The Diego Diaries: FOOTBALL! (dd6 312)
-0-BLAMM!
The two lines came together in a ka-bong heard around the world(s). They clambered up each other as Kaon tried to grab the ball. Nova Cronum had it and they weren't giving it back. A scrum formed almost immediately and the crowd went wild.
"ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
Prime grinned as he glanced at Prowl and Ratchet. They were beating on each other as they stared at the game riveted to the spot. He knew they would be an item on the jumbotron shortly so he made a point of looking calm, cool and collected.
As he rooted for Nova Cronum.
Frag Kaon.
They knocked Iacon out of a wild card by defeating Polyhex who appeared to be better this season.
Apparently, they'd finally taken a page out of Prowl's book. The one called, "Prowl and His Cheating Ways'.
Prime loved that book.
The game roared onward.
-0-Springer, the kids and everyone else
Coros and Pulley, O-D and the others were watching a mob of mini-cons in the stands who were working themselves up to incarceration.
Springer was leaning against the wall next to the tunnel where a number of horses were drowsing in their ground hitches.
Every now and again, one or more of the kids would walk back and pet them, then come back out and ask questions about the Watch. It was pleasant, the mechs were great to the kids and all was well.
It would be weller if the slagging mini-cons stayed put.
-0-Nova Cronum fan section or as it was normally called, 'half the Public School Stadium'
They roared, they sang team songs, they delivered abuse as they watched their team kick the slag out of Kaon. They'd been a tough team, their defense old school … that is, they served knuckle sandwiches with extreme prejudice. Consider their playoff game with the redoubtable and fully fragged Praxus Scientists …
"WHAT THE FRAG! THAT'S THE FOURTH ONE! WHERE'S MY HANDHELD! I HAVE TO CHECK THE RESERVE LIST!"-Prowl in no mood for sandwiches as another scientist is carted off the field...
Then there was that time with Iacon who was united if not on the field, then in the intensive care ward of Autobot City Medical Center ...
"Look at that, Loon. That slagger laid out your center," Prowl said with a smirk and a smug look.
A roundhouse right to the face took care of that as Ratchet watchedYET AGAINthe team of his town go down. THE FRAGGERS! THEY WOULD NEED HIM SOMETIME! THEY WOULD NEED HIM AND …
"Uncle Ratchet?"
Ratchet looked down into the sweet face of Spirit. "What, angel?"
"Ada fell down," he said as he looked at his father sitting groggily on the ground with droopy wings.
"Slag," Ratchet said with a grin. "He did. Imagine that." He helped Prowl to his feet, ignored the death rays emanating from Prowl's pretty baby blues, then fixed the slight cut on his rather smooth cheek. "There. No worse for wear."
"Glad you feel that way," Prowl said before he laid Ratchet out on the ground.
It would take a bit to separate them before they would get back to the real job at hand, cursing Nova Cronum to the Pit.
Then they'd have brunch afterward...
-0-At the tunnel
The mini-cons were winding up as they leaned almost as one over the ledge to cheer on Nova Cronum. They were local mini-cons. The Cybertronian-based mini-cons who came through the bridge to Mars to watch the game were overwhelmed with the greatness and were screaming in their seats.
Martian mini-cons were working up to their usual pre-(de)(ar)ranged, unsolicited but utterly adored 'half time' show and the mechs of the Watch and Autobots who volunteered at the dojo to help because the view was better on the ground were watching them with gimlet optics.
Those guys.
"What's going to happen with them, Springer?" Pulley asked nervously.
"Nothing, I hope," Springer said as he looked at them. He turned to the kids. "Here's what you do if this goes south," he began as a bottle thrown from way up there landed on his helm. It smashed, Springer staggered forward and without his express wishes or consent he was dragged into the scrum and disappeared.
If transformers could breathe, there would have been no air on Mars as they took in the spectacle of a guy on the sidelines getting swept into the scrum that had staggered across the field heading their way.
The mechs on the sidelines watched as Springer was grabbed, sucked in and disappeared.
Drift who was frozen a moment exploded into action. He ran forward, then leaped in the air. He landed on the scrum and began to run around it looking for Springer. That's when someone grabbed his foot and dragged him in. He disappeared swords and all.
The place was silent a nanosecond, then EXPLODED into a roar of delight and surprise.
"Oh frag," Ratchet said. "That's my boys." He looked at Prime who was shocked, then began to laugh in spite of himself. "YOU'RE LAUGHING AT MY SONS!"
"I KNOW!" Prime said as he doubled over in laughter.
"Frag," Ratchet said with a smirk as he turned back to the field. "Some messiah of the people you are, slagger."
Prowl would have agreed but he was laughing too hard as well.
-0-Sidelines
"WHAT DO WE DO, MR. KUP!" -the six kids
"Stay here," Kup said as he glanced around. "We better pony up, boys." He then bit down on his cygar to enter battle.
Sandstorm grinned. "I'm not going in there."
"Me neither," Hot Rod said.
Smokey who was standing beside Devcon and Smokescreen glanced at him and frowned."I AM!" he said, then ran for the scrum. He leaped up like a Kung Fu fighter, then fell into the scrum when a hole appeared and disappeared almost immediately.
It was hilarious.
At least is was to Prime. He was nearly to his knees in howling laughter.
To tell the truth, so was everyone else.
-0-Devcon
He reached out to grab Smokey but missed.
Smokescreen grabbed Dev. "Don't go out there."
"THAT'S MY LITTLE MECH!"-Dev
"Blaster and Jazz are doing the commentary. Do you want him to have to explain how his amma saved him?" Smokescreen asked.
Dev wavered. "I'm going to bend anything that's still straight on his aft when he crawls out of there."
"I'll help you," Smokescreen said as the two of them walked to the line and began to scan for their baby boy.
-0-Elsewhere
"WHY AREN'T THEY PULLING HIM OUT!?" -Tress
"They will." -Moda, just as confused but hiding it better
"WHEN!"-Tress
"Soon." / … I hope …/ -Moda
-0-In the stands
"LOOK AT THAT! BWAHAHAHAHAHA! THE SLAGGERS ARE GETTING TUMBLED DRY!"-a mini-con who owned a laundry and cleaning business
"BWAHAHAHAHAAHA!" -his family
"MAYBE WE SHOULD HELP THEM!"-someone's antique old appa who probably gave a good bite on the knee during the Quintessan War once upon a time
"MAYBE WE SHOULD! HELP THEM! BWAHAHAHAHA! LET'S HELP NOVA CRONUM! MINI-CONS FOREVER!" -the antique old amma bond of the antique old appa
Mini-cons roared and jumped over the wall to the ground below, a tide of them heading for the field.
Nova Cronum's bench watched them come, then surge through their ranks like rats leaving a sinking ship as the little slaggers began to emerge for battle. It never seemed they would end but they finally did. The only ones left were the two old timers who couldn't raise their legs high enough to get over the wall. That would be alright in the end. Someone had to post everyone's bail.
-0-The Primal Box, the land where dignity lived (once upon a time)
Prime had sat down to laugh as everyone watched a helm, a leg or arm rise up with a Watch tattoo, then disappear once again into the mixer. Then the mini-cons decided to commence what mini-cons were becoming famous for … they marched in vast numbers to the field to get pulverized in many and sundry ways.
What would a game be without them?
Prowl often wondered.
"Oh frag. THOSE LITTLE SLAGGERS!" -Prowl howling
"BWAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!" -Ratchet howling
-0-On the field
Jolt and Dymascus stood on the sideline holding the boxes where the drunkard little hooligans inevitably ended up. Before they could move, a tiny moped wheelied out of the tunnel heading for the field. The refs who were rooted to the spot with surprise and amazement jolted, then threw flags and whistled. It was for naught. No one in the mess heard them nor cared a fig about them.
FRAG THE REFS!
Maxi transformed, flew through the air with her flying kick of doom, then hit the top of the scrum. She landed, skidded across, then flew off. She took out two of the three refs as she did. She landed easily and they were out for the count. Hopping back up, she ran forward in time to be tackled by her big old bond who had wised up and sat near wherever she was just for moments like this. Picking her up, he walked with a grin to the sidelines and inspired fan fiction from here to Kalamazoo and back again.
Bumblebee who glanced at the others frowned. "I have to heed the call of My People," he said with a grin, then he ran forward, leaped in the air and fell on top of a bunch of them mowing down a number when he did. They rose faster than he did and because they did, he also disappeared from view under a flurry of fists and kicks.
"Oh, Primus," Coros said. "We have to help him."
"No, infant," Hercy said calmly. "How will they ever learn if you do that?"
They looked at him a moment, then the field, then Hercy. Then they all stepped closer to him.
Hercy of Helex was now in the pantheon of the Most High in their book. He would regale them with pointers of technique and opportunity as they watched the mob and the mechs devolve into a brawl.
Everyone on Earth would wonder why it took this long to happen.
-0-In an apartment
They watched the game with amusement. There were few Cybertronians who wouldn't be amused by this and they were no exception. This was a highlight of the week watching the games. It was sad that Praxus didn't make the cut. It was rather nice that a Cybertronian team had. None of the fights would bother them. This was what made it the game it was. Zenith and Shadow would watch the game through, absorb the follow up shows, then go to the office to work. It would be a wild time in the old colony tonight, it was clear. They would stay over at the office just in case.
-0-On the sidelines
"Do you see Springer and Drift?" Sideswipe asked as the Kaon team stood together, several of them standing in front of the kids while the game went south.
"No. Not for a while. I expect Springer to shoot his way out any time now," Sunstreaker said with a grin.
The team would laugh uproariously.
-0-Up there
"Well, isn't this something? I was sort of hoping for mini-cons to do their thing in the second half. This destroyed Nova Cronum's momentum," Blaster said with a chuckle.
"I hear ya," Jazz said. "We have two Wreckers in that mess. Kup just … oh," Jazz winced. "There goes Kup. Good thing Maxie's bond grabbed her. She might hurt someone."
Uproarious laughter.
-0-In the stands
"I think we need to help them."
"You may be right."
"I think so. What about it? You up for this?"
"I was born for this, Ty," Metroplex said with a grin.
That was when Metroplex, Fort Max, Acroplex, Tyke, Typhoon, Dangerous, Clipper, Tennyson, Paribolus, Metrohex, Caminus and Hammer of Primus in for the game rose in the stands, walked to the steps, descended to the wall, then casually jumped off it to head toward the brouhaha ahead.
Shit was lost on three worlds.
-0-TBC 3-29-18 edited 3-30-18 01-19-2022