The Diego Diaries: Out and About (dd8 637)
Sorry about missed days. I've had a few long distance phone calls that took a while and there was no time. Hugs to all.
=0=Out and about
The population of the colony seemed to walk out of their homes about the same time. They gathered on the sidewalks and streets of the cityscape as they took in the freedom that was theirs again. Yet in their processors there was the menace and shadow of the arsonists hovering over them. In groups and alone they gathered, then began to move away. Some were heading for work, others just to enjoy the freedom before them while others went off to find family and friends.
The restaurants and bars would take a moment to open and then the crowds would come. It felt festive and guarded at the same time as Autobot City, the Martian Colony of the Primes began to return to their lives.
=0=Ops Center
"So far, so good," Paragon said as he reported to Prowl.
"Good," Prowl said with a tense expression. "We have to be vigilant."
=0=Metro Stations everywhere
They stood on the platforms of the massive Metro system waiting to go here and there for whatever they were deciding to do. The only real change other than the numbers present was a new message that ran over the system.
"Welcome back. Your Metro Security System would like you to be self aware, check around yourself on trains and in the stations. If you see anything or anyone who seems out of place, a bag or box that's not attended to or abandoned, report it immediately. Please go to the station attendants and report it. DO NOT touch the object yourself. Experts are waiting to assist any possibility on our system. Do not take care of anything abnormal yourself. Safety first."
It was heard as grim faced individuals took their trains with a bigger sense of self awareness than before.
=0=RTR Tools
Tie opened the door and was followed by Ravel, Docker, Corr and Chan. Appa Ratchet had gone to Central Point in the 'protection, Appa, we can give you' aka Genesis, Saber and Verilas. He'd gone with great cheer with the grandsons that adored him. "Well, lets get going shall we?" he'd said with gusto.
As they walked to the work room the door opened again.
"You can't come here with me," Suvi said with a grin as he peered inside. "Thems the rules." The big soldier walked in, closed the door, then walked toward the work room where the elders were gathered.
"Suvi. We thought you were off with your family," Corr asked with surprise. "We don't want to be a problem for you."
Suvi grinned down at the little mechs who were looking up at him with various expressions of concern and gratitude. "There's no problem for me here. I'm on duty anyway. I figured you'd come here. Ratchet filled me in on you and your wily ways."
"Ratchet is a joker," Ravel said. "You should know that."
"Maybe, but here you are," Suvi said.
"Then we must make this good for you, Suvi. Have you ever made a weapon or tool?" Tie asked.
Suvi stared at them with surprise a moment. "No. This is the closest I've come to see Solis Prime make something."
The little mechs grinned at him.
"Then we must show you how to do this," Ravel said as he took Suvi's hand. "How about we help you make a very nice dagger or knife for your helping us."
Suvi halted Ravel's progress. "Its no problem for me to be here to do this. This is the best duty I ever had."
They stared up at him, then each other.
"Then we can work together," Tie said. "Come in and lets pick out a design. We can help you make it sentient, too. It'll save you, your dagger or knife, when you need it to do that. The Powers love all of us." He walked inside followed by the others and a very overwhelmed Suvi.
He would see a process that looked normal but the atmosphere of the it would change with each step as he felt the presence of holiness come and go, gathering, then dispersing with something akin to love. It was very clear to Suvi that RTR Tools was a blessed operation.
When the process was over he'd have a big glistening knife that had bonded with him, ensuring that a partnership was born that would last for the rest of his life.
It would be an emotional and overwhelming experience for him. There'd be a line up of mechs who would let him know they'd fill in for him if he missed an orn of duty.
He wouldn't.
=0=At the scene of a crime
The fire department had finally signed off on the crime scene as well as the Watch and Sciences Forensics teams. The Sports Center Bar and Restaurant was a blackened hole in the ground and the Senior Center next to it was a three story half-of-a-building. The side closest to the bar had been obliterated and burned to ashes while that farthest away had been saved by the fire fighters and fire walls that could stop napalm. If the blast hadn't occurred then the Center wouldn't have been more than scorched.
Fire trucks finally drove off as others, police and engineers watched them go. Among them was Jetta who'd been released from the hospital the night before. With him was a solicitous Mack and a watchful Elita.
"Well, let's look at this then," Jetta said as he began to walk toward the still smelly and lightly smoking hole in the ground.
Elita caught his arm. "That's what you have Mack and the others for. We can watch from the street."
Mack and his partners in the design portion of the Public Works Department walked forward with instruments to test the ground, check for the extent of damaged, mostly subterranean infrastructure and now much work it would take to clear the footprint to rebuild a three story bar that had a restaurant on the top floor and lounges and bars on the other two. The huge restaurant kitchen expansion they wanted would be done but it'd have to be part of the entire rebuild now. There wasn't a single thing that had been saved from the fire's destruction.
Jetta stared at the hole, then glanced at Elita. "I feel good, Eli. I can-"
"Stay with me and hold my servo," she said as she slipped hers into his. "You aren't expendable. Who would I talk to in the middle of the night if something happened to you?"
Jetta stared at her a moment, then they embraced. They held each other tightly. "Ditto," he said.
=0=At the home ranch
"ADA!"
"***WHAT!?***"
Startled little kids, all the animals in the house, the remaining big kids four apartments down the hallway, possibly anyone in apartments above, beside and below them as well as everyone else poked helms around doors and stared from the ground up as Ratchet used his battle field vocal setting to answer the shorties. It was then that they fell onto the floor to laugh riotously.
Everyone loved his vocal foghorn, even Ironhide who'd rather eat lemon frosting on pickles than say so.
Ratchet smirked at the kids as he walked to the counter nearby. Pulling things together, he made the shorties their fave sammies the way they liked it.
Peanut butter and jelly. Check.
Cutting circles out of bread with a big glass. Check.
Putting them all together. Check.
Crimping the edges so they were like round calzones. Check.
All was well with the lunch thing.
He piled them up, walked to the table and began to seat kids around it. Gathering juice and putting a plate of cookies out of reach as a reward to 'eat it all, slaggers', he made himself his own lunch. "HEY, BIG BOYS! HUNGRY!?"
Huge boys materialized out of thin air almost immediately.
Of course they were.
So were Robby, Spot and a few cats. Sunspot was, too.
Saber, Genesis and Verilas would have lunch at Central Point in a communal lunch room with Mystic, Budge and Appa Ratchet. They'd be regaled with tales of the old days and be told that they'd do very well on their science test upcoming First Friday my Mystic.
All was well in their world.
=0=Sports Arena at Retriades
They worked on the floor and seats getting the place ready for the second of the three games possible to decide the championship basketball team of the Adult League. Kaon and Crater were setting up a chance to make it three out of three if Kaon could pull off a win then. If not, then Crater would be the grand champions of basketball for two seasons in a row. The only thing better than this game now was the fact that football would be happening again in two decaorns.
Long live Cybertronian sports.
=0=The Resort of Autobot City, Ridge Road, Mars
The buses rolled down the driveway heading for The City and a guided tour of the colony. The human employees who gave information to everyone on the trip as they watched and took pictures were long time residents now who lived in the just finished Resort Employee Annex sitting on a flat space behind the Resort itself.
Living there in apartments along with on-world and transient human personnel for Autobot City Touring Company, the buses and ships that carried passengers, freed them from the hustle and bustle of the Resort itself and allowed them to have family come with them. Anything that promoted quality of life for humans was supported by Prime.
In the huge facility, life went onward. Crowds used the binoculars and telescopes at the windows, ate at restaurants, shopped, swam, golfed, played, suntanned and hiked around. Movies were viewed in the huge theater about the colony and the bots, people wandered and had their own good times and the vibe of the facility returned to what it was before, happy, delighted and fun.
Gavin Pritchard who was head of security for the place headed outward to walk along the trails to the lakes and back again. It was summer inside as always and he was glad that they were a guarded entity without a lot of worries about the arsonists coming their way. He walked along the outer trail that toured the habitat dome before branched pathways would take him into the forests and meadow lands of the complex.
He paused by the window to stare at the Watch and Army mechs who had a station on the edge of the highway below. They were there to guard the facility until it was declared a safe situation. They were the center of a lot of visitor attention, these huge behemoths covered in guns and tattoos. He was glad to see them. He ever know one of them. Waving as they spotted him, they waved back. He grinned, then walked onward around the trail nodding to other hikers before heading toward the path that would take him into the forest and the meadows beyond.
Someone was taking wild flowers for themselves and he would catch them. The flowers would be no different than those at home no matter their location at birth but the bees needed them here. He walked onward with a spring in his step as he disappeared down a road that would lead to a leafy wonderland.
=0=2-12-2023
If for any reason at all you need a pick up from whatever you feel go to YouTube and watch the videos after searching for 'Jerusalema' and 'Jerusalema Challenges'. Feel the love of humanity coming together because a handful of kids in Angola posted the first video of this. God Bless Africa and the entire world.