NOTE: I tell you, it is always a delight to find that our Transformer fandom is spreading. First an army base, now an equine college. Tomorrow, the moon. Even Burnoff could use some love. :D This is the payoff for me, the joy of everyone enjoying themselves. Leoness, you are a love. Thank you and I would waive all rights of my own to see this made into a movie or show anytime. :D Especially the football. I wish you could see the pictures I have in the movie in my mind. I am delighted to entertain everyone. This story is my magnum opus I think and I give it to you as fast as my fingers can go. HUGGLES!
-0-And now, we pirouette that a way
The Diego Diaries: Game Day 5
-0-On the field
Then the ball squirted out.
Again.
The mass of mechs moved around the field shoving each other back and forth without a clue that it was in the free and clear. Seeing his chance, the Vos goalie lit a match under his chassis and booked it for the highly dangerous possibility that he could score one for the Ripper.
Seriously. That was his coach's name. Ripper.*
With a speed that goalies aren't really known for over distance, he grabbed it and turned booking it as fast as he could toward the enemy goal. Bracket noticing him doing that ran forward and kicked a Kaon defense mech in the aft to get his attention. It actually raised him off his peds. That mech turned, his attention got.
Before Bracket could tell him why he had kicked his skid plate, the big back punched him in the chin. Bracket lifted off his peds too and flew backwards. As he lay on the ground watching the cyber birdies sing, the Vos goalie took a clear shot at the goal and FRAGGING SCORED!
The place went ape shit redux.
-0-On the sidelines
Sideswipe clawed at Sunstreaker who in an out-of-protoform experience ran forward to tackle the goalie when he got the ball. He grabbed Sunstreaker by the shoulder and slid down until he was hanging onto a leg as tightly as he could. Sunstreaker who was screaming at his team to 'PULL YOUR SLAGGING HELMS OUT!' clawed his way forward dragging Sideswipe behind him.
It was all for not. Or naught. :D :D
The Vos goalie was having his own out-of-protoform experience himself as he leaped and danced, flinging himself in all directions from the sheer joy of his life. He had scored a zillion yard goal all by himself. He almost tripped over the slagging Kaon goalie who was lying on the ground being a fragging speed bump but he had prevailed anyway.
It was 6-3.
The teams were climbing back up off the steaming pile of their shame and waywardness when the siren sounded for the halftime break. They stood glaring at each other, then turned and lined up. Following their captains out with limps and epithets, they made their way to the stadium locker rooms. Halftime would be music and videos of the first half. It would also include copious shots of the crowd so they would be happy.
Ratchet sat down with Sunspot who stood before him chattering excitedly about the game. He grinned as the little mech told of his admiration for his brothers and the hope that Kaon would win. Ratchet was hoping for the same but he also knew that if Kaon tied, Iacon would be eligible for the wild card slot in the playoffs. Either way he won.
Prowl on the other servo …
Prowl checked Optimus' carry hold to see how Miracle was doing. He was in recharge next to the healing soothing comfort of the Matrix. It all was good. Especially if Kaon won. Then Praxus was the one favored to win overall. With a tie, Iacon would be in the mix as the wild card and all bets were off.
Possibly.
Pushing the sordid details of his internal criminal tendencies to one side, Prowl the Slide Rule turned back to the important things. Like not letting Ratchet know how freaked out he was. That would not due in the math shaped data based world of his exterior life. What happened inside however was a WHOLE other thing altogether.
As Prime was slowly finding out to his GREAT DELIGHT. But that however was a WHOLE other thing altogether.
"Well, that was interesting," he said in his primmest calmest manner.
"Yeah," Ratchet said parsing the calculator standing beside him. He himself of the devious processor, the one who brought Chaos Bringers to their knee assemblies, he who adopted everything that walked in with a sad, he who would tie one on tonight with the big slagger of his waking nightmares could read the winger like a book.
Usually.
"So … if Kaon frags this up and from the look on Goldie's face regarding Bracket, they will take the last open slot leaving the wild card to my team. Since Praxus fears Iacon's offense and Kaon's defense, we could hand you your aft on a two by four."
"Keep thinking, Ratchet. That's what you're good at," Prowl said unconsciously mimicking the Sundance Kid.*
"If you say so, Prowl. Boy, I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals*," Ratchet said with a grin.
Prowl snorted and elbowed Ratchet. Ratchet turned and gave Prowl noogies of his own.
Prime merely grinned.
-0-In the Vos Dressing Room
"WHAT THE FRAG IS WRONG WITH YOU, LADIES!? DO I HAVE TO GET A TARG TO BITE YOUR AFTS TO GET YOU TO MOVE!?"
-0-In the Kaon Dressing Room
"Are you coming out of there?" -huge mechs standing around a locked door.
"I don't hear anything, Hugo. What do you wanna do? I can take the hinges off and we can send someone in there."
"I don't know," Hugo-not said. "Maybe he needs a moment." Presses audial to the door. "Yep. He does. You know, he looked insane when he came in."
Big mech walks over and pauses rapping on the door with mild to moderate irritation. "Hey! Sunstreaker! Open the slagging door!" Sideswipe said.
He wouldn't.
-0-Vos
"AND I WILL TELL YOU NOW … WE WON'T GET INTO THE FINAL BRACKETS IF YOU *LADIES* DON'T GET THE FRAGGING LEAD OUT! THIS AIN'T NO TEA PARTY!"
-0-Kaon
"Bracket? Are you alright? How many digits do you see?"
"Seven," Bracket said raising his bleary helm to focus on the two digits before him.
"Close enough," Hugo-not said looking back at the others. They all nodded. "Close enough."
-0-Vos
"SO I WOULD SAY UNLESS YOU WANT TO SIT HOME WATCHING SOMEONE ELSE GET ALL THE SLAGGING GLORY FOR THEIR CITY-STATE THAT YOU GET THE GAME GOING THAT WE ACTUALLY TALKED ABOUT AND NOT THIS SLAG THAT YOU ARE DOING! ANY QUESTIONS?"
One servo goes up.
"WHAT!?"
"Coach … you really hurt my feelings here, right?" Big bot looks around the room and others nod too.
Coach clutches his neck.
-0-Kaon
Sunstreaker leaned against the wall, a sour look on his face. "This took a turn into the dumper."
"It did. We better break a leg," Sideswipe said.
"I think it goes, you better 'shake a leg', Sideswipe," Topper said as he rubbed his wrist with liniment of the Air Kroil kind.
"No," Sunstreaker said with a slight smirk. "I think he means break a leg."
Smirks went all around the room.
-0-In the stands
"Well, they're catching up, right Sky Warp?" Starscream asked as he lounged in his seat, Flit and Pip playing some kind of patty cake in the aisle in front of him. They almost clapped their little servos together most of the time.
"They are. We're only three behind. We need a tie to stay in the playoffs for the final game," he replied as he wiped Dart's little face. His cookie was that good.
"Well, if someone would take out those slagging twins things might be more equal," Starscream said unconsciously reaching for his null ray. It wasn't there. "Where is a good null ray when you need one?"
"Is that rhetorical?" Thundercracker asked with a grin as he picked Dart up and sat him on his lap. The hatchling smiled at both of them. They were entranced for a moment.
All was good with them.
-0-On the way out
They filed out and the booth continued the broadcast cutting off from the upload from Earth by sportscasters who asked questions of the two during the brief lull. The transcript would be posted at the web page for their league and rebroadcast all over the hell and gone on different programs on Earth later on.
"Here they come. What we want to know is who is benched and who is taking places for those who appeared injured during the first half, Jazz," Blaster said. He consulted a data wafer given to him by Revet.
"It would appear that Bracket is out of the game for Kaon. Tough break that."
"Yeah," Jazz said. "Bracket is a first class athlete and a tremendous asset to the team. He is so good that the defensive backs could play at the limits of their range knowin' he could cover more territory as well as the goal. I wonder who will step in at goal? This is a tough half. Kaon needs to keep Vos either shut out or down to one goal to stay in the championship brackets as at least a wild card."
Blaster nodded as they watched the team go to the benches, bow to Prime and take the field. As they did, Sideswipe stepped into the goal. "Well, that looks like the answer. Forward Sideswipe is in at goal, at least for now."
"He's a tremendous competitor. I think this will be interestin'," Jazz said with a chuckle.
-0-On the ground
Vos walked in, bowed to Prime and took the field. They were gnarly. So was Kaon. They were both hard luck towns and city-states. They both had extensive criminal records. They were just this side of the Pit, both of them and the second half would be as wild as the first, the only unpredictable thing being the body count at the end.
The ref walked in and tossed the ball upward as was the habit of starting the second half. Two entire lines body slammed into each other in a weird kind of airs about the ground. The sound was stupendous and so was the cursing. They slammed into each other as a mech caught the ball that was bobbling here and there over the top of the fifteen or so car pile up. A mech caught it and disappeared under the mash up.
-0-Johnson Space Center
"Ow." -The Teasdales
"That left a mark," their supervisor said. Ten astronauts nodded in agreement.
-0-On the field
The ball was called and Kaon took it out on the sideline. Towers towered, mechs stunted all around as they tried to get free. A fierce throw to a Kaon player resulted in everyone jumping down to run like the wind, visions of their respective coaches chasing them with crowbars an incentive. They thundered down to the Vos goal before the runner was tackled out of bounds.
The throw in was at the quarter pitch line. It was intercepted and the mob turned running after a Vos wing who was hot for the goal. Sideswipe for his part saw him come and braced himself. He wasn't good at goal but no one cared. He drew the highest card in the deck.
The loser.
The runner was approaching before a tackle lifted him off his peds with a blow that surely could be heard in Katmandu. It cartwheeled him into the first two rows below the stands where the humans stood watching in horror. A mech the size of a D8 Cat came winging at them at the speed of a bullet. He slammed into mechs who could take it and was promptly tossed bodily over the side to the ground below.
"Fragger needed to crash into the other side next time," one of the crunched bitched. "Slagging Vos put a scratch on my finish." He was buried in scorn by other spectators and the game went on.
They battled back and forth, going this way and that. Sideswipe fended off three goals to the great applause of half the stadium. Those that wanted Kaon to win, those that wanted them to tie and let their team stay alive for the playoffs and those who didn't care but thought he was hot. He battled royal leaping high and low, deflecting all manner of shots.
That is, until he didn't.
=0=TBC
2012 (12) (In 29 minutes, I will be putting another date on this stuff. Happy New Year one and all)
NOTE: There is an old movie with Ronald Reagan about a winning coach whose name was George something or other but his nickname was The Gipper. Apparently on his dying bed, he asked his quarterback (Ronald Reagan) to go out to the game and 'win one for the Gipper'. It is a hackneyed corn pone movie but the saying is common in America. That is my take on the saying. :D:D:D:D:D
*The two lines Ratchet and Prowl sassed each other with before the noogies come from the classic, 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. My dad took all four of us kids to that movie one at a time so he could see it over and over. :D :D :D