I am SO sorry or not updating for so long but I've had my GCSEs to worry about but now that it's the holidays I can hopefully update more frequently. Hope you like this chapter. I worked on it for quite a few days. I'm trying to keep it so Robyn isn't in every scene of each episodes so bits and bobs will be missing here and there.
Disclaimer: I do not own rescue bots, I do own Robyn and Phillipa
"Do I want to even know how this mower decided it wanted to re-enact the 'Fast and the Furious' downtown?" I asked Charlie and Chase over the comm link as we all chased after a lawn mower that had gone out of control and started creating havoc while we were on patrol. This stuff always has to happen in Griffin Rock. Why here? Can't something happen in Moscow next time? Nothing ever happens in Moscow!
"I don't know Robyn. Let's just hope we can stop it." Charlie replied. "We could use a hand here." he added, directing that statement towards the rest of the team still at the firehouse.
"What's the chances we could get some back up Cody?" I also asked Cody who was currently at the command centre
"Uh, that might be a while Robyn." Cody replied meekly.
"You're kidding right? Then tell your siblings and their partners to get their butts and engines in gear and get over here!" I shouted into the comm link, my voice muffled slightly from my black helmet before shutting it off, leaving no time for Cody to reply. Honestly, how hard is it to work with your partner? I understand if it's Kade, but why are Graham and Dani having problems? They're normally better at this stuff, Graham more so, but still.
Soon enough, Charlie, Chase and I were lead by the lawn mower into an alley between two buildings. Dumpsters were lined up against the wall to the right and pipes slithering up both buildings up to the rooves. I pulled up behind Chase before coming to a standstill "Where did that meat mincer go?" escaped from my mouth just as the mechanical whirring and scraping made itself known from behind us. I screamed loudly as I quickly revved the engine when the mower started clipping the rear of my bike and sped forwards only to be met with a dead end. "Aw man." But for some reason Charlie and Chase started reversing full speed towards it before Chase transformed into bot mode, jumping behind it and grabbing it, successfully trapping it into a dumpster going on about not being compensated. That was just Chase being Chase. From the few days I've known him, I realised that Chase was a very by-the-book kind of bot. I mean, I know the police codes and guidelines but he takes them to a whole new level. It's just a good thing I'm not paired with him. There's only so much 10-4 talk I can take at a time.
"We missed it, didn't we?" Dani more or less stated instead of asked.
"Where the hell were you all?" I demanded as my other siblings, save Cody, and their partners showed up. I took off my helmet keeping it between my arm and hip as I sat on my motorbike, leaving my hair in a not so good way as I hadn't put it into a ponytail, only loose pigtails. So now I had strands of loose hair that had easily fallen out of my bobbles. "We could have been as good as dead if it wasn't for Chase!"
"Our rides weren't letting us drive. They're slowing us down." Kade commented from inside Heatwave who obviously didn't appreciate the comment as he quickly transformed, trapping Kade in his interior.
"Quick enough for you?" Heatwave asked him snidely, a grin easily heard in his voice. However I disregarded everyone around me as I swung my leg around my bike so I was now standing so I could kneel down and inspect the damage on the back of the bike. The mower had easily blown the tyre and the exhaust pipe was a bit scratched and dented among a few other things I couldn't recognise as I wasn't an expert on mechanics.
"Hey Robyn, you need any help fixing your bike? Those cables look pretty damaged." I heard Graham say to me as he was now kneeling next to me. When did he get there without me noticing?
"Thanks Graham, but you've got your own problems at the moment with your inventions and so on. Plus, you need to have some time with Boulder, you know, get used to him and all that jazz." I responded. "Besides," I continued, rising to my feet and pulling out my phone. "I have someone who can fix this stuff up in a jif." I told him, snapping a picture and sending it to my repairman so they knew what they were dealing with. I was soon sent a replying saying 'send it over'.
"If only it was as easy as you made it sound." Graham sighed.
"I'm sure your new doo-hickie ain't that bad. You'll crack it." I joked, knowing that wasn't what he was talking about.
"What do you know about having these guys as partners? You chose to work on your own You should consider yourself lucky." Graham replied, not realising how much his words deeply offended me.
"You know what, you're right. I did choose to be on my own. And you god damn know why I am!" I hissed at him, rage and sadness fuelling my quiet outburst.
"Robyn what are you-?" Graham started.
"No, don't even start. You know how it makes me feel when you bring that topic up. It's because I didn't want to be on my own I..." I tried shouting but it only came out as a shaky whisper. The feeling of tears brimming my eyes forced me to quickly wipe my eyes so I wouldn't get caught. I wasn't going to cry over this. Not after so long of not doing so. Taking a deep breath through my mouth I regained control of my emotions. "I am not going to discuss this with you. Just stop being a jerk." I glared at him before picking up my helmet which had fallen on the floor and grabbed the handles of the bike and started pushing it out of the alley and towards where the repairman was.
"I signed up to rescue people, not make nice with machines." I caught Kade saying as I started rolling past him.
"Well I signed up to protect people, not be surrounded by testosterone filled selfish, insensitive jerks. Looks like neither of us got what we wanted." I snapped at him as I walked past him. "I'm heading uptown to the repairman's to get my bike fixed, since some people can't get their priorities straight during emergencies!" I exclaimed, going past the bots and their partners.
"So what was it this time? Doc Greene and his latest phenomenon or Dani and her latest attempt at a Sunday dinner?" Phillipa joked when she opened her garage door, allowing me enough room to get my bike in and then some. I still remember the first time she showed me the garage 'welcome to the nerd shack' was her main heading. As far as I knew, Phillipa spend almost her entire time in there save for sleeping and eating. With a main desk cluttered with gadgets and gizmos, a jar of red boiled candy lollies and sheets of paper falling onto it from the corkboard above it, it was a wonder how she got anything done. Supposedly she was one of those people who knew where everything was as long as the room was a complete mess. Other half finished projects like engines and a buggy in the corner littered the back wall and blueprints were plastered all over the brick wall on the right, the desk remaining on the left.
Phillipa Jones was my best friend ever since she moved to the island ten years ago. We actually met during class where she was actually able to make a compass from a paper clip, my protractor and my pencil sharpener. Don't ask me how, but to this day I still keep it in my drawer at home. Ever since then we kind of just stuck together. I didn't have a lot of friends back then and neither did she. Over the years she's actually matured quite a lot. The last time the family actually saw her was when she was thirteen and she was going through a grungy tomboy phase. Baggy jeans, football shirts, hair so short it was almost not even worth noting about the works! Was even on the football team for a few years before she confided in me that she wanted to pursue her 'destiny' in mechanics.
"Neither. Lawn mower decided it wanted to convert from a herbivore to a carnivore." I sassed her as she put on her safety goggles, cranking out her tools.
"Well a crushed exhaust ain't pretty but" she inspected on the stone floor while I sat down on the desk's wheelie chair helping myself to one of her red lollies. Pip was a sucker for them because she loved how they changed colour as it shrank and they would also dye your tongue. "It won't be the cause of you getting a new ride." she continued.
"Well that's good." came out of my lolly filled mouth in a muffled tone.
"Shame though, you could've shared one of those fancy new robots with your family. What's up with those things though? I've never seen tech quite like 'em." she asked, turning to face me and taking off her goggles.
"What can I say? They're government made. So it's beyond me." I lied. I hate lying to her but the bots' secret is not mine to share. I can only tell her if the bots give me the okay. Like they will anyway. If they had it their way, our family wouldn't have found out so what are the chances they'd let Pip know about them?
"You're gonna have to let me take a look under their hoods sometime Robyn."
"No! I mean, it-it's not my decision. They're not my vehicles. You'd need permission from one of the Burns'. I can ask for you though." I responded. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. I'll tell her they all said no and that'll be the end of it.
"Thanks. You're such a good friend, you know that?" she smiled, making the sorrow in my gut twist and tighten even more so.
"The bestest." I forced a smile. "So uh, how much am I gonna owe you for this?" I asked her, knowing she'd know I was talking about the bike.
"It is on the house once again. Just keep making sure our town is safe. I should be done by tomorrow. So you're gonna have to walk home sorry." she apologised sympathetically.
"That long? You sure you can't go any faster?" I pleaded. I needed my bike if there was an emergency. Not having it for so long was just begging for an emergency to come up.
"Unless you want me skipping meals to get this to you. Tomorrow is including if I half my sleeping time. I do have other things in my life other than being your mechanic. Plus, the top layers are practically destroyed. They'll need replacing. I trust you can paint them. Some of the wires have been frayed, torn or just plain sliced in half… and half again… and again. I'll need to replace them. It's the best I can do." she explained to me.
"Thanks Pip. I can probably wait that long… maybe." I laughed as I pulled the lolly from my mouth to speak.
"And quit taking my lollies. Go get your own." she said grabbing her welding helmet and warming up the welding laser for the few wires she could salvage.
"Thank you, really. I'll swing by tomorrow to pick it up. Probably a little after lunch." I told her.
"Nah don't bother. I'll drop it off. 'll give me a chance to see your family again. It's been years since I've seen them."
"It's really no trouble I can-"
"Robyn Burns-Anderson are you hiding me from them?" she teased as I opened up the garage door seeing as she closed it earlier.
"No it's just… they all think 'Phillipa' is a 'Phillip'." I cringed, awaiting the explosion.
"What!? You couldn't take ten seconds out of your day to tell them I'm a girl!" she exclaimed.
"You could've visited when you weren't in your grunge garbs or the overalls you wear nowadays."
"These are my oil stain clothes. I wear decent things too!" she shouted as I started walking down her drive. "Ugh whatever," she laughed. "Just don't do anything stupid until tomorrow yeah. Don't have your mighty steed to save you now."
"How can I? I'm leaving all the stupid with you?" (Anyone who got that reference, let me know in a review!) I yelled before starting an even paced jog back to the firehouse.
Later on in the day, my clothes were sitting on a shelf with the reprise of 'What I've Been Looking For' from High School Musical blaring from the nearby speakers while I was clad in a cyan leotard with pink stripes down the forearms and the sleeves turning white halfway down. My hair had now been fixed and was up in a ponytail, bouncing as I went through my routine time and time again. With the song on repeat for my practices, I would be ready to throw the song track in a draw for a long time by the time I would be done with it. If I could throw it away I would but I needed to keep the music and go over the routines for each now and again so I had routines ready for any tournament or competition.
Gymnastics was what I did as my hobby. Dani had cooking, not that she was any good at it; Graham had classes, apparently he found that enjoyable; Kade had magazines and food. To be honest, his pass time I would be happy to participate in. I enjoy cooking just like Dani but unlike her, my food doesn't make people want to go looking for edible food in the garbage. However I adored gymnastics with a passion, always had. I started when I was about four and have been doing it ever since. I almost gave up on it but my mother used to do gymnastics herself. So if I stopped I'd be losing a part of her in some way and I couldn't bear the idea of that. That's why when I moved in with the Burns', Charlie made sure I had things to do gymnastics. I had a balance beam, a vault, plenty of mats, bars, and a ring frame. Best part was only I could use them as Dani tried using them once and she ended up spraining her wrist. Now everyone else needed supervision if they were to try and use it as well as my permission.
Suddenly, everything became silent as the speakers which were blaring my song on repeat shut off making me lose my balance in shock and fall off the balance beam and roll from my butt to my back where Cody was there looking over my face.
"Oof!" I gasped as the impact sent air rushing out of my lungs.
"Sorry Robyn, didn't mean to scare you." Cody apologised as I heaved my arm up, holding out my hand so he could help pull me up.
"Oh it's no problem Cody. So what's up?" I asked him once I was on my feet. I turned away from him to head to the trays full of chalk and water respectively. My feet went into the water tray to clean off any remaining chalk that was used for grip.
"Nothing really. I was just thinking about how cool it is you get to work with alien robots everyday. Don't you find it amazing?" he asked me, leaning against the beam I had just been on. I stepped out of the tray and onto a towel next to it, rubbing my feet all over it.
"Well I wouldn't know about that now would I? I don't have a partner." I corrected him, grabbing my mint green beach skirt from the shelf nearby so I was a bit more decent. Leotards weren't exactly the most covering.
"But they're still out in the field with you." he pointed out.
"God you do not want to let this go do you? Why do you want me to say we're partners? Chase has Charlie, Boulder has Graham, Heatwave has Kade and Blades has Dani. End of story, nothing else, zip zilch nada." I snapped at him, trying not to completely lose my cool. "None of them are my partner and that's how I want it to be."
"But why don't you want a partner?"
"I may tell you when you're older." I said heading for the elevator. Now is about the time I'd go on patrol to clear my head but I very well can't do that while my bike's with Phillipa.
About half an hour later, Cody had convinced me to help the bots and his siblings bond so mission would go better and honestly it wasn't going very well. In one corner we had Dani being persistant on flying with a partner who was scared of heights, in another we had Boulder and Graham failing to play a broken pinball machine and in the fine one we had Kade and Heatwave just sitting there in silence. Yep, a lot of bonding was going on.
"That's it, this isn't working. What else ya got?" I asked Cody and Chase who were watching in dismay at the events unfolding.
"Um..." Cody thought aloud. As if an angel was descending upon us all, the alarm went off, signalling an emergency, sparing us all from the awkwardness.
"We have a situation on Maine and Park: sewer's overflowing," Charlie told us over the video comm.
"Have you tried calling a plumber?" "Then call a plumber." Dani and I both said at the same time making both of us smile at each other.
"With lava." Charlie finished making my blood run cold. "This could get ugly really fast. I need the whole team out here."
"Charlie, I can't. I don't have a ride." I tried explaining to him as everyone else went to their stations.
"You've got four, pick one. Cody get on the command centre. Your siblings are going to need help communicating with their bots." Charlie told him.
"B-But Charlie. I can't. You know why. I'm sorry I really can't." I shivered, scared at what I may have to do.
"Robyn, go with Kade and Heatwave. They're gonna let you out just before the emergency and you can stay away from it all helping civilians to safety. No lava, no nothing. Can you do that?" he asked me gently.
"I-I think I c-can." I chattered, fear building up in me making my teeth chatter loudly. Luckily I changed back into uniform from my gymnastics earlier so I didn't have to worry about going around in a skirt. I ran up to the garage where the bots were just heading out.
"Heatwave hold up!" I shouted, making him halt. "Charlie told me to go with you guys and for you to let me out just before the scene to help the civilians." I explained briefly to him seeing as we didn't have much time. He opened the driver side door.
"Get in." he responded. Nodding, I clambered in and slid my seatbelt on as he pull out of the firehouse, siren blaring. I looked to my right to find no Kade.
"Where's Kade? I thought he was with you?" I asked Heatwave who was now on the monitor.
"So did I, but apparently he doesn't need a 'machine' to help him." he growled.
"Give him some time Heatwave. He'll come around eventually. Everyone does." I told him. The rest of the ride was in silence until we reached just before the emergency site.
"You get out here Robyn." he instructed me, unclicking my seatbelt and opening my door.
"Thanks Heatwave. And be careful. Last thing I want is to have to yell at you." I joked. "But please do be careful." I told him as I jumped down. I didn't get a response as he closed the door and zoomed off. Immediately I saw people around here.
"Alright everyone, please make your way away from Maine and Park. Get as far away as you can and stay away from the sewers!" I shouted over the street noise and mass hysteria down the road. Those who could hear me followed my instructions and started running in the opposite direction. Normally I'd tell them to remain calm but there's lava at the end of the road so I wasn't going to hold it against them. Suddenly, a woman in her early thirties ran up to me.
"Please, my son! He went down the road to get his ball a few minutes ago and he hasn't come back! Please save him!" she pleaded, tears rolling down her alreadt ear stained face.
"I will I promise." I shouted over all the yelling around us. "Stay here!" I told her, grabbing her arm quickly for emphasis before releasing it so I could run down towards the scene from hell where her son was. When I got there I could feel my fear constricting me in my movement. What the hell was I doing coming here? I was gonna die! Lava was spewing from all the sewer grates and the team was trying to block it up. There was a lot of smoke in the air from the lava and it made it a little harder to breathe. Examining my surroundings, I found a small boy no older than six with a ball in his hand near the lava. Running, I reached him, grabbed his arm and started directing him to safety.
"Go, your mother's at the end of the road. Do not stop running." I ordered him. He nodded and started running as fast as his little legs would carry him.
"Robyn what the hell are you doing here?" Charlie yelled over the noise as he came over to me.
"There was a little boy! I was doing my job!" I told him over all the ruckus.
"Okay." he said before turning to everyone else. "Alright team, I just got off the comm with Cody. He says we can stop this lava but we need to erupt a volcano to do it." Charlie informed us.
"And that's the safest option?" Bladeds asked once he'd transformed and let Dani out.
"It's the only option." Charlie corrected him. "I won't lie, things might get hairy. If the volcano goes off too fast we could get caught in the lava." he explained making my breath hitch in fear. Not more lava. "I'll understand if you don't want to be part of this mission. Griffin Rock isn't your home." Charlie told the bots.
"If you go, we go." Heatwave answered for all of them.
"You'd do that for them?" I asked him.
"It's what we'd do for all of you." he corrected me making me smile.
"That's what being partners means." Boulder added, contributing to my smile. Maybe I was partners with all of them after all.
"Wherever there is an emergency there are rescue bots ready to save, serve and protect." Chase continued.
"We didn't get the chance to save our home. We're not going to let you lose yours." Blades finished.
"Glad to have you on board." Charlie thanked them. "But for this plan to succeed we'll all have to put aside our differences and work together like real partners. Understood?" We all nodded.
"I'll go with you Charlie." I told him as all the bots transformed.
"Alright Robyn." he agreed. We both climbed into Chase and set off for the campsite.
After we'd solved our lava problem, it seemed the universe just wanted to make today even harder for us. The lava decided to stream off somewhere other than where it was intended and headed straight for the firehouse where Cody was. Heatwave and Kade were cutting it off while the rest of us were trying to stop the lava from outside.
"Hey Dani, isn't there a water tower just on the other side of the volcano? Can you reach it?" I asked her over the comm, remembering from when we used to go hiking over there.
"I'll see what I can do." Dani said.
"What else can we do?" I asked Charlie.
"Now we go to firehouse and get to Cody." he replied. "Transform Chase." he instructed Chase. Chase complied and we both headed off to the firehouse
Once we reached the firehouse we sped (although Chase would deny it) into the bunker to see Kade Heatwave and Cody all in there and perfectly fine.
"Oh thank god you're all okay." I exclaimed, relieved everyone was safe. The other were just behind us before so they would only be about a minute after us.
"I still don't understand what happened. Why is everyone so upset?" Cody asked the room bewildered.
"We'll fill you in tomorrow son." Charlie told his youngest.
"Okay dad. I'm gonna head to bed now. I'll see you all tomorrow. Night!" Cody called out as the elevator closed.
"Night Cody." we called back.
"Can't believe I'm saying this but Cody's got the right idea. I'm going to my room. Later." and with that, Kade was gone as well.
"You should go to bed too Robyn. With all you've had to face today you'll need it. I'm proud of you for what you did." Charlie told me. "I'll wait up for the others. You go upstairs." he told me. I nodded.
"Just one second though." I told him before going over to where the bots normally rest and went to where Heatwave was in his vehicle mode. "Are you asleep Heatwave?" I asked him quietly.
"No." he replied gruffly.
"Well I just want to say thank you for risking your life to protect the family. Not many people would've done that for people they don't know too well. So… thanks." I thanked him.
"Any one of us would've done it. It's why we're rescue bots." he replied stiffly.
"Well whether it was because you care or it was just you doing your job, thank you and I owe you one." I told him.
"You owe me one what?" he asked, confusion now obvious in his voice.
"Oh, it's a human expression." I yawned. "It means I owe you a favour." I explained, smiling tiredly.
"You should go recharge Robyn. It's been a long day." he told me.
"Okay. Recharge well Heatwave." I patted his door before heading towards the elevator. Once I was in the doors started closing however just before they could, a hand shot inside to block them and forced them to open again. It was Graham. He stepped inside and the doors closed once again.
"Graham." I acknowledged him curtly.
"Robyn… I'm sorry." he apologised out of the blue.
"What?" I exclaimed in disbelief.
"I shouldn't have said what I said seeing as I know what you've been through. I was just taking my frustration out on things around me which happened to be you. Can you forgive me?" he asked me. I looked at him for a few seconds, looking him up and down to see if he was sincere or not. When I saw no signs of deceit, I sighed in defeat.
"Yeah we're good." I smiled faintly. "It's not like I can hold grudges for more than a few days and you didn't even mean it anyway."
"I'm glad we're okay." Graham said as the doors opened and we stepped into the kitchen.
"Me too. I'm gonna head up to bed. I'll see you tomorrow yeah?"
"Yeah. Night Robyn." he smiled before I ran up the stairs two at a time and fled to my room.
"I told you I'd drop it off didn't I? You didn't have to walk here to get it." Phillipa scolded me as I finished picking up my bike from her garage.
"Well I didn't want to trouble you more than I already have. It's obvious you work too hard to fix the stuff I break so the least I can do is 'pick up in store'." I told her. "Besides, the team's doing some redecorating in the bunker and no one's allowed to see it yet. It's a surprise for everyone." I explained to her.
"Wait, if no one can see it, how are the Burns' working on it?" she asked me, tilting her head in a confused manner. Scrap. Scrap scrap scrap.
"Uh… it's only Charlie and Cody working on it. The rest of the team… are doing their own thing?" I lied.
"Uh huh." Phillipa replied sarcastically. "What aren't you telling me Robyn?"
"Nothing!" I responded all too quickly before mentally slapping myself. "I'm not not telling you anything! Really." I promised her. Once again with the lies.
"I thought we told each other everything." Phillipa stated.
"Pip… I, it's not that I don't trust you. It's just some personal stuff I want to keep private for now. I'm asking you as your friend to drop it for now." I insisted, swinging my leg over the bike to I was seated comfortably.
"Okay. That was a low blow y'know?, 'asking as your friend'. But I'll leave it for now and you better tell me what it is soon." Phillipa caved. "I'll see you later." she waved as I pulled my helmet on and pulled out into the road.
When I pulled up inside the firehouse, Cody, Dani, Kade and Graham were coming out the elevator. "Robyn, you've gotta come down and check out the bunker!" Cody announced.
"Uh, yeah sure." I complied, following them back into the elevator and went down into the bunker below us. When the doors opened, I recognised the logo on the bots was now plastered on the wall above where they were standing with Charlie. He must have helped them with the painting tools because last time I checked we didn't have autobot sized paintbrushes.
"I mean, this is their home now too, right?" Cody asked us.
"...It sure looks that way." Kade smiled, giving him a side hug.
"So what does that logo actually mean?" I asked the bots.
"The insignia on the inside symbolises the autobot faction." Chase informed us.
"And the rings on the outside represent our rank as rescue bots." Heatwave added.
"Cool."
Okay, thanks for being so patient with me and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think I could improve on or if you have any suggestions for the coming episodes.