The Diego Diaries: Cloudy (dd7 414)
=0=In a Primal Residence
They stood in terrified silence as the big mech before them glanced around.
Sentinel was standing at the desk watching him. "Someone is here?"
"Two someones. They are here, close." He stared at the space where they were standing and it seemed that he could directly see them, though it was evident that he couldn't. "I am Optimus Prime, the Pantheonic Prime called Thirteen. I am a god and you cannot cause anything here that will trouble me or my people without regretting it."
Ironhide went off line to Orion. :This is the Prime from the Matrix meet up:
:I know: Orion replied as he stared at the big mech. He was an ally at the last meeting. He had to still be one. He decided to speak. "Lord Optimus … Thirteen. I am Orion Pax from our last meeting. I was sent here by Micronus Prime. I have no idea why I am here either but I come to you in peace."
Optimus stared at him, then glanced at Sentinel. "I hear a buzz. I cannot tell what it means. There is someone here, however, and I will know who it is."
Orion gripped Ironhide's arm and began for the door. He could hear his peds and Ironhide's. Hopefully, Thirteen wouldn't.
He could.
Thirteen stared at the door listening to the faint sound of peds walking away as fast and as silent as they could. He moved toward the door gathering steam.
Ironhide and Orion hurried down the hallway, then found themselves waiting for the elevator. Staring into a mirror that lined the entire wall including the door of the elevator, they watched with fear and loathing as the big mech followed by Sentinel began to catch up. Turning to watch Thirteen close the gap, both saw him and Sentinel stop.
They stared at the pair, then Thirteen stepped closer. "You two."
Orion and Ironhide startled, then saw that they were being reflected in the mirrors in the ante area. They spun to look at Thirteen and Sentinel who didn't look afraid or angry. They both stood side-by-side as they stared at the two youngsters. Orion and Ironhide took a step back and bumped into the mirrors.
"I see you. You were at the last Matrix encounter. What are you doing here?" Thirteen asked calmly.
Orion stared at him in the mirror next to the big mech then turned to face the Prime who matched images he held of himself as an older mech, though without some of the visible signs of weariness of spirit that had been the lot of his version of Optimus Prime. "We were brought to the Matrix, then sent here, Lord Thirteen."
The two mechs stared, then glanced at each other.
Thirteen considered their dilemma. "I cannot hear you speak."
Orion considered that, then subbed a pen stylus that he kept in subspace when he needed one. He turned to the mirror, then began to write. He wrote a message, then stepped back.
Thirteen stared at it, then him. "You are here to tell me something about the killer."
Orion nodded. He wrote again.
Thirteen read it. "The killer plans to kill every Prime across the dimensions. He is concerning to the Pantheon." Thirteen glanced at him. "Which one? Your version or mine?"
Orion wrote furiously.
Thirteen read it. "This is only one Pantheon. However, there are unnumbered dimensions. Each of the Pantheons of each dimension appear to that dimension as They are needed and designed. All are indeed one … us, but in each different dimension, the characteristics, history and needs are different. On this Cybertron there was no war, no extinction events, no enemies. There never was. This is the Cybertron that most others want to be or maybe never will become. This one is a place where I choose to live Myself among The People. That I lead The People as their God-King is a choice they made together long ago. I carry that honor with great responsibility and humility."
Both the kids could agree with that. The gravitas of this mech was overwhelming to both.
Orion wrote again.
"There are codes," Thirteen said. "There are codes that bring these creatures into stasis? Do you have them?"
Ironhide took the stylus and began to write.
Thirteen read the message. "Your Prime had it but he's now a youngster and can't remember or you would give them to me now. Prowl has them and so does Springer, Drift and Ratchet. Can they get it to me?"
Orion wrote on the mirror. "We will try but we cannot figure out how to send it to You. The Primes who talked to us are adamant that They can only go so far before it becomes meddling and that They cannot do."
Thirteen nodded. "Free will. There are universes where there is no free will, where you do what you are told and there is no dissent. I find those places stifling. Right now, I need the codes. He has already been here and I have to be prepared. I do not want my people to be harmed by this one."
Ironhide wrote furiously, then glanced at Thirteen.
He shook His helm. "No. He cannot cause Me harm but I can do a lot of damage to Him. I would prefer to do this peacefully."
Orion wrote on the mirror and when he was finished the two disappeared.
Thirteen stared at the mirror and message, then His partner. "This must not cause panic. I want to have all possibilities covered."
"You do know, Optimus, that you can obliterate this being at will as a last resort?" Sentinel reminded him.
Thirteen nodded. "I do but I prefer the better path."
=0=Not so far away even if it was another dimension, an arena and a clusterf**k
Orion took a moment to hear Prowl as he absorbed being back again into his own dimension. He glanced down at him with a startled expression, then gripped his servos. "Are you alright?"
Prowl glanced up, then stood. "Yes. I sometimes get off kilter when I get my processor bumped. It starts a rattle down the chain if you get my meaning."
"Sit down and let me help this end," Orion said as he glanced at the mayhem that picked up the moment he noticed that he was back. He turned to the field, then ran forward looking for his genitors and the rest of the family that he remembered had joined the riot.
Prowl watched him go, then sat again. As he did mechs were brought limping in for the medics.
Ironhide who had materialized in the middle of a brawl took one on the chin, staggering backward as he did. Putting up his fists, he charged forward to duke it out with a big drunk grounder. It wouldn't take long for him to go flying with a right cross to the chin. He landed on his aft, then rolled until the fallen body of his Uncle Sun stopped him.
Sun who had a huge mech in a hammer lock glanced at his great grand nephew. "Ironhide! Welcome to the dance."
Ironhide would take a moment to reply. The birdies were singing too loudly at the moment.
=0=The overall scene
The tide began to turn as Watchmen on call came to the rescue. They cornered passels of little drunk slaggers and bagged them in comical swipes and tackles. Tossing them into the boxes carried by the Watchmen who managed the jail here during games like dirty rags into the laundry hamper, they began to get the upper servo.
Three or so little Seeker mini-cons and the slagger that jumped that started the whole thing were carted off to standing ovations and barrels of slag to the Watchmen. Eventually they manged to clear the field. By then, Ironhide and Orion were back in the locker room after checking in with Prowl and Ratchet.
:How ya doing, Ratchet?: Ironhide asked.
Ratchet who was helping patch combatants paused a moment. :Bent up but okay. You?:
:I'm good. Just checking:
Ratchet grinned. :Bring the hurt, Ironhide:
Ironhide grinned. :Count on it:
:I do, big boy: Ratchet replied.
Ironhide felt a surge of emotion. Then he grinned. :I am aren't I?: he asked. He felt Ratchet's laughter and pleasure rather than heard it. Either way, it was great.
Ratchet turned to a big grounder slumped on the table before him with a bent finial. He grinned, grabbed it and bent it nearly back into place. "There, slagger."
The big mech passed out and rolled off onto the floor of the aid station. Everyone around him watching felt their flutter valves twirl including doctors.
Ratchet glanced at him on the floor, then turned to the others. "NEXT!"
No one there moved.
=0=At the jail house intake on Cultural Center Road
They came in inside boxes and/or limping for the intake to the jail cells. They came and came, some on their own peds, while others were carried in. When the last box landed on the floor, the jailers reached in and began to extract the 'gangsters' howling inside. One by one they were placed on the floor until the box was empty. They stared up at the jailers and the desk sargent as they stared down.
"I will need your names and particulars," Mojo said as he opened screens. "Let's start with you, femme."
She stared at him, then grinned. "I'm Docker of Uraya but I lived in The Jumble most of my life. My bond here and I," she said to a proud and smiling Appa Ratchet, "raised a fine son together."
"I'm sure you did," Mojo said as he did the 'two finger' typing that seemed required of police and their assorted jailers. "Where do you live, what do you do, etc."
"I live with my bond, Ratchet. We all go to school, don't we?" Docker said to the crowd around them.
Chan, Corr, Appa Ratchet, Tootie, Lu-Lu who was the great granddaughter of the Empress from one of her many grandchildren, Sorel who was the daughter of a very important mini-con historian and Wish who was the son of a grocer in the Mall of Tyger Pax nodded. They all were in the same study group.
Mojo stared at them. "Don't you think you can set a better example for the infants in your group here, you being elders and all?"
Docker considered that as the others stared at her. Apparently she was their spokesman by default. "I think when you see injustice you have to do something about it … step out of your comfort zone and such."
"Injustice? What injustice?" Mojo asked.
Everyone around Docker nodded, then looked at the sargent.
"I'm with Docker. We were striking out against injustice and the … the Man." Tootie grinned. "Power to The People." Apparently they were all in the same 'History of the Justice System of Cybertron during the Late Golden Age and the Run Up to the Fall' class.
That one.
Everyone stared at Tootie, then Mojo. "POWER TO THE PEOPLE!" they said almost as one.
"How much have you lot had to drink?" Mojo asked.
"Nothing. Well, maybe that beer at lunch but we're very sober," Chan said with almost affronted dignity. He was as mortified as the others, though Corr looked actually scared but he stood up to The Man with everyone else.
WHAT DO WE WANT? SOLIDARITY!
WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!
Everyone nodded, then Tootie giggled. "Well, maybe not ALL of us are. Sober, that is." She smiled a beautiful smile.
"Who are you?" Mojo asked as he opened another screen.
"I'M TOOTIE OF VILLAGE 18A AND I'M HERE STRIKING A BLOW FOR THE PEOPLE!" she shouted, then smiled brilliantly.
She was slagging adorable.
Appa Ratchet grinned. "Tootie is a very passionate little femme about things aren't you, Tootie."
"I am," Tootie said. "You're a nice mech, Ratchet. Where are all the nice mechs?" She looked upward at a grinning pair of jail guards. "Are any of you single?"
Both of them shook their helms. Bonded to the bone, both of them.
"Frag," Tootie said with the dramatic angst her little youngling spark was famous for. At least in Village 18A. "WHERE ARE ALL THE GOOD MECHS!? TAKE ME TO PRISON! I'M ALREADY THERE IN MY SPARK!"
Roadbuster reached down to pick her up on his servo. He stood, stared at her, then nodded. "Okay."
It would go like that.
=0=Moments later
They were brought to a drunk cell, then put inside. When the guards left they glanced around. Walking to the bars, Docker and the others grinned. "Kes, Miler, Venture … Tagg. The Man got you, too?"
Miler grinned, then rapped Venture on the chassis. It opened and a sleepy Prima was pulled out in a cocoon of blankets. "They got him, too. I think Prowl is going to burst a mainspring."
"I think Orion is, too," Kes said as he glanced at Tagg who sat next to him with his arm around Kes's shoulders. "Do you think so as well, Tagg?"
Tagg chuckled. "I am counting upon it."
The game would begin again in seconds. Crater would win 25 to Simfur's 10. Crater would advance to the playoffs and Simfur wouldn't. It was only after they began to head for home that any of them would notice a few missing players.
=0=TBC 10-26-2020 10-28-2020