The Diego Diaries: Six (dd8 5)
=0=Ops Center Conference Room, Mars
Orion listened, then glanced at Prowl. "Given that this will be taken care of with pretender gear, I think I would be the best choice to face Xylon."
Everyone paused their discussion to glance at him, then Prowl. That mech's thoughts were clear on his face. "You don't have experience with operations. You have the guts and the gear to keep you alive but how will you know what to do to get him in a place where we can put him down?"
Orion explained it.
=0=Moments later
They gathered at the bridge in the Ops Center making their farewells. When the last one walked through, they glanced at each other.
"Perceptor, take Tennyson to Cybertron and try to find Xylon in the crowds. The sooner he's located the better," Prowl said.
"We have the frequencies, Prowl. He's going to show up like a white light against a dark background," Perceptor said. "Once that's done we can take him out."
Prowl nodded. "Very well. The sooner the better."
They watched the two big science nerds hustle off to make lemonade out of lemons.
Prowl turned to Orion. "You do know that nothing can hurt you but if this doesn't go down in a convincing manner he can run and we're done."
Orion nodded. "That is so. I do believe this will not only allow him to come close to me but it will allow the reinforcements to be more effective."
Prowl considered that, then nodded. "Theoretically, I agree with you but given that my plans have always been FRAGGED OVER by ONE AND SUNDRY, you'll have to show me."
"Oh, ye of little faith," Orion said as they both walked toward the steps and the bigger world beyond.
=0=Tennyson over Cybertron
They slowly rolled along on a grid pattern to unobtrusively scan the world below. It was Cybertron but not. This one wasn't a howling wasteland but rather a beautiful familiar and homely place. Some of the locations were different but not much. That it was spared of a war of annihilation was a good thing for everyone working to find Xylon.
Ratchet sat at the command table watching the datapad as he planned the evening dinner. He was the cook and Ironhide was the 'cleaning boy'. He grinned. Even now, he could see the whining sub adult that Ironhide was when informed he had household chores here. Ratchet knew that Blackjack and Alor made him do them before but he was still a whiner. Living with him as a youngster had been a fun and informative experience.
"There."
He glanced up to see Perceptor pointing to a monitor. "We need to complete the survey just in case this is an anomaly from an alien visitor or something."
"An alien visitor from another dimension?" Wheeljack asked.
Perceptor glanced at Wheeljack, then the screen. He commed a number. "Perceptor to Megatronus Prime."
It took a moment but Megatronus was back. "Megatronus here."
"Lord Megatronus," Perceptor said. "We have an anomaly that matches our conditions. We would like to know if there is anyone on Cybertron that is trans-dimensional or would fulfill the conditions of this finding?"
"Stand by," he said, then leaned off screen. There was a muted buzz of conversation, then he was back. "There is no one but you, your ship and crew known to be here. If you give us the coordinates we will shadow this individual and find out who it is."
Perceptor sent the information then all stood by to wait. It would take a moment.
=0=Orion on Cybertron
They'd been alerted to the finding which had been checked out and confirmed so Prowl went with Orion to Sciences via train. It took a moment to insert, run tests and certify the pretender equipment he would wear. By the time they walked back, Orion would be able to function at every level of possibility that might present.
=0=Tennyson
They gathered on the ship on the command deck from both dimensions. It would be the first time since the end of the reign of Alternate Optimus Prime here that both sides would be involved in a joint operation. It was surprisingly amiable, the group, though some of the kids who were along to 'learn tactics' were uneasy around some of the mechs who were part of Megatronus's body guard.
When Megatronus showed up and walked onto the deck with Sixshot, the entire group turned to him. He paused before them. "This is a welcome sight. Having you on this mission is an honor."
Ratchet who was leaning against the command table grinned. "All my mechs say that."
Huge laughter lowered the tension level as Orion and Prowl followed by most of Ironhide's family and Ironhide stepped out of the elevator. They crossed the bridge, shook servos in the warrior way, then turned to Perceptor and Wheeljack.
"Sit-rep, 'Jack," Prowl said.
"We have him here," Percy said as he flipped the view to the forward screen. A white light was moving slowly along the sidewalk of a city map showing a part of Iacon that had a large park. It was a botanical extravaganza for the locals who lived in a district of large housing blocks. "He's paused now."
"We better go then," Prowl said. "Are you both ready?"
Megatronus and Orion nodded.
"How about the teams?" Prowl asked.
They nodded as they glanced at one another.
"Very well," Prowl said. He glanced at Orion and Megatronus. "Timing is everything."
"He's feral as frag," Ratchet said. "He's got sensors on his sensors. They all do. They can astound you. Maybe this fragger won't. Just don't over correct or under."
Both mechs nodded, then walked toward the elevator together with Prowl and Ratchet. Everyone else would follow including Ironhide's elders who would run the back up operation due to their immense experience. They would leave a fragged off youngster behind.
=0=On the ground
They materialized in an alley, the two mechs. Staring at themselves, then each other, Orion considered the mech before him. "In my time as I am younger than you know me, I thought of you as a brother. You changed and brought ruin upon our world. It is a … nice thing for me to spend time with you as you are. It is a loss to me to think that the relationship and goals we shared at one time are no longer valid."
Megatronus considered him. "Here in my realm, we were never friends. I was a shop owner, a parts and body work shop. I did not want to be a part of the revolution but sometimes you do not have the choice. Sometimes history demands of you what you never wanted and in the end the greater good is served."
Orion nodded. "I was a longshoreman. Things began on my dock that swept the world. Sometimes only a small flame is enough to ignite an inferno. All we needed to free ourselves from tyranny was someone who was willing to lead. Freedom is only a good leader away from anyone."
Megatronus nodded. "That is true. Optimus Prime … our Optimus was born to be king. He had no idea how the majority lived. He was born into a bubble that never burst. Nothing reached him. His entitlement was without limits. He did not feel he had to give back or to care about anyone or anything. He was absolute in his dominion and in the end he fell from his own hubris."
Orion nodded as the sound of footfalls coming their way could be heard. They turned to look. Mechs were gathering as they prepared to take down the phase sixer.
"We've dispersed," Sixshot said as Hard Drive nodded. "We're go if you are."
Megatronus glanced at Orion. "Let us go forward and do this together, my friend, for all of our people everywhere they exist."
Orion nodded. "Indeed," he said, then the crowd parted as the two walked forward. Out into the light of the day they journeyed down a street that was discreetly being deprived of pedestrians in a 360 circle around a yellow glowing dot not 1,000 meters away.
The group watched them go, then took off in their own directions to fade into the background.
=0=In the park
He walked across the street to stand among the tall plants that were thriving in the warm sunlight of a planet with a functioning star. It was wonderful to have that given the disaster to his own world and Rotor was taking advantage of it. He was taking long walks around the city in the sunlight. It was warm in the late spring season of the year. Often he would see someone he knew and twice he tracked that person to kill them for some perceived slight either real or imagined.
He had no idea that some of the mechs sitting in the park on the benches having conversations or laughing together as they played games on those that were there for the community were heavily armed shock troops. Those that he could recognize were just out of range but with clear views and shots at him.
He paused by incredibly tall groves of tree-like vegetation that had luminous lights all along the trunks to the top that glowed in the darkness. All of the edges of the leaves of the trees, some of them fern like in appearance glowed. Bushes and flowers grew here and there in carefully maintained areas where they were habitat for insects and birds. He stared upward, then turned slightly to take in the sights. That was when he saw them.
Nearby walking along the street were an incongruous pair. It stymied him a moment to see them, then he stepped out of view. How they were here, how they were HERE! was something he failed to compute a moment. Then he did. Megatron AND Optimus Prime were walking down the street side-by-side as if it were a normal thing.
Rotor was aware that Megatronus was Prime in this dimensional plane. He knew that Optimus Prime had been the 'bad guy' and was in the cooler off world, though no one seemed to know where. Yet here they were side-by-side, chatting like old friends as they walked toward the park. It didn't compute for a moment, then it was discounted. Two targets had materialized before him and he didn't care how or why. He just knew he could bag two birds with one bullet. He stepped behind the tree to wait for them to get closer. He wanted to see their optics fade when he killed them.
=0=Nearby
"Did you see him?" Megatronus asked as they walked together appearing to be lost in thought.
Orion nodded. "I did."
"Your experience with such things as this is limited, I presume," Megatronus asked. "At the moment, anyway."
Orion nodded. "It is but it all feels very, very familiar. I have been running on instinct lately and fortunately it was what the moment called for."
"You were born to do this, something tells me," Megatronus said. "I once heard that some mechs are born to greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. I do believe that you were born to be a Prime."
"From what I am told, that might apply to you as well. I do not think we arrive at such a destination accidentally," Orion replied as the ground between them and the mech began to close.
They continued then began to pass where he was hidden. As they did, the big mech stepped out, raised a gun and shot Orion Pax in the back of the helm. That figure staggered, then fell face first on the ground.
Megatronus Prime spun but the barrel of a smoking gun prevented him from raising his own weapon. He relaxed to stare into the dark unknowable optics of a very, very dangerous mech.
That mech grinned. "Well, look who's here," he said in a soft and deadly voice.
=0=11-4-2020 HBJBJ 11-7-2020
ESL:
hubris: (hew-bris) inflated self regard, brazen ego