Code 10-00

Chapter 2

The sky looked like it might start pouring rain down on them at any moment, its dark hue not helping morale at all...

Kade gripped the metal steering wheel of the firetruck so tightly that his hands were sweating and his knuckles turned white under his fire resistant gloves. His heart felt ice cold in his chest and he feared that it might have stopped beating, if only it were his life on the line at the moment and not... not his father's. His hands started to tremble now...

"Kade..." Heatwave tried to talk to his partner, but for what seemed like an eternity the human remained silent as they drove and the rescue bot was well familiar what an eternity felt like. This felt much worse. The road to Cody's school took a lot longer than it usually did, maybe because this was a race Heatwave did not want to win; probably because at the finish line there would be only be regret and tragedy. This unusual silence was making his tanks churn, this whole situation making him extremely uneasy. For the first time in a long while they both felt helpless.

Kade ignored Heatwave's attempt to rouse him from silence as he continued to brood with the heavy tension that hung in the air creating a near blackout of sound. Suddenly, with a deep exhale and steadying his shaking hands that alerted his partner in the first place, Kade slowly eased the breaks as the firebot stopped at the curbside to the school.

This had to be the hardest part of the job... No... the hardest part about being a big brother.

Having to see your little brother's heart break.

"Stay here." Kade got out of Heatwave's cab and made his way towards the school as though he were on automatic. Not the usual kind of automatic. The fire bot remained in vehicle mode at the curbside as he waited for his partner and Cody. He couldn't take this; the anxiety of the whole situation was making his own metal hide rattle. Or was it still the helplessness of this whole situation making his gears grind? He has never felt so useless in the matters of his human family than ever before.

Heatwave's side mirror turned a bit once he took notice of Kade guiding Cody outside. This was it... He saw Kade kneel down slowly and place a hand on Cody's shoulder and the younger brother looking perplexed at the gesture. The fire bot's spark started to pound, every ounce of him was practically screaming to look away, to spare himself the guilt. But he couldn't. He was in this as much as Kade was.

The bot's side mirror twitched while he watched as Cody's face turned from confusion to horror as Kade spoke and Heatwave felt the ache in his spark pierce him as the boy's hands raised to cover his face. This was just as bad as he anticipated but that did not make it any less painful. He hated seeing Cody in distress and this was no different, if not worse.

He noticed the two walk back over to him, and Heatwave immediately opened both of the doors to his cab. Kade lifted Cody to help him inside and then went around to the drivers side, sliding into the seat silently with his hands on the steering wheel, "Let's go." and proceeded to let Graham know on the comms that they were headed out.

Heatwave knew where they wanted to go, and turned on his loud engine before calmly driving off. Heatwave could take silence from Kade, he cherished it, but silence from Cody made him extremely uneasy, "Cody... I..." but failed at trying to vocalize.

"It's okay, Heatwave. I know." Cody spoke as he stared out the window with his chin in his hand. After a moment, the boy spoke again, "How's Chase doing?"

"Chase... he went back to the firehouse. I think he'll be okay." Heatwave answered, choosing his words carefully. Primus knows he's not the best counselor in the world; better at instigating than healing.

Cody nodded slowly, "That's good." and fell silent again.

The whole drive consisted of a nearly one sided attempt from Heatwave to get them to respond, anything to show there were signs of life in his cab rather than the zombies that seemed to have the life drained from their eyes. Heatwave still did not think he was as eloquent with words for tragic situations as Boulder; however, with how they acted, the chief might as well be dead already. That, he just could not stand for.

"Okay that's it!" Heatwave's tires screeched to a halt, jolting his passengers.

"Hey! What gives?!"

"Heatwave? What's wrong?"

The fire bot's voice echoed in the cab. With Charlie out of the game, it was up to him to pull them together. "This whole thing, this whole situation and I'm not able to do a damn thing to help it! That's how you're both feeling right? Well I feel it too, but I'm not going to stand by while you act like we've already lost! Chief is fighting for his life still and he needs all of our support, he needs us to stay alert and stay focused because he trained you. He wont want this... this despair and I refuse to let you lose to it." He spoke from the spark, feeling his determination rise again with his own words.

Both humans listened before Cody spoke up, "You're right, Heatwave. I'm sorry." he sounded actually understanding.

"Don't be sorry, you both have a right to be upset. Something incredibly wrong has happened, but we can't let it consume us that we lose focus." Heatwave continued.

Kade sighed, "Alright, alright, enough with the inspirational speech. I get it."

"He means that Dad is still alive, he's still fighting and I wont give up on him. Thanks Heatwave." Cody smiled softly towards the center console, appreciating his concern. "Let's get going."

"Don't worry, it looks like we're already here." Kade pointed out the window to the building across the street from where they stopped. It was the hospital with Boulder and Blades outside it already. The copter bot was looking through one of the windows on the second story, no doubt talking to Dani. Both Burns' got out of the cab of the firetruck and rushed up towards the hospital while Heatwave then transformed and moved up to Blades and Boulder, "How's the chief?"

"Still in surgery." Boulder responded, metal brow furrowed with worry. "And Chase hasn't answered his comms. I think he blames himself."

"I'll see if I can get through to him." Heatwave sighed, rubbing his helm. "Chase isn't the type to go and do something reckless but he has surprised me before."

He then turned his attention to the window Blades was peeking through. Heatwave could see Graham with his arm around Dani as they waited anxiously for word. Then Dani opened her arms and welcomed Cody into a tight embrace which was gratefully returned. Heatwave finally gave into looking away, shifting his gaze upwards towards the clouds.

The sky above was still covered in a deep grey, like it so badly wanted to rain...