"Heatwave," Optimus' voice crackled into the comms, and Boulder lifted his head. " Does your team have the blockade in place?"
"Yes, Optimus," Heatwave answered. Boulder nodded, although he knew Optimus couldn't see- he had just finished placing the last sustaining rock over the tunnels leading out. "Should we send the explosives in?"
Before Optimus could respond, Cody shouted, "Guys, my hoverboard won't work! I can't make it-"
"Aggh, it's broken," Graham said, shaking it angrily. "We can send it a yard, maybe two, into the tunnel, and then. . . it's not going to reach the mine."
"Optimus," Boulder said, pressing his finger to his comm and trying to block out the panic, "the hoverboard won't work, the explosives won't get to the mine-"
"I. . . will come and take it," Optimus' voice said, and Boulder couldn't tell whether it was just the comm line breaking up, or if the Prime really was as horribly tired as his voice sounded.
"Optimus, you can't," Heatwave shouted. "How are you going to get back in time with-"
"I will take it," the Prime's voice repeated.
"He says he can do it," Boulder said to Heatwave, turning off his comm. "He can. He's Prime."
Heatwave ex-vented. "He says a lot of things, Boulder."
"What do you mean?" Blades interjected. "Optimus wouldn't. . . I mean. . . Heatwave?"
"He didn't tell us about the Decepticons," Heatwave muttered. "He didn't tell us about the war not being over."
"What?" Kade said, craning his head up from Heatwave's glass. "I don't understand at all what you guys have been talking about for this whole-"
"Not now, Kade!" Heatwave barked.
"I have a right to ask!" Kade yelled back.
"But now's not a good time-" Boulder said, trying to exude calm at Heatwave in an attempt to get him to relax.
"Whatever it is, we'll talk about it once we get back," Chief Burns shouted at them from Chase's alt-mode. "We can't afford to lose focus right now!"
"Understood, Chief," Heatwave said, after a pause in which Boulder was halfway sure that his team leader would start yelling at Chief Burns himself.
But then Optimus staggered in.
Limping, battered, so covered in Energon that his red color was nearly obscured by the glowing blue liquid, and with damage that would make a medibot give up his profession.
"Primus," Boulder whispered.
"The. . . explosives?" the Prime managed.
"O-Optimus," Blades said, "you can't-"
"Be ready for when they are set off," Optimus said firmly. He carefully took the hoverboard from Graham and inspected it. "I will make it back in time."
"Yes, sir," Heatwave acquiesced grudgingly.
"But Heatwave-" Boulder said, horrified.
"Just listen to him!" Heatwave bellowed. "We need to take care of our team!"
"But-" Blades tried, and Heatwave threw up a servo, stopping the helicopter in his tracks. Turning to Boulder, he growled, "Tell Optimus how to activate the explosives."
"You- you press the button," Boulder said helplessly. "Once you remove your finger, the bomb goes off."
"Instantaneously?" Optimus asked.
"Y-yes."
"I had planned on making the impact of the hoverboard release the button," Graham put in, looking sick. "Optimus, if you can't get out of there in time-"
"You will escape nonetheless."
"You can't," Dani said. "Optimus, you can't."
"I must," Optimus said, and Boulder barely had time to register that the Prime's tone was the saddest he had ever heard it before Optimus had turned around and limped out.