SNOWBLAST POV

It's an awfully foggy morning today, making visibility minimal. So do us all a favor and stay in your homes and off the streets if you can, until it burns off because you know who doesn't wanna have to pull five cars out of the ocean before noon? Me!

Thank you for that important and informative safety announcement, Heatwave. This is Penny Daniels, and you're watching Griffin Rock Weather! Now back to Huxley Prescott for another episode of... 'I DARE ME!' Let's hope it doesn't result in property damages this time...

I looked up from my book and rolled my optics as my uncle and the weatherwoman's faces disappeared from the screen, "I think Huxley needs to stop his stunt show, we're on almost 100 episodes now and we're running out of space for potential 'Here's What Not to Do' segments for the rescue training videos."

Da chuckled as he entered the front room. "I get anxiety from watching those videos, and I'm in most of them saving his butt!"

"You get anxiety from everything, Blades!" Blurr hollered from somewhere else in the bunker.

Da rolled his optics and then placed his hands on his hips as he headed for the elevator. "Okay, I gotta go and get the recruits ready for today's assignment."

"The Training Center?" I forgot all about Huxley's antics for the moment, "Can I come with?"

"I need you to stay here, Snowy."

And with that, the enthusiasm was gone like the Phantom Voyager. "Oh come on, you never let me come with."

"Because if I take you with me, then that means leaving Downpour in charge of the other sparklings, and we both know what happens when anyone does that."

I gave a nod of agreement, stroking my chin with a hand. "Right... Lemme see. Jolt got eaten by Squilsh that Downpour let out to prove she could handle a full-team emergency on her own and failed miserably."

"Right. So since Chief's replacement and his family are arriving here on the ferry today, I need you to keep the littler ones under wraps until the Burnses can get them all situated. We don't wanna have to drop the bomb on them like we did with the Burnses way back when."

"In your defense, a rampaging Trex is very much an emergency and reason to drop your cover."

"So you see my point."

I sighed but gave a smile. "Okay... You can count on me, Da."

"Good mech."

Da gave me a quick peck on the cheek, "I shouldn't be gone more than half an hour, I just got to get them started on a scavenger hunt at Course 15. Your aunt can cover the rest. You can handle five little bots that long, right?"

"Have Jack and Jolt build a pillow fort and that'll keep the triplets occupied for hours. Piece of Energon Pie."

Da grinned and then hurried out of the bunker, "Love you to Cybertron and back!"

"Love you too..." I replied, waiting until he was out of earshot before finishing as my cheeks burned. "...But Primus, you're so embarrassing..."

"Aww...! You two are so cute."

My grip on the book tightened a little as I looked in their direction, "Butt out, Downpour. You're just jealous because Uncle Heatwave's love language is grunting and punches to the shoulders and upper torso."

Downpour was leaned against the wall, her arms crossed and tail swishing back and forth. "Your dad is such a weirdo. He still treats you like a baby!"

"And your dad acknowledges that you never left the 'Entitled Toddler' stage, so I guess we're even."

I dodged an empty energon cube hurled at my helm, "I don't hear you denying it."

"Ugh! You're such a pain in the aft, you know that!?"

"Says the person who had a headbutting contest with Mr. Bufkin's bull and now has a permanent dent in her shoulder."

"Ha! Says the person who runs away from roosters."

"Those things are from the devil and you know it! Anyways, that's not the point, it-"

I paused as I heard a slurping sound, and turned to see Jack standing in the front of the hall, an energon cube in one hand as he sipped it through a straw and he wore a straw hat and lei.

"Am I interrupting?" He asked, a grin on his face as he knew exactly why we were both staring at him.

I couldn't stop the smile that formed on my lips, "...Jack, please tell me you've got an umbrella in that cube too."

"Hey, my dad said to stay fueled, but he never said I couldn't do it in style. He hardly wears the Hawaiian outfit unless he's watching Hawaii Five-0 anyways."

I shook my head with a chuckle, "You always knew how to diffuse a tense situation, Jack... Hey, could you and Jolt build a fort to keep the triplets from chewing up the playroom?"

"That playroom will be a tropical paradise by the time I'm done with it!" He announced, and then headed back down the hall, "Jolt, grab the tarps! We're making waves in this place!"

I turned back to Downpour, but she'd disappeared back around the corner, and I was quite content to return to my book. "Piece of Energon Pie..."

________________________________________________________________________

CASSIE POV

"...Cassie, please don't frown like that."

I tried to pull the corners of my lips upward a little to lessen the look of pure misery, but I still frowned. It was cold, wet, and foggy all around me, my stomach was protesting the rocking of the ferry under my feet, and the reason for it all was that we were moving.

The choice to move seemed to come out of nowhere. There had been no warning signs, no hints in my parents' conversations, a total bombshell on me and my sister. Apparently some tiny town on an island off the coast of Maine had been looking for a new police chief, and out of all of the police officers in America, my dad won the law enforcement lottery. He wouldn't be taking over immediately, but would be spending the next year or so getting situated and trained to take over once the old chief retired.

We'd been so engrained into our old hometown in Rhode Island that when my dad had announced we were leaving, everyone else seemed as shocked as I was. I'd spent almost my entire life there, and now I was being uprooted and moved to somewhere I'd never even heard of.

My sister Rita was more excited by the concept. Though we were both adopted and she was technically my cousin, we were so close in age that she referred to me as her twin. For as long as I could remember we did almost everything together, and I was so grateful for her coming along with me on this unwanted adventure. She was currently clinging to a rope to keep her balance and hollering things about a giant squid coming at us, being her generally childish self whenever she thought I needed cheering up, and I definitely needed cheering up right now.

"Stay alert, men! He's a slippery little guy!" She announced, peering out into the fog with narrowed eyes.

I groaned, looking out as well, and wishing something would come out of the fog so I could focus on it and ease my sea-sickness.

My mom came up to me, putting her hands on my shoulders and massaging them gently, "Not much longer, Cassie..."

"I hope so..." I moaned, "...Why couldn't we just fly everything to Griffin Rock? I prefer the air...!"

"Do you have any idea how much it would cost to deliver everything by plane?" My dad asked with a grin, "But don't worry, this move will be good for all of us."

"Telling me that this island is full of people the world would consider 'odd' doesn't help my confidence, Dad."

Rita gave a grin, "But there might be another seven-footer there, Cass!"

Yeah, being a seven-foot, fourteen-year-old girl was no picnic. People tend to ask six-footers how the weather is up there, I get asked how space is; it's quiet and lacks your dumb face, thank you very much. Being adopted, nobody really knew where I got my height from, but I had a feeling it had to do with another oddity of mine... I'm a cyborg.

Nobody outside of my family knew this, of course. There was no damn way my parents were gonna let some lab take me away to be experimented on, and so ever since I'd been a toddler and we'd discovered my circuitry, we all had done our very best to keep it a secret.

It hadn't been easy, though; as I'd gotten older, more and more often it would seem to glitch out, sending sparks of electricity out that would shock every kid in the hall via their lockers, or I'd sneeze and the next thing I knew my hair was free-floating for a moment. I'd tried to take it in stride, but it's hard to be proud of something when you don't even know why you have it or what it could possibly be used for.

My mom's grip on my shoulders tightened a little as the ferry's horn blew out loudly, and we all turned towards the cabin as the driver leaned his head out the window.

"Land ho! Land ho!" He announced.

I looked ahead, and out of the fog I could see a lighthouse's beam cutting through the haziness. Finally, solid ground was within view.

The docks and quite a few boats came into view as we got closer, and as the ferry came up to the docks, I collected myself and carefully walked down the ramp and onto land once more. Ah, sweet solid, non-rocking ground, it met me with open arms as my legs gave out and I crashed into the grass. Rita laughed, coming over and plopping down beside me just for fun. I whacked her with my oversized sweatshirt sleeve, which made her laugh harder.

"Nice to see we're in good spirits this morning."

Both of us sat up as an unfamiliar voice came out of the fog, and an older man dressed in a police uniform stepped up to my dad and held a hand out to him. "Officer Harris."

"Ned." My dad corrected with a grin, "And you must be my mentor."

"Call me Charlie if you like, but Chief is just fine." He turned to the pair of us on the ground, and gave a chuckle, "And you two must be Rita and Cassie."

"You catch on fast!" Rita announced, getting up and then yanking me to my feet as well.

"I hope the trip from the Mainland was smooth?"

"I wouldn't call it 'smooth...'" I muttered, noticing a pair of headlights and then the car it belonged to as the fog lifted a little. "...That your cruiser?"

Chief grinned, "He is indeed, and he'll be your father's when I'm done training him... Hard to give him up."

"Well, you still got a year, Chief." My dad reminded, "What's the first course of action?"

"I'd like to take you over to the station and get all set up there, it's just a few buildings down from both the Firehouse where I live and your new residence."

My mom patted my dad's shoulder, "You two get going, then. The girls and I will take the car and moving truck to the house."

"Good plan."

"I'll send my kids over to help you unload, Mrs. Harris."

"You don't have to do that."

"No, but I'll bet they're a little bored right now and need something to do. You can follow me, so you don't get lost in this fog."

I sighed, brushing grass off of my butt as I made my way back towards the car. At least the car wouldn't be rocking back and forth...