So Isaac has been abducted by the Decepticons, and they are holding him hostage. He will be released only after the Autobots have handed over Sari. This is all a plan of Swindle's, who wants Sari for her enormous set of mods; he tried capturing Sari many years ago, but that posse failed miserably.
This time, his plan is using Isaac, and has been thus far successful. However, there's a problem. Swindle wants Sari the Technorganic, but she does not exist right now, only Sari the Autobot.
They have two days to rescue Sari's father.
BTW, another "homage" character appears…
Sari started frantically pacing back and forth in the Sumdac Tower lobby. "What do I do? What do I do? Swindle doesn't know that I've been put into another body – he still thinks I'm in my technorganic body! How do I hand myself over if I'm in the wrong body?"
Optimus scolded her. "Sari, stop!" he said. "You're not handing yourself over to anyone!"
Arcee put her servo on Sari's shoulder. "We will rescue your father, Sari! There's got to be a way of finding out where they are," she said.
Just then, Captain Fanzone pulled up and walked into the lobby. "Hey, Autobots! One of those nutcase robots is back. He just broke in to Wyatt's Toy Store. He's rampaging in there right now! If you hurry up, maybe you can catch him."
Jazz looked at Optimus. "It's got to be Shortround!"
"Arcee, stay here and brief Captain Fanzone on what happened here," said Optimus. "Everyone else, transform and roll out!" Optimus, Ratchet, Jazz and Sari transformed and left for the store.
When they arrived, a crowd had gathered outside the toy store, listening to the racket Shortround was making. Mr. Wyatt was standing outside, distraught. "My store, my beautiful store! He's destroying it!" he sobbed.
As Optimus, Jazz and Ratchet rushed inside, Sari kneeled down to console him. "Don't worry, Derrick," she said, "we'll take care of him!"
"Oh, thank you, Autobots, thank you!" he said, as Sari joined her team.
The four Autobots surrounded the Decepticon. "Shortround!" yelled Optimus. "Stand down!" Shortround erupted into panic at the sight of the Autobots and dropped the action figures he'd grabbed. He tried to run away, but Jazz got close enough to use his Circuit-Su to paralyze him. He fell down and started screaming hysterically "I can't move! I can't move! My toys! I want my toys!"
Sari came forward and began to yell at him. "You miserable pile of scrap! Where's…" but Jazz held up a digit to his mouth to tell her to be silent. He communicated to her Spark, "Sari – do not let out who you are to the enemy." She nodded and immediately stopped talking.
Jazz picked up the sobbing Decepticon. "No toys for you, Shortround," he told him. "There's a holding cell for you at Autobot Central!"
They carried the still paralyzed Shortround to the Autobot holding cell and locked him in. The Autobots then held a meeting in Optimus' conference room. "Well, that's one at least," said Ratchet. "But Swindle said we wouldn't get much information out of him – or Lugnutz."
"That's what Swindle said. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the truth," said Optimus. "Jazz, is there anything you can extract from his processor?"
"In his current immobile state, I shouldn't have any trouble performing a processor extraction with P-O-M," he replied. "Sari, I will need your help, but in order to do that, you must first free your Spark from worries about your father. It's the only way you will be able to assist."
"Yes, Sensei," she replied. And she knew he was right, but it was going to be the hardest thing her training demanded of her. She began preparing her Spark.
The two Cyber-Ninjas walked toward the holding cell and looked down at the miserable Decepticon, still swearing about losing his action figures and not being able to move. "You slagging pigbots!" he cried, "Give me back my movement!"
Jazz ignored him, but Sari found his yelling very disturbing. Jazz looked at her. "Quiet your Spark, Sari," he said to her silently.
They both got down in Lotus position. "Follow my lead," he told her verbally.
"Why? What are you two doing?" asked Shortround.
Sari began calming her Spark. "Good, Sari, you are on the right track," said Jazz to her Spark. "Now, I am going to enter his processor. I will need you behind me. He will resist. Follow me, and when you sense him resisting me, push him away, similar to what you did when you were battling Mindwipe."
"Yes, Sensei," said Sari.
"What are you doing to me?" Yelled Shortround, sensing their presence in his thoughts. "Get out of my processor!"
Jazz began examining his memories, and the plans that were made for Isaac's abduction. Whenever Shortround began resisting the examination, Sari used her P-O-M to hold him back. Shortround fell silent as the procedure occurred. It lasted all of 10 cycles. Once Jazz was satisfied he had collected all of the information concerning the mission, he began to exit. "Sari, let us leave," he told her. And the two came back to their Sparks.
"What…what did you just do to me?" Shortround demanded.
"Nothing," said Jazz. "We just collected information about your mission, nothing more."
"I could have told you!" he protested.
"I doubt it," said Jazz, "but thank you for the offer."
Sari and Jazz got up and went to brief the team. "Hey! What about letting me move again!" protested Shortround.
"You caused a great deal of damage to Mr. Wyatt's Toy Store," said Jazz. "I'll let him decide when to release you from my Circuit-Su."
"Damn you Cyber-Ninjas!" he cursed as they left the holding cell.
"Were you able to get any information from him?" Optimus asked.
"More than Swindle let on," said Jazz. "Sari's father is being held in their ship, somewhere at the bottom of Lake Erie. However, Shortround doesn't know exactly where. And Lugnutz knows even less about the mission, unfortunately."
"Luckily, we captured the lackey with more information," said Arcee. "With a ship, we'd be able to scan the lake to locate them. It would take time, however."
"Unfortunately, the Ark-32 is non-functional," said Optimus.
"Not anymore," said Ratchet. "I just spoke with Bumblebee. They've completed repairs. He's piloting it back here, and it'll be landing at the Detroit Airport in one megacycle."
"Bee's piloting it?" questioned Sari, raising an optic.
"Hey, he's got his Autobot pilot license!" said Ratchet.
"Alright," said Optimus. "We should be able to scan the location of the Decepticon ship. However, as Arcee said, scanning a lake the size of Erie would take time, and that is something we do not have."
"Shortround handed over Alisa and Professor Sumdac to Thunderblast at a specific location," said Jazz. "I should be able to determine its coordinates from a map of Lake Erie, based on the visual and navigational data I collected after having scanned his processor."
"It's very likely their ship is somewhere at the lake bottom near that point," said Arcee, and she pulled up a detailed NOAA map. Jazz carefully examined it. "This is where the hand-off took place," he said, pointing to a spot over the Sandusky Sub-Basin.
"Then that's where we scan," said Optimus. "Alright, as soon as Bumblebee gets here, we'll take off, and fly above Sandusky Bay."
"Detroit City Airport, this is Autobot Ship Ark-32, requesting landing privileges," said Bumblebee.
"Roger, Ark-32, landing privileges granted. Proceed to runway F," said the control tower. Bumblebee landed the ship at the airport, where Optimus and his crew were waiting.
"Thanks for returning the ship," he told Bee.
"Glad to be your parking valet!" he said. "Wish it was under better circumstances, though." He walked up to Sari and put his servo on her shoulder. "We'll find your dad, Sar!"
"Thanks, Bee," she smiled.
"Alright, Autobots," said Optimus, "let's board and take off!" And taking the helm, Optimus got on the comm to the control tower. "Detroit, this is the Ark-32, preparing to take off."
"Roger, Ark-32, you are cleared for takeoff." And Optimus piloted their ship into the sky towards Lake Erie.
Inside the Decepticon ship, Isaac was sitting in his holding cell. He couldn't believe his foolishness, putting his trust in Alisa. "Once again, Isaac, you have been caught for a stooge," he thought. "First with Megatron, now with Alisa. When will I learn, oh, when will I gain some street sense?" He glared at Alisa, sitting just beyond the force field holding him in. "I hope they come and get you, Decepticon! I hope my Sari will be the one to tear you apart!" he thought.
She was at the ship's console communicating with Swindle. "Everything is going according to plan," she told him.
"Wonderful, my dear!" he replied. "Any word from the Autobots? And any sightings of the Technorganic?"
"Nothing yet. And the Technorganic Sari has been on the moon, or at Cybertron, from what I can gather, talking to this human. I have not seen her since I've been working at his company."
Isaac overheard the conversation. "What…? They know nothing about Sari's Spark transplant into an Autobot body! They still think she's a technorganic?" Isaac wondered whether he could use their ignorance to some advantage. "I'm not a very good liar. I hope I can keep a cover story straight," he worried, and tried to concoct a solid one.
"Maybe you can find out something from the good Professor," said Swindle.
"How about it, Isaac?" asked Alisa. "Care to tell us where Sari is?"
"Like I would tell you anything!" he said. Then he had a thought to throw them off. Speaking angrily, he said "Have you seen her? Do you think she's here on earth? If she was here, wouldn't we be seen together at Sumdac Tower?"
Alisa smiled. "Well, thank you, Isaac! That gives us some idea." She turned back to Swindle. "So, evidently, the Technorganic's away, probably on Cybertron."
Isaac tried his best to not smirk.
As the Ark-32 hovered over Sandusky Bay, Arcee botted the sensors, trying to detect the presence of the Decepticon ship. "I'm not picking up any readings, Optimus," she told him.
"Either they are not there, or they have some type of cloaking device," he responded.
"That may explain why we didn't detect the presence of the ship on Farside Beacon One until it was practically right over us," said Bumblebee.
"Either that, or the software was corrupted by Alisa," said Sari. "My father had put her in charge of both the Sumdac Tower shield and the long-range sensor programs."
"Could be both," said Ratchet. "Cloaking device, and software corruption."
"Sari and I might be able to locate the ship by Processor Over Matter," said Jazz.
"Make it so," said Optimus. And the Cyber-Ninjas got into Lotus Position, meditating in the center of the Autobot ship, as it hovered over the deepest point of Sandusky Sub-Basin.
They spread their Spark senses out down to the depths of the lake, spreading out through its entire length, width, and depth, deep down past the floor. Both Cyber-Ninjas communicated to each other silently through their Sparks.
"Sari, I think I'm detecting Spark presences," said Jazz.
"Yes, I as well, Sensei. I'm also sensing a human heartbeat." Her Spark began quickening.
"Calm, Sari, calm. I know, I know. We will use this information to assist our efforts. But patience. Let us first gather more information."
"Yes, Sensei." She calmed her Spark. They continued to gather information on the ship, its systems, abilities, and weaponry.
After a short while, Jazz communicated back to her. "We should be able to disable their ship's offensive and defensive abilities, Sari. Turn them off, one at a time, but we must be very selective, otherwise they will be alerted to our efforts."
"Let's start with their ability to scan for Autobot ships." Jazz could see that they currently were aware of the Ark-32.
"Sari, alter their system. Make it look like we are leaving."
Sari entered their scanning system. "Done, Sensei."
On the Decepticon ship, Thunderblast had been monitoring the sensors, watching the Ark-32. Suddenly, it showed the Autobot ship leaving.
"Thundercracker! They're leaving!" She said.
"Well, of course! Stupid Autobots, they think they can locate us? They've given up! My genius picked this spot!"
"The cloaking device from Swindle helped!" said Alisa.
"Silence, wench! A minor detail. Only my superior intelligence was able to find this location."
Isaac fell back in his cot, dejected. "No! You were so close!"
Alisa turned to him. "Aw, feeling bad, Isaac? You'd better hope they deliver your daughter, or you'll be feeling a lot worse!"
Isaac picked up his plate of food and threw it at her. "I don't care what you do to me!" he yelled. "You'll never get your filthy hands on my daughter!"
Alisa flew into a rage, her silvery face full of hate and disgust, red optics flaring. She thrust one of her pointed appendages at him, striking the wall inches from his neck. "Do that again and I'll deliver you back to the Autobots one piece at a time, Technorganic or no!" she screamed.
"Alisa? Let's keep our emotions in check shall we?" said Thunderblast. "We keep to Swindle's plan, mmmkay?"
"Shut up, water witch!" snarled Alisa, and walked away.
"And Professor, you seem well fed as it is," said Thunderblast, "I think that will be your last meal."
Isaac fell back against the wall of his cell. A tear came to his eye. "Oh, Sari, please come back," he thought.
So the crew of the Ark-32, thanks to the efforts of the Cyber-Ninjas, has located the Decepticon ship that is holding Sari's father. And now Jazz and Sari are silently disabling its capabilities. Soon, the Autobots should be able to engage the ship in battle, but they also have to make sure that Isaac is safely rescued! Thanks for reading.