Exploration and Relocation Ch. 3

Transformers Prime/ Rescue Bots Crossover

Chapter Three: Irregular Orbit

---

Griffin Rock was considered to be one of the most idyllic and quaint towns of the East Coast, coupled with its plethora of high-end technology that seemed more like it had come out of some science fiction movie than the work of diligent, genius human scientists. And it also happened to be a natural and unnatural disaster zone.

Tires shrieking, a banged up white sports car tore down a busy street, swerving violently to avoid pedestrians, other vehicles, buildings, and the like. Not everyone was lucky enough to be avoided so easily though, and several citizens had to dodge or throw themselves out of the car's way, many yelling curses in its wake. A few minutes into its rampage a group of rescue vehicles sped around the corner, one in the air and three by land, doing their best to catch up to the speeder.

"What does this half-clock think he's doing?" Heatwave asked aloud, and his partner grumbled dangerously.

"Whoever it is, they had the gall to do something like this on a Sunday. That's my day off!"

"Quit whining."

Chief Burns interrupted before the aggressive partners could begin an argument. "That's enough you two—we're here to catch a speeder, not bicker. Dani, I need you to fly ahead—see if he's headed anywhere in particular. Graham, follow her. See if you can create a blockade in time."

Two of his children chimed their affirmatives, Heatwave and Kade as well, albeit less enthusiastically. Chief Burns glanced down at the monitor imbedded into the dashboard, a bushy eyebrow raised. "Why so quiet, Chase?" he inquired, hands resting calmly on the steering wheel as the police-bot speed on, having mastered driving as an Earth vehicle some time ago. "You're not as…curiously exuberant as you usually are when chasing someone down. Something wrong?"

The bot paused for several instants before answering; roughly skidding around another corner as he did so. "Not anything I can properly put into words, Chief," Chase began, tone wavering with minor uncertainly. "I do not think it has to do with this speeder…not much, at least."

Heatwave's strong tenor crackled over the com line. "I would listen to him if I were you," the leader advised sagely, "When Chase thinks something's wrong, then something's very wrong. Like what you humans would call a 'sixth sense'."

Before Charlie could answer or question either bot on what they meant, Cody's voice came over the com link as well. "Dad, I was just talking to Dani—the driver is following a pattern! I'm not that sure how the driver knows where he's going, but we know where he's headed."

"Where, Cody?" Chief Burns demanded.

The boy sounded worried when he answered, but nonetheless sure of himself. "The woods!"

.

"All right, team, Graham and Boulder are setting a blockade at the rim of the forest, but until then we need to stall the driver. Do what you can, but be careful!" Charlie ordered over the collective com lines.

"Roger that, Dad," Kade said over the com link, before gunning Heatwave's engine. His eyes flickered to the monitor for a second before returning his attention to the road. "You ready to do some damage, 'Wave?"

"You bet," Heatwave growled, "and I told you to stop calling me that."

Kade rolled his eyes but directed the fire truck forward until the white speed demon was finally less than a hundred feet away. "Floor it, 'Wave!" Kade instructed, though Heatwave needn't be told even once, and was at the sports car's back bumper in seconds. But on closer inspection, the disguised bot was surprised to see much the other vehicle had suffered through.

The car was an impressive model to say the least, with tinted windows and once-gleaming paint. But now dents of varying sizes and depth traveled from head to taillight and all across its hood, thick, black smoke pouring out from beneath it, complete with natural grittiness, what appeared to be scorch marks, and…bullet holes?

Before Heatwave could react, Kade had jerked his steering wheel so that his front fender rammed harshly into the speeder's back bumper, sending the banged up car off course and barreling through a pair of garbage cans. Heatwave grunted as trash hit his windshield and grill, snapping at his partner to be more careful. "We want to stop him, not cause an accident," the bot muttered.

"Hey, guys!" Graham exclaimed over the com, startling the pair out of their escalating argument, "Boulder and I have finished the road block. Just make sure the driver stays on route now."

"Will do, kid," Heatwave said, decelerating slightly, but keeping the sports car in his sights. The driver of the ill kept vehicle seemed to be tiring or ready to give up—if the bot thought positively— as he slowed down as well, the vehicle's path becoming much less erratic.

"This guy's sure caused a lot of damage," Kade whistled, "he'd better hope that's he's insured and got enough money to pay for all this when he's in jail."

"Well said," Chase opined smartly over the com.

"You're almost there, you two," Chief Burns said, " Just around one last corner." The odd procession turned, as Charlie had said, when out of nowhere the sports revved its engine and zoomed forward.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kade yelped, his knuckles white on Heatwave's steering wheel, "He's gonna go for it! Guys, he's gonna try to get past you!"

By the blockade, both Graham and the chief received Kade's message and peered down the road, where sure enough, the sports car was speeding towards them.

"Chase, Boulder, cut him off!" Charlie barked and the two complied, transforming and running up to intercept the vehicle.

The sports car swerved wildly, completing a three-sixty so rapidly that smoke poured out from under the tires, and it sped back down the road, this time in the opposite direction.

Chief Burns blinked. "Well. I guess you bots scared him off. Dani, any idea of where he's going?"

"You know, this guy is a pretty manic driver," the young woman observed, "but anyway, he's still driving beside the barricade, and...Oh, he's found some old construction equipment. Planks of wood, steel poles, and…scrap!"

"Dani?" Charlie exclaimed, "What happened?"

"The maniac's reversing. I think he's gonna—he just did."

"What?" Chef Burns demanded, "What did he do?"

"He leapt over the barricade using the construction equipment," Blades fretted.

"I forgot that I left those there," Boulder bemoaned, collapsing back into his alt mode. Graham laid a comforting hand on his distraught partner's door.

Chase waited for his partner to deactivate his com before stepping forward. "I apologize for our collective failure, Chief Burns," the bot declared, helm bowed, "as a senior officer, I should have performed better."

"Its fine, Chase," Charlie said, waving the bot's worry aside. "You were right about that speeder though." He ran a tired hand through his gray hair before activating his com again. "Cody, we're gonna be heading back. Keep me posted on Dani and Kade's progress, will ya?"

"Will do, Dad."

.

Kade groaned, leaning back into the leather driver's seat with his arms folded over his chest. "Why are we still looking for this guy?" the fireman demanded petulantly, glaring out the windshield at the multitudinous trees passing him by, allowing Heatwave to take the wheel. "You know as well as I do that we'll never find him in this maze."

Heatwave only grunted, continuing his search. Kade moaned gin. "Geez, you are so stubborn!"

"Like you're any different?"The bot pointed out.

The young man huffed at the slight, hunching back into the upholstery. "Well, I don't mean to be a backseat driver, but what the heck are we even looking for?"

"I am looking for a trail," Heatwave snapped, "tracks, maybe. You didn't see the shape this guy's poor car was in—I thought it would've broken down by now."

"Huh. Well, there's human tech for—gah!" Kade was cut off as Heatwave reverted to bipedal mode, throwing the human out of his cab at the same time.

Kade rubbed his sore backside from his spot on the ground, glaring daggers at his partner. "Hey, what's the big idea, 'Wave?"

"Quiet," Heatwave muttered, going down on one knee to closer observe at something in the dirt. Kade stood and tried to look around his partner, who had his back to him.

"What is it?" the fireman asked, resolving to walk around the bot's massive frame. "Tracks?"

Heat wave shook his helm, lifting an enormous digit to point at the dirt. "Energon."

Kade finally got a good look at what the bot was talking about and found a few small puddles of iridescent blue liquid staining the earth. "And…what's that?" he asked, glancing up at his partner.

The bot grunted. "Well I guess it would make sense that you've never seen it before—we never get too badly hurt on our missions, after all." Heatwave glanced down at his human partner. "Energon is our life force. For those with weapons, our ammo."

Kade made a face. "So you're saying that this is robot blood? Gross. Did one of our bots get cut or something?"

Heat wave shook his helm. "No one on my team had been injured to point of spilling energon."

"So that means…"

The bot nodded, optics narrowing. "There's more to our speeder than meets the eye."

.

"So your team was unable to apprehend the speeder, Chief?" Doc Greene inquired curiously as Charlie placed a hamburger on his plate.

"It would seem that way," the chief of police admitted, "but I sent Dani and Kade with their bots to see if they could find any trace of him. Good thing is we live on an island, so there's not really anywhere for him to run."

The scientist set his plate down on the patio table, sitting himself down with a brooding look crossing his worn features. "Did you cross-reference his license plate? To see who the driver is?"

"I already tried that," Charlie confessed, handing Graham his own burger, and two more to quell the young man's appetite, "and the computer came up with nothing."

Doc Greene did a double take, his burger already halfway to his mouth as he paused. "Nothing? But that's impossible, even if it's a stolen car." He set his hamburger down with a raised brow. "Is the computer inside your police-bot, Chief? Perhaps I could have a look at it—take it apart, put it back together, to see if there's anything wrong with the wiring."

With a surreptitious glance to the pair of parked vehicles behind the basketball court, Chief Burns caught his partner shuddering. "Ah, no thanks, Doc!" Charlie said quickly, much to the scientist's obvious surprise.

"But why—"

"Ah, Cody, come get your burger!" Charlie called, stifling Doc Greene's question.

On the basketball court, Cody executed an impressive free-throw before passing the ball to Frankie and jogging over to the grill. Doc Greene's furrowed brow smoothed out as the boy received his lunch. "Ah, the birthday boy!" he smiled, reaching a gloved hand into his multitude of pockets, "I have your gift…somewhere…"

"Top left pocket, Daddy!" Frankie chimed.

Greene fished out the small rectangular parcel, sending his daughter a wave. "Yes, thank you, my dear!" He then held it out to the teen with a grin.

"Awesome!" Cody crowed, setting his plate down to accept the gift, "thanks, Doc!" Before he could open it though, Heatwave came barreling up the driveway, Blades roaring up next to him, stopping side by side. The two passengers disembarked, and Charlie ran up to meet them.

"Did you find anything?"

Dani shook her head, moving her helmet to her hip. "I didn't. But Kade did."

The fireman glanced back at his partner, still in vehicle mode, then to his gathered friends and family before answering, so soft that only the bots and his father heard.

"Heatwave thinks that out speeder was a bot in disguise."

As Charlie stepped back, running a hand through his hair again, Doc Greene spoke up from the other side of the court. "Is everything all right, Chief?" he called helpfully.

Charlie turned, a smile plastered onto his features. "Oh, yeah, everything's fine. They didn't find much on our speeder." He turned to his two children beside him. "Get something to eat, kids. We'll keep looking tomorrow." The pair quickly agreed, rushing to join the festivities, and the unease lifted.

Charlie turned to the row of bots, all in alt modes, and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, guys," he muttered, before commanding loudly, "Bots, transform and return to the firehouse."

The Rescue Bots did as they were told, seamlessly reverting to their proto-forms with visors lowered over emotionless optics. They marched back to the firehouse entrance, Boulder breaking protocol for an instant to look longingly back at the human festivities they were missing.

Only Frankie noticed.

.

The bedroom was dark, apart from the rest of the enormous laboratory building. If one listened closely, the sound of drilling and clanking could be heard from the far reaches of the edifice, but their distance did nothing to wake the young, slumbering from of Francis Greene, snuggled deep into her warm blankets, long used to the sound of her father's inventing.

The blinds over her wide window weren't closed all the way, and would've provided ample moonlight if not for the light that outshone it.

Frankie was jolted awake by the startlingly loud roar of a car engine, her blankets pooling around her as she jumped up. The sound soon passed, as did the piercing glow of headlights, but by that time she was already sitting up in bed, rubbing her eyes as she suppressed a yawn. Confusion settled then, since the alarm system around the lab should have gone off at the first sign of an intruder….

The girl slipped out of bed and into her slippers, snatching her jacket from her desk as a second thought. Padding into the hall, Frankie still heard the telltale cacophony of her father hard at work and deduced that he hadn't heard the car engine.

Taking great care not to be noticed or heard and put back to bed, Frankie used the holographic dog door to get out, and was promptly greeted by the night's usual chill. She buried herself deeper into her jacket and continued forward, her curiosity peaked. A few seconds passed without any clue to the strange visitor, when Frankie the sound again if only barely—the rumbling of an engine.

Frankie hurried to follow the noise, several different sceneries flashing through her mind—robbers after her father's equipment, the speeder from earlier that day hiding on their land, Doctor Morocco back for revenge… if anything, these thoughts made her go faster.

Finally, Frankie came upon one of her father's multiple warehouses apart from the main laboratory building, light shining through the high windows. Her excited breath coming out in a cloud of vapor, Frankie stayed low and close to the wall, crawling to the wide entrance before carefully poking her head in. What she found inside would forever remain seared into her brain.

Leaning against one of the sturdy concrete walls was a robot. Perhaps as tall as the fire truck bot that worked with Kade, this entity was burly and white with red and green painted finish, and fin like shapes sticking out of either side of its face. While the massive robot itself was still shocking, perhaps even more so was how much damage it appeared to have sustained. Its entire body was covered in deep scratches and dents, while a portion of its side seemed to have caved in, blue liquid spilling from the injury, even leaking through the fingers of the gargantuan hand it had over the wound.

And what more, it even appeared to be speaking.

"Wheeljack to—ngh—Autobot Base Omega One. I'm…ugh… currently in uncharted territory and in need of….medical care. Do you…do you read?" The bot paused, as if waiting for answer, before slamming the back of its head into the wall out of frustration. "Frag," it hissed, and Frankie noticed that its hands were trembling.

Unable to simply watch the thing die, Frankie stood, knees shaking despite her best intentions, and walked into the warehouse, in plain view of the robot—it never occurred to her whether it could've been bad or good.

The being quickly laid eyes on her, and it blanched. "Scrap," he swore.