You stole those,” Immobilizer stated in blatant disbelief and Solder let out a startled burst of laughter. The enforcer had seen them embedded in the pillars at Praxus’s council hall when the batch had gone for a visit. The sheer audacity of the act stunned Immobilizer into outraged silence as he struggled to determine where exactly had he gone wrong in his mentoring that a new spark under his care had learnt how to steal. He was an enforcer for Primus’s sake! He’d given Prowl a spark imprint!
Prowl gave his mentor a very dour look. “No one will notice,” he replied confidently. “They were on a back pillar and out of sight.”
Solder glanced at the impending volcanic eruption on the other side of the room and decided it might be better if he handled this one. “That’s not the point, Prowl,” he said firmly. “They are not yours; they belonged to the Praxian government. You do not take things that do not belong to you.”
The new spark’s face tightened unhappily and Solder quickly deposited the crystal into Immobilizer’s hands before steering him to the door. “Why don’t you get this sorted out?” he said, pushing the enforcer out.
“I can put it back,” Prowl called out and Immobilizer twitched in Solder’s grasp. The medic privately cursed Prowl’s overdeveloped personality matrix that was clearly still lagging behind in some respects and was unable to recognise that he was just making things worse for him. The imprint had definitely loosened the mech up, he had lost a bit of that cutting sarcasm and had gained, oddly enough, an impressive amount of naivety. Which…was good, the medic supposed. The lack of maturity was a sign that he was no longer being influenced by his pre-set frequencies.
“That might not be best,” Solder said as the door slid shut with Immobilizer on the other side. “Are you trying to make Immobilizer glitch?”
“What did I do?” the new spark was clearly confused.
“Mech’s an Enforcer,” Solder sighed. He pointed a finger at Prowl. “He apprehends law breakers. You were law breaking and didn’t even have the sense to keep quiet about it. How is he supposed to deal with the fact he’d apparently mentored a thief?”
Prowl shuttered his optics thoughtfully. Solder paused, rewound what he’d just said and groaned. “No, wait, I mean-“
“I should not have mentioned it at all,” Prowl concluded triumphantly.
“You shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place!” Solder corrected a little too late. He scowled at the new spark. He could almost imagine what was happening in Prowl’s developing decision tree and was finally beginning to get an idea as to why Immobilizer felt another mentor was required. New spark generally did not require much, just time to integrate and understand the knowledge in their databanks and a mentor to guide them when things did not make sense. Prowl by his very nature was problematic since he ignored most of his pre-programmed information (which would have let him know the problem in this situation immediately) and pretty much needed a mentor assigned to him fulltime.
“Don’t steal,” Solder chided and immediately felt foolish. He knew that he wasn’t exactly mentor material. Oh, he could handle new sparks just fine but guiding them morally? That was a lot trickier. From the blank look he was getting out of Prowl, he could tell he wasn’t getting through. “Here,” he quickly found a reference to Cybertron’s legal system and pinged it to the new spark. “That’s your reading for the orn. Download it and discuss it with Immobilizer when you’ve finished reading it.”
From the brightness in Prowl’s optics, Solder could tell the mech was hooked. Good. If there was one thing to count on, it was Prowl’s insatiable curiosity. “Thank you Solder,” Prowl said as he settled on the edge of his berth and began to shut down his frame to dedicate his full attention to studying for his assignment.
“I’ll see you around,” the medic left the room and then slumped against the wall as soon as the door slid shut. Prowl was more than a handful.
Eventually, he pushed himself off and straightened up. There was a list of potential mentors he needed to peruse.
“That is not the correct posture,” Yoketron frowned at Prowl. “Start again.”
The new spark fell into position and Yoketron did not say a word as he moved through the kata. The batch had rotated through the other cities and seen the many different cultures across Cybertron. They’d then been given a choice as to where they wanted to spend the rest of their development and broken off into small groups and assigned a new set of mentors.
It had hardly been surprising that Prowl had chosen to come back to Praxus. Three other XD995s from the batch had come with him and they stayed in a shared accommodation arranged by the Praxian government. His batchmates had taken to exploring the different functions available in Praxus as a group, under the watchful optics of Immobilzer. Prowl sometimes joined them but for the most part, he was content to find his own way by himself. Most of the time he found his way to Yoketron’s dojo.
The old cyberninja watched as Prowl finished the kata and bowed to his master. “Your posture is still not correct,” Yoketron observed. “You aim too low for your frame height.”
Prowl shuttered his optics and watched carefully as Yoketron demonstrated the set for him again. “You may start,” Yoketron said when he was done. As soon as Prowl began, the circuit-su master said, “Hold.”
Yoketron circled Prowl and examined his stance. “Tell me what you think you are doing wrong.”
The young mech frowned and tried to evaluate himself. He replayed Yoketron’s kata and compared it to his current posture. The circuit-su master was right, his aim was off and yet…Prowl couldn’t deny that it felt right. It was instinctive; he quite simply fell into that position immediately.
He adjusted himself to the correct posture and Yoketron nodded approvingly. “You are right, I am aiming too low,” Prowl dipped his helm in acknowledgement of his failure. “I just feel…that that is how I should be doing the kata.”
Yoketron hummed thoughtfully. “It is difficult to learn when the spark remembers the frame differently,” he commented neutrally. “You must learn to overcome this, to move in accordance to as you are not as you were.”
Prowl froze and glanced down at himself. That…made a lot of sense. It seemed that everywhere he turned his coherency taunted him and sabotaged his efforts. Anger began to build in him.
Yoketron sensed the change in his student and, without warning, quickly launched an attack at him. Prowl fell back, confused for only an astrosecond, before defending himself. It was a quick spar, whilst Prowl utilised the correct moves to counter Yoketron’s attacks, his aim was slightly off and it showed. It only took moments before he was kneeling, defeated, at his master’s pedes.
“You cannot rely on spark memory,” Yoketron said softly. “There’s so much you already know and because of that, you fail. It makes learning circuit-su doubly difficult, for you must first unlearn what your spark knows before you can learn and understand the discipline.”
Prowl gazed down at his servos in humility. “I understand master,” he answered stiffly. Even though he knew Yoketron had an immeasurable number of vorns on him and Prowl was only a beginner, his quick defeat ate away him.
Yoketron gave him a warm smile. “Meditate on this,” he said and then retreated from the dojo’s training floor. Just before he got completely clear of them, he faltered, one pede hung in the air before it slowly came down.
It was a minute movement but it was enough to catch Prowl’s attention. Instead of clearing his processor and settling down in meditation like he was supposed to, he stared unabashedly at his teacher. “Prowl,” Yoketron began slowly. “Get off the training floor.”
The young mech blinked in confusion. This had not happened before. “Master-?” he climbed to his pedes and was almost off the training area when the door to the dojo was kicked open.
“Yoketron!” a green mech snarled with the strangest frame Prowl had ever seen. It was…spiky. Veeery spiky. “Where are you, you miserable piece of slag?” he stormed into the dojo and the door slid shut behind him.
“Right over here, Lockdown,” the circuit su master was rather calm in the face of the other mech’s anger. Not even the sudden appearance of a plasma cannon in his face seemed to faze him. “Would you like a cube of energon?”
“Not on your slagging life.”
Prowl, on the other hand, was terrified that his teacher was about to get murdered right in front of him. Without a thought, he activated his long range comms to contact Immobilizer and the enforcers. Both the intruder and Yoketron’s helm snapped towards him and a strange static fell over his comm systems. Fear spread through Prowl at this realisation.
Jammed. He was being jammed.
The intruder had lowered his weapon and was staring at the young mech. “Why did you let me in if you had company?” the mech hissed accusingly.
Yoketron exvented loudly. “Perhaps I’d hoped you’d learnt some manners during your time away.” He looked rather resigned and disappointed to learn otherwise.
The mech stared incredulously at him and then shifted his gaze back to Prowl who was staring at him with the widest pair of optics the stranger had ever seen. “What are you looking at, half-bit?” he sneered.
“Be nice,” Yoketron scolded, though there was no denying the undertone of amusement in his voice. “Prowl’s new.”
“Obviously or he wouldn’t be wasting his time here,” Lockdown grunted darkly. “You gonna leave, mech? Need to have a private conversation with this slagger.”
Prowl transferred his terrified gaze to his teacher and the two older mechs could feel his EM field, full of fear he was trying to suppress. “He’s going to kill you!”
Lockdown scowled at the obviously glitched mech that Yoketron had taken under his guidance. “’m not,” he retorted. “As much as I’d like otherwise.” A dark look entered his optics as he evaluated the frightened mech before him. He reached into his subspace and returned with a pair of stasis cuffs. “Going to have to wipe your memories though. Can’t have you remembering I was here.”
Prowl backed up in horror. “Lockdown,” Yoketron had lost all traces of amusement. He grabbed the intruder before he could take another step. “Prowl was onlined half a vorn ago and his personality matrix is abnormally developed. Do not hack him or you could do permanent damage to him. Prowl, this is Lockdown, an overenthusiastic and somewhat dubious acquaintance of mine. He means-” Yoketron gave the mech’s arm a warning squeeze, “-no harm.
“Yet,” Lockdown growled. He switched to his internal comm line. -Yoketron, what game are you playing at? You’ve always kept your circuit su teaching separate to the Corps.-
All he got in response was a patient smile before Yoketron unsubspaced an energon cube, stuffed it into his hands. He then wandered over to reassure his student that yes, they were fine and they were perfectly safe, that the big scary mech with spikes didn’t mean any harm, he just had a questionable sense of fashion and strange ideas on how to greet people.
“Prowl here,” Yoketron eventually turned his attention back to his unexpected guest, “Once mentioned that he had an interest in becoming an Enforcer. That’s what they onlined him for and he has read ALL of Cybertron’s laws and studied them at great length even though he isn’t required to make a decision for another four and a half vorns. He found them all really quite interesting.”
Lockdown was suddenly struck with a terrible suspicion as to where Yoketron was going with this. “Frag no,” he grunted and glanced at the dojo’s door. Yoketron would be on him before he could make it to the exit if he ran.
“So I thought,” Yoketron continued as though he hadn’t heard Lockdown’s objection, “That since you are such an upright and outstanding citizen, it’d be good for you to make his acquaintance. There’s so much that you could teach him for which I have no experience with.”
Bolstered by his teacher’s confidence and reassurance, Prowl’s fear diminished. He looked at Lockdown with excitement. “Are you an Enforcer?” he asked.
Despite himself, Lockdown scoffed. “Not exactly,” he growled. He glared at the circuit-su master standing aside that had sprung this upon him.
“But you do know things,” Prowl persisted. “Things that would be useful to know as an Enforcer. Could you mentor me? I already have Immobilizer but he doesn’t always have time when he has to look after other members of my batch.”
The bounty hunter’s engine stalled at that as Yoketron laughed outright. “Slag no,” he instantly retorted. The young mech drooped in disappointment and Lockdown hastily backtracked. “Not in any official capacity,” he corrected quickly. “Never bothered with training for it and I don’t have the time to get permission for it.”
“Thank you,” Lockdown was rewarded with a small smile before Prowl refocused himself. “Should I finish my meditation, master Yoketron?”
“After all the excitement, I doubt you’ll be able to center yourself,” Yoketron chuckled in fond amusement before gesturing Lockdown to follow him to the back rooms. “But do your best or leave if you so wish. The lesson is over for this orn. And Prowl? It might be best not to mention any of this to Immobilizer.”
Prowl nodded obediently and watched them go before folding himself down on to the dojo’s floor. Just before the door closed behind them, Lockdown glanced back at the lone mech. He was an odd one, new mech or not. Yoketron did not just jeopardize himself or the Corps like this. The bounty hunter silently sent a pulse out, checking that the room was clean of surveillance equipment. It was unthinkable that Yoketron could have been bugged but paranoia and long-time security measures made such things necessary.
With a start, he realised that Yoketron had been watching him closely, a fond little smile on his face. “What?” he growled shortly, aware of the other mech’s teasing mood and wanting no part of it.
“Oh, no. Nothing,” Yoketron assured him gaily. Lockdown waited for it. He wasn’t going to get off that easily and he knew it. “Thought you were all over catering to the whims of new mechs but then again…it wasn’t all that long ago that Deadlock was split, wasn’t it?”
Lockdown pondered over a retort for few astroseconds before deciding to go for where it would hurt. Yoketron could stick his friendly overtures in a blackhole for all Lockdown cared; he was never going to have his forgiveness. “New recruit?” he asked coldly. “You are starting on him unusually young but then again, that’s not very surprising, knowing you.”
The other cyber ninja stiffened and all warmth and friendliness bleed from his frame. “He is no recruit,” Yoketron spoke in a quiet tone that Lockdown had long come to recognise as Yoketron at his deadliest. A warning sign that he normally ignored. “I would never dare to pull him back to this path, not when he is finally free to move on. I’m just trying to help him.”
Lockdown frowned in confusion. “I don’t understand-”
“You will when you spend time with him,” Yoketron cut in with a sharp gesture back to the dojo’s training room and Prowl’s general direction. “Zeta drew him from the Allspark far too soon.”
Comprehension clicked together all too quickly for the bounty hunter. “Why, for the love of Primus, is he here? And asking me to teach him…how is that helping? If you were serious about not leading him back to the Corps, he would not be here nor would you have introduced us! Who next are you going to drag out to meet him? Vibes? Dai Atlas? Roadhandler? Jazz?”
Yoketron folded his servos and contemplated them instead of looking at Lockdown’s accusing face. “Vibes has already met him. Knocked him out actually when Prowl wandered in here. But anyway, you are the only one I actually intend for him to know. I meant what I said. You have a wealth of experiences and perspective that is very different from mine. And out of all of us, you understand best the need to move beyond the limits of one’s own programming. Your teachings would provide balance to my own.”
“Or confuse the ever living slag out of the mech,” Lockdown grumbled as he pondered over Yoketron’s words. “Are you going to let the rest of the Corps know?”
“Only those who knew him. And in these orns, that’s a precious few number.”
“That including Jazz?” Lockdown asked in a rare moment of concern. “Because that’s a fast way to have this new mech killed before he turns even a vorn old.”
Yoketron sighed heavily. “I may wait a few vorns before bringing it up with him. In the meantime, I’ll have Vibes assigned to Praxus so that Jazz doesn’t feel the need to come by on patrol. Did you know how he has an apprentice now?”
The bounty hunter shuttered his optics once in blatant disbelief. “When did that happen and who is crazy and desperate enough to sign up with him?”
“They encountered each other about eighteen vorns ago. Alpha Trion’s old apprentice.”
“He has an old apprentice? I thought he had that trio, Orion Pax, Ariel and Dion.” There was a lot a mech missed out on when he was bounty hunting off planet.
“By all accounts, Trion was quite relieved to see him go and that it was a good match,” Yoketron disengage the cover on his right shoulder port and unwound a cable. -Now,- he switched to a private and secure comm line. -What news do you bring from the outer worlds?-
Lockdown turned off his optics and allowed the other cyber ninja to plug in and access his core processor. It was a cold joining, Yoketron dispassionately moved through his memories whilst Lockdown kept his own consciousness as far away as possible as he studied Yoketron’s firewalls. It would have been preferable to simply upload all the information to a datapad and pass it on with the expectation the datapad was destroyed after it contents were downloaded. But the Corps did not risk information going astray or missing, it was stored only within their frames and passed from mech to mech that way.
When Yoketron was finally done, he began to disengage his processor from Lockdown’s. And that was when the bounty hunter struck, his mind reaching out to attack Yoketron’s firewalls. Just as quickly, Yoketron countered by reconfiguring his firewalls and bringing up additionally defences. They mentally grappled for several astroseconds. Eventually, Yoketron broke free and pulled out, his frame booted up and he pulled his cable from Lockdown’s own shoulder port.
“One day,” Yoketron said calmly as though the bounty hunter had not just tried to shatter his processor, “You will get me.”
Lockdown growled darkly and backed off. “And then I will kill you,” he promised.
The old cyber ninja did not look taken aback by this declaration and simply accepted it without protest. “And then you will kill me,” he agreed.
So. Here's chapter four. Or maybe chapter four part one. Depends how inspired I am to continue writing over the next couple of days. It hasn't been betaed yet, so all mistakes are mine.
Coherent Chapter Four
“Something the matter?” Solder had not anticipated being dragged out of Iacon on such short notice but the medic had come as quickly as he was able after receiving Immobilizer’s comm call. As soon as he’d arrived at the batch’s temporary residence, without fail he’d been dragged to see the most troublesome new spark he’d ever had the pleasure of onlining.
“How is he?” Immobilizer asked. The enforcer looked calm but this close the medic could detect a large amount of turmoil hidden away in his field. Solder studied him carefully then glanced back at Prowl, who was staring up to him serenely. Solder rubbed his faceplates in exasperation.
“Fine,” Solder answered shortly, unplugging his cable from the new mech. “Well. What passes for fine for him anyway. In fact, better than usual, which is a relief. Maybe I should just be assigned to him permanently if you’re going to drag me out after you every time you think there’s a problem.”
The enforcer shuttered his optics before contrition filled his field. “My apologies. There are plenty of medics here who could have done-“
“But they haven’t handled him before,” Solder tossed the new spark a problem cube he’d bought whilst waiting for a shuttle. “You know, ever since Fuse-Link got his data-scans, he’s been hard wired into his lab databanks.” Trying to get the scientist to surface had been…difficult, to say the least.
“Does he have anything?” Immobilizer asked anxiously.
“Nothing new has come up,” Solder frowned in concern at the mentor. “But from what he’s been able to tell me, the spark imprint was a good move and it was fortunate we did it in time. Now. Is there something wrong with you?”
Immobilizer flinched reflexively as he recalled the revelations the trip to Yoketron’s dojo had uncovered. In truth, he did not remember much of the visit. He knew that he’d illegally accessed the spark memories he’d taken away from the imprint but he could not recall them. Yoketron had learnt of what he’d done somehow, perhaps he’d confessed the truth to his old master. He knew that he’d had memories edited in order to rectify the situation. Something about it left him uneasy but he was unable to determine what exactly. The only other thing he could recall was how much Prowl was at peace in the dojo.
“Nothing,” he answered shortly. Then, an idea occurred to him and reluctantly he decided that the medic would be the best person to ask. “How much do you know about circuit-su?”
It was not a question that Solder was expecting. “The martial arts? Not much. A cyber ninja is the one to ask about that stuff. But it has been used quite extensively as a form of therapy for-” the medic broke off and turned and looked behind him at his patient. “Hmm.”
Prowl looked up from the puzzle cube. “I liked it,” he said, a glint of excitement in his optics.
“You met a cyber ninja, huh, new spark?” Solder asked, sounding impressed. “Is that where you disappeared to a few orns ago and gave everyone a nasty fright?”
“My old teacher, Yoketron, runs a dojo in Praxus,” Immoblizer interjected. He levelled a disapproving look at his mentee. “Prowl found his way there somehow.”
“I’m sorry,” Prowl apologised. “I did not know that it would cause so much distress.”
“Yoketron,” Solder sounded out. The name was not familiar to him but, with barely a thought, he reached out and had his answer from his Praxian counterparts. He was well known and respected here with many going to his dojo to find peace and stillness. The circuit-su master had taught all sorts of mechs and helped them find the means to take control of their life. It seemed like a good match, if anything.
“I could apply to have Prowl transferred to him,” Solder said thoughtfully. “Yoketron would need to be evaluated, of course, to determine whether he is suited to mentor a new spark. But I don’t like the idea of separating Prowl from the rest of his batch. He has started to open himself up to them and I want that to continue.”
Prowl deflated at this announcement but Immobilizer looked relieved. “Is it possible to have another mentor assigned to the batch?” the enforcer asked. “They are starting to develop a sense of identity and are requiring more work to keep them in line. And it isn’t fair to the rest that I’m dedicating so much of my attention to Prowl.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, there are always plenty of mechs who would be happy to volunteer their time,” Solder reached over and flicked teasingly Prowl’s audios. “There is so much of Cybertron to see and learn about and you want to stick yourself here when you haven’t even seen the rest?”
“It is very pretty here,” Prowl replied. He paused for a moment, thought about that statement then amended, “Illogically beautiful.”
A burst of amused static escaped the medic as he turned back to Immobilzer. “Nice try Prowl but I don’t think you quite pass as one of your batchmates. You like the crystals.”
“They are shiny,” Prowl agreed. One hand disappeared into his subspace and returned with a whole cluster that he held out to be examined. Immobilizer gave a startled grunt and Solder quickly turned his attention back the new spark.
“That’s impressive,” the medic remarked as he examined the crystals carefully. They were professionally cut and shaped into the city state’s icon. He wondered where the mech had found them from. The answer came a few astroseconds later.
“You stole those,” Immobilizer stated in blatant disbelief and Solder let out a startled burst of laughter. The enforcer had seen them embedded in the pillars at Praxus’s council hall when the batch had gone for a visit. The sheer audacity of the act stunned Immobilizer into outraged silence as he struggled to determine where exactly had he gone wrong in his mentoring that a new spark under his care had learnt how to steal. He was an enforcer for Primus’s sake! He’d given Prowl a spark imprint!
Prowl gave his mentor a very dour look. “No one will notice,” he replied confidently. “They were on a back pillar and out of sight.”
Solder glanced at the impending volcanic eruption on the other side of the room and decided it might be better if he handled this one. “That’s not the point, Prowl,” he said firmly. “They are not yours; they belonged to the Praxian government. You do not take things that do not belong to you.”
The new spark’s face tightened unhappily and Solder quickly deposited the crystal into Immobilizer’s hands before steering him to the door. “Why don’t you get this sorted out?” he said, pushing the enforcer out.
“I can put it back,” Prowl called out and Immobilizer twitched in Solder’s grasp. The medic privately cursed Prowl’s overdeveloped personality matrix that was clearly still lagging behind in some respects and was unable to recognise that he was just making things worse for him. The imprint had definitely loosened the mech up, he had lost a bit of that cutting sarcasm and had gained, oddly enough, an impressive amount of naivety. Which…was good, the medic supposed. The lack of maturity was a sign that he was no longer being influenced by his pre-set frequencies.
“That might not be best,” Solder said as the door slid shut with Immobilizer on the other side. “Are you trying to make Immobilizer glitch?”
“What did I do?” the new spark was clearly confused.
“Mech’s an Enforcer,” Solder sighed. He pointed a finger at Prowl. “He apprehends law breakers. You were law breaking and didn’t even have the sense to keep quiet about it. How is he supposed to deal with the fact he’d apparently mentored a thief?”
Prowl shuttered his optics thoughtfully. Solder paused, rewound what he’d just said and groaned. “No, wait, I mean-“
“I should not have mentioned it at all,” Prowl concluded triumphantly.
“You shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place!” Solder corrected a little too late. He scowled at the new spark. He could almost imagine what was happening in Prowl’s developing decision tree and was finally beginning to get an idea as to why Immobilizer felt another mentor was required. New spark generally did not require much, just time to integrate and understand the knowledge in their databanks and a mentor to guide them when things did not make sense. Prowl by his very nature was problematic since he ignored most of his pre-programmed information (which would have let him know the problem in this situation immediately) and pretty much needed a mentor assigned to him fulltime.
“Don’t steal,” Solder chided and immediately felt foolish. He knew that he wasn’t exactly mentor material. Oh, he could handle new sparks just fine but guiding them morally? That was a lot trickier. From the blank look he was getting out of Prowl, he could tell he wasn’t getting through. “Here,” he quickly found a reference to Cybertron’s legal system and pinged it to the new spark. “That’s your reading for the orn. Download it and discuss it with Immobilizer when you’ve finished reading it.”
From the brightness in Prowl’s optics, Solder could tell the mech was hooked. Good. If there was one thing to count on, it was Prowl’s insatiable curiosity. “Thank you Solder,” Prowl said as he settled on the edge of his berth and began to shut down his frame to dedicate his full attention to studying for his assignment.
“I’ll see you around,” the medic left the room and then slumped against the wall as soon as the door slid shut. Prowl was more than a handful.
Eventually, he pushed himself off and straightened up. There was a list of potential mentors he needed to peruse.
“That is not the correct posture,” Yoketron frowned at Prowl. “Start again.”
The new spark fell into position and Yoketron did not say a word as he moved through the kata. The batch had rotated through the other cities and seen the many different cultures across Cybertron. They’d then been given a choice as to where they wanted to spend the rest of their development and broken off into small groups and assigned a new set of mentors.
It had hardly been surprising that Prowl had chosen to come back to Praxus. Three other XD995s from the batch had come with him and they stayed in a shared accommodation arranged by the Praxian government. His batchmates had taken to exploring the different functions available in Praxus as a group, under the watchful optics of Immobilzer. Prowl sometimes joined them but for the most part, he was content to find his own way by himself. Most of the time he found his way to Yoketron’s dojo.
The old cyberninja watched as Prowl finished the kata and bowed to his master. “Your posture is still not correct,” Yoketron observed. “You aim too low for your frame height.”
Prowl shuttered his optics and watched carefully as Yoketron demonstrated the set for him again. “You may start,” Yoketron said when he was done. As soon as Prowl began, the circuit-su master said, “Hold.”
Yoketron circled Prowl and examined his stance. “Tell me what you think you are doing wrong.”
The young mech frowned and tried to evaluate himself. He replayed Yoketron’s kata and compared it to his current posture. The circuit-su master was right, his aim was off and yet…Prowl couldn’t deny that it felt right. It was instinctive; he quite simply fell into that position immediately.
He adjusted himself to the correct posture and Yoketron nodded approvingly. “You are right, I am aiming too low,” Prowl dipped his helm in acknowledgement of his failure. “I just feel…that that is how I should be doing the kata.”
Yoketron hummed thoughtfully. “It is difficult to learn when the spark remembers the frame differently,” he commented neutrally. “You must learn to overcome this, to move in accordance to as you are not as you were.”
Prowl froze and glanced down at himself. That…made a lot of sense. It seemed that everywhere he turned his coherency taunted him and sabotaged his efforts. Anger began to build in him.
Yoketron sensed the change in his student and, without warning, quickly launched an attack at him. Prowl fell back, confused for only an astrosecond, before defending himself. It was a quick spar, whilst Prowl utilised the correct moves to counter Yoketron’s attacks, his aim was slightly off and it showed. It only took moments before he was kneeling, defeated, at his master’s pedes.
“You cannot rely on spark memory,” Yoketron said softly. “There’s so much you already know and because of that, you fail. It makes learning circuit-su doubly difficult, for you must first unlearn what your spark knows before you can learn and understand the discipline.”
Prowl gazed down at his servos in humility. “I understand master,” he answered stiffly. Even though he knew Yoketron had an immeasurable number of vorns on him and Prowl was only a beginner, his quick defeat ate away him.
Yoketron gave him a warm smile. “Meditate on this,” he said and then retreated from the dojo’s training floor. Just before he got completely clear of them, he faltered, one pede hung in the air before it slowly came down.
It was a minute movement but it was enough to catch Prowl’s attention. Instead of clearing his processor and settling down in meditation like he was supposed to, he stared unabashedly at his teacher. “Prowl,” Yoketron began slowly. “Get off the training floor.”
The young mech blinked in confusion. This had not happened before. “Master-?” he climbed to his pedes and was almost off the training area when the door to the dojo was kicked open.
“Yoketron!” a green mech snarled with the strangest frame Prowl had ever seen. It was…spiky. Veeery spiky. “Where are you, you miserable piece of slag?” he stormed into the dojo and the door slid shut behind him.
“Right over here, Lockdown,” the circuit su master was rather calm in the face of the other mech’s anger. Not even the sudden appearance of a plasma cannon in his face seemed to faze him. “Would you like a cube of energon?”
“Not on your slagging life.”
Prowl, on the other hand, was terrified that his teacher was about to get murdered right in front of him. Without a thought, he activated his long range comms to contact Immobilizer and the enforcers. Both the intruder and Yoketron’s helm snapped towards him and a strange static fell over his comm systems. Fear spread through Prowl at this realisation.
Jammed. He was being jammed.
The intruder had lowered his weapon and was staring at the young mech. “Why did you let me in if you had company?” the mech hissed accusingly.
Yoketron exvented loudly. “Perhaps I’d hoped you’d learnt some manners during your time away.” He looked rather resigned and disappointed to learn otherwise.
The mech stared incredulously at him and then shifted his gaze back to Prowl who was staring at him with the widest pair of optics the stranger had ever seen. “What are you looking at, half-bit?” he sneered.
“Be nice,” Yoketron scolded, though there was no denying the undertone of amusement in his voice. “Prowl’s new.”
“Obviously or he wouldn’t be wasting his time here,” Lockdown grunted darkly. “You gonna leave, mech? Need to have a private conversation with this slagger.”
Prowl transferred his terrified gaze to his teacher and the two older mechs could feel his EM field, full of fear he was trying to suppress. “He’s going to kill you!”
Lockdown scowled at the obviously glitched mech that Yoketron had taken under his guidance. “’m not,” he retorted. “As much as I’d like otherwise.” A dark look entered his optics as he evaluated the frightened mech before him. He reached into his subspace and returned with a pair of stasis cuffs. “Going to have to wipe your memories though. Can’t have you remembering I was here.”
Prowl backed up in horror. “Lockdown,” Yoketron had lost all traces of amusement. He grabbed the intruder before he could take another step. “Prowl was onlined half a vorn ago and his personality matrix is abnormally developed. Do not hack him or you could do permanent damage to him. Prowl, this is Lockdown, an overenthusiastic and somewhat dubious acquaintance of mine. He means-” Yoketron gave the mech’s arm a warning squeeze, “-no harm.
“Yet,” Lockdown growled. He switched to his internal comm line. -Yoketron, what game are you playing at? You’ve always kept your circuit su teaching separate to the Corps.-
All he got in response was a patient smile before Yoketron unsubspaced an energon cube, stuffed it into his hands. He then wandered over to reassure his student that yes, they were fine and they were perfectly safe, that the big scary mech with spikes didn’t mean any harm, he just had a questionable sense of fashion and strange ideas on how to greet people.
“Prowl here,” Yoketron eventually turned his attention back to his unexpected guest, “Once mentioned that he had an interest in becoming an Enforcer. That’s what they onlined him for and he has read ALL of Cybertron’s laws and studied them at great length even though he isn’t required to make a decision for another four and a half vorns. He found them all really quite interesting.”
Lockdown was suddenly struck with a terrible suspicion as to where Yoketron was going with this. “Frag no,” he grunted and glanced at the dojo’s door. Yoketron would be on him before he could make it to the exit if he ran.
“So I thought,” Yoketron continued as though he hadn’t heard Lockdown’s objection, “That since you are such an upright and outstanding citizen, it’d be good for you to make his acquaintance. There’s so much that you could teach him for which I have no experience with.”
Bolstered by his teacher’s confidence and reassurance, Prowl’s fear diminished. He looked at Lockdown with excitement. “Are you an Enforcer?” he asked.
Despite himself, Lockdown scoffed. “Not exactly,” he growled. He glared at the circuit-su master standing aside that had sprung this upon him.
“But you do know things,” Prowl persisted. “Things that would be useful to know as an Enforcer. Could you mentor me? I already have Immobilizer but he doesn’t always have time when he has to look after other members of my batch.”
The bounty hunter’s engine stalled at that as Yoketron laughed outright. “Slag no,” he instantly retorted. The young mech drooped in disappointment and Lockdown hastily backtracked. “Not in any official capacity,” he corrected quickly. “Never bothered with training for it and I don’t have the time to get permission for it.”
“Thank you,” Lockdown was rewarded with a small smile before Prowl refocused himself. “Should I finish my meditation, master Yoketron?”
“After all the excitement, I doubt you’ll be able to center yourself,” Yoketron chuckled in fond amusement before gesturing Lockdown to follow him to the back rooms. “But do your best or leave if you so wish. The lesson is over for this orn. And Prowl? It might be best not to mention any of this to Immobilizer.”
Prowl nodded obediently and watched them go before folding himself down on to the dojo’s floor. Just before the door closed behind them, Lockdown glanced back at the lone mech. He was an odd one, new mech or not. Yoketron did not just jeopardize himself or the Corps like this. The bounty hunter silently sent a pulse out, checking that the room was clean of surveillance equipment. It was unthinkable that Yoketron could have been bugged but paranoia and long-time security measures made such things necessary.
With a start, he realised that Yoketron had been watching him closely, a fond little smile on his face. “What?” he growled shortly, aware of the other mech’s teasing mood and wanting no part of it.
“Oh, no. Nothing,” Yoketron assured him gaily. Lockdown waited for it. He wasn’t going to get off that easily and he knew it. “Thought you were all over catering to the whims of new mechs but then again…it wasn’t all that long ago that Deadlock was split, wasn’t it?”
Lockdown pondered over a retort for few astroseconds before deciding to go for where it would hurt. Yoketron could stick his friendly overtures in a blackhole for all Lockdown cared; he was never going to have his forgiveness. “New recruit?” he asked coldly. “You are starting on him unusually young but then again, that’s not very surprising, knowing you.”
The other cyber ninja stiffened and all warmth and friendliness bleed from his frame. “He is no recruit,” Yoketron spoke in a quiet tone that Lockdown had long come to recognise as Yoketron at his deadliest. A warning sign that he normally ignored. “I would never dare to pull him back to this path, not when he is finally free to move on. I’m just trying to help him.”
Lockdown frowned in confusion. “I don’t understand-”
“You will when you spend time with him,” Yoketron cut in with a sharp gesture back to the dojo’s training room and Prowl’s general direction. “Zeta drew him from the Allspark far too soon.”
Comprehension clicked together all too quickly for the bounty hunter. “Why, for the love of Primus, is he here? And asking me to teach him…how is that helping? If you were serious about not leading him back to the Corps, he would not be here nor would you have introduced us! Who next are you going to drag out to meet him? Vibes? Dai Atlas? Roadhandler? Jazz?”
Yoketron folded his servos and contemplated them instead of looking at Lockdown’s accusing face. “Vibes has already met him. Knocked him out actually when Prowl wandered in here. But anyway, you are the only one I actually intend for him to know. I meant what I said. You have a wealth of experiences and perspective that is very different from mine. And out of all of us, you understand best the need to move beyond the limits of one’s own programming. Your teachings would provide balance to my own.”
“Or confuse the ever living slag out of the mech,” Lockdown grumbled as he pondered over Yoketron’s words. “Are you going to let the rest of the Corps know?”
“Only those who knew him. And in these orns, that’s a precious few number.”
“That including Jazz?” Lockdown asked in a rare moment of concern. “Because that’s a fast way to have this new mech killed before he turns even a vorn old.”
Yoketron sighed heavily. “I may wait a few vorns before bringing it up with him. In the meantime, I’ll have Vibes assigned to Praxus so that Jazz doesn’t feel the need to come by on patrol. Did you know how he has an apprentice now?”
The bounty hunter shuttered his optics once in blatant disbelief. “When did that happen and who is crazy and desperate enough to sign up with him?”
“They encountered each other about eighteen vorns ago. Alpha Trion’s old apprentice.”
“He has an old apprentice? I thought he had that trio, Orion Pax, Ariel and Dion.” There was a lot a mech missed out on when he was bounty hunting off planet.
“By all accounts, Trion was quite relieved to see him go and that it was a good match,” Yoketron disengage the cover on his right shoulder port and unwound a cable. -Now,- he switched to a private and secure comm line. -What news do you bring from the outer worlds?-
Lockdown turned off his optics and allowed the other cyber ninja to plug in and access his core processor. It was a cold joining, Yoketron dispassionately moved through his memories whilst Lockdown kept his own consciousness as far away as possible as he studied Yoketron’s firewalls. It would have been preferable to simply upload all the information to a datapad and pass it on with the expectation the datapad was destroyed after it contents were downloaded. But the Corps did not risk information going astray or missing, it was stored only within their frames and passed from mech to mech that way.
When Yoketron was finally done, he began to disengage his processor from Lockdown’s. And that was when the bounty hunter struck, his mind reaching out to attack Yoketron’s firewalls. Just as quickly, Yoketron countered by reconfiguring his firewalls and bringing up additionally defences. They mentally grappled for several astroseconds. Eventually, Yoketron broke free and pulled out, his frame booted up and he pulled his cable from Lockdown’s own shoulder port.
“One day,” Yoketron said calmly as though the bounty hunter had not just tried to shatter his processor, “You will get me.”
Lockdown growled darkly and backed off. “And then I will kill you,” he promised.
The old cyber ninja did not look taken aback by this declaration and simply accepted it without protest. “And then you will kill me,” he agreed.