The Diego Diaries: Grisly Run Up (dd7 295)
=0= Getting ready for The Game™ T-minus 2 orns
"GET IN HERE!"
"ADA! ATAR BAD ME! ADA, HELPED I, ORION!" [Hoppity-skippity-hop-hop-**GRAB**!]
"ADA! COMED I, ORION HERE TO ME! HELPED ME! ATAR BAD ME! HIM BAD ME!"
"I'll 'bad' you, ya little slagger," Ironhide muttered as he stalked Praxus. Dangling from one servo, Orion kept up his hilarious rant.
"ATAR! YOU CAN'T GET ME!"
"I AM IRONHIDE™! I CAN GET PEEWEES!"
CHASE™!
=0=Elsewhere
Pulley packed his little bag with a few things that he thought he might need if by some reason they had to overnight on Cybertron. He also packed a great camera into his beloved med-i-kit he'd been given during Christmas Surprise last year, one that he'd use to take as many pictures as he could.
Sitting in a chair in his room, his appa grinned at the grandson that he loved more than his own life. "You appear to be very happy, Pulley."
He glanced at his most beloved Appa, the one who'd been changed first in the Diaspora before he was separated and who'd been a voice of reason against the others all along. "I'm going to Cybertron, Appa. I wish you could come."
"Well," Stark said with a grin. "Your wish is my command. Guess who was asked to be a chaperon?"
It would be a loud and happy time at Pulley's house that night.
=0=At the House™ Right After School™
"Atar?"
"What, Genesis?" Ironhide had dried off the little bits and they were hoppity-skippity-dancing on the floor, all five of them, while Spot, Robby and Cousin sat nearby watching.
"Uh ..." He looked pensively at his harried father. "Uh, we have to spend the night tonight and tomorrow at the Hotel Mars at Central Point because there's going to be a comet swarm … its on the thing ..." He trailed off after noting Ironhide's blank look of non recognition.
Bad sign.
"Um, the bus is going to take us at 1700 hours tonight. We, uh," Genesis said, then fizzled himself. You know? The message? The trip note from our teacher and the school? The one you signed last week?"
Quasar glanced at him, then Ironhide. "We have to stay over the next two nights, Atar. The project we're finishing up is … there's a thing out there and the telescope project is … we have to do it."
Ironhide ran through his helm the next two hell days' scheduling, then noted he had 2,500 unread messages in his internal messaging files including several from the school. He flashed through them and got the word, albeit late even though he had already signed them to go. Ratchet always handled that slag. Division of labor and all. "Okay. You seem upset by this."
"We want to help you. With Ada away, you need help," Fireball said as he grinned at the children trying to climb up his legs. "These cute little things … they're a lot of work."
"They are, but school is school," Ironhide said as he plucked Halo up off Cousin who she was trying to ride. He looked ready to rake her over the coals. "Do you need lunches?" he asked dreading the answer. Ratchet always handled that, too.
"No. But … uh, we don't want to miss the game, Atar. If we have to drive back with the class, then we won't be here to go. We can go can't we?" Quasar asked with a solemn expression.
"Of course," Ironhide said. "I AM IRONHIDE! I WILL CHECK YOU OUT AND GET YOU! Besides, I'm on the slagging School Board."
"You're the best secretary that the School Board ever had, Atar!" Fireball said with gigantic relief.
Ironhide roared with laughter. "I"M THE *ONLY* ONE THEY EVER HAD!"
The relief was cosmic amongst the infants at the Haus of Ironhide v Ratchet.
=0=Across the hallway later that very evening
"SCOUT! GET IN HERE!"
The high pitched squealing of an infant so overcome with laughter, delight and desire to escape the clutches of his ada that he was nearly paralyzed filled the room as he ran for his atar who was sitting on the floor picking up endless piles of Legos. "ATAR! MY FLY!"
Blackjack watched Scout running his way, then caught him before he could pass by. He raised him up and stuffed him under his arm. Scout who *LOVED THIS GAME … HIDEY-HIDE FROM BAD ADA!* hung there in his old pa's arm pit laughing loudly. Because he was facing away from Alor, he felt he was sufficiently hidden from view.
Alor who walked in spotting a tiny aft sticking out of Blackjack's arm pit flashed on earlier orns with another tiny aft doing the same thing, then paused before both. "Where is that little rat? If I find him I'm going to pinch his bottom."
HUGE SQUEEING LAUGHTER!
"I can't find him." Alor looked around, circling Blackjack as he did. He looked down. "Fragging Legos. Ow."
"I hear ya but consider the slag we can make with them, hang the kid," Blackjack said as he gathered more into one of the several big bins that held them.
"Well, I can't find him. Maybe we should just throw these Legos away. Who needs them without a kid?" Alor said.
Blackjack grinned. "Get me a bag. I'll dump them in, then shove them down the debris chute in the kitchen."
Scout who was listening silently by this point patted his atar. "Atar … me down."
Alor who was helping Blackjack gather them ignored the baby, too. "The sooner these are gone, the better. Really, 'Jack? Who cares for Legos?"
All three of them did, passionately, but that was details. This was fun.
"Ada? You there?" -Scout
"I don't know, 'Jack, how we got so many. Throwing them away will be great. I can decorate an entire corner of the living room once half these toy boxes are garbage." -Alor, grinning broadly
"Won't get an argument from me." -Blackjack, grinning bigger than broadly
"Ada? Atar? You not do that?" -Scout
"I'll get a bag." -Alor faking a walk to the cabinet nearby
"ADA!?"
"Did you hear something, Jack?" Alor asked as he looked down at Scout trying to get loose.
"OH!" Blackjack said as he retrieved Scout and put him down on the floor.
The baby looked upward at both of them, then gathered a little bit of Legos. He hid them behind his back. "Ada … Atar … you not doing this?"
They grinned at him, the image of another sweet baby coming to mind, then both of them swooped down upon him. It would be a happy evening at the Haus of Blackjack and Alor v Scout.
They would build the old neighborhood back in Praxus with Legos and explain to Scout every place that Ironhide had been, played or fell down upon. It would be glorious.
=0=Elsewhere about the same time, T-Minus an orn and a half
"We're going with the group. Ven and Milie are going to help with the kids," Sideswipe said as he put two gear bags, his and Sunstreaker's down by the door. "Sunny called. He's going to be here in a few minutes. Let's go out to eat."
The girls ran past laughing loudly as they chased a hopping deliriously happy Bob. Kaon was behind them banging on a hand held drum with a stick. They shrieked past, then disappeared down the hallway to their rooms.
Bluestreak grinned. "I think the hand carrier is in order for the twinnies unless I can get them parted out to other's carry holds."
Sideswipe grinned. "I'd take them but I'm going to be busy."
They walked down the hallway together to watch the children play.
=0=The Haus of Prima v Venture and Miler
He sat on the table smiling at his ada.
Miler smiled back. Dinner was cooking and he was sitting with their sweet collaboration absorbing his precious aura. "Atar is coming. We'll have dinner, then play, then you go to sleep. You will go to sleep tonight, right?"
"Ada," Prima said with a chuckle. "You funny."
It didn't look good at their house for tonight but no one living there would care.
=0=The very next morning, T-Minus one orn
"When will you come home, Ada?" Fireball asked as he crowded around the monitor with half the kids in the house. Sitting on his arms was a smiling Sunspot.
"We signed off on Relentless last night and have just Calamity to go. We're actually going faster than I expected," Ratchet said as he chatted with the kids before school. "How's your old pa?"
"ORION!"
Everyone looked toward the hallway, then back at Ratchet. All of them grinned.
Ratchet grinned back.
=0=Lunchtime, T-Minus 1 orn
"How's Loon doing?" Alor asked as he lounged with Prowl, Miler, Venture, Stealth, Styre, Joon and Vinn. Stealth and Styre had just finished their counseling session and had invited Joon and Vinn to lunch at The Diner On The Corner, a place that was now 'their diner'.
Prowl snickered. "He's down to one ship. Slacker. I figured he'd be done by now."
"Those ships are so grand. We were there when they launched Carrilon," Stealth said. "What a lovely ship. A dreadnought. The last one built or so I thought. The children … they're so lovely. Three lovely dread children."
"They're pretty wonderful," Prowl said. "They're loaners as well. I only let Loon and Ironhide think they belong to them. All of them everywhere belong to me." He grinned at them with a very self satisfied expression of contentment.
Miler smiled at him, then Vinn. "May I suggest a client perhaps?" he asked.
Huge laughter.
=0=Prime
He sat in his office eating lunch at his desk. Before him were all the plans, data pads with all the possibilities of the many missions including the big one with Polity, the intel that was known and/or unknown but speculated about along with the rest of his enormous responsibility concerning the empire over which he reigned. In his servos, he held their team playbook. They would go to the wilderness tonight, bridging in to practice hard, then return to their homes to rest up for the game the following orn. He perused it deeply and well as he did every battle plan he had. It would be a nice quiet afternoon in the office.
=0=Calamity
"SHUT IT OFF! SHUT IT OFF! NOW! THAT VALVE! NOT THAT ONE! THE BLUE ONE!"
"THERE'S TWO BLUE ONES, RATCHET!"
"UH! BOTH OF THEM!"
The sound of valves twirling could be heard in the cacophony of noise in the small space.
[Silence]
KABOOM!
=0=Moments later …
:Ratchet? You there? What's going on?:
He came to sentience hanging over a pipe like a wet dish cloth. Gathering himself quickly through his clever programming, dogged contrarianism and drugs, he dropped down. :Hi, Ironhide. Ratchet can't come to the phone, so frag off. 'K?:
[Silence]
:You got blowed up again:
Ratchet paused the inventory of his arms and legs, then laughed aloud. :Bingo:
Glancing around to see the concerned faces of his equally wet but not blowed up team, he turned to the valves to ponder the imponderable … getting this fixed without a blood bath. :What's up?:
:Besides your aft?:
:And what a good aft it is: Ratchet began to climb the bent steps that led upward to the valves that controlled water pressure through this portion of Calamity. Apparently, there was a fuck up somewhere on the panel or some such equally technical term for it somewhere in the zillion miles of pipes and wiring that constituted that aft portion of this ship in root mode.
Technically … they were just down from his gigantic debris valve.
:I don't complain. The kids are going to be overnighting in Central Point. I'm going to bring them over for the game. They were worried about it. Are you coming in to the Muni Airport before we go? That's where we're leaving:
Ratchet considered the schedule so far, noting he'd be home before that, then lied. :I'll try. Gotta motor:
:Alright. All's well here. The slaggers are in school. I wouldn't be a teacher for love nor money:
:You and me both, Ironhide. Ta: Ratchet signed off, then checked the panel. He coded in a script, then got hit in the face with hot water again. "SHUT IT OFF! SHUT IT OFF NOW!"
"WHERE?" -the medical team running in circles looking for something to turn. Anything.
=0=Ironhide, mech about town
Given the nature and size of his brood and the many that would be coming to the apartment that night, he had the orn off, pending need of course, to do childcare. After everyone was out of school, all of them were coming to his house for dinner given the work load of everyone in the family at the moment.
All of them.
ALL.
He walked up and down the aisles of the Grocery at Metroplex, their 'store'. He pushed a cart as he tried to figure out what to feed about 20 kids. The worst part was what to do with about 20 kids. Given that three of them would be in Central Point whooping it up at the Astronomy and Sciences Center and the hotel afterwards, it was only a slight less sense of inadequacy that followed him around.
Dinner would be … interesting.
=0=Walking through the Autobot City Municipal Airport at Autobot City
Springer and Drift made their way to the street outside posing for pictures long enough for a large group of humans, half going home and half coming in. They grinned, flexed this and that, showed their weapons up close and listened to the applause, screams from the girls and looks of admiration from the men.
And the car aficionados. Those guys, too.
It was good for the ego.
Especially after getting blowed up.
Many of the humans knew they were the ones harmed and gave them love. It was addicting.
They finally begged off, then headed out. Security at the stadiums on Cybertron was aces. Now they had to go over the security here. They also had to map out the gangs, the hot headed high castes that still provoked fights among the punters and the fragging mini-cons.
Especially the fragging mini-cons.
It was good to be back in the saddle. Literally.
=0=TBC 6-3-2020