The Diego Diaries: Jail (dd6 166) needs an edit
-0-At the prison
It was impossible to follow her as she grabbed his leg, then dumped him on his back. Kneeling on one leg and pushing the other one upward toward his face, Gee-Gee had him incapacitated in the blink of an optic. He lay on his back in an agony of pain as the others stared with incomprehension at the turn of events. It was as still as it could be, then Gee-Gee pressed his leg harder. He bellowed. "Are you going to yield, or do I break you into pieces?"
"FRAG YOU!" Sideswipe said, then he bellowed. "Alright!" he gasped.
Gee-Gee let go of his leg, then rose to step back. Sideswipe staggered up with a look of such rage and hatred that it was almost comical. She struck him again in the chassis causing him to bend over in pain. The others flinched. "Get up and get on the line, slagger."
Sideswipe straightened more, then stepped onto the line. He stared at her with hatred as he did.
Gee-Gee looked at the others. "You've been given to me. I own you. You are mine, like the couch in my apartment. If I don't like how you fit where you are, I can move you. I can place you elsewhere, in ad-seg, in another cell and even stasis. Understand. I can end your spark in fifty or sixty different ways without moving from this spot. I was an instructor for the army for vorns before entering prison management and everyone who works here was trained by me and meets my exacting standards. I've had every kind of aft that can be conjured up in anyone's imagination and all of them learned to do things my way. Some still carry the dents."
It was silent as the group of guards and leadership surrounding the prisoners watched. Some of them were grinning, their understanding of the little femme as perfect as their respect and admiration for her. It was silent as she walked up and down in front of them, close enough for them to strike. No one did.
"You're now my prisoners. You will be mine. You no longer have names. You will have numbers and I would suggest that you learn yours. You will be living here so you better understand one thing. This is my kingdom. There will be no other kingdoms but mine. You will obey the rules, do what you're told and if you do, then you might have a smooth incarceration. If you break the rules, abuse substances, other inmates, guards, or your facilities, I will be very unhappy. If you break any of the rules, you go into administrative segregation for as long as I decide you'll be there. If you're an incorrigible aft like some of you look, stasis detention will be done.
"You'll receive good food, entertainments, excellent living conditions, and medical treatment for your hurts. You're held here at the pleasure of two Primes. You," she said as she glanced at Sideswipe, "prisoner 421-EVP4-4576, formerly known as Sideswipe will go to ad-seg until I decide you can get out. The rest of you will go to your quarters and live there. If you act up with other inmates, guards or anyone related to my staff, I will personally put you into a kennel myself. Is that very clear? Are there any questions?"
It was silent in the group. They stared at her with fury and impotent rage. She turned to her guys. "We need to put the prisoners in their cages."
The mechs moved forward, each of them taking a prisoner by the arm, then jerking them toward the walkway that led to the special detention sector of the prison. They didn't have to walk past anyone else because the pathway led along the back of the prison, a new accommodation for the new kind of prisoner.
Bluestreak, Rook, Sunstreaker, Hot Rod, Blurr, and Kup walked in the circle of armed mechs toward a lighted enclosure down the pathway. Sideswipe was following in the grip of two mechs, his sullen rage almost pinging against everyone's energy fields as he made his way to detention. They reached the sector of the prison that would be home, then waited as the Officer of the Orn dropped the gates, allowing them to walk inside the three lethal layers of protection.
Nearby, there were a large array of separate lockups and a row of smaller confinements that had a couple of individuals inside. They were watching the group approach, stop, stow Sideswipe, then walk onward. Sideswipe entered, was locked inside, then his cuffs disappeared. He was incandescent with rage but he said nothing, watching as the group moved onward. They walked between lockups that had prisoners, all of them familiar to everyone in the new group. Though there was surprise on both sides, no one said anything.
They paused beside a fence that led to a barracks inside. The Officer of the Orn dropped the gates, then Gee-Gee considered the prisoners and the information sent to them by Megatron. "Put these three here," Gee Gee said pointing to Blurr, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak. They were put inside the enclosure, then the gates came back up. A short walk to the next became home for Rook and Hot Rod. When the gates went up, Gee-Gee turned to Kup. Considering him a moment, she glanced at Roadbuster. "Take prisoner 542-DCBA-45T to the Medical Center. I have no idea what he's got in that device. I need to find out what condition he's in."
Roadbuster nodded, then gripped Kup's arm. "Come on, old mech."
"Who you calling old, fragger?" Kup asked as he jerked his arm. A touch with a tazer ended that as the two walked onward down the path to the Medical Center near the airfield. They were gone in minutes. The crew watched, then turned to Gee-Gee. She looked around her poisoned half acre, then turned to Prime. "All is in hand, Optimus. I think we need to have a review of the situation soon, once they settle in and we can make better long term plans. My intuition tells me that some of them don't belong here in freedom. It would be safer for everyone including them to be in stasis."
Prime nodded. "I think so, too," he said, then looked at the others. "Thank you for what you do. We will be watching this situation so that we can figure out what to do about the long term outlook of this group."
They nodded, then Prime led the group out to the prison airfield once more. He turned to Gee-Gee. "We realize how dangerous and difficult this is for you and your team. We are at your disposal. I am thinking that some of them are too dangerous to be operational here. We can discuss it after the prisoners are studied and surveyed."
Gee-Gee nodded. "The malevolency of this place I can feel on my neural net and that's never good. I'll begin the surveys on all of them. I believe we're going to find some of them need another situation than this."
Prime nodded. "Let me know." He then turned to the others, chatted a moment, then began to walk back to town. It would take a while and he'd resolve three problems and reroute four others to the proper department before he reached The Fortress with his mechs.
-0-The dojo later on
They lounged around, some of them waiting for shift and others coming off. Lon who had been overcome with the vileness and strangeness of the encounter at the prison glanced at Kup. He was puffing on his cygar as he sat quietly next to Hercy. "Kup? What do you think about your evil twin?"
Kup glanced at him as the others paused conversations to listen. "He's a sad sack. Looks hooked on something terrible. This backwards world stuff … it's interesting. Maybe we can have a chat, the two of us."
"They haven't found Hercy yet. What about the rest? Even us," Bezel asked as he glanced at Lon.
"Chances are, some of us are on the winning side," Sandstorm said. "Good thing we took oaths about this. Did you see Cyclonus? He looks crazy as it gets."
"Almost as crazy as you?" Springer asked with a grin.
"No," Sandy said with a hint of pride. "No one is that crazy."
Huge laughter greeted that. Then Drift grinned. "I would love to see that Blurr race ours."
Everyone was in agreement with that sentiment.
-0-Elsewhere
:Ratchet:
(Pause)
:What?:
:What took ya so long to answer?:
Ratchet looked at the stack of finished datapads in his servos, then grinned. :I had to ask the boyfriend to hang on a moment. I had a call from the bond:
:WHAT!? You slagger. How do you feel?:
:Pretty good: Ratchet slotted the finished work in the stacker shelf by the door, then walked back to do the rest. He sat behind his desk with a grin. / … slagger … suffer …/
:When will you know something? You know …: Ironhide grinned at his 'subtle' audacity, being totally unaware of all his many and obvious tells.
:When it feels heavy in my chest. Slagger. Why are you asking? You don't get a peep until the unmasking ceremony. THOSE ARE YOUR RULES, IRONHIDE!:
/... frag … they are … frag the rules …/ :I'm just asking:
:THAT'S ALL YOU GET TO DO! YOU HAD ONE JOB, IRONHIDE! …:
Ironhide grinned, then mimicked Ratchet in his processor. / … you had one job, IRONHIDE! …/
:AND YOU FRAGGED IT UP, FRAGGER! …:
/ … you fragged up, slagger … IT'S YOUR FAULT, IRONHIDE! … uh, it actually is …/
:IT'S YOUR FAULT, IRONHIDE!: Ratchet hit it home, then grinned. The fragger was probably mimicking him.
/ … frag … I'm psychic …/ He grinned. :It is, isn't it? So … what you doing now?:
Ratchet smiled to himself. :Well … I'm looking at the protoform. It's unique and beautiful, just like the name:
/ … FRAGGER! …/ :What's the name?:
:Frag you, Ironhide:
Ironhide laughed. :You know, Ratchet … I accept that they all have my face but you don't have to name one after me. 'Frag You, Ironhide' won't fit on the line of most government forms:
They both laughed loudly at each end of the call. Ratchet grinned. :Did you know when you grovel you turn me on?:
Ironhide grinned. :Then you're going to tell me things?:
:Oh, frag no. You don't get squat until …:
It was silent a moment. Ironhide waited, then felt a flash of unease. :Ratchet?:
Nothing.
:RATCHET!?:
:What?:
:WHAT'S WRONG!?:
:I dropped my popsicle: Ratchet grinned as he sat in his chair thinking up tortures for his big squeezy toy.
:YOU FRAGGER! DON'T DO THAT AGAIN!:
:Ah, Ironhide. You're so easy. I have to finish, then I'll come to the armory. Are you there or are you messing around?:
:I AM IRONHIDE! I MESS AROUND IN THE ARMORY!: He grinned. / … I'm not easy … I'm complex …/ He snickered.
:You turn me on. I'll hurry up and get there. Hold that thought: Ratchet said as he cut the line. "You're the easiest slagger I know, Ba-bee." With that, he hurried through his work, filed it, then stepped out to go to the armory. He would almost get there.
-0-Halfway there
He stepped onto the platform, then felt the heaviness in his chassis. Turning immediately, he hurried up the steps, down the street to Metro Femme, then into receiving. Walking to a suite that was empty, he plugged in. He read the information, drew the logical conclusion, then called for Gypsy to come. She came winging in, then halted before him with expectation on her pretty face. "I'm getting fluctuations, Gypsy. I may have miscalculated the term."
Gypsy nodded, then turned to the data. She moved to a computer and did calculations. She looked at the monitor, then Ratchet. "You did. Easy thing after a few infants. They get harder and harder to predict with perfect accuracy with each one, especially accidental sparkings like yours. You could come any minute, Ratchet. What do you want to do?"
"I think I'm going to the Armory to get Ironhide. I want him to come with all his body parts attached. Then we have to organize the kids. There's that roast defrosting in the fridge that I was planning for dinner tonight. Then-"
Gypsy laughed loudly. "You're hopeless. Go get Ironhide. I'll put the team on standby. I don't expect it tonight but it may come within half an orn."
Ratchet glanced at the corrected data. "I think you're right. The protoform is in the vault. NO ONE, but no one gets to see it. NO ONE! Ironhide must suffer for this one. They all have to suffer, slaggers." Ratchet grinned. "I can't wait for it. Nothing like a baby around the place."
Gypsy nodded. "We're getting really good about concealing babies from anyone. There are quite a few Praxians in the colony now."
"That's good to hear. Maybe it can help Bluestreak feel better about the raid," Ratchet said as he walked to the door. He looked at Gypsy with a grin. "I'll head back shortly." With that, he walked out the door.
Gypsy grinned. "I can't wait."
-0-TBC 10-22-17 edited 12-19-17
NOTE:
I misplaced my notebooks last night so I didn't have them to put this forward. However, an eagle-eyed reader noticed Jazz in the line up when he was killed with the femmes. So, I put in Rook. :D Shattered Glass Rook is a piece of work:
Every Autobot's seen Rook's face as one of ABN's head reporters (since watching ABN is, of course, compulsory under penalty of death). He heads up the popular show Around Cybertron with the help of his co-reporter Punch and his camera bot Sprocket.
Rook dares to see the big picture! He sees the disturbing patterns forming, of the twisted depravity of Decepticons looking to endanger the way of life of simple, hard-working Autobots like you. He knows that the stern policies of Optimus Prime encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of Autobots everywhere, and he fights against the crippling socialism that the Decepticons would impose in their so-called "utopia." He shares your heartfelt beliefs that the reins of power are properly wielded in the servos of a violent madman, rather than the soft appendages of Decepticon "intellectuals." He understands your frustration with those fembots who get uppity and forget their place.
Others may claim Rook is merely a partisan hack, but this is only because he speaks for the people! He's the only one brave enough to speak up about what those disturbingly virtuous Decepticons are up to! He loves his planet. But sometimes he fears for it.
Nothing like a rival to make things interesting for Blaster. LOL! Thanks, Lackwit. :D