Dents and Bruises

Talking:

"English or other Earth language"

"Cybertronian"

'Thoughts'

:Comm. Links:

(Bond talk)

"Recordings or telephone conversations"

Flashback or change of time or place

Time changes:

Nano-klick=1/2 a klik. Klik= less than a second. Breem (cybertronian minute) = 8 minutes. Cycle=hour. Joor (Cybertronian hour) = 6 hours. Solar cycle=day. Megacycle= 1 week. Orn= 13 days. Groon= 1 month. Deca-orn = 3 months. Stellar cycle= 1 year. Vorn=83 years.

Rated T for good reasons, the ones in this chapter being language, slash, mentions of slash, talks about sensitive topics and anything else I might have missed.

A.N.: Just a little FYI, I've never had to fill out a missing child report so I'm just estimating how it's done on here. If I got anything wrong please let me know and I will change it

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's or any original ideas I patched in to fill in any blanks left by the show—for example, the little backstory on Blades was something I made up—if you recognize it from somewhere else it's probably not mine.

Heatwave came out of recharge drowsy and feeling an electric tingle of a recent overload lingering in his circuitry and on his plating.

'Ugh, what time is it?' he checked his chronometer and found it was almost five in the morning.

'Pit, Chase doesn't even get up this early… or does he?' Heatwave's mind briefly revisited all the times he had woken up in the morning and found the police bot had been up for hours already.

'I'm going back into recharge, Primus help anyone that says otherwise,' Heatwave then realized he felt something warm in the berth next to him. He opened his optic shutters and looked around to see Blades recharging next to him, on his side so he was facing him.

Heatwave looked over at his berth mate and suddenly all the memories of what had happened the night before. 'Whoa, that actually happened…'

He lifted the tarp that had somehow ended up on top of them and saw the scuff marks on his and Blades' plating in each other's colors and twitched his nasal ridge when the smells of transfluid and ozone wafted into his olfactory sensors. 'Better get cleaned up before anyone else sees us…'

He begrudgingly climbed off the berth and snuck out of the room down the hall to get a bucket full of water and some rags to give himself a quick "spot wash" and buff out the worst of the scratches.

'There, that outta do it," he set the bucket and rags on the floor so Blades could clean up when he came out of recharge and crawled into the berth next to the mech to get some more recharge himself.

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Blades woke up with a pounding processor ache and an unidentifiable throbbing in his lower chassis to the sound of an alarm going off. He winced and covered his audios to block out the painfully loud sound before rolling over and blacking out again.

A few minutes later he opened his optics to see Heatwave shaking him awake. "You know, being a Rescue bot it's not really a good idea to sleep through the alarm,"

"I'm up!" Blades quickly sat up and instantly regretted that decision as he clutched his helm and leaned against the wall. "Oohh, I'm just going to wait until the room stops spinning…"

Heatwave looked at the Copterbot with concern before grabbing the bucket full of water from before and handing Blades a rag as he pulled the tarp off of him. "Come on Blades, let's get you cleaned up before we go save some people. Unless you want everyone in Griffin Rock to see you covered in fluids and scuff marks with my coloring,"

Blades grabbed the cloth and started scrubbing at his legs and chassis while Heatwave grabbed another cloth and helped him so it would get done faster.

When they were done they rushed out into the main area where Chase and the humans were getting debriefed on the situation.

While Chief was telling them about how a couple of campers had gone missing the night before and had just called 911 saying that some of their party was injured and they were now lost in the woods with no idea where they were, Chase subtly leaned closer to Blades and whispered "You missed a spot,"

Blades glanced down and saw Chase was looking at his shoulder where a bright red scuff mark sat, almost seeming to mock him after he had cleaned up the rest of his frame.

He quickly licked his servo and scrubbed at his shoulder as Chief finished the debriefing and Heatwave said "Rescue Bots, Roll to the rescue!"

Everyone else left while Graham sat in the control center since Boulder was still out like a light from being knocked out the day before and the sedatives they gave him during surgery; Blades was right when he surmised that the coating on some of his wiring—which was actually part of the bots' nervous system—was melted by the heat of the fire along with part of the hydraulic tubing in his shoulder.

It took the rest of the previous day and a good part of the night to replace the burnt bits and now they were waiting for Boulder's self-repair systems to integrate the replacement wiring into his systems before letting him back on duty.

Graham looked in the direction of the med. bay. "Get well soon, Boulder,"

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Cody flinched when his comm. link started buzzing in pocket during second period; he had forgotten to turn it off so it was alerting him of an emergency.

His English teacher, Ms. Blu, wasn't amused as she turned around to look at her students, holding her chalk poised to continue writing on the board. "Was that someone's cell phone just now?"

Cody sank lower in his seat, with a guilty expression on his face and tried to inconspicuously turn off his comm. link.

"Sorry ma'am, that was my fault," Everyone turned around to see who interrupted class.

Cody looked over at Sasha; she was the one that spoke up. 'What are you doing, Sasha?'

Ms. Blu crossed her arms, she didn't seem to believe her but no one else was speaking up. "Miss Morgan, anything you care to share with the rest of the class?"

Sasha shrank in on herself when she realized everyone was looking at her and held out her wrist. "Sorry, the alarm on my watch just went off. I've tried shutting it off so it would quit going off at random but it's an old watch so I don't remember how and I don't have the instructions anymore,"

Ms. Blu still didn't believe her but didn't want to dwell on the subject anymore. "Alright… Now class, if you would please return your attention to the board and we can continue our discussion on…"

After class, Cody met up with Sasha in the hall. "Hey, Sasha, about what happened back there, you didn't have to do that… thanks,"

Sasha jumped when she realized he was talking to her but smiled at him and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "No problem,"

Cody noticed that when she reached up her sleeve fell down, revealing a bruise on the girl's hand. "Whoa, what happened to your hand?"

Sasha looked at her hand, for about a second she almost looked scared before her expression became cold and unreadable, and pulled her sleeve back down over her hand. "I… uh… got it caught in a door last night,"

Cody grabbed her wrist and carefully pulled her sleeve back to have a look. "Ouch, that looks like it must have hurt. Did you put ice on it?"

Sasha looked away and shook her head "Didn't have any,"

Cody looked at her strangely 'Didn't have any ice? Anyone with a freezer should have something cold for this' "Maybe you should go to the nurse and have her look at it,"

Sasha shook her head quickly. "I'll be ok, I've had worse,"

Cody's eyes widened. "When?"

Sasha smirked at him "I used to live on a farm with 1500 pound horses running around. Well, two of them were Clydesdale mix so they were a bit heavier and one was an Arabian so he was lighter but you get the idea. Can you imagine what being kicked or stepped on by one of them must be like?"

Cody winced, that didn't sound like it felt good at all. "Um… I'll take your word for it,"

Sasha looked at him like she wanted to say something else but instead tossed her head in the direction of down the hall. "Come on, we're going to be late for class,"

Cody waited for Frankie to catch up to them and followed Sasha as she walked down the hall.

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After an hour or so of searching the rescue team found the five campers that were lost and of those five, three of them needed medical treatment.

One had hypothermia and a sprained ankle from falling off a rock ledge and into a river, another also got hypothermia from trying to swim after him and the third dislocated their shoulder trying to pull them out and would have been pulled in with them had the other two not held onto him.

The other two were fine and were taken into town to meet their friends at the hospital after they were air lifted there by Blades and Dani.

Turns out Dani knew the one that had dislocated his shoulder and she blushed the entire way there.

After they dropped the campers off and it was just him and Dani, Blades questioned his human partner about this. "Dani, are you okay? You were acting really weird just now, and your face was red like you have a fever. Oh, Primus, do you have a fever?"

Dani rubbed her face and shook her head. "No Blades, I don't have a fever,"

Blades let out a sigh of relief. "That's good," the holographic image of his face looked up at her. "So why were you acting so different, especially around that guy with the hurt shoulder?"

Dani blushed again "Who, Taylor? I just wanted to make sure he was okay,"

Kade cut in on the conversation, he had been eavesdropping through the comm.s :Yeah, because she liiikes him.: he said the word "like" in an obnoxious sing-song voice.

Dani narrowed her eyes, wishing she could glare at her brother, or better yet slap him. "That's not what was going on at all, Kade,"

Kade snickered :Whatever you say, little sis.:

Blades also snickered and started singing "Dani and Taylor, sittin' in a…"

Dani swatted his console to get him to stop.

"Ow."

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After they got back to the firehouse, Blades decided to test out his holoform some more. After making it look human he went for a walk in the town—after making sure to let the Chase and Heatwave know where he was—to see if anyone could tell he wasn't human.

When Blades passed by a shop window he jumped slightly, not recognizing himself; his holoform now looked like a tall young man with orange-blonde hair that was spiked up on the sides with amber colored eyes and pale skin wearing a white sleeveless button up shirt over a long sleeve orange shirt with pale blue jeans and white sneakers.

He quickly ran his fingers through his hair, making sure it looked good, or at least looked human. He still didn't know much about human styles so he just shrugged and left it as it was, continuing his walk.

Blades looked around at his surroundings, somehow feeling small next to all of the buildings and the fenced-in trees that dotted the sides of the street in between the light posts that he was usually close to the same height as.

'Everything looks so different at this size. Best of all, I don't have to pretend to be someone's vehicle or a piece of equipment to blend in when I'm like this,'

The Rescue Bot in holoform was so busy looking around he forgot to watch where he was going and bumped into someone, who dropped a small black case they had been holding and it clattered on the ground.

Blades realized his blunder and stooped down to pick it up for them while apologizing profusely "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I should pay more attention,"

But to his surprise the person he had just bumped into was also crouching to grab the item they had dropped. "No I'm sorry, that was my fault,"

'Where have I heard that voice before?' Blades looked up and realized he had just bumped into the girl that had come up to him and started talking to him as though she was trying to be friends the day before. "Hey, aren't you that new girl?"

The girl leaned away from him with wide eyes, reminding Blades of a frightened cat, before slowly reaching for her case she had dropped when Blades held it out for her. "I almost forgot how fast word travels in small towns like this,"

The two of them stood up and the girl looked at up at him, almost having to lean back since his holoform was about six feet tall. "Well, since you seem to know who I am, it's only fair I know your name,"

Blades did a quick search on the internet to find a name that sounded human but was close enough to his real designation that it would be easy to remember. "I'm… Blake," he stiffly held out his hand, knowing from what they had learned from Cody humans usually shook hands when they met someone new. Cybertronians did too but not nearly as often.

The girl switched her case to her other hand to firmly grasp Blades' "Sasha,"

Blades realized he was shaking her hand more than necessary and let go. "Nice to meet you, Sasha. I hope I didn't damage your… um…" he looked at the case to try to get a hint of what might have been inside.

Sasha noticed his confusion and finished his sentence. "Violin, don't worry, this case has extra padding in it," she noticed the crossing light had changed from "Don't Walk" to "Walk" and stepped off the curb. "I'd better go, nice meeting you,"

Blades waved "Nice meeting you too,"

He started to walk away when he got a call on his comm. link and remotely accessed said comm. link as he altered part of his holoform to make it look like he was talking on a cell phone. "Hello?"

Dani's voice came on. :Blades, Heatwave just said you were out in your holoform. Sorry to interrupt your walk but you need to come back to base, we've got patrol in five minutes.:

Blades sighed 'Duty calls…' "Alright, I'll be right there," he waited until she disconnected the call in case there was something else she needed to tell him and put his hands in his pockets as he turned around and started the trek back to the fire house.

Then an idea struck him. 'Hmm, I wonder how fast these holoforms are…' a grin split his face as he prepared to sprint and suddenly everything around him was a blur as he ran, leaving confused people and a few stray papers fluttering in the breeze in his wake.

Dani hung up the call and went to get her helmet so she was ready when Blades' holoform got back. When she turned around there was suddenly a stranger with orange hair standing behind her.

She screamed and swung her fist at him.

Blades dodged and held up his hands in surrender. "Whoa, Dani it's me. You called, remember?"

Dani took a deep breath to calm herself and let it out and he did the same before saying "Why is it that whenever I use my holoform around you, you try to kill me?"

Dani put her helmet on her head. "Sorry, Blades I didn't recognize you,"

Blades holoform disappeared and he transformed into robot mode. "Fine, fine, I see how it is… you don't like me because I don't like to fly as much as you do. Why couldn't there have been a race car with the vehicles they had us scan? I could have worked with that,"

He turned and walked towards the med. bay. "Just let me check on Boulder before we go,"

Dani held up a finger and said. "Graham already did. He wanted me to tell you that the sedatives wore off while you were out and that's he's running diagnostics on Boulder's shoulder. Everything checks out but we want to make absolutely sure he's healed before he goes back to work,"

Blades sighed, he was running out of excuses to get out of flying, and went over to the lift onto the roof. "Come on, let's go,"

Dani took the human elevator up to the roof and met him out on the helicopter pad where he transformed into a helicopter.

Blades opened his canopy to let his human partner into the cockpit and once it was closed they both ran their pre-flight checks.

While Blades prepared to take off, Dani spoke with him through the microphone in her helmet so he could hear her over the spinning rotors. "Blades, what was that you said before about a race car?"

Blades sighed and his holographic face looked up at her from his console. "Did Cody, or me or one of the others, ever tell you I wasn't always a helicopter?"

Dani thought for a moment "Cody might have mentioned that…" 'I just wasn't paying attention when he did,' she thought guiltily

Blades nodded. "Well he was right, I wasn't always a helicopter. Heck, I wasn't always a Rescue bot even,"

Dani looked at Blades; this was news for her. "What did you do before you were a rescue bot?"

Blades smiled shyly but pride shone in his optics. "I was a Speedster, one of the best racers in my circuit back on Cyberton. I also did a few street races on the side and a few odd courier jobs when I didn't have any races,"

Dani smiled, but one question came to mind. "What made you want to become a Rescue Bot?"

Blades looked away in shame. "Well, like I said, I did a few street races. One went wrong and I got into an accident,"

Dani gasped. "Oh my God,"

Blades continued. "…and since that wall I crashed into was public property and I didn't get away before the Enforcers showed up I got community service. In addition to fixing to wall I crashed into they had me scrubbing graffiti off of the buildings. It wasn't much since Tyger Pax was a pretty nice town but still,"

"So after you finished your community service you became a rescue bot?"

"I'm getting there, be patient," Blades continued his story.

"Anyway, one day when I was scrubbing graffiti a few street racers went by, the area was pretty popular for street races, and I stopped to watch, wishing I could join in. But then one of the racers took a corner too sharp and skidded out of control and knocked over a stack of crates. A few bots went over to see if the racer was ok but then they started freaking out. I didn't know why for sure at first, the racer seemed ok, but then somebot shouted 'Somebot get some help! There's a Youngling under the crates!'"

Dani wasn't quite sure what "youngling" meant. "A Youngling?"

Blades nodded. "Yeah, in human years he would have been… mmm… around Cody's age, maybe a little younger,"

Dani gasped, trying not to picture what would have happened if a human child at that age had been buried under crates like that.

Blades continued the story. "I heard someone say that they were calling the Youngling's Creators and a medic but everybody was too busy staring at the pile of crates in shock to get them off of him so I ran over and dug him out myself. He wasn't responding to I did some of the first aid procedures they taught us at the track in case one of us killed our engines,"

"You mean like CPR for Cybertronians?" Dani asked.

Blades thought for a moment and the holographic image of his face titled with a shrug. "Yeah, I guess you can think about it like that. Anyway, after a few breems the kid came to and his Creators, one of them actually was the medic they ended up calling, got there and well, seeing that Youngling with his Creators after saving him from being buried alive just felt… good,"

Dani smiled "So you became a Rescue Bot,"

Blades nodded. "I gave up street racing for good and when I finished my community service I put in an application to join the Rescue Bots. I went to the Circuit less and less and when my application finally went through I quit going altogether and started my training to become a Rescue Bot,"

Dani leaned back in her seat, letting the information she had just been told sink in. "Wow, Blades, I knew you were more than meets the eye but you've got a criminal record and everything,"

Blades gawked "I do not have a criminal record… they were only able to catch me that one time," he remembered a detail he forgot to mention and smiled. "Want to hear the funny part?"

Dani looked at him incredulously. "There's a funny part?"

Blades nodded "As it turns out the Youngling I saved was the same one that made me have my accident in the first place because I swerved to miss him when he ran out into the street,"

Dani thought for a moment. "So, because of that kid you became a Rescue bot?"

"Yep"

Dani thought for a moment "Cool,"

They were quiet as they continued their patrol before Blades spoke up. "So… what made you want to be a helicopter pilot?"

Dani blushed. "Well, when I was a little kid I always wanted to be able to fly. Like a bird or a super hero. Then one time when I was in first grade a local helicopter pilot came to the school and gave my class helicopter rides. It was so cool. As soon as I was back on the ground the first thing I said was 'When I grow up I wanna fly a helicopter!'"

Blades laughed nervously. "Living the dream,"

Dani smiled and nodded. "Oh yeah, but when I got older I found out that people don't just fly helicopters for a living so it was either join the military or join a Search-and-Rescue team… like mom,"

Blades looked up at her somberly. "You miss her,"

Dani nodded and Blades gently tightened the safety belts around her in an attempt at a hug. "What happened?"

Dani stiffened, she didn't like to talk about it but she trusted Blades. "Like I said, she was part of the Search-and-Rescue team, but she drove an ambulance not a helicopter. One day she was helping someone that had spun out on an icy road and crashed. While she was treating him on site another car came around the corner and hit her,"

Blades gasped. "Primus, I'm so sorry Dani. Did they ever find out who did it?"

Dani shook her head. "No, it was a hit and run,"

Blades pouted "Aft-hats, could've at least made sure she was ok,"

They were quiet for a moment longer until Dani realized that her greatest tragedy was losing her mom and, while that sucked for her and her family, Blades had literally lost his entire world and she never gave it a second thought while he consoled her about her own problem.

She gently rubbed his control panel and asked. "What was Cybertron like?"

Blades was surprised by this; usually it was Cody or Graham—and Frankie and Doc Greene now that they knew—that were curious about Cybertron.

Blades thought for a moment, sifting through his memory banks to find memories of home that were least likely to make him too homesick. "Cybertron was… incredible. Don't get me wrong Earth is awesome too and in some ways they are a lot alike but… Cybertron will always be home,"

The solemn look on his face perked up when he remembered something. "I think we still have some of the holovids from back in the day in our archives from our ship, if you want to watch them. 'Cause honestly it will take too long to describe it, mostly because if I describe I just know I won't do it justice,"

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When they got back to the firehouse Dani climbed out of her partner's alt. mode looked up at Blades as he transformed. "It's almost too bad you can't go back to your old alt. mode, Blades. I'd love to see you in action with it,"

Chief Burns and Chase were on their way out to for their own patrol, when the latter heard what Dani just said he crossed his arm-servos and scowled. "Absolutely not,"

Chief Burns looked at Dani and each of the bots. "Am I missing something here?"

Dani pointed her thumb up at Blades. "Blades was just telling me he used to be a racer back on Cybertron before he became a Rescue bot. I just thought it would be cool to see, from the sounds of things he was pretty good when kids didn't run out in front of him,"

Chase clenched his fists at his sides. "It took us three Earth days to catch him. Three. Earth. Days!" he held up his digits for emphasis. "And I lost track of all of the times he managed to lose the Enforcer personnel that were trying to tail him,"

Dani waved Chase off. "I'm sure he held back after he joined the Rescue Bots,"

Chase transformed "That was after he joined the Rescue bots,"

He didn't say anything more so Chief Burns got into his alt. mode and fastened his seat belt. "While it would be impressive to see what a Cybertronian alt. mode can do, I'm afraid Chase is right. Even if Blades did get his wheels back he can't race on the streets, it would have to be on a racetrack,"

Blades sighed sadly. "Not that there was any chances of that happening anyway,"

Blades went to check on Boulder and Dani went upstairs while Chase and Chief Burns pulled out of the garage.

Once they were out of the driveway, Chief Burns said. "Sounds like you were speaking from experience back there,"

Chase sighed and the holographic face on his screen nodded. "Cybertron had its speeders just as much as Earth does. Whenever a street race passed through the sector we were assigned to Blades always offered to help bring the delinquents under control. Problem was he sometimes forget he supposed to be trying to stop the race, not win it,"

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The next day, Blades went for another walk in his holoform, enjoying the fact he could be out of the base for something other than an emergency or giving in to Dani's want to fly.

Not that he didn't like flying with Dani, he just still had his issues with heights and his controls and gears always took a beating when she was peevish about something.

When Blades got to the park when he heard music playing and looked around to locate the source. 'Primus, that's beautiful. Where's it coming from?'

The Rescue Bot finally located the source, a small human sitting on a park bench wearing a denim jacket and a grey hood playing a violin or a fiddle; he had seen people play them on T.V. but he didn't know what the difference was between the two.

When Blades moved loser he noticed that whoever was playing must have been messing up because they kept stopping abruptly with a growl of frustration and then playing the same part over again.

At first he wasn't able to identify the musician because they had the hood of the sweatshirt they were wearing under their jacket up but after a few minutes of listening and watching them play Blades recognized them. "That's beautiful,"

The violinist jumped and looked at him, revealing the girl he had met the day before. At first she was afraid but relaxed slightly when she realized he wasn't a threat. "Oh hey, Blake right?"

Blades nodded and the girl quickly said "Did you want to sit here? Here, let me move my stuff," Sasha frantically started moving the items she had set on the bench—sheet music and her violin case—and put them duffle bag that sat on the ground at her feet.

Blades considered for a moment as he looked around and walked around the bench to sit next to her but then he saw she was putting away her violin and realized she was packing away her stuff to leave. "Oh, no, you're fine. I just wanted to hear you play but if I'm bothering you I could just leave,"

Sasha looked at him with confusion and he looked away shyly. "You're really good,"

She didn't move so Blades asked "What song was that?"

Sasha bit her lip before mumbling something he couldn't catch. "I'm sorry, didn't quite catch that,"

"'Bottom of your soul' by Toto. I printed the sheet music off the internet and have been learning to play it for music class. Happy?"

Blades smiled "Very," he noticed she was withdrawn. 'Whoa, never thought I'd meet someone as shy as me,' "Don't mind me, if you want to keep practicing, go ahead,"

Sasha hesitated before getting out her violin back out and propping her sheet music against her bag and holding it in place with her feet.

She got ready to play but looked at Blades out the corner of her eye. "Pardon my bow, I don't want to jab you on accident,"

Blades realized the stick in her hand, the bow, had to come in his direction for her to play and leaned back. "Ok,"

Blades watched as the violinist started to play. As he listened he looked up the song on the internet. As he read the lyrics he came to the conclusion that this was a very sad song and…for some reason… he liked it.

The holoform said nothing in favor of hearing the song and when she stopped he was about ready to cry and clapped wildly. "Bravo, bravo, encore,"

Sasha shook her head, also looking near tears. "That wasn't the whole song, Blake. I just can't get to seem to get it right," she slammed the hand holding the bow into her leg like she was trying to stab herself with it.

Blades looked at the sheet music she was using. It did look complicated… then again he had no idea how to read sheet music, let alone the human kind. He smiled at her. "Don't worry, you'll get it,"

Sasha smiled "Thanks,"

Blades smiled back but then he got a call on his comm. link and the buzzing that alerted him of that was audible. "Uh, could you excuse me for a moment?"

Sasha nodded so he stood up and altered his holoform so it looked like he had taken a cell phone out of his pocket and answered it. "Hello?"

Hetwave's voice sounded irritated. :Blades, sorry to interrupt whatever it is you're doing but we've got an emergency, so if you don't mind…:

Bldes sighed. "Be right there," he "hung up" the holographic cell phone and looked at Sasha. "Um, I'd better go. Just got a call, apparently there's an emergency,"

Sasha's eyes widened "Everything ok?"

Blades shrugged "Not sure, I'll find out when I get to the firehouse,"

The girl's eyes widened further. "You work at the firehouse? Are you a fireman?"

Blades shook his head "No I'm…" he quickly thought of a cover since he couldn't tell her he was a Rescue Bot. "Part of the Search-and-Rescue team. Remember that helicopter that was parked outside the school the other day? I saw you looking at it,"

The girl blushed "Oh yeah… wait that was yours?"

'Well, technically I'm not lying,' Blades nodded.

Sasha smiled and gave him the same look she did when she was looking at his alt. mode. "COOL!"

Blades smiled and waved as he walked away. "See you around,"

Sasha waved back "Yeah… see you," as soon as he was gone she packed away all of her stuff and walked away.

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When Chief Burns got to the police station that day he found his deputy, Barney, talking to a very distraught looking couple he had never seen before.

The woman was of average height with red hair and blue eyes wearing a yellow button up sweater over a white shirt with a purple skirt and black high heels while the man was slightly taller than she was and had dark hair with blue eyes and was wearing dark cargo pants and a navy blue suede jacket.

Chief Burns cleared his throat to get their attention and said. "What seems to be the problem here?"

Barney looked at Chief Burns and said. "Well hi-yah, Chief, these folks came in and told me they had a missing child. Would you happen to know who we'd call about that?"

Chief Burns took a deep breath and sighed. 'That would be us.' He dismissed the deputy. "I got this one, Barney. If you folks would come with me,"

He vaguely heard Barney say "Well, thanks Chief," as he led the couple into his office and closed the door behind him. "Sorry about that. We recently had some staff cuts and he's a little confused as to who's left, although I actually take care of this sort of thing anyway,"

Chief Burns waved his hand to indicate the two chairs situated in front of his desk as he circled around it. "Why don't you folks have a seat? I just need to get a form we need to fill out for information and we can get started,"

The couple sat down in the chairs across from Chief Burns as he grabbed a file and removed a form from it and put the file back in its place before closing the drawer and opening another to get an empty tan folder to keep the paper in once it was filled out.

Chief Burns grabbed a pen out of the cup on his desk and clicked. "Now then, what can you tell me about your missing child?"

The couple looked at each other nervously before the man spoke. "She's actually not our child. We're her foster parents,"

Chief Burns made a note of that; it wasn't uncommon for children in foster care to run away from their foster homes and this fact might help somehow.

The woman looked at him almost pleadingly. "Her name is Sasha, Sasha Morgan. She has black hair and hazel eyes, about twelve years old. We haven't had her for very long but she is very special to us,"

Chief Burns that jotted down and asked a few more questions. "When was the last time you saw her?"

"Yesterday evening. She was working on her homework at the kitchen table and she went upstairs when we got home,"

Chief Burns jotted that down as well. "What was she last seen wearing?"

The couple looked at each other and the woman answered. "We're not exactly sure,"

When Chief Burns looked up at them the man clarified. "We woke up this morning and found a note saying she left early for school. We didn't actually see her. Also when we both came home from work we found that she had taken some of her belongings with her. Even if we had seen her that morning she could have changed her clothes since then,"

Chief Burns simply wrote "Unknown" in that space on the missing child report form. "Any recent photographs we can use to identify her?"

The woman pulled a wallet sized photo out of her purse. "We took this the day we got her,"

Chief Burns took the photograph and looked at it before setting it next to the form he was filling out. "Alright, can you think of any possible leads as to where she might be?"

The woman shook her head. "No, we just moved here a few days ago. I'm not sure is she knows where anything even is. Besides the school, I mean, and we already looked there,"

The Police Chief nodded and asked them a few more questions, including how they might be able to reach them if they find anything.

The man asked to write their names and contact information himself so Chief Burns allowed it, seeing nothing wrong with that.

When Chief Burns got the paper and his pen back he saw that the man had given him their address, home phone and his work phone number. Chief Burns looked at the woman. "And you?"

The woman smiled politely. "The same as him,"

Chief Burns started to write but stopped when he noticed something about what they had said. "You two work at the same place?"

The man scowled in a "Do you think this is a joke?" manner and the woman shook her head. "No, I'm a stay-at-home housewife,"

Chief Burns looked at the two of them, not letting any of the suspicion he was feeling creep onto his face. "Didn't you say you both got home from work last night when you saw Sasha last?"

The couple seemed to realize their story had a plot hole and the woman laughed. "Oh that. Yes, he came home from work but I had to run to the store for… something, I can't quite remember what. Anyway I met up with him when I was walking home so we rode together the rest of the way,"

Chief Burns saw how that would make sense, although the slight pause when she said she went to the store seemed off, but he shrugged and assumed that she was simply trying to remember what she had gone to the store for in the first place and let it slide.

Chief Burns looked over the form to make sure everything was filled out. "Ok, that should cover it. We'll be sure to call you if anything comes up, Mr. and Mrs. …" he looked at the name he had been given. "Thamesson,"

Mr. Thamesson frowned "Thamesson, it's pronounced 'Tems-son',"

Chief Burns nodded "Sorry, Thamesson,"

Mrs. Thamesson smiled at him as she hooked her arms into her husband's "Thank you Chief Burns, I just hope we find her,"

Chief Burns nodded at the couple as they stood up from their chairs. "So, do I," Before they left they reminded him to call if he found anything out and he assured them he would.

Once they were gone Chief Burns looked at the name of the missing child he had been asked to find. Sasha Morgan, age thirteen, black hair and hazel eyes. 'This is that new girl in Cody's class. Why would she run away?'

He knew he shouldn't be involving his own children in cases like this but Cody was friends with Sasha so there was a chance he would know where she might be.

Chief Burns placed the papers, along with the picture the Thamessons had given him, into a folder and went out to where Chase was parked and got in on the driver's side.

The holographic image of the Rescue bot's face appeared on the screen on his console. "Where to, sir?"

Chief Burns fastened his seat belt. "Head for home, Chase, I've got a few questions for Cody,"

Chase pulled out of the parking spot he was in and drove away from the station. "Is Cody in trouble?"

Chief Burns shook his head. "No, Cody isn't in trouble. One of his classmates was just reported missing, I was going to see if there was a chance he might know where she is,"

Chase was curious. "Might I ask who this classmate is in the event we see her on the way to the firehouse?"

"Actually, Cody introduced her to us a while back. Her name is Sasha," Chief Burns opened the file he had on the girl. "Full name, Sasha Morgan…"

Chase continued. "Dark hair, hazel eyes, approximately the same height as Cody although one and a half inches shorter, with an unusual and illogical fear of law enforcement officers,"

Chief glanced down at the console then up at the road. "I don't know, Chase, you guys do take a little getting used to,"

Chase looked up him. "If you are implying that it was myself and the other Rescue Bots she was wary of I'm afraid I will have to disagree with you. If that were the case she would not have allowed Heatwave to hold her in his servo after he caught her when she fell out of that tree saving Mrs. Neederlanders wayward pet feline,"

Chief Burns said nothing more. 'Something's going on here, and I intend to find out what,'

A.N.: Oh no, what now? Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; AriaCyndicate, MusicalPrime, VetorSigma101, NightFury97