The Diego Diaries: Newbies 5 (327)

-0-Out there

They received the message of a Seeker flight heading their way through space bridges to help them with their travail. They were masses of different groups all of whom were under the command of a Circle of Light guru, Heatout. He was a teacher and scholar, someone with gigantic charisma and respect who had stepped in when it appeared they needed organization to continue in a safe united manner. His soothing tone and critical appraising optic had helped them get organized and they needed it. There were over 610,000 individuals heading toward Autobot City in every manner of ship including a number of politicians from Cybertron, high castes, criminals, Decepticon defectors and civilians of all manner. Only Heatout could make them blend enough to share their resources even as he organized technicians to beam their distress call out into the ether. It was what was echoing on the sensor nets of Autobot City. They were actually farther out than their signal. The Seekers would confirm that when they returned to the bridges and were sent out farther.

-0-Ops Center, Autobot City, Mars in the middle of the night

Springer and Drift walked in along with Splice. "You called?" the big lanky bot asked with a slight grin.

"I did," Prowl said with a smirk of his own. "We have a leader in the migration, a bot named Heatout. I hear he's some sort of philosopher-king among the Circle population. I was wondering what you might know."

Splice glanced at Drift. "He's the main thinker behind the Circle movement. He's a pacifist and a mech most of us call the leader of the life. He's smart, decent and good. He will be an asset. Don't you agree?"

Drift nodded. "I think so."

Prowl relaxed a little. "There is only one leader here. Do you suppose there will be conflict?"

"No. That is, not unless you expect him to fight. He won't. He's a committed pacifist. But he understands the need to protect. He won't be an issue for Prime. I imagine his writings will tell you more than we can. He is revered and given respect, sort of like Rainmaker. Think of him as the Great Elder of the Circle movement and you have him pegged," Splice said as Drift nodded.

"You know me. I'm Circle too but I will fight, Prowl. The Circle will defend this place. Most of us. Some are his school of practice and won't," Drift said.

"Good. As long as they don't complicate Optimus's authority, then fine," he said glancing toward the door where a youngling mech stood waiting. "How is Smokey coming along?"

"He's a great kid," Drift said with a grin. "He's got a lot to learn but he's a great kid."

"We'll help him learn the ropes," Springer said glancing back at the youngling who smiled at him. "He's a quick learner."

Prowl nodded. "Good," he said. "One less worry."

-0-At dusk earlier

They walked with their guard details to the gate of the prison. The bars went down, they entered, the bars went up. Same old, same old Barricade thought as he turned, then paused. Standing nearby with a giant grin on his face was Shield. Barricade felt his own face smile in spite of himself. "Well, look what the targ drug in," he said before he was enveloped in a bear hug.

-0-That night much later on

Hero stood in her crib, her tiny servos clutching the rail tightly. Her tiny blue optics gleamed in the night as she looked around. Outside if the tint wasn't dialed down she would see more Seekers leaving to scan the migration which they had just found out was farther away than first thought. It was close enough to the range of Soundwave to make it a worry. But she didn't know that. She was a tiny femme with tiny wings having a moment. She smiled and bounced, happy and content until she lost her grip and fell backwards onto her soft quilts.

She stared at the ceiling noticing lights wavering here and there from her night light twinkling. It was pretty and she absorbed it for a moment. Then she began to clamber back up. When she did she saw blue optics looking up at her. She smiled. "Spot."

Spot waggled his tail and stuck his nose through the bars. Hero chuckled and patted it. Then another pair of blue optics appeared. "She!" he said in his softest loudest voice. The smile that came with the greeting was ginormous.

"Orion. Come here to me?" she asked kneeling down to see him better. Spot licked her face. She sputtered, then laughed. "Spot funny."

"She funny!" Orion said with a chuckle.

Ironhide standing in the doorway with a smile nodded. "All of you are funny. Now go to sleepy bed," he said before he swooped down and scooped them all up.

-0-In the prison

"That slagger needed a beating for a long time," Barricade said as he glowered at Sideways. That bot sat on a berth nearby looking at a novel on a datapad, his sensors trained large on the newcomers and Barricade. Skorponok was outside watching the night go past as he contemplated how awful life was considering that his digging mechanisms had been disconnected. What had once been a walk in the park was now a forlorn impossibility. He was as trapped as the others in this cage.

"He still owes me large. He plays both sides against the middle. He'll go to Prime for advantage if we ever say anything that matters in front of him," Shield said as he stared at the other bot. "We better be careful."

Barricade nodded. "You got that right."

-0-At the school in Terra

The night crew walked through the school shining it up, making it ready for the next orn. It was nearly weekend and The Game was looming on their horizon even as the migration absorbed all their conversation. They were a team, this group and their contribution was enormous. They made things right as they did yeoman effort in the service of others and they were appreciated. Most of them had done this sort of work before, finding it the only avenue they had in the straight jacket of Cybertronian society. Now they did it here but with different purpose. They were treated with respect, had the same housing and advancement opportunities as anyone else and they chose to do this. That was the big difference. They chose to be the crew that maintained the school in Terra. They went through the facility top to bottom making it ready and when the kids came shortly they would be ready to learn in a flawless impeccably ready facility.

In Autobot City as ruled by Prime everyone's contribution counted.

-0-Near Fabrication Plant #3, Metal Works and Fabrication-Home Fixtures

He walked along, a youngling mech with a basket in servo. The ride from his apartment in Metroplex was swift with only two stops and one change on the underground. He headed down the wide road from the underground station that led to the brightly lit factory ahead chatting with the foreman at the gate for a moment. He strove toward the big doors of Factory Building #6 where his youngling mech worked. He, himself was a machinist at the aviation electronics department in another part of the same massive installation but he was taking leave for a while. Given that his mech was working and it was nearly dinner time on his shift, he had gotten the things his mech loved best and brought them to share at the plant.

The walk across the courtyard to the big doors was long and overhead the stars of his new nation twinkled in the velvet blackness of the sky. Soon they would separate a sparkling and that youngling would grow up here in this city, one that they had come to love. They worked here helping their people progress. Soon they would have an elusive thing, a family and a future.

It was glorious.

The shadows near the door began to show movement as the big bots came out to go to dine at the food carts nearby. He waited until his mech came, smiling as he saw him walk out from inside. They would go to tables nearby to sit to eat together, chatting about this and that until he had to go back inside. It was something they never expected, home, contentment and safety. This was beyond the wildest dreams they could manage in the awful darkness of their homelessness.

This was perfect.

-0-Elsewhere

He rose up and walked to the room that belonged to Prowler. That infant favored Eeyore and Piglet so they were images on the walls of his cute little room. At least that is what Ironhide said when he came home after the infant was separated with big lazer cut designs of the two characters. Ratchet was more of the opinion that Ironhide liked them. He did too. They were sweet and gentle just like his kids. He paused by the crib and noted his son curled into the usual ball. He grinned and picked Prowler up, laying the groggy infant on his shoulder.

Walking out, Ratchet sat on the rocker by the window and pulled his feeding tube out tapping the baby on the mouth with it. Prowler opened one optic, then slid back to sleep ignoring the gesture completely. Ratchet grinned. "Not hungry?"

Prowler had no opinion. He laid the baby on his shoulder. "We're going to be busy for a few orns, infant. You will have to stay with your grandgenitors while we rescue a lot of mechs and femmes. You be good to them. They're out of practice. Your brothers and sister will be at the day care. Your old pa doesn't want you there because they might take liberties. You might find yourself in school and what would he do then?" Ratchet grinned and rocked in the chair for a while as outside the machinery of reclamation began to gather itself.

-0-The next orn

"ADA!"

"What?"

"ORION IS GOOD!"

Ratchet looked down at the little black and yellow hellion staring up at him with a giant smile. "What did you do, Orion? Sounds like you're trying to cover something up," Ratchet said with a chuckle. He picked the baby up and set him on the counter. "We may not be as free as usual for a while, spud. You will have to behave. Your old pa cries when you get upset. Messes up his image as a bad aft."

"Ada?"

Ratchet looked down. "Hero."

"Can I come with you?" she asked clearly.

For a moment Ratchet's optics twirled, then he picked her up sitting her next to Orion. "I wish you could, Hero. I personally want to see the helms explode when you open your tiny pie hole."

"You and me both," Ironhide said as he came down the hallway, Sunspot and Spot in tow. "They're all spiffed up. Praxus," Ironhide called out as he paused to look back to Sunny's berthroom. Tiny feet came running, then a smiling faced buff little white and red sparkling ran out to pause. He grinned at everyone and looked up at Ironhide. "ATAR!"

"What?" Ironhide asked mesmerized by the small version of Ratchet smiling up at him.

"PAX LOVE YOU!"

Ironhide picked up Praxus and kissed him. "I love you too. Are you hungry?"

"YES!"

"They sure do wake up happy," Ratchet said as everyone settled around the table. "Good thing."

"I think so," Ironhide said as he looked at Hero. She smiled. "How are you, Hero?" he asked.

She smiled bigger. "I love you," she said.

Ironhide melted. Everyone smiled. Ratchet calculated how much she would get away with around Ironhide if she ever learned to play her cards right.

Everything.

-0-TBC June 7. 2013