The Diego Diaries: After the Ball (dd6 493)
(Haven't edited this. Is everyone getting it? I've had trouble over the last few ensuring that its going out.)
-0-Ops Center, morning
They gathered, the military and a few of the civilian members of the Autobot City Community Committee to discuss and update the situation. It had been an entire orn since the situation had exploded into a shootout and a dire problem of still unknown quantities. They came to the Ops Center conference room and sat. Ratchet, Drift and Jetta were there, though with obvious wounds displayed. After a moment of commiseration, they began. Prime glanced at Prowl who looked down table. "Wheeljack, Perceptor, report," he said.
It was quiet, then Wheeljack began. "The specimen for the test solution, Crader himself had a fitful night. He's awake and aware, though his status is held in stasis. He can listen and watch with his optics, tracking us when we walk past but he can do nothing more. We've studied the overnight data and found nothing in the parts of himself … his spark and spark chamber as well as his database of knowledge that is his personally that might have begun any process of transmutation of his current protoform. We've watched him down to the molecular level and see nothing that would indicate that this process would happen now."
"I want over the data, too, watching three areas that had the potential to be trigger spots for this process to begin if it could. The frontal nodes of his processor, his neural network and his circulatory system. There is nothing there that shows anything but normal functioning. Checking the protoform he now wields under the most powerful scopes we have including Percy, there's nothing that shows the process transferred with him to this new format," Ratchet concluded.
Prime looked relieved. "What if it takes more than a few orns?"
"We have implanted into the protoform and added to his jacks devices to monitor that and alert if anything falls outside the established normal ratios for our species. He cannot remove them and he can't access them. They send information to us in a constant stream," Perceptor said.
Prime nodded as he considered that. "It would appear, perhaps, that their seemingly invincible abilities are not so infinite."
"I would concur," Ratchet said as the other two nodded.
"What can you tell me from scans of their databases that can shed light on this situation?" Prime asked.
"We've downloaded a copy and have worked on keyword searches. The firewalls were intense but we breached them, those that contain recent information. This mech is a piece of work," Jazz said as Elita and Mirage nodded. "He has firewalls on his firewalls. He's got locks on his locks but we did find repeating information in the searches made so far. He's close to the Imperialis brothers, has access to tech from aliens way past the Benzuli, perhaps even multi dimensional individuals. He's one seriously dangerous fragger. He took their tech, applied it to his family and didn't look back. You spotted the weirdness right away, Ratchet."
Ratchet nodded. "I did. I do believe that these fraggers are working on a process rather than an installation of various tech that can boost their transformations. This seems to be a mutating process in the others that were brought forward, the big one, Cobbler. He's mutating at a slow but steady pace toward becoming the same fragger that Crader is."
"Oh, joy," Springer said grimly. "Just what we need. More Craders."
"We have one of them plugged in from his stasis so that we can track what happens. Its not a fast process for now but who knows what it means later? The others are in stasis, deep medical. The nine we jumped that are equal in development to Crader are still in the spark locker. The others are in high security lock ups at the prison. They were transferred there last night but for Cobbler. He's our study subject," Perceptor said. "We have him alerted. Should he jump in development, we will disable him like the others but with a much more manageable protoform."
"We used all the ununtrium stuff with the first ten," Drift said. He was lounging in a chair next to Springer who was tense as he glanced at Drift when he shifted painfully.
"Clavis IV has a shipment coming in this evening. We're going to send it to the Master of Metallurgy at Industrial Park 6 and have him make us special cutting tools, chisels and cutting shears. He's got the know how to do it," Wheeljack said. "Some of the dies will be made by your genitors, Ratchet."
"Then it'll be done right and swiftly," Ratchet said.
"Imperialis," Prime mused. "What did you find?"
"They were in partnership before the war and helped any side with shanix during it. They were supplying the Decepticons and stealing Autobot weapons and supplies to do it. They trafficked in tech. It would appear that Scorponok was a runner for them and so were a few others we haven't caught but they're flagged if they show up here or anywhere else in the Empire.
"Ebio Imperialis is close friends with Crader's son, Diston. We don't have that slagger yet either. He might even be with Imperialis. We need to go through Crader's processor carefully to find out all he can tell us. Even with what we've done this far in the conventional manner, we only have 15% access to all he carries in his databases," Perceptor said. "We've alerted Atlas and he's going through their data at Oasis Base to find what they have and take any still there into custody. They will then transfer them to us here on Mars."
"Good," Prime said. He glanced at Barron. "I see this as federal and thus a Primal Hearing situation. I also see that it falls quite fully into special circumstances."
Barron nodded. "This category of criminal and these charges are beyond the scope and reach of mere trials. This requires a level of review that we don't have ourselves. Whether They come to address this or not, it's a special circumstances situation all around."
"The Pantheon might be getting irritated that we keep coming back to them," Ironhide said with a slight grin. "What do you think, Amma?" he asked as he glanced at a screen with Turbine's face peering back with a stern expression.
Turbine grinned at his little mech, then shrugged. "It comes with the territory, Ironhide. I think when you live your life in a place in which there's no time, you don't notice the crush."
"Outside of time … that would be great. I could sleep in and no one would complain," Jetta said with a grin.
"I dare you," Elita said. "I dare you to recharge in later."
Huge laughter and smirks greeted that remark.
Prime grinned at Jetta. "You walked into that one."
"I did," Jetta said with a grin. "By the way, this new influx is giving us skilled finish workers in interior construction so we're stepping it up with Crater 2. We'll be able to house 17,000,000 individuals there when its finished. We're ahead of schedule. Given that everyone is coming slowly enough, we can stay with this for them and have literally oceans of space waiting for families and individuals."
"That relieves my processor," Prime said, then glanced at Wheeljack. "When can I speak to Crader?"
"Later this afternoon," Wheeljack said. "I suspect that he's going to be allowed to come to sentience so we can watch the data. He won't feel his body nor understand what's happened. He's going to be awake but kept under physical constraint. What he's like when he awakens, who knows? But he won't know what's happened to him because he can't see himself."
Prime nodded. They chatted some more, then the group broke up to head out into the fray once more. Most of them would be heading toward either Metro Femme or Cybertron. Even Magnus would be gone until mid afternoon traversing the slowly rising reclamation of the planet.
-0-Ratchet and Ironhide along with a supporting cast of many
They walked into the room where Crader lay on a med berth, restrained, sedated and hooked in. Ratchet looked at the data, stared at the mech, then sat down on a stool. "He's looking good. Nothing that shows what a slagger he was. I wonder how he's going to like being 12 feet shorter and that much smaller?"
"Dynamite comes in small packages," Ironhide said as he sat on a stool nearby. "What now? You going to hang out here or go about your business. Hanging out in a morgue hardly seems fun."
"It is. Halloween is not so far away," Ratchet replied.
"I know. I should be getting their costumes soon. They wanted to be birds. They're going to be a flock of birds, their choices," Ironhide said.
"What sort of birds?" Ratchet asked with a smirk.
"I'm not telling. I don't want to ruin the surprise," Ironhide said with a grin. "The big kids, all nine of them are going to their sub adult club in Iacon. They planned a party and everyone who's anyone will be there apparently."
"Do they need chaperons?" Ratchet asked with a grin as they walked out to the office nearby on the 49th floor.
"Probably but we're going to be flocking around The City trick-or-treating," Ironhide said with a grin. "You should see the costumes but you're not going to. So don't ask."
"Slave driver," Ratchet said with a grin. "Good that the kids are going to the club. You might want to have that talk with Fireball and Lumi. They're getting a bit of teasing about their friendship from some kids, nothing major but its happening."
"Frag that," Ironhide said with a nod.
"Ditto," Ratchet said as he looked at the clutter on his desk. "Why don't you go show the flag and Halo to the multitudes. I have to clear this slag or die trying."
"Don't do that," Ironhide said as he rose. He walked to the door, then waved as he walked out heading to who knew where. Prime was on world today and the next few, then a long period of inspections, meetings and other slag on Cybertron and the local group would commence. Of course, that all depended upon Crader and his gang.
-0-Nearby at Metro Femme later on
He came partially out of medical sentience, semi aware but not conversant as Wheeljack and Perceptor checked this and that internal thing. Then they attempted to download more of his databases which were highly protected and difficult. They had transferred from his old body with his spark and once his spark was put back it jump started that information returning to the new processor. That would house it and his personal self which would return to it after the triggering. It was both a reasonable and protocol process for someone who was deeply injured but modified for him because they weren't prepared for him to become self aware yet. They needed more time to get as much as they could before sparring with him for the rest.
It would be a long afternoon until Prime appeared later on to watch Crader be brought to sentience by Ratchet and Perceptor. Then the real hard work would begin.
-0-Intermediate School, Iacon, lunch room
They sat as a group together and with other friends gathered. The main topic of discussion was the club on Halloween. No one was going to wear a costume but they were going to dance, play games, eat the food that would be there and have a great time. Lumi sat beside Fireball with his arm around him. Nearby watching them, several students whispered about the pair. They were a 'thing' and it was mesmerizing. No one before them had been so open in their likes, though a lot of the kids in the upper levels had begun to notice that sort of thing lately.
Ironhide would have his work cut out for him.
-0-Later that afternoon
They gathered in the lab room in the morgue at Metro Femme. Prime stood with Prowl near the berth as Ratchet, Wheeljack and Perceptor discussed what they would do. Then when they decided, Ratchet turned to the still mech and began to begin the long slow process of bringing him out of all levels of medical stasis. It was silent as the bots watched him, knowing each of them the steps Crader was traveling as he rose to the light once more. He stirred, this and that twitched, then the noticeable features of rebooting could be seen. It took little time after that for his optics to online and his optical ridges to blink. He glanced to the sides, then spotted Ratchet.
"Hello, slagger. Welcome back," Ratchet said with a grin.
"Frag you," Crader said as he flexed his arms to test his bonds. They were tight as a drum. "Where am I? This feels weird."
"It should," Ratchet said. He glanced at Prime who nodded. "Listen up. We had a problem keeping you in line so we removed your spark chamber."
Crader stared at Ratchet, then glanced at Prime. "Is that so?" he asked with a tight expression on his different face.
"Yes, it is," Ratchet said. "We did it because your undead body was trying to get your spark chamber out of storage. We fixed that impertinence by having Xantium Supreme step on it. We had no other choice."
He stared at Ratchet. "I don't believe you. You can't break that format."
"Keep up," Ratchet said. "We did. We then decided to experiment to see if you operated as a virus or stimulant that caused your condition or if it was something different. The smart money is on something different, something that's long term manipulation, like CNA splicing. As for you, we packed you back into a body so that we could have this little conversation."
"A body?" Crader asked with rising concern. "What kind of body?"
Ratchet stared at him. "A manageable body. You wouldn't cooperate so we stuffed you into the kind of body that we could manage with you in it." He stared at Crader. "A mini-con mech body."
It was silent a moment as Crader stared at him, then the room exploded into the most colorful array of swearing in several dialects yet seen on world. It would go on for a while.
-0-TBC 10-11-18 edited 10-12-18