The Diego Diaries: Goofin' (dd8 230)
(Sorry about last night. Family thing) HERE WE GO!
=0=In a bar in London
They stared at each other, both sides taking the threat potential which was HUGE. Prowl glanced at Ratchet who was smiling at the slaggers sitting so confidently across from them. It was then that he noticed a number of human males staring their way from the bar. They'd just entered and were getting beers when they noticed the four at the snug. It didn't look like fun was going to be happening any time soon.
"Who are those guys?" Prowl asked nodding toward the bar.
The two men glanced that way, then sat up straighter.
It was at that moment that the spell was broken and the two rose to meet halfway in the middle the four who were walking their way with blood in their eyes. Things were looking to be fierce as Ratchet and Prowl watched the groups come together, shove each other, then let fists fly.
It would be a dance for the ages to make their way to the door through the melee that followed including a bartender who entered the fray with an iron bar in his hand. They bolted, hurried down the street, then paused to watch as Metro police arrived with sirens blazing.
"That was a close call," Ratchet said.
Prowl nodded. "You're jail bait and you draw the police like magnets draw iron filings."
"Oh yeah? By the way, that's a nice experiment the kids are doing in science," Ratchet said as they began to walk down the street.
Prowl nodded. "I loved making pictures with magnets and filings when I was a kid, too."
They continued onward toward where, who knew? The sun was warm for once overhead. It wouldn't last very long.
=0=On a street in the other end of town
They appeared in the middle of a sidewalk, itself shocking enough. What wasn't shocking is how the people who hustled all around them either didn't notice or didn't care that two handsome big men had appeared out of nowhere among them. Drift and Springer glanced around themselves, then Drift pointed in a direction toward the West End. "They're that way."
"Do you wanna walk, take the Metro or a cab?" Springer asked as he spied an underground sign nearby.
"Let's try that. Comparisons and all that," Drift said.
They began to walk toward the underground station nearby and disappeared into the crowd almost instantly.
=0=On the prod
"They're here."
Prowl glanced at Ratchet. "Who, Loon?"
"Our guards," Ratchet replied. He slowed, then stopped to wait.
"Where are they?" Prowl asked.
"Coming by the metro," Ratchet replied.
Crowds passed them and in short order two tall men dressed casually walked toward them with smirks. "I see you aren't in jail yet," Springer said as he stopped before them.
"You should have been here earlier. Someone tried to pick us up in a gay bar, got into a fight with about four other guys, then we ran. The cops came right after that," Ratchet said with a big smile.
The two stared at him, then Prowl who was rolling his eyes.
Springer snorted. "No, really. What's going on."
"You really aren't tracking are ya," Ratchet said. "I chose a bar. Prowl's turn."
Prowl stared at the three of them, then bit the bullet. "There's an art gallery across the street. We're going there. That's an order." With that, he walked onward, crossed the street and made his way to the National Gallery.
The three of them watched him go, then Ratchet turned to Drift and Springer. "That's what happens when you're a Prowl. Friends don't let friends become Prowl." Ratchet smiled, then began to follow.
Springer and Drift watched him catch up to Prowl, jump on him, then tussle a moment or two before heading up the steps to the big museum gracing the square.
"We're going to a museum," Springer said.
Drift nodded.
"A museum. They're on the town and Prowl wants to go to a museum."
Drift nodded again.
Springer sighed, then began to walk onward to catch up.
Drift followed. He grinned. Going to a museum was good with him. He loved to talk art with Sunstreaker.
=0=After a long round of looking
They paused before the picture looking at it critically. Prowl was enraptured, Drift was intensely interested, Ratchet was amused and Springer was ready to hit the bars.
"This is really an amazing piece of art," Prowl said as they stared at a painting of a boy dressed all in blue. Nearly everything about it was blue. That was the point.
"I'd hate to have to dress like that. Look at his hair, too. Long and strange," Drift was saying as he studied Blue Boy, which was a treatise in the use of the color. "Nice work. Alien but nice."
Prowl nodded. "Such a bold statement about color."
Ratchet glanced at Springer who was standing behind Prowl mimicking all of his words back to him behind his back. He grinned. :He's going to ninja you right into the outback of the beyond:
:I hope so. I think my lower extremities went to sleep fifteen bold statements ago:
Ratchet grinned, watching Prowl as he and Drift discussed the art. Both of them loved what they were seeing and finding common ground in the statement of the techniques and colors before them.
It was going to be a long long visit.
=0=Some freaking time later
They sat in a restaurant to eat, sipping drinks as they waited for food to arrive.
Springer glanced at Drift. "I'm glad you liked what you saw. I was ready to hang myself about the fifteen time I saw a half naked fat lady reclining on a couch with those fat little angel babies floating around holding the curtains."
Drift laughed, then patted Springer's leg. "You ain't got no class then?"
"None," Springer said as he sipped his beer. "What's next? A graveyard? A library? Maybe a pipe cleaner factory. After all … its only London."
Prowl stared at Springer knowing FULL WELL that the big mech had nearly lost a few sprockets following along behind them. Drift hadn't surprised him. He was striving to be a good and better mech and looking at art filled a love in him for beauty and harmony. Springer on the other hand was a savage and needed to suffer, the former Mrs. Optimus Prime. Prowl snorted. "Savage. I'm leaning toward the pipe cleaner factory."
"You really earned it if we go there," Ratchet said. "Maybe not me but you? Truly. You earned it."
Their meals came and they dived in, chatting about this and that innocuous thing as all around them humans ate, drank and talked together unaware that they did so in the company of a number of very striking vehicular aliens.
=0=Around the world
Ironhide sat in his chair sleeping the sleep of the damned. He was sagging along one side and on the floor lay the remote. He'd eaten his fill of just about every bit of junk food in the house and was feeling no pain. The television which was muted was playing a documentary about ancient aliens and the Egyptian pyramids. He would have enjoyed it for the lulz but for the half a dozen beer bottles lining the table next to him.
He hated it when Ratchet wasn't home.
=0=Around the World Part 2
He slept in his little bassinet in the berth room of his Appa and Amma. Tell was a small baby who lay curled up in a ball with his thumb digit in his mouth for comfort. Cousin had come in and was curled up next to his helm. When the baby would move, Cousin would purr and lull the baby back to recharge. He was fulfilling part of his function to be a sweet influence to children. That the little deaf baby couldn't hear him was of no consequence. He could feel the soft rumble of Cousin's purring anyway.
The night waxed onward as Appa dozed in the living room and all of the uncles and aunts of the little baby slept in their big boy and girl beds, bunks and titan-sized double beds all over the house. Curled up by the window watching over the baby as well, Spot slept silently. Standing by him watching the inside of his optics, Robby the cow snored ever onward.
=0=Around the World Part 3
Optimus Prime recharged in his berth minus his Little Buddy as he facetiously called Prowl. That he meant it was one thing. That it made Prowl snicker was another. He was on another planet creating havoc with Ratchet so all was probably well. Springer and Drift were there so he put concerns in the back of his processor.
He'd checked his children, cleared up a bit of child clutter, petted the cat, then walked to his room. The light of the city streamed in so he darkened the windows a bit. Sitting down, he mused on the emptiness of his space without Prowl, then lay back to recharge. He was out before his helm hit the pillow.
=0=Elsewhere
They sat in the restaurant talking about things. It was sunny and warm earlier but the clouds were gathering thick and heavy. Rain was supposed to be coming and it was gangbusters lately, roaring down streets and drowning out the underground stations. Inside, it was dry and amusing, delicious and relaxing. It was good to be here today.
=0=Outside a bit later
They stepped out to a steady rain. Clouds had blown up and the light breeze felt cool. Rivulets of water flowed in the gutters as the city began to change before them. Rain slicked everything. Getting to places was going to take longer it seemed if you had to walk. Heading toward the metro nearby, they paused at the door. Water was beginning to run down the street and it was starting to pour into the opening to the underground station below.
"I don't think I want to go down there," Ratchet said.
"I think you're right. Let's hail a cab," Prowl said as he walked to the curb and began to wave.
Cabs by the droves past by but none of them stopped.
"Frag," Prowl whispered, then he began to wave again.
They all did. As they did the rain picked up and the water began to flow in earnest. It was the strangest thing to watch it gather in force and begin to rise.
"What the fragging hell?" Ratchet said as he heard someone nearby begin to shout.
They turned that direction and saw a woman hanging onto a light post. Hurrying toward her, then grabbed her arm and pulled her up to the steps of a building that was a business. The water was rising and began to flood the store where a lot of shouting could be heard. All around them the water flowed and as they turned back to look at the station an empty car began to float past in the swift moving water in the street.
"What the hell is going on here?" Springer asked softly as every cop instinct he had blew into overdrive.
=0=Around the World Part 4
They sat up at the table eating a big piece of apple pie with tea. Chatting sweetly together, Docker and Appa Ratchet took a moment from recharge to have a treat.
"I hope Ratchet and Prowl have a good time on Earth. I always wondered what that place was like. So many lovely images in their documentaries," Docker said.
"I'd like to go there and ski. Something about skiing looks like fun," Appa Ratchet said.
Docker grinned. "You'd look so handsome, Ratchet, if you did. Maybe one of these orns we can borrow some pretender gear and give it a try with Sonny and Ironhide. Taking the children to play in snow would be so much fun."
They chatted away, then gathered up to go back to bed.
"I imagine Ratchet and Prowl are having a great time. I hope so," Docker said.
"Springer and Drift are with them. How could they not have fun?" Ratchet said as he followed Docker back to their room.
=0=At the 'Fun'
They stood in hip deep water (for their human formats) helping people get from one side of the street to the other. People stumbled along in the torrent holding whatever body part they could grip, apologizing for the miss here and there as they clambered through the swirling water.
Cars had gone past heading down stream in the crowded urban streets of the city. It wasn't that it was so deep and swift. It was that it was so channeled in its course, hemmed in by buildings on each side and no place for it to be siphoned. It rolled onward like the 'mighty Mississipp' as they say in America and flooded everyone and everything in its path.
Standing in deep water being a hand grip for people crossing the channel, Ratchet glanced at Prowl. "HAVING FUN YET?"
Prowl glanced at him. "I hate you," he said.
Springer laughed aloud. "I HATE BOTH OF YOU!"
And so it would go.
=0=TBC 8-13-2021
In America where the land is hard and dry, flash flooding is a peril. The water has no where to go and the ground won't absorb it fast enough. The water comes, floods, then usually goes. Anyone having fires or flash flooding, you are in my heart. Hugs.