Heatwave felt odd. He was very groggy. He put a hand on his head.
"H-Heatwave?" Blades asked.
"What happened?" the last thing Heatwave remembered was a fire in the Best Left Forgotten section of the Hall of Inspiration. "Are the humans okay?"
"Th-they are," Blades pulled a blanket up to Heatwave's neck.
"What's wrong with my voice?" Heatwave sat up as he put his hand on his neck.
"Don't freak out!"
Heatwave looked down and his optics widened.
He was not the same.
"I'm a femme?!"
"Wow, you're taking it better than I thou-Ack!"Blades was grabbed by the neck by Heatwave.
"What. Happened. To. Me?" Heatwave felt his/her sparkbeat increase.
"Heatwave?" a deep voice said.
Heatwave looked in the direction of the voice. "Optimus? W-what are you doing here?"
"Chase contacted be a short time ago," Prime explained, "I brought our medic, Ratchet, with me. He is going through your files and has been informed of your... condition."
Ratchet walked into the medbay.
"Wow," that was the first thing that Ratchet said.
Heatwave pulled up the blanket all the way to his/her nose.
"We think a machine did this to him - or her!" Blades said.
"Make him stop staring at me," Heatwave whispered uncomfortably.
"Oh, sorry, how rude of me," Ratchet apologized, "I'm going to give you a scan, alright?"
"Normally yes, but no."
"There's nothing to be afraid of, Heatwave," Blades reassured.
"You're not the mech-turned-femme going to be examined by a bot millenniums older than you!"
"Blades did the external examination while you were out," Ratchet said, "and I'm not that old!"
Heatwave glared at Blades.
"At least I'm not an old bot," Blades said.
"Look, like it or not, you're getting a scan," Ratchet pulled Heatwave's blanket down to his/her knees.
xxx
[ how's the - bot, Cody?] read the text from Dani.
[running a scan,] Cody texted back, [how's Kade?]
When one of the machines blew up in Best Left Forgotten, Kade's oxygen tank and air hose broke, causing him to breathe in smoke.
[Could B worse.] [thank got the bot kept him from -ing ]
[rlly? a toast?]
[srry ] [gtg, Kade's up!]
Cody went to the elevator and took it to the bunker.
"Hey, Cody," Boulder said.
"How's Heatwave?" Cody asked.
"You know that Rule 34 thing?"
"It's 63, Boulder," Chase corrected, "34 is... icky."
"Heatwave's a girl?!" Cody's eyes widened.
"I'm looking through a list of machines destroyed in the fire to see if any of them caused it and if it's reversible," Graham said.
xxx
"Hmm..." Ratchet looked at the monitor displaying the scan results.
"Don't worry, Heatwave," Blades said, "we'll fix this."
"The screen's frozen," Heatwave said.
Ratchet kicked the monitor.
"Looks like you're a femme, Heatwave," Ratchet said, "internally and externally."
"B-but it's reversible, right?"
"Graham hasn't found anything yet," Blades said.
"Perhaps you should get some rest in your personal quarters, Heatwave," Optimus said.
"Gladly," Heatwave got of the berth. "Wow, I'm short."
He/she quickly walked off to his/her quarters.
xxx
Later that evening, Heatwave was recharging in his/her berth, but she was tossing and turning.
xxx
"Get Kade to safety," Heatwave said, "I'll handle the fire!"
Flames licked his armor.
He managed to put out most of the fire.
Ssszzzzlzzslszzz...
Smoke got into his eyes, blinding him. He started to cough as the smoke began to disable his cooling systems.
BANGFWOSH!
"HEATWAVE!"
xxx
Heatwave woke up in what humans would call a cold sweat.
He/she wrapped blankets around his/her frame, worried about how his/her team would treat him/her.
xxx
"Graham, Cody and I are going to check on your brother," Chief said in the morning, "are you coming with us?"
"I'm still going through the list, but I'll go later," Graham said.
"Alright then."
"Hmm…" Graham looked at a file of an invention from 1935 that was destroyed in the fire. "Oh, boy," he almost dropped his com link as he turned it on. "Heatwave," he said, "I think I found some information on the machine."
"Was it totaled?" Heatwave asked.
"I think so."
xxx
Heatwave shut off his/her comm and tried not to sob.