Welcome back, once again! Before I begin, I would like to congratulate KittyKatt25 on accurately guessing the bird! As a reward, you get a cookie cat!

On more serious matters, you will be seeing the femmes starting their individual jobs in this chapter, which is what they'll be doing part of the time.

"How are you doing, sweetspark?" Optimus asked as he laid beside Rosalina. His mask was down, showing a handsome set of lips.

"Wonderfully," Rosalina purred, cuddling up to his large and warm frame.

Ark rolled his optics. He was watching Rosalina roll around on her berth, murmuring in her recharge. Somewhat annoyed, he growled loudly to try and wake her up.

Rosalina frowned, rolling over so that her back was to the Predacon. Waving her servo, she said sleepily, "Ten more minutes..."

Ark shook his head, standing up. After stretching quickly, he calmly walked over to stand right next to the berth, growling louder this time.

Rosalina mumbled again, rolling onto her back.

Without hesitation, Ark leaped up and landed on the femme Prime's stomach, giving him the desired result.

"Oof!" Rosalina jumped forward, jolting out of her dream. Rubbing her stomach plating as the Predacon got off, she asked Ark, "What was that for?!"

Ark started to scratch something onto the berth. She had been able to teach him how to scratch symbols onto surfaces so she could understand what he wanted, and still be careful enough that it could be rubbed off.

Rosalina watched as he made a circle with twelve dashes along the edge, and two lines extending from a dot in the center.

The Prime gasped, checking her internal clock. "Oh scrap! I'm gonna be late!"

She bolted onto the floor and ran out the room, Ark calmly following after he rubbed the clock away.

Optimus was in his office sorting through data pads when Rosalina burst through the door, Ark being mere seconds after.

"Sorry I'm..." She huffed, doubling over, "Sorry I'm late. I lost track of time."

"Perfectly fine." Optimus remarked, nodding his helm understandably.

Rosalina blushed, and went to her own desk, which had several messy piles of data pads on it. Her left optic twitched, and she started to reorganize them.

Optimus looked up, watching the other Prime for a second before asking, "What are you doing?"

"Hmm?" Rosalina turned around, a data pad in her servo. "Oh, I-I'm sorry, it's just..." She placed the pad neatly onto a pile before sitting down, "I have CDO. Everything must be perfect when I'm around."

"CDO?" Optimus asked, an optic ridge raised.

"OCD in alphabetical order."

"I see." Optimus found his gaze wandering down to Rosalina's feet, where Ark was lying peacefully, his optics trained on the Autobot leader. "And what about the Predacon? Ark, was it?"

"Yeah, he follows me wherever I go," the femme Prime rubbed him behind the ear, earning a surprising purr from the dragon.

Optimus raised his optic ridge again at this, stating, "I was unaware that he purred."

"I like to think of him as a big ol' cyber kitten." Rosalina replied, sitting upright and looking at the first data pad.

Optimus merely nodded, this time noticing his optics wanting to her. Quickly snapping out of it, he looked down at the data he currently held, though he didn't really understand it through his thoughts.

Lightning knocked on the medbay door, a blank look in her optics.

It soon opened, revealing Ratchet with a surprised look on his faceplates. "Ah, Lightning Strike. You're here early."

"I prefer to arrive early rather than on time. Shows disrespect, in my opinion."

"That's a good mindset to have." Ratchet said as they walked in. "I don't have any patients right now, so would you mind helping me organize the equipment?"

"Certainly," Lightning replied, walking over to where Ratchet was pointing.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge, musing to himself, "No complaints? No whines of protest? Huh, suppose there is a first for everything."

Wheeljack didn't notice Sonic walk in with Silver, being too absorbed in his invention.

"Lemme see..." his servo started to pat the table. "Where'd I put that wrench?"

"Would this be it?" Sonic asked in amusement.

"Thank you," Wheeljack said, taking the tool and working on the device. After a second, he realized what had happened. "Oh! Sonic Boom, you're here! Excellent!"

"Yeah, and I'm ready to start."

Silver looked at the device Wheeljack was just working on. "What is that?"

"Would you like a long and technical description, or short and simple?"

"Short."

"It's a teleporter!" Wheeljack said. He then looked down at the sparkling, and blinked. "Who're you?"

"My sparkling, Silver Claw. Sorry about taking her with me, it's just that everyone else is at their jobs as well, so no one can babysit her."

"It's perfectly fine!" Wheeljack stated, his head fins glowing with a bright blue light. "I'm sure Perceptor won't mind either!"

"I won't mind what?" Perceptor queried his colleague as he walked in. Then, his optics landing on Sonic, he said, "Ah, you must be our new lab partner! Sonic Boom, correct?"

"Yes, but I prefer just Sonic. As for what Wheeljack was taking about, I had to bring my sparkling today."

Perceptor frowned, looking down at Silver. "You're a tad bit young to have a sparkling, are you not?"

Sonic tensed up, and Perceptor got the general idea.

"Oh. Well, I suppose having a young one wouldn't hurt. Perhaps this will stop Wheeljack's tendency to blow up his experiments."

"Hey! I'll have you know that my current Transwarp drive is explosion proof!"

At that moment, the device was suddenly engulfed in flames.

"What the - it wasn't even on!"

"You never cease to amaze me, Wheeljack." Perceptor deadpanned, watching as his lab partner put out the fire.

Sonic raised an optic ridge, and proceeded to pull a giggling Silver away from the burning device. "Is it safe for me to make the conclusion that this is an everyday occurrence...?"

"Affirmative."

"Yeah, pretty much."

"... Where's the safest spot here, and how soon can I put Silver there?" Sonic asked, her voice full of worry.

"There's an empty cabinet over there, I'll lead you and Silver there if I can tell his invention will blow up or go haywire."

"Thank you."

The door suddenly burst open, revealing Ember. "Me smell explosion! Where explosion?!"

"One of Wheeljack's inventions blew up." Perceptor replied nonchalantly, expertly mixing two beakers halfway full with chemicals. Then, a small grin on his face, he added, "Again."

Ember didn't move, which started to freak the elder scientists out. As Wheeljack reached for a special device to work on, Ember suddenly exclaimed, "Don't touch that!"

Wheeljack flinched, clearly confused, and asked, "But why?"

Ember said nothing, merely sprinting towards the device. Snatching it up with her servos, she delicately turned it around, before ripping off a panel and carefully rearranged the wires inside.

"Hey, wait! What are you doing?!"

"The wires were set up to explode when it was activated." Ember replied, still rearranging the wires.

Wheeljack and Perceptor blinked, too stunned to speak. Simultaneously, they turned to Sonic and raised an optic ridge.

"Don't ask me!" Sonic responded, raising her servos.

After connecting one last wire, Ember placed the panel back onto the sphere and handed it back to Wheeljack, cheerfully stating, "There! No more boom-boom! Bye-bye!"

The three scientists and sparkling stared as the red femme bounced away in a rather childish manner.

After an awkward moment of silence, Perceptor asked, "Does... that happen often?"

"She has a sensitive sense of smell, as humans would put it," Sonic replied. Chuckling, she stated, "She could smell an explosive on the opposite side of Cybertron. Nothing could be hidden from her."

"Okay..." Wheeljack slowly said, turning back to his invention. "Let's get back to work."

"Okay," Sonic replied nonchalantly, as if nothing happened.

Ironhide looked up as Ember bounced into the training room. "What took ya so long?"

"Wheeljack and explosives."

"Ah see..." Ironhide lifted the large gun in his hands. "Anyways, ta first thing Ah'm gonna have ye do is dismantle and repair this ere-"

"Whoa, is that a Riot Cannon?!" Ember took it from the van, turning it around in her digits. "And it's the fifth model, too! I didn't think any were still around!"

Ironhide raised an optic ridge. "Ah didn't know ya knew so much bout it."

"I've always been fascinated with weaponry, so I did a lot of research."

Ironhide raised both optic ridges at that. "From what Luna told meh, ya aren't one ta study."

"Only if I don't like it."

"Ah see... well, as Ah was saying, ya gotta dismantle and repair that Riot Cannon."

Not saying anything, Ember started to take the giant weapon apart, setting the components off to the side. With all of the pieces put before her, she started to reassemble the weapon. After another minute or so, she handed it to Ironhide.

Ironhide's optics darted from the cannon to the counter in front of Ember. "Ya left a couple o' parts out, ya know."

"Only the unnecessary ones."

Ironhide raised his optic ridge again.

"This piece," she grabbed a large rectangular piece of metal, "was giving it unnecessary weight, making it horribly off-balance."

Ironhide studied the cannon. It did have a better balance to it.

"Then this," she picked up a small cylinder with a red light on the end, "would only be used for fine aim, which is useless due to the evenly-spread burst damage. Not to mention that the ones using this will be the stronger Autobots, whom already have perfectly fine aim."

The veteran knew that was also true.

"Why don't cha test it out?"

Ember smiled, and took the Riot Cannon. She pointed to one of the targets, and fired. When the smoke cleared, Ironhide saw a gaping hole where the helm and spark chamber should've been.

"Impressive."

Ember smirked, placing the Riot Cannon down.

Prowl raised an optic ridge. "Come again?"

"How about we play a game of chess?" Blacklight repeated, gesturing to the game board next to her. "There's nothing else to do."

"Hmm... alright." Prowl sat down, taking the white side. "Femmes first."

Blacklight smiled, and made her first move.

"Aaaaaaaaaand... check mate."

Prowl stared at the board in shock. He only had his king, a bishop, and two pawns, while she had her queen, a knight, four pawns, and both rooks. If his bishop took one rook, the other would take his king. If he moved his king in any direction, it would be take by either a pawn or the queen.

"How?"

"Years of practice, my friend."

"... Rematch."

Blacklight smiled. "Sure."

Despite himself, Prowl smiled back.

Jade stared at the monitor before her, trying to see if anything was off about it.

"Excuse me, are you Jadewing?"

She looked up, and saw an unfamiliar much. "Yes. And you are...?"

"I'm Steve, an Autotrooper."

Steve, like all Autotroopers, was slightly shorter than Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, with narrow shoulders and an aerodynamic frame. He had a red visor and a silver battle mask, while his chest, forearms, and shins were a deep blue, and his helm, thighs, and biceps were a light red. There was an Autobot symbol on his chest, and wheels in his knees and shoulders.

Jade smiled kindly. "What do you need, Steve?"

"Just here to tell you that your shift is over."

"Already?" Jade got up, checking her clock. "Well, thank you Steve."

Steve's visor lit up slightly. "You're welcome!"

Jade them walked off, Steve taking her seat.

Knowing none of the others were out yet, Jade decided to wander around the halls. Rounding a corner, she bumped into someone. Falling on the ground, she exclaimed, "Oof! I-I'm so... sorry..."

She had to crane her neck just to look into the visor of Grimlock, whom resembled his Fall of Cybertron version.

Grimlock looked back down. "Me Grimlock sorry. You small femme okay?"

Jade sat in shocked horror, unable to move.

"Hello?" Grimlock got onto his knees. "You femme okay? You need me Grimlock to call him Ratchet?"

As he extended a servo to her, Jade shrieked and started to scoot away. "P-please - don't hurt me!"

"Wait!" Grimlock yelled, shooting to his feet as she transformed and flew down the hallway. Chasing after her, he yelled, "Me Grimlock no hurt small femme!"

Jade didn't seem to hear him, and simply flew faster.

Grimlock continued to chase her, ignoring the pain in his legs.

Jade transformed when she reached the crystal gardens, and ran from there. Then, tripping on an unseen rock, she screamed as she fell.

Grimlock, seeing her fall, picked up speed.

Jade squeezed her optics shut, turning away from the giant. She felt the ground shake as he came to a stop next to her, then...

... nothing.

Opening one optic, she saw Grimlock slowly ease himself down on the ground next to her, steam rising from his legs. "You femme bot okay?"

She nodded feebly, slightly confused.

Grimlock visibly relaxed. "Good."

Jade watched as he stretched his legs and rolled his right shoulder. Steam was still billowing out of his legs, filling the air with a faint hiss.

After a minute, Jade finally mustered the courage to ask, "What's wrong?"

"Me Grimlock still recovering. Him Ratchet want me Grimlock to take it easy. Vocalizer almost done. Him Ratchet say later in week."

Jade flinched. "Sorry... I didn't really help..."

Grimlock shrugged. "It okay. You small femme not know." He stopped moving. "What your name?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! My name's Jadewing, but I go by Jade."

"Okay... Jade."

They sat in silence for a bit, until Jade asked, "What are you recovering from?"

Grimlock clenched his fists. "Shockwave..."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

Grimlock looked down at her. "... It okay. You Jade no do nothing."

"I know, it's just... my friends and I nearly ended up with him."

"Me Grimlock see."

Another moment of awkward silence passed between them.

"So... you excited for Christmas?"

Grimlock looked at her. "How you Jade know about Christmas?"

"Oh, on our old planet, my friend Sonic Boom stumbled upon an old tv program from earth. We got hooked on some of their cultures shortly afterword."

"Me Grimlock see..." his energon lines becoming brighter, he added, "And yes, me Grimlock excited for Christmas."

Jade smiled, which made Grimlock's spark flutter. "That's great!"

"Yo, Jade, you out here?!"

The small femme perked up at the call. "Coming, Ember!" Jade smiled sheepishly at Grimlock. "Sorry, I gotta go. Talk to you later!"

"Goodbye..." he watched as Jade faded from view, "... pretty little femme."

I have no regrets. None whatsoever.

Now, since Turkey Day (thanksgiving) is over, it's officially the Christmas season! *Puts on Santa hat*

The next chapter is going to be a Christmas special, as implied by Jade and Grimlock's conversation.

Till All Are One,

- Alpha