NOTE: LeslieM, you didn't leave a return addie so I will thank you and your colleagues here. AN EQUINE COLLEGE!? That is like heaven, right? :D My family may live in Alaska but we have horses too. My brother was born in the wrong era. :D The idea that a sweet horse is named after Orion is such an honor. I am aware of the care horse people give to naming their babies and the IDEA THAT A HORSE IS NAMED FOR ORION!? SWEEEET! Right, Spud?
"ME GOOD! ME ORION! ME FLY GOOD! ORION GOOD!"
Its unanimous. Please express to your school, all 200 of them that they are loved and appreciated. I have done this story for everyone who reads and you are all my dearly beloveds. You are all over the world living your different lives but on these pages we are one. I love you all so much. Take care and know that. No matter what is different, here we are one. Until all are one, my darlings. Happy New Year and may you all have peace, prosperity and TF dreams. :D
=0=And now back to the obsessive-compuls- … story ;)
The Diego Diaries: Game Day 3
-0-At the gate of the arena
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe watched as Vos walked into the arena in their colors, their captain leading the team as he carried their city banner. It was glorious to feel the ripple of energy flow over their armor in the gigantic burst of cheers and applause. Vos banners and colors were all over the field. So were those of Kaon and when they walked in they would look for the ones who bore them that mattered the most, Bluestreak, the infants and Sunspot.
The Vos team walked to the middle and lined up on one side of the halfway mark, their team captain planting their banner on its long pole in front of himself. The keyboard had been retired from the field along with Alor who had been cheered to the point of meltdown as he walked away, grin firmly in place. As Vos stood, the captain nodded and they began their war cheers and moves to the absolute delight of everyone. AFTER ALL, THIS WAS SLAGGING FOOTBALL! It was glorious and their roars were buried under the approval of the crowd.
:Frag, I'm glad these helmet things dial down the sound. I think we would be dead if it didn't even with the thin atmosphere: Jack Melcher said.
:I hear ya. Fortunately: Leonora Huttle replied before walking over to be enveloped by the femmes and Barbara Morshower.
"We better slag their aft from the get go," Sunstreaker said glancing at his brother with a grin.
"They can't outclass us in the looks department. That part is assured," Sideswipe said with a smirk. "Frag them."
Sunstreaker snorted and laughed. Glancing at his brother, the strange other half of his spark, he nodded. "Frag yeah."
Then they began to enter the arena.
-0-Prowl
He stood holding Miracle whose audials were dialed down. It was a self preservation program. The systems of underage mechanisms automatically adjusted for the environment they were in. At a point later on when they were more cognizant of themselves they would do it themselves. What Prowl felt as a nearly life threatening roar, Miracle heard at the conversational level. Glancing at the other younglings, he could see that they were still at the level their bodies recognized as vulnerable. No one had remembered that until the infants came among them. He wondered what else they didn't know.
-0-Down on the field
The team walked in behind their captain, their goalie behind him as the twins brought up the rear. Ratchet had asked them about that once.
"Why are you two at the end? I would think your vanity would make you want to take the lead," he had asked at a party, a smirk firmly in place.
The twins who were lounging on a couch feeling no pain grinned. "Ada, you think too small. We save the best for last," Sideswipe said glancing at Sunstreaker with a huge grin.
Sunny nodded and snorted. "Frag yeah. Best for last, Ada."
They walked in with helms held high, their quality proceeding them. They were beautiful, all of them. They were a credit to their species, incredible examples of the kind of mechanism they were. They knew it. All of the players knew that they were beautiful, that they were strong and brave. They were representing not just their teams but the entirety of their kind to a world nearby who had no idea that such things could exist let alone walk before them with their pride evident.
They reached the line and their captain planted their banner. When they did their war cries, their aggressive dance, the place rose as one giving them back the respect that they had earned by their mere presence on the line.
Prime stood watching nodding to their captain when he turned to their box, bowing. Then the officials came into the arena and were received with respect and catcalls as officials do whatever universe they tried to maintain order in notwithstanding. The place was screaming and the colors that flashed around the vast structure made an amazing display.
-0-Johnson Space Center
"Wow. The twins look fine."
"They do, Lola," Cindy said. "I think I want to visit them some day and check out their awesomeness first hand."
"You and me both," Lola replied.
Their supervisor grinned. /... could be sooner than you think …/
-0-The field
The teams were feted, then turned walking to the sidelines as their captains worked out the order of play. Sunstreaker leaned down to stretch, then rose as Sideswipe tapped him. Looking up into the stands, they saw Sunspot waving madly at them. They both grinned and waved back.
-0-Sunspot
"ADA! MY BROTHERS WAVED TO ME! DID YOU SEE THAT?" Sunspot sat in Ratchet's arms as the big medic held him up to watch. He was ecstatic, the idea of HIS BROTHERS showing their quality to the entire city almost overwhelming him.
"They look like a million shanix don't they?" Ratchet replied with a grin.
"THEY DO! THEY ARE SO GREAT! THEY WILL WIN THIS GAME! THEY WILL, ADA!"
"From your lips to Primus' audials, Sunny Bunny," Ratchet said with a grin.
On the floor between them Hero sat in her basket playing with a favorite toy, a spoon and her dollies. Her audials were turned completely down, such were her delicate features at this age. Next to her grinning broadly, Uraya and Iacon sat in their basket. They were 'playing' too. They would for the duration of the game.
Kaon sat in Bluestreak's arms, his little wings folded protectively against his back. They were only mildly self aware and developed. The process of full function was a long journey and he had only just begun. He sat on Blue's arm, his own around his atar's neck and watched as Bluestreak pointed out things. He heard it at a normal conversational level, his development allowing greater transmission of sound.
Orion and Praxus sat on the arms of their grandadas, both Ravel and Alor caring for them. They wore their harnesses and their leashes were handy. So were at least eight adult carry holds if they became tired and needed a rest.
They wouldn't.
-0-Bracket
He stood in the goalie zone, his internals fine tuned to the moment. Nothing would come within meters of him that he wouldn't have a defense for. He was the best goalie in the league and someone who could have played to enormous acclaim in the professional leagues on Cybertron if war hadn't taken them all down. He chose Kaon because it was his town. Most of the mechs playing for the hard luck towns were separated and raised there in poverty and the indifference of the state. They all had the same story, poverty, no opportunity, a criminal record. None of them had an easy life. None of them ever received respect on Cybertron, not for themselves or for their town. All of them were determined to rectify that on the pitch here.
He was one of them.
-0-At the decision
"Kaon will defend." The officials signaled that and the lines came on, massive bots polished to a shine not possible on Earth. They wore their team belts, the colors marking their pride and set themselves for the start. It was called and Vos got the ball, turning to maraud up the middle.
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe watched tensely with their teammates as the crowd rose to near riot levels of joy. The wedge play cleared a path for about 20 yards, then it lost 10 as the wall of mechs, some the size of small houses began the push back. That was when the ball squirted out.
-0-A bar in California
"HOLY CRAP! LOOK AT THAT! THAT DUPLEX STOPPED THAT FREIGHT TRAIN ON HIS TRACKS!" -man A, feeling no pain.
"On his tracks. *SNORT*" man C, feeling nothing including his feet
-0-At an equine college in the North of England
"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
-0-On the field
The ball bounded out, its odd shape making it utterly impossible to catch. But caught it was by Kaon and as that unlucky bot grabbed it, the entire front line of Vos became airborne. They landed on him and the fight was on. Punches were punched. Grabs were grabbed. Pokes were poked. The refs ran here and there peering into the writhing mass of mechs and when it was clear no one was going anywhere but to medbay, they called the play.
Everyone staggered to their peds and turned to the refs. "THE PLAY IS FOR KAON!" one said signaling it to the crowd.
The crowd signaled their approval back.
"FRAG THE REFS!" -a batch of younglings whose genitors were from Vos
"AWESOME! FRAG VOS!" -Sunstreaker and Sideswipe
"FRAG VOS AND KAON! GO IACON UNITED!" -Ratchet
/... in your dreams, slagger …/ -Prowl
-0-On the field
A heated exchange was had with officials who carefully explained to Vos that when a Kaon team player had the SLAGGING BALL IN HIS SLAGGING SERVOS THAT MEANT THAT SLAGGING KAON GOT THE SLAGGING BALL!
Like that.
-0-At an equine college in the North of England
"SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
-0-On the field
They lined up along the sideline as the Kaon back who had two new dents on his helm got ready to make the throw. Towers of Vos players hulked over him, their joints creaking from the fray so far. They actually threw shadows on the ground.
"GO, YOU SLAGGER! DON'T LET THEM SET UP!" Sideswipe said as the Kaon back 'go-ed'. The ball flew out, then bounced back into his servos off the startled face of a Vos mech at the bottom of a tower. Absorbing the blow, he staggered and the mech on his shoulders grabbed his face gripping him as he tried to hold on. They staggered into the next tower and the entire edifice fell like a grain silo after demolition.
-0-Glasgow, Scotland, in a pub
"I remember when they demolished my uncle's grain silo. It looked like tha'," a lovely lassie said.
Her boyfriend, a lovely lassie himself … uh, lad grinned. "I remember tha'."
She nodded. "Biggest event held in Newpitslago* in generations."
(Gentle call out for my grandma's papa's hometown*.) :D
-0-On the ground
They fell into each other as the Kaon back began to run heading for the goalie who was stunting in Vos's end zone readying himself to be cremated. The entire defensive line of Kaon was heading his way like heat seeking missiles.
"GO, VERL! GO, YOU FRAGGER!" Sunstreaker screamed as he gripped his brother by the neck. Wringing it as he screamed, Sideswipe managed to jerk free. He slapped Sunstreaker hard, then turned. "GO, VERL! GO, YOU FRAGGER!"
Verl go-ed. He ran like the wind. He ran like someone who had always been a brides maid and never a bride. He ran like his mortgage depended upon it, though he and his family had a nice three bedroom in a good tower debt free. He ran like he was carrying the diphtheria cure to a small snowbound town in western Alaska. (Tip of the hat to Nome, a town about four hundred miles from me. Did I tell you I live in Alaska?) The only thing missing from his run was the theme song from Chariots of Fire.
The mechs who were running with him to clear the run back ran with nothing to do. All of Vos was still rising up from their run in with each other. They turned and galloped along behind like there was hope, like there was joy, like the fear they felt from the dressing down their coach would give them at half time could somehow be prevented by sheer herculean effort and terror.
It was for not. Or naught, whichever is correct.
Verl in a move that would live in his personal video reel forever shouldered the goalie aside like he was a mere fleck of dust on the escutcheons of his own awesomeness. He planted the ball in the hoop and hung from the rim in a Michael Jordan move that would be discussed from Ops Center here to Cucamonga there for some time.
The place went ape shit.
-0-In the booth
"That was almost a ballet dance, Blaster," Jazz said with a chuckle.
"Yeah," Blaster replied. "If they had ballets with town cars and low flying planes."
Even 'Vette laughed at that one.
-0-In a nice house with a nice family and a prig-in-transition
"That was epic." -nice little Mama Annie
"That back has had his moment in the sun. He will never have a greater moment on the pitch ever," -Papa Leonard
"Vos is 3 behind, Grandpa. What do you think is going to happen?" -nice older grandchild sitting beside another who is now crawling.
"I think they will kick the slag out of each other," Papa Leonard said consulting his ipad and the Autobot City Adult Football League website just like everyone else was. Except Pastor Bob who was sneaking peeks on his iphone when he thought no one was looking.
/... I'm looking, sonny.../ -Mama Annie with a grin.
-0-On the field
They came off victorious and did the usual chest bumping and helm bopping all athletes do everywhere because at heart/spark they are all basically idiots.
"Time to go and run up the score," Sunstreaker said as he turned to walk onto the pitch. Sideswipe smiled and followed both buoyed as around the arena their names rose and fell with the wave which had circulated off and on since before the game. It stopped just this short of the macarena.
"Get ready," the ref said as he held the ball for the jump which because Vos had lost the last play would be going in their direction when thrown. It was such that short of transforming into a jet, the team who scored would be unable to get the pitch.
That never stopped Sunstreaker before.
The ball went up …
=0=TBC
2012 (12)