BLADES POV

Getting the recruits ready took longer than I'd expected; but then again, of course it had, Hot Shot was involved. I don't know why I thought it would go as planned, or why Medix had thought so too.

It was nearly noon when I returned to the Firehouse, peering out cautiously in case the Harrises were still around. The garage was empty of both bot and human, but it was not silent. At least, not down below. The ground trembled under my feet and loud shouting was coming from downstairs in the bunker, the voices of the two eldest sparklings disagreeing about something.

Of course they were.

When Downpour had joined Snowblast, I had initially been excited; finally, another little bot for him to play with and befriend, but that friendship hadn't lasted long. The biggest issue was that they didn't agree on who should be 'In Charge.'
Snowblast didn't really want to be in charge, but he also didn't take orders from her because he was the older of the two. Downpour meanwhile, tried to force her will on him because she was bigger and her father was the leader of the Rescue Bots, so obviously she was the leader of the Rescue Sparklings.

It was an ongoing feud that the other five sparklings kept out of for the most part, but occasionally the twins would step in, being the natural peacekeepers that they were, and try to reduce the strain of the situation.

I activated the elevator and the noise immediately stopped as it lowered into the bunker. I waited until I'd reached the bottom and it had come to a stop before looking for evidence of the scuffle. What I found was Snowblast perched up on a platform in the corner, back turned to Downpour, whose legs were tied together, leaving her on her back and struggling to get loose. "What in Cybertron is going on down here!?" I demanded.

"Ask the Mechs!" Downpour hissed, "Snowblast locked the elevator from down here, and then Jack hogtied me!"

Jack poked his head out of the fort they'd forged in the corner, "Pele threatened our island paradise, she had to be detained!" He insisted.

I bent down and started to untie Downpour's legs, "I'm pretty sure that Pele was the Hawaiian goddess of fire, which is the opposite of Downpour's abilities, Jack."

"Not her personality, though!" Jolt announced, before disappearing into the fort again.

Downpour gave a growl as she pulled herself back up onto her feet, and I looked up at my son, who had neither spoken nor moved since I entered the bunker. "And you didn't help her?"

"She didn't ask," Snowblast mumbled, still not looking at me.

I gave a sigh, "If you wait for the person in danger to ask for help, it might be too late."

"It's not like he's any good at it anyway."
My glare shifted to Downpour as she transformed into bot mode to cross her arms. "Well, he isn't."

"I wasn't talking to you, Downpour. And that's what training is for."

Snowblast didn't move, but I saw the ice creeping out from under his feet and I could feel his anger. Still, I didn't know who it was aimed at, himself or Downpour.

"Whatever." Downpour muttered as she started towards the hall, and then the alarm buzzed. "Trouble."

There's been a break-in up at Doc Greene's lab. Chief Burns' voice stated over the comms. We don't know if anything's been taken yet, but I want you five up here to help search for clues.

"All eight of us?" Snowblast asked curiously, "Do you think that's really necessary?"

I gave a nod, "We're on our way... Blurr, you're on babysitting duty!"

"Dang it!" I heard the speedster holler from down the hall.

"Grab a spare ration, Jack. Just in case."

Jack nodded, tapping his chest compartment. "I've got three in here already."

Though he had mostly grown out of the malformed energon processor issue he was born with, it hadn't repaired itself completely, leaving the young bot needing a special energon concoction as fuel. "Let's go, Sis!"
Jolt jumped onto her brother's back as he hurried her over to the elevator. "Off we go on a merry adventure!"

"Forward, Brother!"

I couldn't help but giggle at their antics, and then led the older pair after them. I placed a hand on Snowblast's shoulder, lowering my voice to a whisper. "Don't worry about what Downpour says, just do your best."

"I know, Da..." He mumbled, "...She's right though."

"No, she isn't. You gotta stop telling yourself that you'll always fail, or that's all you'll get... You'll find your niche and then prove everyone wrong, I know it."

A smile began to emerge, but I was disappointed when it didn't last. It was true that he was struggling in his rescue training, but he wasn't failing. His greatest strength was that he didn't get frustrated when the mission wasn't going like he'd planned. He would disregard Downpour's frantic orders and follow his own instinct, guiding the others to a usual success.

I had tried to point this out to him, but he just couldn't get over the one thing he couldn't do that everyone else could, the thing that Downpour was always pointing out: He couldn't transform. He couldn't shift from his pterosaurian form into one with proper hands to catch falling victims, and sometimes the humans were too small to grasp properly with his taloned feet, risking injury if he tried to snag them.

I watched him many nights standing on top of the Firehouse trying harder and harder to transform until his energy would run out. I wished I could help him, but it was something only he could do for himself.

The five of us left the bunker, and I threw my own feelings to the back of my processor as we hurried outside and then I transformed into helicopter mode. Snowblast followed me into the air, while Downpour and the twins ran ahead of us on foot or wheels.

Worrying about my son would have to wait, right now, we had a job to do...

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CASSIE POV

We had gone out to brunch with the Burnses and three of their robot partners, stopping at an older bistro in downtown. By then, it was late enough in the morning that I wasn't nearly as cranky, but I still didn't know how I felt about this arrangement. The people we'd met were all nice enough, but I couldn't help but look at the three still sitting outside in vehicle mode. I couldn't see their faces, they could be staring at me and I wouldn't even know!

I tried to keep my back to them, nibbling on my breakfast burrito while the adults all chatted and got to know one another. Rita wouldn't stop asking questions about the island and the tech, so any questions I might possibly have had in my mind were answered in some way or another. The way they just talked about the giant robots like it was normal made me wonder just how long the entire town had known about this big secret. Years, decades? Just how old were they...?

I had shoved the last bit of my burrito into my mouth when a sudden chirp rang from all of the Burnses' commlinks, and then once again we were all on the move again, thanks to a break-in at a lab up on the mountain cliffs. Seriously, did anyone spend more than an hour at any one place on this island!?

I sat in the back seat of Chase, my head down like a criminal on the way to prison as we zoomed up the hills, but my attention was caught by the view from up here. I had complained about not flying before, but mainly because I'd missed out on the view from above. I loved heights, and as I looked out and over the cliffs, I could see the town below, the docks, and then the ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see. A very small spot on the horizon suggested another island out there, and as soon as we came to a stop at the top, I was out and breathing in the cold, crisp mountain air blowing past me. This was my element, above the world amongst the clouds.

"Enjoying the view?" Cody asked.

For once, I gave a happy nod. "Very much..."

My attention was then caught by something else coming up the hill after us, and my eyes widened as an odd car, and a robot stegosaurus and brachiosaurus came up and joined us at the top.

"Ha! Slowpokes...!" The brachiosaur mocked as she looked back.

Heatwave transformed and crossed his arms, "Ahem... I don't think Chief Burns called you up here to race, Downpour."

"Ugh! You're such a buzzkill, Dad!"

I nodded slowly, remembering that Heatwave had mentioned them having kids earlier.

Downpour came up to Heatwave, while the other two ran up to Chase and gave grinning salutes. "Here to help!" They announced.

"Oh good, you're here!"
Another man with graying dreadlocks came rushing out of the building, followed by a woman and a young girl of about 7. "I was working on my newest project when I heard the window in the storage room shatter. I haven't uncovered if anything was taken yet, but it's such a big room, I-"

"Calm down, Doc." Chief Burns interrupted. "We'll help you check it out... Cody, wait out here with the girls until Blades and Snowblast arrive, and then have them circle the place to look for clues from above."

Cody nodded and then the humans and the cybertronians all headed around back.

"Why are they like that?" I muttered.

"Hmm?" Cody asked.

"The kids... Why're they all dinosaurs? I mean, that one wasn't, but-"

"I get it... Well, the Rescue Bots are what's called Multi-Changers. While most cybertronians have two forms: bot and vehicle, some, like the Rescue Bots have more than two. They all also have dinosaur forms and Heatwave even has a boat form, and so when they had kids, the sparklings had that genetic trait and mimicked their dinobot forms. It's possible that when they're fully grown they'll be able to take on vehicle modes too, but for now, they're all dinobots except for Jack."

I crossed my arms, "Sounds too confusing for my tastes."

Cody chuckled, "You're getting all of this information at once, we learned it over several years and by working with them every day... It'll get easier, I promise."

So many promises were being made, how many of them could actually be kept?

My attention was caught by a screeching cry, and I looked down to see something flying up at us at a rapid speed. As it got closer, I saw it was another of the dinobot children, but this one was a pterosaur, and they swooped up past us and then began circling the building as a helicopter joined them.

"Blades, you and Snowblast check the perimeter from up there!" Cody hollered over the wind.

"Can do!" The helicopter informed.

Snowblast, as the pterosaur seemed to be named, paused in his circling to look at me. There was something about his expression, something I seemed to know but couldn't place...

A strong gust nearly knocked out of the sky, but he flapped his wings hard and regained his stability against the gusts. "I'm good!" He assured us, and then hurried after Blades without another word.

I watched his pure white and blue shape smoothly glide over the roof and then out of sight, and I bit my lip. Why did he seem so familiar when we'd never seen each other before...?