Chapter Text
Monday, 9AM, Burns Residence
Charlie Burns watched as his youngest son slowly rose into the air in Blades’ cockpit and had to stamp down a twinge of parental apprehension. After all, Cody wasn’t that young, anymore; he was starting high school in a few weeks. If he wanted to go up in a simple controlled ascent with Blades and only Blades, who was Charlie to say no? The fact that Dani wasn’t there to keep an eye on the situation was fine, because there was no situation. This was a simple experiment. Even a worse-case scenario could easily be contained between himself and Blades.
And if he told himself that enough, he’d definitely start believing it.
Aaaaany time now.
Surely.
Next to the chief, Frankie held the other half of her prototype communicator. She was becoming more and more like her father every day. Which was to say that every time she started waxing technological, Charlie felt his brain automatically tuning out every word that was more than three syllables and/or couldn’t be used in everyday conversation on the mainland. So when she’d explained what it did to the chief, Cody, and Blades...yeah, he hadn’t really heard most of what she’d said.
But he’d also been friends with the Doc long enough that he felt like he’d gotten the gist of it. She’d called it a binary transmitter. She’d been trying to develop a communicator whose link to its partner couldn’t be disrupted. Several days ago, a lot of electronics on the island had started picking up odd interference - usually static, or an odd lag between a command and its execution. It had hurt the response time of the rescue team. Thankfully, no one had been hurt yet, but Charlie knew it was only a matter of time before their luck ran out and the island started facing a major emergency because of it. The various scientists of the island were trying to find the source of the problem, but none of them had been particularly successful.
But it had inspired Frankie to start developing a communication system that wouldn’t be susceptible to such issues. Her prototype looked like a normal walkie talkie to him, a step down from their current comms in his opinion - not that he’d ever say that - but he knew that a prototype and the finished product often looked nothing alike, so he was trying to reserve his judgment.
The current problem Frankie was trying to work through was figuring out the range of what she was calling ‘the binary communicator’. Frankie and Cody had tested its horizontal range with moderate success (Charlie fondly remembered his own childhood, running around the neighborhood with walkie-talkies with Woodrow. Despite the high-tech aspect, it was nice to see that some parts of childhood were universal). They were now testing the vertical range to see if it matched.
Dani had offered to monitor the emergency call line - like the absolute traitor she was - saying that she trusted Blades to keep Cody safe and Cody not to let Blades hurt himself. So now Charlie was standing out in the hot summer sun watching his youngest son going up in a helicopter alone, and he was not freaking out about it, because that would only embarrass Cody. He was being very cool, he thought. He deserved an award for how cool of a dad he was being. He was conveniently overlooking the fact that he could be playing (schooling) Kade and Graham at basketball. He was the cool dad, dammit, he was not going to start freaking out about this and oh thank God that was the emergency signal.
He signaled Blades, who was mercifully only about thirty five feet off the ground. “Sorry kids, but we’re going to have to put this experiment on hold.” He ignored Frankie’s groan next to him and turned on his comm, wincing as it crackled static. “What’s the problem, Dani?”
“Couple of ships off the coast collided. They’re mostly intact, but they’re starting to sink.”
“Do we know what caused it?” he asked, watching as Blades slowly and carefully descended with his precious cargo (those words would never escape his lips, he had a Cool Dad reputation to maintain, and Cody would never live it down from his siblings).
“Interference messed with their comms and radar. Minimal crew on both meant they didn’t see each other until it was too late.”
“I’m getting really tired of this damn interference,” Charlie muttered to no one in particular before switching over to Chief Burns mode. “Cody,” he said as the kid in question hopped out of the cockpit. “Take over for Dani, see if you can get ahold of the crew and keep them calm while we head over. Dani,” he said back to his comm. “I need you and Blades to do a flyover to assess the situation. I’m tagging along. Kade, Heatwave, follow us as quickly as you can, standard water rescue procedures. Graham, Boulder, this interference issue is getting out of hand. I want you two to pick up Doc Greene and check out the radio station. See if you can figure out what the source of the interference is from there.”
“We should check out the power plant, too,” Graham said over the comm. “It’s possible that this issue is an electromagnetic problem.”
“Good call.”
“Chief Burns,” Chase said. “I wish to assist in this matter as well. You have a task for me, correct?”
“Of course, Chase,” Chief Burns lied, quickly racking his brain for a suitable, productive activity for a solo bot. “Tell you what. It’s possible the source of the interference isn’t on the island at all. Head out to the satellites up on the mountain and make sure everything’s working the way it should be. It’s remote enough out there that you shouldn’t run into anyone wondering why a rescue bot is operating on its own.”
“Ah, a prudent mission. Thank you, Chief.”
With everyone’s tasks assigned, and everyone prepped to head out, Heatwave said what he always said at such a time: “Rescue Bots: Roll to the rescue!”
Monday, 11:30AM, Burns Residence
Tired, wet from standing on the decks of various boats with a brisk wind blowing, Charlie trudged into the fire house. Not for the first time did he wonder if he was getting too old for this sort of thing, especially as Kade bounded past him, still riding the high of a rescue successfully carried out. Dani and Blades were still out over the water doing one last sweep, and Charlie felt tired just thinking about that.
He desperately wanted a shower to warm up, but he needed to check on his crew first. “Cody, how’re the rest of the team doing?”
“Okay, dad,” Cody said, and the static was bad today. Charlie was having trouble hearing about every other word, and he was tempted to just walk up to the tower and get the rest of this report in person. “ Graham, Boulder, and Doc haven’t found anything weird yet, but they’re still examining the radio station. The signal from the other side of the mountain’s pretty bad, but Chase has been checking in. Well, I only get static, but it’s from Chase’s comm, so I’m sure he’s fine.”
“He probably is,” Charlie agreed. “If he isn’t back by sundown, I’ll have Dani and Blades go check on him, but I have faith in his ability to look after himself. I’m gonna take a shower. I trust you to field any problems that crop up until I’m done.”
“Roger that, dad!” Cody said, and Charlie turned off his comm gratefully. Really. Really bad interference today. He hoped the tech squad figured out what the problem was soon, because this problem was getting old fast.
But he put that out of his mind for the moment. He was going to shower , and he was going to savor the warmth and silence and utter lack of emergencies implied in that statement for as long as he could get away with. He knew that eventually that peace and quiet would be broken when his eldest children would come and whine about how he was hogging the bathroom. The combined might of Dani and Kade whining was enough to send a weaker man straight into retirement. Luckily, Charlie Burns was made of stronger stuff.
Usually, anyway. Good lord, he was tired. He went and took a shower.
Monday, 12PM, Burns Residence
Still dripping slightly, but feeling worlds better, Charlie scowled at the monitors over Cody’s shoulder. “It’s gotten worse,” he said, pointing out the obvious: The interference was starting to affect the monitors, which the Burns family used to keep an eye out for emergencies where someone either wasn’t around or wasn’t conscious enough to call in. It was a vital part of keeping the island safe, and the screens were flickering, blinking on and off randomly, and occasionally being obscured with entire minutes of static. “Do you think Boulder and Graham are making the problem worse by trying to fix it?”
Cody shook his head. “Last time they called in, they still hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary, and that was after things started taking a turn for the worse.” He tapped one of the screens which, mercifully, was merely flickering ominously but otherwise still functional. Charlie peered at it (dammit, did he need to get a new prescription again, or was the interference making it this blurry?) and saw his son, Boulder, and the Doc pouring over banks of buttons. “Besides, if what they were doing was the source of the interference, wouldn’t they have the worst picture?”
“Hm. You have a point. I wonder…”
He and Cody had come to the same conclusion: “You don’t think we could figure out the source of the problem by where it’s the worst, do you dad?”
“Worth a shot,” Charlie said.
They started going through the cameras mounted around the city one by one, trying to figure out which ones had the worst picture. Eventually, Charlie had to run downstairs and grab a pen and pad of paper to make notes, because Cody’s system made no sense to him (it involved the kid just remembering the relative quality of every camera without any kind of aide and that was plain unnatural).
Eventually, one hand-drawn map of Griffin Rock, three half-finished charts, seven cups of cocoa, and four and a half familial spats later, Cody and Charlie had definitively determined that there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to where the interference was hitting the hardest. Charlie was half-collapsed in a chair, rubbing his temples and silently contemplating how many more gray hairs he was going to develop because of this particular mess. Cody was glaring at the monitors in frustration, as though he could force them to reveal their secrets to him through the sheer force of his irritation.
Charlie sighed and clapped Cody on the back. “You should take a break,” he told his son. “Go play or watch a movie or something.”
Cody scowled at his dad. “You’ve been at this just as long as I have. If I need a break, then so do you!” Cody’s egalitarian sensibilities were very sweet, if misguided. Charlie hoped he never grew out of them.
“Yeah, but I went on a rescue mission today,” he pointed out. “I moved around, worked up a sweat. You’ve just been sitting here getting frustrated all day. You should blow off steam and let your old man have a turn at yelling at screens.”
Cody gave him a suspicious side-eye, like he thought his dad was using logic to confuse and mislead him, but abruptly sagged. “I...guess I could use a break,” he admitted quietly.
Charlie ruffled his hair, eliciting a yelp from Cody, followed by a drawn out “Daa aaa d!”
“Go. Have fun. Knowing this town, the problem will still be here by the time you get back.”
“Yeah.” Cody sighed and glanced at the screens again. “I just wish…” He didn’t finish that sentence. He didn’t have to.
“Me too, son,” Charlie said quietly: He also wished he knew what the problem was. Wished that he could fix it. Wished that the island's problems didn't always have to be so complicated.
Cody said something about getting ahold of Frankie and left. Charlie got comfortable and settled in for a tedious session of watching flickering, static-laden screens and being subjected to the pitchy shriek and crackle of said static.
He hoped the Doc found a solution soon. He was getting really tired of this.
Tuesday, 5:15AM, Burns Residence
Charlie had not been expecting that the first thing to happen the next morning would be an argument. Well...no, pretty much every morning started with an argument. Occupational hazard of living and working with family. What he hadn’t been expecting was to wake up to the Bots arguing.
Okay, actually that wasn’t true either, they bickered almost as much as siblings themselves. He sometimes worried they’d picked it up from his kids which would be...disquieting. What other habits could they pick up if that was the case? It really didn’t bear thinking about.
What he hadn’t expected to wake up to was Heatwave bellowing at the top of his lungs “ CHAAAAAAASE !” while the Burnses were sitting down to breakfast.
Heatwave was a...gruff person. Bot? Person. A lot of his comments were tinged with barely concealed frustration. But it wasn’t until he heard the tone in Heatwave’s voice that Charlie realized he had never truly heard the bot be angry .
He slowly lowered his coffee, glancing around the table. His children had all frozen in the middle of what they were doing and were also glancing nervously around. Abruptly, as one, the family rose from the table and did their patented rescue-mode scramble down to the bunker to see what the problem was.
The Burnses arrived at exactly the same time as Boulder and Blades, just in time to see Heatwave grab Chase roughly and shove him against a wall.
“Heatwave!” Charlie yelled sharply, striding forward, trying to assess and contain the situation before it escalated further. The bots could do some serious damage if they devolved to a full on fight, and he’d rather prevent that sort of thing before it happened. “What exactly is going on here?”
His words lost some of their weight as his children all started babbling at once:
“What the hell, man?” demanded Kade, “Let him go!” Dani commanded, “Let’s discuss this calmly,” Graham suggested, and finally “Guys, what happened?” from Cody.
“This doesn’t concern you humans,” Heatwave growled, not taking his eyes off of Chase who, instead of cowering, was standing as still and straight as possible and staring ahead blankly.
“You’re attacking a member of this team!” Chief Burns said sharply. “That makes it my concern. Stand down, Heatwave!”
Heatwave whirled around abruptly, and everyone took an involuntary step back at the fury in his expression. It hit Charlie how very large Heatwave was, and without thinking he put up an arm between the advancing robot and his children. As far as protective gestures went, it was fairly useless, but decades of driving in cars without seatbelts had ingrained it deeply in his brain.
“ You stand down, Burns! You are out of your jurisdiction!”
What? What did that mean? What jurisdiction?
Whatever. He wasn’t going to let that distract him. “And you’re out of line!” he snapped. “Chase is your teammate , Heatwave! Our teammate too. If you attack him, you attack the integrity, trust, and effectiveness of the team.”
Heatwave turned slowly to look at Chase once more, his expression no less murderous. Noises erupted from him, but they weren’t any kind of language Charlie recognized. It sounded like metal grating against metal, with occasional pops, clicks, and whistles.
Chase’s blank face didn’t change, but he seemed to go a shade grayer. Behind them, Boulder let out a horrified sounding “Heatwave!”
Heatwave whirled on Boulder and continued spitting out those strange noises, advancing a few steps as he did. Blades was looking down and fidgeting, his shoulders hunched as if trying to make himself look small while absolutely unable to stay still. Boulder, at Heatwave’s rapid-fire noises gave Chase one last searching look before looking down in defeat.
“What the hell is going on ?” Kade demanded. “Heatwave, seriously, what are you doing ?”
“Something I should’ve done six million years ago,” Heatwave growled and marched over to Chase again. With one deft movement, he slashed the Rescue Bot sigil on Chase’s chest, cutting a deep gash straight through the middle of it.
Charlie felt his breath catch. Dani gasped. Graham put his hands to his mouth. Kade continued to just look confused. Cody took a step forward, his hands raised as if hoping to talk some sense into them and get this to stop . Charlie held him back, though, kept himself between Cody and the angry Bot. He hadn’t liked the look in Heatwave’s eyes. He’d seen it before, but in humans, not two-story tall metal beings. It wasn’t a look that boded well for anyone who tried to physically stop Heatwave. Chase, for his part, merely looked down at his feet. He no longer looked like he was trying to be stoic, merely...broken.
Heatwave spat out a long string of the strange sounds, then turned to Boulder and Blades and spat out still more of what sounded like spoons in an angry blender. Boulder responded back very briefly, and Blades simply shook his head.
Apparently satisfied, Heatwave started speaking English again: “Boulder, comm High Tide. Chase will need a ride back to the mainland. I’m going to escort him to his room, then call Optimus and update him on the situation.” He didn’t even have to touch Chase: The Bot meekly followed after him like a kicked puppy. It was deeply unsettling to watch.
Heatwave hadn’t been paying Blades much attention, but as he drew level with the other Bot, he spoke in a low tone, once again in that gargling-metal language that Charlie could only conclude must be their native tongue, strange as it might sound. If anything, he sounded angrier with Blades than he had with Chase. Blades shrank in on himself and started trembling as Heatwave spoke. When he was done, the fire truck brushed roughly past him. Chase followed, not looking up from the floor.
Blades slowly sank to the ground and buried his face in his hands. Boulder couldn’t seem to look at him, or the humans, or the spaces Heatwave and Chase had just passed through, and instead turned to face the wall and collect himself.
For a moment, no one dared move.
It was Dani who broke the tableaux. She quietly went up to Blades, reaching up to put a comforting hand on his leg, asking “Blades, are you gonna be okay?” Charlie couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride at his daughter’s kindness and loyalty to her partner.
Instead of answering, Blades just wrapped his arms around himself and rocked slowly back and forth. If this whole fiasco hadn’t been enough to worry him, this would’ve been the thing to do it.
Dani patted him. “Hey. Hey, you’re okay, bud. I’m here. You don’t have to talk about what happened if you don’t want to.”
Boulder, having seemingly collected himself, came and sat next to Blades and rested his head on Blades’ shoulder. He said something in the metal language. Charlie couldn’t tell a lot about the tonal subtleties of it, but he could at least tell that Boulder looked tired.
Blades nodded and responded in kind. They proceeded to have a brief conversation, and then Blades shook his head. Abruptly, he switched back to English to say: “I’m going to check on Chase.” He didn’t stand immediately, waited for Dani to take her hands away and take a step back before unfolding himself and slowly walking off.
With only one Bot left, and the most calm one of the group, the tension slowly started unknitting from the room. Charlie approached him, and the boys trailed along after him.
When it was clear that Boulder was still lost in his own world, Charlie cleared his throat to get the Rescue Bot’s attention. “Boulder can you...would you mind telling us what all of this is about?”
Boulder rubbed his face. “Yeah, I guess you guys deserve an explanation after having to see that.” Almost absent-mindedly, he lowered his hand, and equally unthinkingly, Graham stepped onto it. The Bot put Graham on his shoulder, and it struck Charlie for the second time today how deeply his children seemed to have bonded to their partners; both Boulder and Graham immediately turned to one another when they wanted comfort.
“You guys know that we weren’t always Rescue Bots, right?” Boulder asked quietly.
Charlie had suspected the Bots had had lives before landing on Earth to join their team, but from the looks his children surreptitiously shot one another, he realized this probably hadn’t occurred to them. “I think we knew there was probably that possibility,” Charlie said diplomatically to forestall any shocked responses.
Boulder scratched the back of his head. “Well...the thing is, Chase has a...a bit of a history. Before he joined the Rescue Bots, he was a sort of intergalactic police officer. He had to know the law codes of every planet he visited when he was hunting down criminals or else they could be released after they were arrested.”
“That explains why he’s so obsessed with memorizing boring rules,” Kade grumbled.
“So he was like an intergalactic interpol agent?” Cody asked. At Boulder’s questioning look, he explained: “Interpol is a human police agency that tracks down bad guys who try running from one country to another with different laws.”
“Yeah, pretty much exactly that,” Boulder said. He sighed. “Chase...he was still pretty new to the team, and he...well, he found himself in a situation where he had to choose between doing something a Rescue Bot would do or doing something a rule enforcer would. And...he decided to enforce the rules.”
“Maybe I’m missing something here,” Dani chimed in, “but I don’t see why that would be such a big deal.”
“Because it broke the Rescue Bot code,” Blades said tiredly, leaning heavily against the doorway. Charlie turned, surprised; he hadn’t heard Blades coming back. Dani quickly went to him and put a hand on his leg again. He lowered a hand and gently pressed his fingertips to the top of her head. “Specifically the part about not hurting sentients through action or inaction.”
Everyone recoiled a little at that. Everyone except Boulder, who just continued to look tired.
“That doesn’t sound like the Chase I know,” Charlie said sharply.
“Chase wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Graham agreed from his perch on Boulder’s shoulder.
Boulder and Blades shared a meaningful look, then they both looked away from one another. “Well, he didn’t hurt a fly. But it was bad enough that he just got kicked out of the Rescue Bots for trying to do it a second time.”
Shock jolted through Charlie at that. Chase had been kicked out of the Rescue Bots for breaking a rule ? And not once, but twice ? In what universe was that even possible ? This one, apparently, but that just didn’t make sense . Around him, his family was processing this impossible piece of information with just as much incredulity, judging by their faces.
“That doesn’t track,” Charlie said, straightening himself up and looking the Bots in their eyes. “I like to think I’ve gotten to know Chase pretty well, and he simply isn’t capable of breaking rules. He’s not capable of hurting people, either.”
Blades was starting to look a little sick, and abruptly he said “I need some air.” He turned and walked out.
“Blades, wait!” Dani said, trotting after him. Hopefully she could calm him down. Against all odds, she was remarkably good at doing that.
Boulder also was looking uncomfortable. He glanced at the doorway Blades had just left through. “This probably isn’t my place to say, but...Cody, do you think your dad would ever hurt anybody?”
The question was so unexpected, Charlie felt himself freeze up at it, but his son answered immediately with “Of course not!”
Boulder turned to look at Charlie, and he felt a sinking sensation in his stomach as he began to piece together where this was going. “Chief Burns, have you ever had to deal with someone violently resisting arrest?”
He felt all his children’s eyes on him as he looked Boulder dead in the eyes. “Yes, I have,” he said evenly. “And before you ask...yes, sometimes I’ve had to resort to force.” He didn’t add that it was only as a last resort, that he always tried to use the minimum amount necessary: Those were excuses, justifications, ways to hand-wave away the fact that, as a part of his job, he’d hurt people.
The room was silent as they took that uncomfortable information in.
“But - ” Cody started to say, and Charlie held up a hand.
“No ‘but’s,” he said. “Boulder’s making a point, and a rather effective one at that. Sometimes people do things we wouldn’t expect them to be capable of. We know Chase as a friend and a Rescue Bot, but he was someone else before that. And it’s a version of him we’ll never know.” He looked at the room. Everyone was looking drained, like a vital part of them had been hollowed out. Charlie ran a hand through his hair. “Well this has been an...eventful morning. Why don’t you all take the rest of you take the day off? I’ll keep an eye on things and call if I need any of you.”
“How are you going to keep an eye on things?” Cody demanded, sounding tense and angry. “The monitors are still down and we can barely hear each other over the comms anymore!”
“I’ll do it the old-fashioned way,” Charlie said tiredly. “The way we used to do things back in the stone age. I’ll take the old cruiser and patrol in town. I’ll comm you if there’s trouble, so if you hear a burst of static, you’ll know there’s a problem and that you should come looking for me.”
“Well...Boulder and I did want to check out the radio station again today,” Graham said hesitantly, looking grateful for an out.
“And I’ve got a date with Haley planned,” Kade announced, as if this was new information that he hadn’t been talking about non-stop all of yesterday.
Cody didn’t say anything, but the glance he gave Charlie was not particularly pleased. Charlie knew today was not a day he was living up to his #1 Dad mug.
“Those sound like good ways to fill the day. Go. Take a break. Let your old man take care of the boring stuff.”
They apparently didn’t need to be told twice. Within minutes, Charlie was alone in the firehouse.
He took a deep breath. A drive around the city would clear his head. This morning had been a lot to digest. And if they were down a Rescue Bot...well. That was a logistical nightmare they could deal with later. For now, he had a city to patrol.
Chase had messed up in some way, and Charlie understood that meant he had to face the music. But he’d be lying if he said he wouldn’t miss the Bot. He sighed and went to get the old patrol car out of the garage.
Tuesday, 10PM, Burns Residence
Blades and Dani came back late. Dani seemed exhausted. He didn’t blame her. Blades still seemed worked up, and Charlie knew the Bot wouldn’t get much sleep tonight. He didn’t blame him, either. He’d been in both their shoes before. Boulder met them at the door, and they had a brief conversation. Charlie didn’t hang around to watch it. It was enough knowing that his daughter and Blades had come home safely.
Charlie went to bed.
Wednesday, 10AM, Burns Residence
Charlie finally broke down and declared the island was under an emergency situation. No business was to be conducted except absolutely vital services. Too much of the island was run on radio waves, and with the interference, it wasn’t safe for the inhabitants to go about their day as usual.
He split his time between patrolling the island in the old cruiser (which mostly included ensuring everyone was calm) and checking in with Graham and Boulder and Doc Greene. They didn’t seem to be making much progress, but if anyone could figure out what was going on, they would.
It was a slow day, which was good. Yesterday had been too, which had also been comforting, because half the crew was out: Blades had apparently gone off at some point earlier that morning - probably to clear his head again - so Dani was grounded until he got back; Heatwave had locked himself in the Rescue Bot’s ship Sigma trying to get the comm there to work; with Chase under house arrest, that left Boulder as the only Bot actually available in the field. Charlie wasn’t a particularly religious man, but he felt that someone must be looking out for his family and the island if the slowest rescue week in living memory happened the week most of the Rescue Bots were out of commission.
Wednesday, 7PM, Burns Residence
“Heatwave,” Charlie said, coming down the stairs and walking towards the Bot. “I’m glad I caught you.”
Heatwave clearly wasn’t glad about it. “What do you want , Chief Burns?” Heatwave asked, not bothering to keep the irritation out of his voice. “I’m not in the mood for small talk right now.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. He looked rough. Charlie had no sympathy.
“Fine, then I’ll make this quick,” Charlie said, coming to stop beneath Heatwave. He was fighting to keep his voice even, to stay calm, and had to cross his arms to keep his hands balling into fists. “You were out of line with Chase the other day.”
Heatwave let out an annoyed noise. “I really don’t think that I was,” he growled out darkly.
That wasn’t acceptable. They were a team, and yet Heatwave seemed to think it was fine to not tell them important parts of this. Charlie understood that the Bots couldn’t tell them everything, but either there were key pieces of information they were deliberately withholding, or Heatwave had completely lost his mind at Chase for no reason. And Charlie wasn’t comfortable working with someone who did either of those things.
“I know Chase broke a rule, but - ” Charlie started.
“No, you don’t know,” Heatwave snapped. “You don’t, in fact, even know the half of what he’s done. Believe me, I’d love to tell you just how badly he’s fragged everything up, but I’m under orders from Optimus not to disclose that. And unlike that miserable excuse for a law enforcement agent, I actually follow direct orders from my superiors.”
Well that was...not what he’d expected. If Heatwave had just said he was under orders -
“Are we done?” Heatwave asked.
No. No, he wasn’t going to let this distract him. He had things he wanted to say to Heatwave, and he was going to say them. Even if he was under orders, Heatwave had to learn to work with his team, not attack them.
“If you don’t want my advice, fine,” he said. Heatwave, clearly sensing something was coming, narrowed his eyes. “I get it. I’ve only been leading my team for a few decades, while you’ve had probably centuries to practice being a leader. What do I know? But I do have a few pressing questions to clear up, and they really can’t wait.”
“Uuugh, fine. What are they?” Heatwave demanded, sounding like Kade. Fitting, since he was acting a bit like him at this moment.
“Well, Chase was my official police vehicle. My duties as chief of police require a vehicle, and now that Chase is off the team, I need a replacement. I can keep using the old cruiser, but people are going to notice the downgrade and start asking questions, so we’ll need a cover story for that. I want to know your thoughts about what to do.”
Heatwave rubbed his temples. “Look, I haven’t exactly had time to deal with that yet - ”
“That’s unacceptable,” Charlie said, plowing forward. “I’m the chief of police for this island. I have a duty to these people and this place that goes beyond your mission here on Earth. You’ve taken away a key component of my livelihood, and now you’re telling me you didn’t think about how you were going to provide me a replacement?”
“You have the old cruiser!” Heatwave pointed out, starting to sound harried as well as frustrated. Good. He opened his mouth to say more, but Charlie quickly cut him off before he could reclaim control of the conversation.
“And when it breaks down? Human machines tend to do that, you know. Are you going to pay for repairs when that happens? Or were you planning on doing them yourself? The cruiser’s a temporary fix at best, and it can’t move over difficult terrain the way you Bots can. So what happens when I have to abandon it to hitch a ride with one of you?”
“Fine!” Heatwave snapped, throwing up his hands. “I’ll get someone to fill in for Chase!”
“Who?” Charlie demanded, pushing Heatwave further into the verbal corner he was constructing. There were some advantages to being a single father for four argumentative, intelligent children. “Which partner pair are you going to tear apart? Boulder and Graham? Or maybe Dani and Blades? I know you wouldn’t lose any sleep over getting a new partner, but don’t you think it’ll look a little strange if the chief of police suddenly starts riding around in a fire truck?”
“We can change our armor, Burns,” Heatwave growled, clearly pleased to have something he was sure of for once in this conversation.
If Heatwave thought that was going to trip Charlie up, he’d never seen the chief try to convince three precocious toddlers to eat their vegetables at once. “Good. I didn’t know that. But even with the change in armor, you and Boulder are too bulky to pass as police cars. Blades could, and he might appreciate not having to fly anymore, but tearing him and Dani apart would break both of their hearts, and I wouldn’t want that on my conscience if I were you. But you are the leader. It’s your decision.”
Heatwave’s expression turned dark as he saw the direction Charlie was driving him in, but to his credit he clearly wasn’t ready to give in just yet. “We’ll use one of the newer recruits,” he snarled. “Blurr’s small enough. We can use him. Now I really - ”
“Yes, I can just see him submitting to changing from a flashy sports car who can disregard every traffic law to a car with a simple box frame and a black and white pattern who not only follows the speed limit, but sits still for long stretches of time. Yeah, I’m sure that’ll go over exactly the way you think it will.” Charlie resisted the urge to roll his eyes dramatically. It was hard, but he’d had a lifetime’s worth of practice not rolling his eyes at half the things that came out of Kade’s mouth. He simply doubled down on the glare he aimed at Heatwave.
“What do you want from me, human?” Heatwave demanded. “I don’t have the answers to these questions! I’ve been on the comms all night, I haven’t slept because I’ve been trying to reach Optimus . I’m sorry that I haven’t had time for this, but maybe you can come up with a few of the answers here! You’ve got a processor, surely! Maybe try using it!”
And there it was. Charlie snapped the trap shut on this conversation: “I wouldn’t presume to have that kind of authority. I just wanted to talk about your treatment of Chase, but it’s been made clear to me that I’m not qualified to think for myself on Rescue Bot matters.”
Heatwave’s expression turned nearly as murderous as it had when Charlie had seen him confronting Chase in the rec room, and he braced himself for the barrage of insults that were surely about to be thrown down at him.
But the rant never came. Instead, the firehouse doors were violently thrown open as two heavily armoured robots the size of Heatwave burst in, brandishing the biggest fucking guns Charlie had ever seen, and suddenly the only thing he had in his head were the desperate scramblings of a man trying to remember where his children were and how he could get them as far away from here as possible without drawing these killers’ attention to them.