The bots opened the door to the medical bay, and Blades' optics widened as he looked at the empty berth, though the cuffs remained locked and undamaged. "What- Where'd you go?" He asked.

Heatwave's holoform disappeared, and then they heard his weary voice speak again from the other side of the berth, between it and the wall. "Down here...!"

Blades walked around the corner and then covered his mouth with a gasp that evolved into a giggle. "Oh Primus...! Heatwave-"

"Come on, Blades... I said not to laugh...!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't help it...!"

The others approached and saw what had the medic giggling and the firebot complaining. Kade's eyes were wide, "Heatwave, you... Melted!"

The firebot barely resembled himself other than color and voice at this point. Just like the disjointed form Blades had manifested during his absence, Heatwave appeared to have melted into a semi-liquid form, a mass of red and gray material that was continually spreading and congealing in on itself. His optics were a vibrant green with white pupils, which were rolled back as he groaned and scrubbed at his face. "I know, I know...!"

"What happened?"

"I don't know...! I woke up with a start and then... Just slid off of the berth like a glob of Squilsh...! And I don't know how to pull myself back together, so I just projected my holoform instead."

Blades bent down, reaching out slowly to try and touch his older brothers' shoulder. "I'm sure we'll figure out how to-gasp!"

An orange aura formed around the copter as he made physical contact with Heatwave, his optics shifting to all white, and then as it seemed to spread to Heatwave, it shifted into red. The firebot shuddered, closing his optics and clenching his teeth, but after a few seconds, the squishy glob of mosaic reformed himself, taking on his normal form, though as his optics opened once more, his optics remained the same color.

"Whoa...!" Heatwave stood up onto his pedes again with Blades' help, "Okay... That was weird... What did you do?"

Blades put a hand to his temple and rubbed it for a moment, but then shrugged. "Recharged you, I guess...?"

"Hmm..." Heatwave twisted his torso a bit as he stretched, "Augh... That still didn't get rid of the stiffness... How long was I out?"

"...Too long." Boulder admitted, "I'll introduce you to the Sodorians later. They've been worried about you too."

"Right... Blades, stop that. I'm fine."

"Heatwave, you just came out of a coma a few minutes ago after being stabbed through the abdomen as a pile of goop! Humor me and my medical expertise for a moment..." Blades ran the scanner over his older brother, "...Okay, okay. Vitals are coming back into normal ranges... Good. Your energon's still a little low after all that healing. Stay here while I get you some from the stockroom. Boulder, do not let him leave the room."

Heatwave shook his helm in confusion, and Boulder sighed. "Sorry, we've been through a lot while you were out."

"I suppose you have... I'll want to hear about it later... Oh Primus. Slipchain! Where's-"

"Heatwave...!"

Heatwave looked to see the femme standing in the doorway, her frame beginning to tremble. "Slipchain, you're alright! Thank Primus, I was-"

Quickshadow rushed over, wrapping her arms around his neck as she shook with stifled sobs. Heatwave hugged her back, though clearly very confused at her reaction. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry...!" she gasped, "I should've... I didn't mean to-"

"Hey, hey..." Heatwave moved his hand to the back of her helm, "Don't blame yourself, there wasn't much you could have done... I'm just glad you're okay!"
He frowned, "...But the virus, what happened to the virus?"

The femme stepped back once more, taking in a deep inhale of air to calm herself. "I-It disappeared the same time Chase and Cody did. We don't know if Chase destroyed it or if it got taken with them, but it's not here now."

Blades returned with a cube of energon and handed it to Heatwave, "Drink it slowly..."

"Whatever..." Heatwave hummed, but then caught the medic's hand as he tried to step away. "...But seriously. Thank you, Blades... You saved my spark, you know."

Blades gave a smile, even though tears were threatening to spill from his optics. "I did, didn't I...?" He mumbled as he looked down at his pedes, "You're welcome...!"

"So... What are we then?"
They turned to see Blurr, Salvage, and High Tide peering in from the doorway. Blurr gave a grin, "Don't mind us!"

"I'll get to you guys in a minute, it's crowded in here right now."
Heatwave put his free arm around Quickshadow again, "That hug was a little unexpected, Slipchain."

"Eheh... Yeah..." The femme blushed, "Sorry, about that, I... My name's not really Slipchain."

"What?"

"Well, I was gonna tell you that afternoon, but... You know. Stuff happened. Um... Slipchain was one of my aliases back when I was in espionage... My real name is Quickshadow."

"Quick..."
Heatwave smacked his forehead. "Of course...!"

"Careful!" Blades complained.

"Look, though." Kade's glance was to his partner's torso, where just the tiniest of scars was visible. "You barely can tell it happened."

Heatwave squirmed a bit under their glances, "It never should have happened..."

Quickshadow put her arm around the firetruck, "Don't worry, we'll find Cody and Chase. I promise..."

"Yeah... We will." Heatwave hummed slowly as he looked into the energon, "It's the weirdest thing, but... Right before I fully came to, I... I thought I heard Chase's voice."

"You heard him?"

"Yeah... He was calling for me... How can that be...? Blades?"
The firebot looked to the youngest as his optics widened, looking blankly forward. "Blades, what's wrong?"

"Chase..." Blades shook his helm, "... He was hearing voices too... Before he and Cody disappeared..."

"Really? Whose voice?"

Blades rubbed his chin, looking down to the floor and avoiding eye contact with anyone. "I...I don't know."

The others knew he was lying, but surely the copter had a good reason for not sharing everything he knew.

"Whatever the case," Boulder asserted, "We should focus on the task at hand." He put a hand on Heatwave's shoulder, "Getting you back up on your pedes and rescue ready again."

Heatwave nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

_____________________________________________________

"Alright alright alright, gimme a second here."
Heatwave found himself in the middle of a wide circle in the bunker, surrounded by his family and friends on one side, and the nine newcomers forming the other. Once he'd convinced Blades that he was well enough to leave the medical bay, they all joined up in the common area, sitting down on couches, benches, or the floor.

One of the smallest of the Sodorian Mosaics piped up pretty quickly once given permission, introducing himself as Thomas and also introducing everyone else before they got the chance to do it themselves. This must happen a lot, because everyone seemed to just roll their optics and not take it too personally.

Thomas then started off on where they were from, and probably would have gone through the entire history of his island called Sodor from where they came, if not for Emily, the only femme, to quiet him and suggest that someone else get a chance to talk.

That someone else was Edward, who Heatwave guessed was either their leader or had been appointed as such as long as they were here. He explained in simple terms what Sodor was, what they themselves did prior to arriving here, and what they knew- or at least understood- about how they came to arrive here, using a metaphor Blades had apparently created earlier in the day involving trees and leaves.

The firetruck lifted his hands, "Okay, so... You all were just sleeping one night, and when you woke up, you were like this?"

"That's the gist of it." Diesel mumbled, "And everybody on Sodor was gone. Boulder and Blades said that we're actually from another Sodor on another Earth, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but neither does anything else we've dealt with here. I mean, you guys are aliens, for Pete's sake!"

"He's been stuck on that for a while." Boulder informed, "Don't blame you, really."

"We looked into the Sodor they wound up on, and it looks like it was condemned and abandoned after an explosion caused by an energon vein being struck." Blades explained, "We're still waiting for Fowler to get back with us on what to do next."

"Speaking of which-"
Chief Burns approached from the elevator, Boulder looked to the Sodorians, "We just got a message back from him.

"Who's Fowler?" Henry asked.

Boulder tiled his helm, "He's our governmental liaison-"

"-Which means he is the guy who makes sure we don't break any international laws." Blades added.

"Right." Chief Burns looked at a piece of paper in his hand, probably notes on what the call was about. "We got a message back from him, and he said that since you all weren't technically inhabitants of the island, it's trespassing for us to be there until the British Officials decide to give us permissions."

"So we can't go back to Sodor at all now?" Henry worried.

"I'm afraid not. You're not in trouble, but just to be safe, we have to stay off of it for now."

"Well, we figured out where all the humans went and that it's not the same one we knew," Cranky admitted, "Not much reason to go back right now."

"And fall into any more holes." Diesel muttered, "So many holes...!"

Heatwave looked to Boulder and Blades then, his brows furrowing. "Now... in detail... What happened?"

"After we got your distress call and heard Cody cry out, we ran in as fast as we could. The virus had Cody and it fled from the training center via a hole in the wall it smashed through after putting Cody in its cab." Blades explained, "Salvage and I stayed behind to try and stabilize you, while Chase, Boulder, and Blurr all went after Cody."

"Chase took point." Blurr explained, "While Boulder and I followed closely behind. But that thing was armed with more than just arm blades, it had rocket missiles too. It fired at us, and would have hit Boulder, but I knocked him out of the way and took the brunt of the blast. Got my processor knocked out of sync pretty good and bent a strut crashing into a tree."
The race car smiled a bit as Boulder put a hand to his shoulder, "Boulder stayed behind to help me back to the academy, telling Chase to keep in pursuit."

"A few minutes later, we got a ping from Chase," Boulder finished, "It sounded frantic, but he said he had Cody and that he was safe... That was the last we saw or heard from him or The Virus."

"Because they were snatched by an anomaly..." Heatwave crossed his arms, giving an irritated grunt. "...Wish I could have a moment with whoever it was."

"Oh don't worry." Boulder remarked, "Charisma sounded absolutely livid when I spoke with her. She's got the revenge part covered."

"Hmph... How long ago was this?"

"A little over a week." High Tide tilted his helm towards Quickshadow, "I picked up her distress signal and found her chained and anchored near The Docks. Not hurt, but pretty well restrained."

"Thank you, High Tide..."

Blades rubbed his arms, "After you were stabilized, I... I wasn't in a good helmspace. Don't think anybody was, really... Boulder offered that I go to ask 'Bee to help search for Cody and Chase by borrowing their scanners, so I headed out, and then when I checked in on Boulder-" He crossed his arms, "I got the feeling from his response that something was up, so I came back and we had guests he was hesitant to tell me about...!"

"I said I was sorry, Blades!" Boulder complained, "...The scanner picked up their signals so I went to investigate. They were lost and disoriented from everything, a storm was coming in on Sodor, I couldn't just leave them there!"

"Typical Boulder..." Heatwave smirked, "Well, sounds like I missed out on a lot in the past week. Give me a few hours to fully recover, and I'll be able to step back into action."

"Right." Blades pointed, "March yourself to that stasis pod for an hour. I'll come get you if there's an emergency awaiting your specific skills."

Heatwave gave his youngest brother the mildest of glares, and then wrapped an arm around him. "I missed you too, Blades..."

"Uh huh... Now-"

"Alright alright, I'm going..."

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AN: For your viewing pleasure XD