The Diego Diaries: Cloudy (dd7 412)
=0=Arena during the (un)scheduled (riot) hoo-haw
Orion glanced sharply around the area, then back down at Prowl who was sitting on the edge of the ambulance ramp. He was frozen in place, seemingly holding his helm with one servo. As Orion stepped back, he noted that everyone was the same way and it was as silent as a tomb in the vast crowded arena. Nearby, the riot that was in progress was stopped in its tracks, frozen into whatever cavorted contortion they'd been in prior to the unseen force that had precipitated this.
The only one still moving was Ironhide. He stared at Prime, then everyone around them. A mini-con Seeker was buzzing them, but frozen in the air as well. He looked at Prime with a solemn expression. "What the frag just happened?"
Orion walked to him, then glanced up and around. "Only the Pantheon or maybe The One has this kind of power. I do not know anything else that can."
"You would be right," a sonorous voice replied.
The two youngsters spun around toward the voice, freezing in place as they stared at Vector Prime. They knelt immediately.
"Lord Vector," Orion began before the big mech cut him off.
"Please stand and follow me," Vector said as He turned to walk away.
Orion and Ironhide glanced at each other, then followed Vector. As they did they faded from view along with Him.
=0=Elsewhere
It was onto a flat plain when they walked out minus Vector. When they reappeared to each other, they glanced around. "Where did he go?" Ironhide asked.
"I do not know," Orion said.
"You're the one with the Matrix. Do you remember anything?" Ironhide asked as he knelt to touch the silvery fine sand that seemed to stretch every direction under a blazingly blue sky. It was hot and felt good to his armor.
"A plain," Orion mused. "I think this feels familiar."
"Why not? You were the one They favored."
Both spun to the voice, then froze in surprise.
Orion stared at the slightly disheveled figure of a hated individual. "SENTINEL!" He balled his fists anticipating a brawl which right now he would welcome.
Ironhide stepped closer to Orion from instinct. "I know this fragger. He's a suck up at the Academy. Head boy in his class," Ironhide said with disdain. "It helps to have prominent family members holding the doors open for you. Right, Sentinel?"
Sentinel stared at them with the usual disdain he bore before he got smarter and hid it while among those who might even marginally help him. "Ironhide. I see you finished the Academy. Will wonders never cease."
"I did, you slagger, with good marks. I got them myself," Ironhide said with an edge. "What are you doing here and what's wrong with your slagging face?"
They stared at their nemesis from two different eras and noted that all was not well with him. There were broken bits and lots of smudging and denting all over him. His face was broken and parts seemed to move about there and on other places of his body all by themselves, as if trying to reconfigure. It was very unnerving.
Sentinel stared intently and with malice at Orion. "As if you don't know." He glanced at Ironhide. "You look like a child."
Ironhide ruffled. "You look like a train wreck. What happened to your face, Sentinel? Did someone's bond catch you and take a crowbar to your face or did you get cross hairs with someone slumming in the Wilderness?"
Sentinel stared at Ironhide with a pitying expression, then looked at Orion. "What are you doing here?"
"We were going to ask you that but I know from the records. You were sent here to serve out your punishment as part of a Primal Hearing with Special Circumstances for destroying Cybertron. You are a convicted traitor, Sentinel. The Pantheon took you because you are hopeless," Orion said with more malice than even he thought he could feel.
Sentinel stared at Orion silently, his face forming a slight sneer. "I do remember beating your aft, Optimus. In a fight, I was the better mech."
"Hardly," Ironhide said coldly. "You're a cheat and a coward. You didn't win anything or you wouldn't be here falling apart in the middle of nowhere."
"That is funny."
All of them turned to the voice and saw Micronus Prime floating in the air nearby. Ironhide and Orion knelt and bowed their helms.
Micronus chuckled. "Best two out of three. I think that's as good as its going to get for a while. Sentinel is not the smartest mech in the room, I think. He's fighting this glorious opportunity to reform. Literally." Micronus snickered at his pun.
"I would find my feelings hurt but you're a mini-con after all and everyone knows what hopeless slaggers they are," Sentinel said with defiance.
Orion and Ironhide glanced at each other in surprise, then rose almost as one.
"You slagger," Ironhide said. "That's a fragging Prime. A thirteen Prime. Who the frag are you to say something like that to Him?"
Orion stepped closer to Sentinel. "You still have no honor, Sentinel."
"You aren't stuck here," Sentinel said. "What's the worse that can happen to me in this place? I get to stay here forever?"
"Perhaps," Micronus said with a smirk on his beautiful face. "As long as it takes, that's how much patience Prima has. He's rather … how was it he said it? 'Fragged off' with you. He thinks you're almost more trouble than you're worth."
"Is that so," Sentinel asked as he imagined a rock. It appeared, then he sat heavily on it. Things on his body seemed to rattle and sway. It was slightly nauseating to look at, almost of if someone's fingers were bent backwards.
"He has no manners or decency," Ironhide said to Micronus. "Why are we here, Lord? What do you want us to do and what happened back on Mars. Uh … if I can ask," he said bowing his helm in respect.
Orion who was watching him glanced at Micronus and did the same.
Micronus finding the two youngsters amusing as frag laughed. "We paused things to talk. We have to end a threat together but We cannot help You directly. Unless, of course, the asking is done properly. Until then, We must do so within the bounds that even We have to obey."
"So you have limitations then?" Sentinel asked. "Even the great Micronus Prime has a limit."
Micronus stared at Sentinel with amusement. "Would you like me to demonstrate the other side of the coin? The one without limits?" He stared at Sentinel who stared back evenly.
Sentinel grinned slightly. "You and your brethren will never break me."
Micronus grinned slightly back, too. "That's alright. We have eternity." He looked at the two kids. "You do not, however. Allow me to allow you." With a swipe of His servo the scene disappeared. They found that they were on an elegant street that led to The Residence in Iacon. But this wasn't their Iacon. This was one that had never seen either war or neglect.
"What now?" Ironhide asked.
"I do not know. Maybe we are supposed to go there and look around," Orion said uncertainly.
"Just like that? What if we get arrested?" Ironhide said as they both began to walk toward the building on a street with pedestrians that didn't seem to notice them.
"I do not think that would be the point of coming here," Orion said as he began to move to allow someone to pass him. As he did, the individual walked right through him.
Both of them froze in place, then Orion turned to look at the individual walking calmly onward. "That felt … terrible."
"They didn't acknowledge you. They can't see us," Ironhide said as he held out his arm in front of someone coming their way. That individual passed through Ironhide's arm. He pulled it back, then shuddered. "That was weird."
Orion nodded. "Come on. Let us go there. There is a Prime in there and I want to see what its all about. There has to be clues in this venture and we need to find them." He began to hustle and behind him glancing around warily, Ironhide hurried, too.
=0=At the gate
They reached the gate, then stared inside. There was hardly any security for this place that in both their own times was a fortress. They walked inside passing the lone guard and a few going in and out of the big open doors. No one seemed to see them nor spoke. They entered, leaving a well manicured grounds and a warm blue sky behind. Inside they walked, paused to look around, then took an elevator nearby. Entering, the door closed.
"This place is just like the one in Iacon but nicer. Its all nicer everywhere," Ironhide said as they reached the residential floor.
The elevator stopped, they got out and saw a wide beautiful corridor that led to a residential area at the end of the hallway. Walking down it, they peered into the room at the entrance of it and saw it was a elegant sunlit sitting room. Beyond it were hallways leading to other rooms and a balcony beyond that was famous on Cybertron, the place where speeches and events transpired.
"Where now?" Ironhide asked. "Given that this is your home, where do we go?"
"I do not know," Orion said as he glanced at Ironhide. "I do not live here yet." He stepped forward walking warily toward the balcony beyond. They peeked into different rooms as they passed the doors noting that this was a magnificent residence for a Prime. When they reached the big double doors that led out to a wide sunny balcony, they heard voices. Freezing in place, they listened.
"I think that would be a good time to do it," a familiar voice said, Sentinel Prime's voice.
Ironhide and Orion shrunk back a moment, glanced warily and with surprise at each other, then stepped closer. Peering out together, they saw Sentinel Prime sitting at a table eating a meal with Optimus Prime. Both boys shrank back out of view.
"You're eating a meal with Sentinel Prime. What the frag is going on here?" Ironhide asked.
Orion shrugged, then stepped away to go into a short hallway nearby. Entering a berth room, he glanced around. A wall of images drew both of them closer. They began to study them.
Some of them were personal images of Optimus with his genitors, surprisingly both of whom looked like Kestrel and Tagg of Iacon. Orion stared at them with surprise and incredulity, then others of Sentinel and himself, this version of himself doing things together. They were beautiful pictures, even intimate as they showed a personal relationship that was more than just friendly.
Orion glanced around and noted a couple of familiar things that he'd seen here and there in his wanderings. They were obviously this mech's personal objects. Then they both froze. Footsteps were coming their way. Frantically, both looked for escape or a place to hide but the two mechs entered before they could even move. Ironhide and Orion froze in place, suffused with terror as Sentinel and this Optimus Prime walked into what obviously was their personal berth room.
"I think we need to ensure that the image of this mech reach all the proper places," Sentinel was saying as he walked to a small desk to sit.
The other, the doppelganger of Orion walked to stand behind him as Sentinel looked for something on a device. He placed his servos on Sentinel's shoulders, massaging them tenderly as he waited. It was unnervingly quiet as the two kids stood in place as still as they could make themselves. It was terrorizing to be standing there and not be seen by someone no more than ten feet away.
It was then that Optimus Prime glanced up and looked around the room.
"I have the numbers here," Sentinel said as he glanced upward. "What?"
"We are not alone," Optimus Prime said softly.
Ironhide felt light in the helm as he watched the big mech come their way. He paused near them, then glanced around. "Who are you and why are you here?"
Neither of them dared to move. Neither of them could they were so frightened.
"Tell me who you are and why you are here. Do not trifle with me. I am a god," this Prime said as if it were something that was a normal thing to say. "I will not hurt you. Just tell me who you are and what you want?"
Ironhide felt static in his extremities from fright and the urge to run and he could see that Orion wasn't doing much better. He wanted to flee but he didn't believe that his peds could move. He and Orion stood rooted into the floor as the big mech came closer and closer to where they were.
=0=TBC 10-25-2020 10-26-2020
Prime speech factoid:
In case you wondered, its been an unbreakable rule for Optimus Prime that he never uses contractions. He never says words like 'didn't, won't, he's'. He said 'did not, will not, he is'. It was written in from the beginning and its a hard rule that Peter Cullen speaks so beautifully. It gives Prime a sort of majesty I think.