NOTE: May I say with my whole heart tonight that if you are in the path of Hurricane Sandy that you are in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you are safe and that your life isn't struck with problems. Anyone out there in this world tonight, I am thinking good and warm thoughts for all of you. Take care and know that you are dearly loved. -Arctapus
-0-Back to our diversion ...
The Diego Diaries: Chaos (dd6 68)
-0-In Jarro's office, Autobot City, Mars
They sat on a couch both of them watching as Jarro and his assistants chatted with Blurr. By the time that bot left, he gave his full attention to the little twins. Grinning, he sat across from them. "I hear you both are a real pair."
"We are," Skids said grinning back.
"That's right," Mudflap said nodding.
"Do you know why you're here?" Jarro asked.
"Ratchet made us come. We're here because he wants you to check us over." Skids glanced at his brother. "I don't want to be here."
"I can imagine," Jarro said kindly. "How long have you two been on your own?"
"Forever," Skids said nodding. "I can't remember when we weren't."
"How did you get into the Autobots?" Jarro asked.
"When we was really young. They let us take care of stuff on a base. We worked and when the base was attacked we helped them fight," Mudflap said. "We're good at it."
"Don't you miss being a child? Don't you miss playing with others your age?" Jarro asked.
"Nope." They both answered at the same time.
Jarro sat back and considered them. They were small mini-cons with some physical indications of poor quality protoforms causing growth difficulties from separation. He was personally aware of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe as twins. He was studying them surreptitiously to have some data on twins in his slowly re-emerging databases. Without access to Cybertron, they were having to re-invent the wheel.
These two were a surprise. They were also a challenge. They were genetically in the mid-to-high range of younglinghood, pre-sub-adulthood. They were recipients of what he suspected would prove to be low quality protoforms. That indicated extreme poverty from separation with debilitation caused by malnutrition ongoing over a long period of time. They were displaying behavioral and intellectual responses that were worrisome but not unexpected for younglings living in an adult milieu doing adult things without formal educational opportunity, proper continuous nutrition and parental stewardship.
If he had a shanix for every youngling he had met over his lifetime in the same condition he could have bought a Matrix of his own to fix slag.
On the other servo, they were confident about themselves, easygoing and showed aptitudes of general contentment with their lot. They didn't seem to care that they had missed an entire developmental stage of their lives, that their educational attainment was slack and their behavioral antics epic in their backwardness.
He just knew he liked them.
A lot.
Leaning forward, he grinned. "What say the three of us do a few things so I can figure out what to tell Prime and Ratchet about you? We can start with your earliest memories of your life."
They looked at him, then each other. Then they looked at him again. "We sort of don't have them."
Jarro nodded. "A lot of younglings in a tough situation don't have them. What is the oldest thing you can remember?"
They sat a moment, then Skids replied. "Running."
-0-Ops Center
Prime walked in, his gigantic frame glinting under the lights. He walked to the table and sat. Prowl grinned at him. "Guess who Ratchet finally caught?"
Prime blinked. "The little twins."
Prowl nodded. "Guess how old they are?"
Prime vented a sigh. "I was afraid of that after Sunspot. When I saw them come, I was hopeful that Ratchet could do something for them."
"Jarro has them right now. What we have to decide is whether they belong in a school or maybe apprenticed to someone to learn a trade. They aren't actually suited to academia temperamentally. Maybe we can get the university and a guild to design something that will help them learn things they need to know as well as being in a supervised situation learning a skill besides getting into trouble."
Prime nodded. "That would probably be more optimal than trying to make them attend school formally. If memory serves me, they do not take direction well."
Prowl snorted. "They have a lot of guts but little sense. I've never tried to understand them. It makes my processor hurt. But we owe them protection and opportunity. They have done their best and have actually been a great help when they've served. We have to catch these younglings when they show up. This has to stop."
Prime nodded. "They will not give up being soldiers easily. I do not want children in the line of fire, Prowl. They can be in the Home Guard perhaps if that is indicated by Jarro as something they need to do. But no front line duty. I do not want them harmed any further."
Prowl nodded. They discussed a number of items before Jetta walked in to sit with them. "The Fortress is on schedule. We can hoist several slabs into space shortly and take them to the site. I'm told they've found a nice sized planetoid and have finished doing the survey work. They found four asteroids nearby that contain energon and have towed them into orbit around the base world. By the way … what are we going to call that planetoid and base?"
"Shall I alert the schools?" Prowl asked with a smirk.
Prime grinned. "How about the three of us having the honors?"
They sat together and brainstormed names before settling on Primus One for the planetoid and Fort Apache for the base.
Ironhide had turned Optimus onto westerns.
"We have another problem for you, Jetta. The little twins have been corralled and are being interviewed and tested by Jarro. We can't allow younglings on active duty," Prowl said.
"They're younglings?" Jetta asked with surprise. "I thought they were just wise acre mini-cons."
"Are there any other?" Prime asked with a smirk. "I want them to have options. I want perhaps an apprenticeship for them in some skilled area. I want them to be mentored, perhaps housed with their mentor and if they need to be in the army, the Home Guard is it. Nothing more than that. They're children."
Jetta nodded. "I met them a couple of times. They didn't seem too bright at the time. Sort of mouthy and cute. I'll take up the search for a solution here but I'm not sure that housing will come easily. They were in an argument with another mini-con the first time I saw them and they were carousing around the second time. They don't seem to have a lot of self control."
Ironhide stepped from the corridor and walked to the table, Hero in arms. Sitting down then placing her gently on the table in her little blanket, he looked at the others. "What's up?"
"We're talking about the little twins," Prowl said. "Jarro has them. They're younglings and we need to make sure they don't get killed."
"Slag. That explains a lot. Gotta hand it to them. They have bearings. Never shirked their duty even if they slagged it up a lot."
Prowl nodded. "We have a duty to them."
Ironhide nodded. "We do."
"Then you volunteer to take them into your apartment and get them back on track," Prime said with a sly wink to Jetta.
Ironhide glanced at him sharply. "You're off your processor."
Mockery and hoo-haw ensued.
"Right now, we have to wait for word from Jarro," Prowl said. "Ratchet thinks there may be processor damage or something going on as well."
Ironhide nodded. "Old mech would know."
"I'll let Ratchet know you think he's nuts," Prowl said picking up a datapad. Ignoring the severe and very caustic optics that Ironhide shot his way, Prowl brought up other business. "I have the request for a meet up for Soundwave ready for your sign off, sir," he said falling back into business formality. "We also have a bunch of little things. There's a request for an economic meeting to begin commercial business between here and Earth. There are also cultural exchanges requested."
"Sadee can show her work," Ironhide said with a grin. All nodded.
"There are requests for mutual projects especially regarding a permanent settlement of humans here on Mars," Prowl said scanning the list.
"I don't know about that," Ironhide said. "Those slaggers are hard enough to understand from this distance without a colony of them here."
"That is going to be a long protracted discussion," Prime said nodding. "We have a lot of things going on without worrying about a city of humans nearby. Put that on the long term list, Prowl. We will discuss it when we catch a break. Warren can handle the fall out."
"Eventually," Ironhide said with a smirk.
"You read my processor," Prime said. He looked at Prowl. "We have to get the hostages back. That supersedes everything."
They all nodded. "Soundwave will beat his own aft to come and talk. I'm sure he knows Overlord is around and it can't be a happy thought," Ironhide said as his ada pulled a chair out to join the discussion.
"Soundwave is between a rock and a hard place as the humans say," Alor said as he sat down at the table.
"What do you know about him, Ada?" Ironhide asked as he watched his ada collect his daughter. He was filled with happiness that Alor did.
For once.
"We know that Megatron has paid very little attention to Cybertron. He left it to Starscream. Then we heard that the leadership was going missing. First Starscream, then Shockwave. That's led to a lot of rumors in the Empire. It was said that Megatron is killing the leadership one-by-one, which can't be a happy thought for Soundwave. It's said that he was off his rocker or using something that made him psychotic. A lot of the anxiety and the impetus to leave the Empire comes from that."
"What about Soundwave himself? Anything?" Prowl asked.
Alor thought a moment. "Home boy is rebuilding. He's desperate to restore Cybertron. He has few materials and not enough energon to do it but he's slowly restoring her. He'd love to see Megatron dead. He'd have dominion over the planet. He'd be seen as the great restorer. I'm not clear that Megatron knows what's happening. He left for the part of space called the Delta Quadrant on the human's stellar charts. We don't even know what's out there but a number of species are rumored to be very dangerous and numerous."
"Slag," Ironhide said. He looked at his daughter lying in his grandada's arms and felt intense happiness. She looked beautiful in her gray blanket and booties. His ada looked utterly content.
"Those are rumors, son," Alor said glancing at Ironhide. "I would put only a small portion of stock in them for now. Suffice it to say, Soundwave is on thin ice. Megatron is mad, the Empire is cracking up, little kingdoms like Overlord are rising up in the uncertainty and the only stability is here. Check. Checkmate."
Prime nodded. "I agree. I want to use them against each other. We can assess Soundwave to a great degree by what he is able and prepared to do here about Overlord. He cannot be happy that Overlord is stranded both near to his secret base and to us."
"He has energon in most likelihood under ped. I don't know if he's smart enough to understand that and use it," Prowl said nodding.
"Time will tell," Alor said as he smiled down at his granddaughter. She, recharging on had no comment herself.
-0-At the assessment
They went through the tests, all of which were designed to understand the two mechanisms before them. Intelligence and personality assessments were given. Baselines of their processors were taken. Scans for bugs and damage were administered. All that an advanced society could do to understand a mech was granted to the little mini-cons. When they were finished, they sat outside the labs eating candy as they chatted to each other.
Jarro sat at his computer waiting for Ratchet, Prime and Prowl to arrive. He had distilled the information down to the final initial product. He would explain to the three what they had before them, what they needed to do and how to undertake the task. He would also say that long term study was a good idea for both of the little soldiers.
Sitting back, he considered the pair. They were amusing, infuriating and confident. Nothing seemed to scare them which in and of itself was a bad thing. They had no objective line over which they understood the consequences of crossing. If the battle was enjoined, they joined.
Without fear.
Sometimes without adequate arms.
Without backup.
They were a fascinating little pair to study.
The door opened to the conference room and the three expected leaders entered followed by Jetta, Ironhide and Alor carrying Hero. They sat as Prime nodded to Jarro and his two aides. "I brought extra processors."
Jarro nodded. "Good thing. We have an interesting situation here." He pulled up data and began to explain. "We have two mechs who are high-end younglings, pre-subadult. They have a low grade protoform which has inhibited their growth and affected their processor development. Malnutrition for a great deal of their most important vorns hasn't helped. They're tough, devoted to each other and in great need of support.
"I suggest that they be eased back into their age group as slowly as possible. I think it would be a good thing for it to be a Prime directive whatever is decided for them to do. They will be more likely after growing up in a military environment to obey a command from a Prime. They have minimal educational skills. Their P.Q. therefore reflects this."
"P.Q.?" Jetta asked.
"Processor quotient. The humans call it intelligence quotient. What they know, essentially. How much smarts you have to be crass about it. These little mechs have a low P.Q. Or, they're terrible test takers. Their attention spans are about a nanosecond long it seemed," Jarro said with a grin. "I find it hard to be mad at them."
"Considering what we know now, I am sorry I ever was," Prime said. "They are brave but foolish most of the time. That they are younglings did not cross my mind. I was under the impression they were goofy little mini or micro-mini-cons."
"Easy mistake," Jarro said nodding. "They're used to an organized life with the military so it won't be too much of a step for them to enter a structured civilian life now. I would suggest a full in depth processor scan followed by a mentor that will be able to supervise them. If they can't live with someone else, have them live next door to their mentor. That way they can be supervised better than they have so far. Running wild and hiding out in the city is hardly a good idea."
"I'll find a mentor," Jetta said with a grin. He looked at Prowl. "If you could tell Magnus to give me an apartment that can either be across the hall or next to their mentor's home, it will help. I'll find out shortly and if we have to move them, we will."
Prowl nodded. "I will do that when you get someone who will do this."
Jetta looked at Jarro. "What about job aptitudes?"
"They're pretty fast about picking up on things. They aren't stupid. They're uneducated and simple about a lot of things but not dumb. Much." He grinned as he studied his notes. "Skids appears to be smarter and more mature but he's easily distracted as well as his brother. They're loyal and their intentions are good. I would think there must be a job in construction that will be their forte."
"There are plenty of jobs for small bots. We can also utilize Leader-1," Jetta said. "He'll be fit to be tied when he finds out those two are kids."
Prime nodded. "He can join the club."
-0-TBC 2012 (10) edited 8-18-18