Non Solum Fugere

In Which Fireflight Plays Santa Claus

After a good long cry, Fireflight calmed down...and then noticed the nice things that his friends had given him. Suddenly, he had a really good idea! Maybe if he gave presents to all of the Autobots, they would stop being mad at him and his brothers, and Silverbolt wouldn't be scared and sad anymore! That was a great idea! After all, one of the books that he'd gotten from the library had said that doing nice things for others was a good way to get them to like you. Now all he had to do was figure out what all of the other Autobots wanted, and then everyone would be happy again! He quickly left the Aerialbots' quarters and headed towards Teletraan One. Teletraan One knew everything, so it could probably tell him what gifts to give to the other Autobots. He almost got distracted by a particularly shiny piece of metal and a funny-looking, moving tube thing and Sunstreaker's paint job, but each time, he remembered that he had a really important mission and managed to stay on track. When he arrived at the supercomputer, he was relieved to find that no one else was around. Good. He didn't want to ruin the surprise for anyone.

"Hi, Teletraan One. Can you tell me what kinds of things the members of this unit like? I want to give them all presents!"

"Compiling list of hobbies," Teletraan One replied. Five minutes later, a list appeared on the screen, and Fireflight downloaded it into his personal files.

"Thank you, Teletraan One!" he exclaimed. He walked into the common room, sat down at one of the tables, and started reading the list. Hound: enjoys Earthen flora and fauna. Okay, that was easy. He'd get Hound a pet! Hound loved animals! Jazz: enjoys Earthen music. Fireflight smiled. Earth music was really neat. He could see why Jazz liked it. Blaster: also enjoys Earth music, particularly "rock" music. Fireflight pondered this for a minute. If Jazz and Blaster both liked music, then he could probably get their presents from the same place. Powerglide: enjoys model planes. Fireflight smiled. He liked model planes too, so he knew where to get them. That wouldn't be too hard. Grapple: an architect and artist. Loves to construct. Oooh, he'd buy Grapple a LEGO set! Wheeljack: enjoys inventing. Hobbies are dangerous; aiding him in them not advised. Hmmm...then maybe he could get Wheeljack a first aid kit for when his hobby exploded. Sunstreaker: enjoys admiring himself. So, a really big mirror, then? Fireflight could do that! Sideswipe: Enjoys playing Earthen "video games". Air Raid had a lot of those...maybe he could buy Sideswipe one from the place where Air Raid got his. Brawn: a collector of the Cybertronian Heroes toy line; is currently missing only the exclusive "X-Treme" figure. Getting a toy from Cybertron would be challenging, but surely he could find someone who had that figure! Tracks: enjoys New York City, wants to see a Broadway show. Fireflight nodded. Broadway tickets it was! It sure was a good thing that he'd never spent any of his money. (Every member of the unit was given a certain amount of money each month to spend on recreation for their off-duty time, but he had never actually used any of his...at least until now.) Huffer: an engineer. Enjoys reminiscing about Cybetron. Maybe he could give him LEGOs too, so that he could make a replica of Cybetron. Gears: enjoys getting tune-ups. Fireflight figured that he could get the grumpy minibot a giftcard for an auto repair shop. Maybe that would make him happy! Warpath: enjoys sharpshooting. How about a dart board? It wasn't exactly sharpshooting, but it was similar. Cliffjumper: enjoys collecting guns. Fireflight didn't think he could purchase a gun without permission, but he could buy him a NERF gun! Ratchet: enjoys parties; would like to experience Mardi Gras. At this point, Fireflight realized that he should probably be making a list of things to buy so that he didn't forget anything. He quickly wrote down everything he had already thought of and then added purchasing party supplies and masks to the second list. Bumblebee: enjoys collecting "stuffed animals"; has a particular fondness for bears. Well, that would be easy. Stuffed bears weren't hard to find. Bluestreak: enjoys talking; would like to own the game of Catchphrase. Another easy one! Maybe this wouldn't be as hard as he thought. Red Alert: has no hobbies; suggest purchasing him a security blanket. Fireflight frowned. Poor Red Alert. Maybe a blanket would make him less worried all the time. On to the list it went! Grimlock: enjoys being in charge; would like to own a crown. Finding one in his size might be difficult, but Fireflight was sure he could do it! Prowl: enjoys games of strategy. Suggestion: buy him a game of Risk. He'd get that when he got Catchphrase. Ironhide: Would like to have a romantic evening with Chromia. That would take some time, but Fireflight thought he could manage it. And he could buy Ironhide flowers for her, too! Spike had told him that girls loved flowers. An hour and a half later, Fireflight had reached the end of Teletraan One's list. The last item on the list read: Optimus Prime: Autobot leader. Suggestion: give him a hug. Fireflight smiled. That, he could do for sure! Now that he knew what everyone wanted, he deleted the file he'd downloaded from Teletraan One and returned to his quarters, where he found Slingshot.

"Silverbolt says I have to apologize to you, so I'm sorry for running away and making you upset," he said. Fireflight beamed. Slingshot was back! That was all that really mattered.

"I forgive you. I'm really glad you're back," he said. Slingshot gave a slight smile.

"I'm glad to be back, kid. Anyway, Silverbolt stuck me on punishment duty until the end of time, so I gotta split. See you around," he replied. Before he could leave, though, someone let out a really loud shriek.