The Diego Diaries: Magnus and Arcee Continued (dd7 253)
=0=Very early morning the next day at the Temple
He stood on the platform waiting for the slagger to show up. It was nearly 0530 and if he was late it would frag up the project. The sky was still very dark, the lights very bright including those that were twinkling in the apartments all over the place. Businesses were waking up, some of them and beyond them, those open all day and night were getting deliveries for the orn. Trash bots were picking up stuff from bins here and there. It was all very familiar.
Footfalls indicated someone coming so he glanced down the walkway. It was Rockwell. He was walking with a grim expression having been let out of the jail to come here. He was keeping to the plan, it was clear to Ironhide, perhaps considering that it would count on his behalf. It would. His appa was a fair mech but it wouldn't be enough without real change.
Rockwell came into view, stared coldly at Ironhide, then walked past him into the building beyond.
Ironhide watched him go, then followed. As he did, the conversation he had with Ratchet when he came back from his emergency followed as well …
"We don't have to get information from Corsair or Imaldo tonight. We can do this with Jarro and maybe even use hypnotism to help them get their emotions out of the way," Ratchet said. "Its a protocol that has plenty of precedent in courts." Ratchet was riding with Prime and the others to the jail at Autobot City to speak with the three mechs and their two bodyguards before turning the problem over to others.
They reached the courthouse, then stepped out of the cabs that brought them this far. Prime was in no condition at the moment to stress his welds. They walked into the intake door and nodded to the Officer of the Orn before heading toward the lock up in back. The three mechs were separated from their bodyguard into a cell block that held only the three.
Springer and Drift who had waited joined them as Prime, Magnus, Arcee and Ratchet entered to speak. It was dark but for the three cells, all of them spaced apart. Sound was muffled and it greeted their audials dully as they walked toward that end of the huge room. Then it ended when they approached the first cell, the muffled sound. It was caused by a dampening field erected so the three couldn't get together on their stories.
They watched the group approach, then stood.
Each side stared at the other a moment, then Prime stepped forward. "I am Optimus Prime. I am here to speak to the three of you about very serious issues raised against you. I would expect that you will be truthful. Nothing we speak about here will be used in court. I expect answers to my questions."
The three stared at him silently.
"Who are you and where did you come from?" Prime asked.
No one spoke so Ratchet hit the first mech with a heavy duty scanner, one stronger than he needed, then the other two. The mechs flinched as it read their transponders. Ratchet glanced at Prime. "This is Tyre of Polyhex. The other two are Scope of Declarion and Spectator from Iacon."
Prime considered that. Each place was a center of finance. "Tyre of Polyhex, tell me about the two mechs who were involved in the altercation."
Tyre considered that. "They were friends … acquaintances. We were from the same background and knew each other once upon a time."
"Where did you come from besides Omega Base?" Prime persisted.
He considered that. "We were from Cybertron, then we fled like everyone else. We've bounced around a long time."
"Then you won't mind if we check that out?" Magnus said rather than asked.
Tyre shrugged. "You will anyway." He watched as Magnus walked to a computer console by the door, then began to search.
"There are serious accusations being posed. Slavery and abuse of individuals. What do you know about that?" Prime asked.
They stared at him, then each other through the visible light of the bars.
Tyre glanced back at Prime. "Why would we know about that?"
"Because if you do and you just lied, it'll be a very bad thing for you here," Arcee said coldly. "Liars are no longer welcome in polite society."
Tyre stared at the big femme, one with an aura that didn't seem to fully sync with her appearance. "If you say so."
"Oh great," Springer said. "Another high caste entitlement slagger. I'm afraid we're never going to run out of them. They're like cockroaches."
Arcee smirked, then glanced at him, her brother no less. "Nice comparison."
Magnus walked back to Prime. "Their information is in the databases. They left out the part where they were Consortium members. That part seems to have slipped their processors." He stared at them with cold fury. "Running guns, selling tech … we appear to have a trend going here."
"This could be interesting," Ratchet said. "The Wheelus Faction and the Tulsa bunch are here. We just hit the trifecta." He glanced at Springer. "Perhaps I can get the transponders of the other two. I would guess they'd be Corrigate and Fiestro from Polyhex."
"Do so, Ratchet," Prime said.
Ratchet commed the desk at the hospital in Bern and after a second the transponder data was sent to him. He grinned. "Bingo."
"Well, aren't you just showing up my home town in a good light," Springer said with a cold sense of menace.
"You didn't born them, Springer," Ratchet said quietly. "Someone else has that shame."
At that moment, a mech walked in with Barron.
Prime glanced at them, then Magnus.
"I sent for them. We have war criminals here and it would appear that they continued their ways after they fled Cybertron," Magnus said.
Prime nodded, then everyone gathered around him. "Barron, we have a number of flagged war criminals from the past who have been allegedly discovered to have committed barbarism against refugees in the Diaspora. They were discovered by Jetta who may have had his genitors subjected to their behavior. He attacked two of them and they are in the hospital, Corrigate and Fiestro from Polyhex."
Barron blinked. "Oh my," he said as he glanced at his clerk, Rain of Helex. "These fall under special guidelines given the nature of the accusations against them. We can hold them four orns before charges can be drawn up to allow gathering of witnesses and information for the Committee on War Crimes to review. That would be first step. Have they had their rights?"
"No," Prime said. "Nothing said will be relevant."
"They said nothing," Ratchet replied as the others nodded. "Of course, in their shoes I would do the same."
Barron nodded. "I will be in charge of this case, Lord Optimus. The other two in the hospital … are they secured?"
Ratchet was silent a moment, then nodded. "They are now."
"Good," Barron said. "We're going to need a bit of time to present a case to the Committee to see about indictments."
Prime nodded, then glanced at Springer. "Go to their apartments and see what is there."
Springer nodded. "Done." He glared at the three mechs. "Fraggers. Why weren't you from somewhere else?"
They talked a bit longer, then everyone walked out to do their part or go home. Arcee and Magnus watched everyone leave, then walked onward to the office. He was fragged at the worst group of Tyrest violators found thus far. That these slaggers had caused harm to Omi Corsair and Omi Imaldo was unforgivable. Ultra Magnus knew how to hold a grudge.
"What do you think?" Arcee said as she strode along with him, her servo secured in his.
"I think I'm tired of mechs breaking the treaties. This group dovetails into the Wheelus Faction case and the others. I know they were connected to Crader as well," Magnus said as they walked toward the door after crossing the courtyard of The Fortress. "I'd like to jam them into a shuttle and fly it into the sun."
"Well," Arcee said with a grin, "you always were the dramatic type."
Magnus glanced down at her, then grinned slightly. "Yeah, that's me. The dramatic type." …
"Magnus."
"What?" He paused his pacing a moment to stare at the individual who had always been the one he wanted. Arcee was older than him but it didn't matter. He had thought about Arcee in this way before The Thing That Happened to him to make something indefinable about the tall well made mech that spoke of feminine things. It was a processor ache to consider what it was so he didn't. Usually.
"Come here and sit with me. Let's apply logic and reason to this problem," Arcee said as she patted the couch next to her lanky form.
Magnus managed the ghost of a grin. "I don't think logic and reason would apply."
"You say the most romantic things," Arcee had countered.
They were always drawn to each other. Both were calm and practical, brave, smart and tactical. Arcee and Elita had grown up together, R-C and Ariel, Jetta, Orion and Magnus. They were a remarkable group of mechs. Then things happened, Jetta and Now Elita had finally bonded, the war had come and driven things apart and the romance that Arcee and Magnus had felt had to take a back seat.
When Magnus had come to Diego and heard that Arcee was there, it had re-lit the flame that had never gone out. The company was as warm and easy as it ever was, the chat filled with mutual interests and events past and present as the two came together again. It would take a glitched email to close the deal. But that was now and this was then ...
Magnus sat down beside Arcee who slipped her arm around his broad shoulders. "We have to get that fragger."
"We will," Arcee said. "Scorponok will make a mistake and then you'll swoop in like a hero and cuff him. I want to be there when you do."
"Elita needs you tomorrow to blow up those refineries," Magnus said as the sound outside of relentless artillery fire could be heard. They had nearly closed the deal on this area and the few 'Cons firing back would fall soon. He hoped that among them would be the only tech and gun smuggler he had never bested, the opaque and unknowable Scorponok.
"Let it rest," Arcee said as she lay her helm on his shoulder. "Tomorrow is another orn."
Magnus listened to the sound which was muffled by the walls of the room where they sat together waiting for a ship to carry them to a planned refinery raid. "I will have him."
Arcee grinned. "Would anyone doubt?" she asked.
The next orn Arcee would blow up a refinery and Magnus would blast into space to chase Scorponok who somehow managed to steal a ship and get off world …
They worked in the office side-by-side companionably, two old friends sifting through oceans of details to build a dossier on the slaggers that had shown their hand and earned their incarceration. These slaggers were going to stand for their crimes. Two of the best mechs they ever knew and their two tormented sons deserved justice at last.
=0=Morning at a local diner
Arcee and Magnus sat in a booth eating their breakfast in anticipation for the orn. They had a lot of work to do, Jetta had to be visited and they had meetings with Barron's law clerks to go over the data.
Springer and Drift walked in with the group who did their shift with them and took seats. "How are you doing?"
"Better than Jetta," Magnus said.
Springer sat back. "I'm getting tired of this slag. My home town deserves more than this."
"You had a good town. I didn't have one," Drift said with a slight smirk.
"We're not playing that game," Springer said with a chuckle.
"Good thing," Magnus said. He grinned slightly. "Loser."
=0=TBC 4-10-2020 4-21-2020