The Diego Diaries: Six (dd8 3)

=0=There

Prowl turned to the huge mech standing near him watching him, then Orion, then him again. He hesitated uncertainly. "Who are you?" he asked though he already knew.

"I am Thirteen."

Prowl bowed slightly, then glanced at Orion through the mirror. He had stopped beating on the mirror to stare at Prowl, then Thirteen. "You are the Prime we had that difficulty with. Or are You?" he asked.

"I am," Thirteen said. "My universe is the one that had no conflict, the one where the people wanted Me to rule there for their well being."

Prowl considered that. "Why am I here?"

"Your Prime and his companion came to me. I was not able to see them without the assistance of a mirror. They told me about the phase six mechanism and the codes that would prevent him from doing damage to My reality. I came to get the codes. I have utilized the Matrix to do so," He calmly replied.

Prowl glanced at Orion who appeared to be able to hear their conversation. He started to speak but Prowl indicated he couldn't hear what he said. They both watched as Orion hurried to the desk, pulled a writing implement, then hurried back. He wrote on the mirror surface. "What is happening?"

Thirteen looked at Prowl. "I can only help My own people. I cannot help you because I am a god and I cannot interfere with your group or personal destiny. I would tell you that this is why both Ironhide and Optimus are the way they are. The cloud is part of Prime Source, The One. It was sent into the universe with many others at the Beginning of Things to learn and relay that information to The One so He could create. Its from that Cloud, part of Prime Source Himself that all was created. The One could not know and understand Himself directly anymore than you can understand your processor just because you have one. It had to be understood through this method, then Creation on the scale He wished could begin. They are very rare, these clouds. When you began to appear in lives, when you went back to the Matrix with your life stories. It made sending these thought clouds less necessary to learn. Understand, They are to you as a mountain is to a grain of sand. They are benign but can misunderstand the vulnerability of those It encounters. There is no harm implied here," Thirteen said.

"But how do we change this around?" Prowl asked. "They can't go on being sub adults forever can they?"

Thirteen considered that as if listening to something or someone not seen. He glanced at Orion, then Prowl. "No. They agreed to this, at least Orion did. Tell me what happened when this occurred."

Prowl explained the situation, then described how Optimus was in the command chair with Ironhide beside him.

"Was Ironhide touching Prime at all?" Thirteen asked.

Prowl reviewed the moment, then nodded. "His servo was resting on Optimus's shoulder."

"Then that explains why he was included. He was touching Optimus and the Cloud treated both like they were one. As Optimus goes, so does Ironhide. Your task is to shut down this marauder and end the threat. Its changed, the time line. He poses a threat to all Primes everywhere because he can traverse dimensions. That is Optimus's job to complete and return things to their own path again."

"What about you? You're a god. You can end this yourself," Prowl said.

"No. Because I am I cannot. I can only protect my own people. There are others that can assist Optimus. He will prevail. Track the beast. Get within his range and signal the code. I cannot help you or I would." Thirteen glanced at Orion, then nodded. When he did, Prowl and Orion were on the same side of the mirror. Their reflections were the only ones seen on its glossy surface.

"We have to catch this mech," Orion said.

"You're not going to catch anything. You can't be replaced. We can say the code. We can get a fragging megaphone and blast him with it if we have to. You're going to be here as you are, safe and sound. I can't stress enough how important you are to our situation, Orion. And to me."

Orion stared at him, then nodded faintly. "What do we do?"

"We get the team together," Prowl said as his expression hardened into something implacable and cold.

=0=Moments later

They gathered, the team here and the team from the alternative universe of Megatronus. He was attending the meeting by monitor, so tight was his security. Everyone gathered from both sides, then sat.

Prowl stared at them, then Megatronus. "Thank you for coming. We have new information. It was delivered to us by Thirteen Prime."

A murmur of voices was heard, then Megatronus sat closer. "We have him in our pantheon, though some of yours are not ours. What did he tell you, Prowl?" In the background with a serious expression, the figure of their Prowl could be seen listening.

It was disconcerting for a moment for Prowl but he continued. "He said that Xylon had decided to kill all Primes putting all timelines in danger which is outside of the order of things. He said that we have to trap and deactivate him with the code because He couldn't. He's a Power and is thus blocked from interfering but He can offer support in other ways. He said that the Cloud is part of the Essence of The One or Prime Source. He sent parts of His thought process into the universe during the creation to see what was there so He could create all of us and everything else. Its a benign thing and very rare."

"Benign to who?" Ironhide asked with a slight frown.

"It needed to learn and It saw an opportunity. He transformed Optimus into a younger mech and because you were touching him at the time, Ironhide, It didn't distinguish you as two separate beings. Both of you were transformed to a younger version of yourself to be an … an experiment to the Cloud, I believe. Be that what it may, we have to track Xylon and hit him with the code." Prowl glanced at the mechs from Megatronus's side of things. "I don't think he's aware of you. Have you been in the press?"

"We make it our religion not to be. It gives us a chance to have a private life. Sometimes. Once in a while," Black Shadow said with a slight grin. "We use bridges to get here and there now. Thank you for that tech, by the way."

Prowl nodded. "Some of you are phase six mechanisms here. It might be possible to trick him into finding you and then we can be close enough to give the code that puts him down. I don't know who among you he has friendships with, if that's even possible, or who he hates with fury. I just know that you're the image of his kind and that might help us get close to him."

"We have to find him first," Killmaster said.

"That's not as hard as it was before," Perceptor said as Wheeljack nodded. "The energy signatures of both your dimension and ours are slightly variant. All we have to do is scan your world and find that one signature out of alignment. Then we have him. It would be then that he could be approached close enough, then taken down."

"He's a hair trigger. I won't underplay it. He's paranoid, he's a hunter and he's legally insane. He's used to being hunted and hunting. He won't be easy," Ratchet said. "I can help you there. He knows me. I can get closer to him than any of you. We don't know who among you that he has beef with," he said to the alternate mechs. "It could be that he sees you and shoots. We on the other hand have some experience with these fraggers and interesting tech that can help us out a great deal."

"How?" Megatronus said.

"We had a gang show up here a while back and they broke away taking two little femmes hostage. We convinced them to trade both for me and Prowl, then leave with a ship. They were to drop us off and flee. The problem with that is we now can project pretender shells now that are foolproof and they operate independent of us being there. They had no idea that it wasn't us and when we got them off world we disappeared and they were taken into custody," Ratchet said. "All I have to do is project my image to him and get him close enough that I can say the code." He glanced at Prowl. "I, too, have side projects."

"When were you going to tell me?" Prowl asked with a slight scowl.

"When I figured out the loopholes. It could very well work with the rest of you and we could gang up on him together. You at least can be my back up in a manner that won't get you killed. I had to know where he was before bringing this forward. When we find him we can catch him out this way and no one dies," Ratchet said.

Prowl sat back in his chair eyeballing Ratchet. "I hate you."

Ratchet shot him a dazzling smile. "All my mechs hate me."

Huge laughter greeted that as a group of much relieved mechs sat back relaxing a bit from the horror of their condition.

"You should have said something," Springer said.

"I would but I had to work out a couple of things with Sciences. No hopes up and all that. I want the projection to be all it needs to be and it took a reworking of the power packs to make it so," Ratchet said. "I figured with all these handsome mechs looking for the slagger that I had time." He smiled again. "See? I'm building you all up here."

Sixshot grinned. "Is that what this is?"

Ratchet grinned back. "Are you a six changer?"

Sixshot considered that. "I'm a triple changer. I have six modes here? Do you have the schematics?"

Ratchet grinned. "First, you have to have the ununtrium treatment."

"No thanks," he said as the others snickered.

Ratchet glanced at Heretech. "You have a Decepticon sigil on your face here."

"And hide this beauty?" he replied with a grin.

Huge laughter greeted that.

Prowl smirked at Ratchet, then shook his helm. "Explain what you did, what you think we need to do and all its elements, Loon. Details, fragger, details."

Ratchet smiled. "Pris. What I did was consider where the slagger was. He was with the God Optimus. But I believe that he got scared off and he's likely on your world, Megatronus. Has there been any killings lately that seem out of order?"

"He tried to kill himself," Blue Bacchus said. "He tracked himself there and nearly killed his counterpart. There's others, one of them this morning."

"Then we have to map the killings and find out where he's hiding. We can geo-map that for you," Springer said.

Black Shadow nodded. "I want to see what you do."

"It's yours," Springer said with a faint grin. "Black Shadow."

Everyone grinned at the comment, then turned back to Ratchet.

He began again. "We found out an orn ago how to finally measure the phase difference between your world and the other Prime," he said as Wheeljack and Perceptor nodded. "It's slightly off between all three dimensions as it would be and we've devised a meter to read it off a general field scan which we can do with a ship like Tennyson. All we have to do is scan your Cybertron to find that needle in a haystack and then we have him. He can fit in as we can physically but we can't change our energetic signature. We scan and find him, then throw a perimeter of guns around him far enough back that he can't detect it. Then I waltz in and take him down. Anyone of you who want to join the dance, we can have you on standby."

"You're not going without me," Ironhide said.

"You're not going," Raptor said as everyone of his family nodded. "You're just a new graduate of the Academy and these are the most feared and relentless warriors of three dimensional planes. Besides, Ratchet isn't going. A pretender hologram of you will. Right?"

Ratchet nodded. "I'm going to be on Tennyson. We can install the machinery there and get on this when you have him located. We have to move. We get maybe one shot at this and if he flees he could go somewhere we can't follow."

Prowl considered that, then glanced at Orion. "I think we have a chance to do this. I believe when it happens, then you return to your true selves."

Orion considered that, then nodded. "I think I agree."

Operation Blast the Fragger was on. In three dimensional planes.

=0=TBC 11-1-2020 11-7-2020

LEONESS: It was soooo cold. I feel for anyone who lives in the cold without adequate shelter. God bless the entire world tonight. HUGS!