Boulder was awakened the next morning by the sound of unfamiliar voices. His systems came online with a start, and for a moment, he was in a panic- but then his memory caught up with the rest of his processor... The Mosaics, everything was fine.

The night before, Boulder had scanned each of them and determined that none of them were in bad enough condition to need additional care- at least not until he was more rested and it was morning. He left them for the evening to retreat to his sleeping quarters, after putting down a few ground rules-

1. No touching the buttons on the Groundbridge or elevator console to see how it works.

2. No roughhousing.

3. Don't go out the giant metal door at the end of the bunker that leads to the tunnels. You WILL get lost.

Apparently, he'd needed to put 'No yelling before 8 AM' on that list as well, as he heard bickering tones from two of them.

He groaned softly, sitting up on his berth and popping his joints with a yawn before getting up and heading for the door. He really needed that sleep- and perhaps more.

He opened the door and wandered down the hall and out towards the common area. "Alright alright alright..." He hummed as he stepped out into the light, "What's the problem?"

The newcomers were spread out across the common area, as were books from the bookshelves, as one of the shelves laid broken in half and its contents spilled to the floor. Thomas, Percy, and Henry all stood in the corner, optics wide and shaking their heads as if denying involvement. Edward and Emily were seated on the couch and appeared to be watching whatever had been playing out beforehand. Cranky was sitting up now, but with his back to the wall and optics closed as if still asleep.

Diesel, Gordon, and James were the ones by the bookshelf, feet slowly shifting on the floor as they tried not to step on any of the scattered tomes. "Good morning?" James greeted nervously.

Boulder placed his hands on his hips, "What's the problem?" He repeated, brow raising.

"James knocked the shelf down, Diesel laughed, Gordon got offended." Cranky mumbled, opening one eye and then closing it again.

"I didn't mean to!" James defended, "I was just bored and trying to get one of the books down and it just fell! Flimsy board."

"Clumsy Steamie!" Diesel mocked.

Boulder lifted a hand to stop James or Gordon from responding, bending down and scooping up the books into his hands gently. "It's okay, James. You're still getting used to having hands, so you probably just put a little too much force on the shelf, that's all."

"Sorry, Boulder..." Percy peeped, "Please don't be mad."

Boulder smiled, "I'm not mad. I get it, really."

He walked over to one of the tables and set the books down in a neat stack, and then overlooked all of them slowly. "How are all of you feeling this morning?"

"We're alright, I guess?" Emily shrugged, "It took a bit to get to sleep cause... well, we kept moving. My arm would move, his leg would move-"

Boulder nodded, and then looked to Cranky. "What about you, Cranky? You doing alright?"

"Don't mind me... I'm not exactly used to moving at all."

"True..."

"Are we going to go back to Sodor today?" Thomas asked.

"That's the plan, assuming no big emergencies come up."

"Emergencies?"

The bulldozer grinned, "You didn't think I lived in a firehouse and didn't help with emergencies, did you?" He stood up straight and proud, "My brothers and I are part of Griffin Rock's first response team. We go out and rescue and protect the civilians of the island from just about every catastrophe you could dream of, but let's not blow your minds too much today, huh? You all went through a lot yesterday, after all. And, there's still a lot that I'm sure we'll uncover today that will do the same, especially technology."

"What do you mean?"

"Invention and technological advances jolted forward by leagues all throughout the twentieth century, and as we are almost a fourth through the next century, there's a lot of stuff here that people in nineteen-twenty-five would have never even thought was possible."

They then heard a hum, and Boulder looked up as the elevator began to lower from garage level. "Like Hydraulic elevators..." He mumbled, walking towards the platform as it came to a stop. He was relieved it was Quickshadow coming down and not Blurr- he did not have the energy to deal with the speedster just yet this morning. "Morning, Quickshadow."

"Good morning, Boulder..." Quickshadow replied, looking over the others. "I thought I heard new voices down here."

"Yeah, it's a long story. Everyone, this is Quickshadow, she's a friend of mine. Quickshadow, these are-"
He paused a moment, what should he call them as a collective...? "...The Sodorians."

"Hello, everyone." Quickshadow greeted with a wave, and then turned back to Boulder, shifting to internal comms. Any updates?

Other than them? No... They arrived last night.

The femme's shoulders slumped as she shook her helm, You guys just can't get a break, can you?

No... And with Blades off with Bee, that leaves me the only one here, and then they need help too and I told them I would-

Boulder.
Quickshadow placed her hands on his shoulders, her gaze focused. If you need us to keep an optic on things here, we will. We told you we would help any way we can.

I know, but I don't wanna push so much pressure on you guys-

"So..."
They turned as Diesel piped up, "You having some sort of secret conversation or something?"

Boulder lifted a hand to request they wait a moment, and then looked back to the femme. ...You sure you can handle it on your own?

You trained Blurr and Salvage, High Tide's been here for a while, and I've been here with you long enough to have a general idea of how to control these types of situations... Go ahead. We'll call you if we need you.

Boulder sighed, his shoulders slumping, and then he nodded. "Okay... Thank you, Quickshadow."

"You're welcome..."
She then walked past the Sodorians and down the hall out of sight.

"Nice to meet you too...?" Emily mumbled.

"Don't be offended by it," Boulder assured, "She has a hard time opening up to let new people get to know her... Now, step two for this morning is going to be getting you all some energon to keep you from fainting like Percy did yesterday."

"What's step one?"

"To avoid trouble, I want everyone to have buddies while we're on Sodor. Just in case we somehow get separated."

"Me and Percy will be buddies!" Thomas announced, grabbing onto his best friend's hand.

"Perfect... Anybody else have preferences?"

"As long as I don't have to be with Diesel...!" Gordon grumbled, and the majority of the group seemed to share the sentiment.

Boulder rolled his optics, "Alright, then... Diesel, you'll be with me. Cranky, you and Emily. Gordon and Edward, James and Henry. Sound fair?"

There was a general mumbling of agreement, and Diesel just crossed his arms and stuck his tongue out at his fellow engines. He must not get along with them well back home either if they were all so adamant about not being around him.

"Good. Now... Follow me down the hall, if you don't mind."

Boulder led them down the corridor, passing by the sleeping quarters and the medical bay on their way to the storage room. He tried not to look at the medical bay door as he passed it, he tried not to let himself start the day sad.

He pushed the door open and the Sodorians followed him inside, looking with wide optics at the stacks of energon cubes.

"Wow... You preparing for winter?" James teased.

Boulder smiled, "Sort of... Energon's a bit harder to find these days. We keep this stockpile here in case of emergency."

"What kind of emergencies?" Percy asked.

Boulder's smile faded a bit, "...Trust me... you don't want to know."
He couldn't stop his processor from replaying the memory of Blades frantically running in here to collect cubes of energon, whispering things under his breath about how much Heatwave had lost to his wounds...

The Sodorians seemed to detect that they'd struck something sensitive, and didn't speak any further.

Boulder went to one of the stacks and collected a cube from it. "That being said, it can last you a while if you don't push yourself to the limit all day, which we're going to try to avoid today..."

It took a few minutes for all of the Sodorians to open the cubes and consume them- it was fortuitous that when they were changed, they seemed to have gained the learned skill of drinking fluids and swallowing it.

Once they were all finished, Boulder set the cubes aside and guided them back towards the Groundbridge.

"Now, the only thing I want to worry about accomplishing today is getting a general overview of things. We don't have to solve the mystery today, but we need to look for clues that might explain where the humans went."

"Will that explain how we all got here like this?" Emily asked.

Boulder hummed slowly, "...I hope to figure that out too, but let's focus on one thing at a time."

The Sodorians nodded, and then Boulder tapped on the console for a few moments, and then the portal emerged. "Alright then... Let's see what we can find..."