#2 Happy Rhinox

"I don't like that look on your face, Rhinox," Optimus muttered worriedly.

"Hmm?" Rhinox raised his head. "What look?"

"That look. That one right there." Optimus pointed at him. "The one on your face right now."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Optimus pointed at him. "Whenever you have a new toy to play with, you get that light in your optics, and it scares the unholy slag out of me."

"Ah. I see." Rhinox put his soldering tool down. "You don't want to see me happy, then."

Optimus spluttered. "I didn't-!"

"No, no, it's all right." Rhinox waved a hand, dismissing his protest. "I'll try to be less happy in the future."

"That's not what I-" Rhinox's optic flickered in a wink and Optimus groaned. "Quit messing with my head, Rhinox."

"But it's fun." Rhinox's face broke into a grin. Optimus rolled his optics, beaned him in the head with a convenient stylus, and ran for his life.

#3 Silly Rhinox

"Aaaaagh!"

There are few things more pathetic in this world than a drowned rat, but a half-drowned, dripping-wet rat-Maximal comes close. Rattrap staggered into the bridge with his arms held out gingerly to his sides, leaving little puddles behind him. "A'right, fess up! Who rigged my quarters?"

The assembled Maximals were silent for a moment, then Dinobot broke the silence with a shriek of laughter. Optimus leaned on the control table, one hand over his face to cover his silent snickers; Cheetor was promptly on the floor, his lithe cat-form twisting around as he attempted to laugh his tail off. Only Rhinox was silent, head bowed over his console in concentration.

Rattrap glared daggers at the room. "Well?"

"I think," Optimus managed between chortles, "I think we're all wishing we thought of it first." Cheetor yowled, made more catlike by mirth; Dinobot howled and pounded the table.

"Ah, ya buncha lugnuts!" Rattrap spun on his heel and marched away with all the dignity he could muster while dripping, which was thoroughly scattered to the winds when he slipped in one of his own puddles.

As Dinobot joined Cheetor on the floor, Optimus found his way to a chair beside Rhinox, still half-paralyzed by laughter. "You," he murmured, "are evil, old friend."

Rhinox allowed himself a smile.

#5 On-Vacation Rhinox

"Hmm..."

A cool, fragrant breeze, resplendent with alien plant life, softened the heat of the yellow sun. Cradled in the root system of a strong old tree, listening to the wind make soft-rustling music in its leaves, Rhinox let his mind drift. Sometimes, life was truly good.

A soot-winged bird alighted in the branch above Rhinox's head in a flutter of wings; Rhinox cocked his head up at it with a smile of greeting. The bird fluttered one more time and opened its beak, sounding forth with a piercing trill.

Rhinox's companion stirred in his arms. Rhinox watched him to see if he would wake; when he didn't, the bigger mech smiled and settled back, letting his optics drift off as breeze and birdsong washed over them both.

Life was good.

#8 Excited Rhinox

"Hah!" Rhinox lifted his hands in victory. "Done! Rattrap, look."

Rattrap obediently craned his head back over his chair. "You made a microchip," he said flatly. "Congrats, Big Green."

"Try looking at it right-side up."

Rattrap made a face and twisted around. "Nope. Still looks like a plain ol' microchip."

"It is not just a plain old microchip," Rhinox retorted. "This is a specialized piece of equipment. It'll solve all our long-range communication problems."

"Uh-huh." Rattrap didn't look convinced. "How's it work?"

"Energon interferes with regular radio-wave communication, but it doesn't interfere with its own radiation, or otherwise it'd be spontaneously exploding all over the place." Rhinox curled his fingers protectively around the chip. "There's a very small chip of energon in here. All I need now is a device to convert sound to binary code, and another to convert it back here."

Rattrap blinked dizzily. "'Kay. You? Are a geek."

"And you need a bath." Rhinox loomed over him; Rattrap yelped and fled.

#9 Book-Reading Rhinox (...well, almost. XD)

Rhinox stood alone in the bridge, at a loss. There was nothing to do.

Everything that could be fixed had been; everything that couldn't had been piled neatly outside for later recycling. The Predacons, as far as their recon equipment could tell, were dormant; all the Maximals were in good repair and in or near the Axalon, so there was no need to mann the comm station.

Free time. Primus below, free time. Rhinox had almost forgotten what it was like.

But what to do with it? Wait - of course. Rhinox had brought a new historical datatrack along with him and never gotten a chance to read it. The big Maximal felt a smile spreading across his face as he headed back to his quarters. A good book, some peace and quiet... life didn't get much more blissful.

Beep. //Rhinox, could you come outside? We've got a problem.//

Rhinox groaned aloud. At least Optimus had the sense to sound contrite. //What is it?//

//Cheetor, uh... got stuck in a tree.//

Oh, Primus below. //Be right there.// So much for his relaxing date with a good book.

#10 Dancing Rhinox

"They're playing our song, Megatron..."

Megatron sneered elegantly, even as Rhinox yanked him half off his feet. "Let's dance."

A lesser mech would have attempted to shove him away, struggled against his superior might; Megatron used it. Rhinox suppressed a smile of satisfaction as Megatron met him cunning for cunning, the only weapon in his arsenal that could possibly stand against him. As the metal scenery around them was slowly crushed into unrecognizable shapes, victims of the uncaring titans' clash, Rhinox allowed himself to savor his enemy's vicious sharp edges and the heat of his body.

It was almost his undoing. Megatron swept his legs out from under him and Rhinox crashed to the floor with a roar. The Predacon pounced him, fingers digging into his shoulder, cannon charging next to Rhinox's audial.

"Are we, then," he hissed, "dancing?"

Rhinox gave him a very deliberate grin. "Somethin' like that." He arched his back and flipped them over, pinning Megatron to the bulkhead with a rough kiss.

#14 On-His-Knees Rhinox

The noise of the welding torch couldn't quite drown out the noise Rattrap and Cheetor were making behind him, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Rhinox sighed and did his best to ignore them, turning his attention instead to the beslagged innards of what had once been the Maximals' auxilary communications console.

"Hah! Eat that, you shrimpy rodent!"

"Shrimpy rodent!? Why, I oughta knock the spots off ya!"

"Just try it! I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back!"

Rhinox sat up - or tried to, banging his head on the underside of the console. "Ow! Errgh..." Cursing at nothing in particular, Rhinox turned and fixed a glare on the merry reprobates with whom he shared a base.

"Uh, you okay, Big Green?" Cheetor ventured.

"I'd be better," Rhinox grunted, "if you two would take your Iacon Street Racing game and your arguing somewhere else so I can finish this."

Rattrap and Cheetor exchanged glances, gulped, nodded, and packed up their shared console. A moment later Rhinox was surrounded in blessed silence.

#16 Dominant Rhinox

Slow and patient as a glacier, Rhinox danced his fingers along the pathways of the machine. The timer, as long as he didn’t think about it too much, provided a pleasant beat for him, not too fast, not too slow. He glanced up with one optic at the clock face - three minutes, twelve seconds. Plenty of time as long as he focused.

Behind him, Megatron growled, "This is all your fault."

"Oh, forgive me, Your Almighty Purpleness," Rattrap sneered, his voice much closer - or maybe it was just that he was louder. "But if I'm not mistaken, seems to me you're the one who set the bomb here in the first place!"

"And if you had done what you were told, vermin, we would all be in our own bases when it went off instead of trapped in here waiting to be destroyed!"

"Oh, right. Like we're gonna just let you blow up bits of the landscape 'cause you ask nicely." Rhinox twitched as Rattrap's angry chitter sounded right in his audial. "Blow it out your exhaust, you big scaly-"

Rhinox stood up, turned around, and hauled both to their feet by their collars. "Both of you," he said pleasantly, "shut up. Now."

He dropped them with a satisfying clatter and turned back to the detonator. "Three, two, one... and done." The timer's display blinked off, and Rhinox turned back around with a smile. "Now that we're out of immediate danger," he said, "let's get to work moving these rocks. Shall we?"

Rattrap and Megatron nodded.

#23 Bath-Time Rhinox

"You call this a bath?"

"Yup." Rhinox lolled contentedly. "Feels nice, too."

Rattrap, sitting on his haunches at the edge of the pool, blinked in utter bewilderment. "But it’s mud."

"Rhinos don’t have sweat glands." Rhinox wriggled, letting the mud work itself into every little wrinkle of his leathery hide. "This is how we keep cool."

"I thought the point of a bath was to get clean."

Rhinox flicked an ear at him, amused. "Rattrap, when’s the last time you were clean?"

"Ehhh..." Rattrap grumbled. "Just lemme know when you’re done playin’ in the mud."

"Will do." Rhinox rolled onto his back and kicked his heels, ignoring the splorfling noise from Rattrap's general direction. Let him laugh - Rhinox was cool and muddy and content.

#26 Well-Shagged Rhinox

"Rhinox?"

"Mf."

"Rhinox." A gentle shake. "Rhinox, wake up."

There was an urgent hiss to Optimus's voice; Rhinox mumbled and snapped one optic on. "Prfle?"

"I hear something." Optimus was jittering, and Rhinox couldn't help but admire his stamina. Three go-rounds and he was useless until morning, but Optimus apparently had enough energy left over to panic about something going bump in the night.

"Probably Rattrap goin' for a snack," Rhinox mumbled, turning his optic off again. "Go back t' sleep, Optimus."

"But - !"

Rhinox lit both optics. "Sleep. Now." He tugged Optimus back down against him, wrapping an arm firmly about his shoulders. "Relax. I'll protect you."

"From Rattrap's garbage breath? Thanks." Rhinox felt the comfortable vibration of Optimus's chuckle as he settled down in Rhinox's embrace. Within minutes he was snoring.

Hmm. Maybe he'd worn Optimus out more than he'd thought. Rhinox found he liked the idea.

#27 Kick-Ass Rhinox

"Get down!" Rhinox roared, and suited actions to words just as one of Scorponok's missiles exploded where his head had been. Flame and stinging shrapnel rained down on his back.

"We're gettin' creamed!" Rattrap's shout sounded distant, though Rhinox knew he was barely ten feet away, vainly attempting to even the odds from behind a rock. Laserfire robbed his voice of strength, ate away at the rocks that offered them minimal shelter. "Rhinox, do somethin'!"

Rhinox wanted to ask what, exactly, his friend wanted him to do. He was just as pinned down, a much larger target, and energon interference made sure they wouldn't be getting backup anytime soon. Yet underneath the rasp of battle-anger the mechanic thought he could hear a note of pleading.

Okay, then.

Rhinox scrambled to the foremost rock that would give his bulk decent cover, took a deep breath, and counted to three. "Hraaaauuugh!"

The roar for a moment overshadowed even the scream of the Predacons' artillery fire as Rhinox burst from cover in a dead run, chainguns held before him, spitting fire and destruction across the scorched earth. For a shocked moment the Predacons' weapons were silenced as they beheld his charge, then they broke rank and ran.

Rhinox skidded to a halt and kept firing, peppering their backsides, encouraging their retreat. Rattrap's pistols spoke again in exultation, even as their owner's voice crowed, "That's showin' em, Big Green! Look at 'em run!"

Rhinox let his chainguns run down as the last foe disappeared over a ridge, satisfied.

#28 Playing With Kids Rhinox

If their descendents are anything like Jack and Una, Rhinox found himself thinking, it's no wonder they needed the Autobots to rescue them all the time.

The thought was a bit uncharitable - they were just kids, after all - but Rhinox couldn't help feeling a little disgruntled as he 'rescued' the two little humanoids from their latest mess, a puddle of hydrochloric acid. "Stay right there," he ordered severely as he plunked them onto the repair berth, then, "Where's Cheetor? Keeping an eye on you two is supposed to be his job."

Jack only laughed, but Una, recognizing Cheetor's name, went into an extended soliloquy of grunting and arm-waving. Most of her communication went right over Rhinox's head, as always, though he thought he caught "Cheetor" and "hurt" mixed in with more complicated concepts. "I see," he sighed.

"Ri-nok?" Jack attempted, eyes wide.

"Rhinox," the newly-deputized babysitter corrected. "And this is no place for you two to be playing around in. If you can stay out of trouble for a few minutes," he added, "while I clean up, what do say we go outside?" The idea was met with enthusiastic approval.