These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

XXXI. Trouble

She reined herself in, smiling a little, "Well, I'm glad to hear that, and all I know is that Sideswipe and Smokescreen will be targets. Not sure about the other three, but they'll probably be those that are fast and battle-savvy."

"Well, I guess that means Dumb and Dumber are out," another soldier—this one a tall, Amazonian-like woman, smirked, and the others laughed. The name suited the Twins, obviously, and had thus become the favored nickname for them. Catherine agreed whole heartedly, as did most of the other Autobots once they found out where the names came from.

"Y'know, I've always wanted to take on Jazz," Alexander spoke up, and murmurs of agreement went through the group. "I've never seen him fight, but apparently only a few of the Autobots can beat him."

That's because Jazz is a B.A.M.F., Catherine smiled to herself, proud of her giant, mechanical brother.

"I wouldn't mind taking on our guy, Bluestreak" the dark-brown haired man from the long-winded Autobot's group spoke up. "Granted, he's a sniper, so it'd probably be a little uneventful… Well, then again, he probably knows close-combat, but he's never worked on it with us."

"You should know, right, Autobot-lady?" the man from before—a dusty-blonde she noticed now that she really got a look at him. He was grinning as always, and this time she laughed.

"'Autobot-lady'? Sounds like a super-hero name," she grinned back. "And he does have a record of fighting close combat, but not much. He can do if it he has to, but he prefers to snipe."

"Which is why he's perfect for our group!" the second woman—a brunette—boasted, holding her chin high.

"A little too talkative, though," the short, black man of the group added, using a hand gesture to show how little. "We lose practice time because of that. Sometimes I wonder how he keeps coming up with things to talk about."

"Man, you show that guy a key and you end up finishing the conversation about the migrations of birds or something!" the dark-tanned member of their team exclaimed, shaking his head with a laugh.

"I wish Ironhide was more like that!" David groaned. "All he ever does is ground out order after order and make us work! He doesn't even laugh!"

"Except around Catherine. 'Autobot-lady' gets all the special treatment," Epps snickered, nudging Catherine who punched him back lightly.

"Well, I am their liaison. I better be getting some benefits," she smirked. "Maaaaybe if you guys suck up a little I'll pass on a few suggestions to Ironhide to be nice."

Lennox spoke up quickly, effectively cutting off everyone else, "Aaaaaaand I don't think so. You guys can just suck it up and take it like men."

Boos and hisses roared from Catherine's team and some even pushed and shoved at their Commander while Bluestreak's team just laughed as they watched. Luckily for Lennox, the entrance to the training room was just around the corner and so he had perfectly good reason to bark orders for them to get their asses into the room and put on their equipment before he made them run out there butt naked. Seeing as none of them wanted that—not that it would really happen—they quit their antics and hurried into the room.

The equipment was about the same as usual; protective gear for knees, elbow, chest, and so on. Their helmets were slightly modified with a bit of engineering love, and had been given better microphones for good team communication. They were also given a special black device on the side to test the newest modification—Energon detectors. It was still in its infant stage, but if the things worked, then NEST would have a way for soldiers to see the hidden enemy long before they transformed and tried to kill them. It would do wonders, Catherine knew, although she didn't need it.