Author's Notes: This is the longest chapter so far, and I must warn you, it is exceedingly silly. Hope you all enjoy it, because I certainly enjoyed writing this one!

"Rubber duckies. Are you serious?"

"I'm totally serious! It was hilarious, we could hear Blades coming from practically across the Ark! He had to go see Ratchet eventually because he couldn't get the ducky off his foot himself!"

Bumblebee and Spike sat together inside Central City. The Autobot was busy telling his friend all about the events of the last week. The human was almost laughed out by the time Bumblebee got to describing what had transpired yesterday, but he spared a chuckle upon hearing the last statement. "Oh boy, I bet Ratchet wasn't happy about that!"

"Not a bit! Ratchet chewed Blades out for disturbing him about such a ridiculous thing! He sent Blades packing with more dents in his frame than what he had when he first came! Plus he ripped that ducky off his leg so violently that the paint came off with it!"

Spike flinched at the description but laughed all the same. "Wait," he said when he was able to control himself again. "I have to ask, how big are these rubber ducks anyway?"

"According to your standards, pretty big," Bumblebee said and then held his hands apart to give an estimate of how big they were.

Spike gaped, according to his friend's estimate the ducks must be four to five feet long or more. "Dang! Where did you find them?"

Bumblebee grinned. "You'd be surprised at what Jazz can dig up when he puts his mind to it. Sideswipe's not the only one that has lots of contacts in the underground market!"

Spike returned a thoughtful look and gave a nod of understanding.

"Anyway!" Bumblebee continued. "Blades was absolutely furious about the ducky. He comes marching into the rec room, squeaking with every step, and shouts 'Alright who's the fragger that came up with this bright idea!' Well nobody could take him seriously and when everybody started laughing he eventually just left. To be honest I've never seen Blades put out like that before! I heard he spent the next two hours trying to get it off on his own. That's when he had to go see Ratchet. I think we also got Smokescreen was also hit later on?"

Spike was chuckling again. "What do you think's going to happen next?" he asked.

Bumblebee gave a little shrug. "I'm sure Blades will want to get revenge for being humiliated like that. Sideswipe will probably take it as an excuse to pull another prank on us."

"Okay," Spike said when Bumblebee paused. "Remind me again, who's with Sideswipe and who's with Prowl?"

"Well," Bumblebee responded, looking thoughtful. "I'm with Prowl and so are most of the other minibots. So, that means Cliffjumper, Brawn, Gears, Windcharger, and Powerglide," he said, counting off his fellow minibots with his fingers. "Obviously Jazz is with Prowl, so is Ironhide, Mirage, Hoist and Grapple. And of course Bluestreak. And then with Sideswipe there's obviously Sunstreaker, and then there's Red Alert if you can believe it, which would probably mean Inferno's with them too, and then there's Blades, Slingshot, and Air Raid. Smokescreen's probably decided to join him since he was hit by a ducky yesterday, and I think Tracks is betting that Sideswipe has the better chances of winning, so Tracks must be with him to."

"Wow, really? Because it seems like you guys have got Sideswipe outnumbered," Spike said in response to the last statement.

"I guess he figures Sideswipe has the 'home field' advantage," Bumblebee responded with a grin.

Spike shook his head. "Man, this is so ridiculous."

"Hey, try awesome!" Bumblebee said. "I think it'll be great for morale at the Ark. Which might explain why Prowl has let it go on for so long. Then again he might just want to really get Sideswipe good this time. No one really knows what's going on inside that tactician's head!"

Spike hummed thoughtfully. "Let's hope the 'cons don't pull off a raid while this is all going down."

The yellow 'bot shrugged. "Well we're still battle ready at all times.

Spike nodded in acknowledgment. Then he shook his head again. "Man I wish I could do something, this is great!"

Bumblebee looked thoughtful. "Well, do you have any ideas for what we should do next?"

The human crossed his arms and looked like he was in deep thought. Several moments of silence passed before he snapped his fingers and looked up at his Autobot friend. "Hey, I think I know how you can take this ducky thing further!" He proceeded to tell Bumblebee his plan, and when he had finished the yellow 'bot was grinning with enthusiasm.

o~o~o

Down in his laboratory, Wheeljack was happily tinkering away at some device. The place was a mess like always, but it seemed to be more of a pig sty than usual. On one table there were three nearly complete inventions with tags labeling them. There were several other half complete projects scattered throughout the room, and nearly every surface was covered in spare parts, tools, and data pads with designs for future plans scrawled onto them.

This was a good time to be Wheeljack. Although he always had some kind of project to work on, there was usually no purpose behind them except to counter the Decepticons on the battle field. In his spare time the inventor usually just tinkered on his own projects. He sometimes helped out with repairs around the Ark, but Hoist and Grapple could usually handle that on their own, or he might give Ratchet a hand in the medbay, but First Aid was the medic's normal choice for assistance. But in light of the recent happenings around the Ark, Wheeljack's skills were in high demand. Most of the pranks that the 'bots wished to pull off required some kind of device, material or substance that only the inventor could supply them with. As a result, Wheeljack had a back-up of commissions of the likes that he hasn't had since the golden years on Cybertron.

Yes, Wheeljack was quite happy. He was humming a light tune, his head fins lighting up to the rhythm of the song, when an entrance request ping sounded from his door. "Come in!" he shouted. The door opened and Bumblebee came bouncing in with Spike perched on his shoulder.

"Bumblebee! Spike! Hi! What can I do ya for?" Wheeljack greeted them.

"Hey Wheeljack," Bumblebee returned. "We've got another request for you!"

The inventor grinned broadly behind his blast mask. "Lay it on me!" he said.

"You remember the last thing you built for me, right?" Bumblebee started. Wheeljack nodded and so the minibot continued. "We were hoping you can build a more... mobile version of that." And then Bumblebee and Spike went on to describe their idea to Wheeljack.

When the two friends had finished, Wheeljack was also enthusiastic. He grabbed a data pad and started sketching out an idea for the design of the commission. With help from Spike and Bumblebee, the design was complete within half an hour.

"So how many of these will ya need? Wheeljack asked as he continued to examine the design.

"Six," Bumblebee replied. "How soon can you get these done?"

Wheeljack hummed thoughtfully as he examined the project. "Well the design isn't complicated at all. If I make this a priority, I might be able to get two to three done in a day. Is this going to be a priority?" He then asked as he looked up at the others questioningly.

Bumblebee and Spike looked at each other thoughtfully. "Yes," Bumblebee then said.

"Alright! Then I can probably get this done in a couple days. I'll let you know as soon as they're ready."

Bumblebee and Spike thanked the inventor and left the laboratory. There was nothing else to do but wait now.

o~o~o

The next several days passed quietly. The 'bots continued their lives in the Ark in tension as they waited for the next prank to occur. Sideswipe surely had something in the works, but it apparently wasn't ready for its debut yet. The lull in the prank war was finally broken when Bumblebee received a message from Wheeljack that his commission was ready.

When the yellow minibot arrived at Wheeljack's lab, he wasn't alone. He had brought along with him Cliffjumper, Brawn, Windcharger, Gears, and Powerglide.

"This had better be good, Bumblebee," Brawn was saying as they all entered the lab.

"Trust me, it'll be good. Hiya Wheeljack!" Bumblebee said.

"Hey guys," Wheeljack returned the greeting. "Just in time! Come over here and see what I've got for ya!"

The six minibots all crowded around the table that Wheeljack indicated. On the table, six fairly good sized, cannon-like guns were laying on display. The muzzles of the guns were very wide and flared out like a horn, and they had a very round belly as they apparently took extremely large ammo.

"Alright, now this is what I'm talking about!" Cliffjumper said enthusiastically as he hefted one of the guns, a somewhat manic glee lighting up his optics.

"Um, are these safe? Will we be cited for possession of unregistered weaponry?" Windcharger asked nervously.

"Don't worry, I've got them all checked out by Prowl!" Wheeljack affirmed.

Bumblebee confirmed the statement with a nod. "These are awesome Wheeljack!" he then said as he hefted one of the guns for himself.

"If you don't mind me asking, but what do these things shoot?" Gears asked.

In response, Wheeljack simply reached underneath the table and lifted up an object for them all to see. It was an ammo belt, meant to be slung over one shoulder and across the waist. And the ammo it sported were rows of yellow rubber duckies.

For a moment the revelation was met by silence. Then the minibots reacted.

"Are you serious?" Brawn said.

Cliffjumper threw down his gun. "That's ridiculous!"

Gears just snorted in incredulity. Despite the negative reactions, Powerglide was laughing. "I like it!" he said.

Windcharger had a quirked optic ridge, but he wasn't complaining.

"Come on guys," Bumblebee encouraged as he put on one of the ammo belts. "It'll be fun! Besides, imagine how ridiculous our targets will look covered in rubber ducks?"

Powerglide already had his own ammo belt on and was sizing up his gun while Windcharger followed suit. Surprisingly, Cliffjumper seemed somewhat persuaded by Bumblebee's encouragement as he picked his gun back up and looked at it thoughtfully. But Brawn and Gears both still appeared to be unconvinced.

"And," Bumblebee continued. "You can shoot at Sideswipe and Sunstreaker all you want and you won't get in trouble for it!"

That did it for Brawn. A crazy grin split his face that rivaled Cliffjumper's. Seeing the others persuaded, Gears decided to jump on the band wagon as well and pretty soon all six 'bots were suited up and ready to go.

"Alright!" Bumblebee said. "Luckily our first target is in perfect position. Minibots... roll out!"

"And awaaaay we go!" Powerglide shouted as he followed his fellow minibots out of the lab.

Bumblebee turned to Wheeljack before following the others. "Thanks 'Jack, you're the best!" And with that he left the lab as well.

Wheeljack shook his head as he watched the minibots leave. "Ratchet's not going to be happy about any of this," he said before turning back to his other projects that still needed to be completed.

o~o~o

Sideswipe was completely alone in the wash racks. He'd just gotten back from a shift of perimeter patrol and was quite dirty. This time he'd been partnered with Trailbreaker, a relief since working with his brother in this aspect was not by any means a walk in the park. But even though Trailbreaker was a cheery enough guy, like Hound his enthusiasm for the outdoors and anything that involved nature had the tendency to bore Sideswipe out of his mind. By the time they had gotten back to the Ark Sideswipe didn't want to have anything else to do with nature and was ready to wash all traces of it off of his armor. Trailbreaker hadn't been so eager for a wash, saying that he was going to meet Hound for a nature walk in his spare time. The mech was weird like that.

Sideswipe, for one, planned on using his free time to make plans for his next move against Prowl. He really couldn't care less about what had happened to Blades, but he was more than willing to use the attack against somebody on his side as an excuse to plan a counter attack. So occupied with his scheming was Sideswipe that he didn't even notice when the door opened behind him.

"Hey Sideswipe."

Upon hearing his name, the mech turned around and was shocked by what he saw. Bumblebee and an entourage of minibots stood spread out before him. They each sported an ammo belt slung across one shoulder that appeared to have giant rubber ducks attached to them, and each held a rather large gun that Sideswipe didn't recognize. Both Brawn and Cliffjumper were grinning quite nastily, while Powerglide bounced in excitement and Windcharger, Gears, and Bumblebee just stared at the frontliner smugly. Although Sideswipe had never before been afraid or nervous of the minibots, he couldn't help but feel pretty alarmed by the scene in front of him.

"Hey, what the frag?!" he shouted, putting on an aggressive front.

Bumblebee was the one to respond. "This is for... well everything. FIRE!"

Pop! Pop! Pop! Squeak! Squeak! Pop! Pop! Squeak! Pop! Pop!

"AAARRGHH!" Sideswipe suddenly found himself being assaulted by dozens of rubber ducks as the minibots remorselessly shot at him with their guns. He covered his head in an attempt to protect himself from the yellow ducky projectiles as they bounced off his body, squeaking loudly as each came in contact with a hard surface. Each ducky that smacked into him stung like the Pit, and a few of them even stuck to his armor. Sideswipe could do nothing to escape the barrage.

Once each of the minibots had unloaded a full round of rubber ducks onto Sideswipe, they turned and fled from the room, whooping and laughing the entire way out. It took Sideswipe a moment to recover from the suddenness of the assault, but in no time he was racing out of the room after his assailants, ready to dish out some revenge.

"GET BACK HERE YOU SLAGGERS!" the enraged mech shouted. He was gaining on the pack of minibots when Gears, the one in the back, turned around and fired one last rubber ducky. It was a true shot and smacked Sideswipe right in the face with a loud SQUAWK! That sent Sideswipe stumbling to a stop, rubbing at his stinging face. He looked up just in time to see the last of the pack rounding the furthest corner and hear their whoops and hollers die off into the distance.

Realizing that it would be pointless to give further chase, Sideswipe looked down at himself. Luckily he found no dents in his armor, but he did find that there were several rubber ducks plastered to his chassis. And no amount of tugging or pulling could get them off.

"Slagging pit-spawned, glitch-headed fraggers..." Sideswipe growled as he scraped at a ducky that was stuck to his arm.

"What the..." a voice suddenly came from behind. Sideswipe whirled around to find Mirage standing there, giving him an odd look.

"The minibots... Bumblebee... they... ducky guns!" Sideswipe stuttered as he struggled to describe the situation through his enraged state.

Mirage was now smirking at the unfortunate frontliner. "Oh? How interesting," he said, unimpressed. He then turned and left, chuckling softly at the strange situation.

The spy's reaction did nothing but fuel Sideswipe's rage. He stormed off towards his and Sunstreaker's room, fuming and plotting his revenge.

o~o~o

Bumblebee and the other minibots ran until they were sure they had lost the red frontliner. When they finally came to a stop they were venting hard but laughing and slapping each other on the backs.

"Ha ha! We got him so good!" Windcharger laughed.

"I shot him right in the face!" Gears boasted.

"That was fun, let's do it again!" Cliffjumper said.

Bumblebee waved at them for silence even as he controlled his own laughter. "That was great you guys! Now, how about we go and check out the rec room?"

The others agreed to the plan and soon they were off again, reloading their ducky guns from their ammo belts as they went. The pack of minibots made quite the odd sight as they ran through the Ark. Many of the 'bots they passed had to stop and stare at them for a minute before shaking their heads and continuing on their way. The minibots generally didn't care who saw them, except they did have to hide when Optimus suddenly showed up around a corner. But the Prime hadn't appeared to have noticed them, and when he had disappeared out of sight the 'bots were on their way again.

Finally they made it to the rec room, where they stopped before entering. "Hang on guys, let me check it out first," Bumblebee said. Obeying his word, the other minibots hung back while Bumblebee crept forward and stuck his head into the room. After a split second, Bumblebee retracted his head and turned to the others to give his report. "Alright, we've got three enemies, one friendly, and four neutrals in there. The friendlies and neutrals are to the left and right while the enemies are straight ahead. Aim only for the enemies, got it? Okay you guys, it's time to paint the town yellow!"

The other minibots grinned and set themselves up around the doorway. Bumblebee silently counted down from three, and when he reached one and whispered "Go!" they suddenly barged into the room, ducky guns blazing.

The sudden assault caught everybody by surprise. However, nobody was more surprised than Inferno, Air Raid, and Tracks, who had been sitting quietly at their own tables, sipping from cubes of Energon. When the bombardment of duckies started up, they all jumped and yelped. Energon cubes crashing to the ground, the three poor mechs could do nothing but try to protect themselves from the barrage of stinging rubber projectiles.

Once again, as soon as the minibots had unloaded their guns, they immediately turned and ran for it, cheering all the way out. This time though they had no pursuers, as all the three victims could do was stare at each other in shock and bafflement. To their left, Blaster was practically rolling on the floor, wheezing with laughter, and Ironhide was smirking rather unhelpfully. To their right, Groove, Streetwise, and Beachcomber were grinning and chuckling from the table where they were sitting together. The only reason why none of them had reacted to the sudden sound of gunfire was because Bumblebee had shot them all a quick comm. telling them about the upcoming assault.

All throughout that day, Bumblebee and his gang of minibots terrorized the Ark with their ducky guns. Calling themselves the Ducky Patrol, they assaulted any mech that held any kind of allegiance to Sideswipe's pranking team. Luckily for Sunstreaker, and perhaps the minibots themselves, the golden twin had been off base for most of that day and thus didn't get the ducky treatment.

By the end of the day, duckies could be found scattered all throughout the Ark. They were strewn all over the hallways and stuck to walls and mechs alike. The minibots had retreated to a room in the back of the Ark that they used as their personal hangout, leaving the other 'bots to clean up the mess.

o~o~o

"Oh man Spike, it was epic!" Bumblebee gushed to his human friend. The two had met up in the same place in Central City as before, and the Autobot was busy describing all that had happened yesterday. Once again, Spike was finding himself seized by uncontrollable fits of laughter upon hearing of the minibots' antics.

"Those ducky guns were the best idea ever! I wish you could have seen their faces!" Bumblebee continued. "We got them all good! Yesterday was like... like D-Day! But not, because the D stands for ducky instead of... whatever it stands for. Hey, what does it stand for anyway?"

Spike was still laughing when the sudden question caught him off guard. "Huh, what? What does the D stand for?"

Bumblebee nodded. "Yeah. I mean I know it was the invasion of Normandy, but what does D-Day mean?" Bumblebee, like all other Autobots, had been required to be read up on the most important events of Earth history, and World War II was definitely an important event. But for the life of him Bumblebee couldn't recall reading any kind of explanation for the name that had been given to the day of the famous invasion.

"Well funny thing is," Spike began. "The D doesn't really stand for anything. D-Day simply means 'the day of the invasion.' It's like military code or something."

"Huh," Bumblebee said as he processed the information. "So, it basically stands for 'day day'?"

Spike shrugged. "I guess. It's not quite as simple as that, but that's the gist of it."

"Well, yesterday was ducky-day. And it was awesome!"

Spike chuckled again and shook his head. "It sounds awesome. I wish I could have been there!"

Bumblebee was about to respond, when suddenly his comm-link pinged at him; a hailing request. The 'bot held up his hand and put two fingers to the side of his helm, indicating he was being addressed by somebody else. After a moment, he responded into the comm.: "Yes sir, I'll be there right away."

Spike was looking at the yellow minibot questioningly when the conversation appeared to have ended. Bumblebee turned to his friend. "Well Prowl's just called me back to the Ark, not sure what's going on."

"'Cons?" Spike asked in concern.

Bumblebee shrugged. "Guess I'll find out. I'll see you later, Spike."

"See ya Bee," Spike said as the Autobot transformed and drove away. The human was then left to himself, and he couldn't help but grin again when he thought about the events that had taken place yesterday at the Ark.

o~o~o

When Bumblebee arrived back at the Ark, he quickly made his way over to Prowl's office as he had been told to do. Upon entering the office, he found it quite crowded. Wheeljack plus all the minibots that had been involved with the ducky incident yesterday were waiting for him. Bumblebee got a slight sinking feeling in his Spark as he squeezed into the packed room. When the door closed behind the yellow minibot, everyone turned to face the tactician who was sitting behind his desk.

"Thank you for joining us, Bumblebee," Prowl started out.

"What's going on?" Bumblebee immediately asked, already not liking where this was going.

Prowl didn't appear to be enjoying this meeting either. Reluctantly he continued, "It has been brought to my attention that your actions yesterday were a major infraction of the rules." Indeed, yesterday evening Prowl had been confronted by an extremely irritated and fritzing Red Alert, who had practically given himself a glitch as he furiously explained to Prowl how the minibots had been in possession of unregistered weaponry and that their firing upon fellow Autobots had practically been an act of mutiny. When Prowl explained that he had approved of the guns, Red Alert had been incoherent for nearly ten minutes. Not long after Red Alert's rant, Ratchet nearly blew a fuse when he found himself dealing with a mob of 'bots in need of ducky removal. The medic's tirade to Prowl had been all about how such an event was not only beyond ridiculous, it was a joke to his practice and a major waste of his time to deal with. All in all, both the director of security and CMO had pointed out a fact to Prowl that he had known in the back of his processor all along, that this time the events of the prank war had gotten a bit too out of hand. Prowl more or less explained this situation to the 'bots standing before him now.

"Wait, you're not seriously going to punish us for your mistake, are you?" Cliffjumper burst when Prowl had finished.

Prowl sighed through his vents. "Although I did approve of those guns, you were the ones who used them in an unlawful manner."

An explosion of protests met Prowl's statement.

"You knew what was going to happen! So don't take it out on us because you screwed up!" Brawn's voice rose above the rest.

Prowl nodded and held up his hand for silence. "I am well aware of the circumstances of the event," he said when the cacophony died down. "However, that does not excuse the decisions that you made under your own willpower."

More protesting ensued, everybody else in the room except Wheeljack and Bumblebee raised their voices at the tactician. This time Prowl stayed quiet and let the barrage die down on its own. He recognized the fact that this time, his need to get revenge on Sideswipe had allowed him to let a serious situation escalate right under his olfactory sensors. He felt that he deserved the assault of protests that were coming his way right now, but he couldn't let that keep him from doing his job.

Once the 'bots' protests subsided, Prowl continued. "Unfortunately I must assign you all punishments for your actions." The minibots all groaned in dismay. "Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Brawn, Windcharger, Powerglide, Gears, you will all be assigned a double-shift during the next week. You can consult the shift schedule tomorrow morning for your assigned duties." The tactician turned to Wheeljack next. "Wheeljack, because of your involvement in the assembly of these weapons, you will be assigned to clean up all of the... debris and damage caused by the weapons." The inventor simply nodded in acceptance of the punishment.

Seeing that the meeting had come to an ending, Prowl waved a hand at them all, dismissing them from his office. The minibots all grumbled, but in truth were relieved that the tactician had assigned them such light punishments. In a sense it was just a light slap on the wrist.

Once his office had been fully vacated Prowl let out another sigh through his vents. After a moment of contemplation, he finally activated his comm-link. "Jazz, could you come to my office, please?" he asked, and then cut the link a moment later.

Prowl waited patiently for the next several minutes until the door to his office opened and let the saboteur in. "'Sup Prowler?" Jazz quipped as he bounced up to the waiting chair and sat down.

Prowl wasted no time in explaining the problem to Jazz. He was concerned that the pranking had gone on for too long, and he wasn't sure if it would be wise to let it continue. Usually he hated asking for advice like this. This wasn't a professional situation where he genuinely needed the advice from the head of special ops, this was personal. He recognized that he had made a mistake and he didn't trust himself to make the right decision in this case.

Of course, Prowl didn't tell any of this to Jazz. However the saboteur easily saw through the tactician's façade. Jazz recognized the fact that his friend was asking for a more personal opinion, and by all means he would respect that request. However, Jazz was thoroughly enjoying the events of the prank war, and he wasn't quite ready to see it end. He leaned back in his chair thoughtfully before giving his answer. "Well ya know Prowl, if ya put a stop ta this now, Sideswipe'll take it as a surrender. An' then ya'll never ever hear th' end o' it."

Prowl didn't respond as he contemplated that statement. So Jazz continued. "'Sides, it'll be pretty crushin' on morale if ya suddenly tell everybody they gotta stop an' get back ta their normal, borin' routine. And ya know, this whole thing could be a great way ta give th' guys a chance ta practice strategy!"

The doorwinger looked at Jazz skeptically. "Strategy?" he said incredulously. "Jazz, this isn't some kind of training exercise."

"Naw man, but this is better!" Now Jazz was sitting up straight in excitement. "Think about it, we've got two sides, each tryin' ta best th' other. Nearly every mech on base is involved, an' tha' gives everybody a chance ta come up with creative solutions to a problem! It's like a battle simulation, but it's safe!"

"Safe?" Prowl responded incredulously. "Do you not realize what transpired yesterday?"

"Aw come on, they were rubber duckies! No harm was done," Jazz waved off the warning.

"True, no harm was done yesterday. But if something like this happens again, there are those on base who I am sure would have no qualms about taking things to a dangerous level. Outside of a highly monitored training simulation, we absolutely cannot have soldiers running around firing at fellow soldiers, no matter what kind of ammo they are using."

"Well," Jazz responded, not ready to give up on the argument. "If ya really wanna make sure things stay safe, then ya could always lay down some ground rules." If Jazz knew nothing else about the tactician, he knew that the one sure way to get to his Spark was by talking about rules and regulations.

Prowl quirked an optic ridge. "Hm. I suppose a set of guidelines would go a long way to giving order to this... battle simulation."

Seeing that he'd managed to convince Prowl, Jazz grinned broadly. "Great! Now ya'd better get on tha' list soon, I heard Sideswipe was pretty peeved 'bout gettin' duckied in the wash racks yesterday. I'm sure he's got somethin' cookin' in tha' processor of his right now."

Prowl nodded as Jazz stood up. "I will. Thank you for your input, Jazz."

Jazz's grin never faded. "Any day, Prowler. Now, I'd better split. Gotta go over some plans with Bee an' Raj." With a final farewell, Jazz turned to leave. However, he was halfway to the door when he suddenly stopped and turned around. "An' by the way," he said as an afterthought. "It might be a good idea ta get Ratchet on our side."

Prowl looked up from a data pad he'd already started working on and gave Jazz a questioning look. "Oh? And why is that? I highly doubt Ratchet would ever be interested in getting involved in something like this."

"Well, every battle simulation needs a medic!" Jazz said. "An' th' only way he's ever gonna tolerate th' prank war is if he's involved, which means join'n a side. An' he ain't never gonna join Sideswipe's team. Ya catch my drift?"

Prowl then nodded. "I believe I do," he said.

With his point having been made, Jazz finally turned and left the room, leaving Prowl with a lot of work to get done.

o~o~o

Later that evening found Wheeljack alone in the hallways, cleaning up countless rubber duckies that had been left alone since the events of yesterday. He wasn't the kind of mech to get mad at somebody for doing their job, so he easily accepted the punishment Prowl had given him. Although he was disappointed over the fact that he had gotten in trouble for building the guns that Prowl himself had approved of. Oh well, Wheeljack should have known better anyway, he had just been so caught up in the excitement of all the projects he had stacked up, that he didn't even think about the consequences. He wasn't sure what this meant for the prank war, was Prowl going to put a stop to it now? That would mean no more fun commissions, and he would be back to the usual, boring routine he had before. He certainly hoped that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

Wheeljack let out a heavy ex-vent as he approached yet another ducky attached to the wall. The special glue that Wheeljack had applied to the bottom of each rubber duck meant that when they came in contact with a surface, they stuck to it fast and hard. So hard actually that he had to use a special solvent just to remove the special glue. He'd gotten quite the audio full from Ratchet about how using that kind of glue on another mech was almost cruel, not to mention it gave him a processor ache trying to remove it from the 'bots' armor. But Wheeljack felt that it had been worth it.

As the inventor was applying solvent to the ducky and started to pry it off, he heard loud footsteps approaching his position. He recognized them instantly, and didn't even bother turning around to see who it was that was coming down the hallway. He was possibly the only mech in the universe that was actually happy to be approached by any of the dinobots.

"What you Wheeljack doing?" came the voice of Grimlock when the footsteps stopped behind him.

Wheeljack finally turned around and acknowledged the presence of his creation with a friendly flash of his head fins. "I'm just cleaning up a mess, that's all," he said.

"Oh," Grimlock responded as he leaned over in robot mode to inspect the rubber duck that Wheeljack was working on. "You Wheeljack make another mess?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly me," Wheeljack said in a somewhat deflated tone.

"What! You Wheeljack clean up somebody else's mess? Why?"

Wheeljack could sense that this conversation might be heading in the wrong direction, and he did his best to explain the situation to the large dinobot. "I had as much involvement in what happened as did those who actually made the mess. It's a punishment..."

Wheeljack was suddenly cut off by a menacing growl from the t-rex 'bot. "But you Wheeljack no make mess!" Grimlock stood up and smashed his fists together. "Me Grimlock crush puny Autobot who make him Wheeljack clean up someone else's mess!"

"No no no," Wheeljack responded, holding up his hands in a pacifying manner. He didn't sound panicky, but rather he talked as a calm parent would to a child who had made a mistake and was about to do something inappropriate. "It was because of me that the mess had been made. I take full responsibility, so therefore I must clean it up."

"Oh," the dinobot then said as his aggressive stance dissipated. "Me Grimlock always make messes, but me Grimlock never clean them up," he then stated proudly. "Nobody tells me Grimlock what to do."

"I know, Grimlock," Wheeljack responded as he turned back to his work, glad that the situation had been diffused.

Suddenly fascinated in what the inventor was doing, Grimlock leaned in again and watched closely as he worked on the ducky. When Wheeljack was finally able to pry the object off the wall, Grimlock spoke up again, "What is that?"

Wheeljack held duck up for the dinobot to see. "It's called a rubber ducky," he said, and then squeezed the duck so that it squeaked loudly.

Upon hearing the squeak, Grimlock jumped back, apparently in shock. He then transformed into his dinosaur mode and slowly approached the ducky in Wheeljack's hand, sniffing it cautiously. Curious, Wheeljack squeaked the ducky again. Grimlock jumped a second time and then crouched down, staring intently at the noisy object.

"Uh, do you want it?" Wheeljack then offered. He spread his fingers out so that the ducky sat on his flat palm.

Slowly Grimlock opened his mouth, as if apprehensive about biting the thing. Then he suddenly snatched the ducky from Wheeljack's hand. The rubbery object squeaked violently in the t-rex's jaws as he chewed on it and shook it around. He let it go and the poor ducky bounced off the walls several times before rolling to a stop several feet away. Grimlock approached it warily, circling the object as he continued to stare at it intently. Wheeljack watched in amusement as Grimlock finally stopped and then reached out for it with one of his back feet. He stepped on it, and when it let out another loud squeak, Grimlock snatched it up in his jaws again. Happily chewing away at it, the dinosaur turned and ran down the hallway with his prize. The sound of his thundering footsteps and new squeaky toy disappeared into the depths of the Ark.

Wheeljack couldn't help but laugh. At least something good had come out of those rubber duckies after all.