Chapter Seven | The Truck Wash

Carmen awoke with a groan—the girl turning on her side to check the electric clock next to her bed. It was just past two in the morning.

In seconds, she realized whatever it was that had woken her up was coming from outside. She recognized Dani's voice along with a few unfamiliar others. Whatever was happening was going on directly outside her window.

She huffed, turning on her stomach to try and fall back asleep. Unfortunately, with the outside racket, it seemed to be an impossible feat.

"For fuck's sake..." She muttered, pulling herself out of bed and shoving on a loose pair of shorts and slippers.

She only wore t-shirts and undergarments to bed.

Carmen was quick to wander out of her room and down the dark firehouse hall. As she passed by Kade's bedroom door, she raised a brow at the loud snoring coming from inside. Seeing as he left his door open in case of an emergency, she had no problem peaking in and scoffing at her cousin.

His large muscular form was adorned only in a wife-beater and striped boxers. Half the blanket was thrown across him as he slept on his back, his mouth open with loud snores falling from it. His red hair which was normally neat and slicked was messy.

Perhaps anyone not related to him might think Kade to be cute or handsome... Carmen on the other hand looked at the firefighter who was basically an older brother with disgust. Because how the hell could anyone snore so loudly?

Continuing on, she passed by Graham's door—the engineer sleeping quietly on his side, his blanket drawn over him completely. Dani had not been in her room, confirming Carmen's suspicions of her being part of the noise outside of her bedroom window.

Carmen was quick to go down the stairs, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. As much as she loved her cousin, Carmen was not afraid to chew whoever was keeping her awake at such an ungodly hour out.

She noticed right away upon being downstairs that the garage door was the slightest bit ajar. Carmen pushed through it—immediately starting down the wooden garage stairs. The middle garage door was wide open allowing a cool breeze into the garage, Dani's voice was coming from somewhere outside the open garage.

As she hit the ground and started toward the open garage, she called out for her cousin.

"Dani! What're you doing outside of my window? I can't sleep!" She had no shame in yelling.

Because she gave no fucks: if she was getting no sleep then she cared little if anyone else did.

It went eerily silent once she called out—Dani quickly stopped talking along with the unfamiliar murmuring voices.

"Uhm, hello?!" Carmen rounded the corner, storming outside the garage with a scowl.

To her confusion, Dani was standing there with the four rescue bots lined in front of her. They were standing still, their forms tall and their visors drawn as they typically were. Dani was in front of them, but her head was now tilted toward Carmen as though she had been found with her hand in the cookie jar.

Carmen's brows furrowed, the girl huffing while crossing her arms over her chest.

"What are you even doing out here, it's almost three in the morning!"

Dani laughed, scratching the back of her head and quickly speaking.

"Sorry, I heard the bots wandering around out here... they were glitching so I had to do a few vocal commands to make them purge themselves of the malfunction. Honestly, walking around and snooping when they are meant to be recharging..." She sighed at the end before turning to Chase. "Police Bot—what is the status of the system malfunction?"

Chase answered the most robotic of all of them, staring straight ahead blankly. "System functions: optimal. Ready for nightly recharge mode."

It sounded almost... too robotic. To Carmen, at least. But she was far too tired to question it, and even then, who the fuck told a robot it sounded too robotic?

"Good," Dani nodded her head overdramatically. "In which case go recharge in the bunker, all of you... please...."

"Affirmative," All of them echoed.

The Fire Bot was the first to walk away at Dani's command. Carmen watched it go with furrowed brows—especially when all of them followed after the Fire Bot almost like ducks.

"What the actual fuck? So they were just wandering around up here? That's so creepy—it's giving robot takeover vibes!" Carmen turned to her cousin with a grimace.

Dani pursed her lips with a nod. "Uhm, yep, yeah... super weird... but they're harmless even when they do glitch out—their programming would never allow harm to come to a person no matter what." She explained, walking toward Carmen and aligning an arm over her shoulder. "Let alone them hurting anyone. But let's go back to back to bed... I need at least a few more hours of sleep before the first inevitable rescue of the day..." She sighed, her nightgown shifting as she walked.

The garage door automatically closed behind them as they walked into the threshold of the garage. The rescue bots had already taken the large lift down from the garage and into the bunker.

Carmen, as much as she liked and thought the rescue bots were cool—especially the Fire Bot—was now beginning to get slightly weirded out by them. Just the thought of them reminded her of The Terminator or any other movie where Artificial Intelligence takes over the world.

Were the rescue bots the first wave of this?

Was she destined to either be killed or forced to marry one of those robots?

Okay, woah, Carmen recognized she had to put those thoughts to a slow. Because what the fuck even was that? Talk about dramatic. It's like Dani assured her, the rescue bots were harmless.

The girls walked onto the floor of their bedroom quietly, mumbling goodnight before going into their respective rooms. When Carmen made her way into her dark room, only slightly lit up by a dim night light—she fell practically face-first into her bed before cuddling under the blankets.

It physically hurt her to know that she would be forced to start school the day after tomorrow.

At least on nights like this, she had the peace of knowing she could sleep in for as long as she wanted. Unfortunately, when school and Uncle Charlie were in the same sentence, that would not be possible unless she was sick.

With a huff, her breathing was quick to even out, and was pulled into the land of dreams.

——————

Carmen, thankfully, slept through the first emergency of the day. An emergency that came later than usual for the Burns—a relaxed 9:05 AM. Carmen herself did not wake up until lunch—a lazy 12:17 PM.

And even then it was because Charlie was pounding at her door claiming that she could not sleep the entire day away. Apparently he was giving Kade and Dani his card to take her back-to-school shopping.

That had Carmen shooting up with slight excitement. Her mother never took her back-to-school shopping. In fact, the last time her mom had even taken Carmen shopping or paid for any of Carem's clothing had to be when she was thirteen.

Carol expected Carmen to pay for any new things that she wanted. It was clear that despite Carol loving her daughter, she had other bills and a younger son that she had to focus on when it came to payments.

That meant that she could not afford to buy Carmen many things.

Carmen did not do her makeup for the day—choosing to wear simple black shorts and a t-shirt. Along with that, a pair of chucks were the way to go.

She was racing downstairs and putting her hair up in a messy bun as she went.

Downstairs, she was met with Charlie chilling on the couch watching the national news channel while Kade and Dani argued in the kitchen. Cody and Graham were nowhere to be found.

Charlie raised a greying brow at his niece when he saw the apparent excitement on her face. It looked like this was one way to get through to her.

He stood up in greeting, walking over to her and placing two heavy hands on her shoulders. Carmen nearly shrunk from the sudden act of physical affection. If it had been a few years ago, she probably have responded by jumping on her uncle in a sort of aggressive hug,

Now though, she almost had no clue what to do as Charlie stared down at her in mock sternness.

"I am entrusting you not to buy anything inappropriate... that means no booty shorts, no crop tops, and no t-shirts with expletives..." He said.

Carmen shrugged, averting her gaze. Her uncle's breath smelled like coffee—it was kind of funny.

"I make no promises..." She responded.

Before Charlie could retort, Kade came over and slung another heavy arm over her shoulders. He stole her away from Charlie grinning to his father.

"Don't worry, Dad—I'll make sure Carebear doesn't get anything she's too young to wear..." Kade snickered and Carmen scoffed while pushing him away.

"Ugh, shut up, Kade!" She tried to dodge his arms as he chased after her with the intention of a noogie.

Charlie watched while shaking his head, his hands on his hips. Dani strolled over with a raised brow.

"Shouldn't you be getting Heatwave ready, Kade," Dani asked and Kade groaned at her words.

"Can't you do it?" He complained.

"What! Why?" Dani demanded.

"Because I don't want to."

To my surprise, Dani whirled on her heel and headed for the garage—muttering something about Heatwave deserving a better partner. Carmen nodded at that choosing to brush it off, because nope; she was not going to think too hard about whatever lies her family was trying to pull off. Albeit, very badly.

Charlie glared at his son, and despite not saying anything, the meaning was clearly understood by Kade who let out a nervous chuckle.

"So your card?"

Charlie rolled his eyes but handed over a blue debit card to his son.

"Please be reasonable about this... we're not made of money. And make sure you stop by the carwash and get the Fire Bot a good scrubbing: inside and out." The Chief commanded. "I'll ask the Fire Bot to report back to me on where he went today to make sure you actually stopped by the carwash..."

"Got it, Dad, thanks!" Kade nodded, swiping the card and pulling out his wallet before adding it to his own array of cards and cash.

Carmen suspiciously looked at her cousin—that was a lot of cash. Where the hell would he be going that required him to keep so many 10s and 20s on hand? Carmen had a few ideas: primarily the gentleman's club downtown.

"See you both later," The Chief nodded as Carmen followed Kade out the door leading into the garage.

"We're ready to go!" Kade cheered as Dani huffed from where she leaned against a fully transformed Heatwave.

"The Fire Bot knows your meant to stop at the carwash for him at the end of the day, Kade. I programmed him to do so no matter what... also we're still on call for fire emergencies..."

Kade rolled his eyes. "You act like we're not on-call for emergencies 24/7... I got it, Dani!" He groaned, acting as though he was not the oldest of everyone here.

He heaved the firetruck door open, leaping inside and closing it behind him. Dani shook her head, walking to the other side and opening the door. She motioned for Carmen to hop inside before her.

She did so, going inside and smashing herself in the middle between Kade and Dani. Carmen was sitting directly across from the large center console, almost immediately making eye contact with the robotic head.

Despite it's visor still being up in the screen—she could easily discern its bright optics. She hummed, subconsciously rubbing her hand over the seat as though greeting the bot itself. It warmed under her touch.

"Alright, trip to the Griffin Rock mall!" Kade cheered, slamming the gas pedal causing them all to heave forward.

"Ahh—KADE!" Dani yelled as Kade haphazardously sped out of the garage and took far too sharp of a turn. "We're not responding to an emergency, you can't drive like that for no reason."

"It's cool, guys. I'll just turn on the lights!" He explained, pressing a button by the steering wheel.

Carmen expected the lights of the truck to turn on. Alas, silence met them—there was no lights or alarm going off. Kade looked confused as well, attempting to press the button again. Their confusion was answered by Heatwave's robotic voice echoing around.

"Warning: no emergency. Lights and sirens deactivated. Manually slowing vehicle to non-emergency mode."

Carmen scoffed a loud laugh as the truck slowed down after those words. Kade groaned in frustration, hitting the wheel with a curse.

"Hunk of a junk!" He hissed angrily, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed as the truck automatically drove itself.

Carmen quickly hit Kade on the shoulder—almost as though hitting him back when Heatwave could not.

"Don't do that! Heatwave is doing the responsible thing! I can't believe you would hit a poor and innocent 'Bot!"

"Innocent?!" Kade cried out in disbelief. "He's anything but innocent! This dude couldn't give less of a fuck—trust me!"

"Kade!" Dani stepped in. "You know that's not true!"

Carmen, on the other hand, could not help but laugh.

"Honestly, if I was stuck as your robot slave—I would give more than less of a fuck," She snickered.

Dani laughed along with her and the truck suddenly shuddered, like he was laughing as well. Kade only huffed, patting the door to his right.

"Heatwave knows I'm only joking, alright, stop being so sensitive," He puffed.

"Are you sure about that?" Dani raised a brow. "You're kind of a dick to him."

"We're dicks to each other... besides, I'm a dick to everyone, it's one of loveable qualities!"

"Being a dick?" Carmen scoffed. "I mean—at least he's a robot so he really can't tell a difference..."

Once again, it went oddly silent and Dani looked out the window while Kade nodded slowly.

"Yeahhh...."

Even Heatwave's robotic face had conveniently disappeared from the center screen.

"Okay then," Carmen nodded, not hesitating in moving her hand forward and flicking the radio on.

The firetruck suddenly shuddered and momentarily stalled as the radio filled the silence. Carmen yelled, the seatbelt stopping all of them from flying forward at the stall.

"What is that?" The firetruck asked, its voice bordering robotic and dare Carmen say... human?

Kade was quick to grip the steering wheel tightly. "Relax, Fire Bot—it's just the radio. We usually have an emergency so I've never turned it on, but we're not in an emergency so we have clearance to play it!" He hissed.

Carmen was staring in unabashed shock—how fucking advanced was this AI technology?

"Holy shit, did you guys hear that? He barely sounded like a robot?" She was shocked.

"What? No—he sounded as robotic as ever... maybe just a little clueless to the radio since we never play it in the vehicles..." Dani coughed.

Kade was quick to follow-up. "Yeah, the robots just malfunction and need guidance at times..." He said.

"No way! Fire Bot... uhm..." Carmen struggled to think of something to ask it that would not render a robotic response. "Hello? How are you today?"

There was silence: Kade and Dani passed nervous glances over each other's head. They were not sure how the hell Heatwave was going to play this off, and there was only so much they could do to help him without adding extra suspicion.

After many moments, Heatwave's face reappeared in the screen with an eerily blank look.

"Hello, citizen: Carmen Burns. My duties today are to drive to the Griffin Rock Mall, drive to the car wash and to respond to any emergency calls. Recharge power: 97%, approximately 18 hours before recharge becomes imminent."

From behind Carmen, Kade was giving a very aggressive thumbs-up that he hoped Heatwave could see. Because that was one hell of a believable robotic response.

Carmen deflated, huffing and blowing a piece of hair that had fallen from her bun out of her face.

"Nevermind," She waved it off, glaring at Heatwave slightly. "I guess he's just like a big Siri,"

Thankfully, she missed the complete look of offense that Heatwave suddenly adorned. It was soon followed by his typical look of anger and irritation. Dani was squawking before Heatwave did something to blow his cover.

"Yep, but far more advanced! He's still a great listener!" She said, and the truck was turning into the parking lot for Griffin Rock Mall.

Some alternative rock song was playing softly through his radio and playing throughout the truck. Carmen was so taken with the busy mall that she missed the way the song got slightly louder.

Heatwave had never known he was connected to Earth's radio, and admittedly, he quite liked this song.

At least he had something to do for the few hours he would be stuck sitting in his alt mode in this parking lot.

Kade directed Heatwave to park toward the back of the parking lot—the truck taking up nearly an entire two spaces. However, he was by himself, something that was good.

"Sweet, we're here! Time to get some clothes!" Kade cheered along with Dani, all three of them quickly filing out of the truck.

"See you later, Heatwave!" Kade said along with Dani, Carmen waved good-bye to the truck.

He may have just been a robot, but it seemed he was advanced enough that manners still applied to him.

———————

The mall lasted for a good three hours.

Carmen had chosen to buy clothing that her uncle would deem appropriate. Not that she had much of a choice, along with the fact that she was buying these clothes on his dime—Kade was always right behind her giving his two cents on everything she picked.

She got a few new shirts (one of which even had a color!), a new skirt, some jeans, and a pair of shorts. Kade had even been so nice as to get her a pair of sneakers.

Kade and Dani had bought themselves a few new things as well—the main reason why they were so eager to take Carmen shopping.

After a short lunch at the food court, they were all quickly making their way back to Heatwave. Surprisingly enough, no emergency happened that required the help of the Fire Bot. Usually there was at least one emergency that required its help daily.

As they walked through the parking lot, each holding a few bags—they were greeted with the sight of the firetruck. However, funnily enough, it was playing music rather loudly.

Loud rock music that caused a few heads to turn as the firetruck was playing the music so loudly that it could easily be heard from outside of it.

"Jesus Christ, we should not have turned the radio on earlier," Kade groaned, jogging ahead of the girls and running to Heatwave to tell him to turn it down.

He was drawing way too much attention—not to mention most people hated such loud music. From a firetruck at that... now, that just looked highly unprofessional. And despite how casual Kade acted, this was toeing even his line.

Carmen's lips upturned into the widest grin ever, a loud genuine falling from her.

"Don't stop his fun, Kade!" She called after her cousin.

It was hard to believe that a firetruck powered by artificial intelligence could truly enjoy music. But the proof was right in front of her.

After a few minutes of Dani and Carmen walking, they got to the now quiet firetruck. Carmen rose a brow as she saw Kade seemingly scolding the 'Bot from where he sat at the driver's seat.

"You guys are seriously weird for scolding, robots," Carmen said, not forgetting what she walked outside to last night.

Dani could say that she was doing a system wipe on the 'Bots as much she wanted last night. But Carmen was not completely naive—she was also scolding them if she ever saw it.

"We don't scold them, but we tell them certain ways to do things..." Dani tried to explain cringing at the end as she opened Heatwave's door.

They caught the last of Kade's sentence which was, "Don't play music that loud! Let alone outside your interior!"

"Kade, he's just a robot—don't bag on him. Besides, I liked that song. Life Is A Bitch always goes hard... continue playing it, 'Wave, please!"

Carmen's words were met with an immediate answer—the song immediately started playing through the interior loudly.

"Life is bitch, ohhh—it's a bitch, it's a bitch, it's a bitch on me!" She sang along to Heatwave's radio loudly, her voice low and sultry as she sang.

She was playing the air-guitar as well, pushing herself backward into Heatwave's seat while moving her arms wildly. Carmen did not notice the way the seatbelt tightened around her.

"Come on, guys—sing it with me! What about you, 'Wave?"

Kade was quick to cut in, putting the firetruck into drive before pulling out. "He's a still a robot, Carmen. He can't sing along with you..." He said the last part almost pointedly.

Alas, it appeared he was right because the only response that Carmen got was the music being turned up just the slightest bit louder.

"Don't tell my, 'Wave what he can and can't do!" Carmen cried dramatically.

"Your 'Wave? Are you kidding me—if anything he's my robot! He probably doesn't even like you!" Kade spat only for the steering wheel to push out and hit him in the face.

Thankfully, it was not hard enough to cause any damage other than a brief pain.

Dani cracked up. "Looks like you're wrong!"

Carmen laughed in between her rough singing and Kade slapped the console of the firetruck.

"Damn malfunctions! Stupid ass 'Bot..."

The engine suddenly roared powerfully after Kade spoke, and Carmen swore she heard the voice of someone growling in anger. It made her look around and itch her ears—she had to be hearing shit now.

"Shut up and just drive to the car wash, Kade..." Dani huffed.

"Well maybe I don't want to go to the car wash now," Kade grunted.

"It's a good thing you don't have a choice," Dani said right back. "Now keep driving—Dad said he made the appointment for 4:50..."

At the sound of the appointment being in ten minutes, the firetruck suddenly moved a little faster.

Soon enough, with the rock music blasting the entire drive—they were pulling into a car wash. Thankfully, it seemed to not be very busy at the moment. Although, it was apparent the moment they pulled in that Heatwave was by far the biggest vehicle there.

They caught a few eyes as they pulled in, but the eyes soon fell away as they recognized it was only the Burns family coming to get the Fire Bot cleaned.

"Hey, Jerry!" Kade called as he rolled down the driver's side window and greeted the long time manager of the local car wash.

"Hey, Kade! I have Bay 3 cleaned and ready for ya'! Go ahead and pull the big guy in there and robotics will take care of him! Make sure you take out anything you don't want thrown away either—they'll clean him out real good on the inside!" Jerry said, pulling out an expo marker.

He was quick with writing something on the clear window before stepping down and nodding us off.

"Thanks, Jerry!" Kade said, before driving the firetruck into Bay 3.

Carmen remembered Jerry—his family had lived on the island for generations. He was the long time manager of the local carwash. Carmen remembers all the times that Uncle Charlie would bring them all with them here when he wanted the emergency vehicles to get a good scrub down.

Usually, they would all clean their own vehicles by hand, but occasionally, when it was needed, Charlie would take them to a car wash for the ultimate scrub.

Carmen was positive that the Fire Bot would love how clean this place made him. Well, as much as a non-sentient robot could.

The second they entered the bay, Kade was quickly commanding the robot.

"Fire Bot—allow the car wash to do it's thing!" He said simply, turning and grabbing some bags before hopping out.

Was that even a real command?

Carmen looked at her cousin oddly before grabbing her own bags and following Dani out of Heatwave, closing the door tightly behind her.

There was a small room in the bay with a window that allowed them to see the full wash.

They were all quick to file in, all of them nearly pressing their noses to the glass from the curiosity of the wash. Almost immediately after, the powerful jet sprays of warm water rained from every which directly and hit the Fire Bot harshly.

"Look! He's shuddering!" Dani laughed along with Kade. "It must feel good—I bet he loves it!" Dani nudged Kade.

"Yeah, plus it saves me the work of needing to help clean him!" Kade said easily.

Carmen thought it was very odd that the robot actually did seem to be enjoying it to the point that it was shuddering. Like was it shuddering in pleasure? Because how was that possible for a non-sentient being?

Griffin Rock was so weird...

Nevertheless, even Carmen thought the wash was cool went rainbows suds covered the truck and robotic arms of waxers and rags came to clean the firetruck up.

Watching the truck closer, Carmen smiled amusedly—it was definitely enjoying itself. With that kind of reaction and everything she had see so far, it was by far the most advanced technology on this island. Possibly the planet.

After minutes, the outside of the truck was dried and left shining with a new coat of wax. The robotic arms were to open all of its doors—vacuumings, washing, and making everything inside just as clean as the outside.

Kade was known to be a snacker, and no matter how many times his poor bot told him no eating in his cabin—the firefighter always managed to sneak something in. And it cause for stupid little crumbs to get to nearly unreachable places inside.

Thankfully, it was not an issue for these cleaning robots as they practically disintegrated any muck and grime. The robotic eyes of Heatwave watched from the center console as one of the arms used screen-cleaners to delicately clean his console.

Heatwave did not realize that his vision had been impaired through center screen console until it was cleaned off and it was like looking at a whole new world.

A short ten minutes passed (Heatwave wished it was longer, he loved being pampered) when he was completely clean inside and out. The alarms rang alerting the Burns family that Heatwave was effectively finished.

The Cybertronian felt so good that he nearly did not want any of the humans to get in him. He was more than ready to tell them to walk home—alas, he could not give them a hard time because that new little human was around.

Personally, he thought it was stupid to try and hide the secret from her seeing as she is living with them all. She was not stupid—that much he was already able to garner from her, she was bound to find out at some point.

Nevertheless, it's what Charlie insisted on doing. As he said: if she finds out then they can all cross that bridge when they get there. Until then, they were to remain as nothing but robots in disguise to Carmen.

As soon as the three piled into Heatwave, throwing their bags in the back as they were before—his voice reverberated around.

"Attention: Recently cleaned, be aware and keep interior clean."

Carmen's mouth fell open. "Oop, okay Mr. Sass—we got you, we'll keep you clean," She smiled. "You hear that, Kade? Don't put your greasy fingers anywhere on Heatwave that isn't the wheel."

"I hate you all," Kade rolled his eyes, as he backed the huge firetruck out of the bay.

Carmen did not hesitate in reaching forward and once again toggling with Heatwave's radio. This time he did not react as she turned the dial allowing smooth hiphop to fill the cabin.

Kade actually nodded along to the song as well as Dani. They sat in mostly comfortable silence apart from few random comments on the way back to the firehouse—the drive was no longer than fifteen minutes before Kade was pulling Heatwave into the center garage.

They were once again quick to file out, pulling their bags with them before making their way to the stairs.

"Heatwave, transform and go to the bunker for recharge mode!" Kade said while walking away—not even looking or batting an eyelash as the Fire Bot transformed.

Carmen, on the other hand, stood watching with huge eyes of adoration. And when all the mechanisms of Heatawave finally stopped moving and his stood in his robotic form: Carmen could have sworn he appeared smug.

He certainly appeared clean, shining attractively.

"Carmen, c'mon!" Kade sounded impatient as he held open the door at the top of the stairs.

Carmen turned away from Heatwave, scurrying after her cousins. She could hear Cody, Graham, and Charlie greeting them from inside—all of them curious as to the items they purchased. As she approached the door, she gave one last long look to Heatwave who blankly stared back before she grinned and darted inside.

As the door slammed closed behind her leaving Heatwave by himself, the mech gave a loud 'hmph' before a proud smirk ate at his face. He actually quite liked Carmen. Apart from Cody and the Chief, Carmen might already be one of his favorite Burns.

Not that it was saying much seeing as—despite rarely saying or showing it—Heatwave actually loved the entire family of humans.

He turned to the large lift, ready to go down to the bunker for energon and a human television show. Blades no doubt already picked out their watch for tonight. Seeing as they really only needed 2-3 hours of recharge, 4 if they were exceptionally tired, there was a large portion of the night that the rescue bots were entertaining themselves.

Unfortunately, Heatwave knew that his team was bound to hit him with questions about Carmen. Admittedly, all of them were incredibly curious about the new human living with them—even moreso because they could not properly communicate with her.

Even Heatwave wished to communicate with her: she seemed like a funny little human. If not, a troublemaker that would no doubt keep his hands full, but he liked trouble. He was a rescue bot for a reason, after all, it was quite literally his job to tango with trouble.