The Diego Diaries: Football? (dd6 315)
-0-Intensive care
"Ratchet?" Ironhide leaned close, then whispered.
"OHHHHH!"
Ironhide flinched and so did everyone else as they gathered around Ratchet's berth.
Drift, a couple of mini-cons, Bumblebee and Springer were lying around all plugged in. Kup was under tent-like thing and only his peds were sticking out.
It was as sinister and dense as any ICU anywhere.
"Ratchet?" Alor asked as he leaned in.
"Oh … is that You, Solus?" Ratchet asked in a feverish sounding voice. "Am I dead?"
Everyone flinched again. They glanced at each other, then Hard Drive with a grave expression walked to the others to check them out.
Springer and Drift looked blotto and Bee looked banged up and asleep. He walked to Kup and peered into the tent-like device that covered him. He looked at Kup.
Then Kup looked at him. Kup grinned, then put his cygar into his mouth. He winked at Hardie, then Hardie grinned back.
Hardie stepped back, schooled his face, then walked to Ironhide. "They don't look good, son. What do you think? Should we call the priests to come?"
Ironhide glanced sharply at Hardie, then Ratchet. "NO."
Everyone looked at him and hissed.
Nurses were fierce on their own turf.
"No. I don't feel that over the bond link."
Then the bond link disappeared almost altogether.
Ironhide jumped, then looked at Ratchet. He looked at the data which still flowed even given the silence between them, Ratchet should be hippity skipping to the Matrix but he wasn't. He stared at Ratchet, then the others, then Ratchet. He quashed a HUGE belly laugh, then decided two can play at this game even though he never won a round.
Ever.
"I think we just need to haul him to the Mausoleum. We can shoot him to the Matrix in a torpedo tube with his mug on it," Ironhide said as he began to warm up to the game.
Tie Down looked at Ironhide with a frown, then he looked at his son. He looked at Ironhide, then Ratchet, then the others, then Ratchet. Then he raised his fist and brought it down hard on Ratchet's chassis. He hit the center of Ratchet's gut and the bellow that elicited was MASSIVE.
Ratchet rose up and roared, then floundered, flapping his arms and legs as he tried to get out of all the massive amounts of plug ins that he'd jammed in every rectangular and circular-shaped hole on his body.
Everyone jumped back as Drift, Bee, Springer, Kup and both mini-cons sat up to watch.
Ironhide who was startled didn't have the sense to run but as Ratchet pulled all his plugs loose, he began to get feeling in his peds again.
"YOU! YOU DIDN'T COME OUT THERE AND SAVE ME! NOW I'M ON EVERY PARTY REEL AND YOUTUBE CHANNEL FROM HERE TO THEMATRIX!"
"You were … uh, you were doing so well," Ironhide said as he involuntarily grinned as memories of Ratchet's many and sundry face plants resurfaced in his processor. Falling over the wall, getting slammed by this and that tiny/big bot. All of it was epic. He began to step backward from the rising fury of his bond.
"I WILL UNSCREW YOUR HELM AND USE IT FOR A BIDET!"Ratchet said.
"WHAT'S A BIDET!?"Ironhide yelled as he skirted around the berth holding a mini-con. He scanned for its meaning. "Oh. That's a bidet. SEE YA!" he said as he turned and ran like the wind.
He made it to the elevator ahead of Ratchet who pried open the closing doors of the other one, threw three mechs out bodily and jumped in for hot pursuit.
Tie Down, Alor, Hard Drive, Turbine, Raptor and Ravel hurried to the hallway to watch the doors close.
Ravel looked at the others. "What now?"
"We go to court in the morning and bail them out," Hard Drive said with a grin. He looked at Tie Down. "Nice punch."
"My boy is a slow learner about some things. I found a hands on approach gets his attention," Tie said as Ravel nodded. "We better part out the babies tonight."
Raptor nodded as the group ambled to the elevator to leave.
Springer, Drift, Kup and Bumblebee who had limped out to watch the show glanced at each other.
Springer leaned against the doorjamb. "You wanna go home tonight?" he asked Drift.
Drift who was listing to the left glanced at him. "No. You?"
Springer shook his helm. "Nah." He gripped Drift's arm and helped him back inside. Kup and Bee followed slowly behind them.
-0-Down the Boulevard (of love) …
Ironhide ran through the crowds hot footing it to the Temple District. The Temple was a sanctuary space where even Prime's couldn't go to grab anyone. As he wound through the ecstatic crowds of revelers, Ratchet was in hot pursuit. He turned right at Sports Center Road and ran past the Diner On The Corner. Heading back toward home, he flashed to the next corner, turned left and ran down Administrative Plaza Way to the highway that led toward the Courthouse, Cultural Center Road. He glanced back and didn't see Ratchet, so he jaywalked and ducked into Club Cybertron.
As Ratchet reached the corner, he glanced all around. Then he ran across the street bee lining to Club Cybertron. He entered into the open doors of the swinging club and was lost in the crowd almost immediately.
-0-Home is where the heart is …
"Where Ada? Where Atar?"
Ravel looked down at Prowler who was dragging his targ dollie around behind him. He smiled brilliantly when his amma did. Ravel grinned, then petted his face. "Your genitors are going to go to jail shortly and we're going to do our best to cushion the long term effects of the trauma."
Corr laughed loudly. He had Halo and was holding her in a onesie while her carry bag was being arranged by Raptor. "That's very funny." He looked at the children who looked at him with confusion. "Your amma is being funny," he said sweetly. "Atar and Ada have to do some work and it came in late. They will be home when they can but for now we get to keep you. You big children and Sunny, you can stay here with me and Chan. We won you in the choosing. Isn't that wonderful?"
The kids grinned at the small mech with a retiring manner but a spark of gold.
Genesis hugged him gently. "I love you, Amma."
"I love you, too, infants. It's so lovely to take care of you," Corr said as he watched Orion and Praxus drag their bags out to the living room.
"WE GOIN' WITH SHES?" Orion asked as he pointed to Hard Drive.
"You come with me," Hardie said as he took their bags. "You, Hero, Praxus and Prowler, Orion. Halo goes with Appa Tap-Tap." He grinned at Orion who grinned at him. "Your atar used to call him that, too. Appa Tap-Tap."
Raptor laughed as he laid Halo gently into the carrier. "I remember that. What a cute little mech he was then. What the frag happened to him?" he asked with a grin.
Everyone but Ravel grinned back. "We tried with our boy but things just don't always work out," Ravel said with a faint trace of disapproval. "They do need a night out now and again, though this is not what I had in mind."
"They have their ways," Turbine said as he grinned at the little mech with the impeccable manners and sweet spark. "What's the drill, then?"
"We take Halo with us, Turbine," Raptor said. "Little femme has to learn to herd cows as soon as possible. It's going to look good on her college applications. The big mechs stay here with Corr and Chan. The little mechs and Hero go with Atar."
Hard Drive nodded. "I get you."
The little kids smiled at him like a room full of spotlights.
-0-Clubbin'
Ratchet scanned the room and spotted Ironhide holed up in the back of the dining room trying to look like anyone but himself. Quashing a huge laugh, he walked through the crowd like a guided missile.
Gripping the table, Ironhide watched him. This could go any which way.
Ratchet stopped, put his servos on the table, then leaned in close. "Fragger. I could beat your sorry aft. Dance?"
Ironhide stood and grinned with a tiny preen. "You askin'?"
"I'm askin'," Ratchet said. They walked to the dance floor and began to show the punters what real dancing was like.
-0-Here and there
"What the frag happened?"
"We got mowed down," Springer said. "I don't remember. I just remember fists. Lots of them."
"I don't remember anything." It was quiet a moment. "I can imagine you were epic, though. I can imagine that in the annals of getting fragged to the Pit, you went down like a … a hero from the Golden Age," Drift said with a smirk and true belief.
Snickers went around the room as they lay in the ICU ward for observation. It was dark and they were feeling better. There was nothing like a good pain script to make things all better.
Drift glanced this way and that. "Fraggers."
"You two … you renew my faith in something. I hope to remember it when the swelling goes down," Kup said as they all laughed.
"Ow," Springer said. "It hurts to laugh. It hurts to move."
"I remember titans there. I remember big peds. I don't know what happened," Kup said. "Oh, wait. I went into the scrum to find you two slaggers." He laughed, then moaned. "I remember a hand coming up and dragging you in, Drift. You were standing on the scrum looking for Springer. Hilarious."
"If you say so," Drift said with a grin. He glanced at Springer's dark form nearby. "I would hunt you down wherever."
"Aw. You sound like Aid," Bee said. "He's sorta romantic that way."
"Yes," Springer said with a grin. "That's us. Romantic." He pulsed immense emotion and warmth over the bond and got it back.
Painful laughter greeted that remark, then it was quiet again for a moment.
"Where's Smokey? A nurse told me that he was clocked as well," Drift asked.
"Dev has him in a private room. I can only imagine the slagging he's getting," Springer said with a smile …
… in a private room …
"That's good stuff, Amma."
"I know. Want another?"
"I'd LOVE another. Ow. That hurts."
"You got your backside thumped, Smokescreen." (Rises to get another piece of pie and pour his special topping sauce over it)
"You called me by my full name." (Youngling mech braces for whatever was to come)
(Walks back and hands dish to grandson. He glances at DISAPPROVINGAtar and Ada and amused Appa who are sitting around the room) "I did."
(Crestfallen grandson pauses eating to stare at his amma) "Are you mad at me?"
"Sort of. I'll deal. I only have one most precious and only grandson. I don't want to have to visit your grave and miss you." Dev stared at him along with the others.
Smokey stared at his heroes and role models, Smokescreen and Devcon of Praxus. He adored the ground his genitors hovered over but his Appa and Amma … they were his pantheon. They did EVERYTHING for him.
There were powerful people on Cybertron who stepped off the street to allow both of them to pass by if it was crowded. He saw the same people talk respectfully to both of them and for most of his life he thought that was the way it was supposed to be.
'Look at the highest of the elite being respectful to my grand genitors.'
It was only a while after that it all clicked in. There was NOTHING andNO ONE that they wouldn't face down for him, his father and his other father. They were formidable in a way that took most of his life to understand. To let them down or win their disapproval was gut wrenching. "You won't."
Dev stared at him, then nodded slightly. "I would be … unhappy if it ever was otherwise, Smokescreen. That's who you are to all of us and we, to you. That's the Praxian way and its our way. Chalk it up to the System or just the way things turned out but know this. You're our gold, our treasure. We don't want it spent stupidly. A scrum was a ticket to the Matrix for most."
He nodded. "It was tough. But I'm here."
"You will remain here," Tress said. "Or I'll … I will be hard to live with, Smokescreen."
He looked at his genitors, then his amma and appa.
Smokescreen grinned at his grandson. "Better eat that. It's better warm."
He did.
They would also watch the sports news and see together how clobbered he was when the blooper reel was run. But nothing he had happen to him matched the spectacular 'performance' of Ratchet, Springer, Drift and Kup.
Now that was epic.
-0-Clubbin'
They stood at the bar draining a beer.
Ratchet stared at Ironhide with an appraising expression. "You better get going. I'm going to count to ten and I'm already at eight."
Ironhide was gone before his glass landed on the bar.
-0-TBC 4-1-18 010-22-2022