The Diego Diaries: Inter Face (dd6 464) (Sorry. Tired last night.) :D
-0-Iacon, far away
Springer stared at the school building nearby where kids were leaving, some with genitors and others alone or with their friends. A young kid was waiting there, a smaller less mature and filled out version of Drift. A terrible pang went through him as he watched the youngster. Thoughts of Drift being young and on his own, vulnerable to bad influences and with fewer resources than he had himself came to him. Drift's genitors were hard working but they drank. They were also in and out of jail and were tough. He was often on his own and even though they clearly loved him and said so often, they weren't the stalwart figures kids need to become adults without issues.
At that moment, Springer hated Sentinel and all of them with all his spark. Here was a Drift with good genitors who sent him to a school that would allow him entrance, who provided a home and contact with grand genitors. He crossed the street, then slowed as the youngster noted him. He was standing by himself as other kids walked out. Coming down the steps, he walked to Springer. "Ada … are we going to Amma and Appa's house?" the kid asked as he stared upward at Springer.
Springer stared at him, at the youthful face of the only bot he ever loved with all his spark. "We are. We better book it," he said as he turned to go. The kid fell in beside him as they walked down the street. "How was school?"
The kid frowned. "Awful."
"Tell me," Springer said as he slowed. They halted and stepped out of the traffic flow of people walking here and there. "What happened?"
"The usual," he said grimly. "I don't want to fight. They want me to fight. I hate school."
Springer considered that. "Have you told your- … Atar? Talk to him."
"I don't want to. He thinks I need to stand up to them. I don't like fighting. I don't want to do it," Drift said with a stubborn set of his jaw. His handsome face was entrancing at this stage of his youth. There was no Deadlock intervening period. This kid always was and ever would be just Drift.
"What about the school?" Springer asked as a sensation of protection reared itself in his spark. This kid was … Drift.
"You already went, remember? They said if they don't see it, how can they fix it?" Drift said with emotion.
He was young, perhaps just entering sub adulthood from his youngling stages, Springer thought. He was tall for his age and it might account for some of this. Maybe. "Oh. Right. Come on. We're heading out. Frag them for now."
Drift stared at him, then grinned slightly. "Swearing. I thought you and Atar weren't going to do that around me."
"Don't tell him," Springer said as he headed onward. The youngster walked with him looking and feeling energetically a bit better. They reached the subway station and went down disappearing from view.
-0-Elsewhere
Alt Springer from the Mirror Universe sat on a train heading toward Kaon. The world was a lot like his own but different. Strange but familiar. When he got to Kaon he would hide in the clubs. Maybe he could make his way back to the top of his faction. He led the biggest extortion racket on Cybertron before. What would stop him here? The boys should be there and it wouldn't take much time to get back on top. He rode in the train eyeballing the good looking mechs sitting around the car. He missed Ironhide but they had an agreement. If neither one was there to scratch that itch, getting someone else to do it was fine. The only rule? No one else could take each others place. Say what you would about both he and Ironhide, Ratchet was right.
They were one.
The train zoomed onward.
-0-Mars
It was silent in the room as they stared at Springer. He was tense and silent himself. Prowl was thinking, then he turned to Ratchet. "You don't exist in our world. Do you in the others? The alternative … what do you call their universe?"
"Mirror image. Things are pretty identical but when we stare at each other, we get a backward image," Ratchet replied.
Prowl nodded. "Let's plot the universes then. Starting with ours, we're peaceful, prosperous with all including other species, part of confederations and councils that protect others, especially emergent ones like the humans. We're cultured, have no incidences of war in our past, are advanced technologically, and are ruled as we were from the start by a god. We have a senate and a number of councils that assist the leadership of our empire which was gathered by agreement and settlement, not force but Optimus Prime is the leader and godhead of our species."
"The alternate universe has many similarities to ours," Ratchet said. "They have all the same people and then some, though their titanic frames are not huge but our size. You don't have them at all, nor Seekers. All of us in this room exist there and here, but I don't exist in your universe. Some of us are bonded to others or not bonded. Your Prime isn't. He has a relationship with Sentinel Prime who was a terrific war criminal here, recalled by the Pantheon and The One. Those groups exist in all three universes.
"They have war but it didn't devastate their universe. The Autobots are the bad guys and the Decepticons are the good. They both exist here but the 'Cons don't in yours. They've gotten a handle on their conflict and ended it relatively intact. We didn't. We're sifting the debris to rebuild and Megatron still exists. Their Megatron is the good guy and ours evil incarnate. We can exist with the others, the alternatives in close proximity and you can't. Their images of us are evil but they must be more like us energetically than you because we've stood face to face and nothing happened. We didn't get yanked around like you. You must be so much different in some unknown way that you can't exist in the same space with your counterparts here."
"But Springer is likely with the good guy Prime," Raptor said.
"For the sake of this discussion, let's call him Orion," Ratchet said as all nodded.
"That's his life name," Springer said. "His regnal name is Optimus Prime."
"Same here," Ratchet replied. "I would say … alt Springer is enough odd energetically perhaps to spark a jump in proximity to one of you because of the distance your universe is from ours and his," Ratchet said to Prowl and Springer. "If he gets close enough, the dichotomy begins … they can't occupy the same space and he's flung into the other dimension."
"So all we have to do is hope he comes close to your Springer if he's in our dimension and gets flung back here. That way, I go home. The same with Prowl," Springer said.
"Yes," Ratchet said. "Maybe. But consider this … how does that happen? How do we get close enough to spark the jump? And, what started this in the first place? Even if we can do that, what prevents the process from continuing?"
"The alien babies … when they ruptured space," Wheeljack said.
"Or its the Benzuli striking out, hitting on strange energy," Ratchet said. "We don't know what the frag it all means yet. We have to figure this out but I think a real good look at your energetic signature, those of the alt prisoners and our own is a good first step."
Perceptor nodded. "I agree. We have to start from ground zero which is the jumpers."
"What do you theorize about the possibility of others jumping? What about children or elders?" Hardie asked.
It was appalling, the energy in the room for a moment. Ratchet stared at Prowl and Springer. "Tell us about the families of the senior staff. It would appear that we're being targeted here almost."
"I have a son, Drift," Springer said. "Most of the senior staff are in bonds but there aren't many kids. Just a few of us."
"No babies, then," Hardie asked.
"No. Drift is the youngest kid in the group of us and he's just sub adult," Springer said as Prowl nodded.
Ratchet relaxed. "Good. Then we don't have that worry."
"We just have to get home," Springer said. "My son is going through a difficult time right now and I have to go home."
Prowl nodded. "We'll get back. Its processor over matter."
"Then we get on it," Prime said. Everyone rose to go including Springer and Prowl. Prime watched them go, then rose himself to follow. The entire time he thought about what was happening to Prowl and Springer.
-0-Springer and Drift
They walked into the apartment again, then Drift walked to his room. Ironhide wasn't there. When Drift walked out, he sat down across from Springer who was sitting tensely on a couch, a very expensive couch in a very expensive apartment. Drift stared at him. "Will you tell Atar? I don't want to go to school this way. I want to just go there for sports and learning, not fighting with mechs who won't leave me alone."
"Who are they?" Springer asked.
"Just some idiots. Their genitors are on the city council. They think they're important," Drift said with typical teenaged angst.
"Give me their names," he said as he subbed a small data wafer and tossed it to the kid. "Names, addresses and offenses. Do it."
Drift sat up brightening a bit. "What are you going to do, Ada?" he asked.
Springer grinned at him. "Nothing you need to know. Just do it and don't tell anyone else."
Drift began to fill out the details when the monitor rang. Springer rose, then walked to it. He looked at the panel, then pressed a button that he hoped worked.
Ironhide's face appeared. He grinned. "Hey. Come to the airport. I have the runabout. We can fly to Polyhex now."
"On it," Springer said, then Ironhide cut the circuit. Watching the kid out of the corner of his optic, Springer made a search through a lot of personal stuff until he had enough information to function. He also noticed from the images there that he wasn't covered in the right tattoos.
"I have them all," Drift said as he rose to hand the disk to his ada. He frowned slightly. "What happened to your paint scheme, Ada?"
Springer looked down and was about to speak when Drift did. "Is that for the new thing you're doing with the detectives?"
"It is," Springer said hoping that was as far as it would go. "Come on. Let's go." He headed for the door as he subbed the disk. Walking out with the gangling youth, they made their way downward, outward, then downward again. Walking through a pristine metro station, he let the youngster board the proper train, then entered as well. It was a short ride to the local commercial airport and a shorter walk to their personal runabout.
"What took you so long? Your ada is going to clap my helm," Ironhide said as he held the door for his son.
Drift hugged him, then climbed in to buckle up. Springer walked around, then entered the passenger side. He sat, then buckled in. Tamping down his emotional subroutines and overall nervous tension, he watched as Ironhide climbed in and did the same. "How was school, Drift?" Ironhide asked as he got the vehicle ready to fly.
Drift frowned. "I don't want to talk about it, Atar."
"Later," Ironhide said as he glanced at Springer. "We have to do something about this."
"He doesn't want to fight," Springer said as Ironhide got clearance and they began to move. "He shouldn't have to do that just to go to school."
"I hear ya," Ironhide said as he rose into the air and flew their vehicle into the traffic heading upward to the peak point of altitude that would allow them to glide back down into Polyhex. It was silent a moment. "I'm going to talk to Marsio's genitors sooner or later. City council be fragged."
Springer glanced over his shoulder at the cute youngster in the backseat playing a game on a handheld device. "I'll be your alibi."
They began to descend into Polyhex. Springer stared at it with a sense of homesickness he hadn't felt in a long time. He was looking at a familiar, unfamiliar place. They came in to land, then from there walked to the train station that would take them to his genitor's home. Springer was solemn and silent, alternating between agonizing need to see his genitors again and a searing fear about what he could do to screw this up. They rode in comfortable silence, at least for Ironhide, then got off at the station that Springer had used when he went to school.
That is, the period of time allowed to mid caste kids, that is. How would they do the mercantile and other businesses ventures if they didn't have at least some schooling?
It was a familiar street that they walked and a semi familiar building that would take them up to the apartment they had here. Their store, if they still had one was a mile and a half away in the business sector and here in the mid caste district of Harrow or Hooterville (the Cybertronian equivalent thereof) as some called it, they kept their home. It wasn't high caste but it was worlds and universes away from that of Ratchet, Magnus, Drift, and Prime.
They went into the lobby which looked the same but was incredibly high end. The elevator took them upward and they stepped off into a lobby that was equally as beautiful. Ironhide took Drift's device as he stepped out playing it as he did. The youngster frowned at him, then sulked as they walked down the hallway. Reaching the door that Springer knew was his own, he girded himself and lowered his emotions a bit more.
Ironhide rapped on the door, then it opened. He grinned. "We're here," he said as he was pulled inside. Drift was next, then Springer with a tingling sensation on his neural net stepped inside as well. That was when his ada turned from his grandson to envelope him in his embrace. Springer gripped him tightly, his optics shuttered against the sight of everyone and everybody at once. All he could do was hold his ada tightly.
-0-TBC 9-8-18