The Diego Diaries: (Hi)Jack (dd8 210)
=0=At the Refugee Center in a waiting room
Perceptor dashed swiftly out after snapping out of his surprise. The others watched him go, then turned their beaming faces (literally) on the one lost sheep that they'd not been able to find and kidnap into their safety zone.
Standing in a row behind their parents, nine mechs and a tall femme who were the spitting image of Wheeljack smiled at him. They were heavily armed in spite of their safe landing here and it would appear that they were the brick wall anyone had to cross to get to the other side where everyone with them was sitting in safety.
"What the frag, 'Jack. What a handsome family you have," Ratchet said with a big smile.
Wheeljack who was nearly overcome glanced at Ratchet. "They're pretty good looking if I say so myself," he said repeating an old family joke which brought with it the appropriate amount of laughter.
Ratchet looked at the little mech who was Wheeljack's father. "It appears that when you have a template you like you stick with it," Ratchet said as he scanned the entire group. The paint scheme was the same with minor personal details and the finials graced everyone including the three femmes in the group, 'Jack's sister, Tiley, his ada, Timbrel and an auntie named CeeCee. "Frag, you're blinding me with your good looks."
Huge laughter brought that to a close as everyone sat down to stare at each other with amazement and joy.
CeeCee stood, then walked to Wheeljack. Taking his face in her big servos, she tilted his helm this way and that. "Yes. Still the good looking young rowdy I remember. We never gave up looking for you and the others. You were the last straw to find, Jackie."
Wheeljack enveloped her in his arms, pressing his face against her chassis with emotion. "I missed you, too, Auntie."
"Well, we've heard good things about this place. When we settle in we can restart the business," his atar, Macx said. "You can show us the ropes, Sonny."
Ratchet grinned at Wheeljack who grinned back. "What's the family business, if I dare ask?"
"Explosives," Macs said with great satisfaction. "No one knows their way around a munition the way we do. We're the-"
"Kings of Kaboom?" Ratchet suggested.
Macs sat back with a grin. "That's right. That's us. Macs and Sons Demolitions, Guidance Systems and Percussives."
Ratchet stared at him a moment. "Was that you?"
"In the metal," Macs said with the kind of savoir affair that Wheeljack specialized in. "We were the innovators of a lot of slag, right, Jackie?"
Wheeljack grinned at his father. "We were. I used it to good affect in the war. I'll get you set up. The colony and Empire could use the genius this family has."
Ratchet snickered then glanced at the door as Perceptor walked in, heading toward where they sat. Sitting on his arm was Resolve, newly liberated from the Academy to meet his family. His finials were their usual happy bright whiteness.
"I want you to meet our son, Resolve," Wheeljack said as he stood.
Perceptor stopped beside 'Jack, then handed the baby to Macs. The baby passed from father to grandfather without blinking an optic.
Macs stared at him, then grinned. "What an exceptionally handsome infant. I can see you, Wheeljack and it meshes beautifully with you, Perceptor. What a great baby."
Perceptor glanced at Wheeljack, then stood straighter with happiness and pride. "We wanted the best features of both sides for him. He's quite the exceptional little mech and is attending the best private school in the colony at the moment, excelling in his studies at every level. He has many friends I might add as well."
Ratchet stared at Perceptor wondering if it were possible to love the big red equipment mech anymore than he already did. "Resolve is a great little mech. I personally have first dibs on him, though Prowl insists that he's only a loaner to the two of them."
Huge laughter greeted that.
"So Prowl is here? Is everyone else here?" Macs asked.
Ratchet considered that. "I do believe almost everyone is here or accounted for. We do get family members all the time every orn so its like the best kind of holiday for someone ever time a group comes in."
"I know that your family is coming, Percy," Wheeljack said as he glanced at Perceptor.
Percy was staring with pleasure at his son sitting in the lap of a grandparent even if it wasn't his own. He glanced at Wheeljack. "I console myself with this to help through the wait, Wheeljack. We all hope that this becomes so."
It was silent a moment, then a big mech in the back shifted. "We know it is, Perceptor. You have no idea how many of our people are scattered through the sector we were living in. There's more everywhere."
Wheeljack glanced at his brother. "Clevis, what do you know?"
"Enough to debrief. We were the muscle and firepower of the colony where we lived. We traded with three more and had contact with a number of others. Most of the sector is patrolled by marooned Autobot soldiers, all of them as stuck as we were. It was only a fluke that the Network found us and we could slip away. There's all the others left. We need to get them out, 'Jack. The area is highly destabilizing and there's going to be chaos and destruction if we wait too long," Clevis said as the others nodded.
"We need to get with Prowl and Elita," Wheeljack said.
"We do but we need to settle your family. How about we do that, then the relevant handsome brothers can come with us to The Fortress?" Ratchet asked.
The brothers were down with that, smirking and preening slightly through the flashing lights of that many striking finials. Gathering everyone up, they began to walk to the door and the Metro nearby while Perceptor ran to get their housing assignments.
It was cold outside as the group stowed their many children, some of them seemingly as old as Sunspot. A taller mech appeared to be sub adult and helped his Amma along. They slowed to a stop to stare around at the groups coming from the bridges, lines walking to the port offices nearby to go through immigration and the entirety of the lights from cities near and far twinkling in the thin dark sky.
The sound was muffled by the sand which was still being gathered and hauled off. The highways, the three main ones were up to full capacity for travel though it was still be discouraged unless necessary. A panoply of trucks and heavy equipment were hard at it.
"This is amazing," Macs said. "This was done over how long?"
"About fourteen years," Wheeljack said. "We've been here for a while. I have a book that I'll lend ya that tells the whole story and there's videos. We built this one stone at a time and there's what … what's the population now, Ratch?"
Ratchet did a lightning search. "The population at the moment on world stands at 267,921,810."
They stared at him, then around.
"This is amazing," Clevis said. "I'm glad to be here. We were shown film about how things work. Its hard to believe that The System is banned. What an orn it is to come to that."
"We still get slaggers and sometimes they shoot up the place but we take care of it. Prime is the One Who Comes," Wheeljack said. "The relics were restored to him here and to Cybertron at Simfur. It happened during at Festival. The next one is coming up shortly. You can be here for it. How great is that?"
"I heard that," his brother, Timpani said. "I would have to see it to believe it though. It's been a hard road with a lot of liars along the way."
"You will," Perceptor said as he rejoined them. "For now, we have to get everyone settled. Then we can talk starting your business again and school for the children. Wheeljack and I have a lot of experience with both and we will help you."
"You always were a good mech, Perceptor," CeeCee said as she grinned at him. "This is such a relief finding you and 'Jackie together. That baby is going to be staying with Auntie a lot, I can tell you. What a great name for him," she said as everyone nodded.
Perceptor looked emotional a moment, then it was gone. "Resolve is my father's name."
"And what a fine name it is," Macs said. "What do we do now, Perceptor?"
"We go this way. The Metro will take us to Crater District 1 where a nice set of apartments in the same building have been assigned to you. There's also a lot of amenities in this building because its an upper tier location as per my request so you can get things you need and go places without leaving that deck." Perceptor turned toward the Metro Station nearby. "If you will come this way," he said.
With grins and good humor, everyone did.
Ratchet followed along at the end with a nearly overwhelmed Wheeljack.
=0=The Fortress
"Wheeljack's family just showed up," Prowl said as he stood in the doorway of Prime's office.
"Really?" Optimus asked with a grin. "That is wonderful news. They can attend the Festival coming up."
Prowl nodded. "They have news we need to hear. There's a lot of stranded soldiers protecting a lot of colonies in a deteriorating sector. We may have to do a direct intervention, though why isn't clear yet."
Prime considered that. "Make it so. Are they settling in first?"
Prowl nodded again. "They are. I'm going there now and we can organize a meet up. I'll text the relevant individuals to come."
"Thank you," Prime said as Prowl walked out. He sat and considered his biggest spark ache, that his people were scattered and in danger alone.
=0=At the 33rd floor of Bezel Tower in City 4 in District 1, a massive tower 100 stories tall bordering the main square of the city in a residential forest of towers
They went upward to the floor where there were a block of apartments set aside for situations just like this, where a family needed to be in close proximity to each other. 10 apartments on this floor and the remaining on the next one up were going to be home sweet home for the Wheeljack menagerie and rolling boom-boom show.
They entered their own apartments marveling at the spectacular views and the brilliant comfort before them. Children danced around, their lights twinkling as they went from room to room to see everything. Up some went to their apartments and others stayed here, some talking together with Ratchet and Wheeljack in the hallway while Perceptor led the others onward to the 34th floor where they would live.
It was happy and festive when Prowl rolled in, pausing beside Ratchet. "Welcome to Autobot City," he said to Macs who smiled at him.
"Prowl. Good to see you again. I was on the demolitions and munitions board for the army back in the orn," he said.
"I remember. You and your son have more than just majestic finials in common. We had to move Sciences way out of town to ensure that if things went up they didn't take the innocent with them," Prowl said.
Macs laughed. "That's my boy!" he said happily.
They chatted a moment, then several of the mechs made their way to the group.
Wheeljack introduced them, then they headed back to The City and a chat with Prime and Elita about a lot of endangered colonies and settlements on the outskirts of newly reclaimed Decepticon territory.
=0=TBC 07-11-2021
FANCY! I will recheck that. I think you're right but I have a simple fix for it. THANKS, DARLING! Hugs! :D