The Diego Diaries: Psy-Ops 23 (dd3 102)
NOTE: I am reminded of a cartoon about two chipmunks with incredible manners and diction. They were so cute and funny that I'm introducing new characters based on them. :D Yes, I'm paying homage to my youth. :D
-0-Autobot City
Ratchet walked to the Ops Center with a storm cloud hanging over him. By the time he got there it'd lifted as he walked across the vast room to sit across from Prowl.
That worthy didn't look up but he smirked slightly. "What's up your tail pipe?"
"Nothing."
Prowl looked up with a smirk. "If you say so, Ratchet."
"Nice impersonation. How's it going at the Fort?"
"Really well. Jazz and Blaster are going to be running the psy-ops from there. Jazz is there now calibrating the array and getting the downloads transferred to Teletraan IV."
"Four. Amazing. Those computers are stellar. They even have room for my solitaire game."
Prowl smirked as he looked at Ratchet. "How did you get that sparkling?" the winger asked sitting back to scrutinize the big red and white enigma before him. "That's my job."
"I saw him lying in his little bed here," Ratchet said nodding to the bed lying on the table near Prowl. "You leave them lying around, they become community property."
"Is that so?" Prowl asked with a chuckle. "I'll remember that."
"Do," Ratchet said scanning the little botlet who lay in his arms smiling up at him. "He's tip top."
"Of course he is," Prowl replied turning back to his work. "He's mine."
Ratchet laughed. Finally.
-0-At the prison
Red Alert walked down the road that led to the prison. Inferno was there and he had down time. Being of a nervous and vigilant disposition, he found that it was easier to be busy with the few individuals that he really felt comfortable with than sit around with only himself for diversion. Inferno was at the wire talking to a prisoner so he steered toward that big red and white bot with gusto.
"I want to know how the frag I'm stuck in here while Barricade and Scorponok are free to wander every orn?"
Red halted beside Inferno who was deep into discussion with the notorious maniac and all around bounding slagger, Blind Spot.
"I don't get it either. All of you need to be in here buried up to your necks. They go about their slagging business and don't cause trouble. You would. You're too dumb to be smart."
"I never liked you, Inferno. You're a fragger of epic proportions," Blind Spot said moving as close to the bars as he could. "I had you in my sights a couple of times. Too bad I didn't shoot you."
"I'll remember that at the next football game, Blind Spot. I should've planted you a long time ago," Inferno said as he began to leave.
"Is he giving you problems?" Red asked with his usual intensity.
"Nope," Inferno said grinning broadly. "Have you energized?"
"No," Red said as they walked to the guard house nearby.
They wandered off chatting together as Blind Spot stared at their fading backsides. He walked back to the table that was sitting outside of the barracks that was his home. Climbing up to sit, he considered his situation.
He was fragged.
Shaking his helm, he looked across the no man's land at the cell block labeled 'Section A: High Security'. He himself was living in 'Section C: High Security'. Behind his area was a highly secured segregation unit and beyond that the empty 'Section B: High Security'. Section A housed slaggers that blew his processor.
The first time he saw Sentinel walk out of his barracks and look around, his helm nearly exploded. That duplicitous two face had been killed or so they all seemed to think. He saw Decimus and other mechs he didn't know by name but knew by physical description as the former leadership of their planet. Then Ratbat stepped out and he felt the hackles of his neck rise up.
Ratbat.
Rat hole.
Rat Bastard.
He could go on for hours. He was the mole who with his partner, whatever his name was that helped them destroy Polyhex. He'd thought about that for a couple of orns, then filed it into the interesting development file in the back of his processor.
He knew about Ratbat. Maybe Prime didn't. He had a chip, albeit a small one. Maybe he could use it to get the same sweet deal that Barricade had. It was worth a try. He waited for Barron to come. It would be a while but eventually that redoubtable little mech came down the road with colleague in tow. They would spend some time talking together.
-0-Challi and Rowan
They worked at the delicate task of making electrical circuitry. A bonded pair, small for even micro-mini-con formats, they were among the most talented circuitry experts ever produced by Cybertron. There wasn't anything they couldn't make and they had the patience of a dead mech as well as the persistence of a rash.
Sitting in a clean room in the Specialty Fabrications-Electronics and Micro Circuitry plant, they were making the delicate insides of a panel destined to be added to the Proxima Centauri array upgrade. It was quiet and so were they. That is, they were until they finished the tiny welds they were working on together.
"There," Challi said. He grinned. "Not bad. You did that very well, Ro."
"Thank you, I admire the nice line of welds that you put down along the seam. Very good, Challi," Rowan said with a grin of his own. "As I was saying before we did this, there's going to be a party at Leader-1's house tonight. Lea and his bond are mentoring those two little bots as you know."
"Yes," Challi said. "They're most unfortunate but if anyone can help them refine the rough edges and help them find their way, it will be those two."
"We're being asked to bring what we want to drink. I asked Blurr to find me an especially fine label."
"You always were a connoisseur about fine beverages," Challi said as he checked a spot on a large round disk they would attach to the one they were focused on. All of the micro welds were perfection. "Do we need to bring anything with us? It would be the mannerly thing to do and perhaps we can find something that the two younglings might find tasty. You do know how younglings like their sweets."
"I was thinking of some sort of pastry. We can try some of the fine things at The Energon Basket. Rampage has such imagination and his palette is remarkable. Someone showed me something he made called 'cheese' and it was delicious. A fine high grade and a selection of 'cheese' seems to be what humans often gift to hosts when they come calling on others."
Challi smiled. "We can go make our choices after work. What about a sitter?"
"I have asked Bumblebee and his beau to stay with the infant. We can make sure he's asleep and then leave afterward. I think it will be a nice experience for Bumblebee to watch over Rader and Bee's beau is a doctor after all."
"That's a very good idea," Challi said. He looked at the disk and found it perfect. "I will do my welds on the new disk, Ro. Then you can if that's good for you."
"That would be good, thank you," Rowan said as he reached for a new stick of welding rod.
Their shift would pass the same way until it ended in mid afternoon.
-0-At the prison
"And that's all you have to say? How much, Blind Spot, are you holding back? You do know that you'll be accusing a very slippery liar who can probably chew you up and spit you out without batting an optical ridge."
Blind Spot shrugged. "That's what I know. Those two managed to get the defenses down and we … that is those who were there, they came in for the kill. It was supposed to divert Prime from Simfur."
"I do believe he had his own diversion going on," Barron said.
"Tyger Pax," Blind Spot said. He glanced over his shoulder at an unreadable Turmoil sitting nearby. "I wasn't there."
"You were at Polyhex. That was a war crime," Barron said.
"I was running a ship. I wasn't on the ground. I was hauling fuel to the front lines. You can't pin that one on me," Blind Spot said with a frown.
"I will take your comments to the Prime. We're working on a number of pressing issues but I will try and get to him today. You do understand that if you get this chance you'll be highly guarded and never out of the sight of guards who have permission to shoot you dead on the spot if you try to act out."
Blind Spot stared down at the small elegant bot with big bearings.
Barron's gaze was level and unwavering back.
"I know. I'm just sick of being locked up. I want to walk around, too."
"I will tell the Prime," Barron said rising to go. His colleague rose, too, and they walked with the guard back to the fence. They were let out and began to trek back the two miles to The Fortress.
Blind Spot watched them go, then looked at Turmoil. "What are you staring at?" he asked.
Turmoil didn't answer. He usually never did. That was what made him so dangerous. He didn't waste time in talk before he struck.
It would be a long afternoon for both of them.
-0-Medical Aid Station 3, Intersection at Four Corners where the different underground industrial plants branched off
Bumblebee peeked in and smiled. "Hi."
First Aid looked up and grinned. "Hello, baby."
Bumblebee snorted, then walked in and sat down on a couch next to the desk where his nearest and dearest was working. The aid station had no cases and the techs in the main room were playing cards when Bee walked inside. Shift was going to be light duty today, he thought.
"How's the hangover?" First Aid asked.
"Better than the demerit I have to work off," Bee replied with a grin. "Semi was easy on us."
"He was. I'd never been before a magistrate before I met you. You're a corrupting influence."
"I hope so," Bee said. "What did you want to tell me?"
"Challi and Rowan have a dinner date at Leader-1's apartment. They're sort of easing the little twins into mini-con society or something. They want us to watch their sparkling, Rader."
Bee grinned. "I like sparklings. He's still just a really small baby isn't he?"
First Aid nodded. "He is. He's probably going to be in bed recharging."
"My kind of infant," Bee said with a grin. "When?"
"Tonight," Aid replied. "Are you up to it?"
"I am," Bee said plopping his peds on First Aid's desk. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"There's a rumor that Grimlock is coming this way. Grimlock and his brothers."
It was silent a moment. Then First Aid grinned. "Oh joy," he said.
"That's the general consensus," Bee said with his own grin.
-0-RTR Tools
They stood around the counter as Ravel showed them the tools that would be the crown jewels of their personal arms collections. They quietly listened as the little bot showed their special qualities, how to care for them and how they could be used in ways perhaps even they hadn't considered.
The atmosphere was one of almost religious reverence as they looked at the tools in their kits.
They were the usual perfection one had come to expect from RTR Tools. Gold, silver and copper ergonomic grips depending on use coupled with almost glittering transparent steel stems and tips, the tools bore the engraving of RTR in tiny glyphs enclosed by a black engraved circle, the trademark of the real thing.
They took their kits expressing their extreme gratitude then left with big smiles on their faces.
Ravel watched them go and felt intensely happy. Walking to the back where Tie Down was working out the sequence of smeltering for ores to make tools so thin and fine almost no one knew how to make them anymore, he glanced at Ravel. "You look happy, Ravie. That's a very good look for you."
Ravel smiled as he walked to the table to help him measure the different ingredients. "It's so nice to see the lovely boys be so happy with their tool kits, Tie. Your workmanship is truly appreciated."
He glanced up at the little mech who was the center of all that was good in his life. "We're a team, Ravel."
Ravel glanced up. "We are. Isn't that grand?"
Tie Down grinned. "It is," he said.
=0=TBC 2012 (11) edited 8-1-17 12-11-2022