Ghosts of the Present (Rescue Bots AU)

17. Kidnapping Runs in the Family, Apparently

Despite Chase telling them that he didn't think the other bots were hurt, Kade worried. He'd never tell his partner that, but telling their side of the story a few weeks before had brought old pains to the surface. The memory of his partner's spark going out, the strong urge he'd felt to stow away with Optimus to Cybertron, just so he could be there when they were buried, incinerated, whatever the bots did for funerals. It didn't matter that he'd probably suffocate the moment he was off-world; in those moments, he didn't even care...

Right now though, he was worried about the loud moans and creaks coming from the walls of the ship; it sounded like the whole ship was about to break apart.

As he was reaching an intersection of corridors, he gasped as he saw a shadow on the wall and heard footsteps; someone was coming. He backed up a little, waiting until the person was about to turn the corner before jumping out and knocking them to the ground. "Gotcha!"

"Hey! Get off me!"

Kade's eyes widened as he recognized the voice, and even more when he saw the fellow red-headed firefighter from weeks before, staring back at him with just as much surprise. "Kade?"

"Heatwave!"

Kade climbed off of his partner's holoform, letting him get back up onto his feet. "Sorry man, I thought you were Chumley."

"Understandable, I guess..." Heatwave brushed himself off, "You promised not to sock me in the jaw anymore, but you didn't say anything about tackling... What're you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? I'm here looking for you, Doormat!"

"Have you seen any of the others?"

"We ran into Chase's holoform and he's with Dad, but where are you? I mean, for real?"

"A little boxed in at the moment. Figured it would be easier to- Hold it..." Heatwave held a finger up to tell the firefighter to wait, and then there came a firm and trembling thud through the floor, followed by the lights going dim and then a reddish tint. "And there it is. I hijacked the ship's waterlines to partially incapacitate the ship."

"So all of you have just been running around performing shenanigans on the ship this whole time?"

"I haven't run into any of the others, nor have I gotten any recent pings from them. My guess is that while I was merely boxed in by walls, they're in stasis traps. Though if Chase's holoform is active, then maybe he's just boxed in too." His brows furrowed, "Blades pinged that he'd found Whiskers right before he went quiet, so we know he's onboard, at least. Not a total loss."

"Let's get you loose first, we can search the ship quicker that way."

Heatwave nodded, and then gestured for Kade to follow as he ran back around the corner. Kade followed, guessing that Heatwave had mapped out the halls in his computer of a brain to remember where he'd been. The tunnelling corridors made it so that the human lost track of his surroundings almost immediately. To be honest, he didn't even remember how he'd gotten from the top deck to where he found Heatwave!

They finally reached what seemed like a dead end, with a control panel of some sort on the left wall. "I tried opening the door myself, but my holoform's electrical pulses evidently don't count to the system as a human touching it."

Kade ran to the panel and after a few seconds decided the big red button was worth a try. There was a loud beep, and then the wall retracted into the ceiling, revealing his partner. Water rushed out across the floor, and Heatwave's form disappeared before his chassis creaked back into movement and stood up from a lying-down position.

Heatwave shook some water from his chassis, and then bent down to let Kade climb up onto his back. "Climb on. When you found Chase, was he alright? He sent out a distress ping hours ago and then I haven't gotten anything since then."