The Diego Diaries: Valles Ho (dd7 352)
=0=#17
They lounged around the fire pit chatting and relaxing. Beer was a big deal among the youngers and a couple of the oldsters. Ravel was on his second one. It was a historic moment. He was having a great conversation with Lancer, Arcee, Elita-1 and Chromia.
Ratchet was sagging in the chair with his big old peds propped up on the edge of the fire pit which was now four or five of them placed together. They were roaring and the heat felt good. It was starting to get on toward evening as the shadows of the Valles began to steal the light of the orn. The sun was crawling toward setting and it would be evening down here in the lower plateaus of the gash called Valles Marineris a lot sooner than the plain overhead.
Dinner was going to be droned in soon enough and they'd spend the evening fooling around, drinking beer, clonking each other in the face with horse shoes and other pass times. The tents were prepped for the night with the sides rolled down and fastened. Inside, the gear everyone brought and their sleeping bags waited for them. It would be even more softer recharging here with the bouncy inflated tents and their inflated bags.
All that was missing were noisy kids.
Until they weren't. Missing, that is.
Walking out of the darkness nearby, Ironhide, his elders, Prime, Maelstrom, Partition, Magnus and the twins strolled with children on arms.
Ratchet stared at them, then sat up. "What the frag?"
Ironhide, Sun, Jack, Blackjack, Hard Drive, Maelstrom, Magnus, Partition, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker paused at the edge of the group, then set the kids down. The bigger kids walked to their elders and hugged them. It was a madhouse of yelling, hugging and "WHAT YOU, ADA!" and "ADA! We CAME HERE! WHERE IS THIS!?"
Ratchet and the others glommed them, then stared at the mechs.
Ironhide glanced at the others, then shifted slightly under the direct stare of everyone in the Squad. "Uh, we came to say good night."
Huge laughter greeted that as the mechs found stuff to sit on. It was quiet a moment.
"What's for dinner?" Jack asked with a snicker as the twins threw beer bottles at everyone from the cooler. Beer was had a moment, then Prime glanced at the two inflated giant tents nearby. "What is that?" he asked.
"That is a miracle of technology. It can sleep dozens, double as a bouncy bed for the kids and probably self clean," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.
"It can?" -everyone there
"Nope." -Ratchet
Sideswipe glanced at Prime who was staring at the tents with interest. "Is it really a tent if Optimus doesn't inflate it?"
Everyone agreed they weren't. Huge laughter greeted that as the mechs investigated the tents. The kids ran to them and amused themselves by bouncing inside.
Nearby, a swinging party was going hard.
Prime stared at the campsites #15 and 16 as he sat behind his ada. "The mini-cons are having a good time."
"They are. The elders found out you can cater and there was brutality for a moment," Prowl said with a chuckle. He was feeling no pain. "They settled a few hashes."
"Hashes?" Prime asked with a grin.
Prowl nodded as he sipped his third beer. "Yep."
Everyone grinned as they took stock of the drunk levels of The Squad. Most of them were in the bag but for a few such as Kestrel and Miler. Apparently, they were designated drivers for this soiree.
Overhead, the sound of a flying vehicle could be heard. Everyone looked up to see lights descending from the darkness. It landed nearby. Ratchet, Prowl and several others tried to stand up and after a moment managed it.
Ratchet reached the drone first, then began to pull boxes out of the vehicle. Turning to the crowd, he threw one like a baseball toward Ravel who ducked in surprise.
Ironhide caught it then handed it to Ravel. "OLD MECH! LET US DO THIS!"
Ratchet paused to stare at him, then grinned. "Okay."
The mechs rose to gather the food, some of which they held back for themselves until a very drunk Delphi slapped their servos. For a moment, there was monkey motion, then boxes opened. Children fogged out to look-see.
Turbine glanced at Raptor. "Haven't you fed these kids?"
Raptor glanced at the others, then him. "Uh, no."
"WHAT THE FRAG! TAKE THEM TO THE DINER OR SOMETHING!" -every ada there
Raptor stood with a grin, then grabbed two or three kids. "So much for letting you say nighty-night to the kids."
"You're having a hard time keeping them amused are ya?" Delphi asked.
"Bingo," Hard Drive said with a chuckle.
It took a moment to grab all of them, say goodbye, then head on out. Down the trail they went until they disappeared from sight. The Squad watched them go, then began to eat in earnest.
"What's on the agenda tonight, Ratchet?" Lazlo asked.
"Well, I thought we'd make smores and tell ghost stories," Ratchet said with a giant smile.
Huge laughter greeted that.
"I have a few," Ravel said. "Our building was haunted as you might know."
"We don't," Madura said. "What happened?"
"We had a building that was really really old. We lived on the fifteenth floor forever and a day. Lots of individuals lived in that building over the vorns. I remember seeing a mech standing at the end of the hallway staring out the window. I sort of felt strange looking at him and then he turned his helm to look at me. When he did, he faded away. I asked around and someone told me that was Barstow. He collected rents in the orn, way back in the old times," Ravel said.
"Maybe he liked to be there," Madura said.
"That was the only place I ever saw him. I think it wasn't him per se. I think it was a sort of video playing over and over again," Ravel said. "It was always the same thing. It never varied."
"A residual haunting then," Delphi said. "An image replaying over and over again that doesn't see or hear you because its like video."
Ravel nodded. "It was uncomfortable but not scary. I was glad his spark wasn't still there. Everyone needs peace when they go."
"I've seen those," Lancer said. "I remember going to see my father at the work site. He worked in the big warehouses that Galaxy Industries had in the Miter District. I remember going there and waiting for him to get off when I saw something odd out of the corner of my optics. I turned my head and there wasn't anything there. But if I didn't try to see them, I could."
"What were they?" Arcee asked.
"A big mech who was smirking at me," Lancer said. "I was told later on that he was a ghost who liked to prank workers. He sort of picked out the new ones to prank. Everyone said he was harmless but I didn't like it."
Most of them nodded.
"The warehouses at the Sea of Mercury, the industrial ones near Mercada had shadow people. I think they're the worst," Ratchet said. "They don't have features so you don't know what they want or if they're nasty. Everyone hated to be there after the sun went down. They never had a night shift after the manager came there after dark and saw them."
"Some can be bad," Turbine said. "No everyone transitions to the Matrix. Some like to stay and watch their funerals. Some like to help their families and some are afraid to go. Some are just mean and some don't know they're dead. They don't go because they think they'll be punished."
"Will they be, Amma?" Elita asked curiously.
Turbine shook his helm. "No. There's no punishment. I sort of wish the Pit existed some times but there's no punishment. The One and Primus love us no matter what we do but some of us have to spend some time getting fixed when we go back."
"Osimus told me about Kudon and some of the others," Prowl said as he half slouched in his chair. "They have to be rebuilt, sorta. He says every time he sees Kudon he's in better shape. He was really thrashed when he saw him the first time. Now he's perfect. He's Prima's herald."
Everyone stared at Prowl 's drunken cuteness, then Ratchet grinned. "Old Osimus is a stand up mech, Prowler. He gets front seats to the shit shows then."
Prowl smirked at Ratchet with a slight sense of pity. "My Osimus gets first place wherever he goes."
Miler grinned at Kestrel who chuckled as he slipped Prowl's beer out of his sight. Reaching into a cooler, he set a juice drink in its place. Miraculously, Prowl wouldn't know the difference.
"I wonder what its like to go to the Matrix all the time and come back again," Lazlo said.
Edict grinned. "Some mechs get all the fun."
"Osimus always goes to weird places. Nothing there is real. The Pantheon comes in his size or bigger. Sometimes they come to a bar or a house on the beach, the Prime's house on the Sea of Mercury. He has to figure out sometimes what They show and tell him," Prowl said as he glanced at Ratchet. "Orion and Halo were there last time. Onyx Prime's heralds like that format."
"Who wouldn't?" Ratchet said with a grin. At that moment he felt someone behind him. He glanced around to see a square built mini-con mech grinning at him out of the darkness. He startled, then sat up straighter to look at him. "Hi," Ratchet said.
"Hi, good looking. Want to arm wrestle?" he asked.
Ratchet stared at him, then laughed. He glanced at the others, then him again. "Who are you?"
At that moment, three mechs in varying degrees of sobriety appeared behind him. "Marley, come on. Amma wants you with her."
Marley stared at them, then Ratchet. He smiled, then followed two of them to the mini-con carnival going on nearby.
The one watched him go, then glanced at Ratchet. "That's Marley. He fell on his helm at the job this morning but we brought him along anyway. The docs said it would be alright. He's going to get fixed tomorrow. Our amma and appa are having a party, so we're all here. That's all he can say for now. Just that. I also don't think he knows where he is sometimes."
Ratchet snickered, then shrugged. "Okay. Uh, I'm a doctor. If you need me ..."
The mini-con grinned, nodded, then walked into the darkness.
Ratchet watched him go, then sat back down again. Before he could say another word a huge bang sounded in the mini-con camping space next door.
=0=At The Diner On The Corner, Autobot City
They sat at tables pushed together, a number of mechs with tiny kids, not so tiny kids and very big ones. Dinner was being had.
"Atar?"
"What, Sunspot?"
"What are we going to do tonight?"
Every kid at the table paused their food to look at him, then Prime, then the elders.
"Uh … its a surprise," Ironhide said.
:Do you have one?: -Prime being highly amused in spite of himself
:No, slagger. Do you?: Ironhide glared at his elders. :Jump in any time:
:Don't ask me. I'm a confirmed bachelor: -Sun and Jack
Blackjack glanced at Raptor. :You're supposed to be fun. What do we do now?:
Magnus and Partition stared at all of them, twins included. It was good to be childless sometimes.
Raptor snorted in spite of himself drawing smiles from every kid there. :You're asking me? I could barely keep you out of jail:
:Says who?: Hardie asked drolly.
Raptor grinned. Every kid there grinned, too. It was going to be one of those nights.
=0=#17
A flash of light that was giant followed the boom as a firework of some size exploded at ground level. It flashed into a giant flower, then more began to burst. A tidal wave of drunk mini-cons stampeded their way, some running off the cliff side to roll down the mountain like giant bowling balls. Others jumped them and continued, some helping elders with canes who were also emitting more profanity than most of them knew old people could spout.
Ratchet fell over backward in his chair as the rest of them got up to run or fell on the ground to dig a hole. Huge blossoms of light, many of multiple colors blew up and filled the spaces of both campsites. Rockets whistled up a few feet, then blew up shattering audials and throwing sparkling light everywhere. Some whirled, whistled, then exploded mid air as the entire stockpile of fireworks for their amma and appa blew up all at once at ground level. When the last one exploded and showed its format, it was almost painful in the darkness that followed.
Everyone pressed to the ground looked up warily. The show was over. Slowly, steadily, up the slopes of the mountain side and all around the area, mini-cons limped back to camp with caution. Some of the drunker ones were a smidge more sober and some of the sober ones were heading for the hootch.
Ratchet stood up, did an area scan and other than 'skinned knees' and irate old people, no one had been hurt. Sitting down, he picked up his half spilled beer, then chugged it. "I don't know about you but I'd like to see that again."
Huge laughter greeted that.
=0=Late that night
Ratchet felt rather than saw someone in the tent. All over the floor space of it and the other one, mechs were sleeping the sleep of the (mostly) sodden. He rolled over and turned to night vision. A square built mini-con mech was standing there with a grin. "Hi, good looking. Want to arm wrestle?" he asked.
=0=TBC 8-12-2020
Unless you've seen giant fireworks blow up at ground level, you haven't lived. I've seen it twice. Its as epic as it gets.