"Find anything inside?"

"I did. I think we should check out the Southern Mine next, but that can wait until tomorrow..."

It was only late-morning, but they didn't argue with Boulder as he decided to call off more searching for the day. He had his own job, his own life, back on his own island, he probably didn't want to be gone for too long at a time.

It took a few minutes for the groundbridge portal to open once more, and then they were back in the bunker. Thomas shuddered as they passed through again, it still felt weird.

"Welcome back, everyone." Graham greeted, "How'd it go?"

"We made some progress." Boulder revealed, "It looks like the island was evacuated for some reason, but we're still looking into what."

"An evacuation that kept the islanders from coming back later?" Graham rubbed his chin, "Must've been an ongoing problem..."

"Right... On another note-"
Boulder walked over to Emily and James with a smile, "We discovered these two are fire mosaics!"

"Yay..." James mumbled.

"Fire?"
Thomas looked down to see more humans approaching from around the corner. The one to speak was a man with red hair and wearing a uniform resembling the fireman's from their time. "Brilliant. Glad I'm here."

"Especially since-"
Diesel started to speak, but a firm glare from Gordon silenced him.

Boulder stepped over to the other humans, "Everyone, this is Graham's family. His brother Kade, sister Dani, and father, Police Chief Charlie Burns. Burns family, this is Cranky, Gordon, Henry, Thomas, Percy, Emily, James, Edward, and Diesel."

"How come you two have a different kind of name than the others?" Dani asked curiously.

Cranky shrugged, "Not Steam Engines, I guess."

"I was a Diesel engine and Cranky was a tower crane by the docks." Diesel muttered.

"Well, we're glad we could help you all out. I'm sure it was shocking to wake up here like this."

"You have no idea...!" Percy peeped.

Dani walked over to Emily with a smirk, "Must be rough being the only girl with these guys. I felt the same way until Quickshadow got here."

Emily smirked, "Ah, it's not so bad... I mean, Gordon snores, but-"

"I do not!"

The others nodded in agreement with Emily.

"Sorry, you're outnumbered." Henry mumbled.

Gordon scoffed, looking away from the others.

"We'll try not to be an inconvenience to you all." Edward promised, "We'd hate to be a bother."

"Don't worry about it." Chief Burns remarked with a dismissive wave, "You all got dragged here to our time against your wills, I'd be surprised if you don't have some trouble getting settled in. We're here to help if you need it, though."

Thomas tapped his fingers together. Boulder and these humans kept promising to help them, but if what Diesel had said was true, was it possible that promise might be revoked if they stepped too far?

They heard a low rumbling on the ceiling, and the humans nodded. "Sounds like the rest are back."

"Did I miss something?" Boulder asked.

"Just a minor pile-up. They were cleaning up the remnants real quick."

The elevator hummed once more, and Thomas looked up as Quickshadow returned to the bunker, but was now joined by two more.

"Is it just me, or are you humans getting worse and worse at driving?" The purple one muttered, "I mean, no offense to you Burnses, but seriously-" His eyes then fell on the Sodorians, and widened. "Sweet Solus Prime!"

"I told you there were nine, Blurr." Quickshadow muttered, stepping off of the elevator first. "Sodorians, Blurr and Salvage. Blurr and Salvage, Sodorians."

"Ignore him." Salvage chortled as he followed and pulled Blurr's jaw off of the floor, "We just don't get visitors much."

"Not pleasant visitors...!" Blurr grumbled, and then regained his grin as he rushed over to James. "Say, you look like the racing type!"

"Heh." James grinned back, "Fastest red engine on Sodor!"

"Cool! Maybe we'd better put that to the test later."

"Or not." Boulder scolded a bit, "Talk about poor driving skills, you and your hairpin turns-"

"Excuse me? My hairpin turns are flawless! Ask anyone!"

"They could use work." Salvage muttered, "At any rate, we can't be racing right now. We still have work to do on the Training Center-"

"Work?" Henry perked up, "What kind of work?"

"Oh, well there's a giant hole in the wall we gotta patch, some interior installations... But you guys are guests, we wouldn't ask you to-"

"We're in!" Thomas announced, "We're used to doing hard work all day long!"

"He has a point..." Gordon mumbled.

Chief Burns looked to Boulder with a curious look, "It might be helpful for them to get used to their new forms..."

Boulder rubbed his chin in contemplation, and then nodded. "Motor function, strength rationing... seems like a fair idea, Chief."

"And if we're all working together, it'll go faster!" Percy announced, "You guys will be done in no time!"

"A bunch of extra hands that want to work?" Salvage grinned, "That sounds like a treat to me!"

Blurr gave his companion a glare, and then rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright... Fine, you guys can help out at the center for the afternoon."

Thomas beamed, at least for the afternoon, the engines and crane of Sodor were back to being really, really useful.

"Okay, but before any of that-"
Boulder placed a hand on each of their shoulders and guided them away from the Sodorians. "There's a few things we need to go over..."

"Remember," Edward whispered, "Don't make trouble..."

____________________________________________________________________

"Alright, so here's the thing..." Boulder looked back towards the Sodorians as he guided the others around the corner, "...These guys aren't your typical new cybertronian visitors, okay? In fact, they're not cybertronian back home at all."

"Okay then? So what are they then?" Salvage asked, "Human?"

"They're steam engines- Well, seven steam engines, a diesel engine and a tower crane, but the important thing is that they're not used to having arms and legs and being able to move around with them much. From what I can gather, they have speech and intelligence back home, but other than that-"

"Regular choo-choos." Blurr muttered.

"Right... Also, I don't know if they have vehicle modes or if they even can have them. Mosaics as a species are still a very new concept to me and I'm still learning how all that crosses over. They were brought here from nineteen-twenty-five, which I know for us bots a hundred years is barely a blip on the dashboard, but for most humans, that's an entire lifetime. These past hundred especially have been crucial to the level of technology humans are at here in the present, so there's a lot that they've never seen or used before. They're used to waking up and then hauling goods and people to and fro all day with hardly any rest, so they'll probably be pretty eager for a a new task once they've finished one."

"All of this to say..." Salvage gave the bulldozer a sympathetic smile, "...Be patient with them if they have a lot of questions or don't understand the first time."

"Correct. I do think that helping you guys out will be a good experience for them, but I just wanted to prepare you for some of the stuff I've noticed."

Blurr peeked around the corner, "They do seem a little uncomfortable... Okay. Be patient, don't try to stress them out. Got it."

"Thanks. In the meantime..." Boulder rubbed his optics, "I think I'm going to get a little more sleep. It's already been a long morning..."

"You sure taking on this extra burden was the best idea right now?" Salvage asked.

Boulder shook his helm with a smile, "No... But are you surprised I did?"

The recycling truck's own smile widened a bit and put a hand to Boulder's shoulder, "No... Not at all."