It was nearly dusk. The sky was turning into ribbons of gold and red-orange. The first evening star was getting ready to make its appearance. The quiet of the Central North American prairie was broken by the sound of a revving motor engine. A pick-up truck was passing through the empty plain. Ironhide was trying to get to the nearest opening to the Global Spacebridge as fast as he could. He was late to meet with the other Spychangers back at Headquarters for a battle simulation. Suddenly, his Predacon alert went off.
'Late 'r not,' he said to himself, 'if the Predacons are up ta somethin', I gotta find out what it is.' Slowly and carefully, he drove up as close as he dared. " Ironhide, transform," he whispered. Making sure he kept himself hidden in the shadows or behind rocks, he snuck a little closer so he could hear.
Sky Byte was directing where Gas Skunk and Slapper were to weld a big sheet of metal. From the look of it, the Predacons had just finished building another really big laser cannon. But this one looked more powerful than the one Ironhide and his friends dealt with before. "This laser canon is so powerful, not even that little trick those Spychangers did last time can stop it," Sky Byte boasted.
'This isn't good,' Ironhide said in his head. Deciding he had heard enough, he was about to contact the base when a streak of laser fire struck the rock he was spying from, missing his head by a few inches. He turned to face the shooter.
The Decepticons had arrived and, apparently, spotted him. "Well, so much for undercover work," he said just before he started to run. The Predacons heard the shot, and turned just in time to see Ironhide making his escape.
"A spy," Darkscream exclaimed.
"Get him!" Sky Byte commanded, and both the Predacons and the Decepticons were after Ironhide. Together they formed a circle around him.
"There's nowhere for you to run, Autobot," Scourge gloated.
"Oh yeah," Ironhide replied, and he blasted away with his laser rifle, hitting all of his targets. Getting a running start, he leaped and kicked Armorhide square in the chest, giving him an opening to escape.
"Oh no you don't," Rotor called, and he fired some energon netting at Ironhide. It wrapped itself around his legs, and he tumbled to the ground. The Predacons and Decepticons chuckled malevolently as they approached him.
Because trying to untangle his legs was not working, Ironhide started trying to get to his gun. However, a foot kicked it out of his reach. When he looked up, he recognized the Predacon leader, Megatron. He wore an evil-looking smile on his faceplate. "You won't be needing that anymore," he said. "Slapper, you know what to do," and the Predacon nodded. After getting their prisoner turned onto his back, Gas Skunk and Darkscream each took an arm and pinned it to the ground. Slapper got on top of him with a tweezer-like tool in his hand, opened a panel in the upper right section of the Spychanger's chest, and started to mess with some wiring. Ironhide hissed in pain when Slapper's tool made something spark.
"His com-link has been disabled chief," Slapper announced, "now his friends can't contact him any more than he can contact them."
While this was going on, a few miles away from the canyon, three human boys were having a campout with their horses eating nearby. They had just successfully made their camp fire and were getting ready to roast hot dogs for dinner. "Looks like it's gonna be a perfect night ta sleep under the stars," Freddie mentioned, observing the sky.
"Yep," Robert agreed, " sure does."
Their friend, Jan, was unpacking his sleeping bag. Suddenly, he could barely hear laser fire coming from somewhere nearby. "Hey," he called to his friends, "did you guys hear that?"
"Sure did," Robert answered, "sounded like laser fire".
"Laser fire?" Freddie exclaimed, "In these 'ere parts?"
"C'mon," said Jan and, with only their hackamores, the boys mounted their horses and galloped toward the source.
By the time they got there, it was so quiet, they could hear some leaves being blown in the wind. Then, they heard voices farther down the canyon. Leaving their horses, they went to investigate. "Predacons!" Jan exclaimed.
"C'mon," Robert urged, "let's see what they're doin'." They took cover behind a big rock to get a better look.
"Hmm," said Freddie, "looks like that Autobot could use some help."
"Well then," Jan whispered, "if it's help he wants, it's help he'll get. I'm gonna go see if I can find any Autobots; you guys stay here an' keep an eye on 'um."
"Right," Freddie and Robert nodded.
"Let's go, Apache," Jan said as he mounted his horse, and he rode off into the wilderness.
He had been searching for about a half an hour, and Jan couldn't find even one Autobot anywhere. 'Who am I tryin' ta kid 'ere?' he asked himself, 'Findin' an Autobot in this 'ere wilderness's like findin' a needle in a haystack.' But then, something caught the corner of his eye. He spotted two giant figures about a mile to his left. With a cry and a firm kick into his horse's side, he galloped toward them.
R.E.V. and Mirage have looked everywhere in their area, but they couldn't find any trace of Ironhide. An hour ago, back at the base, they and the other Spychangers had begun to wonder what was keeping their friend when fifteen minutes had passed from the appointed training time. But, when even Tai couldn't reach him through his com-link, they really started to get concerned. When they arrived at the prairie via the Spacebridge, they set up a grid system and separated into groups. Out of all of the Spychangers, Mirage was the most worried. He didn't know what he would do if anything happened to his best friend. The two were about to contact their teammates when they heard someone calling. It was a young human boy on a white and brown painted horse with a black mane and tail. When he reached them, the boy announced, "Your friend's in trouble!"
The situation had taken a turn for the worst. In fact, it was so bad, Freddie couldn't bear to watch anymore. Robert just looked on with fear in his eyes, unable to close them or blink. Megatron decided that instead of blasting Ironhide on the spot, they try to pry out some information from him- the location of Autobot Headquarters. First, they tried interrogation. But when Ironhide refused to tell them anything, they started beating him. All of the Predacons and Decepticons each took part in throwing a punch or kick at their prisoner.
Ironhide's wrists were shackled to the canyon wall, thus he was unable to defend himself against the oncoming blows, each more powerful than the last. A tiny stream of energon trickled down from the upper side of his lower lip component and his knees began to buckle. He wasn't sure how much longer he could take all that damage, and started hoping help would come.
Suddenly, a blast of laser fire presented itself just as Mega Octane was about to take his turn. The whole calvary had arrived: the Spychangers, Team Bullet Train, the Autobot Brothers, and Optimus Prime himself. "Hey!" exclaimed Slapper, "How did you guys know we were here?"
"Let's just say we had a little help," Hotshot said, meaning Jan who was beside his leg chuckling as he gave a thumb's up. And so, the battle began. Jan motioned for his friends to come to him.
"Let's give 'um a hand, shall we?"
After taking care of Gas Skunk, Crosswise fired at the energon chain dispenser. Ironhide's chains disappeared and he fell to the ground. He was too weak to stand up, let alone fight. "Don't worry Ironhide," W.A.R.S called as he stepped in front of his teammate, "I gotcha covered."
'I'd say it's time to give our new toy a little test drive,' Megatron to himself, and he pushed the button on the portable detonator, but nothing happened. When the Predacons and Decepticons turned to check on their new weapon, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. A big rock had smashed up their new mega laser canon. Seizing the opportunity, the Autobots concentrated all of their firepower and chased off Megatron and his minions.
"A stray laser blast must've caused that rock to fall," X- Brawn guessed.
"I don't think it was a stray laser blast, X- Brawn," said Prowl, "Look up there." There were the boys, smiling.
Later, back at Headquarters, the Autobots were congratulating each other and their new friends for a mission well done. Within an twenty minutes, Ironhide was back on his feet, looking and feeling good as new.
"I don't know how else ta say this," he said, smiling at the boys, "but I owe you boys my life."
"Hey, don't give Freddie an' me any of the credit," said Robert with his hands up.
"Yeah," Freddie agreed, "it was ole' Jan 'ere." That's when Hotshot walked up with a medal shaped like the Autobot insignia.
"Ironhide's right, Jan, we owe you the life of a teammate, plus, you demonstrated that you can keep a cool head in even the most strenuous of situations, and to show our appreciation we'd like to make you an Honorary Spychanger." And he placed the medal around the boy's neck.
On the open American prairie, the sun was setting. Atop a plateau, a white skinned, blonde human boy with green eyes and wearing blue jeans with a black belt and a white long-sleeved shirt, white cowboy hat with a drawstring, and white boots, was mounted on his noble brown and white painted steed. Next to them, a giant yellow robot sat with his feet dangling over the cliff. "Sure feels like that happened a long, long time ago doesn't it?" asked Ironhide. The two good friends had nearly spent the whole afternoon reflecting on the day when Jan and his friends saved him.
"Yep, it sure does," Jan, the human Autobot Spychanger, replied with a modest smile.