Ch. 7!!! *cringes* I know, I know. Took me forever to update. But I have a good excuse, written for me by one of my good friends. *pulls out a slip of paper* *reads it* "I was whacked upside the head with a tree and had amnesia for a few days (can't remember exactly) until I was thrown into a pool of macaroni and cheese and had to spend a week in the hospital for almost drowning and suffered from major depression because the Raiders lost the Super Bowl, at which point I got my memory back and suffered through another depression because my life sucks and someone ate all my Ritz Bits and I'm going through caffeine withdrawals." *beams*   So, how was your week?

~~~The Random Room~~~

The assembled bots in the Random Room stared at the TV, mouths hanging down and optics wide open.

From the TV, hysterical screams and giggles could be heard as well as several unidentifiable sounds.

Sideswipe looked over at Ratchet, who was standing next to him. He nudged Ratchet in the side.

"What are they doing?" he whispered.

Ratchet turned to stare at him. "I couldn't honestly tell you, I've never seen anyone do that before. I think I remember reading about it somewhere. It's something that the humans do to amuse themselves." He whispered back.

Sideswipe eyed the screen. "I didn't know that we could bend that way."

Ratchet looked at the screen as well. "Yeah, that's actually pretty impressive."

There was a loud thud from the TV and a massive cheer from the TV and the people gathered in the room.

"I got 20 bucks on Bumblebee!" someone shouted.

"Hell no! I'll put 20 bucks on Rodimus!" Blaster shouted back into the crowd.

Jazz nodded. "Yeah, Rodimus has stamina. Look at him go!"

"You're all wrong! Kup definitely has the upper hand. He's had years of experience! Mirage yelled from the back of the room.

The guy next to him laughed. "Yeah, you would know!"

There was a loud yell from the TV and everyone stopped what they were doing, eyes riveted on the screen.

"Kup is loosing it!"

"I don't think he can hold on much longer!"

"But Kup's on top! If he goes, he's taking everyone with him!"

"I don't know, Rodimus looks like he's got a pretty good foothold…"

The room was dead silent for a minute. Everyone unconsciously leaned to towards the screen, holding their breath.

From the TV the came a loud metallic thud and several groans. There was mad scrambling on the screen and then, from both the room and the TV, there was a loud cheer the one bot emerged victorious.

Blaster turned around and faced the crowd, grinning. "Ha! Rodimus is still standing!" There were several grumbles and a few groans and several wads of money made their way through the crowd and into Blasters waiting and eager hands. Blaster gleefully began flipping though the bills, counting them.

"Ha, I'm richer than you are!" Blaster said to Jazz, nudging him in the ribs.

Jazz sighed and stared at his feet. "I would have won too if only I had bet on Rodimus."

Blaster draped his arm around Jazz's shoulder. "It's alright good buddy, I buy you a drink!"

Jazz grinned up at him. "Really?"

Blaster looked down at him. "NO!" he yelled and, laughing hysterically, he turned and walked towards the door. 

Jazz stared after him and burst into tears.

"Alright everyone, show's over!" Ratchet yelled over the din of the crowd and several bots stood up and headed for the door, laughing and talking amongst themselves.

"No it's not, look! They're going for a second round!" Mirage yelled from the back of the room.

Ratchet frowned at him and turned back to the TV. His optics widened. "They really are going for a second round! Primus, these people are amazing!"

The room went silent again as everyone sat back down in their seats, grinning as they anticipated another exciting round.

~~~The Party~~~

Kup shook his head. "Sorry Bumblebee, that's enough for me for one night. I don't think I could last another go anyways."

Bumblebee shrugged. "It's alright, I'm done too. But we still got Rodimus and it looks like Prowl's gonna join in."

Kup laughed. "If you ask me, Prowl just wants to get a bit closer if you catch my drift."

Bumblebee punched him lightly in the arm. "Hey, well all know he's Magnus' guy. He's off limits."

Kup shrugged. "Whatever."

The two stood there silently, leaning against the door and watching the competition between Prowl and Rodimus. During a pause in the cheering and yelling, Kup frowned and turned to Bumblebee.

"Do you hear something?" he asked.

Bumblebee cocked his head to the side and listened. "Errrr yeah I think so. It sounds like… footsteps?"

No sooner had he said that then the door burst open with a loud slam and Optimus stalked in and announced. "Surprise inspection!" The room went deathly quiet. He glared around at the bots. Everyone looked up at him fearfully. Optimus eyed them and slowly moved around the room, staring at everything and poking things that looked suspicious. He reached a tangled mass of bots and stared at them in shock.

"What in holy hell are you doing?!" he exclaimed. He bent down and picked up a white square box. He stared at the cover then rounded on the assembled bots.

"What in Primus' name is going on here?!" he roared.

Everyone in the room pointed at Rodimus. "It was his idea!!!"

Rodimus looked at the crowd in shock. "My idea?! How the hell was it my idea??"

Bumblebee glared. "Don't give us that innocent crap!"

"But--"

"QUIET!" Optimus yelled. "Rodimus, report to my office, NOW!"

"But I swear I didn't--"

"SHUSH! As for the rest of you, I am ashamed of you! Parties are hereby against the rules! Anyone found at a party will be stripped of his rank, no questions asked. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." The crowd mumbled dispiritedly. Optimus nodded in satisfaction and marched out of the Random Room, Rodimus at his heels.

Bumblebee turned to Kup and screamed hysterically. "No parties! NO PARTIES!"

Kup sighed and stared at his feet. "…damn."

~~~Optimus' Office~~~

"Care to explain what you and those bots were doing?" Optimus asked.

Rodimus eyed him. Should I lie? It seems like the best option. Optimus won't believe the truth anyways. So who should I blame it on? Anyone at the party is definitely out of the question. And I don't know anyone else who wasn't supposed to be somewhere… except Magnus. Ha, Magnus is the perfect scapegoat! Optimus is still pissed about that picture of his ass thing. Hehehe, this is too perfect!

"Well sir, we heard Magnus talking about this Earth thing he read about on the Internet. It sounded fun and he had everything we needed so we decided to go ahead and try it. We figured that since Magnus did it all the time, there was nothing wrong. Obviously we were mistaken. You have my sincerest apologies." Rodimus said with a strait face and mentally whacked himself upside the head. Idiot! That sounded so stupid. You have my sincerest apologies? You sound like suck up

Optimus glowered. "Magnus you say? Well we'll just have to see about that. Rodimus, you are dismissed."

Rodimus heaved an inward sigh of relief and hurried out of the office.

~~~Magnus' Office~~~

I was lazily doing some reports and fiddling with my pen when I heard a loud knock on my door… uh, doorframe. I really gotta get that fixed, and hurrah for me, I had company.

"Enter." I called. The door opened and Optimus walked in. I stared up at him in surprise.

"Optimus, sir, I wasn't expecting you. Can I help you with something?" I was, of course, thinking of something more along the lines of 'what the hell do you want?' but I thought I'd go for the polite approach.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I was wondering if you could explain this." He said, and plopped a white cardboard box on my desk. I stared at it, perplexed. It was a plain white box with the word 'Twister' stamped across the front in red.

"Twister?" I asked, confused. An Earth game? Was this some sort of joke? Because I was seriously not in the mood.

"I was informed that this belongs to you. It was used during a party earlier today for some very unorthodox things." He answered steadily.

I snorted and shook my head. "No sir, you must have me confused with someone else."

What happened next was quite unexpected. Optimus walked around my desk, grabbed me by my shoulders, kicked my window open, and dangled me several stories above the grounds below. Oh joy, what fun. In spite of myself, I screamed hysterically. I'm afraid of heights.

"Oh?" he said cheerfully. "Are you positive?"

I think at this point it was safe to say that Optimus had officially lost his mind. Or he was having fun. I can't decide which is worse. His sense of humor isn't exactly...normal.

"I'm pretty positive, sir. Have you asked Rodimus about it yet?" I answered shakily. I was scared out of my mind.

His grip tightened and he snarled at me. Ok, wrong thing to say.

"Maybe Spike or Daniel left it here." I said, changing tactics.

His eyes narrowed. Is that good or bad? I can't tell from my position. Optimus stays silent.

"Ok ummm…" I tried again but I was fresh out of ideas.

Suddenly, I heard someone run into my office and screech at the top of his lungs. "OPTIMUS!" Heh, it's Rodimus. Must have been important. How comforting.

Optimus jumps in surprise and accidentally lets go of me. Dead serious. A thousand thoughts flashed through my mind and chief among them was 'Well this sure is an embarrassing way to die'. I grab frantically for the windowsill. My fingers graze it but before I can get a good grip, I begin to plummet. And it's a long way down.

Optimus stared out the window in consternation. "Whoops…"