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She shouldn’t questions; she really, really shouldn’t. Dani knew better than to question everything she was witness to in the Firehouse, especially since they had gained a few more guests in the form of the Rescue Bots.
All the same…
"Let me get, there was a Western movies marathon on TV last night, wasn't there?" she drily asked Cody, who jumped a little when she spoke – apparently, he hadn’t heard her come over, too absorbed by the spectacle.
“Oh, hi Dani,” he mumbled, gaze quickly going from her to Chase and Blades again – because of course it was them. Dani internally sighed; the reluctant helicopter was far too influenceable, and Chase was hardly better. One because he was too gullible and the other… well, because he took everything far too seriously. That always made for a bad combination.
“Cody,” she nudged her youngest brother, “you didn’t answer. Western movies marathon?”
“Uh hu,” he nodded, looking discomfited. “How did you…? No, I know, it’s rather obvious, isn’t it?” he sighed as he looked at Chase and Blades again. The two Bots were standing at a distance from each other, hands near a pair of pistols hanging from oversized leather belts passed around their waist. Chase was also wearing a Sheriff star on his chest next to his Rescue Bots emblem, and Blades had a foulard tied around the lower half of his face.
Classical Sheriff against outlaw’s duel setting, Dani thought wistfully. “Let me guess, you started to watch one or two, and they joined in and got captivated?”
“Pretty much,” Cody admitted. “At first it was for school; I need to write a paper on pioneers and I thought I’d get better ideas if I watched a couple of the movies… but I didn’t stay up all night with them!” he added quickly, to which Dani smirked and ruffled his hair.
“Oh, I know; you wouldn’t be as awake as you are now if you had stayed up past your bedtime.” She looked at the ‘dueling’ Rescue Bots again; they were both completely immobile, waiting for the other to make the first move.
The only thing missing was some dramatic music, or perhaps a camera making a close-up on the two Bots’ face and their hands.
Kade would just love it; he had always been fond of Westerns, at least until he discovered monster movies like Humungado and spies movies, which he declared to be ‘way cooler’ at once. But then again, Kade’s tastes in movies tended to be ‘the more explosions, the better’, so…
Dad was the big Western fan in the family, but Dani didn’t think he’d be that impressed by the Bots doing a reenactment of a duel in the middle of the Firehouse – not when they were supposed to get ready for work, anyway. And she was fairly certain Heatwave wouldn’t approve either.
Still…
“Do you know there they got the guns and the belts?” she asked curiously. As far as she knew, the Rescue Bots had no weapons. They were not military models, as Heatwave had once explained to her, but only Rescue personnel. They weren’t supposed to even need weapons, for who would try to stop or injure a Rescue Bots doing his duty: saving people? “Or the star?”
“Hmm, I think the belts are old straps Graham kept for repair work, and the star is paper,” Cody answered, “but I’m not sure about the guns either. Maybe they asked Doc Greene?”
“And he’d have made them in a single night? No way,” Dani shook her head. Doc Greene was good, but not that good – and like all humans, he needed his beauty sleep. “Probably props they fashioned with odds and ends. You know, now that I think about it, Blades’s gun handle looks suspiciously like that old giant hairdryer Mrs Julliard was using as a shop sign for her salon until last year,” the young woman noted.
“Eh, you’re right,” Cody snapped his fingers. “Do you think they went to the junkyard while we were still sleeping?”
Dani made a face. “If so, I really hope they cleaned their hands afterward – and that nobody saw them.” She didn’t dare to imagine what would happen if someone did. Dad was going to be unhappy enough the Bots may have sneaked out and left the Firehouse without letting anyone know.
At least this time, they hadn’t tried to bring a lion home, she consoled herself.
“What are they waiting for to shoot, anyway?” Because now she thought about it, it looked like Cody had been waiting on the two mechs for a good moment already, and they hadn’t moved the slightest since she had gotten there either. They hadn’t said anything either, but she wasn’t too worried about it; the whole duel thing was almost always silent, at least in the movies she had accepted to see with Dad and Kade before deciding it wasn’t her style.
“I’m not sure,” Cody admitted. “Perhaps a certain hour? That’s often how it goes in Westerns, right?”
“Well, if that’s the case, I hope they’re done with their reenactment soon, because you know Heatwave is going to get grumpy if he comes in and they don’t move out of his way,” she noted, rubbing her eyes. It was too early for that, she decided. “I’m going to take my breakfast,” she announced, “and unless you want to be late for school, you should do the same, Cody.”
The little boy looked at her, torn. “I know but… I’d really like to know how it’s going to end,” he admitted. “Will the Sheriff triumph over the outlaw?”
“Isn’t that how it always goes in the movies?”
“Not always,” the blond boy shook his head, “and…”
“And you’ll just have to ask them when you get back,” Dani shook her head taking her brother by the shoulder and guiding him away. “Besides, knowing them, it’s probably not going to be the only time they do that.”
Of that she was certain. She couldn’t speak for Chase, but knowing Blades, his new Western passion would probably last the week.
Ugh. She just hoped the whole cowboy fan mindset wouldn’t come with a newfound fondness for Country music. That, she decided, was more than she was able to handle.
… Perhaps she could stop at the pharmacy later today for some good-quality earplugs, she decided.
You know. Just in case…
End