"You ready?"

Blades sat down on the floor, legs crossed. "As ready as I can be... Let's just hope none of those dark hands try to grab me again."

"D-Dark hands?" Henry quivered.

"Don't worry about it." Heatwave informed, "It won't be happening again."

The trio of brothers sat on the floor of the hangar, preparing to try and contact Chase, wherever he may be. In truth, it was Blades doing all of the heavy-lifting, Boulder and Heatwave were just there for emotional support.

"You sure you don't need our help with anything?" Thomas asked.

Boulder smiled at the little engine, "Don't worry, Thomas. We'll be fine."

"It'll just be easier to concentrate with some peace and quiet..." Blades hummed as he exhaled, "I've called Chase before, it'll be fine."

Edward nodded, nudging his curious fellow engines towards the doors. "Come on, let them have some privacy..."

Blades took in a deep breath through his vents as the doors closed, and then they were left with quiet. The faint hum of machinery elsewhere in the bunker, the low creaking of their frames on the floor, and the slow movement of air in and out of their vents. He then closed his optics, his frame relaxed. "Okay..."

The quiet continued, Heatwave and Boulder sitting on opposite sides of the copter as he rested in his meditative pose. His EM field pulsed in and out with his breaths, brushing against their own like little roots reaching for something to grip onto.

"Do you think he's doing it...?" Heatwave whispered, "We were only there to see the receiving end..."

"Hard to tell..." Boulder mumbled.

Blades' brows furrowed as his field then began to flare a bit and he whined, his frame tensing a bit as he tried to focus. His teeth clenched, his vents blowing a little harder as concentration turned into pain.

"Blades?" Heatwave worried, putting a hand on Blades' shoulder as the copter brought his hands to his temples.

"Nnn...! S-So many... Noise... Noise...!" He hissed, his orange aura igniting around him as he shifted into his elemental form. "Y-Yelling...Rushing...! I-It's all too much...! Too much...!"

"Blades, stop. You're going to hurt yourself."

"Ergh... C-Can't...! C-Can't find it! I don't know where-"
His aura flared outward, the soft tendrils lashing at their fields like whips and writhing in pain.

"Blades. Blades!"
Boulder bent down and put his hands on either side of the copter's helm, using his thumbs to pry Blades' optics open gently. "Blades, snap out of it!"

The copter gave a sharp gasp, the white glow in his optics fading back as he collapsed into Boulder's lap.

"Easy, easy...!" Heatwave whispered as he rubbed the copter's back. "Easy... You okay?"

"I-I..." Blades swallowed, "...I lost my bearings... I didn't find him, but then... I couldn't find the way I came in either..." He lifted his optics wearily, "...I'm sorry..."

"Don't sweat it." Heatwave stroked Blades' wings as they twitched, feeling his EM field and energy aura stabilizing once more. "... You did your best."

"Yes... But I'm not enough..." Blades lifted a shaky hand towards the firetruck, "...I might have better chances if we work together..."

"All three of us?" Boulder looked to Heatwave, who shrugged. "Maybe... But if you're already worn out-"

"I-I'm fine."
Blades sat up straight again, holding out his hands. "Please... Let's try, all three of us... Together..."

Boulder and Heatwave looked to one another, and then moved back to their places on either side of the copter, mimicking the same position and taking his hands into theirs. "Okay..."

"Just try to bring his faceplate into your processor, try and see him as if you were talking to him face to face..."

Heatwave closed his optics, feeling Blades squeezing his hand gently, which he returned. He'd never been very good at visualizing things in his processor, not as images like his brother's face, but he tried... Tried to bring it into a place he could 'see' it.

But when an image appeared... It wasn't Chase. It was the face of a terrified teenage boy, the last thing he'd seen as the Virus ran off with him before plunging into the dark. Cody...! I'm sorry! I should've... I wasn't careful...

Heatwave...
Boulder's voice hummed like the ferry's horn through the distance of a foggy morning, ...It wasn't your fault.

It was!
Heatwave released Blades' hand, putting his helm in them as he began to shake. "It was...! I-I didn't... If I hadn't... If I'd just been more careful, more vigilant-"

"Don't talk like that. You didn't know, none of us did." Blades tried.

"I should have known! Cody and Chase are both gone because I didn't-"

"Heatwave, calm down." Boulder murmured, "You're melting again..."

Heatwave pulled his hands down again, looking at them with wide optics as his fingers melded together, and his arms began to droop down. "No... No no no no-"

"Heatwave-"

"S-Stop! Make it stop! Augh!"

"Calm down," Blades placed his hands on Heatwave's shoulders, trying to pull the drooping parts back up into place. "I have a feeling that panicking's not going to help."

"H-How do I stop!? Ugh...!"
The numbness was creeping up into his limbs again, the loss of touch, of sensation. He felt himself falling forward, but couldn't do anything as now he was collapsing into Blades' lap rather than the other way around. "I-I... I can't...! I can't feel...!"

"Just hang in there. Stay awake, okay...!?"

Heatwave wasn't entirely sure he wanted to- being conscious while melting into a pile of goo sounded absolutely terrible.

"Primus, who knew trying to call Chase back was going to be this traumatic of an experience." Boulder hissed.

"You know people don't like to make phone calls these days," Blades remarked, "It's all texting."

"Yeah, but is it really the same as talking to someone face to face? It feels so distant."

"Mmm... People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening- "

Heatwave couldn't believe this. He was literally falling apart and Blades was here singing. "Guys!"

"Sorry." Boulder apologized, "M-Maybe you're just overthinking all of this? I mean, I can't imagine Blades would have gotten control over his elemental form by refusing to let himself go into it when it wanted to emerge."

Heatwave tried to sit up, his torso folding over and his arms limp at his sides. "You think this is the same thing...!? Blades is at least still all in one piece!"

"Uh, excuse me?"
Blades waved his arms, showing his forearms and hands moving further from each other with the motion before moving back together. "I've got no strings, to hold me down or up!"

"Look, all I'm saying is that your element is fluid. It's not solid like mine, it's not rigid. So maybe instead of trying to keep it from moving, you should just... Let it go?"

"Don't you dare start singing too, Boulder."

"Come on... Just relax and let it do what it wants to do."

Easy for him to say, he wasn't melting! Heatwave hated this plan, but as he felt himself dissolving even further, he knew there wasn't much choice... He just hoped Boulder was right. He closed his optics tightly, and then... completely collapsed.

The sounds of the bunker and the hangar vanished, swallowed by a darkness and silence that seemed to pull him down for just a moment... and then he felt the floor below him again, the sensation of cool, flat concrete.

He tried to move, to feel his fingers. They felt cold, but he was able to fold them down against his palms, and then his arm slid across the floor.

"...Better?" Blades' voice murmured.

Heatwave opened his optics, and was met with a vibrance of color he was unprepared for. "Gyah!" He pulled his hands to his optics, rubbing them and grimacing. "Sweet Solus Prime...! What was that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ugh...All the colors...!"
He opened one optic again, wincing at the brightness once more, but facing it long enough for it to dim so he could see. He sat up, looking around.

The color was Blades and Boulder's own auras, pulses of orange and green enveloping them and making them glow. He could also see strands of red, and as he looked down at his hands, he realized it was coming from him... His own red aura. "What...?"

He looked over what parts of himself he could, which turned out to be a lot more than normal. His form had gone from the goopy, drooping mess a moment ago into what could only be described as a liquid metal version of his previous form. Like mercury, his frame shone and reflected the light, the corners in his frame now smooth and his joints able to move in any direction. He even found his neck able to twist all the way around and back again like taffy.

"...I...I'm solid and fluid at the same time...?" He murmured.

"Like peanut butter!" Blades announced.

Heatwave gave his little brother a glare, but then sighed, resting his hands in his lap. "Do you think I'll still be able to work rescues like this...?"

"I think with practice and time to get used to it..." Boulder put a hand on Heatwave's shoulder, "...You can do more rescue than you could before."

Heatwave managed a light smile, "Yours will be solid, Boulder. You're probably gonna be stiff as a rock."

"Rocks can be smooth." Boulder grinned, "Did you know some rocks can even float?"

"That defeats the purpose of a rock, Boulder."

The bulldozer chuckled, his aura flaring out for a moment before settling. "We'll have to see what mine's like, but for now... Do we want to try to call Chase again, or wait?"

"Let's take five." Blades suggested, "But all three of us can do it... I know it."

Heatwave nodded, "Take five... Sounds like a plan..."
____________________________________________________

The Burnses had retreated upstairs while the bots attempted to contact their missing brother, and when they'd seen their holoforms appear in the house, they'd hoped it was good news.

"Anything?" Graham asked.

Boulder shook his head with a sad smile, while Heatwave and Blades both collapsed onto the couch with hard sighs and exhausted expressions. "Not yet. We're taking a break. Take one was... Harder on these two than we were expecting."

"Tell me about it..." Heatwave mumbled, rubbing his eyes with his hands. "I melted again and Blades almost got lost in The Mists."

"I did get lost." Blades murmured, "But you two pulled me back... We're gonna try again tomorrow, all three of us, after some good sleep."

"Mmm..." Chief Burns nodded, "Alright... Any word from Charisma?"

Children.

"Gyah!" Kade jumped as a voice came speaking from nowhere and yet everywhere, nearly falling backwards in his chair. "What was that!?"

"We have word from her now..." Blades smiled as he looked around, "...Hello, Mother."

Hello, Blades... My apologies, Kade Burns. It was not my intention to startle you. I would have contacted you all in person, but the situation has changed.

Kade shook off his frightened expression, trying to play it cool as he stood up and leaned against the table. "It's cool... So you're Charisma, huh? Cool cool."

Heatwave rolled his optics, "What is it? Did you find anything out?"

I have... I have good news and bad news... The good news is that through your collective efforts- though not fully successful in making comprehensive contact- I have located your brothers.

"You have!?" Graham stood up, looking everywhere since he wasn't really sure where the voice was coming from. "Where? Did you get them back?"

I am afraid that is the bad news. I am presently unable to collect them.

"What!?" Kade exclaimed, "Why not!? You're this giant inter-dimensional-"

"Kade, please. Don't be rude." Chief Burns murmured, "I'm sure she has a good reason."

Indeed... As this event has been brought to light and to the elders, it has been found that many worlds suffered such slights as yours did, worldlings being pulled from their realm without their will and thrown to another. As such, until all guilty members can be found and dealt with, the rest of us are required to keep constant vigilance over our own worlds to ensure it does not continue.

"So you can't leave your post to go get them because you have to make sure nobody else goes missing." Graham nodded slowly, "I understand... So what do we do?"

That is why I... 'Called.' While I cannot leave to collect your family from their wayward world... I can send you.

"We'll do it!" Kade announced before any thought could be had. "I will go there by myself if I have to!"

"Kade, calm down." Dani warned, though her expression had the same determined gaze as his.

"We can't just abandon our post here," Boulder worried, "If all of us to just walk off and disappear too, Blurr would have a stroke!"

"Not to mention the Sodorians," Blades informed, "They're on edge enough as it is with their new powers, forms and world they're trapped in."

Heatwave nodded, "I've barely been awake more than twenty-four hours and I'm having trouble keeping myself in one piece right now... I don't think being absent long would tide well for anyone."

If I were to send you... You would not be gone long. Charisma expressed, Seeing as I would be sending you there myself, I could ensure your rapid return. To your realm, you would not be gone more than a few minutes.

"We should still tell the others about it," Dani suggested, "At least so they know what happened when they turn around and Chase and Cody are suddenly back."

"Agreed." Chief Burns crossed his arms, "Charisma, are you able to tell us if the two of them are alright?"

I do not have an exact location or fix on them, I'm afraid. If I send you, there would still be a search within an isolated area, but their signals are both strong, which highly suggests they are both relatively unharmed. I must warn you, however... One of the aspects that delayed my location of them is that it appears that this reality in particular- for reasons I do not know- is absent of Cybertron and its denizens.

"Meaning...?" Blades asked.

Meaning that upon arriving there, Chase himself was transmogrified into a form not that of a cybertronian, and should you also arrive, I have no doubt the same will happen to you... you may awake in a form unlike what you are familiar.

Heatwave shrugged, "Blades and I are already dealing with new forms and stuff, how weird would it be to shape-shift into something else for a few hours?"

Chief Burns put his hands on his hips, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Few hours... Charisma, how close can you get us to them?"

The search has been much like you humans trying to determine the location of a cricket. You know what direction it is coming from, but debris can prevent you from seeing it... However, I have narrowed down the area of searching from an entire reality, down to an area mere miles wide.

"A few miles, we can do." Kade cracked his knuckles, "So we go in, find Cody and Chase, and then bring them back home. Sounds to me like we've got ourselves a plan!"

"Hell yeah we do!" Blades and Boulder grasped each other's hands firmly, "Hold on, guys! We're coming for ya!"

Heatwave nodded, "We're coming..."