Meanwhile, present-day Blades was in shock. He had just seen his team, along with Cody, virtually disappear.
"Doc!" He practically screamed into the comm-link. "Doc, what happened?"
"I have no idea!" The Doc replied, extremely worried. "I don't know what the machine does, so I don't know where they went!"
"'Went'?" Blades repeated. "Are you saying they teleported?" A glimmer of hope would have shown in his eyes, if he had been in bot mode.
"Perhaps..." The doctor mused. "Perhaps not..."
"What do you think happened to them?" Blades asked Dani.
"I-I don't know!" She stuttered, her eyes frantically sweeping the shore for a clue as to what happened.
The emergency comm buzzed to life. "Help! There's a fire spreading downtown!" Someone pleaded.
Chief answered. "We'll... Be right there..." He informed them, and ended the call. "Doc, we're still rescue responders, we've got a job to do. Can you stay and figure out what happened to my son and the bots?"
"Absolutely!" The Doc assured Chief, and turned back to the device.
Blades, hearing the conversation over the comm, asked Dani. "Should we grab the scoop-claw for the fire?"
"We'd better," she answered. "That thing could come in handy." As they flew off towards the firehouse, Blades saw Graham, Chief and Cade board the Darby Ava and pilot it to shore.
What am I gonna do? He wondered miserably. Without the others, how will we respond to all the emergencies? He sighed.
Dani noticed, and reassuringly pat the dashboard. "It'll be OK..." She told him, and secretly herself.
"I hope you're right..." Blades quaked.
Heatwave, Boulder, Chase and Cody stood shocked from head to toe as an older, wiser, more mature-appearing Blades stepped into the light.
"Blades?!" They once again exclaimed.
Blades crossed his arms and didn't look impressed. So out-of-character, it was a strange sight.
Blades was more muscular than the bots had ever seen, or even pictured him being. He was also taller, taller than Heatwave, probably taller than Bumblebee. His once roundish middle was replaced by a powerful core. The happy-but-worried expression he always used to have was gone.
The only thing that had remained the same was Blades' color. If not for that, the bots and Cody wouldn't have recognized him.
Heatwave shook his head in disbelief. "Blades, wha-? What happened to you?!"
"What do you mean?" Blades replied, flat-toned and stern. Whatever amazement he had had previously seeing the Rescue Bots had disappeared.
"I mean-" Heatwave began, but stopped. This is just too weird... He thought.
An awkward silence fell over the old friends. Well, awkward for Heatwave, Chase, Boulder and Cody. Blades didn't seem to feel awkward at all anymore.
One of the 'silhouettes' stepped forward. "Sir, can you confirm friend or foe?"
Blades eyed the visitors suspiciously. "Yet to be determined." He replied.
"'Sir'?" The bots wondered aloud, and glanced at each other. What had they gotten themselves into?
"If we are not certain they are not foes, what are we to do with them?" The soldier questioned.
"Blindfold them." He answered. "We'll take them back to base for questioning, but we can't afford to reveal our base's location."
"Blindfold us?!" Heatwave thundered. "WE ARE YOUR TEAM!"
Blades seemed unaffected by Heatwave's outburst. Normally, he'd have backed off long before Heatwave would've lost it. Normally he was a lot more trusting, too.
But this was far from 'normal'.
Blades leaned forward threateningly. "Either you let us blindfold you willingly, or I can knock you out and tie you up." He stated calmly.
For once, Heatwave was feeling intimidated. And not the normal he-could-slag-you-in-a-sec-but-he's-on-your-side kind he felt when Optimus was around. Oh no, the firebot feared what Blades would do if he didn't cooperate.
How had it come to this? That Heatwave was the scaredy-bot and Blades was intimidating?
Heatwave let the others, under Blades command, blindfold himself and his small team. He let them shove him in a direction he did not know of, down stairs and corridors, dark and musty tunnels.
"Water in the hole!" Blades called out as he opened the scoop-claw and water gushed out. Stopping fires was so much easier if you didn't have to refill your scoop at the nearest source of water, which was a couple minutes here and back again.
"Blades, please stop. You've been calling that out for the past 12 trips and it's getting old." Dani pleaded, as they went to get yet another scoop-full of water. If you asked her, it was pointless. Sure, the water slowed the fire down a bit, but by the time they got the next scoop, the fire had spread even more. Still, they tried their best. Unfortunately, their best wasn't enough.
"Kade, where are you? You said you'd get the old firetruck!" Dani asked through the comm.
It crackled a bit before Kade answered. "The engine wouldn't start for a while, but I'm on my way now." He informed her. "And you're welcome for coming to your rescue." He teased.
Dani grunted. "You haven't saved me just yet." She muttered.
"What's that, sis? Did I hear a 'thank you Kade~!'?"
Dani could practically hear him smirking. She rolled her eyes. "Just get here." She ordered.
Blades sighed as he dumped another scoop-full of water on the fire. "Ugh, it's no use!" He groaned. "We can't keep the flames back much longer!"
A honking of a horn sounded, and Dani and Blades saw Kade arrive with the firetruck. "Calvary's here!" He called as he began spraying the fire. "You can thank me now." He sneered.
"How can he still act like that, not knowing what happened to-" Blades began, but Dani cut him off.
"Best not to worry about that, right now we need to concentrate on putting this fire out." She smiled. "And we'll get them back, I promise."
"We still need more help than we have," Blades continued as Kade finished off the fire. "And since the fire's taken care of, I'd like to get back to the firehouse and make a call."
"Sure..." Dani, unsure what Blades was talking about, agreed slowly. "Let's go."
And off they flew to make an important call.
"We're here." Blades informed the bots as they were roughly but not unkindly shoved forward. Blades gestured with his head toward the prisoners. "Un-blindfold them." He ordered.
When their blindfolds were removed the bots were surprised to find they were standing not in a dreary tunnel, as they expected, but a fairly cozy room, compared to what it looked like in the ruin city.
"Where are we?" Heatwave asked.
"The point of the blindfold was to conceal our location," Blades scoffed, and rolled his eyes. "But I can confirm you are in the Autobot rebellion camps."
"Since when have you been the sarcastic type?" Heatwave commented.
Blades glared at him. If this truly wasn't the real Heatwave, the imposter sure was doing a good job of faking it.
Blades turned away from glaring at Heatwave to stare at nothing in particular as memories flooded through his mind. Memories he had tried to suppress for almost 30 years...