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PAPH! A snowball hit him in the back of the head.“Optimus.” He said menacingly, not turning to face him.“Megatron.” Optimus replied with a smug look on his face, clearly pushing his buttons.“You don’t want to do this..” Megatron turned slowly to glare at him with a playful glint in his optics.“Bring it on.” The Prime furrowed his brows, his smile stretching wider.“WAIT!” The whole lot of them came running over: Twitch, Thrash, Mo, Robby, and JB. “If we’re doing this, we’re gonna do it right.” Mo nodded her head matter-of-factly. “TEAMS. Team Optimus, you will be known as Team Frosty, Team Megatron you will be known as Team Rudolph.”“HEY! Guys come join!” Thrash shouted to Bee, Elita, Hashtag and Nightshade.“I’m alright, I’d rather not be pelted with snow.” Nightshade declined.“Sorry Thrash! I’ve gotta see who wins this figure skating tournament!” She sits herself down right in the snow, her optics glued on the tablet in her servos.“Sounds like fun!” Elita said, grabbing Bee’s wrist and dragging him along.“Hey wait!” Bee protested, but ultimately couldn’t break free from her grip.“Well now we’re uneven!” Robby grumbled.“FEAR NOT!” Alex jumped up from his seat next to Dot. “PADRE TO THE RESCUE!”“Oh no…” Robby mumbled…slightly embarrassed.“C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Mo jabbed her elbow into his side. He sighed, clearly there was nothing he could do to stop him from joining in. They did need another player.“Alright!” Mo smiled, gesturing to Optimus and Megatron on opposite sides. “Captain of Team Frosty, pick your first teammate!”Optimus hummed, bringing a servo up to his metal chin. “I’ll take Bumblebee.” He said, pointing to the smaller yellow bot, Bee pumped his servo.“Megatron? You’re pick?”“Elita.” Elita bumped Meg’s fist and took her place standing behind him. The team choosing continued back to Optimus.“Mo.”“Little bird.” Twitch zipped in drone form to hover just above megs shoulder plate.“Thrash.”“Robby.”“Alex.” Alex jumped with victory.“Yes!! Team Bee!” He grinned.“It’s Team Frosty!” Mo reminded her dad. “JB that means you’re on Team Rudolph.” He trotted over to the respective side. *** The scene was set. Five on Five. Snowman on reindeer. Team Frosty on Team Rudolph. Dotty stood dividing the two teams, a black and white checkered flag in her hand.“No guns, no missiles, no blades, clubs, or axes used directly against another. And for god's sake please don’t kill each other,” Dotty sighed with a motherly concern, “and…GO!” The flag cut down to the ground and the two teams shot into action.“Team Frosty, fall back! We must create defenses first!” Optimus ordered. The five members of the snowman team fell back and began mounding snow for makeshift barricades.Megatron tried a slightly different approach.“Team Rudolph!” Megatron gained the attention of the four other members. “Robby and Twitch, you work on ammo, Elita, defenses, JB, you will sabotage Team Frosty’s defenses. I..” He said smirking, “Will work on special terrain.”There was a calm before the storm on both ends of the snowy valley, each team preparing their domains until at last they were both completed.Team Frosty had built up formidable defenses. Thick, snowbrick was towered high, with windows for weaponization. Speaking of which, The Prime’s team was still busy putting together their snowball ammo, while Megatron’s had split into diverse paths of preparation. Getting a jump on the action, Twitch and Robby took ammo from their stocks and began sniping Frosties left and right through their windows at every opportunity.“Agh!” Thrash got slammed in the back of the helm with a heavy snowball, and heard a jolly laugh from Twitch. “Team Frosty, the Rudolphs have started the offensive!” He called out a warning to the rest of his team.“Already?” Optimus lifted his helm to peer over the wall.Twitch and Robby continued to launch snowball after snowball at the opposing team, one caught him square in the forehead and he stumbled a few steps backwards.“Frosties, how are we doing on ammo?” Optimus urgently called to his team.“Almost there!” Bee replied. At the same instant, JB began his quest of sabotaging the Frosty wall, headbutting and kicking, he managed to create a wide enough breakthrough in the barricade for the Rudolphs to make an entrance.“Elita!” JB shouted at the large pink bot, who had just finished the Rudolphs own defenses.“On it!” She shouted, grabbing a handful of snowballs in her servos and leaping to the opening. She, along with Twitch and Robby who gained knowledge of the advantage, broke through the Frosty base and began pitching the ammo.“Bumblebeee!” The Prime rushed him.“Ready!” Bee got to his feet, handing out the ammo to his fellow teammates.“Team Frosty!” Optimus commanded with an encouraging tone. “ROLL OUT!” He pointed his finger in the direction of the attackers accusingly.The team fell upon the invaders, bombarding them with snowballs, all while yelling out war cries of fury.“PAYBACK!” Thrash hit Twitch in the chassis and she tumbled back, the excess snow getting flinged every which way in her hover blades. The Rudolphs were overpowered and outside their domain, they settled on retreating. The Frosties cheered in their first victory.While the rest of Team Rudolph was busy on the offensive, Megatron had prepared a special defense. Using the heat of his cannon he had melted and refrozen the ground, making it slick and icy. He had also created snow pits that were almost impossible to see in the white wintery drift. He captured the attention of his retreating followers and signaled them to go around the back to avoid the traps he had set.***“This isn’t going to start another eons long war is it?” Dotty looked with humorous concern at the passionate snow brawl.“Be ready for some obvious side-taking after this.” Wheeljack replied, shaking his head at the childishness of it all. “We had snowball fights sometimes during downtime in the war.” He remarked. “Optimus had to do some serious team building efforts after that, Arcee didn’t talk to Ratchet for weeks after he got her in the nose with solid ice!” He laughed and Dorathy chuckled along with him.Hashtag was still occupied with the figure skating on her tablet, squeaking and squealing whenever a contestant made an impressive turn and whining about how she wished her exterior was as shiny as their showy outfits.Nightshade had made themselves busy making the “perfect” sculpture ever to be made.***Team Frosty now shifted goals to the offensive, leaving Bee defending the base.
“Thrash, take Alex as a decoy, head straight for the Rudolph base. Mo, once they’re close, grab some of their ammo to draw their attention away, I’ll use my axe to create Thrash and Alex some cover to make a direct attack. Clear?”“Yes, Frosty the snowman sir!” Mo saluted with a smile, and their plan was put into action.Thrash transformed and let Alex aboard. They sped towards the Rudolph domain, shooting up snow behind them. Optimus kept his word as he swung the end of his axe across the ground, throwing up a cloud of snowy powder to cover the two.“Team Rudolph, hold steady!” Megs held up his arm to signal the rest of his team to remain alert and ready, however there was no need. As the flakes settled, they revealed Megatron's “special defenses” useful.Thrash’s tires had lost traction and both him and Alex had gone sliding, yelling out in confusion.Megs chuckled in amusement and looked at Optimus triumphantly, his smile quickly faded as he realized Optimus had already resorted to a plan B.The Prime held a hefty sized snowball with both his servos, leaning back as if pitching a professional ball and with much effort swung his arm forward, launching the heap of snow directly at Megatron.“OH FRAG.” Megs had just enough time to exclaim before the giant snowball slapped him right in the helm, knocking him onto his back, burying the silver mech at least a few feet in snow.“You watch your language around my kids Megs!” Dorathy threatened, squinting her eyes in his direction. The mech lifted his servo from underneath the snow in apology.“Mom, what does “frag” mean?” Hashtag blinked up at Dotty.“Nothing, honey, the snow knocked the sense out of him, he’s speaking gibberish.” She patted Hashtag's shoulder and the purple bot turned back to her figure skating.“NOOOO!! OUR LEADER HAS FALLEN!” Twitch yelled dramatically, kicking her feet in the air in frustration.“Hey! Freeze, Frosty!” Robby ordered as he found Mo, still executing the original plan of stealing the Rudolphs ammo. Twitch yelped in outrage and the two of them grabbed an arm of Mo’s.“Looks like we have two prisoners.” Elita-one trotted up to them, Thrash’s entire arm held still in her large servo.“Well done.” Megatron congratulated as he made his way to his feet, brushing the rest of the snow off his chassis. “Put them in the pit.”They imprisoned both Mo and Thrash in a large square pit in the ground, locked in with criss-crossed icicles acting like jail bars.***“This is getting unsettlingly realistic.” Dorathy commented.“The Malto’s are good at drama.” Nightshade noted, humming as they chiseled away at the transformer-sized igloo.Wheeljack only laughed out loud.***“What happened!?” Bee rushed out from the barricade to the other two remaining members of Team Frosty.“Mo and Thrash have been captured.” Optimus shook his head in shame.“Oh no..” Bee looked to the Prime and then down at Alex. “What's the plan?” The Prime sighed, taking some time to think.“We are thinned down in numbers, so we’ll have to rely on some clever tactics rather than brute force.” The spikes on his helm twitched as his eyebrows scrunched together with concentration. “Bee hasn’t caught the Rudolphs attention yet, since he’s been mostly at the base. Using Alex and I as a distraction, we will come in on the right, while Bee will take a wider berth around the left to rescue Mo and Thrash. Once they’re out of captivity, retrieve ammo from the base and Mo will rejoin us at the right. Bee, I still want you at a distance afterwards in case we flush the Rudolphs out of their den. Clear?”“Crystal.” they replied in unison.“BREAK.”Optimus and Mr. Malto charged the Rudolph base, battle cries and all. The Prime went to work punching and clawing at the wall of defense Elita had put up for the opposing team, the pink mech pulled at him, trying to spare her sturdy wall.Alex had equipped the sticks he uses on the wak wak hunts, running to meet his son just further than where the two bots were tussling. Robby had picked up a couple thick icicles to defend himself. The two battled, clacking sticks back and forth.The commotion had caught Hashtag's eye and she looked up from her tablet. “HAH!” The purple terran quickly tapped on her tablet and played “Duel of the Fates.”The two Maltos followed along with the bit, making light saber sound effects with every clash. Finally, Alex knocked Robby off his feet, holding a stick to his chin.“ROBBY! I AM YOUR FATHER!”“No…no that's not true,” Robby clutched the snow beneath him. “That’s IMPOSSIBLE!” He screamed up to the sky, mimicking the famous movie scene. *** Hashtag giggled at the silly display of the boys.“You got that right?” Dot peered over the terrans shoulder.“Yep!” HT grinned, hitting the red button to stop the recording.“That’s my girl.” She smiled. ***With the performance of the two Maltos, and Megatron and Elita focused on stopping OP from destroying their base, none from team Rudolph noticed Bumblebee slip behind the enemy lines, despite the clouds of frost that his tires kicked up behind him.He skidded to a stop in front of the pit that Mo and Thrash were being held in.“Bee!” They both exclaimed, excited to be free.“SHZHH!” Bee whisper-yelled, putting his index finger in front of his face plate. Mo slapped both her hands over her mouth….but it was too late. Twitch had heard the scheme within the base and immediately came to investigate.“AHA!” She zipped above them, catching them in the act. “MEGATRON! INTRUDERS!”“Back up is on the way little bird!” And Megs signaled Elita to fall back, the pink mech motioned for JB to follow suit.“Ohhhh great. We’re screwed.” His eyelids drooped, visually displaying defeat right before Elita tackled him into the snow, Mo and Thrash still trapped in the icy pit, JB looming over them to make sure they didn’t try anything.“C’mon, JB! We’re brothers!” Thrash whined, gripping onto the frozen bars of his prison.“Aughh…sorry guys, nothing personal.” The dinobot shook his head, his heart strings being yanked on. Though he desperately wished to assist his siblings, he had to main loyal to his team. Thrash crossed his arms, offended that the bro code could not save him from his fate.All but one was left to stand. Optimus struggled against Megatron, the two bots, with arms locked, tested their strength. Megs gradually pushed the prime inch by inch further backwards.“No one left to stand with you OP.” The silver mech glanced at the ground and grinned a knowing smile.Just one more shove sent Optimus stumbling backwards into two pits in the ground, one trapping each pede in solid layers of snow. OP, in one last attempt to free himself from the trap, spun his wheels against the snow walls, but to no avail.Megatron crossed his arms and smiled down at the trapped mech in victory. All of the Frosties were taken down. The prime sighed, accepting his fate.“It would seem you’ve won.” He remarked, smiling up at Megs. The rest of the Rudolphs cheered hearing the announcement.“Don’t worry, old friend, I’ll give you another chance.” He chuckled and grabbed his partner's servo, helping OP out of the trap. The two nuzzled their heads together, OP’s servo hooked around the back of Meg’s neck.“EWwww!” Robby squeezed his eyes shut and made a face like he had tasted something extremely sour, while at the same time Mo and Hashtag were adoring the two mechs' affection.“Come! Take refuge from the sappy homosexuals in my fortress, brother!” Nightshade beconned to Robby, who looked up to observe what they had been working on all this time. It was a beautifully crafted ice castle, just big enough to fit each of the terrans.“How….did you???” Robby stared slack-jawed at the attention to detail, the sharp snowflake patterns all along its surface. Nightshade didn’t explain, but only grinned wider and motioned for his siblings to enter.“I don’t care how, IT'S PRETTY AND I'M GONNA PLAY IN IT!” Mo jumped down off JB, who had been lending her a piggyback ride, and ran straight in the masterpiece of architecture.“Wait for me!” Twitch zipped in after her, Robby and the other terrans followed suit.The adults chuckled watching the kids pretend in their fortress.OP and Megatron held each other in a side hug, satisfied with carelessness and whimsy of the day, satisfied with just the warmth of each other, satisfied with where they were now.Although this “battle” was a playful one, it was a small reminder of how the two had made up all those years ago. A millions of stellar cycles long war ending with love and with trust. It was not easy to overcome everything that had divided them after their long feud, but it was certainly worth it, repairing the bond between them, stronger than ever.At this point the terrans were enacting a classic princess trapped in a tower, prince to the rescue scenario.“What would you do to rescue me if I was stuck in an ice tower?” Optimus asked Megatron the trivial question while jokingly batting his optics. Megs gave in to his games and pecked the prime’s cheek.“Anything.”