Merry Christmas!

by Odeena Sabnach

"...Heavy snowfalls will continue all across the southern part of the country. Temperatures are expected to exceed twenty degrees below zero. People are advised to stay indoors. Such extreme weather conditions have not been witnessed in the United States in over twenty years. Reports say that most of the country's territory is covered in snow, and an increase of quantity is expected within the next 48 hours..."

You got the point. Heavy snowfalls, extreme temperatures... the ideal weather for prowling out. Most of the 'bots had no problem with the frost, thanks to some sort of fluid Rhinox and Thaliana had devised, and neither did I. Serena, on the other hand, was forced to stay indoors most of the time. Snow versions of 'Capture the Flag' and 'Paintball' had become a regular thing. All in all, life was good. And Christmas was closing in...

~

Cursing fervently, Depth Charge barrel-rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a huge projectile thrown by Megatron. A moment later, the Predacon leader collapsed under heavy 'fire' from me and DB. Inferno rushed to help the 'Royalty', and the next thing I knew, I was flying across the landscape, with DB close behind. I landed hard and rolled out of the way just before DB landed inches away from my head. Cheetor seized the opportunity and rushed forward to grab our bonnie-blue flag.

"Watch out!" I yelled, kicking Waspinator, who had come an inch too close, straight in the guts at the same time. Thankfully, Rattrap had it all under control. He knocked Cheetor away with a well-aimed shot, then threw a few snowballs at Megatron, who was attempting an aerial attack.

"How'd ya like that?" the rat shouted, grinning widely.

"Nice one!" I yelled back, dodging a few shots from a very pissed off Inferno. Lucky for me, DB was around. All it took was a basic roll-throw-duck manuever, and Inferno was out cold.

Picking up the teams using the heads-tail method was paying off alright. Rattrap, DB, Depth Charge, Alkari and me against Megs, Waspy, Cheetor, Inferno and Thaliana was... interesting. Rattrap and Alkari were the defenders on our side, with me and DB on the offensive and Depth Charge as backup. On Megatron's team, Inferno was enough to defend their flag, an eerie, pink thing with golden stars all over. Cheetor, Thaliana and Megatron were the offensive, and Waspinator was kinda buzzing around as usual. Optimus was the referee. Funny thing, he seemed to have gotten hit most times of all the bunch. So far, the odds were even. So far.

Megs threw a nice snowball at DB. The raptor 'bot barely managed to avoid it, throwing himself aside. At the same time, he tripped over Depth Charge, who fell down, cursing all the way. Making himself useful for once, Waspinator dropped a huge snowball over the two. What was left on the offensive now was me against three huge 'bots. Or four, if you count Waspy. Real fair.

Alkari and Rattrap were overwhelmed. Waspinator, Thaliana and Inferno had taken the air, while Cheetor and Megs had our little snow fortress surrounded. This was NOT good.

"A little help here?" Alkari shouted over the other team's shrieks of victory.

"'Smatter? Afraid I'm gonna kick your butt too bad?" Thaliana taunted him. The same instant, she received a mouthfull of snow from a recovered DB. I cheered out loud, then a thought struck me.

"Cover me!" I yelled to DB, then I rushed forward towards the others' flag.

Megatron realized what was happening a second too late. "Stop her!" he bellowed, rushing back to their fortress. I looked over my shoulder just in time to catch a glimpse of the Predacon leader charging towards me and I prepared to jump out of the way--when DB tripped him over. What followed was somewhat similar to a row of domino figures falling down. Megatron tripped Cheetor. Cheetor tripped Thaliana. Inferno rushed to help the 'Queen'. Somehow, Waspinator got caught under the whole pile.

Laughing out loud, I ran and grabbed the pink flag.

"Yes! I did it!" I shouted, throwing my arms in the air.

"Um... yeah, Dua's team wins", Optimus half-moaned, coughing snow all around. "Game (cough) over (coughcough)".

"No fair!" Cheetor grumbled, climbing back to his feet. "They cheated!"

"No we didn't!" Alkari's grin was wide. "If you guys can't even stand on your feet..." muffled snickers cut off the rest of the sentence. "Really, dudes! You should see your faces! You look--"

"Gimmie a break", Thaliana growled, shoving Waspinator aside and slowly getting up. "Next time, we'll beat the crap out of you."

"I'm betting on that", Alkari said, and his grin widened a bit more, if that was possible.

Depth Charge dusted himself off. "We won, fair and square. Now don't be sore losers. Maybe you'll win next time."

"Sure", Cheetor muttered pathetically. "Sure we--jumpin' gyros, what's that?"

We all turned towards where he was pointing. At first, I couldn't see a thing, but a few seconds later, I managed to distinguish something huge and white coming our way. I squinted. There was something else... a moving black dot, also heading towards us.

The guys reacted instantly: they all ducked to the ground, trying to make themselves less noticeable in the snow. Before I could say anything, DB knocked me off my feet.

"Hey!"

"Sorry", his reply came a little muffled by the snow. "But we can't let that--whoever that is--see us."

"But who would be so insane as to come to this wasteland--and in such a weather?" Thaliana inquired, brushing some snow off her face. "I mean, really. You must be at least as crazy as Inferno, Rampage and Tarantulas put together to even think of that."

"Don't you mean, to be as crazy as you?" Alkari didn't miss the chance.

"Actually, that's what I meant, but then you'd say I'm praising myself too much."

"Which is true."

"Oh shut up."

"Make me."

"Oh yeah? Come get--"

"Can it, will you?" Optimus interrupted the two in a commanding voice. Suddenly, Depth Charge chuckled.

"What's with you?" Megatron asked, tilting his head slightly.

"It's okay, guys. It's just Rampage."

I glared at him. "You sure?"

"Absolutely", he replied, and then he stood up. "And he's carrying something, too."

"Never would've guessed", Rattrap muttered, so low only I could hear him.

"Yeah." I chuckled as I got back to my feet.

Meanwhile, the weird white thing had closed in enough for us to see what it was all about..

"Hol. Ly. Slag." Depth Charge rubbed his optics. "Tell me I'm dreaming."

"Umm..." I pinched myself. "Ouch. It's real."

Seen from a close distance, the thing turned out to be a huge tree, with a gigantic pair of feet sticking out from underneath it. When it came close enough, it fell to the ground, and Rampage's radios figure emerged from underneath it.

"Hey guys!"

He got only blank stares in reply.

"Um... Rampage?" Cheetor finally managed. "What's that?"

"That?" Rampage looked around in confusion for a second before realizing what Cheetor was talking about. "Oooh... that... Well, you guys were complaining you don't have a tree for Christmas, so I--"

"Hold on. You mean you went and got us one?" I glared at him increduosly. "Impossible."

"Oh, but it's very possible. I must say, it took me a while to find the right one, all of them were either too big, too small, too fluffy... you got the point. But I didn't give up, and--" he pointed towards the tree "--voilà."

"Wowee", Rattrap muttered. "Now dere's somethin' unexpected."

"That's great!" Thaliana said enthusiastically, bouncing up and down. Then, she rushed forward and gave Rampage a little kiss. "Thanks."

The rest of us lost our jaws.

"I'm going to tell the others", Thaliana announced, and then she rushed off. Behind her, we slowly pulled ourselves together.

"Dis must be da day of da unexpected stuff", Rattrap muttered.

"Yeah", I seconded.

"Thaliana and Rampage. Who would've have thought?"

By this time, Rampage had recovered enough to say something. "Shut up you two", he growled. "We're just friends."

"Suuuure you are", Cheetor taunted him. "C'mon, there's no shame in admitting you're in love!"

Rampage growled again. "We're not in love!" he half-shouted, although he didn't seem to convinced either.

Optimus decided to give the crab a little hand. "I think we should take the tree inside", he said.

Sensing the manuever, I played along. "Yeah, but where to put it?" I inquired. "It's a bit too big for the control room..." I continued in a thoughtful voice. "Maybe we can put it outside, in front of the gates?"

From this resulted a fierce debate, until we finally decided to put the Christmas tree in the canteen. By the time, everyone was ecstatic, so Optimus ordered all 'bots to go get any Christmas decorations they could find. Finally, after a few hours of thunderous searching...

~

Over the past few months, the former council room had turned into a friendlier office/bar thingy, with refreshments on desire, a TV, a computer and a nice Maximal/Predacon banner next to the US-Special Forces emblem on the wall. It was the perfect meeting place: half official, half casual, just what we all needed.

Right now, almost everyone was gathered there. Tigatron and Air Razor were sharing refreshments around, while the rest of us chattered happily about all sorts of stuff. Optimus was walking from one end of the room to another, and from time to time he threw impatient glared at the clock settled on the wall.

So far, our search had returned nothing, nada, zilch, zippo and so on. Somehow, military bases didn't go with Christmas stuff. The only ones who hadn't come back yet were Thaliana and Alkari, but no-one really expected anything from those two.

Next to me, Serena sighed. "The general used to have lots of Christmas stuff in his quarters", she grumbled.

"Really? And where--"

"They were topside."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Kaboom. Merry Christmas."

Serena sighed again. "I guess--" she was going to say something else, when Thaliana rushed in. Everyone turned to glare at her.

"May I have your attention, please", Thaliana started formally.

Depth Charge raised an eyebrow. "What are those two up to now?"

"Dunno", Quickstrike answered, glaring at Thaliana and Alkari. "But it ain't no good."

"I second that", Terrosaur added from across the table.

"Me too", I said, sipping from my glass of Cola. "Not good at all."

"We didn't find anything", Thaliana stated. "Still, we came up with this great idea... why don't we just go buy some? I'm sure there's plenty of cash around here!"

"Duh!" Cheetor cut in. "Really smart, what can I say. Only one itty-bitty problem. We're robots. We can't just walk in and buy stuff like a human. If people see us--"

"And why not?" Thaliana inquired, narrowing her optics.

The others were stunned. Finally, Optimus spoke. "What do you mean?"

"Well, they won't see any difference between us and them."

Rattrap rolled his optics. "Dat's it. She snapped."

"Have I? I think not."

"What do you mean?" Optimus repeated.

Thaliana opened the door in a dramatic manner. "This is what I mean", she stated as she shoved in a short, human teenage boy. "What do you have to say now?"

The rest of us gasped in surprise. The teenager was throwing shy glares around. He was barely above Thaliana's shoulder, had black hair and eerie green eyes. He was wearing a pair of fitting jeans, a dark camouflage T-shirt and a long, jeans shirt over.

"Who's him?" Serena inquired. "Besides cute", she added faintly. Cheetor scowled.

"Guess."

A few seconds of silence.

"That's Alkari."

A murmur of disapproval came from the rest of the 'bots.

"It can't be", Rhinox stated firmly. "Alkari is a 'bot. Not... a human..." he trailed off.

"C'mon guys, don't you recognize me?" the boy said cheerfully.

"Nope", Tarantulas muttered.

"Well, it is me. Really."

"But that's impossible!" Rhinox stated firmly. "'Bots can't have a human alternate mode. Only less-evolved organic forms are compatible with our systems!"

"Not any more", Thaliana said, grinning. "I've done a few adjustments to the main system configuration file and used DNA records from the base's local datatracks."

"Umm... do you mind repeating that?" Black Arachnia said, tilting her head to one side. "Dunno about the others, but as far as I'm concerned, I don't understand a thing."

"You don't have to. All you have to do is step through this little machine I devised, and it will automatically select the best human form for you."

"Umm... but we will be able to switch back to 'bots if we want to, right?" Cheetor asked cautiously.

"Yeah. This form lasts about twenty four hours; after that, you will automatically turn back to your usual self. And... I added some, special features to the machine."

"Special features?" Megatron asked, narrowing his optics. "What do you mean?"

" It also picks up the best outfit to go with your form, and some accessories as well, you know, ear-rings, necklaces, sunglasses... that kind of things. So. Who wants to take it?"

A brief moment of silence - then everyone raised their hands.

"Great! Let's go!" Thaliana rushed off before we could say anything, with Alkari in hot pursuit. Still undecided, the 'bots slowly got up and followed her.

"Hmmm..." Serena grinned. "This should be... interesting."

"You said it. Hey... hold on a minute, do we actually agree on something? That's a sign of the Apocalypse you know."

Serena whacked me over the head. "Shut up."

"*sigh* I take that back... You and me will never agree on anything."

She whacked me again.

"Ow! What did I do??"

The elevator doors closed behind us, and I climbed up to the ceiling. Ah... safety at last.

~

Not more than a few minutes later, everyone was admiring their new human forms.

Well, almost everyone.

"This is not how an honorable warrior should look!" the original Dinobot cried, throwing his arms up in frustration. "I demand this form removed at once!"

The red-haired girl that now was Thaliana grinned widely. "Aw, c'mon, Dinobutt! I think you look soooo cute."

Alkari frowned. "I'm jealous", he whispered to me.

I chuckled. All in all, Thalia was right. Dinobot was now a huge man, with long, black-blue hair, and red eyes. I think he would have made any woman go crazy. Besides, he looked killer in the leather-and-jeans outfit, not to mention a dozen or so necklaces and some very cool sunglasses.

"She's right", I said involuntarily. Then I quickly glared around. Thank Primus Serena was too busy staring at Cheetor.

Optimus--huge, blonde dude with killing green eyes--cleared his throat. "I guess now we can go shop for some Christmas decorations and all, can't we?"

The rest of the guys cheered. I grinned widely. Ah, going back to the world at last...

"Optimus... there is one small problem..." Thaliana cautiously spoke. "The human forms aren't shielded against the cold, and in the temperatures outside--"

She didn't have to finish the sentence. A few moments of confused silence followed.

"I say the most resistant of us go", Rampage said.

"Sure, like, you won't have no problem, since you're immortal and all", Cheetor grumbled. "No fair."

"I agree with Rampage on this one--surprisingly enough", Depth Charge finished under his breath. "Besides, I don't think more than four of us can fit into a Jeep."

"What's a Jeep?" half the guys asked automatically.

"It's... umm, some kind of human vehicle. With wheels and all."

"Four... Hmmm..." Optimus rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Alright then. Dua, I suppose you must go along, since you're the only one that knows how to drive a... 'Jeep'."

"But I--"

"Rampage, you go, too. But no scenes, understand?"

Rampage nodded, and grinned a bit. I didn't like that grin at all.

"Optimus--"

"Dinobot, you go, too."

"Which one?" the three Dinobots asked simultaneously.

"Sorry. I meant, TM2 Dinobot."

"Lucky guy", DB grumbled.

"And, finally... I'm coming, too. I guess we'll all fit in a Jeep."

"Optimus!"

He finally seemed to notice my efforts. "Yes, Dua, what is it?"

"Well, I... umm... I kinda... "

"Kinda what?"

I couldn't drive a cart, much less a Jeep. "Umm..." I noted the enthusiastic looks on the others' faces. "--nothing. Nothing at all."

Heck, how hard could it be? After all, it was only a Jeep... and three psycho robots, my mind reluctantly added.

"Well then, I suggest we get going. Time is short, and we have much shopping to do."

"Yay!" the other 'bots who were coming along cried altogether, then they rushed out to go search for warmer clothes. As for me... well, as for me, I sighed reluctantly... and went to see if there were any Jeeps around.

I had a very bad feeling about this.

~

"Now remember, be back in twenty-four hours, or--"

"Thaliana!" Optimus snapped in a half-annoyed, half angry voice. "We know! You already told us that about five hundred times!"

"Umm... yeah. Well, good luck, and be back soon!"

Optimus snarled. Somehow, I could tell he was in a bad mood. At first, the guys didn't fit inside one Jeep. After lots of arguing, begging, threatening and promising, Optimus and TM2 Dinobot managed to find a comfortable position for both of them, with Optimus' huge feet sticking stretching to the front, and Dinobot curled up in a ball on what was left of the backseat. Which left me next to Rampage. Oh, joy.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Optimus asked.

"Ummm..." How does this thing start? Let's see now, I saw this once... Take the key, insert it... *here*... "Yes!"

I cautiously pushed the acceleration, and the Jeep emerged outside in the snow and onto what was left of the road.

"Yee-haaa!" Rampage yelled. "This is so much fun!"

"Yeah... whatever you say... LOOK OUT!!" Optimus cried, but I had already noticed the boulder. I nearly ripped the wheel off the console, and managed to avoid the incoming obstacle. It took the guys a while to calm down, but eventually they ceased screaming. They even seemed to enjoy the ride... which I was definitely NOT, as I had to keep my eyes on the road the whole time. Who in the Pit said driving was easy?

~

"Ahh... the Big City!"

Rampage stretched out his arms. "Man... I just LOVE this place. Don't you guys?"

I nodded my head without any enthusiasm at all. As for Optimus and Dinobot, they were too busy trying to get out of the car.

Rampage chuckled. "You think they'd learn."

"What?" I asked curiously.

"Well, little after we found that alien thing, Optimus and TM2 Dinobot had to take a little journey, and they used an Autobot shuttle. They hardly fitted inside."

"I can imagine the scene", I said, giggling. "Do you guys need a hand?"

"We can manage", Optimus replied, panting. "Thanks for asking." A second later, he managed to get out of the car entirely.

"Took you long--DUCK!!"

Optimus jumped out of the way just in time. A huge truck passes inches away from his head, honking all the way. Dinobot and Rampage rushed to help him back up; as for me, I leaned against the car and waited for my heart to stop beating so fast.

"A-are you okay?"

Optimus smiled faintly. "I'm fine."

"Then I'll kill you myself! This is the City, for cryin' out loud! Watch where you're going! What, do you think we need a sandwich for a leader?"

Not only Optimus, but all three 'bots stared at me blankly. I was guessing they never saw me bursting out like that--and, to a certain point, they were right. I've never burst out like that before.

"Err... sorry, I..."

"It's okay, my fault." Optimus tried to smile. "C'mon, it's through. I'll be careful."

"Can we get going now?" Rampage asked impatiently.

"Can we?" Optimus laughed, naturally this time. "I don't see why not! Let's get going!"

"Okay, I suppose--LOOK OUT!"

Optimus jumped to one side, then looked behind. Much to his surprise, there was nothing there.

"Gotcha'!"

His face fell for a second, then he rolled a snowball. Uh-oh.

"Come here, you! *splat* Teach you to play tricks on me."

"Oww... I hate you," I grumbled, brushing the snow off my face.

"I know." Optimus giggled. "C'mon, I think we should go in there first..."

~

...And so we went, from shop to shop, then to the malls in town, then to the little street sellers, and then back to the shops. The back of our Jeep was now packed with Christmas decorations, as well as all sorts of stuff we thought we'd be needing, presents for everyone else, tons and tons of wrapping paper, sweets, some DVDs and CDs and a few new outfits for me and Serena. What resulted of all this was a colorful pile that could hardly fit in. Finally, when there was nowhere left to stuff everything, Optimus gave the 'we-have-to-leave' signal.

"Aww... Already?" Rampage grumbled.

"Yeah, already?" I seconded.

"Well, we've been here for hours, and I'm starting to run out of juice."

"Mee too", Dinobot said in a surprised voice, "although I recharged just this morning."

"It's a secondary effect of your human forms", I supplied. "You've been awake for a while, and you've done some serious effort carrying all that. You need to sleep."

Optimus gave me a strange look. "Okay... if you say so. Time to head back to base then."

"Agreed." I started for the car. "Um... guys? How exactly do you plan to fit inside now?"

Optimus frowned. "This", he stated, crossing his arms, "could be a problem."

I nodded. Holly insanity, how much worse could this get?

~

Despite the urge to rub at my eyes, I kept my hands firmly on the wheel, and my eyes straight on the road. In the back of the car, despite being half-buried in Christmas stuff, Optimus and Dinobot had been asleep for a while, and on the seat next to me, Rampage was also taking a nap, snoring a little from time to time.

According to my watch/CFG/tracer thingy, we were about half an hour away from the base, when something unexpected, and therefore ten times worse, happened. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, the car started shaking, then it leaned dangerously to one side, and finally stopped when I desperately pulled the emergency brake.

"What--what's going on?" Rampage asked, bolting upright in his seat and hitting his head on the windshield. "OW!"

"Stay put!" I yelled without even realizing it. I ignored the sleepy questions from Optimus and Dinobot, and got out of the Jeep.

"Oh--NO. Not here, not now..." I rubbed my temples as I leaned against the car. "This is not happening. No..."

"What's wrong?" Rampage asked, also coming out of the car.

"Flat tire", I replied, dead-pan.

Rampage frowned. "And... now what do we do?"

I sighed heavily. "Well... there should be a spare tire in the--" my gaze turned to the Jeep and all the stuff it was packed with "--trunk", I finished.

"Um... you mean in the trunk, under all that?"

"Uh-huh."

"Ouch."

"Double ouch", I seconded. The dusk was closing in fast, and I was in no mood to spend the night out in the middle of nowhere, much less with three human-robots. "Oookay, c'mere."

"What are we gonna do?" Rampage asked curiously as I opened the trunk and an avalanche of stuff poured out.

"Shut up and help me dig", I commanded the stunned 'bot... err, man. "Otherwise, we'll never get out of here."

That was enough to convince Rampage. He immediately started to help me, occasionally muttering something about 'miserable human technologies'. It took us forever to find the spare tire, buried deep under some sweets and a few globes, but eventually we managed to pull it out.

"So... now what?"

I sighed. "I have no idea how to replace a tire", I replied.

"Oookay..." Suddenly, Rampage scowled. "I don't expect we'll be getting any help from those two", he muttered, pointing towards Optimus and Dinobot, who were asleep again.

"Do you think you can lift the car, so I can replace the tire?"

He gave me a funny look.

"Yeah, stupid question. This is it, we're stuck here," I muttered, leaning on the car.

"Umm... I suppose I could try..."

This time it was my turn to regard him funny. "You sure?"

"No, but I don't feel like spending the night here either. I suppose there could be dangerous critters, and there's still a while until I'll turn Cybertronian again. Besides, I'm feeling a bit cold..."

I looked at him concernedly. "Are you okay?"

He shook his shoulders. "Yeah... yeah, I'm okay. Let's do it. Stand by..."

I went to the side of the car and nodded. Rampage lifted the Jeep a bit--and I quickly took out the old tire, then put up the spare one. I finished just in time; a second after I was done, Rampage dropped the car, panting.

"Remind me never to do that again", he said quietly, leaning against the car.

"Sure. C'mon, get in."

We were back on track. Hopefully, there would be no more problems until we got to the base. Hopefully...

~

The next half an hour seemed to be an eternity. Finally, we saw the lights of the base coming in, and we pulled over in the underground garage.

"What took you so long?" Thaliana shrieked as soon as we gout out of the car, seconded by a very concerned-looking Serena, although she was trying to hide that. "We were worried sick!"

"Well, we're back, safe and sound", I replied as I trailed off.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"Sleep", I replied simply. "I'm beat."

"I second that", Rampage muttered.

"Well, you can't go to our quarters, some of the guys are playing poker there."

"Never mind, come over to my place", Rampage offered. "Fish-Face won't mind."

I muttered a sleepy "yeah" and followed him. Ah... sleep... at last... zzzz...

~

"This is it!"

Megatron took one step back and grinned proudly. "Our tree is done!" he stated, and his grin widened. "Merry Christmas!"

The rest of the guys cheered. Rattrap took a bottle of champagne and popped it, and more cheers erupted, cut down by all sorts of holiday wishes. And you'll all guess what followed next, right?

"It's time to PAR-TY!!!" Cheetor cried, doing a complicated flip at the same time.

We all cheered enthusiastically, and the party went off. I can't remember very much of it though, as it didn't take me long to actually get drunk. But the true fun was the next morning, when all the guys found their presents stashed under the tree...

~

Dinobot narrowed his optics. "I hope you like it, yours truly, Rattrap", he read the address aloud. "Well, I wonder what that... insolent vermin has for me."

The instant he opened the small box, there was a loud boom, and pink paint splattered all over the warrior.

"VERMIN!!!"

~

"From... Alkari?"

The gold and green 'bot smiled. "Yeah, it's from me. Merry Christmas."

"Let's see now... ooh, candy! How sweet!"

"Look on, there's something else in there."

"Something else?" Thaliana grinned. "Full of surprises, aintcha'. Let's see now--wowee!" she cried as she took out a thick gold necklace with a red stone. "That's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen!"

Suddenly, she leaned down and kissed him. "Thanks!"

~

"To our beloved Predacon leader, from Terrosaur and Skorpinok... *sniff* I am your beloved leader?"

Skorpinok smiled proudly. "Yes, Megatron! You, are the greatest of us all!"

Terrosaur reluctantly smiled. "Yeah, what he said", he added without any enthusiasm at all.

"*sniff* Thanks! I *sniff sniff* love you guys!"

Terrosaur leaned to reach Skorpinok's audio. "He's drunk, did you know?" he asked the other 'bot in a disgusted tone.

"I don't care! Megatron is the best!"

"Yeesh..."

~

"A gift?" Depth Charge eyed Rampage suspiciously. "From you? What are you trying to pull?"

"Nothing, Fish-Face. Merry Christmas."

"O...kay... I suppose. Let's see now... nice! It's a very cool stereo, thanks! Needed one of those! And... erm, I have something for you, too."

"Yeah?"

"Here. But don't let it get to your head. We're still enemies, okay?"

"Okay... wowee! The Hannibal DVD! Just what I wanted! Thanks!"

"No problem. No problem at all."

"You know, you're not as bad as you used to be."

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Umm... no, I'm just saying that."

"Fine."

"Okay."

"Sure."

~

"Jumpin' gyros, a microphone! Thanks, umm... Air Razor!"

"No problem!" the fem replied sweetly.

That was enough for Rattrap. "Cheetor an' Air Razor, sittin' in a tree--"

Tigatron crossed his arms. "I'm jealous..." he grumbled to no-one in particular.

~

"From you?"

Serena nodded.

"Okay... wow! That's THE mother of all jackets! Thanks!"

"Glad you like it."

"You know, I bought you one that looks just the same!"

"Oh, no! Really?"

"Nope. Just kidding."

"Wha--come here, you!"

"*giggle* Catch me if you can!"

"What? Hey! Get down from there!"

"Make me!"

"Grr... No fair!"

~

...and so on. Everyone was extatic for a few hours. I guess the Christmas spirit applied in case of Cybertronians as well. And after everyone was done... we had the most thrilling game of Paintball ever, this time only using Christmas colors, like green and red. This is how we spent Christmas in Area 31.

~

Author's Note: This must be *the* longest thing I ever wrote. By the end I was starting to run out of ideas, so sory if the last paragraphs are a bit dull. I would love feedback at odeena@hotmail.com Later, and... Merry Christmas!