Notes: A user made me take this on mind so I will clarify, and if I confused you, sorry about that: Blades is gender-fluid and uses both she and he pronouns but sometimes I forgot consistency, for example, in the last chapters I write Blades with He pronouns but in this chapter Blades uses She pronouns. So, have that on mind and sorry for the confusion😅
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"Well, they made it" Chief Charlie Burns said to himself while inspecting what was left of the ship, it was destroyed, like the plan needed it to be, the second they get out of it they had to make like the collision was hard and then disappear, so, it will look like the ship was landing alone but with no one to guide it from inside in a new land, it crashed, those type of things didn't happen much on Cybertron but the autobots could always make like it happened some times if the ship was old and without command, and the ship was old, from before the war, that lie would look real if they didn't knew it.
"So, what?" Dani asked, kind of confused yet "We just do like we're investigating something and..."
"And that's all" Charlie replied to his daughter. She sighed and returned to her helicopter, completely new with beautiful symmetric rotors and a big window to look at everything, what a better gift from Doc Greene "I'll see you back on the firehouse, I'll record everything from air."
"Good idea, I'll get some dirt of the collision for samples." Graham informed, getting close to the big ship, bigger than a building, covered in dirt and mud of course but the silver color was viewable, the glass of the windows (if that was glass) was so thicker than not even 3 bulletproof windows' cars could face it.
"Well, it's not much for me, so..."
"Stay here just a while, son, for the sake of the plan, G.H.O.S.T needs to be sure we don't believe in this ship being less than a menace" Charlie said to his eldest son, Kade, it was normal for the entire family the fact Kade is kind of lazy and a hothead but at least he was a good person, nothing to worry about.
"Fine... I'll stay" Kade answered, sawing everywhere if there was something more entertaining to see.
...
"How much time did they say we would have to be down here?" Blades asked, while walking from one side to the other of the little spot on the ground.
"'till that... gost... get out of the island" Boulder reply, thinking about their weird pronunciation since the floor, they had been playing with the dirt since they came to the place.
"As we've been informed, this artificial volcano is so insecure, tiny and hidden that those people would never get here," Heatwave remembered, also in the floor with Boulder "as long as we're silent."
"But what if that's not enough?"
"We will not know it till they here" Chase noted on the other side of the tiny cave, just enough big for them "now, it's late, we should rest" he said while patting the floor and getting comfy on it "I could get accomplished to this."
"How are you thinking in sleep right now?" Blades protested, throwing her servos through the air "We've been asleep Primus knows how much time! We had lost an entire war!"
"Blades..."
"I'm talking seriously!" she shouted "this conflict had already taken away from us part of our families but at least we were there, or we could pray for them! Who else we had lost while we were on that fragging ship? Hence? First Aid? Solaris? Who else is dead and we hadn't notice?!"
"Blades, I know is hard," Heatwave got up with glinting optics "but it doesn't matter how many questions we have, we will not receive answer!"
"We could save them!"
"Or we could had died just like all of them" Heatwave finally said, just looking at Blades little glinting optics like him, Blades shoulders got tense and preferred to take away her gaze from him and sit up, Heatwave wasn't sure if to say something or stay silent was better, but a worm on his processor aware him of a little weep on his side "I know there's no remedy but, let's take this as a second chance" he added "right, team?"
The cave stayed silent for a moment, before Boulder broke it with a 'right', it was a sad one, but it was one, Boulder couldn't help but let Blades rest her head on their shoulder. Heatwave came back to his initial spot, trying not to think on all the things they all could do if they weren't on that ship so long, without noticing he called for a far spark, hopping he would see them again.
Chase tried to rest but something on its mind didn't let him, Blades was right but what else he could do for all of them? They were already dead or missing and the team was on earth, there's no difference if they were alive and Heatwave was right too, there's no hope for them and the only thing he and the team could do was to hope this would be their second chance to learn again and do things right. He had to be strong, Chase needed to be strong just like his mentor's tutor said, he is a Steelhand, he is a police bot and a rescue bot, he had to be strong for all of them ... but it doesn't hurt less, and for some reason, ignore the feeling of weep made him feel worse.
...
The sun was raising with a glorious veil like a deity bringing their good morning to the island, but for the sun's bad luck, part of their light was sabotaged by the shadows and silhouettes of big boats and some helicopters disturbing the matutine air.
"So, this is Griffin Rock" Croft commented from the big vessel "I thought it would be... more interesting."
"It's an island, what were you expecting?" Megatron talked contemptuously since his comm.
"I don't know, just something."
"Fragging old witch" Megatron sighted to himself.
"Take it easy, Meg, some are listening" Optimus called Megatron's attention also from the comm.
"Agent Croft! Griffin Rock's control tower is calling for you."
"Perfect. Prepare to land everyone, faster!"
Croft attended the call, with kindness and authority, both the control tower's commander and Agent Croft knew how to play their cards but let her in just for the mission.
The land wasn't something of another word, the spaceship was. All the G.H.O.S.T hunters and soldiers were inspecting the area while the rest did the investigation, some interviews, and curious eyes, but nothing out of the common.
"Of course I see it!" Mrs. Netherlander objected "I'm old, not blind or deaf! It looked like a meteor."
"Yeah, and..."
"And nothing else! That's all I know, now, excuse me, that meteor in the middle off the night didn't let me sleep!" what a great actress was she, except the angriness, that was real.
Most of Griffin Rock's citizens said the same, the only ones who knew about the spaceship were the rescue team of the island, so little it was only a family, except the youngest son of ten years old.
"We didn't told the citizens it was a... whatever it is" Charlie answered the interviewer.
"And you didn't call someone?"
"Who?" Charlie asked, "we are the ones the people call if they have an emergency, but who we could ask in this situation?" the interviewer wanted to ask something else to the chief, but something a few feet away interrupted the attention, a man dressed in red wanted to interview the people, he only carries a normal camera and a microphone.
"Let me go! This is my job! You! What are you doing exactly?!"
"Ahg, great God."
"I'll take care of him, dad" Kade told his father, going through the reporter's direction and getting him out of the way.
"Hey! A Burns to reply, tell us..."
"No, Prescott, this is serious, you can make interviews later, but right now, we need you out of here."
"Ha! This is how you defend liberty of expression and free press?"
"This is the government, please. We don't want the people to panic."
"I will not panic them. I never do!" Kade didn't reply to Prescott comment, he just looked at the reporter with obvious eyes and waited for him to answer himself.
"...well, maybe sometimes."
"Out, Huxley, we'll talk later, get into the emergency plan for these situations."
Huxley of course wasn't happy, but it was too many people bigger, stronger, and less caring than Kade between those soldiers, probably it was his own imagination what scared him.
...
"How many times we had to say to you?" Bulkhead protested at the agent Croft "The. Ship. Is. Empty. There's nothing and no one, and there's no sign!"
"Maybe it was an accidental launching" a big woman at Bulkhead's side take the word "like, you know, experimenting with rockets."
"And why a ship so big enough for many cybertronians?" agent Croft asked serious, expecting an answer even if she knew that exactly soldier couldn't give it to her.
"I don't know! But it's old tech, maybe they didn't want it."
"We looked everywhere all day, agent Croft, and the island is not that big" said a man, barely bigger than the woman and thinner but trained, his black eyes pierced the horizon, waiting for his boss response "even the ocean had been studied with the diving team and there's no sign of a cybertronian or any other alien species."
"Well, look again!" Croft shouted, "it doesn't have sense."
"ma'am," Bulkhead said, "with all respect," that wasn't true "both captain Darby and lieutenant Nakadai know what they're talking about, they had been surrounded by cybertronians since they're on duty" and since they were teenagers, even Jack visited Cybertron and Miko still have the apex armor "and just as an advice, most of the things related to us don't have sense for humans."
"That's right, I can confirm that" Miko laughed with Bulkhead about it. Croft didn't laugh.
...
The moon was already putting a sheet above the sleepy ones but Croft's search party was still on march, they looked at every place they could, even most of the old tunnels, but nothing. She was starting to think maybe Bulkhead was right. Not even the bigger bots could find something, what else they could do? Croft sighed with strong angriness, letting her head rest on her hand, and closing her eyes, finally feeling tired. The people of Griffin Rock were getting to worried about the search party and almost three fucking days were too much for such a tiny island, a fourth day would be of any good for no one.
Yeah, they were on Griffin Rock four days, poor bots is all I can say as narrator.
...
"It was a pleasure, agent Croft" Charlie said his farewells "and thank you for helping us with the problem, and letting here the spaceship, I'm sure the library would like a new monument piece."
"Yes, don't take it seriously, chief, and thank our teammate, Optimus Prime, for convince me letting the spaceship here having in mind it's not useful anymore."
"Don't worry, Chief Burns" Optimus also replied, "we will do everything on our hands to keep this island safe."
"Thank you, Optimus Prime."
"Well, time for us to go" Croft retake "I want everyone in their positions now!"
"Can we stay?"
"No" Croft said coldly to Bulkhead and Miko's petition.
"But we need vacation, we had been working hard in the last 6 months!" Miko tried to convince Croft.
"And there's still lot of work to do, you can come other day" Croft insisted.
"We can survive with them, agent Croft" Jack also tried to convince her "and I would like some vacations from her."
"If you want vacation, take them first how it's supposed, then we will talk."
Of course, Bulkhead didn't like the answer, but what else could he do? He's not a sparkling to insist more, but he was capable, he didn't after all, 'what a coward' he thought to himself due to that.
...
"Psst. Hey?" a kid asked near the cave entrance "hi, my name is Cody, I asked my dad to make him company."
"They can't understand you, son" Chief replied "I am the only one with a translator in this conversation. Sorry if we scared you, but could we see you? I am chief Charlie Burns, this is my son, Cody, I'm sure Optimus talked to you about me."
Heavy footsteps echoed in the walls after a weird silence, from the shadows, a big red silhouette came from the cave with care, the first two things Cody thought about him was his big grey feet that looked like duck membranes and his orange glowing eyes, but he wasn't scary, he actually looked sad, as his voice, even if he couldn't understand what he said later.
"How do you know our language?"
"Translators, whatever, we're sorry for the wait, and, welcome to Griffin Rock, Rescue Team."