yv ugfvvhvbvv=0=Diego Diaries: Week End (305)

-0-That night

It was quiet in the city as Springer and Drift walked around on their beat. There were always bots going here and there, some of them heading to work and others coming home. The bars and most restaurants were all night operations and all of them were on their mental landscape. Most of the time, the patrons were good to go if somewhat unsteady some of them but now and again, they would get a keeper.

"Hi," Springer said as he and Drift paused in the light of a street lamp before a tipsy band of mini-con younglings.

"Hi. How are you?" a sweet looking young mech said as he hung onto the street light pole for dear life.

Springer grinned at the mini-con youngling and his friends. "I'm good. You look like you need a lift."

"I'm good. It's my first orn." He grinned and so did his tipsy friends. They smiled and nodded. "It's his first orn," a tiny femme said as she held onto another.

"What first orn, youngling?" Drift asked as he warmed to the moment.

"Of my adulthood." (Gigantic grin) "My friends are helping me celebrate."

"I can see that. How do you expect to get home this way? I don't think you can," Springer said with a smile. "You might bump your helm a few times."

"I know." The youngling smiled gigantically. "My genitors are going to be mad at me."

"You're only an adult once." Drift paused. "Let me rephrase that."

The four mini-cons just looked up at him, smiles gracing their cute young faces. They stood weaving before the two mechs as if standing on a street corner drunk off your peds was a normal part of their orn.

"I think we need to get someone to come get them or maybe take them to the substation to wait for rescue there," Springer said.

Drift nodded. "Are you ready to come with us? We can get you a chair until someone comes to get you."

"Sounds like a nice thing, Bo. What about it? I've never been arrested before." A little femme grinned at Bo, then Drift. "You're really cute."

Springer snorted. "You're really cute, Drift. Independent confirmation."

"Little femme has good taste and better optics than you," Drift said reaching down to pick her up. She snuggled into his arms and smiled. "I like tall mechs," she said dreamily before falling into recharge.

"How old are all of you younglings? Are you all adults?" Springer asked.

"We are. Barely," another said with a chuckle. He was picked up and laid gently over Springer's shoulder as the big Wrecker chief reached down to pick up another, holding him on his arm like a toddler. He sagged against Springer like one too, relaxing into recharge himself.

Drift picked up the 'birthday boy' as well and they turned heading for substation #8A nearby. It was a very happy bunch of little mini-cons that went with them. The ones that were still awake.

-0-The Grocery Store at Mall of Metroplex

The young femme walked through the aisles looking at all the bounty before, at the sides and behind her. She had been in a terrible colony and had suffered for most of her young life. Being here had been a comfort so great that she was struggling to assimilate the change in her life.

She came to the Mall nearly every day to walk around and look at things. It was a cashless economy where she could get what she wanted by merely shopping for it and that concept was as strange to her as it was to her genitors who had been born and raised on Cybertron at the wrong end of the caste system. She looked at the food all around her, most of it strange to her understanding.

It had been patterned after the food on the next planet over. The flavors were different too and when you combined them in ways that the 'Cybertronian-Terran Cookery Book' showed as well as cooking shows on IntraComm Channel 4, they tasted amazing. She had eaten a number of things including the endless arrays of traditional Cybertronian foods included here. She couldn't seem to get enough.

It wasn't that she would eat all of it. She didn't. She hoarded it in a closet where it would be when things fell apart.

The idea that she even had a closet was extraordinary. That it was her room in an apartment that belonged to them, a high caste looking housing unit was amazing. She recharged on the floor near the door so that when it was time to run, she would be ready. Her room was pristine. It hardly looked like anyone lived there. They would have to open her closet door, look under the berth and in the dressers to find the hoard that she kept at servo.

Walking through the store at night when she was supposed to be in her berth, she studied the bounty and tried to understand it. It wasn't part of her life before but it was now. She would continue to wander until a clerk saw her and went to her aid. A short walk to the hospital would be the first steps she would take to peace of mind and good processor health.

-0-At the Food Guild Warehouse, Industrial Park 3, Dock #5

Restauranteurs walked in and went through the aisles checking ingredients on the pallets. Rather than raid the stores for their food wares, they used the Guild warehouse and its vast inventory of goods to plan their menus. This was the place where all the food for everyone in the city both private and commericial was formulated from the databases built by the restauranteurs, cookbooks from Earth and Cybertron databases, the cooking schools, trade academies and experimental food geniuses like Rampage and his students.

It was well lit and busy, pallets of boxes and piles of any number of amazing things filling half the space to the ceiling in some places. A new section included food for the animals that were starting to appear in the city. The rest was taken up with individuals making the goods for groceries, bakeries, restaurants, caterers and others who had begun to diversify the city's amenities and services.

Rampage walked through the section that had 'fruits' and other 'sweet' things he used to make his baked goods so popular. He was tracking items to make his own take on apple crisp and fruit breads. His mind never stopped thinking about things that would be pleasing to his customers. At no time did it linger on the mech he was before Autobot City. He didn't care about that guy. He only cared about who he was now.

Trailing his assistants, he walked through the warehouse picking out the very best specimens of ingredients to make sure that his bakeries and restaurants had only the finest things for his customers. The wares for the next orn would be snatched up by his fiercely loyal customers among them most of the Senior Autobots and their families.

-0-The Pit Stop Cafe, Cultural Center Road and Airfield Junction

The night crews from the airfield were coming in to eat breakfast. That usually consisted of Cybertronian breakfast products and enormous 'skillets' similar to those served in truck stops on Earth.

A group of mechanics sat by the windows laughing at a joke as a cheerful waiter delivered their meals. Cooks worked on the orders in the big well-lit kitchen as others tended the counter where numerous mechs sat eating their meals as the monitor overhead showed the weather for the next few orns.

"Who are you betting on for the finals?" a big red mech asked as he sipped his energon 'coffee'.

The green and white bot sitting next to him, another ground crew worker glanced at him. "I'm still hoping that Vos beats Kaon so Iacon can go to the finals."

"That won't happen," the first said with a grin. "You know Kaon will beat Vos to dust."

"Probably. But a bot can hope," the second said as the counter waiter refilled his cup.

"Dream on, brother," the first said with a chuckle.

A group of younglings came in and sat down at a table, their laughter drawing attention around the room. The buildings around the airfield also held the offices of engineering, architectural and technology firms, some governmental and others private. Given the pace of expansion of the city, many of them doing urgent work ran a night shift during the big push times. Their personnel tended to be young.

"Look at that," the green and white mech at the counter said nodding to the younglings. "I have never seen so many young mechs and femmes in my life until I got here."

The other nodded. "I know. My son is in his first year at University. He's going for an art degree. He wants to make art glass pieces, the kind that you blow and are delicate and colorful."

"Sounds beautiful," the other said. "My son is still in Youngling Intermediate Day School. He wants to be a pilot. Or a football player." He grinned and the other did too.

"Treasure him for now. When he decides it probably won't be either."

They bantered together enjoying their meal as they wound down from their last orn before their weekend. The younglings would eat their dinner, heading out for home as the night time of the city deepened.

-0-Fortress Maximus Flight Center

They sat sipping their energon as the night wore onward. The flights due from the far flung Wrecker bases out in the solar system had all returned and there was a brief break before the cargo ships from Earth were due.

"Did you go to the Temple yet?" one of them said glancing at the mech sitting next to him.

"Not yet. I have the stones ready to put in the garden. We just have to have the same moments free. The bond is going to take a break from University next session to care for the sparkling. When the genitors get on their peds, they want to take him so Eton can finish school."

"Nothing like a new infant to turn everything upside down," his friend said as he checked data for the satellite reconfiguration due to begin in a breem. "When my son was separated, I thought I would never see the inside of my own optics again. Tired is a condition only time will treat."

"I know," the other said. "I want the stones in the garden and show the priests the infant. I want a blessing done for him in front of the AllSpark."

"You'll like that. Its very comforting," the one said as he turned to the board to assist in the satellite re-alignment. "The priests are wonderful. I find it interesting that all of the Council of Ancients are acolytes. Its sort of fun to see Gravitas and the others so humble."

"I'll check it out," he said with a grin. "That will only heighten the experience."

"It will," his friend said as he turned to the panel and helped Teletraan III begin the job of moving the Midway Array situated halfway between Earth and Mars. It managed deep space communications, traffic and intel from Mars to the sun and all planets in between in the Inner Planetary System Array.

-0-At substation #8A

They sat on the bench in an inactivated cell chatting together happily. Out in the main room a number of genitors were waiting chagrined to pick up their younglings. Springer who was talking to them assured all that they were good younglings, hadn't done anything wrong and were being taken care of because of their impairment. The genitors finally understood that their younglings weren't going to be punished, harmed or endure long lasting scorn. After a bit of chat, they were allowed to take their kids with them and the place settled down once again. Drift closed the computer screen incident report page and turned it back to the staff at the station as the two walked back outside to continue. "That bunch of younglings are hilarious."

"They are," Springer said with a chuckle. "They are so happy to be adults. Poor fraggers."

"I know. I think we should check back later on in their life and see how they like it then," Drift said as they crossed the street heading for the Mare Tranquilitatis. There was a group of giggling subadult younglings lurking around and they would track them for about two joors before nailing their fannies.

For once, Sadee would not be among them.

-0-In the bosom of love

"Well, that was edifying. We were both in the show. I'm astounded that Prime was too." Ratchet turned and walked to the kitchen putting dishes in the sink. He fussed a bit putting things away, then turned. "Are you going to put the infants to recharge?"

Ironhide nodded. "Orion. Praxus. Come to me."

The chatter going on in the berth room of Praxus ended. Then little peds came running. "ATAR! ORION COME! ME COME!" He ran to his father and leaped on Ironhide's leg, bouncing off to take out his brother. They lay on a heap and looked at him with big smiles.

Ironhide reached down and picked them up, one in each servo then sat back. He held them up and grinned. "Time for recharge. Beddy-bye."

"NO! ORION NOT GO! PAX AND ORION PLAY!" A gigantic smile followed that statement.

"Beddy-bye."

"NO!"

"Beddy-bye, slaggers."

"NO! ADA! ATAR, BAD! ORION GO PLAY! YES!?"

Ratchet sat in his chair and looked at the two smiling infants in Ironhide's servos. They were smiling at him, confident that he, Ratchet would save them.

"Orion, Praxus, you go to beddy bye," Ratchet said with a grin.

They looked at him, then each other, then Ratchet. "ADA! COME ME! SAVE ME! SAVE PAX! GO PLAY, US!"

"Orion. Beddy bye." Ratchet looked at them. They looked at him. Then Ratchet looked at Ironhide. "You take care of this. I'm about ready to say stay up and play."

"Slagger," Ironhide said rising. He walked to the berth room with the infants for their cursory wash up and 'sleepy beds'.

"ADA! COME ORION! COME ME! ATAR, OW ME! OW! ORION, OW! ME, OW! I FLY! YOU COME! ME GO YOU!" The sound was muffled as Ironhide walked into Sunspot's berth room to wash them down from the grime of the orn. Bath time would be the following morning but the grime of the orn had to go.

The usual loud slag was traded among the three, then Ironhide walked out with the sparklings. Ratchet rose and walked to the berth room of Praxus gathering toys for the toy boxes in the corner. "You brought out all your toys, Praxus. You sure now how to play large."

"Little mech knows what he wants to do and does it. My kind of mech," Ironhide said as he lay Praxus down in his crib.

Ratchet walked over and tucked him in. Kisses and slag were exchanged, then they walked out to Orion's room. Toys were gathered there too, then he was stashed in his big boy bed. He was happy to hug his dollies and smile. "ADA! GO ME!?"

"Go you to sleepy bed, Orion." Ratchet grinned and kissed him. Then he left to re-tuck Praxus in and settle his tiny aft. They went back and forth until the sparklings settled before going to the living room to sit. "Those sparklings are a handful. I'm tired and we're down three. Think about that, Ironhide."

"I know," he said sitting on his chair.

"Well, we'll get them back tomorrow. Then the next orn we have to get Prime and Rainmaker to the United Nations. I imagine that I have to go too," Ratchet said.

"Maybe. Maybe not. We'll see," Ironhide said.

"I will probably have to go."

"No."

"Ironhide..." (grin)

"No."

-0-TBC

05-15-2013