The Diego Diaries: Reunion? (dd6 133)
-0-At the prison
He sat in the waiting room with a sinking sense of futility. It had taken this long to come to this moment and it wasn't even as easy as he thought it might be after time passing. The room was spare, a table, chairs and the one way window that he knew would be operating the entire time he was here. He had been scanned for contraband, taken to the room by someone he knew, then left as they went to get his family members.
The silence was almost deafening as he waited, then the sound of heavy treads could be heard. He stood up, expecting any kind of response to his request when the door opened. A guard peered in. "You ready for this?" he asked with curiosity. Everyone knew and respected him now. They had buy in for his safety and well being. It was a new concept to him in his new life. "Sure," he said.
The guard nodded, then stepped back. He was telling the visitors that they'd be on their radar the whole time and if there was any trouble they would come in shooting and sort things out later. The members of his family, all of them with deep masculine voices murmured their understanding, then they were allowed to enter. They came in one-by-one, pausing to stand in a row across from him on the other side of the table that stood between them. The guard glanced at him. "We're just outside," he said, then glanced at the newbies. "Watching," he said for their benefit.
The four watched him step out and the door close. Then everyone turned toward each other. They didn't speak a moment as they took in the measure of the other. "You look good," he said to them.
They stared at him, then one spoke. "It doesn't matter but thanks," he said.
It was awkward and tense, then he gestured to the table. "You wanna sit? I brought stuff."
They did, sitting on their side of it as he sat on his. Looking at them tensely, he unsubbed a box of donuts. "I thought you'd like this. I do."
They looked at the box, then one nodded. "Thanks."
It was silent again, then he steeled himself. "That isn't all I brought," he said as he reached into his carry hold and brought out a sweetly smiling little infant mech. Holding him on his servo, grinning back as he smiled at his father, Breakdown looked at the others. "This is my kid, Breakout."
It was silent in the room as they stared at the baby who stared back at them fearlessly.
With a familiar orange face.
-0-Elsewhere
They met for lunch at The Diner On The Corner, their favorite place when it suddenly filled up with policemen on their way to and from shift. Sitting with as low key an aura and profile as they could manage, Sherma and Momus kept their optics to themselves.
-0-Prison
He stood on his tiny peds staring at the strange and strangely familiar mechs. They felt like his father but he had never seen them before. His tiny wings sought information he was too young and underdeveloped to find but the effect was intensely cute.
Wild Rider grinned. "He's cute. I suppose his ada is that aft you hang out with."
"Knockout may be an aft but he's mine," Breakdown said with a slight grin. "This is our kid. He's a champion. What do you think?"
Dead End glanced up. "He's cute. A real cute kid. You wanted us to meet him," he said as if amazed.
Breakdown nodded. "I would have been in earlier but I didn't know what to expect. It was a miracle that Motormaster isn't here. I don't know if I could hold together around him. When he's not here I feel better."
"I noticed," Drag Strip said as he sat back to stare at the infant who was trying to pick up a cup that was sitting on the table. He grinned. "He's tough. Look at that."
They watched as Breakout circled the cup studying it closely. He tried to lift it but it was too big and too heavy for him. So he gripped the handle and began to drag it. He smiled at Breakdown as he moved it slightly.
Breakdown grinned back at his son. "He's smart and good. He has a great life, one I never had but he's going to have it. I'll make sure of it."
It was silent as they watched the tough determined infant try to move the cup to his big old dad.
-0-Valles
"You come behind me," Bumblebee said. "I'm going to free climb up and hook the rope through the pitons that I'm going to drive in. It'll be hanging and you can use it if you need to. Have you ever climbed anything this steep and tall?" he asked Partition, Morius and Inweld as they stood before a cliff side that seemed to go on forever.
They looked upward, then at Bee. "No," they said almost together.
Bee grinned. "Then go up with the ropes. I'll lay down a trail all the way up. Eventually, you can try free climbing but that's in the Home Guard training program down the road," he said. "Watch what everyone else does. Hercy is going to use the ropes to show you how to do it and Kup will come up behind to catch you if you slip. They'll show you the way."
He then looked up and gripped the rocks, making his way upward. When he had gone a bit of the way up the ragged and fractured face, he halted long enough to drive a piton into the rock. A rope was then fastened and he went further upward. It would take a while but he would reach the top, then glance downward. With a wave of his servo, he waited at the top for the others. Most of the group was free climbing already but the newbies were waiting with varying amounts of anticipation and anxiety at the bottom.
Hercy looked at them. "Like a walk in the park if you respect the land. Do you respect the land, infants?" he asked.
The three looked at him worshipfully, then nodded. "We do, Appa," Morius said with a nod.
"Then do what I do," he said as he gripped the rock. "Notice how I insert my servo into cracks and crevices? That way you get a grip. When that's secured and so are your feet, you can reach up for the next one. When you come up, do it with this rope clipped into your hooks here," he said tapping the hooks the mechs gave them to secure themselves. "Remember, if your grip is good, even if your peds slip you won't fall. Got it?" he asked.
Partition nodded, then glanced at his brothers. "I'm going first. I'm oldest. You come next," he said as he turned, then hesitated as he looked back at them with concern. "No one will hold it against you if you change your mind about coming. Okay?"
They glanced at each other, then him. "Okay, Partition," Inweld said as Morius nodded.
Partition turned to the rope, hooked it on, then began to find cracks to grip. With carefully slow and thought out movements, he made his way to Hercy, hooked that rope, then let the one he started with go free for his brothers to use. Hercy made his way up, Partition waited, then followed.
Watching them from the ground, Inweld took the rope and hooked himself in. Kup checked him, then considered his youth and inexperience. "No one will hold it against you if you don't want to go. This is an expert hill, not the sort of thing for beginners."
Inweld nodded. "Thanks, Abba, but I think I want to try it."
Kup nodded, then helped him spot handholds. He gripped, then began to climb. When it was time for Morius, he looked at Kup with a tense expression. "Thank you, Kup, for helping me. I'm sort of tense about this."
"I'm coming right behind you. You're hooked into the safety lines and I'll grab ya. Won't be the first time I ever had to do it," Kup said with a slight grin. "It's up to you. No harm, no foul."
He nodded, then looked up. "I think I want to go up there," he said. So Kup helped him.
-0-Prison
"I'm a medic-instructor and manage the medic teams that go into the migrations when the refugees come. I also have the responsibility to do the same if there's combat. Right now, I'm studying medicine. I want to be an infant doctor."
The three stared at Breakdown like he had just said he wanted to frag Optimus Prime. Either option was so strange to them that it was hard to take in all at once.
"You've changed," Dead End said.
Breakdown nodded. "I have. Did you notice I'm not paranoid? I'm not fragged up even around you three. If Motormaster was here I'd be afraid what might happen. I think he causes my crazy when he's around."
They nodded. "We feel better when he's in ad-seg. He's there right now. A few slaggers came to the prison last night and he went insane. They were the ones who created The System or something like that. They aren't sorry, either," Drag Strip said bitterly. "I wish Motormaster had gotten hold of them. I would've liked to see them get torn limb-from-limb."
Breakdown nodded. "I hear ya." It was silent a moment as they watched Breakout hop around on the top of the table, entranced with the sound of his tiny peds when they landed. "What are you three going to do? Are you going to stay in the prison forever or are you salvageable?"
They stared at him, then sat back with offense clearly on their faces. "Well, we haven't decided yet but thanks for asking," Wild Rider said tartly.
Breakdown leaned forward. "I'm not asking to insult you. I want to know. You're the only family I have that I know about. Breakout needs a family, he needs uncles. What about it? How long are you going to waste yourself in the prison or can you actually change?"
It was silent in the room.
-0-Cliff side
Inweld slipped, then caught himself. The end of the climb was in sight. Hercy, Bee and his brother, Partition were looking down at him cheering him onward. He gripped the rock, then continued. Below him, his brother and Kup were following. He wasn't going to be a problem this far from the ground, he decided, not in front of these mechs.
With a strength he didn't know he had, he gripped and gripped, slowly climbing upward. Others gathered to stare downward, At last, a servo gripped him, then pulled him upward to solid ground above. He turned to thank them and met his brother's smiling face. "You made it, Inweld!" Partition said, then he hugged his brother tightly.
Both of them grinned at the other, then knelt to watch Morius and Kup make their way. Inweld and Partition would pull Morius upward, then when everyone was topside Sideswipe would slap the newbies on the shoulder. "Well done. Now let's go back down."
It would be just as scary repelling as ascending the cliff but everyone involved would find it thrilling.
-0-Prison
They pulled the carefully bagged garbage off the low bedded trucks that trundled it to the Environmental Center of the prison located near the hospital. Every orn the trucks came, going on their pre-progammed non-sentient way to meet at each cell block and remove garbage and recyclables with their non-sentient robotic assistants. The food trays and other detritus would be recycled while those things that were hazardous or useless would be burned until nothing was left in an oven so hot that it could be compared to a solar flare.
They trudged back and forth carrying heavy bags and boxes between the trucks and the conveyor belt that carried the trash into the building where it would be automatically scanned, sorted by more non-sentient robots and sent to the respective termination point its composition dictated.
It was sunny but cold. The prison was noisy, ever noisy as inmates in the trustee program went their different ways and those who were heading for work choices inside were led there under heavy guard. All of them noticed the newbies, read their inscriptions and either heckled them or gave them murderous stares. The newbies for their part pretended that they didn't see any of it.
They saw all of it.
-0-The Diner On The Corner
They decided to slip out so they stood up and began to wend their way through the tables of mechs who were waiting for or eating their food. As they did, an old mech who had seen it all glanced up from his breakfast to watch them go more out of habit than anything else. Something about the two was familiar. They didn't look the same but their energy rang a bell, a very, very old bell. He glanced at the others then stood up. "Hey," he said to the two. "Do I know you?" he asked.
The room froze and so did Sherma and Momus. They turned to him then shrugged. "No."
The old mech considered that as he ran their energetic signature against his dedicated police files of 'Those Who Just Think They Got Away' and as he did the two mechs knew he was. They nodded to him, then continued onward to the door crossing the threshold before the big mech got his answer.
"Frag." He looked at the door then the other police officers in the room. "PONY UP, BOYS AND GIRLS! I THINK WE JUST FOUND A BIG ONE!" With that, he headed for the door with his gun drawn. The mechs and femmes in the room glanced at each other, then rose almost as one with guns drawn. They ran for the door to follow. As they did, half the patrons and everyone who worked there ran to the door to see what was happening, too.
That was when the shooting started.
-0-TBC 9-20-17 edited 9-21-17 edited 12-28-18
Sometimes, I think you guys know this story better than I do. :D:D:D:D:D:D: HUGS