The Diego Diaries: Visitin' (dd8 160)
=0=There about the same time
Ratchet glanced at Prime who was crouched behind Prowl. It was cozy. Then he grinned. :Winnie just told me about the intervention going on downstairs:
:What is happening?: Optimus asked.
:They've not gotten very far but they reached the point where they mentioned that if any kids or elders die in this its your fault, Optimus, not theirs. That's when Burris jumped on Reset:
"Burris?!" -Prime and Prowl
BLAM! BLAMMA! BLAMMA! BLAM!
=0=Down there a moment before
Winnie jumped up and ran to the altercation slipping her arms around the waist of Burris. Lifting him, she walked back to his chair, set him down, then hugged him a moment. Walking back to her own, she glanced at the mechs and Reset. Her look could have peeled paint as she sat.
Burris watched her, then glanced at Reset with great emotion. "You have no spark if you allow children and elders to get hurt because you can't adapt to the world now. You live in a dream filled with lies and you don't care if anyone gets hurt. What a sorry group you are."
"Coming from you, Burris, that makes me feel better," Camo spat.
"That mech doesn't exist anymore. This one is … he's changed and adapted. I know that my job is being part of the whole, of helping everyone achieve their dreams. You don't seem to remember what it was like when it was different. There were entire places on Cybertron we couldn't go because the people would have torn us to bits. They weren't criminals or bad. They were tired of lies and poverty.
"I was a bad mech then but I've changed and you have to as well. All of us here have changed. What a coward you are, Reset, that your sorry ideas mean more than the lives of individuals you're even supposed to love." Burris was fairly quivering as he glanced down, then sat heavily in his chair.
Proteus squeezed his arm. "Burris is right. You may not recognize me but I'm Senator Proteus, Reset. I remember you very, very well. None of us were worth writing home about but you were a special case. I truly think you would sacrifice a child, one of your own even to make a point."
"And you wouldn't?" Reset replied icily.
"No. Madura and I have a son, Rugur who is named after my father. He's the center of our world and we'd move heaven and earth to take care of him, him and every other child. I'll tell you what. Given you don't give a frag about your elders and children, give them to me. I'll adopt them and they can finally know what its like to come first."
"You're responsible for the lives of everyone in your group, Reset. The group of you," Blackstone said. "You're the putative leaders and they're following you. That makes you responsible. There are terrible penalties for this sort of behavior. You will face consequences for them, I assure you."
Reset glanced at Blackstone. "I remember when you went to prison. Obviously, you survived."
Burris rose up but was stopped by Proteus. Both of them sat again. It was deeply tense and disturbingly silent.
"I was a terrible person," Neo said. "I let our people go hungry on the migration here when I had food to feed them. Babies and children, sick and elderly were hungry because I had no love then. Now I work at my life helping everywhere I can. I have a daughter, Laret and I. We love her so much I could cry thinking about her.
"Prime asked me to sit on the Civilian and Military ruling committee to help with the colony's business and well being. He says I'm welcome in the congregation. He knows what I did but he treats me the way I wish I'd treated everyone else. You are the saddest specimens I've seen in ages. We can help you. Please, let us help you."
They stared at her wordlessly. As they did the door opened and an Autobot peered inside, a messenger. He gestured to Turbine who stepped out with him. Everyone stared at the door with apprehension and tension, even Reset and the others.
Then Turbine stepped back inside. He looked grim. "It would appear that there's shooting in another building."
=0=There
Prowl glanced at Prime. :There's shooting in the Tomsa Tower, floor eighteen where three apartments are side-by-side:
:Frag: Optimus said. :Prime to Hard Drive: he said as he cut Ratchet and Prowl into the call.
:Hard Drive here, Optimus:
:What is the situation in the Tomsa Tower?: Prime asked.
:Its fluid but it would appear that someone got nervous and heard footfalls in the hallway. They shot through their walls and grazed an elder who was going to get a newspaper or something of that nature. They're recovering from situational dementia and somehow got out of the apartment, went to the wrong floor and got the scare of their life. We got him out but the apartment is still shooting sporadically. I think they're over their heads and scared:
:Contain it: Prime said. :What is the likelihood that we can get the other civilians out of there?:
:We're evacuating the floor by cutting through the walls to each apartment that will be in the line of fire and leading them out that way. We should have that floor evacuated on that side of the building in a joor or so. We've made contact with everyone there and posted guards in the corridors so that the shooters can't leave their own and go anywhere else on the floor. They're the only Meadow Lands refugees on that floor: Hardie replied.
:What is the likelihood that more there will join in?: Prowl asked.
:Given all factors being equal, we have a very high likelihood. This is a tinder box. Unless we can get some leadership from them soon, we're facing a long standoff and perhaps more shootings like this one: Hard Drive said. :What is the sit-rep for the three of you?:
:Not great though I'm impressed with the construction of this couch: Prowl said. :We're pinned down and if we move they shoot. Their accuracy is pretty good but they didn't have much to do there in their colony but practice so I'm not surprised: Prowl replied. :We're not sure how they can detect our movements but they can:
:Maybe we can jam things so you can get out. Just enough disruption without them thinking we're springing an attack: Hardie said.
:Do it, General: Prime said grimly.
:Will do. Stand by: Hardie said. He glanced at Wheeljack and Perceptor who were standing in the conference room where Hardie had moved the command center for the situation. Nearby was the room where the intervention was happening. "We need to dampen their retreat long enough for them to remove themselves without the slaggers thinking we're aiming an invasion. Can you do that?"
"Of course, Hard Drive," Perceptor said. "Let me make a call." He turned to one side to make an off line call as Wheeljack walked over to stare at the grid map that showed everything so far. "We can make it fast. Time it with them to move out, then shut it down. I have a small hand held device that can do that. Percy is sending for it," Wheeljack said. He glanced toward the door of the intervention room. "I wonder how that's going?"
=0=Inside the other room
"You're a coward! Someone else is shooting elders and you're sitting here without a single regret! Coward!" Burris said with anguish. "There are babies in these buildings! Children!"
Mraz stood, then walked to Burris to embrace him. "We shall make good happen, my friend. Would you like to step out with me for a moment? I think that might help you."
Burris glanced at the group with fury, then nodded. "I think I have to, Mraz." The two walked out of the room and it was silent again.
"I have called for someone to come," Lauren said. "Someone who remembers everything that has ever happened to us. Someone who is as good as the orn is long."
It would take a moment. It would be incredibly tensely awful while everyone sat silently.
=0=There
They stood in the stair well, Percy and 'Jack with their device. It was like a handgun with a funnel shape on the barrel. It would spread a beam out that would disrupt electronics as long as it was triggered.
Jack glanced at the mechs there, then Percy with a nod.
:Perceptor to Prime:
:Prime here:
:We have the device. We'll count to three, aim and fire it, then you must rise and rush out of where you are. We're only going to fire it for a tiny window, perhaps a count of five, then shut down. It'll give us the element of surprise to get you out. Understood?:
:Understood: Prime replied. He glanced at the others. :Go when Perceptor gets to three:
They nodded, then gathered themselves as Percy began to count.
:One … two … three!:
All of them rose as one, then bolted for the hole in the wall across the apartment. They jumped though it before fire from the apartments across the corridor commenced again. By then, the device was off and the field was gone. In the apartment, a hail storm of fire tore up the couch and everything else in the room. It would go on for a while. In the background of it, intermittent and faint, the sound of a child crying could be heard.
The mechs in the stair well, Prime, Ratchet and Prowl included watched the destruction, heard the faint child's cry and felt fury.
=0=Down below
The three walked into the conference room and gathered around Hard Drive.
"Do you need medical attention? I suggest you get it. This is going to be protracted," he said, "by all the looks of it."
They were covered with nicks, embedded shrapnel and wounds here and there. A tight bandage encased Prime's servo and there were smaller bullet holes in Ratchet and Optimus while Prowl only had nicks in his impeccable and luminous paint scheme.
"We will. What is the situation?" Prime asked.
Hardie explained it.
"Very good. What is the situation at the intervention?" Prowl asked.
"Not good. Burris had to leave. He was ready to fight," Hardie said with a grin.
Prowl smirked slightly. "Well, will wonders never cease?"
"How about we make a visit and bleed on someone?" Ratchet asked Prime.
Prime glanced at the door, then nodded. "By all means." He led the way as the two followed leaving behind, Ratchet and him, a trail of blue drops on the floor. Limping to the other door which was guarded by mechs who looked at the two with alarm, the Home Guardians, Prime opened the door to enter.
Ratchet hugged Burris, grinned at Mraz, then followed.
Burris watched him go, then glanced at his arm. Ratchet's blue energon had streaked him. He glanced at Mraz, then his arm. "This is so bad, Mraz. I feel so responsible."
"So do I. Perhaps we can speak to Vinn about this later?" he asked. "I do believe it weighs on all of us. But remember, my friend. Here we are on the side of history. I'm so proud of you. You were so brave and righteous for the good of things. I never thought either of us could care this much."
Burris nodded. "I do," he said with a painful tone. "I want to help."
"You already have," Mraz said as he hugged Burris tightly.
Burris hugged him back.
=0=Inside
They stood near the door taking in the room. They, two of them at least presented a terrible sight. Bullet wounds were present, patched here and there. Some of them, mostly shrapnel and grazes still leaked energon. Prime looked grim, Prowl looked livid and Ratchet looked attentive.
"Ladies, gentlemen, I am glad that you came to reason with them about this. I do not know what the outcome is this far but more shooting in other places has been detected. A mech who has situational dementia somehow left his apartment, wandered to the eighteenth floor of the Tomsa Tower and was shot at by some of the refugees from Meadow Lands. He was terrified and helpless," Prime said as he looked at the five mechs sitting on the couch and chairs by the far wall. "He was helpless and nearly died."
"If you had left us alone then it wouldn't have happened, Prime. This is on you," Stamp said hotly.
A rap on the door drew their attention, then the door opened. A small femme stared inside. "Did you wish me to come here, Lord Optimus? We got a call."
Prime glanced at the group as Lauren stood. "I called them to come. Few among us know as much as they do," he said. "Please come in, my dear friends."
They did, four small bots, two femmes and two mechs. They were shown chairs and sat. One of them, a small femme nodded respectfully at Prime, then Lauren. "What do you require, my friends, and we shall assist."
"We need your memory and wisdom, Wirelite," Lauren said as he sat down once again.
=0=TBC 05-10-2021 05-13-2021