The Diego Diaries: Around 2 (423) edited
-0-In an apartment
"What did you send him?"
"A bunch of stuff."
"Nice. I hacked in. No matter what he changes, he can't escape us."
Springer looked at the center of his happiness and grinned. "I had no idea you could. Larceny is your name now?"
"That's a good name but I prefer Drift."
"I do too." Springer looked at the cell phone of Michael Bay that lay on the coffee table. They were sprawling on the couch after hacking both that one and the assistant's i-phones. Displaying them on the monitor, they had done a few amusing things. First and foremost, they made sure they could stay with him no matter what he used, no matter where he went. Secondly, they ordered after a thorough spot of research 300 anchovy and jalapeno pizzas to be billed and delivered to him. With extra butter sauce.
It was awesome. The internet ruled.
They continued setting up different things for Bay's delight over the next decaorn. When that was finished, they arose and left heading for The Pit Stop, the unofficial official eatery of the Day and Night Watch in The City. What the hot spot was in Luna, Terra, Crystal City or Pax was anyone's guess. The door closed behind them.
-0-On a bench in Terra taking the sun such as it was
"Hi."
"Hi."
(Pause as a mech assesses the other) "Are you listening in to the boy?"
(Disconnect) "Not now."
Smokescreen snorted. "You know, I worry about you, Dev."
"That would be smart money, Smoke." They sat together peacefully content to a degree both had forgotten over the vorns of absence from each others company. "Why don't you say it. You want to."
"You already know," Smokescreen said. He looked at his bond's beautiful profile. "This isn't Cybertron. You aren't fighting the system alone. The younglings are great bots, both of them. Moda is about as good a son as a mech can hope for. Consider the son he raised."
"I do. Every minute of every orn," Devcon replied. He vented a soft sigh. "I just remember the bars and hangouts where I saw Hot Rod. He's young, Smoke, but he's fast. He plays hard with whoever is there. I've seen him fragging around without a care in the world. I can't imagine my baby boy in the place of some of the bots he fragged around with. Not my Smokey."
"I can't either but this is not the best way to achieve that. Smokey isn't the problem here. Roddy is. He has no idea how different this youngling is from others he's fragged around with. Its up to us to set that straight."
"You think Roddy can be changed?" Dev asked with a jaundiced optic.
"I'm going to Io this afternoon to see. I got the detail for checking some of the comm systems and I intend to get him to the side," Smokescreen said with a hard expression on his face.
Dev grinned. "I would love to be there."
"I will send you the video," Smokescreen said with a chuckle. He looked at Devcon. "You know, Dev … this isn't Cybertron. You don't have to hunt this down and kill the bad guys. Smokey is a smart good kid. He's going to find someone and they will have a normal relationship."
"I want that for him. I just don't want him to be the notch on someone's belt," Dev said. He looked at the ground. "I love that boy so much I could do anything to anyone to protect him. He and Moda. You and Tress. That is my world."
"That and hunting 'Cons," Smokescreen said squeezing Dev's shoulders.
"That too," Dev said with a snicker. He vented another sigh. "I have few needs. I have protected that boy all his life."
"You went to the schools and watched him. You ended the bullying," Smokescreen said nodding. "I know this."
"You do?" Dev asked with surprise.
"I did. They were genuinely afraid of you," Smokescreen said with a chuckle. "I was too. Sometimes. But now, I want you to relax and be happy. We're together again. I'm as happy as I've felt in vorns. I want you to be happy too."
"Well, that is a process isn't it."
"It is. They have help here too if you need it. The Warrior Association has worked out a plan with Jarro and the Processor Health Department for soldiers who need to talk to someone about stuff," Smokescreen ventured.
"I'm crazy?" Dev asked with a grin.
"No. You're an ada and a grandada. You've been alone too long, Dev." He paused. "I'm sorry for a lot, Dev. I'm sorry for how I have treated you over the vorns. You're beautiful, smart, decent, generous … I am sorry for a lot. Now I want you to be happy."
Dev slipped his arm around Smokescreen resting his helm on his bond's shoulder. "I always knew you were the one, you slagger. I also knew you would be trouble."
"I'm sorry for that, Devvie. I wish I could tell you how much," Smokescreen said quietly. "Every good memory I have, every good thing that ever happened to me came from you. Moda, Smokey … it all came with you. You always deserved better but I was an aft. I want to have your forgiveness eventually."
"You have it now, Smoke." Dev looked at him. "Warrior's Association, huh?"
Smokescreen nodded. "I will go with you if you need me to. Anything for you, Dev."
Dev stared at him a moment, then lay his helm down again. "I want my boy to have a good education that will let him support himself no matter where he is or what happens. I want him to have love and a good match. I don't want him hurt."
"Then we're both on the same page."
They sat together in the sun enjoying each other as the city went on around them.
-0-Committee/Autobot Meeting, Ops Center, big conference room
They gathered and the reports began. It continued on for some time and all the players listened as they usually did. The usual suspects listened intently and the usual reprobates played tetra, hangman, battleship, sent cat videos from youtube to each other, the cat wearing a shark suit sitting on a roomba the servos down favorite of the meeting, shared slag from the neighborhood, critiqued each others berth performance in competition with others, traded recipes, jokes, commentary, book titles that were awesome, commentary on the latest twists to 'The Bridge', a few barbed and pithy remarks about the season opening of Platoon: Autobot City and other esoteric hoo-haw that had resonance with such an august body.
*cough*
Ultra Magnus sat listening to Wheeljack talk about the improvements they had made to the system wide spacebridge infrastructure that would allow bots to go to Io, Enceladus and Charon's forward bases in seconds rather than joors since ship travel was no longer necessary. Earth and Luna were equally fast as well. All was good. It was also nice that Arcee was playing footsie with him under the table, the slight smirk on her face sending tingles all over his epidermal layer. He didn't bother to reprimand her, *soldier* because she would ignore him anyway.
And it felt really good.
Elita and Jazz chatted together internally going over the intel that they had found almost simultaneously the night before when they were going through Shockwave's downloads. Mirage and Jazz had summarized it along with her so they were syncing stuff together including a number of maps that would allow them to illustrate what they had discovered.
Jetta and Bulkhead were trading slag across the table about Scar and Payload. Those bots tuned in and a blazing row of comedy was raging back and forth between the calm appearing mechs sitting against opposite sides of the room. Nitro had taken a short leave of absence to help his family with his brother, who himself was now in a regular ward out of intensive care. Revo and Heva would sit in for him and report on the migration and its aftermath among other things applying to former Decepticons.
Herling and Nova were discussing conferences upcoming. They were teachers. They were on task. They couldn't help themselves. They were occupationally sad that way.
Caro was sitting with Miler going over their weekends with the younglings. Play dates were scheduled at Metroplex Kiddie Park with their respective sparklings coinciding Caro's weekend with Miler's date night with the sparklings. It would all be good. It would also be catered by the Lunchbox, a take out place with all manner of food for workers, picnickers and others on the go. Neo and Laret would be contacted to join and they would enter the conversation too.
Venture was watching youtube videos of cats.
Prime was watching Prowl who was sparring with Ratchet over something or other. The handsome winger's attempts to appear prim and attentive were comical to watch as the battle between the two raged onward. Prowl thought he masked all of his tells. Prime could see them and they were cute so he watched, his face mirroring a mask of attentiveness himself.
Starscream and Rainmaker along with Thundercracker, Silverclaw and Red Wing chatted about this and that including the expansion of the aerie complex along the foothills of the huge volcano shadowing their existence. That hatchlings and younglings, their latest pictures not withstanding held a good portion of the conversation would not be a surprise to anyone.
Prowl goaded Ratchet who goaded back. They sparred, showed pictures of the latest sparkling awesomeness and battled over the final football game of the season. Ratchet ended it with a request for update to the Autobot Scouts program. That earned a glare from Prowl. A chance remark about asking Prime about it brought a blaring OMG DON'T! internally of course from the rather comely winger of Prime's innermost fantasies and waking dreams.
"Thank you," Prime said ending the report from whoever the hell it was because only about three of them were truly paying attention. "I think it would be a good time to ask the civilians to leave now. Military matters are going to be discussed and some of them are classified. I would ask Jarro and Barron to remain as well. Thank you all for your efforts. They bring credit to you, your departments and our people. Please file your reports to the Prime Records Drop and I will go over them again. Thank you."
The group broke a moment as the civilians left. When they were gone, Prime looked at Jazz. "I am told that you and Mirage came to the same conclusions about something as Elita. I would like to hear about it."
Mirage nodded and glanced at Jazz. "Elita and I were workin' out the data dumps that we got from Shockwave. They're heavily encrypted but we have the codes. It just takes time. He has files goin' back before the war and even Megatron. What we did discover was a series of camps around the Empire that hold political prisoners, slave workers and dissidents that are bein' worked hard and bein' deprived. There are seven of them so far. We have their coordinates and maps of them for you to see." He turned and programmed the monitors to show a map of their local system around Cybertron as well as some along the far edges. They were designed as punishment camps that provided essential materials for the war effort and Cybertron.
"How many individuals are we talking about here, Jazz?" Prime asked.
"The largest has about 500 but many of them are under 300. There might be bigger ones around but we haven't located them yet. These seven encompass what is known so far. There is probably no more than 1,700 individuals at play here. They appear to be camps for political prisoners and dissidents for the most part. It could be where all the surviving Missionaries and some Circle may be held. The intel hints at it but isn't completely clear."
It was silent a moment. Then Ironhide leaned back in his chair. "If we take them Soundwave will know and tighten things at camps we don't know about. We're between a rock and a hard place. Do we go in now and make future strikes harder or do we wait for more intel?"
It was silent, then Prime leaned forward on his elbows. "We will get them. If they want to bring force against us, we bring more force back. Soundwave might give in and give them to us if we play this right. I am not afraid to take this to him. Jazz, Elita, Mirage … I want all the intel you can glean. That is your job now. Ironhide, Blackjack, Alor, Prowl … I want a strike plan by midweek."
Everyone nodded. Prime sat back. "We will err on the side of mercy," he said. Everyone nodded. More discussion was had, then Prime relaxed. He grinned. "Good of the order?" he asked hopefully.
Ratchet snorted, then guffawed. "GUESS WHAT HERO DID THIS MORNING!"
Everyone leaned forward to hear.
-0-TBC September 7, 2013
NOTE: Devcon is a great bot and I like him for the role he's playing because he's another side of the coin that is the Cybertronians affected by war. His life and work as a bounty hunter makes him interesting to me and fits the niche role he has here. A bounty hunter bonded to a gambler, two loners in loner professions in a bond. War this long affects people for the good and bad. Dev had to fight the system to get an education for both of his younglings, Moda and Smokey. Given what the system was it was certain that Dev did a bit of digging in the sewers to make that happen. His intensity, cold blooded efficiency and ruthless doggedness to get his quarry/point was nothing anyone wanted to mess with, even the ruthless enforcers and followers of the caste system as practiced on Cybertron. In essence, he was a scary enough prospect that no one said no, Moda/Smokey can't as a low/mid caste infant come to our schools. They feared Dev enough to allow it without a fight.
Dev is devoted intensely to the Autobot Cause, hates 'Cons passionately and as far as anyone could tell never took any bounties for his quarry as far as anyone could see even though he was acknowledged the kiss of death to anyone he was hunting. He hunted on principle and suffered any privation to get his target. His feelings about his son and grandson as well as Smokescreen are rooted in this intensity and as such, he is as big a victim of war as anyone else. I want to make sure that the Cybertronian's life as a refugees/warriors/victims is never glossed over in this story. I admire their ability to rise above this stuff. I admire them and their ability to rebound but for some it is a process. Devcon is one of them. He's been alone hunting the bad guys and suffering for it for the length of the war since the Fall. He has to learn that the paradigm has shifted. They all do. Some get it quickly, others less so. :D
NOTE: Apparently, the Dinobots are in TF: 4. Sounds solid too. Ratchet? He might not be in it at all or he might be Grimlock's guts. Grimlock will be there but slightly different I think at least in voice. The art for him if its him is amazing with a capital OMG. Speculation is that Swoop will be there. Apparently, it is being filmed in 6K which is six times the resolution of Hi Def. It is the highest resolution 3-D possible I guess.
Speculation also includes that 'Dino' and Sideswipe are out. Remember, speculation but from good sources. :( But the two Corvettes including the yellow one are still in. Who knows? Motormaster is confirmed. Apparently they shot scenes of the Dinobots in McCormick Square in Chicago already tearing up stuff. More speculation that might be true: (Casting sheet found and posted on Reddit): Crosshairs, Drift (Bugatti), Hound are confirmed.
SIGH! Springer, kick Bay hard.