The Diego Diaries (dd3 158)
-0-ROLL THE FRAG OUT! : Follow Up: 4
"You! Come here!" he said with emphasis.
The segway paused as all aboard looked toward a table with three mini-cons. One who was speaking was looking at them with a frown. The other two were rolling their optics. Jack Melcher looked at his crew who looked at him minus the camera. That had now swung to film the giant mini-con with the frown. Giant to them, anyway. :Are you speaking to us?: he asked.
At that point, the mechs around him including the families looked around to see what was happening. The filmmakers used one of three communications lines that were designed for humans on Mars. The first was a private line between just humans which was voice activated. If you said, "Landon, Lennox only", the line from you led only to them excluding everyone else on the programmed list of users. If you said, "All humans", every human in the city could hear you. You could be as widely or narrowly gabby as you wanted.
The second human designated line was one that led to the greater bot world beyond. If you said, "Line two, all" then anyone who talked could be heard and hear you. If you said, "Line two, one way", then you could hear but they couldn't hear you. Line three was a translation modality. If you said, "Line three, translate _", it would.
The first two lines were wired into the security and emergency frequencies of the city so that they could cut in in case of catastrophe or attack. It took a bit of getting used to but the comm system was as efficient and neat for their purposes as anything they could have designed themselves.
Cliffjumper leaned in closer and nodded. "I am. Come here."
They glanced at each other, then the segway putted to the table where the mini-cons sat. Melcher looked at the other two who were looking at them with dread. One was Brawn. The other was a small bot named Wheelie who had very high pitched child-like voice and a nervous manner. :What do you want, Mr...?: Mellar asked.
"What do I want? I want to know why you didn't put any mini-cons in the film you're making? Not even a micro-mini-con." Cliffjumper was pissed but sober. He glared down at them with his bright blue optics and his glittering horns.
Mellar considered that. :We did. Bumblebee and Payload are mini-cons. We were told they were. Jolt is also we were told:
"Three. Three mini-cons. Out of how many?" Cliff persisted.
:We only have one Seeker: Mellar offered in return.
"So what?" Cliff asked hotly.
Payload sitting nearby with his bond, Caro and their son saw the writing on the wall. Rising, pulsing reassurance to Caro, he began to walk to the conversation/not quite confrontation. Caro who was middle caste and had grown up free of bullshit and flying bottles looked at the moment with dread. Even watching football made him want to hide his optics sometimes. There was no physical contact in patents and co-op business transactions.
"What's up?" Payload asked as he paused next to the segway.
:I don't know: Jack Mellar said honestly. :I think he thinks there aren't enough mini-cons in the program:
"There aren't," Payload said with a grin. "But we're making due with Bumblebee, Jolt and me. Considering what a great beauty I am, we have it in servo, Cliff."
Cliff looked at Payload with a sour expression. "Your great beauty, huh."
"Sure," Payload said. "Why don't you just enjoy your meal and relax. Its all in Prime's plans."
"Well, he should have included me. *I* was a star in the Transformers: Prime series."
"And Megatron slagged your aft, Cliff," Brawn said sourly. "Megatron cut you in half."
"He did," Wheelie said nodding. "It was awful."
Cliff looked at the two of them and frowned. "It was tragic. I was the slagging show. They killed me in the first few episodes."
"You did come back to duke it out with Shockwave. You even beat him. What the frag more do you need? Sit down and eat," Brawn said with his usual light touch.
Not.
Cliff turned to Brawn. "You should be helping me. This is a mini-con thing."
"It's a Cliffjumper thing," Wheelie said with a grin. "You're upset about not being on teevee. I'm not on teevee. Do you see me crying?"
"You need to be in school, you slagger," Cliffjumper said.
The little red bot looked at him and grinned. "You're a sore loser, Cliffjumper. Maybe they can make a movie of the Transformers: Prime and you can get slagged again."
Mellar and Payload watched them trade barbs, then glanced at each other. Shrugging, Payload walked back to the tense bond and baby that were the center of his life. Mellar nodded to the driver and followed. By the time that Cliffjumper turned back no one was there.
Cliff looked at the group who were gathered at Payload's table. Leaning back with a frown, he looked at his equally disgusted table partners. "You two are hopeless."
"We're the mirror," Cliffjumper," Wheelie said with a chuckle.
Brawn actually smiled.
-0-Johnson Space Center
"That little red bot is cute as it gets but a real primadonna," Cindy Teasdale said. "I dig his horns."
Lola nodded. "He is. I have dibs."
"We'll see," Cindy said with a grin.
They both laughed. The show continued.
-0-A scene at The Infant Center
Sunstreaker knelt to look at a row of new acquisitions from a local company in the Polyhex Business Plaza that had been started to make and distribute to local outlets educational and fun toys for infants, younglings, sub-adults and elderly. They were designed to maximize processors while maximizing fun. Sideswipe was looking at a number of new toys that had been made by the same company. "These are cute," he said holding up a teething ring that looked like a row of little cars driving in a circle. They were made of the kind of steel that humans could only dream about. It was hard like steel but had a tension built in that would give slightly at the bite of a determined child. The design was made to last through repeated gnawings while preventing damage to a child's mouth as they worked their inner sparkling out on an approved item rather than the barrel of their ada's favorite rifle.
We're looking at you, Iacon.
"That's cute," Sunstreaker said looking up at the colorful little ring. "Uraya still likes to chew, too."
"I'll get it for her. They can share," Sideswipe said looking at it closely. He looked at the shelf and picked up two others. "Or do you like these two?" he asked holding up a ring that was a series of tiny Primes and another that was a series of tiny Cybertrons, all of them linked in a circle.
"I like the Cybertronian one," Sunstreaker said with a grin.
"I do, too," Sideswipe said putting the other two back. "What do they have that's new in the games?"
"I like this one for Kaon. It teaches counting," Sunstreaker said holding it up for Sideswipe who took the box to read the directions.
"This is good," Sideswipe said nodding. "He's getting new words. Lots of them. Counting is coming along, too. This one is sort of older for him."
"He can get ahead," Sunstreaker said. "We can work with him on the stuff he knows and add more as he goes. He's so slagging smart he'll lead his group in no time."
Sideswipe smirked slightly and nodded as he watched his brother look through the array of educational toys and games that were designed for the infants of the city. He was almost darkly dedicated to their kids, determined that they would have the life the two of them never did. Kaon and the girls would become someone he would say often. They wouldn't be soldiers. They wouldn't be overlooked. No one would dismiss them out of servo by sight. They would not have the life of invisible contempt that the two of them had survived.
Not their kids.
Splice had been a regular visitor and they had talked about the old orns, mostly away from Bluestreak who as a middle caste mech wouldn't know anything about the struggle their own life had been. They didn't want him to know. That part of them was the well from which their personalities sprang. It was the beginning but it wasn't the now and it wouldn't be the future. The two would see to it as they grappled with their demons and worked them out through their family and the new life of home and acceptance they had carved for themselves.
A clerk came to the aisle and smiled. "Your order is ready, Sunny."
He rose and nodded. "Thanks, Cisco. We want these three games and that teether, too."
The clerk took them and walked back to the counter. They followed and chatted as the clerk packed their bag. "Thanks, Sunny. I'll tell you when the new hats come in for the girls."
"Thanks, Cisco," he said taking the bag in servo. They walked out as the segway followed.
On the street …
"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe," a voice asked.
Two fierce visages, handsome, dangerous, even beautiful looked down. "What?" Sideswipe asked with a grin.
"Tell us about your babies." -voice.
Sunstreaker looked at them for a moment, his expression unknowable. Then he leaned down slightly. "You don't have enough days in your life to hear about them." He walked onward.
Sideswipe watched him go, then turned to the camera. "Come by the studio. You got him at a bad moment. There's nothing in our lives that matters more than Kaon and the girls. Come by later and ask." With that, he walked onward catching up with his brother.
The view of them turning the corner near Club Cybertron to head for the studio finished the scene.
-0-Johnson Space Center
"Those two bots curl my toes."
"In a good way," Lola replied with a nod. "They love their babies."
"They do. They're good dads," Cindy said. "Is it just me or did you find that whole thing poignant? There's something awesome about a dad trying to do right by their babies."
"I hear ya," Lola said. "Bluestreak is one lucky mech."
Cindy nodded. "I know."
-0-Scene opens to the armory
Youngling mechs were working and laughing together as they went through the orn's quota of deadly fire power. Nitro was standing at a computer console with Holi discussing things. It was a normal afternoon in the armory. The segway rolled toward the office of the Master of the Autobot Army who was sitting at his desk working through the slag. Hanging on a hook was a little white bag with an Autobrand printed on its immaculate surface. The view shoots upward. Ironhide notices and looks at them, staring down without expression on his face.
Or one they could detect in that dark featured visage.
It was intimidating.
They didn't care.
"Ironhide, what can you tell us about the armory and your ability as an armed force to bring the hurt?" -voice
Ironhide considers that and leans back in his chair. "No slagger anywhere is big enough, tough enough or smart enough to frag with us. No one."
"You're the master of this armory and all the allied hubs, right?" -voice
The big bot nodded. "I am. This is a very big operation. We have tens of thousands of munitions on stock in armories all over the city with inventory depletion being filled every day from this station. Some of the armories are very deep in the ground and all of them can deliver the specified munition in the specified amount of time to anyone in need. The hubs serve their local groups based on where they live and where they would muster when a call came. They have clientele that live in their radius which prevents any pile up or slow down of services by going out of district to load up. We also have a major munitions stockpile at Aerie Hill to serve the Seekers. They have specific needs and requirements that the rest of us don't usually require."
"We've toured the hub system on the trains. That's an awesome set up. Now that there's a passenger system being built down there, how's that affecting what you do and can do?" -voice
"It isn't. The plans are being managed through the City Engineer's office. His design team's members are among the greatest architects and engineers Cybertron ever produced. Jetta has it in servo. The train system always allowed passenger travel. There's sidewalks along all the tracks anyway for the repair teams and mechs have always hopped empty cars to get here and there."
"Its pretty amazing. There's going to be major traffic between here and Terra. Will the armory system expand out that way, too?" -voice
"It already has," Ironhide replied. "We have armories diversified in all the major habitation areas because that's a smart thing strategically. We also have soldiers who'll be living in Terra so they'll need served from local hubs. All in all, its a well planned thing."
"So it is," the voice agreed. "Can you tell us about the prison riot a while back?"
Ironhide looked at them for a moment. Then he grinned in spite of himself. "Nope," was all he said.
-0-Johnson Space Center
"That bot is getting on my future husband list," Lola said with a chuckle. "He's got it all and then some."
"I agree. You know, Blurr is a hot bot with a great body and a lot of pizzazz but give me old steady and true Ironhide."
There was a pause, then they looked at each other. "We do agree that this kind of thing stays between us alone?"
Lola grinned. "No doubt."
-0-The scene was the Flight Maintenance and Operations Center of the biggest hangar on the airfield.
Sitting in the pilot's lounge working out his flight log, Revo noted optics on him. Looking down, he saw a segway and a camera. He nodded and went back to his log book.
"Revo, you've been a pilot on missions for the Prime." -voice.
He looked down and nodded. "I have."
"What does that mean to you as a former Decepticon to fly the ship that carries the Prime into battle and conflict against your old faction?"
Revo looked at him and considered the question. He considered his bond, Heva and their infants, Han and Lef. He considered his genitors and Heva's, their siblings and the life they had now that they'd made their greatest hardest decision. He considered the fear and hardship of their flight, the worry that failure would mean the end of all that he loved. He remembered the crowded ship and the desperate journey across the Empire. He remembered it all as he looked at the camera. "It feels like justice," he said.
-0-Cut to ending segment
Scar graced his amazing selection of images as the credits rolled. Sitting on a couch watching, the twins considered the show. "That was epic."
Lola nodded. "It was. I love them. I admire them. I will live among them. Count on it."
"I am," Cindy Teasdale said with conviction.
-0-TBC 2013 (1) edited 4-22-18