Ghosts of the Present (Rescue Bots AU)

1. Awakening

Heatwave's optics blinked once, then again. All he could see was darkness, where was he? His memory tried to recall, to remember what had happened.

"Almost home, Heatwave... Just hang in there..."

"Just remember...You're gonna owe me big for this...!"

The words came back to him in a rush. Griffin Rock, their home, had been displaced. There wasn't enough earth-borne resources to keep the island afloat...and so the bots had chosen to give them theirs. Their own energon.

Heatwave remembered feeling his spark pulsing harder as it struggled to keep him online, as his lifeblood drained out of him and into the dome generator. He'd slumped, but then... what happened after that? Was it enough? Did they get Griffin Rock home or did it fall and crumble into pieces, killing-

No. He couldn't believe that. They had to have succeeded; he couldn't live with himself if they'd failed.

He blinked again, and then the black began to lighten just enough to make out shapes over his helm. He needed to move, and as he felt his fingers brush the ground, he felt cold, moist soil underneath him. The air was cool, and then his foot felt movement.

He wasn't alone.

He fought against himself to sit up, against every inch of him that not only ached, but felt so weak and drained. If he was still low on energon from the event, then it wouldn't be surprising for him to be low on strength too. "Ugh...W-What...?" He rasped, his vocal emittor feeling like it hadn't been used in ages.

"Heatwave..."

Boulder's gentle, but equally weary voice echoed in the space, and then the movement he felt shifted to a hand touching the bot's shin.

"Sound off, Team." Heatwave looked around as he saw another shape shifting a little ways from him.

"Present..." Chase whispered, his yellow optics blinking as he crawled across the mud towards them. "Boulder, Heatwave... Blades?"

There was at first no answer, and Heatwave worried about the helicopter. Where was he? "Blades!" He hollered a little louder.

"Hmm!?"

Blades' voice was clear and sounded more like he was interrupted from something than being stirred from sleep. "Hmm what!?"

They then saw his optics a little way down the tunnel, which they could now see was in fact a tunnel as Boulder's lights flickered on.

"How long have you been up?" Boulder asked the medic as he marched over to them.

The helicopter shrugged, "A few minutes? Probably closer to ten, yeah that sounds about right... Where are we?"

"It looks like we're in one of the tunnels under the island..." Boulder murmured, looking around their surroundings. "...But it hasn't been used in some time."

"Where are the Burnses?" Chase wondered, "Weren't they with us before? And how did we get down here?"

Heatwave reached for his comm. link, "Heatwave to Chief, do you-AUGH!" He yelped as a loud, piercing shriek was the only response. It rattled his helm, and he fell backwards against the wall to catch himself as he held his helm in pain. "Augh...!"

"You okay, Heatwave?" Blades worried, starting towards their leader, but Heatwave held a hand up.

"Ugh...I'm fine... My comm. link's just busted...!"

"We'll look into it once we get back to the Firehouse." Boulder felt the walls, and then looked down one direction. "This way slopes upward."

"Works for me."