Merry Christmas everybody! Sorry I've been a little elsewhere recently but I do have a Christmas present for you all! I'm still working on the next story in the Sparkfinder Saga so have no worries there. It will come. It'll still be some time because I have actual job-related deadlines now and it is all very exciting. ;3

There may be another chapter or two coming shortly after Christmas because, quite honestly, I'm usually late anyway and Christmas comes but once a year and I've kept you all waiting so long already. So I hope you all have a fantastic holiday and that you enjoy the snowy madness because the bots certainly are! Please review. You guys are great and I heart you all! :D

Merry Christmas and enjoy!

...

Feels Like Christmas

Chapter Four: Snow Day

"Spheroid projectiles ready?"

The bots on Jazz's team patted what passed for Cybertronian snowballs like Aria had shown them. "Ready!" they shouted back to the small mech.

Jazz held a hand in the air, waiting a nano-klik to make sure he had their attention, and then swung it down with a broad grin. "Fire!"

Fake snow hurled through the air as Hound, Smokescreen, Sideswipe, Tracks, and Hot Rod all followed Jazz's example and let fly. Mirage's team must not have been ready because it wasn't long before a chorus of 'Hey!'s and general shouts came back to the other team.

Jazz popped over the top of the white-crusted barricade Grapple had built for them. He cupped one hand to the side of his mouth and shouted at the other team, "Don't start what ya can't finish you powder puffs!"

"Powder puffs?" an indignant voice shouted back. "When we're done with you bolts for brains, you'll be the ones that look like powder puffs!"

Jazz laughed at Inferno's taunt and then just barely made it back below the barricade as a snowball hit its side with a powdery sounding paff!

Sideswipe cackled as he scooped together more snowballs. "Nice throw Sunny! What, you learn how to throw from old Alpha Trion?" He jumped up and threw two snowballs in quick succession before taking one right in the face.

Sunny's bright eyes and the tips of his yellow and black horns were all that could be seen over the top of his team's shelter, but it was obvious he was grinning at his twin's misfortune. "Better than learning how to duck from Metroplex!"

Sideswipe opened his mouth to shout something profane back at his brother, only to spit loudly as the fake snow got in his mouth. "Bleh!" he sputtered, wiping at his face with a hand, only to stop as his optics widened. "Hey! This stuff sticks!"

Two more snowballs whacked him in the chest plates and Sunny cackled across the no man's land between their bases.

Sides dove for cover and tried to rub the white powder off his face with both hands. Enough came off that he could see again, but it all stuck to his hands, turning them white.

"Yeah," Jazz said with a grin as he ducked back down next to him, "don't expect to see your paintjob for a few days." He sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and then Sideswipe noticed the rough texture on the other mech's chest. He hadn't noticed Jazz's new outer covering because the mech was already mostly white anyway.

Sideswipe shrugged. "Oh well," he mumbled and then scooped together as many snowballs as fast as he could before gathering them up and peering over the edge to wait for his brother's bright yellow face to reappear.

A few yards away, Aria watched the melee where she and the younglings were playing in the snow. "Wonder why it doesn't stick to me?" she mumbled, but then realized it didn't matter so long as they didn't have to chemically peel old building material off her bare skin.

"Jie Mei! Jie Mei!" She turned as Arcee called her name in excitement. "Look what I made!"

Aria smiled at the snowball with a face Arcee held in both her hands. "It's a snow me!" she cried. "I'm going to give it to Ironhide for Christmas. Do you think he'll like it?"

"Of course he'll like it," Aria told her. "It's adorable."

Arcee grinned. "And he can use it to hit those Decepti-meanies too!"

Aria wasn't sure what to say to that. It was fairly obvious that Arcee took more after Chromia than their sister Elita. Maybe that was why the little femme had taken such a liking to her sister's sparkmate, despite how rough his edges were.

"That's, um," Aria tried to think of a word to describe what that was, "great!"

Arcee sure thought so. She went and carefully put the snowball with a face out of the way where no one would accidentally step on it. She had only just put it down when, out of nowhere-

Pheeeeew-Splat!

One of the spheroid projectiles came whistling out of nowhere and landed on Ironhide's present.

The girls stared at the crumbling mass of snow in shock. And then Arcee started to cry.

"Oh boy," Aria grumbled before turning around and scowling at the battling teams. "Hey!" she shouted in their direction. "Watch where you're throwing those things, would ya? Hasn't anyone told you you're not supposed to beat up on little kids at Christmas?!"

They didn't really hear her. In fact her only answer was another errant snowball headed her way. She only just managed to side step in time to keep from getting flattened.

Aria frowned at the snowball next to her. She couldn't tell if someone had done that on purpose or not.

"All right kids, let's go inside. Things are getting too rough out here."

"Aw!" all seven younglings groaned. "Come on Jie Mei, I want to play in the snow some more!" Val protested.

But Aria was unmoved. "Yeah, me too, but we can come back out when the rest of them are done pelting each other with snowballs. It's not like it'll melt after all." She hoped.

They still dragged their feet heading towards the door. "How bout I tell you guys a Christmas story while we wait okay? I remember Frosty the Snowman pretty well. I think you'll like that one." She promised. They still grumbled about getting kicked out of the snow, but they moved a little faster now, looking forward to learning more about Christmas.

Back on the white battlefield, Jazz was hurling snowballs at a bright red spot he hoped was Cliffjumper. "That'll teach him for ratting me out as Prowl's ghost last Halloween!" he thought as he tossed a snowball into the air and caught it again. He was so focused on aiming his last projectile that he didn't notice the empty footprints in the snow behind him, walking towards him.

At least, not until a blast of ice cold fire retardant foam shot over his back.

"Yeeah!" Jazz shrieked, jumping so high that he almost hopped right over the barricade and made himself the center of the free for all. As it was a handful of snowballs shot over his head and hit what looked like empty air with loud impact sounds.

"Hey now!" Jazz yelled as he tried to swipe the cold foam off his back. "No super powers Raj! Stop cheatin'!"

Mirage appeared out of the empty air, a victorious smile on his usually reserved faceplates. "You're one to talk," he accused. "You started this whole mess when you dumped that snow on me after I was so generous as to help you give Aria a Christmas surprise."

Jazz grinned at him mockingly. "Well if ya don't want to get hit, don't make yerself an easy target. Get him!"

Raj's face was priceless as all of the mech's on Jazz's team suddenly turned on him. He activated his cloaking field, but it didn't do much good since they knew where he was already. Seven snowballs thwacked him in the head and chest before he managed to throw himself around the side of their barricade and run back to his own team.

Jazz and the others' roaring laughter was cut off by a scowling interloper. "What are you doing?"

Jazz wiped his optics and looked over at the scowling face of Prowl. "What's it look like genius? We're havin' a little fun." He tossed a snowball in the air and caught it again.

Prowl didn't look like he understood how this was fun as Sideswipe and Sunstreaker continued their family feud a yard away, but then that might have been because his own idea of fun was sorting voice messages by urgency and color coding them.

Prowl picked up a boot and stared at the fluffy white covering now sticking to the bottom. "This is obviously not frozen water, but it's that snow Aria and I saw outside the window." His optics narrowed in suspicion and he turned to stare at Jazz. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Jazz grinned like he had never been guilty in his whole life. "Me? Nah! Of course not Prowler. Who do you think I am? Them?"

He jerked a thumb at Sideswipe just in time to see him take another snowball to the head. He was surprisingly okay with it, probably because his own snowball had caught Sunstreaker in mid-laugh with his mouth wide open.

"No," Prowl eyed his friend, "you're worse."

Jazz didn't seem offended. "Aw, what're besties for?" he asked as he threw an arm around Prowl's shoulders, making him stoop.

"Please don't touch me."

Jazz ignored him. "And besides," he pointed at the opposing team across the empty stretch of flat land, "they're the ones that started it. I was just havin' some fun and Raj got his fender bent outta shape. If ya wanna rant at somebot, rant at him."

Prowl tossed Jazz's arm off. "I do not 'rant'," he insisted, but no one believed him. "I will, however, go and have a talk with Mirage about this whole ridiculous," he looked at the hollering, laughing mechs all dusted with white powder, "game."

Of course as soon as Prowl walked into the no man's land, Sideswipe raised his arm to throw a snowball at their favorite tactician.

Jazz grabbed his wrist before he could. "Wait for it," he said quietly before the red mech could protest.

Sideswipe grinned wickedly and seeing an opportunity too good to pass up, sent a sneaky whisper along his twin bond to Sunstreaker. From the downright devious look on his faceplates across the way, he got the message loud and clear.

It was suspiciously quiet as Prowl tromped through the fake snow towards the middle of the empty space where everyone could hear him at once, but he tromped on, unaware of his danger.

"All right!" he shouted. "This silly fight is over. You are all to go back inside and resume your daily schedules."

"But he started it!" Jazz and Mirage yelled from opposite sides of the field.

Prowl scowled at them. "I don't care who started it because I am finishing it! Now all of you back inside!"

He flung out a hand towards the building whose shadow they played in. Numerous groans met his command.

"It's like I'm surrounded by a whole mob of twins." Prowl thought unhappily. The comparison only soured his mood more and he threatened, "Don't make me get Prime out here."

Behind his back, where Prowl couldn't see, Jazz held up one digit to Mirage across the field.

One.

Mirage nodded slowly, all thoughts of pummeling Jazz forgotten in the light of this golden opportunity.

Two.

Prowl frowned. Instead of getting up head back indoors, more and more heads were disappearing down beneath their barricades. His danger sense finally kicked on, but it was too late.

"Three!" Jazz shouted.

A blizzard of spheroid shapes whistled through the air, all converging on one, black and white target. Prowl looked up just in time to see the hail of white projectiles coming his way.

"Oh scrap."

Pff! Pff! Paff! Piff! Fap!

The white feux-snow stuck to Prowl's well ordered paintjob, obscuring all the black and making him look like a snow bot. Even his face was covered, all except his blinking optics.

It was remarkably silent as the mechs held back their laughter. Although a few snickers slipped past Sunny and Sides' hands where they tried to cover their mouths to keep the laughter in.

Even without a face, Prowl looked unamused. He stiffly turned to go inside and free up his joints where they were crammed with snow, practically waddling back towards the door and the wash racks beyond.

More snickers appeared.

The snowball fight started up as soon as Prowl cleared the field. "I hate you all," he grumbled as he passed Jazz.

Jazz just grinned at his friend's white, fluffy back. "That's the Christmas spirit Prowler!" And then a snowball hit him in the back of the helm and the grinning mech turned and threw himself back into the fray.