The Diego Diaries: Zoom (dd7 304)
=0=On the field of honor …
The sound of the crowd was extraordinary as they roared their approval. They bellowed, stomped and made all of the noises possible to a metallic being. Prime stood in the middle of the medallion surrounded by Seekers, priests, Immortals, Elite Guards, Alor, Scout, Trooper and the Band as well as the titans. They stayed on their knee together, then the lights went out everywhere.
When the lights went out it was deeply dark and even though most of the crowd switched to their different optical options, it was nearly inky dark to the humans. As the lights went off the groups on field stood, then walked off together to the tunnels. When they were off the field, a spotlight flashed on to illuminate Prime alone in the circle. It was dark everywhere but in the tunnels with their emergency lights but those didn't reach the field.
Everyone stared down from the rafters at Prime who stood alone in the center field. It was incredibly silent a moment, then Prime took a knee. He knelt down on a knee, then bowed his helm. There was almost a gasping sound, then the crowd roared again. It was amazing and extraordinary, the sight before them, a Prime bending a knee to the people. In all the living memory of everyone but the Immortals who could tell tales of the greatness of Guardian Prime, no one had ever seen such a thing before. Sentinel, Zeta, Nova himself and the others … they would never do this for anyone. For them, it was always the other way around.
Prime stayed on his knee, then rose slowly. He turned slowly in a circle to take in the wildly cheering crowd, then he bowed slightly. With that, he began to walk off the field to the tunnel where the rest of his team waited. He bore with him the roar of the crowd and the respect of everyone there that such a mech was their leader.
=0=Up in the air
Jazz bumped fists with Revet and Blaster. "That is the greatest mech I've ever met since the last time I looked into a mirror."
The three roared loudly.
"I have to agree, at least with the part about Prime," Revet said with a snicker.
"This was long overdue. This is a historical moment for all of us, to be home again, to see the world coming together in all ways and to do it around football," Blaster said.
"Some of the Decepticons are coming in to surrender because they watch the games that we beam to them," Jazz said. "We share well."
The three of them roared loudly.
=0=In a home in Ohio
"That was very moving, Leonard," Mama Annie said as Papa Leonard nodded.
"Prime is one of a kind. Name one leader here that matched him in the smallest way," Pastor Bob said as he sat in his chair moderating his Cybertronian Sports and Culture website forums for the game. He was the site owner of the largest website on Earth for alien sports and culture, CYBERTRON NOW! which also hosted his mother's newsletter and columns, 'Sports Letter', the most read break down of football, racing, basketball, cube, martial arts, rugby and lobbing, the sports played on Cybertron for readers both there, Mars and Earth. Her daily column was must reading everywhere.
Literally.
"I like him a lot," Little Pastor Bobby said as he sat with the rest of the family, cousins, aunts and uncles that joined them for "SPORTS WEEKEND AT NANA AND PAPA'S HOUSE!"
It would be a delightful game for everyone, especially Mama Annie who was blogging the game to half a dozen worlds and several Decepticon outposts live.
=0=In the tunnel
They gathered around Prime, the Crater Terrans, as the Nova Cronum Brigadiers watched from their line. Laughter and fist bumps galore greeted him as they lined up again to walk out. An official was looking out of the tunnel to get the signal, then turned to the Brigadiers. "Your turn to go. Good luck," he said.
They gathered, then with a nod to the Terrans and Prime, they began to walk out to the roar of the crowd. The lights were back on and they were on screens everywhere including the jumbotron as they crossed to the middle line and planted their banners. They began their kata, raising the roof about what they planned to do, then resettled on their line again.
The official glanced at Prime, then bowed slightly. "Your turn, Lord Optimus. Good luck."
Prime grinned. "Thank you." He glanced at the others, then moved forward to the field and destiny. The others followed them with banners and pride.
Prime was first to appear to the roar of the crowd followed by his team. Ironhide was next, then Hard Drive, Raptor, Blackjack, Ultra Magnus, Maelstrom with Chromia, Arcee, Elita, Jetta and Bumblebee, of all mechs. Recruited because he was tough, smart and fast, he walked out jauntily with other recruits by Prime to fill out both offensive and defensive lines for this harder and more demanding game. They included Bulkhead, Payload, Nitro, Scar, Twin Twist, Sandstorm, Smokescreen the Younger who was bouncing on his peds like the big kid he was, Devcon because he was a bounty hunter and an amma, not Smokescreen the Elder because he played for Praxus Science and Hot Rod.
Yes, Hot Rod. (Who had volunteered when he heard that Prime had allowed Smokey to join and be the back up pile of kindling if the game got really bad. That one.)
Oh, and Winnie of Stanix, doctor and security specialist from the Autobot City Military and Civilian Prison was on the team.
That one.
The crowd roared, Wreckers laughed, Prowl frowned at the Wreckers next to their box, Ratchet took pics of Prowl frowning, Prowl took his camera, Ratchet grabbed Prowl's neck, Ravel slapped both of them on the helms, both of them curdled just a moment from force of habit, Ratchet got his camera back, Prowl stepped on his ped while watching Ravel out of the corner of his optics, then all was well.
Mostly.
The team walked out and planted their banner. They did their kata which was actually rather scary considering the number of slaggers and monster trucks on the team. They stood as the announcements were made, then Password walked out with the refs. They got the usual applause/boos/beer cans that were smuggled in/Cybertronian middle fingers and 'good wishes' that crowds gave them in every universe everywhere.
"WELCOME! I AM PASSWORD, DIRECTOR OF THE MARTIAN LEAGUE AND THIS IS MY COUNTERPART IN THE CYBERTRONIAN LEAGUE, STENCIL OF ALTIHEX!"
A madhouse of roars.
"TONIGHT WE PLAY THE FIRST INTER LEAGUE GAME ON CYBERTRON!"
* ROAR!*
"TONIGHT, THE REIGNING CHAMPIONS, THE NOVA CRO-*ROAR!*-NUM BRIG-*ROAR!*-*ROAR!*-DIERS PLAY THE CRATER COMETS OF MARS!"
ROAR and ROAR SOME MORE!
"WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, LET'S PLAY BALL!"
Stencil passed the ball to the refs, then the two hoofed it off the field along with everyone else. That was also when the starting lines walked out to take their places. Nova Cronum would duke it out with the Comets on the mid field line. Prime would be the center of the offense of the Comets and a train with eyeballs would be his counterpart on the Brigadiers.
Prime who was no shrinking violet took his place, then looked way up at the big mech who was going to blast him into the stratosphere if he wasn't faster. The big mech smiled.
Prime grinned back. "Hi," he said.
"Hi, Lord Optimus. My amma says to be easy on you because of Primus and all but I'm not going to. This is football," he said.
Prime snickered as did the others. "Okay."
They gathered, got set, then the ball was tossed toward Prime. He caught it, ducked a fist to the face, then passed it off to Chromia.
Chromia caught it and with Maelstrom mowing down half the opposing line because 'his girl wanted to score', she blasted through.
Behind her running with surprising speed was the Immortal Hard Drive of Praxus and the mere mortal Bulkhead of Somewhere Else.
Running with their fists out, Chromia jogged along behind them. They weren't fast, the big ones, but they were wide and as they cut the grass for her, she planned her victory dance after the score.
Prime on the other hand had his servos full …
The big mech missed the ball by inches but he didn't miss landing on Prime who had tried to be fast but had miscalculated on the part where you run faster. The mech, Billiard by name landed on him with a crash.
The teams who were swarming after Chromia ran over both of them. When the last mech trampled over the two lying face down on the ground, they both rolled over to stare at the dark sky overhead whose starry clarity was somewhat dampened by the light arrays everywhere around them in the stadium.
But all was not lost.
They had a full spread of constellations going on in their helm with a soundtrack of bird calls.
In the stands …
Ratchet grabbed Prowl as he tried to climb over everyone to get to the wall. Fortunately, two groups of ten kids from Zones 1 and 2 carrying med-i-kits tastefully embellished with various service tattoos were marauding out of their tunnels to the field. As they did, a loud siren-like alarm went off inside Ratchet signaling that they'd deployed. He tossed Prowl aside like a discarded lover, then danced down the aisle, jumped on the wall and swan dived off.
He landed like the big diva that he was and with lights and sirens going full blast, he ran toward the downed mechs and the hastily gathered crowd of 20 infants doing their duty like good scouts.
{… frag …} Ratchet thought as he made a mental note to remind everyone about the Autobot Scouts. He reached ground zero of the train wreck, then scanned the two with a beam that wouldn't register on optics. The kids were here, they were grim faced with the desire to serve, so he decided not to rain on their parade. "Okay, squad … you know what to do."
With that, twenty kids descended on two mechs whose rung bells were just starting to subside.
=0=Meanwhile, in the game …
Chromia noted that a phalanx of Brigadiers were bee-lining their way toward her with malice aforethought, so she pivoted, passed the ball off to Bee, then raced onward.
Bee ran, then passed it to Twin Twist.
Twin ran, then passed it to Bee.
Bee ran into a mech.
In the tunnel nearby clenching his servos tightly, First Aid could almost taste the impact as His Bee™ bounced off a Man Mountain Dean who had managed to angle his very slow but shapely aft into just the right position. Apparently, it was Bee's turn to 'bee the bug'.
SNICKER.
Bee bounced off, the ball flew out, then Chromia swooped in to catch it. The huge mech who ran for her bounced off the pile of titanium named Maelstrom. While he grappled with that mech she continued onward like a heat seeking missile for the goal.
The scene as it stood …
At midfield, Prime and Billiard lay under a pile of scrutiny by the eager beavers from Zones 1 and 2 of 5 (zones that is) who were THE AUTOBOT CITY DAY/NIGHT WATCH YOUTH AUXILIARY and the soon-to-be first graduating class of THE AUTOBOT CITY MEDICAL AUXILIARY FOR YOUTH!
Bee was sitting up, then was flattened as 'Zone 3' made their way to his side with their grim determination and little med-i-kits. Their jackets which all of them wore signaled who they were and what they were doing.
The crowd was on their feet with amusement and delight.
Unfortunately, Our Bee wasn't. He was viewing his own personal planetarium display himself.
Chromia was homing in on the target with Elita and Arcee.
Maelstrom was duking it out with a Man Mountain Dean and it was AWESOME! Imagine a mixed martial arts between Godzilla and Another Godzilla.
What was incredibly amusing and deeply unknowable to the humans watching EVERYWHERE including Prima Station was that the game was still going. The rules that a fight stopped play or that injuries did as well seemed to be in limbo along with everyone else who was too slow to stop Chromia.
The crowd wailed and roared as Elita, Arcee and Chromia jumped up to fly like impossibly sexy ninjas through the air, connecting with the goalie and two backs, then landing like ballerinas.
That is, two ballerinas and Chromia.
Chrome walked to the hoop and stuffed it.
Hard.
They sauntering back like (the) gangsters (that they were), Elita, Chromia and Arcee showing the universe why they were never caught in five million years working as a guerrilla team on Cybertron and as full stop pains in the aft to the homeys here.
The crowd levitated with delight.
Crater Comets a score, Nova Cronum Brigadiers, zed.
=0=TBC 6-16-2020 6-17-2020
NOTES TOMORROW! :D:D:D