CASSIE POV

The streets were practically barren of people, except for the occasional shop owner setting up outside their businesses. They all waved at us with wide smiles, though I couldn't help but wonder if it was really Chief Burns they were waving at. They'd recognize his car, anyway.

We split off from Dad and Chief Burns in front of the official station, then went down five buildings down to our new house, passing the Firehouse on the way. As the fog began to lift, I could make out three garage doors, some sort of helicopter pad on the roof and the entire building was made of brick. With the lights inside being out, it seemed creepy and ominous in the fog.

Our new house was also brick and was a two-story with my parents' room and all of the main rooms on the bottom floor, and then me and Rita's rooms and a spare bathroom upstairs. As we pulled up into the driveway and then climbed out of the car, I saw four more people coming up.

"Burns kids here to help, Mrs. Harris." The youngest informed, a young man in his early twenties and with messy blond hair.

"Aha!" Mom walked over and shook their hands, "With seven people, unloading the first load will be a piece of cake! I'm Reagan, and these are my girls, Rita and Cassie."

"Nice to meet you all." The woman grinned, shaking our hands as well. "I'm Dani, and this is my husband Taylor, and my little brothers Graham and Cody. Just tell us where you want it, and we'll get it there."

"Great! Let's get to work, then!"

Everyone seemed much too cheery for how early it was, and I still didn't like this arrangement. As I grabbed a box and started up the walk, I felt another jolt coming on, and I picked up the pace. It was like knowing you were going to sneeze, but then it took its own sweet time. I placed the box down on the counter, and then found the first room I could reach and rushed inside, closing the door behind me. I released the handle just in time for the jolt to escape and zip upwards. The lights all flashed on for a moment, and then went out once again, and I hoped that none of the Burnses had seen it.

"What was that?" I heard Graham ponder, and I kept completely silent for a moment before peeking out of the room. "Cassie, you okay?"

"Y-Yeah." I stammered, "I was just startled by the lights."

"Hmm... I'll take a look at the electrical box. Hopefully, there isn't an issue with the wiring."

"That'd suck," I muttered, hurrying back out of the house again to collect another box. "Stay cool...Stay cool..."

Rita placed a hand on my shoulder, "You're okay, just take a deep breath."

"Right... Sorry."

I looked over as a streetlight flickered back on; apparently my jolt had taken out more than the house lights. "...Great."

My eyes caught movement in the fog, and I saw someone standing on the sidewalk by the stop sign, but when I blinked, they were gone.

"Cass, you gonna help unload or what?"

I turned back to my mom as she spoke, "Huh? Oh, yeah. I was just..."

I looked back, making sure whatever it was was truly gone. "...Just a trick of the fog. Nothing to worry about."

"Right. Now take this from me before my old bones drop it."

"Haha. You're not that old, Mom..."

I took the box inside and this time checked which room it belonged in before putting it down in the living room.

Cody looked at me with a smile, "Don't worry, you'll like Griffin Rock once you get used to it."

"It at least has a library, right?" Rita asked, "If it doesn't even have that, then I am going to lose my mind pretty quick."

Cody grinned, "There's a library, a museum, plenty of shops and hiking trails up the mountain, not to mention all of the tech."

"What do you mean?"

"Griffin Rock is a technological testing ground." Dani announced as she carried a box into the kitchen, "Most of the emergencies we respond to are due to inventions and science experiments going awry. Robotic lawnmowers, super mentos bombs, etc."

Rita's eyes lit up, "Do you have flying cars!?"

Cody's eyes twinkled with mischief, "We do have one on the island, and my family has access to tech even better than flying cars, Rita... We'll have to show you later."

I didn't like how confident he seemed that I'd like this surprise he seemed to have in store, but I tried not to let it bother me. I was here now, there was nothing that could change that, so I might as well get used to it...

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Unloading didn't take long, especially with so many more people helping. I unrolled the sleeping bag I'd be using the first night until we could get the bed reassembled and then plopped down on it for a few minutes, staring up at the ceiling and surrounded by boxes of my belongings.

That moment of solitude and quiet was then ended by Rita telling me that we were heading down to the firehouse to meet up with Dad and Chief Burns again. Joy.

I got up and we walked down the street, and I was both grateful and disappointed that the fog had finally lifted because while I could see where we were going now, that meant that everyone else could see me. I kept my head down and my hood up, not even acknowledging the townsfolk as they waved at us passing.

On top of Chief Burns being there, another couple also stood at the door as we arrived, the man in a fireman's uniform and leaning against the firetruck parked inside beside a bulldozer. "Hey, why the long face?" He asked me.

"Many reasons, I'm afraid..." I muttered.

"Don't be like that." My mom scolded gently, "Sorry about her, she's just not a morning person... I'm Reagan Harris and this is Rita and Cassie."

"Kade Burns and this is my wife, Haley. Welcome to the club."

I saw a little toddler come running over, and then rush up into Dani's arms. "And this is my son, Isaac!" Dani introduced, ruffling the little one's messy hair.

Rita was already rushing into the garage and looking around. "Whoa! Look at all of this stuff!" She gaped as she overlooked some of the tech lying around. "It's like you brought back stuff from a hundred years from now!"

"Don't touch anything, Rita!" Mom warned, "We don't know what it does!"

"Glad to see somebody's happy to be here..." Kade teased, and I just crossed my arms with a pout.

"Why do we have to be here if my dad's the only one who's gonna be working with this stuff?" I questioned, "I don't need to know how it works!"

The Burnses all looked at each other with smirks; they all knew something and seemed content to leave us in the dark.

Finally, Chief Burns and Dad rolled into the garage, parking on the other side of the firetruck and then climbing out. "Oh good, you're all here!" Chief Burns announced, "We can get started then."

"On what, exactly...?" I inquired.

"Would you stop being so rude?" Rita hissed, "Isn't this cool?"

"Maybe to you, but I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what's going on. I didn't exactly get a say in us coming out here to the middle of nowhere."

"Suddenly finding yourself living in a new place can be daunting, and especially frustrating if things work differently there." Chief Burns grinned, "But we Burnses are experienced in that sort of thing, that's actually one of the reasons we asked you to come by here now. We want you all to be let in on a secret Griffin Rock is keeping from everyone, and I mean everyone..."

He then turned to the vehicles, giving a nod. "Bots...Care to introduce yourselves?"

The firetruck was the first to respond to Chief Burns, and my pout quickly changed to wide eyes of shock as all three of the vehicles rolled forward a few feet, and then out of nowhere, they started to change shape. Wheels and treads pulled back and up, arms and legs unfolded out of their sides, and then heads emerged from the top, their cabs now forming their chests and still holding their seats, as if you could still sit inside of them even when they were walking around.

Within seconds, they were towering over us, with hands big enough to just scoop us up and throw us over their shoulders like salt. And yet... I wasn't afraid.

Neither was Rita, apparently, because she came marching right up to the firetruck's foot before knocking on it. "Did you feel that?"

The robots looked at each other for a minute, and then the green bulldozer gave a laugh. "Oh, we've got nothing to worry about, Heatwave." He replied in a deep but soft tone. He bent down as low to our level as he could, "My name's Boulder."

"Rita Harris, at your service!"

Her entire hand was barely visible between two of his fingers, but he was being very gentle with my sister as he shook her hand.

The firetruck nodded, "And I'm Heatwave and this is Chase."

Chase gave a salute to my dad. "Officer Harris."

My dad shook out of his own shocked gaze and then returned the salute. "...Chase. I take it that this is why you wanted us to come to the island so far ahead of time."

"Yes..." Chief Burns patted Chase's leg, "Chase and I have been working together for many years now, and it'll be hard letting him go to someone else, but I know that given time, you two will learn how to work together just as well as we do."

Rita was bouncing up and down, "Where did you guys come from!? You're so big! How much can you lift? Did you all come here disassembled in boxes!?"

"Whoa! Slow down there, Slugger!"

Two more robots were suddenly present as well, the purple one being the one to speak. "And that's coming from me!"

"This is Blurr," the other introduced, "And I'm Salvage. We're what you might call 'Team B' for the Rescue Bots."

"Backup for when we need an extra hand, or when we're busy and need someone to tend to a separate emergency." Boulder informed, "And no, we didn't come in boxes. We came in a spaceship."

"Cool...!"

Finally, it was my turn to speak. "How many of you are there...Exactly?"

"Here on the island? Erm... Sixteen when we're all home." Dani answered, "These five, plus my partner Blades who's off on a mission off the island right now, two more that are on Team B, and then there are seven sparklings, that being their kids, and then Servo the rescue dog-bot."

"You have a dog too!?" Rita looked about ready to burst from excitement. "This is awesome!"

I could help but agree with her... It was certainly something of awe.