The Diego Diaries: HOOPS! (dd6 552)
=0=The Game
Grimlock came at the goal like a missile toward its acquired target. Hardie leaped and slammed into him as he began to set up to shoot. It was just enough to jolt the ball out of bounds. Grimlock in his fury turned on Hardie and came at him. Hardie who was agile and deceptive set for the attack. Grimlock swung on him and whiffed as Hard Drive ducked. A nicely laid punch to the chassis was landed, one that Hardie knew worked very well on the big mechs and it was no different this time.
Grimlock took the hit and stepped back, raising his servos in a boxer stance. The blow had been hard and concentrated, hurting more than it should have for being delivered by such a slight appearing bot.
Raptor who was standing nearby slammed his fists together. "FIGHT!" he cried with delight. The crowd roared with him.
Grimlock and Hardie circled each other as the refs watched. It was INCOMPREHENSIBLE to the humans watching everywhere that such a thing should happen in a basketball game.
On Earth.
The crowd was stoked, Hardie was dodging powerful blows and no one seemed upset in a natural manner that this was happening.
The cameras scanned the crowd noting that Delphi was smirking at the confrontation and the rest of the family was watching with interest. No one seemed fearful or worried, which in and of itself was worrying.
For the human audience watching.
They sparred but Grimlock couldn't land a punch at the swiftly dodging mech so a rather bored appearing ref blew a whistle. "ENOUGH! EITHER LAND ONE OR LET'S PLAY BALL!" He tossed the ball to Grimlock. "Take it in from there," he said as he pointed to the sidelines.
Grimlock walked to it with a slow burn as the players regrouped for the toss in. Grimlock threw it hard at Hardie who deflected it off his arm. It stung but didn't break anything. Prime glanced at him and nodded so he walked off and was replaced by Jetta. The crowd roared, Grimlock roared and Chromia was given the ball.
Maelstrom was watching the game with Nitro and Payload. They were standing next to the Primal Box with Bulkhead, their families furiously yelling at the teams as they played. He was bursting at the rivets over Chromia who was showing enormous strength and skill tonight. The others had congratulated him on her various moments of great heroism and he had nodded with a grin. Nothing could get better than this right now. He personally didn't care for basketball but would sign on for football next season. He wanted to be on her team. Given that she was an all around athlete, he would just bask in the glory of the commentary that was flowing around him like milk and honey.
He was muy contento, Our Maelstrom.
The ball went back and forth, then Omega dunked one after landing a fist in Ironhide's face. Given that he hadn't cocked his arm to do it, it was ruled eligible.
Barely.
Iacon, 32 and Tarn, 15.
Ironhide staggered, then gathered himself, all three of them. With a bit of persuasion, he ambled to the bench to sit as Raptor took his place. That made it Prime, Magnus and Chromia as forwards, Blackjack and Hardie as defense and Raptor jonesing for a slagging at goalie. Ironhide sat down next to Elita and Arcee as they waited for the next rotation.
Prime threw the ball in to Blackjack between the legs of Xantium who lunged at Prime with a big grin on his face. Prime lunged back and it was on. Neither of them could use their servos so they laid into it with their shoulders. Given that a fight was always a MAJOR spectator sport among the big mechs, the littler ones used it to their advantage. As Magnus deliberately blocked the view to the other team's goal, Hardie ran with the ball, bouncing around the mechs as they paused long enough to watch, then rammed himself hard into the big goalie who had turned to watch him come like a shark.
He was slammed off his peds as Hardie slid to a halt. He then turned and gently put the ball through the hoop.
Iacon, 37, Tarn, 15.
Meanwhile, the shoving match between Xantium and Prime continued. Zee was laughing loudly as he slowly pushed Prime toward his own goal. Prime grinned as he grunted against the big mech, then slowly he skid to a halt. Zee leaned into it as he noticed Kappa peering over the edge of her row to watch him. Being a fool for love, he poured on the heat and began to make headway again. Prime began to slide toward the goal, through the goalie zone and over the back line. The others watched as they sparred, then Zee pushed him hard into a wall.
Staring down in aghast and gathering anger 70 feet overhead, Prowl looked around, picked up a bottle of something for the kids and went bombs away on Xantium's helm. Before Ratchet could grab it, the bottle fell, landed on Zee and bounced off.
Heavily.
Stepping back to stare upward as he rubbed his helm, Ratchet smiled down at him. Then he pointed toward Prowl who glanced at Ratchet with shock and outrage. He leaped on Ratchet and down they went. A roar went up as the crowd weighed in. It was a typical crowd moment in Cybertronian sports. Prime looked up, grinned at Zee, then walked back to the court to regroup.
Xantium joined him and the ball was put into play by Omega who had a laugh at Xantium in spite of himself. "You never learn," Omega said as he shot the ball to his little brother.
Zee ran down the court bumping and bouncing players off his body until he charged Magnus. That mech had braced himself and when they came together, it rang loudly. Without touching Zee with his servos and vice versa, they grappled awkwardly together until they both flew off their peds, spiraled through the air over the Tarn bench, then hit the wall hard. They both fell to the ground loudly.
Ratchet who was climbing back up off the floor grabbed the rail and stood up. Prowl joined him as they stared down at the game in time to see Zee and Magnus fly through the air. "Well, well, well … you don't see that everyday."
"You're certifiable," Prowl said as he studiously avoided his bemused genitors standing behind him with Possibility and Solus.
"Says you. Who beamed Zee just now in front of twelve planets?" Ratchet replied as they watched Magnus get up and walk off. Zee clambered up and followed him with a frown.
"Twelve planets? Since when?" Prowl said as he folded his arms over his chassis. His gaze was riveted upon Optimus who was getting the ball going again since Magnus was seen to be the last touching it as they got airborne.
"Big whiner." Ratchet grinned as Ironhide waved to him from the bench. Ratchet waved back, coveting his cymbals in the carry hold of his Appa. He could use them right now.
The game burst into speed again and down the floor they ran with Tarn in hot pursuit. They were blocked, then Tarn tried and was blocked. Prime put the ball in and began again, passing the ball in a complicated circuit to boggle their opponents. When he got it, he jumped and with an almost impossible grace dunked the ball.
Iacon, 42, Tarn, 15.
A whistle was heard as a ref called a penalty. Someone had been a bad mech. Blackjack had tried to trip Omega and it was so obvious that no one could say he didn't deserve the penalty.
Raptor stared at him with amusement. "Slagger. Didn't we teach you to cheat better than that?"
Blackjack shrugged, then watched as Omega got two dunks for the penalty. "Frag. What's their score now? 21?"
Raptor nodded. "Well done, infant. Which side are you on again?"
Blackjack grinned at his father. "Slagger," he said as they took their places and it began again.
Round and round they went as Raptor ran in for a shot. He leaped up surprising high for such a big mech, then shot the ball behind his back to Magnus. Magnus caught it and palmed the ball over the helms of everyone to Optimus who jumped up to catch it. When he did Grimlock charged him and with his own momentum they flew off the court and into the sidelines to slam into a wall. Down they both slid, then sat a moment to watch the birdies sing.
In the stand Prowl was bellowing invective to the big Dinobot who was feeling no pain himself.
Yet.
Getting up slowly, they walked to the sidelines where the refs read them both the riot act, then gave the ball to Prime.
"No penalties?" Raptor asked with surprise.
"Do you want one?" the little ref asked.
Raptor grinned. "Frag the refs!"
He got one.
Raptor walked off to sit on the bench for three minutes while Arcee walked in to take his place. He sat down beside Ironhide and draped his arm over the big mech's shoulders. "This is almost as much fun as cannonballing at the water park."
Ironhide nodded. He grinned. "You got that right."
The snap of the two of them would make every sports magazine and show on three worlds. It wasn't often that one found a grandpa and grandson playing on the same professional basketball team.
It was brutal as they played, punching, slamming, railroading and other acts of eviction on any other world and game than this erupted across the shiny floors of the big arena. 100,000 fans lost their shit in the stands along with the odd tossed bottle or Cybertronian equivalent of panties. Springer, Drift and his team along with the high caste school kids from football had a good time watching the game which was oddly enough almost totally free of incident.
Unless you counted Prowl.
They would.
Prime scored twice more. Arcee scored once with an assist from Chromia. Magnus would drop one in and get a free throw after Xantium punched his face with a cocked fist.
The juvenile delinquent.
The final score when the siren rang out loudly was Iacon, 65 and Tarn, 21.
Iacon was a winner.
At last.
The crowd lost its collective stuff.
=0=Half a joor later
They gathered in the Iacon locker room to celebrate the hoo-haw of the thing-a-mabob. The family came in droves to check out the carnage and pay their respects to the Prime. Optimus and his team were celebrating the win with a beer as the door opened and closed to accommodate everyone. The press was outside and there were interviews to do but for now there was only the exultation of victory.
There was also the examination of bruises and other bent things as Ratchet checked each of them out for injuries. He had seen worse in the games they had back in the day in the neighborhood. Grinning, he hugged Ironhide. "You looked good flying through the air."
"You looked insane with that stuff, Ratchet," Hardie said. "I will say that it kept me going through my joor of need."
"They took it all, cymbals, air horn, hat and tamborine," Ratchet said with a smirk at his ada.
"YOU'RE NOT GETTING THEM BACK, SONNY!" Ravel said with a frown.
"SEE ME LATER, SONNY! I HAVE THEM IN MY HOLD!" Appa Ratchet said as he patted his chassis.
The door opened as Springer and Drift came inside to greet and be greeted by the slaggers. He paused by Prowl. "I have a request by the league to arrest your aft for your bombs away, Prowl," Springer said.
The place got intensely quiet.
"*Really*?" Prowl asked with barely concealed disgust and contempt.
"Tell you what, Springer," Ratchet said. "Prowler and I are going on the town. Wait a joor or so and get two for the price of one." He smiled blindingly.
Huge laughter greeted that as Alor and the others volunteered to come along. Springer grinned. "We have to go as well. Dad's standing order."
"The more the merrier," Ratchet said as the others agreed.
Prowl stared at him with a frown. "I saw worse out there and you want to arrest ME!?"
"I would. Dropping a bottle on a mech's head from 70 feet is at the very least poor form, son," Miler said with a slight smirk.
Prowl stared at him, then Prime. "I'm going to tie one on. Pick me up at jail in the morning."
"I have to arrest you," Springer said with a grin.
"Catch me, *MRS OPTIMUS PRIME*," Prowl said as he hugged Optimus. "You were a champion. *THE* CHAMPION! NOTICE THAT I SAID THAT!? OPTIMUS PRIME IS A CHAMPION!"
Optimus grinned at him. "I am coming, too."
They all would.
Springer would pretend hot pursuit.
=0=TBC 12-22-18 edited 12-27-18
Notes tomorrow. :D
Invective – a fancy word for insults and other verbal assaults (in-VEK-tiv)