The Diego Diaries: BABY! (dd6 173)
-0-Inside
The Ops Center filled up with those who were family or just hangers on. It was nearly time to step out so he stood and grinned at Ironhide. "You ready, slagger?"
"YOU'RE OVERDUE, MECH!" Ironhide said with a snort as he stood up.
Raptor slapped him on the back. "Actually, you were, infant." HUGE laughter and muy catcalls greeted that.
They began to gather and head for the door, wander through the rec room and out to the courtyard. Near the gates, humans had gathered, a lot of them, along with literally thousands of mechs and the odd femme. They stretched out past the highway into the airfield and spilled out in all directions surrounding the gates. Partition stepped out of the group near the door where his family was plainly to be seen. "You ready for this, infant?" Ratchet asked.
He nodded. "I didn't know so many would come."
"You can step back if that's a problem. No harm, no foul. Remember?" Ratchet asked with a grin.
Partition nodded. "I remember. I want to do this. I need to," he said glancing at his family.
Ratchet glanced, too. "Then do it you will."
He smiled at Ratchet, then glanced around. When he saw Lancer, he joined her. The family that included all sides as well as Prowl and Prime's had fogged out filling the area in front of the building. A camera crew from IntraComm was there and several from Galaxy Productions, covering all manner of angles. Leonora waved and Ratchet nodded to her. Then it fell to silence. Ratchet grinned at Ironhide. "You're on, slagger."
Ironhide glared at Ratchet, then stepped forward. A few cheers and catcalls greeted that as he stood in front of a gigantic family that hadn't existed a mere seven or so Earth years before. "Welcome to the naming ceremony. We're glad to have ya. All of you matter to us and so, without further ado, I give to you Partition of Iacon to do the honors." With that, Ironhide trudged back with a smug expression. "Top that, slagger."
"Maybe you'll never see this kid, Ironhide," Ratchet said with a smirk. Ironhide's smug look fell off his face and rolled around on the floor. Ratchet glanced at Partition, then nodded. He nodded back, then stepped forward. The crowd stilled, about 40,000 individuals waiting for his words. He felt oddly calm as he glanced at his brothers. Both of them nodded hopefully, his ada looked surprised and pleased and his father had no visible expression.
"My name is Partition and I was a former high caste slagger," he began.
-0-Lucien
He felt it, a punch in the gut, but no one saw it outwardly. He would grit himself to hear this speech, something that was an honor to his son. For him, it was a big hard punch in the face.
-0-Morius and Inweld
They stared at their brother admiring him for his nerve and his feelings. It was almost more than they could stand, the tension in their chassis. They had discussed it at length and agreed to what Partition felt compelled to say. How it went over in his family, only time would tell. Inweld reached for his ada's hand and held it.
-0-Laslo
Laslo felt the rebuke in Partition's words. Part of him was cheering and the other part reeling. He felt Inweld take his servo, then he squeezed it. A part of him relaxed even as the other part worried for Lucien. Laslo was a futurist, someone who dreamed things up and was able to tell others to drop those things that didn't work.
It was his turn now.
-0-Partition
"I was a terrible person and I didn't think about others. I never did. I was always supposed to be first and I was indifferent to suffering of others. When I came here, I didn't have gratitude. I had the same ideas but being here, working here, being with this family," he said turning to nod at the mob behind him, "it changed my life forever. I had no idea how empty and superficial the old life was. You do what you know, right, Ratchet?" he asked.
"That's right, infant," Ratchet said.
"I did what I knew and what my genitors knew and everyone else. It was wrong. All of it. It led to our suffering. Now, because Ironhide and Ratchet care about me, I get a second chance. I joined the Home Guard and became a field medic. I did that because I want to matter in a real way. I want to help and make things better. I will fight for our people, all of them, with all I got. Hanging out with the mechs and femmes, hearing their stories and having them teach me what they know matters.
"I love my family with all I got but I also love this one, too," he said glancing back at everyone behind him. "Our Prime is the best Prime Cybertron ever had and if we had been smarter and better, we would have listened to him and none of this would have happened. I'm grateful for my second chance. My brothers and I, we have a second chance. I can help you if you get hurt or sick and I can defend you. I will. We all will. I'm a soldier for our people and you have my word that I will take care of all of you.
"Today, I get to tell you about what I owe to Ironhide and Ratchet, to the family and friends that they know and who took me in. They saved me. I owe all of them and I love and respect all of them. I get to tell you about the new baby. What an honor. That's what I say. This is what I believe. Thank you for listening. I think its time to see the baby, right?" he asked with a smile as he turned toward Ratchet.
Behind him, the crowd exploded. There was an incoherent roar, then a sound coalesced. "PARTITION! PARTITION! PARTITION!" it said as it rose out of the crowd.
Partition turned to the sea of faces stamping and calling his name. He smiled, then stepped back to Ironhide and Ratchet. "Wow."
"You were perfection, infant," Ratchet said. "You exceed expectations every time I turn around."
Partition smiled at Ratchet, then hugged him. He hugged Ironhide, then slipped back into the family group to stand beside Lancer. She gripped his servo with a squeeze, her own smile as big and bright as his.
Ratchet looked at Ironhide, then stepped forward. The crowd who was celebrating, settled and it was quiet again. He grinned at them. "Well, time for the big unveiling. I will tell you that this infant is different in some ways than the others-"
"Does it look like Ironhide?" someone called out.
"SLAGGING RIGHT!" Ratchet hollered back. "But there's different things about it that won't match any of the others. This infant also isn't a mech. Our daughter, Hero, could use an ally against all the mechs, so this is a femme. But its not a femme like usual."
"OLD MECH! WHAT THE FRAG! SHOW US!" Ironhide bellowed as Prowl moved to stand just outside of Ratchet's peripheral vision.
HUGE tumultuous laughter.
Ratchet smiled a dazzler at Ironhide. "IN DUE TIME, SLAGGER!"
"That mech is going to kill me, Tie," Ravel muttered as they stood in the family group.
Huge laughter at that remark as well as agreement.
"This little femme is not only beautiful, its name is beautiful," Ratchet continued as he dragged it out. A cuff to the helm from behind signified Prowl's reluctance for a dissertation as the crowd laughed loudly. "Prowl, you slagger." He turned to the crowd, opened his carry hold and drew out a figure wrapped in white blankets. He grinned at the crowd. "This is going to be swift. I will name her, show her, then she goes into a Seeker bag. So be ready to be dazzled."
"FRAG IT, RATCHET! HURRY UP!" Ironhide said.
"That reminds me … Ironhide hasn't seen the baby yet because he HAD ONE JOB! ONE JOB, IRONHIDE!" Ratchet said as he turned to Ironhide with a frown.
"ENOUGH!" Corr said, then he shrunk back a bit in his own surprise. "Sonny, be a good mech."
Ratchet stared at his little Amma, then grinned. He turned to the crowd and pulled back the blankets. He held her up, the light hitting her beautifully, and told the crowd her name. In Cybertronian, it meant Radiant Light. Everyone who heard it knew what it meant.
It was a great name for the baby.
Ratchet held up an infant who was set off by the white blankets. She had a solid paint scheme of luminous copper on every part of her little body but her face, hands and peds. Her face was pure white and had the usual features that one expected from a Ratchet-Ironhide collaboration. Her servos and peds were black. Her little blue optics shown against the white coloration of her face. Around her left arm, in thin and tasteful bands where the colors red, white, yellow, green, blue, and black in metallic paint. All of them represented the main color schemes of everyone in the family.
She had no femme wings. She was slender and small but then again, she was a new baby. What set her apart from the normal run of features was the brilliant strands of some kind of thin material that came out of her helm and hung in a sheet down past what would be her waistline if she stood. The strands were copper with silver and platinum on the reverse side. They were long and straight, rather like hair on humans. They shimmered like diamonds in the light. They sparkled when they moved, shimmering like light on water. It brought a sound of appreciation from the crowd.
Ironhide who was mesmerized by her leaned in to sniff her, memorizing her unique odor forever. But before he could hold her, Prowl stepped on front of Ratchet. "Seeker bag," he said.
Ratchet produced it, Prowl slipped her into it, then wrapped the blankets up. Taking her with a swiftness that was testament to his martial arts supremacy, he turned to the crowd and smiled. "Come forward to welcome our newest Autobot," he said. He glanced at Ironhide who was staring at Prowl with amazement. "You snooze, you lose."
The roar of the crowd and catcalls that erupted could be felt in a physical way as the crowd began to file past. Prowl would stand on the platform holding the baby like a proud thief as Ironhide fumed beside him. :You're a slagger, Prowler: he said.
Prowl grinned. :You're finding that out now?:
Ratchet and the family would stand beside them and greet everyone going by. It would take a while.
-0-A full joor later
They walked back into the Ops Center, then Prowl BEGRUDGINGLY gave the baby to Ironhide. He grinned, then opened the blankets to see her pretty face. "Copper. I love that. It's holy," Ironhide said. "The color bands are a nice touch. This … hair stuff … what's that?"
Ratchet sat down, then grinned at him as everyone including Lucian, Laslo and their sons watched nearby. "That is a new filament that they want to use for collecting solar wind in space. It's a filament that's so tough you have to hack it off with a really strong laser. I wanted her to be able to collect solar energy no matter how everything else was. This is also the prettiest look, don't you think?"
Ravel who took the baby from a slightly frowning Ironhide nodded. The stands were falling out of the blanket, a dazzling sight, and hanging over Ravel's arm. "This baby is so pretty. All of them are. What about Hero and the others seeing her?"
Babies were procured, then set on the ground. Ironhide who had her back sat on a chair, then held her out. "Here's your insane old Ada's dollie."
The littlest ones came close to stare at her as the bigger ones which now included not just Sunspot and Bos but Reflector and Co-D, too, leaned in. Their family was standing nearby watching with a grin.
Once in a Cybertronian family, never out of a Cybertronian family.
"I, ORION, LOVE THE SHE!" he said with delight, then leaned in to kiss her. Cameras flashed and elders got emotional.
"This is our baby, Ada? I HAVE A SISTER TO HELP AND STUFF?" Hero asked as the realization dawned upon her.
"You do. You have to help this one. She doesn't know the rules yet," Ironhide said with a grin. "Of course, I'm going to be helping there, too."
She looked around for the femmes. "ELITA! EVERYBODY! WE HAVE A NEW FEMME!"
The big femmes grinned at the little one. "We're a unit, Hero. One for all."
She smiled at them, then nodded.
Hoo-haw and laughter greeted that.
Ratchet smiled. "How about a party?"
Everyone roared their approval as Glenn Morshower rolled closer to see her. His Segway was filled with family and more humans crept closer, too. He grinned at Ironhide, then Ratchet. :She's beautiful. Congratulations:
Huge applause and whistling to that.
:What's her name again? I think I heard something that sounded a bit human when you said it, Ratchet: Morshower asked.
Ratchet nodded. He said it again, a word that definitely sounded human. "It means 'Radiant Light' in NeoCybex."
What the humans heard was different. They heard a familiar sounding word instead.
Halo.
-0-TBC 10-28-17 edited 12-24-17