THE NEXT MORNING…

Tomato came out of stasis to the brightness of the sun shining into his hotel room. He sat up and rubbed his optics, still only half awake. Starscream was still sleeping, and Shockwave was sitting up in bed and reading a magazine.

"Good…good morning, Shockwave," Tomato yawned.

"Have a nice sleep?" asked Shockwave pleasantly.

"Yes," Tomato replied. "How long have you been awake?"

"Quite a while, actually," Shockwave told him. "I always get up early."

Tomato nodded and lay back down in bed, debating whether or not to try and go back into stasis. Suddenly, they heard Starscream mumble, "Yes, my dear…I like it when you do that…"

"Starscream talks in his sleep," Shockwave explained, rolling his optics. "Usually about being in bed with someone."

Tomato suppressed a snort of laughter and whispered, "Really?"

Starscream proceeded to make out with his pillow, muttering things like, "I love you baby…just a little bit harder…oh, yesyesyesyesyes!"

To his amusement, Tomato saw Shockwave take out a video camera and tape Starscream overloading himself in his sleep. Then, finally, he jumped straight up in bed and yelled, "Take me now, my lover!"

"Forward it to Megatron," Tomato whispered to Shockwave, who was still taping.

Shockwave nodded and stopped recording, then, as Starscream awoke, he sent the video to Megatron's data pad—and to everyone else's, too. While he was doing this, Starscream looked around the room, seeming a little disoriented.

"Is it—where am I?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"Nebulos," Shockwave replied, managing to keep a straight face. "It's morning now."

"Well, we'd better get downstairs," Starscream said quickly. "I was waiting all night to explore this place!"

…

Blueberry and the Decepticons met up with each other in the main lobby. Upon the arrival of Shockwave, Starscream, and Tomato, everybody started laughing.

"What?" asked Starscream. "What are you all laughing at?"

"See for yourself," Megatron said, brandishing his data pad at Starscream. Even he was laughing at Shockwave's video.

"Hey!" yelled Starscream. "Who taped that?"

Tomato shrugged, while Shockwave 'fessed up.

"Okay, that's it!" Starscream said. "Shockwave, our friendship is totally over!"

"Like I care," Shockwave told him sarcastically. "Starscream, you are such a drama queen."

"Sometimes you have entire conversations in your sleep," Megatron told him. "It's quite annoying."

"That's very strange," said Blueberry. "You know, some say that dreams and sleep-talking reveal your subconscious—that is, all the data hidden in your CPU that's too deep down for you to know about. I did a project on it at school."

"Well, can we please just explore the hotel and the area?" Starscream asked, trying to change the subject. "The hotel has a pool, and we can go to the beach. Plus, we can hit some clubs tonight, when we go downtown."

"I brought zee beach supplies!" Crazy Blitzwing laughed, holding up a beach ball.

So they went to the pool first. The pool was huge, filled with cold blue water flanked by little statues of sparklings, water spewing out of their mouths and into the pool. There were lawn chairs around the sides of the pool, and native Nebulos trees (similar to palm trees). There was even a little area for sunbathing, with a snack bar nearby. Included with the pool was a relaxing-looking hot tub. Everybody knew they wouldn't have to be worried about rusting, because their armor was designed to be water-resistant.

"I'm going in the hot tub," Megatron told everyone.

"Could I come in with you, my Lord?" Lugnut asked excitedly.

"Umm…how about you go get some energon for me at the snack bar?" Megatron said quickly.

Lugnut bolted off to the snack bar. "As you wish, my liege!"

"Yeah, I think I'll get some energon too." Shockwave followed Lugnut to the snack bar.

"Well, I'm going to go and sunbathe." Blackarachnia walked towards the sunbathing area.

"Do you need me to rub zee suntan lotion on you?" asked Blitzwing's Icy face.

"Didn't I tell you to stay away from me?" Blackarachnia hissed.

After a little bit of just standing there awkwardly, Tomato finally asked Blueberry if she wanted to go swimming.

"Of course!" Blueberry grabbed the beach ball, and she and Tomato plunged into the water.

Tomato playfully splashed Blueberry, and she splashed him back, then tossed the beach ball into the air. Tomato caught it and hit it back to her, then she splashed him again.

"Want to play Water Tag?" asked Tomato.

"Yes!" they heard someone say. It was Blitzwing, jumping into the water to go swimming with the two of them. "Cannonball!"

Tomato, Blueberry, and Blitzwing laughed as the water from the cannonball splashed on them, then they started to play Water Tag. They played a lot of other water games too, like having splash fights and swimming races.

Megatron had a femme in the hot tub with him by now, but Tomato couldn't tell if it was because she wanted to join him or if she just wanted to go in the hot tub. Lugnut was sitting next to the hot tub, probably because he had tried to get in but couldn't. Megatron's optics were closed and he was sipping a glass of dark energon, his arms folded behind his head.

Blackarachnia had left long ago to check out the spa, and Shockwave was chatting with the 'bot running the snack bar. Starscream had taken Blackarachnia's place at the tanning salon, and he had gotten a Decepticon femme to give him a massage.

Eventually, about halfway through the day, they heard Shockwave's voice behind them.

"The Dark Lord says we shouldn't stay in one place all solar cycle long," he was saying. "Do you guys want to go and tour the area now?"

"Okay, but get us some towels, will you?" asked Tomato, climbing out of the pool. Blueberry and Blitzwing followed. Shockwave returned with the towels; Tomato wrapped one around himself and one around Blueberry.

With that, all seven Decepticons and Blueberry left the pool area. They debated for a little over where they wanted to go, they decided to go to the beach, but they didn't stay very long, since it was pretty much the same thing as the pool and they had already done a lot of swimming that day.

After playing in the waves and getting knocked over a couple of times, they finally decided to go check out the library. The library was big, with clear glass windows and shelves upon shelves on books. There were even two floors.

"I want to check out a science book, okay?" asked Blueberry, but she didn't wait for an answer; she just ran to the place where they were kept.

"Blueberry really is going to make a great scientist," said Tomato approvingly.

"Guys, come check this out!" they heard Blueberry call. "This is really interesting."

"What is it?" asked Tomato, as they joined her at one of the bookshelves. She was holding up a big book. They looked closer at the cover, which said On the Origin of Species.

"This is a detailed book about life from the organic planet Earth," Blueberry explained. "It tells how the humans came into being, and many other life forms, too."

"Wasn't our race created by the AllSpark?" asked Tomato.

"Yes, but organics are different," Blueberry replied, perusing the book. "This is fascinating. Can I check it out, Megatron?"

"All right," Megatron told her. "Earth appears to be very primitive, though."

The eight tourists went to the counter and checked out the book. Blueberry held it happily in her arms as they left the library, planning to visit other sights of the little community.

…

There was a lot to do in this part of Nebulos—probably why it was such a tourist trap, Tomato thought. They spent the whole afternoon exploring the town, and finally, as the sun set, they decided to hit one of the clubs.

"Ve have been dying to see zee nightlife on this planet," Icy Blitzwing told everyone.

"We have to go back to the hotel first, so I can get my Decepticon costume, remember?" Blueberry said.

"Okay," Starscream replied. "Then, let's hit the clubs!"