Guardians of Griffin Rock

Chapter 2

Talking:

"English or other Earth language"

"Cybertronian"

'thoughts'

:Comm. Links:

(Bond talk)

**(Bumblebee talking)**

"Recordings or telephone conversations"

Flashback or change of time or place

Time changes:

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

Rated T to be safe.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC's or any original ideas I patched in to fill in any blanks left by the show. If you recognize it from somewhere else it's probably not mine.

AN: Hey guys, sorry this took so long. I have a whole list of excuses but I'm going to save time with a straight up apology and a new chapter.

Just a heads-up, as far as this story is concerned, the part in Transformers Prime involving the Omega keys/lock and the base getting blown up never happened.

The Rescue bots all transformed and let their human partners climb into their alt. modes. Graham spotted the Mobile Headquarters parked right where they left it when the bots came through the time portal with it. "What are we going to do with that?"

Chief looked over and shrugged "We'll just leave it here for now. We can look for a more permanent home for it when we get back," he looked at the Protectobots and asked "Uh, are you guys going to be able to blend in without letting anyone know you're… you know, aliens?"

Hot Spot smiled before his battle mask slid back into place. "We already have Earth-based alt. modes and holoforms so it shouldn't be too hard,"

Kade looked at them skeptically through Heatwave's window. "Oh, yeah? Prove it,"

The five Protectobots all stood in their formation from before and transformed. As predicted Hot Spot was a fire truck and Streetwise was a cop car and Evac was obviously a helicopter, First Aid was a Search and Rescue ambulance with more of an all-terrain Hummer build to it and Groove was a police motorcycle.

Once they were all transformed they activated their holoforms, the mechs with cabs all had tinted windows so they couldn't see anything but Groove's holoform appeared right on her seat and pulled off her helmet as she dismounted the motorcycle to reveal a woman in her twenties with orange-blond hair that was cut short in a "pixie cut" and hazel eyes wearing a police-woman's uniform.

Since she was the first one visible, the woman put her helmet on Groove's console and stepped up to introduce herself with a smile. "Hi, I'm Gwen Tescue. I'm the handler of the Protectobot Groove,"

Graham and Kade stared at "Gwen" like men always do when faced by a pretty woman.

Kade grinned wolfishly at her and said "Whoa" in a husky voice while Graham blushed and said under his breath in a more shy tone "Yeah… whoa,"

Groove noticed their reaction and pulled the glove off her holoform's left hand to reveal a ring on her finger. "Also married to Wes Tekto,"

Blades perked up, he hadn't known his sister had actually Bonded. "Who's Wes Tekto?"

The other Protectobots' holoforms got out of their alt. modes and came to stand by Groove's; the one that had come out of Streetwise had his hand raised.

"That would be me, Wes Tekto, handler of the Protectobot Streetwise…" his holoform was a tall young man in his mid-twenties with dark hair in a military cut and hazel eyes wearing a policeman's uniform. He also saw how the two older Burns boys were looking at Groove's holoform and, being a gentleman, he took off his jacket to drape it over her. "…And last time I checked her eyes were up here not down there,"

He waved a hand over her face to indicate her eyes and while he was behind her to drape his jacket over her shoulders he mouthed the words "Get your own," at the boys.

Hot Spot's holoform, a tall young man with brown hair and hazel eyes like his brother, cleared his throat and stepped forward. "I'm Wes' brother, Scott Tekto, handler of the Protectobot Hot Spot,"

Evac's holoform, a tall lanky young man with blonde hair and blue eyes, jumped up on top of Hot Spot's alt. mode and jerked his thumb at himself and then at his real body "I'm Evan Hunter, and that there is my buddy Evac, he's a Protectobot,"

First Aid's holoform stepped up last, he had the same orange hair as Groove's holoform and hazel eyes. "I'm Adrian Tescue. I'm First Aid's human partner and Gwen Tescue's older brother,"

Chief Burns clapped his hands together "Okay, now that that is settled how about you kids head home to get a head start on packing while I go to town hall to have a few words with the Mayor,"

Hot Spot looked at Chief Burns "Is it alright if we come with? That way we can vouch for you on the alibi,"

Chief Burns thought about it and nodded "Alright, ready when you are,"

The Rescue team and the Protectobots all pulled out of the lab and drove down the sloping rode to get to town. They went back to the firehouse first to show the Protectobots where it was then the gestalt followed Chase and Chief Burns to town hall.

As soon as everyone else got to the fire house, the humans all went upstairs to pack their bags. Cody used his boy scout knowledge to pack everything he would need for a whole weekend, if need be, quickly and efficiently and was downstairs with his knapsack ready to go before the others even finished.

Dani, Graham and Kade took their time and were more selective in what they were bringing; Graham had to bring his college homework with him so that if he had time he could work on it, Dani was double checking to make sure she had all her toiletry items in her overnight bag, and Kade kept stopping to check his muscles and hair in his bedroom mirror and all of them packed a couple changes of clothes into their overnight bags.

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Meanwhile, at town hall…

Chief Burns had called the Mayor and the city council in for a meeting to speak to them about the new team that would be filling in for them while he and his team would be gone to get the Rescue Bots their upgrades.

Mayor Lusky came in and sat down with a huff. "This had better be good, Chief Burns. I am very busy today,"

'Brown-nosing for votes or enjoying the luxuries that come with being the Mayor?' Chief Burns wanted to say but held his tongue.

"My apologies, Mr. mayor, but what I have to say cannot wait as it involves my team and it's something you really should know as mayor of the town,"

The Mayor pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned "Your machines aren't going haywire like the rest of them, are they?"

Chief Burns shook his head. "No but this does involve them. You see…" he tried to remember the cover story he and the bots had gone over on the way there. "The Autobot Manufacturing company called this morning…" Well, it sounded like a company that makes giant transforming robots, didn't it? "…and told us that they had a programming upgrade for our bots. It includes an AI that not only makes them more adaptable to different situations, which is needed in any emergency situation, but it gives them their own sense of judgment so they can recognize threats without being programmed and react accordingly,"

The Council members whispered amongst themselves while the Mayor looked skeptical "How do we know they won't turn on us like Morroco's Morbot did once they have this new program?"

Chief Burns frown "With all due respect Mayor, past experiences show that Dr. Morroco was probably deliberately wreaking havoc as a revenge for what happened all those years ago. Also, this new program is to prevent something like that and they will still obey commands from their handlers just as they did before. Progress marches on, remember?"

Mayor Lusky frowned when Chief Burns mentioned what he had said when he replaced the Burns family and their rescue bots with Dr. Morroco's Morbot. "Are they just going to mail this new tech here or do you have to go get it?"

Chief Burns sighed and admitted "We will have to bring the bots there to have it installed. It's Friday evening so if all goes well we should be back by Sunday,"

Mayor Lusky's face turned red as he slammed his fist down on the table top. "And just what are we supposed to do in the meantime? You are shirking your duties here just so you can haul your robot vehicles to the mainland for some fancy upgrades that could probably cost us a fortune!"

Chief Burns frowned "Not only is the 'fancy upgrade', as you call it, free because we were supposed to get it a long time ago, but the Autobot company is paying for the shipping to get the bots there and back plus they are sending a relief team to fill in for us during the two whole days we will be gone,"

The whispering died down as the Council nodded to the mayor, indicating the arrangement seemed fine for them. With that the man with the toupee had to ask. "Just who is this relief team?"

Chief Burns smiled "They're a team of five, kind of like my team except these guys work in the Coast Guard so they kind of have more of a military mindset. They're right outside if you want to meet them,"

"Wait, they're here?"

Chief Burns nodded "Yep they just arrived a few minutes ago. That's why I had to call this meeting on such short notice, the company just called this morning but the Protectobots arrived earlier than we expected,"

The Mayor and his Council members looked at each other uncertainly before standing up. "Very well, let's go meet this new team that will be looking after the town while you're away,"

They all went out to the front lawn of city hall and looked at the five vehicles parked in the parking spaces out front and the five people standing at attention in front of them.

Chief Burns nodded to "Scott" who nodded back before Chief Burns spoke to the Mayor and the Council "Mr. mayor, I would like to present to you the Protectobot team,"

Then the Protectobots all transformed and they as well as their holoforms started their sound off, calling out their names and saluting.

"Captain Scott Tekto," "Hot Spot"

"Dr. Adrian Tescue, Field medic," "First Aid"

"Evan Hunter" "Evac"

"Wes Tekto" "Streetwise"

"Gwen Tescue" "Groove"

"REPORTING FOR DUTY, SIR!"

Chief Burns smiled and saluted back "At ease, soldiers,"

The Protectobots and their holoforms all relaxed their stances while the Mayor and the City Council looked up at the new robots.

"So… what do they do?"

Evac smiled at them "The same thing the ones you already have do. We've just had more practice and we usually do it in war zones and natural disasters,"

The Mayor and his council jumped and the former pointed shakily at the Protectobots. "I-it just talked back to me…"

Hot Spot knelt down on one knee so that he was more on the human's level. "Yeah, our AI programs give us cognitive abilities so we can recognize and react to anything that is being said and done around us,"

Mayor Lusky eyed the Cybertronians suspiciously. "How do we know they won't start a robot rebellion against us?"

Streetwise looked down at him like a cop that was about to tell a kid he had caught out after curfew to go home. "We may be able to react on our own as needed but we still follow orders from our human partners,"

Groove knelt down and carefully scooped up "Gwen" in her servos "Yeah, why would we want to get rid of our human partners? Gwen and I are like sisters, can't you see the resemblance?"

Chief Burns held his breath while Chase stiffened in his alt. mode nearby, both knowing that was a bad call on her part; the two counterparts actually did have a resemblance and they hoped none of them noticed.

Luckily, the Protectobots had thought ahead and made minute changes so there was enough of a difference to fool anyone that didn't know they were just projections of themselves.

Mayor Lusky looked at them for a second then shrugged before looking at Chief Burns. "So, when do you leave?"

Chief Burns looked at the Mayor "As soon as we're done showing the Protectobot team around so they know where everything is. The sooner we leave the sooner we can get back,"

The Mayor nodded "Alright, I'm going to have to make an announcement to the town so the people know what's going on,"

Just as he said that, Huxely Prescott came out of the nearby bushes with his automated camera floating next to him. "Say no more, Mr. Mayor, I am just the man for that job!"

Then the Protectobots spotted the camera and Hot Spot hissed "Protectobots, camera, hide!"

All the Protectobots transformed into their vehicle modes leaving everyone but their holoforms looking at them with surprise.

Mayor Lusky pointed at them and asked demandingly "What's with them?"

Wes looked at him with his hands up in a gesture that could either be interpreted as "Calm down, nothing to worry about" or "Move along, nothing to see here," and said "They are carrying out previous orders. We have been told to not draw any extra attention to ourselves so as far as the mainstream media knows we don't exist,"

While he was talking, Huxely had moved in for a closer look and turned to face the camera but before he could say anything to his viewers he felt someone tap him on the shoulder.

He turned to see "Scott" standing next to Hot Spot's alt. mode, pulling an ax out of a side compartment and slinging it over his shoulder while saying with a friendly smile. "Hey, buddy, might want to watch where you go poking that snazzy camera of yours. Wouldn't want it to get broken, now would we?"

He tapped the handle of the ax against his shoulder for emphasis and Huxely backed away nervously until he was standing next to the mayor so that the camera was pointing at him, not that the Mayor minded.

As soon as Mayor Lusky saw that he was within view of the camera he fixed his toupee and smiled at the Protectobot team and said "Well then, as Mayor of Griffin Rock, let me be the first to welcome you to our humble town. I'm sure it's not much compared to the places you've probably been to on your travels with the National Guard but I do hope you enjoy your stay here while Chief Burns and his team are away,"

Huxely turned to the camera and announced dramatically. "You heard it here first, folks, The Burns Family of Heroes and there robot companions are leaving the island and leaving us in the care of a team from the National Guard. Stay tuned…"

Before he could finish, Groove's holoform walked up and clamped a gloved hand over his mouth. "Actually, we are with the Coast Guard and we are just here to help out while the Burns' Rescue Bots are on the mainland for maintenance checks and programming updates. Try to get your facts straight, buddy, we just got done cleaning up the mess left behind in surrounding area from that "UFO" scare you caused a while back," she patted him on the side of the face before releasing him and going back into formation with the rest of her team.

Huxely cleared his throat and straightened his tie before returning his attention to the camera "Right then, Stay tuned folks, more tonight on the six o'clock evening news! I'm Huxely Prescott bringing you the latest news and…"

"Have a nice day everybody," Evac knelt down next to Huxely and turned off his camera.

The reporter went to catch his expensive camera before it could hit the ground after the anti-gravity that held it up shut down only Evac reached behind himself and pulled his rotor off his back and in one smooth motion he unfolded the folded rotors into a staff with a long blade on each end and caught the camera on the flat of one of those blades.

Huxeley glared up at the Protectobot. "Hey, what's the big idea…"

Evac smiled and slid the camera off his blade to Huxely, who caught them with an "oof", and said with a low whistle "Wow, that could have easily landed on the business end of this thing,"

Huxeley mumbled under his breath about rude robots and all five Protectobots transformed and looked apologetic as Hot Spot apologized "Oh, sorry, we didn't mean to be rude or anything, we just didn't want to start any rumors or anything like that,"

Streetwise nodded "Yeah, we've seen your show a few times and, with all due respect, we can't have that kind of publicity. We're rescuers and soldiers, not celebrities,"

Huxeley frowned, he was hoping that including the new bots on his show would get him more ratings but it seemed like the only way to do that is if he actually did reports on any of their rescues. He perked up and grinned "I'll still be able to report on any rescues you do, right? Huh? Huh? Right?" he looked at each of the Protectobots hopefully.

Groove crossed her arm-servos and cocked her hips to the side "Persistent much?"

First aid gave his team mates a look that eliminated any doubts that he was Blade's brother—they had the same "puppy optics" look—and said softly. "Come on guys, he's just trying to do his job,"

Hot Spot and "Scott" looked at each other as though wordlessly conversing, although Hot Spot was just thinking to himself, before the holoform sighed "Yes, you may. Got to keep people informed of what's going on in their town somehow," he pointed at the reporter "But if you start prying into the personal matters of any one on our team, human or bot, we're going to have a little talk with your editor, understood?"

Huxeley shifted his heavy camera into one arm and saluted "Yes, sir!"

The Protectobots eyed him skeptically and Streetwise whispered "Wrong hand"

"Whoops" The man moved his camera to his other arm and saluted with his right hand.

"Better" the Protectobots and their holoforms saluted back and the bots and the other holoforms stayed like that while "Scott" turned to Chief Burns "So, what's first, Chief?"

Chief Burns looked up at him, the holoform was taller than he was at six-foot-one, and said "I guess all that's left now is to show you guys… and girls, around so you know where everything is. Maybe even introduce you to some of the townspeople while we're at it,"

Hot Spot's holoform smiled "Sounds like a plan to me,"

Mayor Lusky snorted before raising his hands and saying "In that case, meeting adjourned. Now if you all will excuse me, I have lunch date with my wife,"

The mayor and his council parted ways while Huxeley stuck around to try to figure out how to turn his camera back on so he could sneak a few more shots of the new bots.

Meanwhile, said bots transformed into their alt. modes so their holoforms could board them and Chief Burns got into Chase's alt. mode.

Said Police car spoke up when the doors were all closed and his partner fastened his seat belt. "Where to now, sir?"

Streetwise spoke up from Chase's console; the screen where the Rescue Bots face was usually depicted was split into six spaces for each of the bots rather than four like they usually were when all the bots were conversing.

"If it helps, we already downloaded a map of the whole island and memorized all the streets and other possible traffic routes… we just don't know what's on them. 'Google-Maps' isn't really specific about addresses unless one looks for something in particular,"

Chief nodded and put his hands on the wheel to make it look like he was driving. "Alright, guess that does make things a little easier,"

As they drove away, Huxeley finally got his camera turned on. "Ah-ha! Now for another sneak peak of the new…" he aimed the camera at the spot the bots were but to his disappointment they were already gone. He slumped in defeat "Ahh…"

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While they were giving the Protectobots a tour of the town, an elderly woman wearing a pink dress and a white apron ran out in front of Chase waving her arms shouting "CHIEF BURNS! CHIEF BURNS!"

Chase and all the ground-based Protectobots hit the brakes to avoid hitting the woman while Evac hovered above them for a moment before transforming and landing on his peds in his spot in the formation while Chase rolled down his window so Chief could talk.

"What seems to be the problem, Mrs. Neederlander?"

Mrs. Neederlander gasped for breath with one hand over her heart while her other hand fixed her glasses. "The problem is that my poor Mr. Peddypaws is stuck in a tree and can't get down!"

Chief Burns sighed and got out of Chase's alt. mode. "Which tree?"

The woman rushed to a large oak nearby and pointed up into the branches "This one,"

Chief Burns looked up into the tree and saw the fluffy white cat perched on a branch. "Hmm, pretty high up. Going to need a ladder,"

He went back over to where the bots were and they all transformed so they could talk face-to-faceplate when he looked at Hot Spot apologetically. "Um, Hot Spot… I'd hate to ask this of you since you and your team just got here but no point in calling Kade and Heatwave if we already got someone with a ladder here…"

Hot Spot glanced over at the tree then back at Chief Burns "I don't think that will be a problem,"

Chief Burns looked at him with a raised brow and Hot Spot pointed over him at the tree just as Mrs. Neederlander cried out. When he turned around to see what was happening he saw Groove standing by the tree looking up at the cat.

Mrs. Neederlander looked up at her then over at the other Protectobots and started yelling "Why did you get more giant robots? We have enough of those big robotic oafs as it is!"

While the woman was yelling at Chief Burns, Groove's professional calculating look softened into a sweet smile and she started talking to the cat as though he were a lost child. "Hey, kitty, what are you doing up there?"

Mrs. Neederlander looked confused that the robot was not only talking on its own but it sounded almost human in doing so.

"Gwen" came up to stand on the woman's other side and looked up at the tree much like her Cybertronian counterpart was. "Don't worry, we'll get your cat down for you. By the way…" She held out her hand for Mrs. Neederlander to shake it "Gwen Tescue, my partner Groove and I are part of the Protectobot team,"

Groove looked down at them "What's your cat's name, by the way? Feels silly calling him 'kitty' unless that is his name, It's like calling you 'Human' instead of…"

Mrs. Neederlander hesitated before shaking "Gwen's" hand "I'm Mrs. Neederlander, and my poor baby up there is Mr. Pettypaws," she pointed up at her cat worriedly.

Groove and Gwen looked up at him and the femme's optics glanced down at his owner before back up at the tree "Don't worry we'll get him," Groove pulled on one of the lower branches to test its strength and the humans saw she intended on climbing up after the cat.

Hot Spot walked up to them and placed a servo on her shoulder. "Well, since you seem so eager to go up there yourself how 'bout I give you a boost?"

Groove looked at him for a moment and nodded "Ok,"

Hotspot put his servos together and held them down for Groove to step into. "Okay, on three. One… two… three,"

He lifted Groove up so that she was almost even with the branch Mr. Pettypaws was on and held her there.

Once she was stable, Groove tried to coax the cat down. "Here kitty, kitty. Come one down, Mr. Pettypaws,"

Mr. Pettypaws looked at the femme curiously. 'Hmm, this is new. Normally they send a person up after me. Who is this?'

Groove smiled at him, careful not to show her denta because she had learned during their time on Earth that when animals showed their teeth they did that to look threatening and she didn't want to scare him. "That's right, come on down,"

When she slowly reached for him, Mr. Pettypaws tensed up, ready to jump away, so Groove started petting him to get him to settle down.

Loving the attention, the cat purred and leaned into her servo while her other one carefully slid underneath him and peeled him off the branch, unhooking his claws from the bark one paw at a time until he was lifted away and cradled in the Police motorcyle's arm-servos.

"Okay, got him,"

Hot Spot lowered her down and placed her and the cat safely on the ground as Mrs. Needlelander ran up to take her cat cooing. "Oh, my poor baby, are you okay?"

First Aid knelt beside them and said "If you would like, Mrs. Neederlander, I can scan your cat to see if he's alright,"

Mrs. Neederlander glared up at him. "What do you mean 'scan him'?"

If First Aid was offended by the way she snapped at him he didn't show it, he just looked at her patiently. "I have a medical scanner that works as an x-ray, ultrasound and just about every other medical examination there is. With your permission…"

Mrs. Neederlander held up her cat. "Fine by me, it'll save me a trip to the vet,"

First Aid nodded and opened up a compartment in his arm to reveal a small screen and a covered slot. "Just hold him really still, this will tickle him but he needs to stay still so I can get an accurate reading,"

A yellow beam of light shot out of the slot in his arm and swept over Mr. Pettypaws, who also lit up with yellow light, before First Aid shut it off and tapped on the screen.

"Hmm, according to these readings he is uninjured and healthy,"

Mrs. Neederlander embraced her cat "Oh, thank goodness," then she turned to Chief Burns and was back to being snappish. "You didn't answer my question, why did you get more robots?"

Chief Burns started to answer but Streetwise beat him to it "Don't mind us, we're just here for some hands on training to keep our skills sharp until the Coast Guard calls us back to the line of duty,"

She looked up at the Police car and realized this wasn't the one she usually saw. When she got over the shock she said "How come you can talk normal and do things on your own but the other ones are like oversized toys?"

"Aiden" answered next "Our Protectobots have an AI Program that makes them capable of acting and reacting on their own to different stimuli so they don't need us to tell them their every move but they still take orders from their handlers,"

She seemed to believe the obviously rehearsed lie, though she was about to make another comment on it but then "Wes" looked as though he realized something. "Mrs. Neederlander… you wouldn't happen to be related to a 'Joseph' or 'Abigail' Neederlander, would you?"

Mrs. Neederlander nodded sadly "I'm Abigail, Joseph was my husband. Rest his soul,"

"Wes" looked at her sadly "My condolences, I just remember seeing a carving that said 'Joseph + Abigail Neederlander forever' with a heart around it on a tree by one of the bases we were stationed at,"

Mrs. Neederlander blushed and Chief Burns said "Well, I'd hate to interrupt but we still need to finish showing the Protectobot team round,"

Mrs. Neederlander walked away saying "They'd better not cause any trouble like the last robot we had in Griffin Rock,"

The Protectobots and their holoforms waved to her and said a few parting words as they walked back out to the street.

"Bye"

"Nice meeting you,"

"Good luck with your cat,"

Once they were all transformed and Chief Burns and all the holoforms boarded their respective bots they resumed the tour of the island.

As they drove, Chase talked to his youngest Creation "Streetwise, I understand the need to tell 'white lies' when it comes to keeping our existence a secret, but you also mentioned some sort of carving. I do not believe you were being completely truthful about that,"

Streetwise sighed and said "I was telling the truth about seeing the carving…" he waited to see if his Carrier would say anything.

He didn't so he continued. "… I just didn't say I was around when it was being carved. Truth is I actually knew Joseph. He was in the service when we arrived on Earth, but that was so long ago anyone alive at that time would be around the same age as Mrs. Neederlander and my holoform looks too young to have been around then. If I did tell her the complete truth I would risk exposing our existence. She probably wouldn't believe me anyway,"

Chief Burns looked over at the cop car driving alongside the one he was in. "You guys have been on Earth that long?"

Evac piped up "Yep, we've just been in hiding most of the time. You guys are lucky you can actually transform in public, today was the first time human civilians actually saw us in robot mode outside of emergency situations where any civilians that did happen to spot us were too panicked to remember us,"

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After they drove around town they went up the mountain to show them what was up there. After a few minutes Chase realized they were going up the road leading to Griffin Crest.

"Um, Sir, isn't this area off limits to us?"

Chief Burns nodded "I know, but I want them to know about the restricted areas so they don't go there,"

"Understood,"

When they got to Canyon road the Protectobots stopped without being told.

"Whoa, you guys sense that?" Evac circled around and hovered just behind the group from above.

The Protectobots all transformed and looked around, scanning for danger "Yeah, what is that?"

Chief pointed up at the top of the mountain "Further up the road is a place called 'Griffin's Crest'. It has an Electromagnetic Pulse generator that shuts down any electronic devices that go up there,"

Streetwise looked at him, suspicious and confused. "Why would you guys need an area with a constant EMP field here in Griffin Rock?"

Chief Burns told them the same reason he told Cody when he brought his son out there. "In case some experimental tech went hay wire, people could go there…"

First Aid nodded "… and be safe from any machinery that might try to harm them, it's like a human following someone through a cloud of knock-out gas,"

Chief nodded "Precisely,"

Just then Chief got a call from Kade. :Hey, Dad, you guys about done? Everyone else is ready to go.:

Heatwave cut in :Yeah, some of us actually want to go to HQ and none of us are getting any younger!:

Chief Burns shook his head and answered through his comm. link. "We're on our way back now, we were just showing them the way to Griffin's Crest so they know not to go there,"

:Okay, see you when you get here.:

The call cut off and all the bots reverted to their alt. modes to head back to the fire house.

Streetwise asked Chase "Sire hasn't changed a bit, has he?"

Without hesitation Chase responded bluntly "Not in the slightest,"

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When they got back to the fire house all the bots transformed into robot mode after Chief Burns got out of Chase's alt. mode.

The others were already waiting for them when they got there.

"Hey, they're back,"

"Can we go now?" Heatwave asked impatiently.

Chief Burns laughed and jerked his thumb towards the elevator "I just need to grab some things and we can go. Why you guys show the Protectobots around the firehouse since they're going to be staying here while we're gone?"

Eager to help, Cody raised his hand. "I'll do it!"

"I'll help!" Blades also volunteered, wanting to spend some time with his siblings before they left.

Chief Burns smiled and pointed at them both "Looks like we got two volunteers. I'll be right back,"

Chief Burns went upstairs while Cody and Blades showed the Protectobots the garage and the bunker the bots went to for privacy so they could completely drop the "transforming vehicle" façade and finally the two command center; the one where the humans kept track of all the emergencies and the one in the bot's ship, which they had moved into a side room on the bunker after the Burns all found out the Rescue Bots were sentient aliens.

Throughout the tour, both Blades and Cody kept asking the Protectobots questions about their travels and past rescues and what-not.

Understanding their curiousity, the gestalt members just smiled and answered their questions in addition to asking their own.

They even laughed at a few of the stories. "Oh my Primus, I can't believe you guys actually believed Prescott when he said there was an alien invasion going on!"

Blades stiffened "Oh come on, he sounded very convincing at the time!"

Streetwise put a servo on his shoulder. "I know, but if there was one happening on Earth, let alone one in your area, Prime would have let you know. You guys wouldn't have had anything to worry about… although the humans still would have panicked,"

Evac rubbed the crest on his helm. "Then again they did have a nationwide panic when they stopped making 'Twinkies' for a while,"

Cody scratched his head "I don't think the entire country panicked… So did you guys stop at any other planets on your way to Earth?"

Hot Spot nodded "A few, most of them don't have names though. But there was this one I'm sure you would have liked…"

When the Protectobots described a few of the planets they stopped at Blades perked up. "Hey, all of those planets were on our patrol route,"

"Really?"

Blades nodded and looked down at Cody "I think we still have some pictures in our ship's mission log if you want to see them,"

Cody grinned at the thought of seeing visual images of the astounding places his friends had been telling him about. "Cool!"

By the time they got back up to the garage Chief Burns came back downstairs with a duffle bag. "Did you finish showing the Protectobots around?"

Cody counted off all the places they had already showed them. "We showed them the bunker and the training ground outside, garage is self-explanatory, we showed them how to use the command center when there is an emergency… looks like the only place left is upstairs,"

First Aid shook his helm and politely declined on behalf of his team mates. "Thank you, but I don't think we will have any reason to go upstairs while you are all out. We just need someplace to go when we're not helping anyone and a way for people to contact us or so we can contact the main base if needed,"

Graham looked up at them "You guys sure?"

Streetwise nodded. "We appreciate your concern but we've spent the last decade pretending to be regular vehicles and have had to power down for recharge in weather conditions most humans can't even handle from indoors. Spending the weekend in an actual garage won't offline us,"

Chief Burns shouldered his bag and looked around at his team and family. "Well, unless anyone can think of anything we're forgetting we can probably go now,"

"Alright, let's go! You humans are so slow," Heatwave transformed and actually opened his door for Kade; he young man approached cautiously in case his partner was going to slam it shut on him.

"Hee hee, that rhymed," Blades giggled as he went to the lift that would take him and Dani to the roof but he stopped and looked at First Aid and Groove. "You're not coming with us?"

Groove smiled at him "We kind of need to stay here while you guys are at HQ,"

Blades looked sad "I know but… I missed you guys so much and now we have to leave and…"

First Aid reached up to rub between Blades' helm fins. "Hey, we'll still be here when you get back, and now that we all know we're all on the same planet we're just a comm. link away,"

Blades smiled and nodded in time with his brother's servo "Yeah, I guess so,"

The three siblings hugged before Blades stepped onto the lift up to the roof.

"See you later"

"Bye"

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Everyone met up and the lab where the soon-to-be ground bridge was, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Skydive had all waited patiently as did Doc Greene when he finished packing the suitcase he had at his feet but Frankie was pacing when they pulled up.

When the girl saw them she huffed "Finally, you guys were taking forever!"

Skydive rolled his optics "Half an hour is not 'forever'. She does have a point though, what kept you all?"

Dani climbed out of Blades' alt. mode so he could transform. "Dad showed the Protectotbots around after he introduced them to the mayor so he knew they were here and they knew where everything was. Huxeley Prescott was getting nosy so not only did the Protectobots had to get him off their backs we had to make sure he wasn't going to follow us here,"

Optimus Prime looked around to make sure everyone was there and activated his comm. link. :Requesting ground bridge to base at arrival coordinates.:

After a few minutes another swirling green portal opened and all of the bots transformed into vehicle mode, except for Blades and Skydive.

The Aerialbot looked down at Dani then up at Blades then back again "Dani you might want to get back into Blades when we go through. I know we can't drive through like the others but the first time bridging is pretty intense, being inside a bot might take the edge off,"

Dani nodded and went over to her partner who opened up his hold and placed her inside while everyone else drove through before running through himself with Skydive right behind him.

AN: Quick shout out to the people that reviewed and/or added; CRAZYCOLORS098, Imaginator-Creator, Skyress98, I love all yaoi, flameeshadoww, Death Knight of Camelot, Creepy-Pasta, Lambor Terror Lep, White Tiger Bumblebee, McCrane55, TabbiCat31, YoI 1337, Crystal-a-b, Raphaelplusmikey, madagascarmaster, nimrodloverr14;

Thank you for your patience.