The Diego Diaries: Stuff 2 (612)
-0-In the school
They stood on the same table again, looks of upset and worry marring their little faces as they waited for kaboom to go off again. They had been scooped up by Mr. Roto who had taken them to the conference room to wait while he reviewed the security films. It was amusing and instructive. Now he waited for the 'intervention team' to arrive to discuss the latest round of fisticuffs.
This video and its aftermath would be front and center in the conferences the next orn, both of which the Families Ironhide and Revo would be there to watch. It would be a great orn in the morn.
-0-Gliese 581 g
Hot Rod walked through the base camp on ground heading toward the crevasse. He would be stationed at the spot where the drone was removed from millions of years of encasement to assist if necessary the science groups going here and there around that area looking at the situation. The sun glittered on the facets of the crystals, some of them bigger and taller than he, himself. He was a big mechanism, but the surroundings dwarfed him.
The route to the location was smoothed from bots driving or walking over it. He absorbed the constant sunlight as he hiked along, making his way the nearly 60 miles it would take to arrive at his posting. He was so absorbed with his own problems he actually walked past the mech he was going to relieve when a whistle caught him bringing him back. Twin Twist smirked. "What's the deal, Roddy?"
"Nothing," he said with a slight smirk. "You can go."
"I intended to anyway," Twin said as he turned to walk to the camp way the hell and gone in the distance. He was gone in seconds.
Overhead, the giant format of the dwarf star shown its power, its energy resonating a light blue in the overhead sky. It felt warm to him and welcome. He was alone for now, others coming later in the shift not yet arrived. Right now, he only had himself and his thoughts. That they revolved around a fun loving handsome kid would be no surprise to anyone. That Hot Rod spent this much time thinking about one kid was.
-0-In a deep cavern on Earth
She watched as they worked, the tall tubes of bubbling water making possible the next phase of her program of world domination and destruction. It was a tool that all Infiltration Protocol teams possessed. They used it as part of their initial destabilization effort. It was very simple. Steal people you want to replace, use their cells as a template and grow new facsimiles. That way, you could control them for your purposes, then dispose of them when they were useless. It was a mid range tool, usually begun when things were beginning to become uncertain in the major populations. Controlling and fomenting events through replacements, they would be able to wreak havoc. The facsimiles sole purpose was to sow discord and cause systemic collapse for the intended invaded populations.
Arachnid considered that, the idea of that much power and felt pleasure rising through her. They could not afford detection by the Autobots yet. The range of their deep surface scanners was 100 miles. They had tunneled lower, the heat of the Earth surprisingly soothing to the masses who followed her slavishly. The tunnel system that fell into scanner range was no long safe.
They would have to tunnel deeper, burrowing under water which made detection harder, though not impossible and play a more careful hand. They had long ago pillaged their ship removing entire sections underground so to be able to utilize the array of their technology more efficiently. Here in a makeshift lab, she was getting ready to unleash more mayhem. She would do that by proxy. Her facsimile avatars as opposed to facsimile constructs would be her optics and audials in the big world overhead.
She considered her list of possible targets including a number of humans who were close to the Autobots. She had been taking humans for some time, using them as experiments to refine the creation process with their DNA. She had chosen her victims in rural areas, backwoods and lightly populated places. Soon things would be ready for the first victims she required to be her protocol drones.
It would be soon.
-0-Later that night on Mars
They stood around, the two of them looking up with giant smiles. All of them had been bathed, fighting or singing as the muse moved them. Now they were nearly ready for recharge, thus the dazzling display fully intended to make sure that they could stay up longer.
It would be no use.
"I think I need sunglasses, Only One. Someone turned on the sun in this apartment," Ratchet said pretending to squint at the infants standing in a half moon in front of them. His remarks only caused them to smile brighter.
"I think so," Ironhide said. "Going to lose an optic if they keep going."
Hero chuckled, then patted Ironhide's knee. "Atar! You're funny!"
"I think I hear a bird chirping. Did you hear a birdie chirp?" Ratchet asked glancing at Ironhide with a wink.
"I think I did. A little black bird I think with blue optics," Ironhide said glancing with a grin at his daughter.
"ADA! I COME YOU! YOU COME ME AND PLAY!" Orion said marching up to take hold of Ratchet's digit. He tugged, then turned to walk away with the digit before getting yanked off his peds when Ratchet didn't move.
"Ironhide, the sparkling fell down," Ratchet said. "Little mech lost his peds," Ratchet said picking Orion up by one of them. He sat back holding Orion in front of his face, the little baby hanging upside down. He smiled a dazzling smile at Ratchet.
"I think you're right," Ironhide said. "Looks good upside down as well as right side up."
"ADA! YOU COME!" Orion asked, then flashed his brightest bluest optic enhanced ginormous smile.
Ratchet chuckled, then lay the infant on his shoulder. "Tomorrow we face the firing squad over you, Spud. Any advanced notices of the reviews?"
Orion looked up at Ratchet, then smiled. He lay his helm back on Ratchet's shoulder. "I will take that as a yes," Ratchet the Ever Hopeful replied.
-0-The next morning
A rollicking breakfast was had, then the Stampede aka "CATCH ME, ADA!", then the Hitching Up of the Sparklings aka getting leashes and harnesses on their little afts, then the Book Bag Escapades aka "That is my bag, Orion. This one is yours, Sunspot. I have mine, Ada. Good girl, Hero" obstacle course supervised by two older genitors and their smirks. Sunspot who was that end of the awesome scale usually partook of The Games from his perch on a couch, book bag in lap, dog at side.
"ADA! YOU GO ME TOO!?"
"Yes, Orion."
"HO-HO! ADA COMED TOO! ME COME WITH ATAR!"
"I know, Orion. Its so fun!" -(Hero picking up her bag because she's that side of awesome)
"ORION!" -(Pax)
"WHAT, PAX!?" -(Orion)
"WE GO RUNNING!?" -(Praxus, up for it)
"ADA! WE GO RUNNING?!" -(Orion and Praxus)
"Not yet, slaggers." -(Ada unwinding a wad of leashes)
"ADA!?"
"What, Orion?" -(Ada cursing under his breath as he tries to unwind leases)
"YOU COMED WITH US! WE GOING THERE! WE GO THERE WITH ADA AND ATAR AND HO-HO AND PO-PO AND PAX AND POT AND POT'S PO-PO!" -(Giant grin on small Ironhide knockoff)
"Who is Po-Po? Isn't that Prowler?" -(Ironhide aka Atar pondering)
"I thought so. Mercurial little slagger. Orion, who is Po-Po?" -(Ratchet untangling names AND leashes, showing the meaning of multitasking)
"PO-PO!" -(Giant grin on miniscule bot)
"Who is Po-Po?" -(Valiant Ada being valiant)
"PO-PO IS PO-PO!" -(Giant grin)
Both genitors stare down at little black knock off of Ironhide. He smiled up giantly. "QUACK!" he says.
Everyone in the room under 10 feet falls into hysterical laughter.
"ADA! ORION SAID QUACK!" -(Hero nearly rolling on the floor)
"QUACK!" Praxus said, then falls into hysterical laughter
Genitors look at mob on the floor laughing, then glance at Sunspot who is sitting on the couch grinning. He shrugs his shoulders helplessly. Genitors nearly fall down laughing.
(The door opens as Ravel, Tie Down, Appa Ratchet and Alor step inside. Everyone pauses to watch hysterical sparklings)
"What's the joke, Angel?" -Ravel (asks Orion who had run to him with his arms up. Ravel picked him up) "What's so funny, baby?" he asked.
"Quack."
it would take a while to get going again.
-0-On the road to perdition
They ambled along heading for the school tower in Terra. Lots of individuals were heading that way, infants and some with other members of family or friends as well. They walked to the door and went up when the crowds began to thin, waiting in the hallway for their conference to begin. Ratchet sat holding Hero, then looked to the left. Revo and Heva holding Han and Lef were there. They both looked at each other, then looked away quickly.
/... oh frag …/ -everyone in the hallway
-0-moments later
They filled the large conference room to overflowing as the entire stricken group was herded inside. Sitting at the table with a grin, Herling waited. Neo and Laret who had liberated some of the infants stood by the wall waiting for the show. Roto was to direct the confab so he closed the door and grinned. "We have a situation."
It was silent as a tomb.
Moments later...
He stood by the monitor looking at the assembled multitudes. Orion and Han were on the table looking around anxiously, their wan posture an acknowledgement of their growing fear of tabletops. "We have had a spat yesterday. I think its instructive to watch the fun." He grinned. "It really isn't fun. I know. It however is funny. Here we go."
The monitor came on showing the classroom. Roto fine turned it to the table where the sparklings were standing each working on their own project. After being defeated trying to fix a part of his own with his tiny servo, Han stared at Orion, then walked to where he was working attentively and stole his little hammer. Walking back, Han began to pound on his structure.
Orion looked at him with an astonished expression that swiftly turned to fury. Walking around the table, he took the hammer back, then walked to his Lego building to pound on it. Han who looked at Orion with a darkening expression got up a head of steam and rounded the table once more. He stood watching Orion who was concentrating on putting a rectangular Lego into a square hole. As he did, Han reached over and pushed Orion's building over. It fell into a mess.
Orion stared at it, then frowned mightily at Han. At that moment, when all things hung in the balance, Orion booped Han on the helm with his hammer.
As they say at times like this, it was on.
-0-TBC February 4, 2014 edited 2-6-14
NOTES: Facsimile constructs are the Transformer's holographic images when they are in vehicle down-low mode. They are non-sentient images that help bots pass in society. Facsimile avatars are genetically grown replacements for the real McCoy that function as the minions of the 'Con who runs them, in this case, Arachnid. They can think and do things under control of Arachnid or whoever runs them and are linked. It is believed if you get one, you can locate the others from the same batch because they are on the same wavelength.