The Diego Diaries: Avalone and Other Situations (dd8 278)
For optimusprime101 :D
=0=Administrative Offices Module of Earth2
The yelling was entertaining or at least Ron Witwicky thought so as he filmed the gathering free-for-all that was happening before his eyes. All of the Masters of the Universe™ on world were having a melt down and he was here on the front lines doing his patriotic duty recording it for posterity.
And Forbes Magazine.
Being a business owner himself, he could understand a smidge of what they felt. You worked for yourself because you wanted freedom but stealing as well as making endless amounts of money without paying taxes, good adequate taxes wasn't good with him at all. Also going on television and carping about how picked on they were and how everyone was a leach trying to get something for nothing from these 'paragons of virtue' who called their workers 'human capital stock' instead of people, the very people who made them rich by their labors was a bitter pill for Ron.
Nearby standing around Cindy protectively, Springer and Drift watched the hoo-haw. They were used to it. It was like any argument at a club where half the group was full of it and the other drunk. At some point someone would swing on the other and it'd be a hot time in the old town that night. Right now, it was all yelling and waving of arms in a number of languages he didn't understand, most of it directed toward a slightly intimidated Cindy Tomas.
Drift stepped forward then pressed Damon Pallas back with his hand placed on the big man's chest. They were about eye level and among the self deluding Masters of the Universe™ here, Damon and his brother Christopher looked fit enough to mix it up with him.
He hoped.
Pallas swatted Drift's servo aside. "Don't touch me."
"Then stand back and shut your trap. We're authorized to arrest anyone who interferes with Cindy and her duties. Prime authorized her to act as his agent. You're all under restricted circumstances."
"What does that mean?" Dimitri Petrov asked.
"You're locked out of your offices, your homes and offices are being searched for anything that violates the agreements and clauses both moral and otherwise and you don't have one inch of authority here until this is settled," Springer said as Lennox nodded.
"He's right. You may be fuck all on Earth but you're not here. All of you had better stand back and allow the mechs to do their job or I will personally beat your ass, then hand the debris over to these two," Lennox said as behind him Epps cracked his knuckles.
"You lay a hand on me and I'll have everything you own," Clare Hilliard said. She was the richest woman in the world having inherited a mineral and mining fortune from her father who'd been a ruthless man who raised her to be his princess heir. She was married to a deceptively mild mannered man named Thomas Montgomery who ruled her like an oriental satrap.
Who knew?
She'd always had her way and was infamous around Earth for her draconian beliefs, contempt for the 'little people' and a powerful willingness to express them no matter who was standing there. She personally believed that people of her income bracket shouldn't have to pay taxes because.
Just because.
She was a powerful person in her native Australia but here she was just another face in the crowd. Unaccustomed to being treated like anyone else she was perhaps the most obviously furious and affronted.
"Is that so," Lennox said as the last and most potent button on his mainframe was pressed, the one that said 'Fuck the Class System'. Apparently his time with the bots had honed his latent and inherent rage against money = superiority. He stepped closer and held up two fists. "What I own? I own Mr. Fist and Mr. Other Fist. Feel free to come take them if you want to."
Snickers rounded the bend.
"They aren't worth shit, just so you know," Springer said with a snicker. He glanced at her husband, Tom. "What about it, Romeo? You gonna collect on your wife's big mouth?"
A murmur went through the group then Cindy stepped forward. "Clare, you have to step back and allow things to happen. The contracts are ironclad and there's no wiggle room."
"That's all fine for you. You're coming out on top," Clare said as a couple of the others nodded.
"What did you tell them, Cindy?" Christopher Pallas, the younger and slightly more rugged of the Pallas brothers asked. "What did you do and say that got you this job?"
Drift stepped between them. "Cindy just showed her integrity, something I doubt you understand, either of you. She did her job without being a fragger and just for your information … she's Cybertronian, too. If you say one word to her that isn't polite I will drill you hard." Drift's voice was soft spoken and his trademark expression of benign amusement firmly in place.
Christopher Pallas, of course, misunderstood that smirk and stepped closer. "Its interesting isn't it that she gets to be in charge of this place. A human turncoat is chosen to run this facility."
Cindy stepped forward but Springer caught her arm. "Let Dad do this," he said with a smirk.
Pallas glanced at Springer then Drift. "How tough are you in this fake persona?" he asked.
"Go out into the Concourse and I'll show ya," Drift said.
They stared at each other with loathing the way men do before blows come and things bleed. Then without a word Pallas and Drift headed for the Concourse outside.
Cindy turned to Springer with a worried expression. "I don't think this is a good idea."
"Consider it educational then," Springer said as he took her hand and followed. "For them," he said as he stared at the other billionaires in passing.
Everyone in the room including clerical and administrative personnel followed the two out to the Concourse where Drift and Pallas were walking to a cleared area. All around them humans had drifted down to stand in groups to talk worriedly. When they saw the show coming they began to gather around it. Hundreds and hundreds of people were congregating silently.
Christopher Pallas halted then turned to Drift. "You don't look so tough to me."
"Well, I'm not, so …" Drift said as snickers greeted that. This was a deadly former Decepticon who was an avowed and acknowledged ninja warrior as well as a major player in the Knights and Circle. He was an inspiration for a lot of younger mechs some of which were watching with interest as the Master took on the apprentice.
Pallas struck out a fist which was fast and pointed.
Only because Drift dodged it did it miss. Stepping slowly in a circle, he waited for Pallas to strike once more.
Pallas did and missed again. "You don't want to stand still and find out who's the best do you. You're a coward, too."
Drift grinned faintly. "That's me," he said before leaping into the air to plant a foot in Pallas's mid section.
Pallas flew backward, hit the ground and skidded to a halt some many feet away. He lay still a moment then sat up. Rising slowly, he grinned. "So you can kick. What about fists, fucker? Show me what you got."
"Show him what you got short of dropping trou," Springer said as he recalled a drunken moment in a city far away.
Lennox howled. "Do it, Drift. Make him really cry."
Drift glanced at Lennox with a smirk then watched Pallas step toward him with fists up boxer style.
"I was in the Olympics representing Greece during the Greek Olympics. Show me what you got, fucker. I was a heavy weight boxer."
"Is 'was' the operative word?" Epps called.
Pallas shot him a hateful look then moved in on Drift. He began to punch furiously at the big mech who fended off the blows with his own martial skills. One-by-one, he deflected them until Pallas pulled back.
"Use your fists, sissy boy," Pallas said with an almost lurid expression. "Or is that too manly for you, little princess?"
"Wow," Ron Witwicky said. "All that and an ass hole, too."
"He's a veritable Renaissance Man," Gavin Pritchard said to great acclaim as he stood next to Niall discussing technique being observed.
The crowd increased around them as Pallas began to move in to taunt Drift who still wouldn't go toe-to-toe with him not out of a lack of skills or will. But rather, he didn't because he wasn't sure how much to pull his punches without killing Pallas accidentally. He also wasn't sure Pallas would get that in the state he was in.
"Sad little man," Pallas said with a flurry that missed. "You're nothing but a weak little faggot who hasn't got any balls."
"Well, he's a mech so he wouldn't," Springer offered helpfully.
Drift laughed then deflected a flurry that came next, all of the hard punches landing against his hands with force and accuracy. "That's true. I heard that's your second brain, human. Anything you want to tell a stranger?" he asked. "Unzip you pants so we can hear ya."
Pallas charged in to punch over and over but the affect was still the same. He halted to watch Drift move in a circle. "Tell me, faggot … what's the attraction?"
Drift paused to stare at him a moment to gauge his sincerity about the question. He found none so he glanced at Springer for a moment. "Damned if I know."
Huge laughter erupted as Pallas charged Drift.
Drift deflected him and he fell to roll several times.
Pallas rose swiftly then closed in on Drift with more blows expertly deflected. "Hit me, fucker. Show me what you got, faggot!" Pallas was now getting more aggravated and angry than before as Drift halted in place.
He glanced at Springer who nodded then looked around. A small pickup truck was parked nearby filled with humans. He walked over and gestured for them to get out of it. They did, then stood back as Drift stared at the hood. With movements almost faster then the eye could follow, he began to punch the hood. Through the metal his fists drove, leaving behind gaping holes. After a moment of that, he stepped back then glanced at a silent Pallas. "How's that?"
Pallas stared at him as Drift walked toward him fists up, bouncing on his feet like a boxer.
Drift walked around Pallas who watched him warily, then paused as he lowered his fists. "I didn't punch you because I might not know when to pull them and you'd have that many more places to store shoes."
Springer snickered then stepped closer. "This mech is my old man. He and I? We're one. I don't expect you to get it and I don't care. But if you ever call him a name again I'll give you a new shoe rack with pleasure."
Pallas stared at Springer then Drift. He glanced around the room with a growing sense of fury and embarrassment before silently walking toward the office complex nearby. He did so with hundreds of people laughing and chanting for him to go somewhere and die.
Or something of that nature.
Springer grinned at Drift then pulled him closer to deliver a hard kiss on the lips. He glanced around then grinned. "To the winner go the spoils."
HUGE laughter and applause greeted that as the two followed Pallas hand-in-hand. The others did as well as the group on the concourse discussed the events in loud raucous tones. They filled the administrative section once more.
Springer walked to the comm section in the ante room of the inner sanctum then hooked into the system. He gripped the speaker phone with a grin. "Testing, one, two, three. This is Springer, God of the Hunt coming to you today from ground zero of Earth2 power. As I sit here in Owen Harris's chair with my feet on his desk, I once again wonder what the fuck is the deal with cigars."
Huge laughter greeted that among the punters, all but those most impacted by the goings-on.
"As I sip Mr. Harris's finely aged Scotch I'm drawn once more back to my favorite era of human history, the French Revolution. Be that as it may, I want to tell you that the facility is in receivership until further notice. No one here who doesn't have their name in the Panama Papers data dump from Earth has to fear for their job. If you do then you're relieved of your position, placed under in-house detention and you must surrender your keys, passwords and anything that Sky and Forensics decides is pertinent to the problem here. Understand this. None of these hot shots have any power to order anything including you and that means Owen Harris as well.
"Right now, your fearless leader is the peerless and beautiful Cynthia Tomas who will be speaking to you in a moment. I personally felt the need to come to you in your moment of panic and fear to soothe your savage breasts." He glanced at Drift who was smirking at him with adoration. "That's how it goes, right?"
Drift shrugged. "I don't care."
Snickers greeted that.
"So right now I want you to turn to the person to your left and hug them. Go ahead. If you want to kiss them then go ahead. Making out is also okay-" Springer said before Lennox jumped him to grab the phone.
=0=TBC 10-17-2021
:D:D:D Like son, like Ma. Ratchet would be so proud. :D:D:D
