Chapter 12: A Change In Mission

As Kade and Chase watched Heatwave equip himself, the door suddenly swished open.

All three spun around to see a crowd of autobots coming in, some carrying more strange-looking tools, some just peering curiously at them.

Heatwave gratefully took the tools, while the others crowded around Chase and Kade who was hurriedly placed on a tabletop to avoid being crushed under foot.

"So, how is it being a Rescue Bot? Seen much action?" one asked.

" Is it hard working with humans? They're so weird!" another added.

" Do you like being a human?" this question was directed to Kade, and suddenly the room was filled with the clamor of voices, all asking different questions at once.

Before Chase could call for order, Kade saw his chance to earn some admiration.

"All right, alright, everyone, calm down. I will answer all your questions, one at a time." Kade strutted to the edge of the table and gazed proudly at the enormous Bots, all of who fell silent.

Kade heard Heatwave heave a great sigh, letting out a long groan.

"That means you, too." Kade said sharply. " Get back to work, the sooner we get home, the better chance we have of saving our teammates."

Heatwave grumbled under his breath, but obeyed and picked up the pace he was building the pod.

"Alright, who's first to ask The Kade, his, or her, question." Kade rubbed his hands together, and he heard a girlish giggle from a pink Bot, who elbowed a purple one.

"He noticed us, he noticed us!" the two squealed.

A male purple Bot next to them rolled his eyes but said nothing.

Kade tipped the two a wink, and they giggled some more.

"Alright, I want to know who runs your team." A burly gray Bot stepped up and scowled down at Kade.

Kade grinned. "It depends." He said airily. "Sometimes I do, sometimes it's my dad, or Heatwave, Chase, or my brother Cody. Though the official team leader is Chase at the time."

The big Bot grunted, seeming satisfied, and stepped back to let another Bot come forward.

A smaller, green and orange Bot stepped up next. " I heard you say that the big blue guy is currently team leader." He chirped. "Why not big red?"

"Well, little green and orange, he's, er, not to well at the moment, and so had to step down for a time, and while he is resting, he decided to build a stasis pod since one of the others fell ill also. So, Big Blue, as you say, is filling in." Kade felt proud of his explanation to the green and orange Bot, and he seemed impressed as well.

Heatwave sent a grateful look to Kade, and Chase shook his head slightly, not approving of the lie, but not butting in to correct it either.

The big Bot that had been fighting with Heatwave earlier was looking at him suspiciously, and shoved his way to Kade.

" You tell a convincing lie, human." The large Bot sneered. " But spit out the truth, now."

The surrounding Bots gasped, and an older Bot called out gruffly, " Come on Burner, we all know it was a cover story to save his leader's face, now knock it off and stop being so pushy."

"I can do what I want." Burner snapped back.

"Well, I'm not telling you." Kade folded his arms and glared at the big Bot. "And you can't make me."

"Oh yeah?" Burner made as if to reach for Kade, but Heatwave got there first.

"Hands off." The fire Bot said menacingly.

"Don't you remember me, Commander?" Burner let his piercing gaze burn into Heatwave's own glowing eyes. "The little upstart that idolized you, yet was bigger then you?"

Heatwave stared at Burner for a moment, then grabbed the larger Bot by the shoulders and exclaimed joyfully, "Burner! Of course I recognize you! Just took me a moment, why didn't you say so when we first met?"

Burner laughed, all threat gone out of him. " I didn't recognize you till your fill-in motioned that you'd been an army commander. Then it struck me you looked and sounded like my old mentor, and here you are." The large Bot slapped Heatwave on the back. " Of course, your looks have changed, but I think it's for the better."

Heatwave laughed as well. "It's good to see you, Burner. I thought everyone I knew had died. Is there anyone else?" Heatwave peered restlessly through the crowd, straining his eyes to pick out someone he knew.

Burner sobered up and shook his head. "Sadly, no. I credit my survival with your special training though."

"Ahem? Heatwave? Family is dying back there." Kade reminded Heatwave.

Heatwave nodded as he glanced at Kade, then turned back to Burner. " I got to go bud, but if you ever get the hankering to visit Griffon Rock Emergency, I'll be waiting." With a friendly pat on the shoulder, Heatwave threaded his way back through the crowd to his pile of tools.

"Oh, and the reason I am demoted?" he called over his shoulder. " Kade was not completely lying; I fell to the rage and damaged a young teammate."

Every Bot in the room murmured with sympathy.

"We've all had it once or twice since coming here." The big brusque Bot that had spoken earlier admitted. " It's bad."

"And we were all punished for it, and some of us did a lot of damage, so don't feel to bad, Heatwave." A pretty female Bot called out encouragingly.

"Thanks." Heatwave responded.

While Heatwave rapidly assembled the pod , Kade won what he thought was the admiration of most of the Bots.

Thankfully, none of them tried to pick a fight with him, but a couple still eyed him with hostility.

"What's your deal?" Kade finally asked those Bots.

"You're being too nice. From what we've heard of you, you can be a real jerk." One of them responded.

"I can be nice too." Kade protested.

"And you're too full of yourself. I think you've been exaggerating some of those stories you've been telling." Another accused.

Kade snorted. "Exaggerating? Huh, and your gears are rusty."

"Who you calling a rusty gear?" a female Bot leaned forward angrily.

"N-no one." Kade stammered, quickly giving a charming smile. " Just using a term to show you how wrong you telling me I'm exaggerating is."

"Well, use less of your human terms and speak clearly." The Bot huffed.

"So, you're trying to tell me that you put out an entire gas fire, by yourself, after your fire Bot ran out of water and could not dim the blaze?" a grizzled Bot asked skeptically.

"It is true Kade did do that with just himself." Chase put in. "Only there was five of him."

"Aha! I knew there was a catch!" the Bot said triumphantly, then looked puzzled. "How was there five of you?"

"I'm magic." Kade said dryly, and Heatwave coughed.

" That's right." The big red Bot said, glowering at Kade. " He's got a magic touch, and it's time to go now, so shut it and get in." Chase strode quickly over and opened up for Kade.

Kade stepped in with as much dignity as he could muster, and squawked when Heatwave flicked him inside onto his face.

All the Bots laughed, and Kade angrily sat in his seat, snapping his seatbelt in and glowering at them all.

"He was fun to listen to though!" a Bot waved. "Bring him again soon!"

"I ain't ever coming back!" Kade hollered furiously as the windshield clicked shut, realizing the autobots had all just been amused by him and had seen through his stories.

Heatwave looked at him, smirking. "Ain't ain't a word cause ain't ain't in the dictionary." He remarked, chuckling at Kade's muttered protests as he headed for the door, Chase and the other autobots following.

Right as Heatwave was going to open the door, it opened for him and Optimus stepped in, knocking Heatwave back into Chase.

"Heatwave!" Optimus looked highly embarrassed, and helped Heatwave off Chase. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Heatwave dusted himself off unnecessarily, also embarrassed.

" I was just coming to inform you of a new plan, and a change in your mission." The huge Bot leader said as all the autobots stood at attention.

" We are starting a new Rescue Bot training center here, as more Bots are being formed." There were cheers from around the room.

"Heatwave, I am impressed with the training you have given your team, and I want you and your team to be the main instructors." Optimus looked down on a dumbstruck Heatwave.

" We are honored." Heatwave said in awe, glancing at Chase, who nodded. " As soon as Blades and Boulder are well, I will discuss it with them."

"But what about us?" Kade wailed from inside the police Bot. "What are we supposed to do without our Bots?"

Optimus bent down to look at Kade. " You're Bots will still be with you, they will just travel here from time to time, and the rest of the training will be through video feed."

"Thank goodness." Kade muttered with relief as Optimus stood up again.

Heatwave bowed his head. " My dream is coming true." He murmured.

"Dream? I didn't know you even dreamed!" Burner appeared at Heatwave's elbow.

Heatwave looked up at him, eyes glistening. " I have always wanted to be a part of Optimus's team, but I never wanted to leave my team either. With this offer, I can stay where I was meant to be, while working with the team I was meant to work with." Heatwave seemed to glow with happiness.

"I want to be one of your students." Burner said huskily.

"Me too!" Several autobots called out.

Optimus looked out over the group and held up his hand for silence as more and more Bots joined in.

" You will all have your chance to train as a Rescue Bot, if that is what you want." He said. "But now I want you to meet our newly formed Bots." Optimus stepped aside and a horde of metallic Bots swarmed in, all shapes and sizes.

"Is this Heatwave?" one of them asked, a dull red one asked. "I wanna be just like him!"

"Who is this?" another one, a faint pink, wondered, poking at Chase. " He looks boring."

"He looks smart." Another reddish one added.

"And strict. I don't wanna be trained by him." A weak purple elbowed his larger light orange companion, who replied huffily, " The red one looks stricter!"

"Where's the human? I wanna see him!" a faded green one whined. "You promised us a human!"

Heatwave chuckled. " All right, calm down my young heroes." He said, grinning.

"You hear that? He called us heroes!" a faint yellow one squealed, bouncing up and down.

The red youngster elbowed him. "Then shut up and act like one!"

Kade was shocked at the sight.

Now he knew what young autobots looked like, and it seemed they came out nearly full sized, little growing needed, just training.

"I am Heatwave, and I will be one of your trainers." Heatwave said proudly. " This is Chase, my second in command, and you should listen to him very well."

Then the fire Bot whispered mischievously. " And yes, he can be pretty boring sometimes!"

"Heatwave!" Chase said severely, but the red Bot only winked at him.

"As for the human," Heatwave looked up at Optimus. "Sir, are you certain Kade is the right human for them to meet first? I would have chosen Cody, personally."

" Kade will suffice." Optimus assured him.

"All right all of you, stand at attention," Heatwave demonstrated, and all the young Bots tried to copy. "And Chase, release my human, Kade Burns."

Chase, also at attention, opened his front up and revealed Kade sitting in his seat, opening his mouth to complain about being called Heatwave's human.

The young Bots broke their positions and swarmed over Chase, knocking him to the ground by sheer numbers, making Kade quickly forget what he was going to say.

"Excuse me!" Chase tried to get up, but all the youngsters were holding him down and staring at Kade, who was none to happy to be gawked at for once.

"Go on, shoo! I'm not some zoo animal! Heatwave!" Kade tried to swat away one of the Bots as they poked him with a finger.

"Okay everyone, back off." Heatwave ordered, chuckling. "Humans are to be respected. They have authority over us, all of us." He added, quirking an eyebrow at a bluish Bot who was scowling at Kade and opening his mouth to protest.

The young one quickly shut his mouth.

Chase gracefully rose to his feet, dusting himself off and glaring at Heatwave.

Heatwave held his hand out, but Kade refused to jump on. "No way am I going to be your new friends' play toy, Heatwave." He said, then yelped as the red Bot scoped him out anyway.

"Do you really do heroic deeds with him?" "Are all humans like him?" "Do they use energon?" "Does his hair come off? I wanna keep it!"

Chase seemed overwhelmed by the young ones, but Heatwave was as relaxed as he would have been at home in his favorite seat.

"First thing you need to learn, one at a time." Heatwave instructed the eager young Bots. " Now, ask me again."

"Do you really do heroic deeds with him?" It was the green Bot.

"Yes, he is my teammate, though he can be a real pain sometimes." Heatwave looked almost fondly at Kade.

Kade choked.

"Are all humans like him?" The red Bot.

"No, he is one of the worst, as far as good humans go. But he has his uses. I would be bored if not for him monkeying around." Heatwave patted Kade, and the firefight almost exploded.

"Excuse me? I-" "Next!" Heatwave interrupted Kade.

"Do they use energon?" a pale pink Bot.

"No, they eat stuff called food, which we can't ingest, and Kade here eats a lot of it." Heatwave reached inside and opened his glove box, pulling out Kade's lunch bag.

Handing it to Kade, he said, "Watch."

Grumbling, Kade opened his lunch sack up and took out two doughnuts, an apple, three oranges, five slices of pizza, and a bag of chips.

To the amazement of the youngsters, he ate every bite.

Kade was starting to enjoy the attention, so long as Heatwave kept him out of reach of grabbing hands, until the next question popped.

"Does his hair come off?" the yellow Bot asked this.

"No." Heatwave shook his head. "But you can do this." Heatwave mussed Kade's hair, making the firefighter yelp and hurriedly fix it, glaring at the big red Bot.

"I wanna try! I wanna try!" But Heatwave kept Kade out of grasp and calmed the Bots back down.

"Do you like being on Earth? Or do you miss your old home?" the red Bot again.

Heatwave smiled at the serious young Bot. " I used to miss my old home. In fact, I was the last Bot to call Earth my home. But now I would never dream of living anywhere else, ever."

Kade saw Optimus looking proudly at Heatwave, but the fire Bot never noticed, he was to busy answering questions from the young Bots.

Chase was being swarmed now, too, and he endeavored to keep more order then Heatwave was.

Kade told the young ones more about humans, and gave them some tips when they got to partner with one of their own.

Soon Heatwave was amazing young Bots with tales of dangerous rescues, and the more serious young Bots were sitting around Chase calmly, taking great interest as he listed police codes to them.

Heatwave wrestled with three youngsters at once, and won, making them all in awe of his physical prowess.

Soon, however, Heatwave held a hand up, stopping them all. "We have to go now, my team is waiting on me to return home."

Kade noticed he avoided mentioning some were dying, and for once he held his own tongue as the young Bots all moaned and begged Heatwave and Chase to stay.

Chase called for order, and this time he was listened too, albeit reluctantly.

" If you truly want to be Rescue Bots, here is one thing you should always remember." Heatwave looked around at the group of young autobots, and they all straightened eagerly. " It's the Rescue Bot's motto."

Heatwave took a breath, glanced at Chase, and the two Bots chanted in unison. "Saving Lives, First To Respond And Last To Run."

All the Bots clapped, and Chase cleared his throat. "If you do not respond to an emergency at once, or run from your task, you will be making all of us ashamed and hurting the reputation of all Rescue Bots. Remember," he didn't even need to look at Heatwave, they both chanted together, Kade joining in this time. "Saving Lives, First To Respond And Last To Run."

Heatwave made all the Bots chant with them, until he was sure they would not forget it quickly.

"Hey, I thought you never sang!" Heatwave spluttered to a halt in the middle of the chant, and looked up at the chunky Bot leaning in the doorway. "Sounds good." The green and yellow Bot added.

"Salvage!" Chase exclaimed.

"When did you come in?" Heatwave wanted to know.

"Just now. Wanted to say hi before you guys left. Didn't expect to hear singing though." Salvage added with a wink at the young Bots.

"It was a chant. Don't you know the difference between a song and a chant?" Heatwave demanded.

"Oh sure, but this sounded more song-like then chant like." Salvage said. "Well, nice seeing you two, got to go. Bye Kade." And the Bot left.

Heatwave sighed, then turned and bid all the Bots goodbye.

Kade was fuming over the fact Salvage only noticed him as the Bot was leaving, and had to be elbowed by Heatwave so he could say goodbye.

Then they left, Heatwave replacing Kade inside of himself this time, amid cheers and pleas to come back soon.

Waving as they left the gates, Chase and Heatwave transformed and sped off in a cloud of dust.