The Diego Diaries: Cloudy (dd7 390)
I was too sleepy to edit check this. Sorry for any boo-boos tonight. Will do this in the morning. HUGS!
=0=The next morning in the Ops Center Conference Room…
"I wish we'd remembered," Ratchet said. "I have them in a special call up file. I can access and broadcast them even if I'm disabled."
Prowl sat back in his chair. "It was a strange moment. We all dropped the ball on this one."
Orion and Ironhide sat with Ironhide's elders, a number of scientists and others related to covert ops, communications and the art of war as well. Some of them they had both met along the way and a few were new. Springer and Drift, Hercy, Kup and Bumblebee weren't.
"Well, what do we know now that all the data files we can find are sorted out?" Prowl asked Ratchet. He glanced at Rung and Jarro. "I'd like to know what kind of slagger we're looking at."
Ratchet glanced at the others, then Prowl. "The basic information is more fulsome. His name is Rotor of Campa Heights and he's from a low caste working family. Not much is known about him until he began to run with a gang."
"The police records aren't complete but what we could find showed petty crime, fights, stealing … the sort of thing a hard aft low caste kid would do," Springer said. "Then there's a gap until he shows up on the rolls as a Decepticon. He worked with ship boarding crews and alone as a hunter/killer. There's one interesting thing on a report about his group. It said that he's hair triggered and given to grievances out of thin air. He's someone who could get a grudge going and become homicidal about it no matter how long it took, often with the victim unaware of any grievance between them."
"Sounds like him," Ratchet said.
"You met him, right?" Jarro asked Ratchet.
"Yes. On Carilon," Ratchet said.
"Tell me about that, all you can remember," Jarro asked as he pulled up a page on his data pad to take notes.
Ratchet thought a moment until he hit the right files. On it were several videos of run-ins that he had with the big dark mech. "He's big, strong and fast. He worked as an enforcer for the company. If you didn't do your part he made sure you didn't do it twice. He had no friends and didn't try to make them. He was pathological in his behavior and when I came to sort out the medical situation, he stalked me everywhere I went. I went locked and loaded everywhere.
"You can't turn your back on him. Ever. He seldom talks conversationally but he's very fluent when he's angry and his voice is low and cold … dangerous sounding. He looks directly at you and never breaks his gaze. Its unnerving. Fortunately, I was a slum kid, too, so the first time he threw a punch I gave him two back. Hard."
"What happened then?" Ironhide asked with a frown.
"I broke a steel bar off a fixture and twirled it. Then I took a stance. He stared at me for a moment, then walked out. He had a smirk which was unnerving, too. I didn't recharge the entire time I was there."
"Your thoughts as to his general malaise … what do you think he might be laboring under?" Rung asked. "A general opinion, of course. We won't know until we examine him."
"You're ever an optimist, Rung," Ratchet said with a chuckle. "He's cold and unemotional. Even when he was fragged he showed little emotion on his face or in his aura. He's pathological, probably paranoid and psychopathic. He's certainly a stalker and he's unafraid to get into it with anyone. I imagine even Megatron wasn't that comfortable around him either."
It was quiet a moment, then Prowl looked at Orion and Ironhide. "Are you sure you never heard of them before? Think through your memories thus far. Perhaps it was only a small moment."
They considered that, then Ironhide rested his elbows on the table top. "Maybe we haven't lived long enough to get to him."
"Maybe," Raptor said thoughtfully. "You had a few hoodlum friends, Ironhide. Are you sure he wasn't one of them?"
Ironhide looked at his adored grandfather. "No, Appa. I don't remember him."
"Well, we have to be prepared. What do we know about the Warrior Elite program and its clientele?" Prowl asked as he glanced at Jetta and Elita.
"Well," Jetta said, "We knew about them during the time we were still on Cybertron. We only saw a couple once in a while. Heretech was there from time to time. He led them, the Warrior Elites. Overlord came once, had it out with Black Shadow over something … he didn't want to be a warrior elite. He just wanted to fight Megatron and see who won. He just knew he could best him but he never got that chance did he," the big mech said with satisfaction.
"They were usually on assignment and a few immediately went their own way such as Overlord. Six Shot used to hang around Iacon. Now there was one scary fragger," Jetta said as Elita nodded grimly. "They were at his beck and call serving the worst jobs possible. I saw perhaps fifteen of them over the years. I don't remember Xylon but the name was familiar when I was told about this."
Elita nodded. "Our efforts were for the people so we were hunted, sometimes by them but not often. They were never even close."
Jetta nodded.
"Well, we have a picture of him that isn't good," Prowl said. "How he can jump dimensions like that is unknown. That's for you and Perceptor to figure out, Wheeljack, with the titans. Talk to my grandgenitors if you need to. This is what they're working on themselves."
Wheeljack nodded. "What's interesting is that the tech must be very small. Given that the phase sixers have a personal reactor supplying their fuel, it could be why he can, the unlimited energy that this would take. If you always have energy at your disposal then nothing is probably too difficult to do."
"Its unfortunate that we can't figure out where he went. Its highly likely that he's going to come out in some version of this dimension. I once read speculation that you go to other dimensions that energetically line up with your own which would mean ones closest to us, most like us," Ultra Magnus said.
"I heard that," Perceptor said. "My physics professor at the Science Academy was researching that line of thinking."
"Who was he?" Blackjack asked.
Perceptor glanced at him. "Jhiaxus. It was long ago."
"No doubt," Raptor said.
=0=Elsewhere
He flew onward through another sky. Below him was Cybertron and it was different from the other. This one was broken here and there, like fighting had happened but not too much. It was rising with the efforts of workers everywhere to be seen. He flew onward heading toward Iacon and the Citadel Airbase. It would take a while to get there.
=0=The Airfield at The Citadel
Megatronus Prime stood by the Central Control Facility where the Flight Control Center was located. A heavily armed vehicle was parked in the highly secured sector where prisoners and other scary things were held prior to transport. Six Shot was talking to him as Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus walked from the truck to join them. They gathered to discuss the prisoner transfer before Megatronus nodded his agreement. He walked off to return to The Citadel while the three handled the latest transfer to Optimus Prime.
The sun was warm against their faces as they waited for the manifest to be cleared with Autobot City through the dimensional rift that was still opening and functioning in a stable manner. They were no closer to figuring out how to close it but it was exceptionally helpful with situations such as this.
Soon five prisoners would be hosted by the Prime of Cybertron, that one, and they would probably never see their own dimension ever again. When the word came from Prowl over the special line, they walked to the shuttle that would carry them as the driver and guards were let out of the highly secured area where they waited to roll the security van to the shuttle as well.
Inside waiting to go to an 'undisclosed high security lock up' as they were told, three prisoners were heavily manacled. All three of them were femmes and all of them were very dangerous. When the truck stopped, the doors opened.
Six Shot stared at them a moment, savoring that these three would be gone forever. "Come on out. Time to go."
They stared at him a moment, then rose sullenly to leave. With guns pointed at their helms, they walked to the shuttle, entered to sit and when all was secured the vessel was cleared to go. They had a moment to wait as a small private ship flew in to land. When Xylon was clear, they were able to lift off to go to the dimensional rift that Tennyson was back guarding again.
=0=Autobot City
Ratchet, Prowl, Ironhide and Orion Pax stood on the tarmac at the landing field at the Prison Airport waiting for another delivery from Megatronus Prime. Prowl had handled the call and arrangements, gratified to hear that all was going very well on their alternate Cybertron. The damage was being repaired, fugitives were still being hunted but things were well in hand.
The ship appeared on the horizon flying low over the land to the spot where it would set down. Standing with them was Warden Gee-Gee and her head of security, Winnie of Candless. They watched the ship come in, land, then the ramp deploy. From it walked Six Shot himself and his two partners, the Head of Security, Black Shadow and his good natured bond, Blue Bacchus. They began to walk toward the Autobot group.
"This never gets old," Ratchet said quietly as he watched with a dazzling smile.
"No, it doesn't," Prowl said.
Ironhide and Orion watched fully apprised of what was transpiring.
Prowl greeted the trans-dimensional Decepticons. "Good to see you. How are things back on your side of the divide?"
"All is well. Things are getting better every orn. We're tracking down the worst of the remaining slaggers. Most of the others we can handle ourselves but these? I don't want any martyrs or rallying points for trouble," Six Shot said.
Prowl agreed. "If you want to off load them, that would be good."
Six Shot glanced to a bot standing on the ramp by the hatch. "Bring them out!" he cried.
The mech leaned in, then out as the sound of pedfalls could be heard. Several walked down the ramp and in the middle of them were familiar faces. Chromia came first, Alternative Chromia, and she was followed by Alternative Moonracer and Alternative Lancer. They walked to the Autobot group to halt before them.
"Unbelievable," Alt Moonracer said as she looked the group over.
"Oh, its believable," Ratchet said. "What probably isn't is the fact that in this dimension you, Chromia and Lancer here are my daughters. Our daughters," he said as he glanced at Ironhide.
They stared at the two, then glanced at Six Shot. "That's hilarious," Lancer said coldly.
"Almost as hilarious as you being killers and lunatics," Ratchet said as he glanced at Ironhide. "They get that from you."
Ironhide guffawed as Orion grinned.
Chromia glanced at Lancer. "Nice move." She looked at Ironhide with a grin. "You and me are an item on my side of the line. What about you here?"
"I don't chase femmes," Ironhide said.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"You have to ask?" Ironhide replied coldly.
"You on the other hand," Chromia said as she glanced at Orion, "don't have that problem."
The unspoken hung in the air before Gee-Gee stepped up. "Get on the line."
The three glared at her, then took their time lining up.
Gee-Gee made a point of inspecting them, then glanced at Winnie. "Take them to their cells, Winnie. You have my permission to punch them if necessary." She turned to the three femmes. "Don't make it necessary."
It was then that Chromia threw a punch.
=0=TBC 9-27-2020 edited at last. :D