The Diego Diaries: Scoutin' (dd6 407) see note at end if you haven't read dd6 again, you should. its the correct one :/
-0-Out there
They stood behind the kids as they listened to their instructor, the Council leader for the Colorado scout troop. Their kids and the visitors were listening and watching enraptured as they learned how to make fire without matches. They had been introduced, had talked together a little, then dived right in. This would happen, then lunch, then a hike. The bots who were too big to be too close watched, grinned and nodded as the humans ran the show. It had been decided that way before hand given the relative size and weight of the mechs.
"And that's how it happens," Phil Mertz said as smoke, then flame ignited his tiny handful of kindling. "What happens when you're finished with fire?"
"YOU PUT IT OUT REALLY WELL!" -everyone including the Cybertronian and Martian human kids
Cue the subtext (offline)
:That's a slagging lot of work: -Springer
:I wanted to shoot it with my igniter: -Drift
Everyone nodded as they watched transfixed as the kids scooped and cleared stuff out of a tiny hole so they could do it themselves. Brim who had gathered kindling and dry grass smiled up at Springer and the boys. [THIS IS SO FUN!] he said with a giant smile.
The human kids paused to look at him. "Is that your language?" one of them said.
Brim and the others looked at them, then nodded. "Yes."
"IT'S REALLY COOL!" -the Earth kids
[WE LIKE IT!] said Annie Lennox with a huge smile.
"YOU CAN SPEAK IT, TOO!?" -the Earth kids
"YES!" the Cybertronian human kids said.
"WOW! I LOVE THAT!" -the Earth kids
They then dug in to make fire.
The adult humans, the film crews and everyone else including the bots watched the kids with grins as they labored over their pointed sticks. This was going well. It would appear that the kids liked each other.
:Those human kids are cute: -Springer
:They are: Drift replied. :What's on the agenda, Atar, for the afternoon and evening? I heard that they just don't recharge right away. They do things before it:
Ironhide paused a moment to read the agenda. :We eat lunch, go identify plants around here, pick cranberries, do some games, eat dinner, have a talking circle, then hit the hay:
:Talking circle?: -everyone
:Everyone sits in a circle and tells stuff. They do it at night to learn things, to figure out who did what and give them praise … I like it. They hold a talking stick and when they do, no one else speaks. It's a Native American thing. A respect thing:
It was silent a moment as the bots digested that.
:I like that. But then, I like the Native Americans. They're made of respect: Drift said as everyone nodded.
Fire was made, everyone praised, then the Council leader gathered them up. "We need to eat lunch, then we're going into the meadows around here and identify plants. We're also going to pick cranberries and learn which things are edible and which aren't. Our kids will be mixed with the Cybertronian pack and we're going to have a leader with each group." He looked up at the bots and then the soldiers who were lounging nearby swatting mosquitoes. "You can come along, too. We'd be delighted to have your point of view and experience."
"I'd be delighted to have someone do something about the mosquitoes," Epps said crankily as everyone agreed.
"Those little bugs?" Ironhide asked.
They all nodded.
"Can you do something about them, Uncle Ironhide?" Annie Lennox asked hopefully.
He looked at her, went through his repertoire of defensive programming and selected one. Pulsing the message to the others, they linked up and flashed a low level buzz that the humans couldn't hear or feel. Instantly, the mosquitoes fled.
"WOW!" -the Earth humans
"AWESOME, UNCLE IRONHIDE!" -the Cybertronian human kids.
The Cybertronian Cybertronian kids glanced at each other, then grinned. "They bother you?" Brim asked.
"Oh yeah," Sandy said with relief. "They're pests."
"Thank you, Commander Ironhide. That's such a relief," the Council leader said as everyone nodded.
"We can keep it up and we will," Ironhide said glancing at the others who nodded.
"Then lets eat," the leader said with a smile.
Everyone whooped, then followed the Eagle Scouts as they began to get things ready around a campfire carefully set up in the tinder dry meadow. The Cybertronian scouts looked at them, then Ironhide. "What now, Uncle Ironhide?" Sosie asked sweetly.
"We eat what they sent along with us, infants. It looks pretty good." Drift walked to the shuttle, hopped inside, then returned with a metallic box. Setting it down, he opened it and pulled out boxes with the names of the kids lovingly inscribed. Handing them to the children as the cameras panned in, the kids walked to the others and waited.
The Council leader looked at them, then grinned. "What do you have for lunch?" he asked.
Tippy opened hers and he looked inside to see food shaped like a human's cuisine. There was a nice leafy lettuce embellished sandwich, a little bag with what looked like sliced apples, two big round cookies, something that he was convinced were carrot sticks and celery, then a little bottle of what looked like orange juice. He glanced up at her. "This looks so familiar."
"We eat all kinds of food. Some of it looks like yours. Some of it is ours," Tippy said as Annie walked to her to peer inside.
"It's made of energon and it looks and tastes just like ours. If we ate it, though, we would get sick. We can't eat energon. Uncle Rampage makes it. He's a genius," Annie said with a smile.
"Uncle Rampage?" Mr. Mertz asked.
They both nodded. "He was a Predacon before he became an Autobot. He was the left arm of Predaking." Annie smiled brilliantly.
The soldiers who were standing over their own food cooler grinned at the kids. This was getting to be an awesome assignment after all.
"Predaking … he's the leader of one of the groups of Decepticons in the area. Right?" Mr. Mertz asked.
They both nodded. "Uncle Optimus has him penned in, right, Daddy?" Annie asked as she glanced to her father.
"He does," Will said as he took the box lunch from Epps who was passing them around.
"See?" Annie said with a brilliant smile. Tippy joined her.
"Ah," Mertz said as he stood up straight. "That's … that's just amazing. Well, have a seat somewhere, Tippy, and enjoy. Annie, how about joining us for lunch, then you can find a place, too. We're going to be making hamburgers and hot dogs over the fire."
"That's going to be so great," Annie said as she walked back to the group nearby. "We do that when we go camping in the Valles with the Autobots and Uncle Optimus."
"The Valles?" Mertz asked.
"The Valles Marineris. It's the huge canyon on Mars. We think it was made when the mantle of Mars began to shrink from the core cooling and it folded and cracked," Annie said as she began to explain 'camping with Uncle Optimus'. Fortunately, she left off the boozing and all around hoo-haw.
:That's a great little femme: Drift said as they watched the humans with a grin.
:Won't get an argument out of us: Springer said as he caught his box lunch. :Little femme has an Autobrand tat and wants more:
:She wrecks: Drift said with a nod.
They got their meal boxes, then sat in the doorway of the shuttle which loomed nearby or on ammo boxes they dragged out for chairs. It was a very pleasant interlude watching the infants get to know each other and find that among the differences there were many, many similarities.
-0-Home y'all
"What's the drill then?"
Infants lined up to go to school smiled upward. "WE GO TO AMMAS! WE GO TO BOS'S HOUSE! WE DON'T LEAVE SCHOOL UNTIL THE TRANSPORT ARRIVES!" -All the peewees at once
"I go with Bos, Co-D and Reflector on the bus with Spot to spend the weekend," Sunspot said with a brilliant smile.
Ratchet leaned down to kiss him. "You're so cute." He smiled even bigger. "What about you lumps?"
Huge laughter and cackling.
"I going to Ammas. Ho-Ho comed wif me. Pax comed wif me." Orion glanced at the others. "No Po-Po. He goed to doing wif Amma Doh-Doh."
Prowler glanced at Orion, then Ratchet. "I go to Amma Delly's?"
Ratchet laughed. "Amma Delly is coming to get you." Delphi was coming in early to grab him for the weekend along with the others. Ratchet would be busy with Unidad and Ironhide was skippity-do-dahing down the bunny trail on Earth.
Hero smiled. "I'M GOING WITH AMMA ALOR! WE'RE GOING TO LAS VEGAS, HIM AND ME!"
Ratchet looked at her, then laughed loudly. "Remember. What happens in Vegas gets told to me anyway."
They laughed, the kids without knowing why. Ada was laughing so they did.
Halo who was holding onto the coffee table laughed, then smiled up at Ratchet. "You're staying with me until Trooper and Scout track me down. Is everyone ready to go to school?"
"YES!"
So down they went to the lobby and the bus stand beyond. Waving off buses and cabs filled with kids, Ratchet and Halo watched them go. Ratchet grinned, then called in. :Ironhide. What's up?:
:NOTHING! SLAGGER! NOTHING IS UP! WE MADE FIRE! WE GATHERED BERRIES! WE DID SONGS! WE LISTENED TO STUFF ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE! … those people are slagging amazing, Ratchet. Just slagging amazing. OTHER THAN THAT, NOTHING IS UP!:
Ratchet laughed loudly. :Well, that's nice. Halo and I are off to Unidad. Ratchet out:
Somewhere on Earth, a big black mechanism was having a slow burn even if he was delighted to prance around the wilderness identifying plants and picking berries … he held the bucket and used his sensors to find them … while trading slag with Prowl, Springer, Drift, and the soldiers as they waited for Lim-Lee, Maxi and Holi to come.
All in all, it was a blast.
-0-TBC 7-9-18 edited 7-10-18
Sorry about the wrong posting. I try to write ahead when I think something is coming up and I might not be able to post. Usually, I can. I will re-post that one in order with additions and changes so it won't be a repeat post for those of you who read it. :D This is out of control. ;)