"Sire! Sire!" a little femme called as she locked onto the gladiator's pede.

        "Shouldn't you be with Profesor Shockwave?" he chuckled, prying her off with a mighty servo, making the youngling giggle. She was no longer a sparkling, but not quite old enough to take care of herself.

         "Maaaaybe," she had a cheeky little grin that held only mischief.

         "Your carrier won't be very pleased."

         "I know," she played with one of the spiked shoulder plates firmly attached to her sire, "But he's rather boring, unless talking about his experiments."

        "Then ask about them," he bounced her on his hip plate gently, making her giggle some more as she lost her grip on his shoulder plating, "He's always speaking of how your curiosity is the most amusing."

         "Really?" little (Y/D) asked in wonder, turning toward the low plodding of heavy pedes at the door to what was Megatronus' and Echoblast's berthroom.

         "My apologies," came the usual droning of the cycloptic mech, "(Y/D) had been able to escape my watch."

         "You make it sound as if we send her to a compound," Megatronus chuckled, "It's quite alright," his soft optics looked to his sparkling, "I was about to come see her anyway."

         "Take me with you!" (Y/D) cheered, knowing that she'd get the best seat in the house to watch her sire beat other bots to a metallic pulp.

         "Not this time little gladiator," he chuckled, setting her down on the floor, "Maybe next time."

(Y/D) let her teacher take hold of her smaller servo as she waved one last goodbye to her sire, her pedes making short tappings that masked over the delicate, almost silent steps that appeared just behind the two, going into the room they had exited. Little (Y/D) new this to be her carrier.

     Being lifted onto a chair, much too tall for her to get on all by herself, the femmeling looked up to her teacher as he began to type on a green colored datapad, and set it on the metal tabletop of the equivalent of a kitchen counter, energon sweets in a jar not to far away.

         "Let's begin with your vocabulary."

She began to read off the words that showed themselves as they were swiped across the screen, some big, some small, others having abstract definitions or several different ones that made it difficult for her.

         "Infintismal; very small."

The femme planned on asking Shockwave about his experiments after a few lessons, knowing that he often forgot about the little things, like the fact that she liked to divert the subject.

         "Totalitarian; a type of ruler, often oppressing those they rule."

         "Well done," Shockwave praised in his usual monotone, "Is the mathmatic equation work I gave you finished?"

         "Yes sir," she smiled, and dragged one of the extra datapads toward her, this one being a bright blue.

Shockwave looked over it, and saw that only one questioned was not answered, instead little doodles of torn apart Cybertronians littered the screen, and what could only be her sire in the middle of the chaos, smiling triumphantly.

         "I was bored," she answered, staring at her servos.

         "Indeed."

Going through the rest of it, Shockwave found nothing amiss. Daughter of Echoblast indeed. (Y/D) was very intelligent, Shockwave knew this, thinking that she should already be in one of the highest classes offered on Cybertron, but she was too young to go on her own, as most classes required.

         "Professor Shockwave," she earned his attention, "You don't talk about your experiments much, what's new?"

Forgetting that this innocent question was most likely a ploy, Shockwave set the datapad down, his gaze calm, hiding his own rare inner excitement at her wanting to know of his side work as a scientist.

         "Well, the most recent is still experimental."

The youngling continued to keep her attention on the mech as he paused, thinking for a moment, until he turned, opening a metal box, filled with oddities of all kinds, some for (Y/D), others for him to tinker with. Bringing out a small, rectangular container, Shockwave set it in front of the youngling, her green optics sparkling with curiosity.

         "I've been working on this for awhile," he admitted, and opened the box to reveal small orbs, four in a row, all orange in color, with a slight glow to them that made (Y/D) smile, "They are a possible means of regenerating one's spark if it should begin to fail."

The cyclops took one out, balancing the sphere on his palm. The curious youngling leaned closer, the small light illuminating her faceplate just by a bit.

         "Have you tested it?" she asked.

         "On stray cyber-cats and other loose creatures," he admitted, letting her take it from his palm, "They have proven successful, but-"

     Shockwave was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Megatronus by the door. He looked somewhat on the angry side.

         "I thought you were to go to the gladiator Pits," Shockwave noted, taking the glowing orb from the femmeling, and placing it back in the still open container.

         "I was, but the fight was called off."

The youngling in the background frowned at this, knowing that a cancelled fight in the Pits was just as bad as losing one, the only difference was that there wasn't a large amount of humiliation.

         "What will you do?" Shockwave asked, but the famous gladiator shook his helm, knowing the little (Y/D) did not need to know of their current financial crisis. She'd most likely try to help, but her creators did not want her to have to deal with the world until she was old enough. She deserved her time as a youngling.

     While the two mechs spoke, (Y/D) leaned on the metal table to look at the orbs. They dazzled her, and made her think. If her sire, or uncle, was hurt in the Pits, one might come in handy, though only if their spark was failing.

         "Only for emergencies," she told herself, and slipped an orb into her growing subspace at her hip plates, a secret even to her sire.

A smile grew on her faceplate as she closed the box sneakily. Grabbing a datapad, she acted as if she had been reading the whole time when her sire looked over, a soft smile on his faceplate.

         "And what have you been learning, little gladiator?" he stepped behind her to see what she was reading.

         "Mostly vocabulary and math," she admitted, "I learned a new word!" she smiled.

         "Learn any more and you won't have room to fit battle tactics," the gladiator chuckled as he tapped her helm, making the youngling giggle.

         "Sire! Stop it!" she batted his servo away, sending the silver mech a playful glare, "Do you want to know the word or not?"

         "Of course," he answered, a proud smile on his derma.

         "Tyrant."

         "A rather harsh word."

         "I was allowed to pick what word I wanted," she replied, turning off the datapad.

         "I see," Megatronus nodded, and thanked Shockwave for his tutelage of (Y/D), who was already putting his things back in his carrying box. The femmeling looked behind her as Shockwave placed the orange glowing orbs back, and smiled, skipping alongside her sire, knowing that the cyclops hadn't suspected a thing.

     Frantically, a grown (Y/D) scratched at her secondary subspace until it opened, and the familiar orange glow illuminated the caving space. Looking to Smokescreen, tears falling, she held the sphere firmly in her servo as she began to force open his spark chamber with the other. Their safety dome caved, the metal rod that held up one side bending in on itself, forcing (Y/D) to have to further duck as it lowered, and the inferno just outside the dome was raising the temperature to a sickening warmth that made Megatron's heir want to purge her tanks.

         "Come on Smokescreen," she growled, "Stop being so difficult!"

Managing to pry his spark chamber into some view, (Y/D) held the orb just over it, a shaking servo hesitant.

         "Only for emergencies..." she repeated, and crushed the outer shell of the orb, it's glowing contents slipping and dripping into Smokescreen's fading spark.