(Untitled)

[a_mere_child]

Alyx Vance is sitting by the fireside, reading a book. That's not too uncommon, these days. Milliways is pretty much the only place where she can get a free moment for reading

Comments

[not_toothfairy]

The dictionary doesn't get much notice from the big black robot that stomps by on its way to the bar, but when Ironhide returns in search of a seat, the list of phrases catches his eye. When you learn Earth language from the Internet, you learn all the Earth languages, Spanish included. So, uh... big black bot peering at the list, his beer forgotten in his hand.

[a_mere_child]

Alyx spots the big black mech out of the corner of her eye. "Uh... Ironhide, right? It's been a while."

[not_toothfairy]

"Huh?" Ironhide's optics flicker a moment. Then he looks up.

Oh, yeah. He remembers Alyx now. From... last Cubefall. Greeeeeat.

Well, Optimus would probably want him to put all that behind him, so he nods instead. "Alyx Vance," he says in answer. "With the kitbashed gun. Yeah, it has."

[a_mere_child]

Awkward pause.

"I talked to Bumblebee the other day," she offers. "Got started on building a hologram generator for him..."

[not_toothfairy]

"That was you, huh?" says Ironhide. Oh good, a topic that isn't a complete disaster. "Thanks. He's going to need it, the way things are going back home."

[a_mere_child]

"How are things going back home? He couldn't tell me that much, he was running out of cards."

[not_toothfairy]

Ironhide has to think about that for a moment.

"Decepticons blockaded Earth from orbit for a while. Shockwave was busy hauling Megatron's aft out of the Laurentian Abyss. Didn't want us interfering. We managed to kick 'em so hard most of 'em ran screaming... lost some good bots along the way, unfortunately."

They always do. Slag it.

"On the other hand, there was a real interesting accident."

[a_mere_child]

"...define 'interesting.'"

[not_toothfairy]

"Space bridge overload," Ironhide says. "It let us bring in reinforcements from Cybertron, but it just kept ramping up. Optimus tore out the core and got it as far from everyone else as he could before it exploded. When the dust settled? The slagging thing'd swapped a big chunk of the southern California desert for the central area of the Autobot city of Iacon. And Prime was all right."

[a_mere_child]

Alyx's eyebrows go up. "Yikes."

[not_toothfairy]

Ironhide nods. "So now we're working on getting the city operational again. Bee's going to be working with the humans who come to the place a lot."

[a_mere_child]

"Which is going to be tricky if he can't talk," finishes Alyx with an understanding nod. "I gotcha."

[not_toothfairy]

"Ayup," says Ironhide. "Radio's okay, but recorded playback's not good for everything. He's got to be more flexible than that."

[a_mere_child]

"Well, I'm glad I can help."

[not_toothfairy]

"Glad to be getting the help," Ironhide says a bit gruffly. "Optimus'll probably thank you personally, next time he comes here. Might not be until Cubefall, but-"

... yeah.

[a_mere_child]

"I... don't think I've ever met him, actually."

Hey, it's a better topic of conversation than Cubefall.