"So I heard the femme is meant to be an amazing shot. Better than Bluestreak and Mirage put together."

"Hmmmph."

"That can't be true can it? Bluestreak can put a hole through a washer from half a mile away!"

"Hmmmph."

"Sunny are you even listening to me? Sunny? Earth to Sunstreaker!"

Irritated, Sunstreaker put down the delicate cloth he was using to wax the greaves of his shinguards and turned to fix Sideswipe with a contemptuous look.

"I. Don't. Care. About. The. Nuggets." His attention immediately returned to his greaves, as he waxed them with a far greater degree of accuracy and a far steadier hand than any Autobot gunner possessed, past, present or future.

Sideswipe frowned momentarily, but then his expression picked up again and he continued breezily chatting.

"Sure ya do! Isn't it exciting to have some new nuggets around? Having Kup around to shout at us and call us morons in that lovable way he has?"

"Correction. Call you a moron."

"Maybe it's one of those things best left unsaid in your case, given how obvious it is. It'd be like calling Prime the leader or Ratchet grumpy, or the Dinobots stupid or me… well, red." Sideswipe mused jokingly to himself, his chin between his thumb and forefinger in a mock thinking pose.

"Not listening."

"Sure you are! Apparently the flame-covered one has designed his own alt-mode. I've heard it's like the one Homer designed on the Simpsons!" Sideswipe chuckled and slapped Sunstreaker heartily on the back, drawing the patented Sunstreaker Death Glare.

Sideswipe - who received the death glare on approximately twenty occasions daily - completely ignored it and stood up to pace idly around the twins' quarters. To Sunstreaker's chagrin, the red Lamborghini had apparently recently mastered the art of pacing and talking at the same time.

"Word in the rec room is that the one who we scraped up and poured into the med-bay, Blurr, is the fastest Autobot going. Faster than Wheeljack or Windcharger!"

Sunstreaker tutted in mild exasperation. "Wasn't quick enough to avoid getting slagged by a moron like Ramjet though was he?" he sneered contemptuously.

Sideswipe shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess that's why they're here, a chance to learn how to defend themselves from the big bad Decepticons from true Autobot fighters on Earth! Like the legendary Sideswipe!"

"You're an idiot. Why don't you recharge? Your mouth must be draining your power core."

Sideswipe was frustrated. Sunstreaker just wasn't taking the bait today he thought to himself. Normally Sunny was easy to wind up concerning nuggets, but admittedly he was four millions years out of practice when it came to nugget initiation. The Dinobots were a bit too tough to really pull anything on. The Aerialbots were too tightly-knit and the Protectobots… they were just so dull. Well, except Blades. Blades liked a good ruck as much as the next warrior, and as a bonus he always seemed to wind that little punk Slingshot up. Yeah, Blades was a good mech, thought Sideswipe to himself before a spot of word association caused inspiration to strike.

Blade! That was how to get Sunstreaker wound up! Sideswipe smiled to himself – oh he was a genius! He sat down on his berth and prepared to deliver the perfect line.

"I hear the pilot fancies himself as a swordsman."

Sunstreaker perked up a bit, but his optics narrowed ever so slightly.

"Oh does he now? Thought he was a neutral or a coward or something along those lines. What does he need a sword for?"

In fairness, Sideswipe had only heard from Cliffjumper that the pilot had mentioned owning a sword to Red Alert when Red had – for whatever lunatic reason – decided to try and pull rank on a neutral that had just seen his friend bisected and was all alone in a strange new environment.

"Dunno, Sunny. But I heard he has one nonetheless."

"I'll tell you what I'm gonna do then Sides. I'm gonna march up this pilot, challenge him to a duel and then treat him to the most severe humiliation of his life."

Sideswipe almost cackled with glee.

"Really?"

"No. Don't be an idiot."

Sideswipe's face fell.

"What, why not?"

Irritated, Sunstreaker delicately folded his polishing cloth away and then swung himself up onto his recharge berth.

"Because numbskull," he began, "if Big Bad Sunstreaker carves a chunk out of a neutral and probably gets thrown in the brig for his troubles where do you think the neutral goes to get patched up?"

"Med-bay?"

"Yep, med-bay. And who runs med-bay with a version of tyranny so powerful that it would make Megatron go 'steady on, that's a bit of a power-trip you're on there?'"

"Ratchet."

"Correct again. And when Ratchet extracts the information about who put yours truly up to this, which he will almost certainly do, who will Ratchet put on our case to make our lives even more miserable than they are?"

"Oh. Prowl."

Reality sunk in for Sideswipe. Whilst he was hoping some fresh blood around the place would provide scope for mischief and perhaps even a scrap or two, he knew that the arrival of the nuggets was Prowl's idea, and Prowl had a talent for torturing mischievous Lamborghinis that went beyond the pale, and quite possibly should be reported to the humans' Geneva Convention.

Resigned to his fate, Sideswipe mirrored Sunstreaker's action and swung himself up onto his recharge berth. A grin returned to his face and he turned his head to the side to face his twin.

"It's a good thing I'm here to talk you out of doing stupid stuff, Sunny, you violent maniac."

"Shut up you stupid slagger."

"See what I mean about that temper? You're lucky I'm here!"

"Sideswipe, shut up!"

"Mwahahahaha!"

Outside the twins room, Hoist and Grapple who were walking past at that precise moment overheard Sideswipe's laughter and shared uneasy glances. Any Autobot worth their salt knew that a happy Sideswipe was a terrifying proposition for any Autobot not accustomed to pranks. They both quickened their step and scurried off into the interior of The Ark.

Author's notes:-

So this is just a short little intermission. It was fun to write (as Sunny and Sides often are) and hopefully helped to illustarate a little bit of the mood on The Ark, where I think it is somewhat fair to write some of the Autobots (and Sideswipe is a good example) as possibly suffering from a little bit of cabin fever.

I might throw a couple more of these intermissions in at some points (I'm toying with the idea of Swoop reporting back on his initial meeting with Arcee and Springer to the rest of the Dinobots).

In the meantime, work is already underway on the next chapter, which is planned to revisit Hot Rod's POV.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read, if you can spare us a follow or even better a favourite or review, I'll be eternally grateful.