"Ow!" Smokescreen yelped as Ratchet removed the bullets from his patient's legs. "The pain killers haven't kicked in yet!"

"Quit whining!" Ratchet said.

"What's his problem?" a young human female asked Bulkhead.

"I was shot and knocked out by bank robbers- OWOWOW!" Smokescreen said.

"But, you're a robot," a younger human male with Jimmy Neutron hair and thick rimmed glasses said.

"Well, it is Griffin Rock," Heatwave said, "they probably have high tech weapons."

The alarm signaling that Agent Fowler was coming went off.

"Heatwave, hide the three humans!" Ratchet said.

Heatwave put the female in his cabin, grabbed the two male youths, and ran to the training room to hide them.

"Where the hell's Prime?! Don't tell me. He's out pancaking a mini-mall! And don't get me started on the driverless vehicle sightings!" Fowler ranted.

"Why don't we blame Google for the sightings?" Smokescreen suggested.

"Can it, killer!"

"Hey, I didn't kill anyone!"

"Yes, you did! You killed a marine in Griffin Rock!"

"If this is about the bank robbery, I shot at the ground! Th-they were shooting at me and Chief Burns!"

"You activated your blasters in public!?" Arcee exclaimed.

"They were shooting at us! What was I supposed to do?"

"Given how many bullets I've pulled out of Smokescreen's legs, I'd say they were automatic or semi-automatic weapons," Ratchet said.

"Well, how am I going to explain why he has blasters?!" Fowler asked.

"Protectobots had blasters," Smokescreen said. "They're like Rescue Bots, but mostly police and body guards for important bots."

"That could work," Bulkhead said. "A couple Wreckers I knew were Protectobots."

"We could say he's a body guard for the island and when he saw the guns his defensive programing kicked in," Arcee said.

"Ow! Ratchet, got a nerve!" Smokescreen shouted.

xxx

"Is Chase alright?" Cody asked. "He looks like he's gonna hurl."

"He's just stress dry heaving," Blades said. "He used to do it a lot back on Cybertron."

"Get my bucket..." Chase groaned. "I think I'm going to be very ill."

"His bucket?" Cody asked.

"Sometimes he gets sick," Blades said as he went to get the bucket.

xxx

Chase was lying on his belly in his room. His nausea had gone away, but he didn't want to risk getting sick in recharge on his back. That wouldn't be good for his cooling system.

"Hey, Chase, can I come in?" Heatwave asked.

Chase nodded.

"You do know that Smokescreen didn't mean to kill that robber, right?" Heatwave asked as he sat on the side of Chase's bed.

"I know that. But he failed at the mission. He harmed humans. Do you realize that?" Chase said.

"Agent Fowler and Chief Burns are handling it. If were lucky, Smokescreen's plan will work."

"Smokescreen has a plan?" Chase asked in surprise.

"Ever heard of the Protectobots?"

"We're doomed!"

xxx

Smokescreen was a little surprised when Heatwave said he could recharge in his room.

I guess he likes Chase, he figured. He saw Heatwave enter Chase's room a little bit ago.

He put a spark tracker on his chest. Ratchet said it would alert him and Blades incase he had a spark attack while recharging.

He drifted into recharge.

xxx

Heatwave, Blades, Boulder, Smokescreen, and the Burns' kids were watching the news anxiously. Harvey Prescott was going to do the segment on yesterday's bank robbery shootout and death.

["Rescue Bots with firearms: security measure or death machines?"] Prescott said to the camera. ["That is on everyone's mind after yesterday's bank heist, in which an enlisted man died in the crossfire. With me now is Chief Burns, who will try to justify the death."]

Prescott shoved the microphone into Chief's face.

["I-I think we should wait for the FBI agent to get here first,"] Chief stammered.

["What the town want's to know is if this new robot and the others are a threat to safety. Why don't you comment on that?"]

"This is bad! This is bad! This is bad!" Blades repeated like a broken record.

"Who's that blond lady?" Smokescreen asked. "The one getting out of that black SUV."

"That's the FBI's Cyber Defense director!" Graham exclaimed. "Agent Cline!"

["Excuse me, sorry I'm late,"] Agent Cline said as she walked up next to Chief. ["Agent Fowler couldn't be here, he's very busy. Now, Smokescreen, the codename for this town's most recent Rescue Bot, is actually a Protectobot, armed Rescue Bots built after 9/11. Not many were made. Smokescreen is the first one we found, and nothing on his file said his blasters were operational. When he saw the MK-47's, he went into battle mode. He shot at the ground, as part of his programing. No one was supposed to die. Now as for the others, they have more non-lethal weapons. Chase, the first police-bot, has Tasers on his arms. And this ax-"] she opened the case with her and pulled out a fireman's ax, ["- is designed for both humans and robots."]

["How does it work?"] Prescott asked.

Agent cline turned to Chase. ["Robot mode, Chase."]

Chase was hesitant, but he transformed.

["You boys stand back and don't try this at home,"] the agent began to swing the ax back and forth, like a golf club, by the handle before tossing it to Chase.

Pretty much everyone was surprised when the ax went robot sized when Chase caught it.

"That's my ax!" Heatwave said with wide optics.

It went back to human size when Chase handed it back to Agent Cline.

["We're currently investigating the bank robbery. The other two robots don't have any weapons. Well, unless you count the sonar for the green one."] Agent Cline handed the case to Chief. ["Are there any more questions?"]

["Are there other Protectobots?"] Prescott asked.

["In the testing phase."]

xxx

Heatwave was doing maintenance on his ax. He hadn't seen it since he left Cybertron! It was nice to have something from his home planet.

"Hey, Heatwave?" Smokescreen asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Man, this is awkward... Are you and Chase conjuex?"

"What?! No! Wh-why would you ask that?!"

"I was just curious."

"Go watch some past emergencies. We have them recorded."

Smokescreen left the room.

That was really awkward! Heatwave thought.

xxx

Smokescreen was watching an audio less video of this guy who looked like an evil British dude and noticed something wrong with his right arm.

"That's weird," he zoomed in on that frame.

"Hey, Smokescreen," Cody said as he walked in. "I heard that you have some kind of holoform. How does it work?"

"Advanced Cybertronian technology. Do you know the deal with this Morocco guy's arm? It doesn't look to good."

"All I know is that he was the island's leading scientist before he was fired."

"I'm going to see if I can find more info on this guy."

"What if you hit a dead end?"

Smokescreen smirked. "That's when I'll use my holoform for non-computer info."