The Diego Diaries: Clubbin' Part Deux (dd7 339)
(Its time to have some time in the colony doing the daily with all the hoo-haw)
=0=Mayhem in the AM
"ADA!"
"WHAT?!"
"BWAHAHAHAHAA! LOU WHAT ME! BWAHAHAHAHAA!"
Ratchet stared down at a herd of infants standing around him staring upward with giant smiles. He grinned back. "I do, did I?"
"LOU DO! LOU WHAT ME, I, ORION!"
"What then, smurf? What do you want?"
"I, Orion goed lou? Lou good me?" he asked hopefully. The others smiled hopefully as well.
Ratchet considered this, a day where he would touch base at work, then have the weekend off. He was one of the general staff who was so gifted the time. All of them would have the same schedule pending disaster, of course, but some would be hard at it anyway.
Jetta, anyone?
"Let me think about it. 'K?" Ratchet asked with a brilliant smile. He got five brilliant smiles back. "GET READY TO ROLL OUT, PEEWEES!"
"BWHAHAHAHAAAA! LOU SAYED PEEWEES!" Orion bellowed as he danced down the hallway to his room with the others following madly behind him.
Ratchet grinned. "I 'sayed' it and I 'meaned' it, Pookie." He glanced at Ironhide. "Orion is going with me. Prowler is, too."
"I dibs Halo, Hero and Praxus." Ironhide grinned. "Lunch at the Diner? Or The Pit Stop?"
"The Pit Stop," Ratchet said as Sunspot walked out with his stuff. "Do you want a skip orn or do you want to go to school, Sunny Bunny?"
Sunspot stopped to stare up at both of them. "School. I have stuff I have to do and Bos and Co-D are on my team." He smiled brilliantly.
Ratchet grinned. "The three amigos." He glanced at Spot who grinned at him. "What's this about you and Cardinal's group hanging out with the Scouts at the Valles in a while?" He looked pointedly at Ironhide. "I heard that you want Atar to go with all of you."
Ironhide's helm nearly flipped off his shoulders as he glanced from Sunny to Ratchet to Sunny again.
Sunspot smiled. "THAT WOULD BE GREAT! MY DEN LEADER WOULD LOVE THAT!" He leaned into Ironhide to hug his leg. "Thank you, Atar. I'm so happy you want to come."
Ironhide turned his nuclear optics from Ratchet to Sunny. He patted him. "Whatever you want and need to do, Sunspot, I'll be there."
Sunspot looked up at him. "I KNOW! YOU'RE THE BEST EVER!" He hugged Ironhide again, then walked to the door. "Can I go see Spirit? We can go down together, all of us."
"Absolutely. I may even go with you," Ratchet said as he glanced at a silently irate Ironhide.
"You go, Sunny. We'll meet you downstairs," Ironhide said as the imp walked to the door and left with his bouncy dog.
Robby wanted to go, too, but the door closed on him. Cousin who was sitting on his back stretched out and began to knead the cow's thick fur. A tiny moo of discomfort emanated from him before he shrugged the cat off.
Both watched the show, the cat's disdain, then leap up again and Robby's pained expression.
"Ironhide, save the cow."
"Ratchet, frag you."
"Ada? Why is Atar saying not nice words to you?"
Both looked down to see a solemn looking Hero peering up with a grinning Halo beside her. Halo was good whatever happened.
"Because he's a beast," Ratchet said.
Hero looked up at Ironhide. "Atar, my teacher and Lady Sela said that we can't be mean to each other. Bad words are mean."
Ironhide who felt two inches tall looked from them to a smirking Ratchet. "Uh, don't worry about it. Your old Ada is a knucklehead but I'm keeping him." Then he smiled a cheese eating smile that looked oddly familiar.
Hero who was glancing from him to Ratchet to Halo and back again looked at Ratchet, "Ada? Are you going somewhere?" she asked with a tiny wisp of alarm.
Ratchet leaned down. "Nope." He stood, then glanced at Ironhide. "Well played, goofy. You pay for the vorns of therapy to come. And for your penalty, I'm taking Praxus."
"Oh, no you don't," Ironhide said. He followed Ratchet to the berth room, then both grinned. "Infants. I can't bear them."
"Oh, yes the frag you can, coward," Ratchet said as he smirked at Ironhide. "I got Scouts going again. You're going to the Valles shindig and you're going to like it. OR … I'll tell Prime that I'm resigning as the only one who cares about infants having experiences and dump it all on him."
"OH, NO YOU WON'T!" Ironhide said with alarm.
"Imagine. Imagine the delegating that would happen then." Ratchet grinned with malevolence at Ironhide.
"You wouldn't be allowed to," Ironhide said.
"I'll do hard time in the high security lock up at the prison before I'd give in." He grinned at Ironhide. "Honestly, Ironhide … do you even really know me?"
"Yeah," Ironhide said with a smirk. "You're my worst nightmare."
Ratchet laughed aloud, then hugged Ironhide off his big old peds. "Better book it. Someone has to go to school and it isn't us."
They walked out with peewees in holds, Ratchet with Orion, Praxus and Prowler while Ironhide had Halo and Hero. They hoo-hawed all the way down, then ambled out the door to the street.
Blackjack who was waiting for buses as well glanced at them. "You look amused. Where's the kids? I want to love them up."
"They're going with us today," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile. "Sunspot is the only one going to school."
"Okay," Blackjack said as he took Scout from Alor and slid him into his hold. "Works for me."
Huge controversy broke out among the punters as the buses began to come. All of them pointed to their holds, then waved at the aides who laughed and waved back. When the last bus left, everyone gathered together.
"Well, who didn't eat?" Blackjack said as Hardie, Delphi, Raptor and Turbine stepped out of a cab to walk to where they stood together.
"I didn't," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.
"You did," Ironhide said as he glanced at Ratchet with a frown.
"What is life without second breakfast, slagger?" Ratchet asked.
Huge laughter and agreement greeted that as Flint, STU-RT, Lissie and Steiner walked toward them from the Metro station. "What are we missing that's so funny?" Steiner asked.
"Breakfast. Anyone else as hungry as me?" Ratchet asked.
All of them nodded, though most of them weren't. Fun would probably be had if they came along, so yeah.
Ratchet turned toward Ironhide as did the others.
He glanced at Ratchet then the others. "WHAT!?"
"We're going to eat. You can run along if you're like TOO FULL to come. As if that would EVER happen," Ratchet said with a smirk. "Big boy."
"I am, aren't I?" Ironhide replied with a smirk of his own.
HUGE hoo-haw greeted that, then Raptor glanced at Blackjack. "How about that restaurant on Cybertron, just down from the Citadel? We can eat there."
"Sounds good to me," Blackjack said with a grin. "We can leave the infant if he's either too full or too good to come with the old folks."
Ironhide glanced sharply at his father, then the others. "SINCE WHEN!?"
It was a jolly group headed for the Citadel and a rendezvous with a restaurant that was a favorite of the military class who worked near it.
=0=Elsewhere
"You do know that it'll be there even if you don't get there at the crack of dawn," Elita said as she pulled food from the oven. They were queen and king of the heat and eat style of cooking. Putting it on plates, then the table, Elita sat down.
Jetta glanced up from his work datapad, then grinned. "Thanks. I know. We just have a chance now to speed things up. Think about all the work that doesn't have to happen because of this. I'm so relieved."
"Well, there's that anyway," Elita said with a chuckle. "When this is over, how about going to Earth in pretender gear and taking in the sights?"
He considered that, then nodded. "It sounds romantic. Let me know when." He grinned. "Whenever you want to go, Elie, we can."
"I'm holding you to it," she said as they ate breakfast together. Then they would head toward Cybertron to tour the massive dump sites and amaze themselves at the structural integrity fixes that were even visible from space. Cybertron had taken a huge step forward in its path to wholeness.
=0=Elsewhere
"We're off for the rest of the week and weekend," Sideswipe said as he walked to the bus stop with Sunstreaker and Bluestreak. "What do you wanna do?"
"I don't know," Bluestreak said. "I thought doing something with Styre and Stealth would be fun. What about you?"
"We're going to Cybertron one of these orns. Raptor is kicking the slag out of a new dupe."
"Who?" Bluestreak asked.
Sunstreaker shrugged as he put his daughters on the ground. Kaon was walking with them on the ground. "I don't know. Has to be some big loser though. Sun and Jack are going to be there, too. Those three are my personal pantheon for now."
Bluestreak grinned. "Jail bait you mean."
"That, too. By the way, we're tripping out tonight for the clubs. What are you going to do?" Sideswipe asked.
"Staying home with the kids and getting ready to bail you both out of jail," Blue said as the buses came to a stop. "What else is new?"
"There is that," Sideswipe said with a chuckle.
The kids were loaded, the buses drove off and the three of them wandered off to Club Hoyle to play cards and pool for a while.
=0=Frownsville
He sat in the kitchen of his genitor's house pouting into his breakfast. They'd 'asked' him to join them and so he did like the good Praxian grand/son he was. Sitting with them were Dev and Smokescreen, both of them and his genitors having a conversation like there was NOTHING WRONG WITH THE WORLD! and weren't facing THE END OF TIMES AS HE KNEW IT! He glanced at them with a sour expression. "So ..."
Moda glanced at him, then the others. "Smokey wants to say something. Do you, son?" he asked with a pleasant expression.
Smokey sat back. "Yes." He glanced at all three of them. "HOW IS THIS NOT FRAGGED?!"
They stared at him, then each other, then him. "Well, you understood that we have a duty to ensure that you have life skills and journey man abilities to protect you all of your life. Right? It is part of the code of a Praxian family to do this. Right?"
He stared at them sourly. "YES!"
"We, all of us decided that you were such a fine and decent son, a good mech all around and very, very smart that having a full University degree would be beneficial to you should something happen to us," Moda concluded.
It was silent a moment.
"BUT I HAVE A DEGREE!"
"A very good one. A basic level one degree in general studies. Even if you never choose a major area, that degree will ensure that your knowledge base is exemplary," Tress said sweetly to his mercurial and yet adorable only son.
"BUT I'M GOING TO BE A SOLDIER IN THE PRIME'S ARMY! AND MAYBE A BOUNTY HUNTER IF AMMA NEEDS HELP! HOW CAN I DO THAT IN COLLEGE!?"
"Well, Amma ..." Tress said glancing at Devcon for assistance.
Devcon looked at Tress, then his onliest and most beloved grandson. "Smokescreen, you're a good and most excellent youngster but you need to be enlightened. College does that. You'll find some fine orn that something you learned now will save you later on. You do realize that a level one degree is a fine achievement but only the start of this adventure. We're very proud of you, Smokescreen. You made our sparks fly when we saw you get your degree."
He stared at them, the Pantheon of his spark and considered how his amma called him Smokescreen. There would be no winning this fight. He felt himself sag into a bundle of boneless slag. "Frag."
Smokescreen the Elder grinned at him. "Finish your breakfast and I'll teach you how to cheat at poker."
Smokey stared at his appa. "All your secrets?"
Smokescreen nodded. He loved this infant. He would teach him things even Dev didn't know. This infant wasn't going to get killed cheating at cards if he had any say in the matter.
Smokey frowned at this point more for form than feeling. He glanced at his amma who was looking at him as if he were the grandest being in the known universe which for Devcon he was. "Then maybe lunch here? You know … with pie and all?" he asked with a wisp of hopefulness around the angst that he truly felt.
Devcon grinned, then rose to walk to the fridge nearby. He opened it and there were on two shelves a number of pies he liked the best.
Smokey stared at them, then his elders. He grinned for the briefest of seconds, then put an angsty expression on his handsome face that would rival any Gothic teenager, Prowl. "ITS STILL FRAGGED! RIGHT!?"
His elders were laughing too hard to agree or disagree with him at the moment.
=0=TBC 7-28-2020