The Diego Diaries: Getting On (dd6 29) here we go :D
-0-In a doctor's office in Bern, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire
"Give me a minute to power things up," a young femme said as her 'boss' who was her bond paused by the welcome counter in his office with a pair of Watch detectives. They had been called to the office to check their files against the possibility that two very dangerous mechs were here trying to change their looks. The officers had a court order, one issued from the bench by Semi to see in a limited way medical and cosmetic records. Given that there was no privacy in the past, the department were going by the book in the here and now.
Shadow and Chamber, two big mechs who had been detectives back in the day waited with the slightly flustered doctor as the little femme got their records online. They were professional to the bone and by the book so this wasn't like it was on Cybertron, though by the doctor's demeanor they guessed that he was reliving some awful moment from bygone orns. "We need to know, Doctor, if there have been mechs in here that have asked for and received changes that seemed less for practical reasons than to obscure their look and faces."
Shell, the doctor in charge of cosmetic procedures in this three doctor office as well as replacement of damaged things that were permanently a part of a mech or femme thought a moment. "We get a lot of referrals to fix things that are very badly damaged. Most of the time they're stabilized by the hospital and sent to us to do the aesthetics. We have a lot of patients, Detective. What more can you tell us to winnow down the search?"
Shadow pulled to images up on his datapad and handed them to Shell. He looked at them with a critical optic. One was called Sherma and he was tall, good looking and had a high caste format complete with embellishments that only the wealthy could afford. He wouldn't be a hard mech to disguise but the face wasn't familiar. He turned to the femme who sat in front of her desk waiting. "Seli, put this image and the other through the database. Try and match it up with anyone in the before files, not after. I want to see if this profile is something we've seen." He turned to the detectives. "Unless he had modifications before he came here, the best they'd be able to do is get a different paint scheme and maybe rearrange simple things. The basic design wouldn't have changed."
Seli did, opening and closing files as the computer worked to find the profile or something close to it that matched the pair. It took a few moments but there was no match. "We don't have even a marginal match for anyone of our clients, Shell."
Shell nodded, then turned to the detectives. "I don't know how successful this process will be but its the best way to find anything approximating a match. They could have come here changed. If they did, then you might have to wait for a miracle to find them."
Shadow nodded. "Thanks, Doctor. I think we might need one anyway. I would hope you keep this to yourself for now."
Shell nodded, then watched as they left. He turned to Seli. "It was too much to hope that the bad element wouldn't come with us too is it?"
She shut down the system, then took his servo. "Yeah." When the system shut down, she looked up at him. "Let's go get the kids and go to a park."
Shell nodded, then the two walked out of their shiny nice office to go to their genitor's homes to get the little kids that were theirs. Everyone would go to a park to watch them play with other kids as everyone waited out the remaining five orns left on the period of state mourning.
-0-Hauser
He stood in the doorway of Springer's office. The two inside were bent over a large datapad on a very nice table in a spectacularly appointed and huge office. He rapped on the doorjamb. Glancing up, Springer grinned. "Hey. Come on in. Welcome to the Taj Mahal."
A quick search collected meaning. "I see what you mean. I thought my office was amazing until I came here." He walked to the table to peer at the map. "You've got this out of mothballs. Good. We can do some geo-tracking of the slaggers to find hot spots."
"That's the plan," Springer said as he noted the lightly blinking differently colored lights on the huge datapad that covered the entire colony and if you changed screens, all of Cybertron, all of Mars, all of Earth and its moon, all of every moon of Cybertron, and all of every planet in the Empire that they now held. No one would be able to take a whizz against someone's tire without it being entered on this, the Autobot City Geo-Metric Criminal Mapping System datapad. It would find out where crime appeared to be congregating and allow them to meet gang challenges and provide better security for vulnerable areas. "Check it. It highlights where the detectives are looking for Sherma and Momus. When they leave an area, the pad marks that space with a yellow light. No duplications. No forgotten places."
"This one is head and shoulders better than the ones we used on Cybertron," Hauser said with an approving nod.
"Wheeljack," Drift said as if that was enough and among the three it was. "How are things falling out in your department?"
"Great. We have labs, space for officers to do their work, a slagging fine lounge fully stocked," Hauser said with a grin.
"That's Maxi's doing. She coordinated everything and even told Titan what she thought was needed. She decided we all needed bigger spaces and more 'high tech stuff'."
"Little femme is a force of nature," Hauser said with a chuckle. "Right now, we have the officers doing the leg work while the forensics cyber division searches the mainframe both here and on Cybertron for anything related to them."
"We have a forensics cyber division?" Springer asked as Hercy, Kup, Lon, Bezel, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker walked in, the twins carrying the twinnies and Kaon on their arms. Putting them down, the group congregated around the table.
"Nice datapad, bro," Sideswipe said with a grin. "You could track my bookie on this thing."
"We could track you," Drift said with a smile.
"Fascist," Sideswipe said with a big smile as he picked up Iacon from the floor. Putting her on the table, she stared at the datapad, then walked out onto it. "That's okay. Right?"
"It is," Drift said as he watched the tiny femme smile at the lights on the datapad. "How are they?"
"A lot better. They're getting their speech back and understand more than before but it's going to take school to make it click," Sunstreaker said with his usual intensity. He put Uraya up on the table as Kaon walked to a wall to stare at the guns and knives displayed there.
"Five more orns," Springer said as he picked up Iacon. She smiled at him, then leaned against his chassis. He grinned at her when she did.
"What's this about having to tell Prowl you wanted kids to get Titan back? Everyone's talking about it," Sideswipe said as the others found chairs and couches around the giant elegant space to sit upon. Kaon ran up to Kup and sat in his lap with a huge smile.
"Slagger took my office away without a word," Springer said with a slight fume. "Whatever it takes to get around him, that I'm prepared to do."
Sideswipe glanced at the others. "It was a very bad divorce for him." Huge hoo-hah and a fist to the shoulder met that.
"Self-sacrificing slagger, our Springer," Hercy said with a grin from a chair near Springer's desk.
Drift's chair.
"Enjoying my chair? Why not put your big old peds on the little table there. The one Maxi got just for me," Drift said with a grin.
"Don't mind if I do," Hercy said as he put his peds on the table.
"There's a stack of work there too. Knock yourself out," Drift said as the group watched the banter like spectators at a tennis match.
"No thanks, but I could use a brew," Hercy said with a grin.
Kaon slid to the ground, then ran to the fridge nearby. Opening it, he reached in to pull out a can of Praxus Black Label. Carrying it carefully, he walked to Uncle Hercy and gave it to him.
Hercy leaned forward to kiss Kaon's helm. "You are the cutest, nicest little mech I ever saw. Can't say much for your genitors though. Teaching an infant to do beer runs ain't etiquette if I remember."
"Consider his fathers," Drift said with a grin as he walked to the refrigerator to toss beer around.
"What about snacks?" Kup asked as he popped his can open.
The door opened at that moment as the Miracle That Was Maxi walked in with a basket. She set it on the counter nearby and unloaded sandwiches, cookies, different sides, and a small chocolate cake. Gathering plates and utinsels from the basket, she turned to the mechs who stared at her like she was Solus Prime. "Come and get your plates, boys. Allow me to fill them."
She did.
They did.
It was awesome.
-0-Ratchet and Hero
"Ada, what now?"
Ratchet looked up from his screen to see that Hero had organized his cupboard over the counters. He rose, then opened a few down below. Re-arranging them, dumping a few things out, he looked up at her. She was watching him with interest. "I think these cupboards are a mess. Sometimes, I think I need a keeper."
"I'll be your keeper, Ada," Hero said earnestly. "I can help you. You have so much to do and I have the time."
Ratchet grinned, then leaned down to kiss her. "You're my permanent helper then, you and Lee-Lee. Whenever we can, you can come to work with me and help me keep my stuff straight."
She smiled brilliantly and clapped her servos. "I WOULD LIKE THAT, ADA!" She grinned. "Is there a badge?" she asked hopefully.
Ratchet grinned. "Sure."
She clapped her hands and bent down from the burden of her happiness. Then she straightened and with Ratchet's help, she was placed gently on the floor. Ratchet snickered as she stared at the mess inside the cupboard that he had just messed up out of her line of sight. "I have this, Ada," she said as she walked to the cupboard and climbed inside. It would take a while for her to put everything back into containers and their places and longer still for Ratchet to clamp down on the huge laugh that he wanted to laugh but didn't dare.
Hero was aptly named in his book.
-0-Cybertron
They knelt in a circle together watching a number of tiny children explain their chalk drawings on the ground. Children barely out of their toddlerhood were pointing to things they had drawn with chalk and were chatting with Prime and his mechs about what they were and meant. No one could understand a word they were saying but they gave their rapt attention to the little group.
Standing behind Prime and his mechs, the genitors of the children watched and took pictures. It was bright here on a stretch of pavement that was outside a building that had been turned into a school for the children from a camp nearby. The children came here everyday to learn and played on the large pavement slab behind a low slung chain link fence.
One, a little mech with wings was looking up at Prime as he pointed to the ground. A colorful blob was there that he had drawn, one that was swirls and nothing more but the baby was prattling along about what it was and meant.
Prime, Ironhide and his family had knelt down to listen and nod from time to time as the baby turned to them to see if they agreed. As he babbled, the baby turned to Prime. Then he walked to Optimus and reached for him. Prime leaned closer as the baby gripped his face, then even closer. He babbled some more, then waited to get Prime's agreement.
He got it.
-0-TBC 6-7-17 edited 6-8-17
NOTES:
ESL
fume: to be angry and sort of hold it in a bit while at the same time making it clear that you're angry without a big scene happening. It is also called pissy bitching. :D:D:D America has eighteen jillion slang words. :D
EX: "He was so mad he fumed about it all day, raging silently but occasionally saying something like a pissy bitch." (It can be both noun and verb) ;)