The Diego Diaries: Chooglin' On (dd6 613)
=0=Therapy Room, Autobot City Rehabilitation Center, Autobot City Medical Center
"Walk back now."
Springer turned slowly, then began to walk back to the other side of the room. He moved awkwardly, then paused next to a tense Drift. "Why the frag is it so slow?"
Miso, his therapist grinned. "You dashed five nodes. When you smashed yourself, it destroyed a node, then shorted out four others. Think of it as a power outage. We had to replace all of them, all of these mini processors who are expediters for your processor … mini brains if you will. It takes a bit of time to re-calibrate all of them with your processor so they function in balance. It will accelerate shortly but allow the systems to sync. Until then, you need to just do what we tell you and it'll come."
Springer frowned. "What about going back on duty? When will I be certified to go?"
"You won't be for a bit longer. Understand and hear me … if you don't do it this way you will harm yourself and we'll be back at the drawing board. Ratchet has to personally sign off on this as well. He told me that you don't do what you're told so we're going to be extra tough on you. He said if you don't do what we want he's going to turn the case over to First Aid."
Springer glanced at Miso sharply. "Uh, that's alright."
Drift grinned. "Ada plays hard ball."
"He does. I wouldn't cross him. He sleeps with Ironhide," Miso said with a chuckle. "Now, walk back there again, turn as normally as you can and walk back here."
Springer sighed and complied.
=0=Not that far away in the same building
"We're going to ask you some questions and we expect you to answer them. Right now, you're awake, if somewhat impaired," Prowl began.
"YOU REMOVED MY ARMS AND LEGS! THAT'S MORE THAN SOMEWHAT IMPAIRED!" Pulsar said as he tried to sit up. It was harder than it looked without arms and legs.
Ratchet pressed him back down, then dialed down his functions even more. "I'd just relax. You're not going to be allowed to maraud but you'd make a slagging good coaster at the next staff party."
Prowl swallowed a guffaw, something that Prime didn't bother to do. He was out of the line of sight for Pulsar so it would fall to Ironhide to bear the burden of the look of absolute hatred that Pulsar sent their way.
Ironhide didn't mind. He gave his own back.
"We can stand here all orn or you can do yourself some good. You don't have to be this way forever. We can denature mechs like you now. We have a number in our collection," Prowl said.
Ironhide stepped closer imposing his dark brooding awesomeness onto the prone figure. "We took down the Decepticon Justice Division, Black Shadow and fragged the afts off Heretech and Killmaster. You don't give us a lot of concern, Pulsar. Answer the questions and get a decent life back."
"Behind bars or in punitive stasis?" Pulsar asked coldly.
"Your choice," Ratchet said as he unsubbed his rotary saw and let it spin for a second. "I'm good no matter which way this goes," he said as he subbed it again.
Prowl stared at Ratchet almost too long before turning back to Pulsar again. "You intercepted Shrike and took over his group. We have him and them in prison or the morgue. It didn't go well for your group once you were bagged. Tell us about that."
Pulsar glared at Prowl, a mechanism from the same elevated circumstances as himself. They had never met but most of the most powerful and wealthy of the high castes knew of each other and some of their family were acquainted. Prowl was smart and cold. He was a mech after his own image. "He made the mistake of attacking me. Something is wrong with that mech."
"That's kind of cute coming from you," Ironhide said.
Pulsar stared holes into Ironhide. That mech he'd met long ago when his family tried to get the influence of Ironhide's family, mostly Hard Drive, Ironhide the Elder and Blackjack the Elder for a project that needed Praxian support. They didn't get it and had never forgotten it. Given that they were Elites, his own family could do nothing about it. "Frag you, Ironhide. You and your family. I can't imagine that they survived the Seeker assault. Too bad for you."
Ironhide smirked slightly. "I wouldn't count on it. I just called them to come say hello. All of them survived, slagger. We're Praxian Elites. It takes more than that to slow, let along end us."
Ratchet grinned. "Bring the hurt, Ironhide."
Ironhide grinned at Ratchet as behind him coming down the hallway outside heavy ped falls could be heard. Everyone glanced at the door as huge mechs, big and heavily black armored began to file into the room. Hard Drive came first, then Sun, Jack and Steiner. Raptor, Blackjack and Delphi followed.
They gathered together, a stern and scary looking group of mechs, then Raptor glanced at Ironhide. "You called, infant? We were going for breakfast," he asked.
Ironhide nodded. "Fragger here thinks you didn't make it through the barrage. He sort of found that to be amusing."
The group stared at Pulsar who looked back at them with cold fury in his optics, his face otherwise impassive.
Sun stepped closer. "You look kind of puny there, Pulsar. You appear to be missing something. I'm trying to put my finger on it but it eludes me," he said. He glanced around. "What do you think, boys?"
Hard Drive shrugged. "I don't know. Looks like you lost some weight, Pulsar. Care to tell us anything that would make it reasonable for you to stay awake or do we put you into stasis now?"
Pulsar glanced at Prime who was leaning against a wall with a passive expression. He was taking in the goings-on, it was clear to Pulsar, and maybe even ordered it. "So … you give your power away, Prime? Not so smart in the end. Some day, you might have to watch your back."
Prime glanced at the group, then Pulsar. "When have you ever been right?" he asked quietly. Stepping away from the wall, he walked to the berth, towering over the occupant like a god. "You have the opportunity to tell us things that will keep our people and world safe. You can tell us or you can go into stasis. If you do not care enough about either of those things, then I do not want you awake. You will be just one more silent member of my collection."
Pulsar stared at Prime. "You're colder than I can remember."
"That was millions of years ago," Prime said quietly. "Make me have a reason to give you a chance to stay awake and have some small degree of comfort."
Pulsar stared at him, then Prowl. "What do you want to know? I don't ask because I believe you'll change this situation to something better. I want to know what scares you, Prowl. Tell me that something reaches that ice cube you call a spark."
It was silent a moment as Prowl and Prime conferred, then Prowl calmly began to ask. As he did, Pulsar listened. What he didn't do was answer any of the questions asked.
Moments later …
They stood in the hallway outside Pulsar's room discussing the situation together as Springer and Drift began to walk down the corridor toward them. Everyone paused to watch them, noting as they did the slight limp in Springer's gait. They reached the group together. "What's going on?" Springer asked.
"We're interrogating Pulsar. It yielded nothing. I think the Warrior Elite process fries their common sense modules," Ratchet said.
"I don't think they have any," Sun said as the others nodded.
"What's this about you having to sign off on my return to duty?" Springer asked Ratchet.
"I do, slagger," Ratchet said. "You either do what we say how we say it or you're going to be on First Aid's case load."
"Frag that," Ironhide said with a grin. "You'll never see duty again."
"You fight dirty," Springer said with a frown.
"When you can live up to your name again you'll thank me," Ratchet said. "How sharper than a serpents tooth, it is to have a thankless child."
"Shakespeare," Delphi said.
"I'm elevating this slag to a higher level," Ratchet said to guffaws.
"What's the word on Pulsar then," Springer said as he stared at Ratchet with a frown. "I AM, AFTER ALL, THE SECURITY GOD OF THE EMPIRE!"
"I thought you were the God of the Hunt," Ratchet replied to great snickering.
"He is," Drift said loyally. He glanced at Springer. "You are."
Springer grinned in spite of himself. He looked at Ratchet who smiled at him brilliantly, then Prime. "What's the word then?"
"He goes into stasis. Secured stasis like the others. His limbs will be kept separately in security but until we find a way to denature his special functions, he is a deadly danger to us all." He glanced at Prowl. "Interview Rabid again. Get what you can. I want to know about the others out there. I want to know what they know. Shake him hard, then jail him."
Prowl nodded, then glanced at Ratchet. "Have you dined or not?"
"I got room. There's nothing like yanking off arms and legs to make a mech hungry. I was sort of hankering for crab," Ratchet said.
HUGE mockery and gagging greeted that. They walked toward the elevator and went down to go to The Diner On The Corner for a quick bite. When that was accomplished most of them would go to their jobs on Cybertron while the rest did clean up for the battle and its aftermath.
=0=Earth2
They gathered in the grand concourse by the habitat doors waiting for the arrival at last of their conduit to possibilities, Ambassador Ratchet of Iacon. They had their presentations and arguments ready and over the course of the two days just past had worked out who Ratchet was and how he operated. They had learned he was nobody's pushover.
Outside, a vehicle could be seen driving in from the highway that ran past the installation, then pull up outside. It was a Hummer, a red and white Search and Rescue vehicle with enhancements. It was also slightly bigger than those on Earth to accommodate the huge mech that made it from his own body. They watched as he transformed, then turned toward them.
He was massive and tall, like many they had already seen but this was going to be different than those occasions. He was the first mech in their visit that they would talk to directly that wasn't mini or micro mini. This was just about the most fully known and famous of the Cybertronians that Earth had met. He was smart, funny, wily in negotiations, unyielding in his dealings for Prime and the Empire but ultimately the most sympathetic of the Autobots they would meet. He was the most personable, 'knowable' and the one who was the best communicator between humans and bots.
Ratchet walked to the door, then entered. They stared up at him, a mech just slightly under 21 feet. He was huge and in his body design the outlines of his alt mode could be seen. They had seen it slide around to become him almost faster than the eye could follow. He looked at them with very bright blue eyes, eyes with optical ridges that helped make his face expressive.
He entered the concourse when the lights changed and the hatch opened. Pausing before them, these titans of industry, technology and finance, he grinned. He let them stare at him, then nodded to Owen. "Hello, tiny people. I'm here to talk."
Harris who found his sessions with Ratchet mostly complex and harder than he would have expected walked closer to him. "Ambassador Ratchet, welcome. Its good to see you. We heard on the news that you were wounded."
Ratchet chuckled. "I was but you move on. Soldiering isn't bloodless."
"You beat the intruders," someone in the group said as he stepped closer. "You defeated an invading armada."
Ratchet considered the human, then nodded. He was bold and used to getting questions answered. Good intel. "We did. We always do."
"We're hoping that you can join us," Owen said as Sam and Carly walked over to Ratchet to stand with him.
Ratchet grinned at them, then nodded. They nodded back.
"We have a lot to talk about," Owen said.
"We do," Ratchet agreed.
The humans began to part to let him through as he reached down to pick up Carly and Sam. Stepping forward, he walked to the auditorium where he would sit on the stage, watch and listen to presentations as well as ask and answer questions. It would be an interesting interlude for both sides.
As they did that, another human would be gasping his last in the wastelands of the TransWorld Highway 3 miles away.
=0=TBC 3-15-19 edited 3-31-19
ESL:
coaster: a flat thing you put under a cup to keep it from marring furniture