Title: Heroes
Author: Victor Kattz
Rating: G
Pairings: N/A
Author's Note: Takes place after S01E8 "Bumblebee to the Rescue".
Warnings: N/A
After all the action with the fallen meteor and the surprise visit from Bumblebee, the following week was decidedly dull. Of all the days, the Rescue Bots could probably say this was the dullest. No mr. Harrison to pluck off a flag pole or snatch out of a mid-chaotic flight path. No Mr. Pettypaw's to pull from a tree. Boulder was pretty sure he'd heard something about cats being more efficient than most other animals at getting themselves into trouble.
Had any of the humans been in the bunker, they would have quickly realized how much their metallic partners appreciated the down time. Getting out and stretching your legs was good, but some real R&R felt almost required right about now!
For some 'bots, anyway.
Boulder looked up from the book he'd been reading to watch Blades, for the upteenth time, move the picture of him and Bumblebee to a different location on the wall. "Didn't you try that very same spot six spots ago?"
"Yeah," Blades replied. "but the light over here really sets off the yellow in our armor."
"What are you, an interior decorator?" Heatwave asked as he buffed some leftover scratches from a mission who-knows-when from his plating. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you had a crush."
"Nothing is wrong with a little hero worship, Heatwave." Blades countered. "Besides, that's what got us all to join, wasn't it?"
Boulder and Heatwave looked at each other, then back to Blades.
"Seeing his friends obviously not on the same page, he explained further. "As a youngling, I'd heard stories about Optimus Prime and his elite team. The stories about Bumblebee were always my favourite." Blades hugged the picture frame to his chest. "I wanted to be just like him."
Boulder smiled. "I had a similar experience. In the Academy, there was a geological engineering instructor who taught me each planet has it's own unique wonders to offer. It inspired me to become a Rescue Bot and see as many of those wonders as I possibly could."
"I remember him! What was his designation again? He had the funniest way of talking." While Boulder tried to remember Blades turned to Heatwave. "What about you, Heatwave?"
"Yes, what inspired you to become a Rescue Bot?" added Boulder.
Heatwave went quiet for a few seconds, thinking. "How well do you remember the rescue squads back on Cybertron?"
Blades shrugged. "Not very. We were pretty young back when they were popular."
"Yeah. We were."
*[flashback]*
Flames were a fairly new concept to a young Heatwave, even if heat itself wasn't. He'd seen explosions, but never THIS close! Each time one of the energon cubes destabilized and blew, he could feel the wave of heat across his place plates. Simply hiding like the other younglings were told to do wasn't in his base programming. He'd heard too much about things like this to waste this chance to see it with his own optics.
"We've got to keep this warehouse contained!" A mostly red femme with a graying helm shouted orders from just outside the chaos. Her servo was on her audio. "Red Alert! How are we looking?"
Heatwave moved from around the metal shipping container. It was hard to get a better look from where he was and stay hidden at the same time. If he could get a little closer…
An explosion to his right shattered the structure of another warehouse, knocking him hard to the ground. A dull ache started up just behind his optics in his helm. Groaning, he pulled himself to his feet and attempted to clear the blur forming in one of his optics. At least his audios were still working fine.
"Red! I thought you said all the energon had been evacuated!"
"I said THIS building was secure, not the entire area."
"Red! Firestar! We've got an injured younglin' over here!" A deeper, and closer, voice with a thick accent said. "I think he got hit by debris."
"Get both of you out of there, Inferno, before-"
*[end flashback]*
"Wait… That's the end?" Blade leaned forward on the edge of the crat ehe'd taken as a seat. "What happened after that? What about the energon? What about-"
Boulder smiled and placed a hand on Blade's shoulder. "Easy. I'm sure Heatwave has more to tell."
Heatwave leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "That's…kinda it. Right when I turned around to see the mech, the warehouse exploded and I blacked out. I woke up later in a medbay with a brace from my hip to my pede and cybermech bandages covering everything else."
Blades raised an optic ridge, pausing for a second before, "THAT'S why you become a Rescue Bot? Getting blown up isn't very inspirational for most NORMAL mechs, Heatwave."
"if that Rescue Bot hadn't been there, I wouldn't be here. Someone's gotta be the hero." Heatwave smirked. "Besides, explosions are kinda fun, and we get to work with them nearly every day."
Blades shook his helm. "here I thought we were going to hear something deep." He stood up, clutching his picture to his chest plate. "Good story, though. Now, I'm going back to finding the perfect spot for this."
Boulder stood up. "You're very lucky you survived an energon explosion as young as you were. Was that really when you wanted to become a Rescue Bot?"
Heatwave folded his arms across his chest. "Y'know, sometimes, I don't know if I was ever inspired, or if it just happened."
The answer was good enough for prompt the end of the conversation, it seemed, because Boulder went over to help Blades find "the perfect spot". Heatwave continued to watch his teammates as they moved from one place to the other
The even, metallic steps of Chase appeared behind him. "You left out quite a bit, Heatwave."
"They don't need to know everything." Heatwave replied. "How long have you been back there, anyway? Isn't loitering against some sort of law?"
Even if Chase wasn't reasonably used to Heatwave's teases by now, he was comfortable in his knowledge of minor infractions say, "Long enough to know Boulder's source of inspiration was Professor Beachcomber." and then counter, "And not in personally owned residential areas."
"We all have to get our sources of inspiration from somewhere, Chase." he said. "Not every 'bot can be a Protectobot."
"Not every 'bot becomes a Rescue Bot, either."
*[flashback]*
Heatwave couldn't remember the last time he'd felt pain like this. Hot lead felt like it had been poured straight down his back. With his one good optic, he could see the Rescue Bot who'd saved him. The much larger 'bot was hunched overhead, using his broad frame as a living shield. Parts of the warehouse roof were coming down all around them.
"Come on!" He grabbed the bigger mech's servo, trying to urge him toward an open shipping container nearby. "Wake up!"
Another energon explosion quaked the area. The concussion wave seemed to jar him back to some form of reality. He scooped Heatwave up into the crook of his arm and shoved him into the open area. The area was smaller than Heatwave thought it would've been. Only his smaller frame could fit inside. If it bothered the larger mech, he didn't let it show. He fit his body up against the container, bits of flaming bits occasionally dinging off his armor.
"Inferno to Firestar. Yeh read me?" He activated his comm. "Firestar? Red?"
"Infern-" The voice of the femme before could be heard…more or less. There was a lot of static. "Not clear," buzzing, "-are you?"
"Shipping container near Warehouse 2." He replied. "Warehouse 2 containers."
"Stay there. We'll-" Static again.
"An' that's why yeh should never play near energon explosions." He grinned to Heatwave. "Hey, kid. Name's Inferno."
Heatwave found his vocalizer frozen. He wanted to speak, to ask this mech how he was able to smile through all of this. One of his knees was practically melted through. Three digits on the only hand he had, the servo on the left, were mangled. The one on his right looked like a nozzle of sorts. The armor on his back was covered by the same metal burn Heatwave was sure he had, too.
The urge to defend himself overrode anything else he wanted to say. "I wanted to see the Rescue Bots."
Inferno laughed. Considering the situation, it was amazingly deep and genuine. "Do we look as cool as yeh thought we would?"
Heatwave grinned and nodded.
An intense heat smashed into both of them. He heard Inferno yell, "Hold on to somethin', kid!" before a cool rush of air and fire retardant blasted a melting container where it had fallen.
*[end flashback]*
Heatwave looked down at the nozzles on the back of his hand. Inferno had a melted knee, a broken hand, and enough scorched plating ot nearly change his entire colour scheme. Despite off of it, he'd still stood up and faced the danger like it was nothing. He'd remembered feeling more than a little humbled seeing the strength and the willpower Inferno had shown trying to protect not himself but a youngling he didn't even know.
Heatwave smiled at Chase. "Makes ya feel kinda special, doesn't it?"