I can't take this much longer, Thundercracker thought. Every day that dawns in blissful silence is another day closer to total destruction. Or insanity, he added forlornly. This is how he's going to get back at me, I just know it—he's going to drive me insane with the waiting.

The blue Seeker peered furtively into command center. Nobody paid him the least mind not even the dreaded Skywarp sitting at his computer apparently working diligently.

It was all a front. Skywarp never worked at anything diligently. He was up to something.

As if to confirm Thundercracker's most paranoid thoughts, Skywarp rapidly clicked away from the screen he'd been watching when Thundercracker sat down next to him.

Skywarp smiled charmingly at him. "Hey, TC, how's it going?"

Thundercracker glared at him. "As if you didn't know."

Skywarp looked innocent. "What? What have I done?"

"It's not what you have done, it's what you haven't done...yet."

Skywarp looked hurt. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Thundercracker glowered at his wingmate. If he hadn't known he wouldn't have guessed that several days ago Skywarp had been a polka dot mess of missing paint after enduring the removal 500 or so squeaky toys from his shell by Hook, who took great pleasure in using the strongest solvent he could find.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, the squeaky toys had not survived. Skywarp had definitely been unhappy about the whole thing, especially about the loss of the toys. He'd blamed Thundercracker for it. It didn't matter that their wingleader and superior officer, Starscream had done the deed. Thundercracker had set him up. That's all that mattered.

But now, days later, there had been no retribution. Of course, Thundercracker had done everything in his power to prevent a retaliation. He'd refused to shutdown for recharge, he'd turned down several offers of high-grade, he'd even taken drastic steps to never be alone with Skywarp.

He was getting tired now. Really tired. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. He was almost to the point where he wished Skywarp would pull the prank and get it over with. Almost, but not quite.

"Wow, you look really bad," Skywarp said after a few minutes of silence. "When was the last time you had any recharge?" Thundercracker just glared. "TC, TC, TC, I know what you're thinking, but how could I possibly get you back for the squeaky toy incident? They are all gone, pfft, destroyed." He flung his hands out indicating a huge explosion though the toys had only been dissolved into a mess of vinyl goo.

"Trust me," he added almost as an afterthought.

"So, what you are saying is that you have no plans whatsoever to get me back?"

"Nada, zip, zilch," Skywarp replied holding up one hand like an honest Boy Scout. Thundercracker couldn't see Skywarp's other hand, fingers crossed, behind his back.

Thundercracker relaxed, slightly—he wasn't so foolish as to believe Skywarp—but nothing was going to happen in the next duty shift. Plus, here he could keep a very close optic on the little heel.

He sat and stared at his monitor and dreamed of a really good recharge.

OoOoOo

The order for battle had come suddenly, like most orders of this kind do. Thundercracker, tired beyond any measure he had at the time, had leaped, perhaps with less consideration than should've been give the situation, into action. The fight had gone well. He thought. He'd scrapped a number of Autobots. He thought. At this point, he just didn't know or remember.

He still feared Skywarp, though, and upon returning to his quarters, he sat down at his desk with the intention of hacking Skywarp's private computer access.

It wasn't difficult. Skywarp's passwords were pretty obvious once a little thought was given to the problem. He quickly had the purple jet's E-Bay account up and was scanning his activity.

"Primus below," he muttered. "He's nuts. No wonder his quarters look like a junk pile, he buys enough of it."

The soothing flow of words across the screen blurred slightly. Thundercracker shook himself then thumped his head to clear his vision. He read some more . His chin slowly dropped to his chest. Startled by the clink of metal hitting metal, he jerked awake.

He moved to a different screen and continued to read. His head hit his desk with a clang, and he didn't wake up.

OoOoOO

"Aaggg," Thundercracker groaned softly. His neck and back ached from being in one uncomfortable position for too long. He raised his head and sat back in his chair.

"Squeak."

"Yarggh!" he shrieked leaping to his feet in dismay.

"No, no, no, no," he bellowed.

"Squeak, squeak," was the reply.

The floor felt unnaturally springy and squeaky beneath his feet. He dropped heavily into his chair and surveyed the destruction. There were squeaky toys and squeaky balls of varying sizes everywhere; on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling, on his recharge bed, on his desk and even on his computer and chair.

"Over at last," he sighed, his head dropping to the desk in relief. His head bounced back up unbidden.

"Squeak, squeak."