The Autobots have decided that Sari needed to learn to defend herself and were now Prowl was teaching her some of his ninja moves.
"Hee YAH!" Sari yelled as she jumped and kicked with all her might at Prowl's leg. She hit him but fell to the floor.
"Sari, you need to concentrate," Prowl sighed.
"Give her a break, Prowl; humans don't have turbo balance thrusters," Bulkhead reminded him as he helped Sari get back on her feet.
"Or padded bumpers," Sari added as she was rubbing her bottom.
"I'm afraid Prowl's right. As protector of the key, Sari's a potential target for the Decepticons. That means she has to learn to protect herself," said Optimus.
"And we won't always be there to protect you," Prowl added. "Now try again. And this time, thrust with your legs like this." Prowl then demonstrated with a strong kick in the air.
"Gotcha!" Sari nodded.
Then she jumped and kicked right past Prowl and hit Bulkhead in the knee. Sari landed on her bottom. Bulkhead looked down and realised that Sari had hit him in the knee. He jumped on one leg and grabbed his leg faking painful howls. He fell, causing several boxes to land on top of him.
"Too much?" he asked.
"Let me put it like this it's like teaching a Scraplet not to eat metal," said Blackarachnia.
"You're saying that she should not learn to protect herself," Prowl argued.
"I'm saying that she has to learn how to protect herself her own way," Blackarachnia argued back. "Besides the moves your teaching her redesign for Cybertronains, don't think they quite suited for human combat."
Later that night, Sari was back home practising her moves against her reflection on her window.
"Yah! Ha! Hiya! Keeyah!" Sari cried as she punched and kicked imaginary bad guys. "You want a piece of this Decepticreep! Take that and that!" She looked at her reflection in the window. "I'll deal with you in the morning. Punk."
She yawned and hopped in bed. Before she could close her eyes, a shadow flew past the room. She sat up and made her way to the window, and pressed the remote open it. Then came face-to-face with what she first fought to be a giant bird.
"Cool," said Sari.
Then she watched as it spread its wings and realised that it was metal and there swooped down towards her.
Professor Sumdac knocked on Sari's door; he had brought a fresh batch of milk and cookies for Sari. However, when she didn't answer, he slowly opened the door and looked inside. Sari was gone, and the place was a mess as if there was a struggle. Completely shocked, he then dropped the tray spilling the milk and cookies on the floor.
"Ratchet! Bulkhead! Bumblebee! Prowl! Blackarachnia!" Optimus yelled, waking everyone up. "Professor Sumdac just called. Sari is missing!"
They immediately transformed into vehicle mode and drove off towards Sumdac Tower as quickly as possible.
Captain Fanzone was already on the scene, and his police officers were expecting the crime scene.
"We're looking all over for the girl captain. We got cars on the streets. We got minisubs in the river and lake. And we're questioning the father now, but he says he didn't see anything," the officer said over the phone.
"Well, keep looking through the girl's room. I'll look through the security vids," Fanzone said. "Oh wait, I've got another call." He pressed some keys. "This is Fanzone."
"still me, captain."
"Oh, hold on." He pressed in some more keys. "Fanzone here."
"Still me."
"Ugh. Hold on." More keys. "Yo. Fanzone."
"Still me, captain."
He then pressed onto more keys, and the phone screeched. "Hello!"
"Still me."
Fanzone pressed the keys madly and banged on the phone. "This is why I hate machines!"
"No need to be such a technophobe captain," said Prowl, and Fanzone looked up and saw the Autobots standing behind him.
"A technophobe is one who fears machines. Does this look LIKE FEAR TO YOU?" Fanzone corrected as he slammed the phone onto the ground.
"My mistake," Prowl muttered.
"Any news on Sari?" Optimus asked.
"Sumdac says she spent the day with you guys yesterday. Anything outta the ordinary happen?" Fanzone said.
"No, just the usual stuff, hanging out, teaching her ninja's nerve blows, watching cartoons," said Bulkhead.
"Wait a sec! Back up! What was that?" Fanzone asked.
"Watching cartoons?"
"No before that," said Fanzone.
"Ninja's nerve blows," said Bulkhead.
"You were teaching an eight-year-old to do nerve blows?" Fanzone asked.
"You'd rather she pick it up on the streets?" Ratchet asked.
"This part of every protoform elemental programming," said Prowl.
"Say what?" Fanzone said.
"After all, it's not like we're having her fight Decepticons," said Bulkhead.
"Yet!" Prowl finished.
"Has it occurred to you that hanging out with Autobots is kinda, I don't know, dangerous for a little girl?" Fanzone shrugged.
"Define dangerous," Bulkhead said.
Just then, Optimus saw a figure shot past the security vid screen.
"Wait a sec! roll that back!" Optimus pointed at the screen.
"Sho thing doll face," the reception-bot said. The video rewound, and Optimus could make out the shadow.
"Is that one of the Dinobots?" Optimus asked.
"The robot dinosaurs impossible!" Ratchet said.
"We never did find out what happened to them after they escaped," said Optimus.
"You think we should tell them?" Bulkhead whispered to Prowl and Blackarachnia.
"What? That we took the Dinobots and moved them to an island in the middle of Lake Erie and never bothered to mention it to anyone?" said Prowl.
"Better he finds out now than later," said Blackarachnia.
"Sari could be in trouble," said Bulkhead.
"This is my responsibility. I'll go to Dinobots Island and help Sari," said Prowl.
"Oh no, I'm going with you," said Bulkhead.
"As am I," Blackarachnia added.
"Fine, we'll head to Dinobots island after dark." Prowl said, but unknown to him, Fanzone had been watching their secret conversation.
"Uh, no signs of anything in the room, captain," a police officer said to Fanzone.
"That's okay," Fanzone replied, "I've got a lead. And I'm gonna follow this one on my own."
At the dock, Blackarachnia, Prowl and Bulkhead had boarded the ship and Prowl sliced through the chain with his shuriken. They then began floating towards the island, unaware that Fanzone was following them in a mini-submarine.
"I don't know what you guys are up to, but I'm sure gonna find out," Fanzone monitored, looking at the three of them through his periscope. Bulkhead's gaze started to wander his way. "Uh oh. down periscope." Fanzone pulled a switch. A small red light started flashing. Fanzone looked in horror at the words "Hatch Open" on the screen. Water started seeping in through the ceiling as the hatch slid open.
"This is why I hate machi—blubl blurb blub!"
By daylight, the ship arrived on the island and began to explore the island.
"I don't understand why the Dinobots would abduct Sari. They've only ever wanted to be left in peace," said Prowl.
"They do have a funny way of showing it, though, mean they were destroying every single vehicle in Detroit," Blackarachnia pointed out.
"When I get through with them, they'll be left in pieces!" Bulkhead cracked his claws.
"Now, let's not jump to conclusions," said Prowl and then noticed something on the ground. "Wait a second."
Prowl bent down and saw several tracks.
"Tracks?" Bulkhead asked.
"Yes, but not the Dinobots. There's someone else on this island," said Prowl.
"The mystery deepens," said Blackarachnia.
The minisub burst out of the water and landed on the beach, and it broke apart. Fanzone then began gasping for breath as a fish's tail slapped his chin. He pulled it out of his shirt and flicked it back into the water.
"We never should've let those Dinobots loose. What if someone finds them here?" said Bulkhead as Prowl deactivated the holo-projector and the canopy over the caldera disappeared.
"That doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment," Prowl stared down into the caldera. The Dinobots were nowhere to be seen.
"They're gone?" Bulkhead said.
They were unaware that they were being observed by none other than Meltdown.
"Our visitors seem lost," Meltdown sneered. He turned away from the screen to the Dinobots. "Perhaps, we should give them a hand."
Bulkhead wasn't too pleased with the situation.
"No Sari and no Dinobots? We should've let Sumdac melt them down like he wanted to!" said Bulkhead stomping his foot.
"No! They were more than mindless machines. They had a spark, a life force. We had to save them," Prowl lectured.
"So who's going to save Sari?" Bulkhead asked.
"You have to admit Prowl the case against them is increasing," said Blackarachnia.
Fanzone was observing them from the tallgrass, began to follow them as they began to climb out of the caldera. Bulkhead then accidentally caused a log to roll down the hill right at Fanzone. Fanzone tried to move out of the way and stumbled down the hill.
At Meltdown's lab, Sari was currently trapped in a laser cage, but despite her situation, she was smiling.
"You guys are in big trouble now. I told you they'd come for me," Sari sneered.
"Just say the word, and I'll pummel em into scrap metal, boss," said Cyrus Rhodes.
"Not yet, Colossus Rhodes. I have other plans for our cybernetic friends, especially for the female," said Meltdown.
"Yeah, right. You guys might as well go ahead and get measured for your orange jumpsuits right now. Hope you like prison food," Sari laughed.
Rhodes looked at her and growled. Sari growled back. Rhodes did a louder growl, and Sari returned it. Rhodes activated his steroids and grew huge, then roared.
"Okay, you win," Sari peeped.
The three Autobots were making their way through the forest, trying to find any more clues.
"Watch it, quicksand," Prowl advised.
"Yeah, I see it. You'd have to be some kind of glitch head to get caught in that," Bulkhead said. Just then, they heard a splat.
"Help!" A voice yelled.
"That sounded like Captain Fanzone," Prowl gasped.
"Yeah! I do a really good impression of myself. SCREAMING FOR HELP!" Fanzone panicked.
"What are you doing in there?" Bulkhead asked.
"Sinking! Get me out!" Fanzone yelled.
Blackarachnia then fired some webbing at the tree on the other side of the quicksand. Fanzone grabbed the webbing and used it to inch his way out.
"Why are you following us?" Prowl asked.
"I'll ask the questions here. Starting with what are you three doing on an abandoned island research facility in the middle of Lake Erie?" Fanzone said.
"I believe it's time for me to greet our intruders personally," said Meltdown and walked out of the room. "Rhodes, make sure our guest remains comfortable."
"Ha, your friends are toast!" Rhodes laughed. "Whatcha gotta say for yourself now?"
"I've gotta go potty," said Sari.
"Again?"
"I'm a little girl; that's what I do."
Fanzone was now following the three Autobots through the forest, demanding answers.
"What's with the holographic trees? And what's this island gotta do with the Sumdac kid anyway? There's something that you're not telling me," said Fanzone.
"Can't think of anything," said Bulkhead, but then he came to a stop and pointed ahead of them. "Okay, maybe that."
Fanzone turned his head and gasped as the Dinobots were standing before them.
"Anyone wanna tell me what those things are doing here?" Fanzone gulped.
"Captain, remain still. Let me deal with the Dinobots; they trust me," Prowl assured him. "It's alright; it's me, Prowl, the one who brought you here."
"Intruders! Me Grimlock destroy!" Grimlock shouted.
Swoop jumped into the air and was about to attack at Prowl, but quickly Bulkhead pushed him out of the way.
"So much for trust!" said Bulkhead.
"B-but I-I don't understand," Prowl stuttered.
Then he heard Fanzone scream and saw Grimlock was about to use his fire breath. Bulkhead smacked Grimlock in the face with his wrecking ball arm before he could use his fire on Fanzone.
"Seems pretty straightforward to me!" Bulkhead yelled. Prowl swept Fanzone away and into the air before the triceratops bot fire breath could fry him. "The Dinobots kidnapped Sari, and now they're trying to destroy us!"
The stegosaurus then began swinging his tail at Blackarachnia, who quickly somersaulted out of the way. The brontosaurus then fired his fire breath at her; she was able to jump out of the way in time. "It's hard to argue with him."
"No, Grimlock! Stop! Why are you doing this?" Prowl asked before using his jump jets to avoid the triceratops' fire breath again.
"They're doing it because they're mean and dumb, and we shouldn't have never helped them escape!" Bulkhead yelled as he used his wrecking ball arm to force Grimlock into the triceratops bot. Then he pulled on the ground and caused it to collapse on the two Dinobots.
"You helped them escape?" Fanzone gasped.
"They were alive; we did what was right at the time," said Blackarachnia firing some webbing at the brontosaurus and then forcing it down upon the stegosaurus.
Swoop then struck Prowl in the back, causing him to drop Fanzone. Fanzone grabbed onto Prowl's leg. Swoop caught Prowl by the shoulders and lifted him in the air.
"Acid burns?" Prowl gasped when he saw the burns on Swoop's legs. "Is someone making you do this? Someone whose touch can melt armour plating?"
"Tell us where Sari is! NOW!" Bulkhead demanded, tossing a fallen tree trunk at Swoop coursing it to drop Prowl down from the air.
The triceratops bot managed to recover and charge towards, but Blackarachnia landed on his back and plunged her stingers into him, knocking him out cold. Prowl then transformed it is vehicle mode, and Fanzone grabbed him.
"Hang on!" Prowl yelled as they rode down a tree.
The moment they hit the ground, Bulkhead transformed into his vehicle mode, and Blackarachnia transformed into her beast mode, jumping on his back. Once Blackarachnia was on his back, Bulkhead drove off after Prowl.
"Destroy intruder!" Grimlock roared as he burst out from under the tree.
The Dinobots chased after them into a canyon. They kept on driving until they came to a dead-end forcing them to transform back to robot mode.
"We're trapped," Bulkhead observed.
"Such an excellent assessment," said Meltdown from the top of the cliff.
"Prometheus Black?" Fanzone gasped.
"The name is Meltdown!" Meltdown said.
"What do you have to do with this?" Fanzone asked.
"Everything. He was the one controlling the Dinobots and forced them to steal Sari! I saw the acid burns," Prowl explained.
"Ah, yes, the Dinobots have learned to respect my touch." Meltdown said.
"Me Grimlock sorry, him Meltdown hurt Dinobots," said Grimlock.
"Dinobots didn't want to hurt Prowl or his friends," said the brontosaurus.
"Me Swoop, didn't want to kidnap little human as well," said Swoop.
"They serve as effective, if overqualified, watchdogs," said Meltdown. "It was quite a challenge finding a hiding place with its own security. And just when I needed some privacy for some unique experiments."
"Tell us where Sari is! What have you done with her?" Bulkhead demanded, pulling out his wrecking ball.
"Oh yes, the little girl, my newest experimental subject," Meltdown sneered.
"You miserable—!" Bulkhead said, launched his wrecking ball at him.
Meltdown then laughed and fired a stream of acid. The acid hit Bulkhead in the shoulder, coursing him to howl in pain and collapse.
"Bulkhead!" everyone yelled, rushing to him.
However, before they could get anywhere close, a trap door activated and sent them plummeting into darkness.
"Sorry, I have other plans for you," Meltdown smiled.
"Prowl, Prowl, you okay?" Fanzone asked as Prowl began to regain consciousness.
"The fall… must have Jan my sensory circuits…Bulkhead! Where's Bulkhead?" Prowl asked.
"Still topside," said Fanzone. "They've got it in some kind of underground holding pen."
"It reminds me of the old gladiatorial arena in Kaon," said Blackarachnia as Prowl looked around at the coliseum-like room.
"We must find Sari and get her to Bulkhead," said Prowl. "That blast from Meltdown almost put him offline, and Sari's key is the only thing that might save him!"
"Yeah, but these walls are military-grade steel. And those lasers, well, you get the idea," Fanzone said, pointing at the only exit blocked off by a laser grid.
"I've already tried to climb my way up through the way we came in, but it sealed," said Blackarachnia.
"There must be a way out. We have to get to Bulkhead," said Prowl throwing a shuriken at the grid, but it sliced the star into pieces.
"I'm afraid you're friend will have to wait," a voice said, and they looked up and saw Meltdown on the balcony above the exit.
"Meltdown! Where is Sari? Why did you take her?" Prowl questioned.
"And what are you planning here?" Blackarachnia demanded.
"My goal is really quite simple, really. After our last encounter, I thought, if a machine can change form, why not a human?" Meltdown explained and then turned his eyes to Blackarachnia. "You could say that your idea quite the inspiration; you are living proof that it can be done. A machine able to transform into an organic…"
"Lemme get this straight. You wanna create a transforming human?" Fanzone accused.
"Exactly! A person who can change form at will. Though sadly, my more recent experiments have been somewhat less than successful. The one on the left is used to be my lawyer."
The two of them looked ahead ad saw three disfigured shadows appear behind the laser grid. They stepped into the light. The one left various aquatic creatures, the middle one was more reptilian, and on the right, the first was a mixture between a bat and a wolf.
"But then, I realised my error… Adult test subjects. What I needed was a human who was still growing."
"Sari!" Prowl gasped.
"Who better than the daughter of my arch-nemesis? The bane of my existence… the simpering fool who is unworthy to lick the mud off the heels of my platform shoes—booga-looga-looga-looz—" said Meltdown as he did a small dance. "Professor ISAAC SUMDAC? Poetic, no?"
"Poeti is not exactly the word that comes to mind. You are one seriously twisted fruit cake!" Fanzone said, clenching his fist.
"Flattery gets you nowhere, captain," said Meltdown.
"That is the sickest and grotesque test thing I have ever heard," Blackarachnia snarled. "And you dare call yourself a scientist!"
"I am quite disappointed that you think of me that way, my dear," said Meltdown as he deactivated the grid. "In a few moments, I'll administer a formula that that will turn young Sari into a shape-changing wonder or if things go wrong into one of them."
He walked away and left his mutants, Fanzone, Blackarachnia, and Prowl, alone.
"Get back here, you sicko! This is cruel and unusual punishment, you hear me!" Fanzone said, shaking his fist
"At least we're able to defend ourselves," said Prowl. "I shudder to think of what horrors Sari is going through right now."
Sari was currently in the toilet and had been in there for quite some time, much to Rhodes' annoyance.
"This is torture!" Rhodes banged on the door. "How many times does a stupid kid need to go to the bathroom?! What are ya doing in there?!"
"Trust me, you don't wanna know," said Sari as she searched the toilet for some way of escape. She then noticed a key slot on the toilet. She opened the door. "Hey, can you come in for a sec? there's something wrong with the toilet."
"Did you try jiggling the handle?" Rhodes asked as he walked in and leaned over the toilet. Sari pushed her key into the slot. Rhodes then pulled on the handle and then ended up getting a face full of toilet water as it gushed out like a geyser.
Prowl, Blackarachnia and Fanzone found themselves completely surrounded by Meltdown's freaks
"Hey, wait a sec, there's nothing in—YAH!" The toilet shot out huge amounts of water in Rhodes' face.
"Dibs on leftie, I hate lawyers," said Fanzone looking at the bat- freak. Prowl then jumped and kicked the shark-freak in the face, and Blackarachnia punched the reptilian freak. "This is for Sari!" Fanzone punched the bat-freak in the jaw.
"You little punk!" Rhodes yelled.
He lunged at Sari, but she tripped him. He fell with a thud, and Sari ran out the door and shut it. Rhodes tried to use the steroid pods, but they wouldn't work.
"Hey! You shorted out my electro-thingies! I can't bulk up!"
Sari locked the door and ran away.
The bat-freak had managed to overpower Fanzone. Prowl used the wheels on his knees and managed to take down the shark monster. He then used his wheels to drive alongside the wall to Fanezone's aid and quickly took out the bat freak.
Blackarachnia dodged the sharp claws from the reptilian beast, and she quickly somersaulted, putting some distance between her and it. She then fired some webbing wrapped around the beast and then spun around before releasing it into the shark monster.
However, all three mutants began to recover and advanced towards backing them towards the laser grid, but then the lasers deactivated.
"Hey? How did that happen?" Fanzone asked.
"Sari," Blackarachnia smiled.
It had, in fact, been Sari who had inserted her key into the circuit board deactivating the laser grid.
"Hold on! And kick your legs out!" said Prowl grabbing Fanzone's arms and spinning him around.
Fanzone kicked at the mutants and knocked them out. Prow then transformed and drove off with Fanzone on his back, and Blackarachnia transformed in her beast mode and ran after them.
"Hey, guys! Over here!" Sari jumped up.
"Sari!" Fanzone yelled.
"You're alright!" said Prowl surprised.
They then came to a stop, and both Prowl and Blackarachnia transformed into their robot modes.
"You know Prowl. I won't always be there to protect you."
Prowl smiled and then remembered Bulkhead. "Sari, Bulkhead is down. He needs your key."
"This way, it's the way they brought me in," said Sari leading them through the corridor.
Fanzone came to a stop when he saw a number of Meltdown's suits on a hanger and then took one. "Protective suit. Could come in handy."
"There! The exit!" Sari exclaimed.
A blast door started to lower Blackarachnia fired some webbing at the door to slow it down, and Prowl activated his jump-jets, grabbed Fanzone and Sari, and flew out. Blackarachnia slid from under the door just before it closed. Prowl looked around and saw Bulkhead still lying on the ground.
"Bulkhead! He's barely online," said Prowl as he approached him and then turned to Sari. "Sari, the key."
Sari quickly climbed onto Bulkhead's chest and inserted her key into his slot. The hole on Bulkhead's shoulder was starting to disappear as the metal coved it up.
"Sari? You're okay. I found you. How'd I do that?" said Bulkhead confused.
"You're the best," Sari giggled.
"How touching!" said a voice, and they looked around and saw Meltdown with the Dinobots right behind him. "I do love happy ending. It melts the heart. Along with other body parts!" Sari then jumped up and kicked at him but missed and landed right behind him. "And what was that supposed to be?" Prowl then kicked him in the face when he wasn't looking and knocked him to the ground.
"Duh, it's called a distraction," Sari said, grinning. Fanzone then jumped on Meltdown and wrapped him in the suit.
"Guh! Dinobots! Attack!" Meltdown ordered. The Dinobots started to move forward.
"Wait!" said Prowl. "You don't have to do what he says anymore! Look at him. He has no power now. He cannot hurt you."
"Meltdown not hurt Dinobots. Dinobots hurt Meltdown," said Grimlock.
Then the Dinobots started to transform into robotic giants, and each one of them was holding a different weapon. Grimlock wielded a sword, Swoop wielded a mace, the triceratops a bludgeon, the stegosaurus a battleaxe and the brontosaurus a massive hammer.
"What?" Fanzone gasped.
"Woah!" Sari gasped.
"Uhh, they couldn't do that before, right?" Bulkhead asked in shock.
"Clearly, they've learned a few tricks since last we met," said Blackarachnia.
"No! no! stop! Keep them away from me!" Meltdown pleaded.
"Your choice, Meltdown. Prison? Or do we leave you to your pets?" Prowl asked as the Dinobots approached.
"Getaway! Getaway! Away! AWAY!" Meltdown pleaded.
Then the blast door was ripped down by Rhodes, who had grown into his Colossus alter-ego with the freaks standing behind him. The Dinobots' turned and ignited their skeletal weapons. The Dinobots walked over to the four, who backed away in fear.
Seconds later, there was a huge explosion.
It was now late in the afternoon, and everyone was on the boat sailing back to the mainland.
"Yup, got 'em both, Mr Sumdac, and we found Sari too, so don't you—gah!" Fanzone shrieked when the phone sparked in his ear. He accidentally threw the phone off the boat and into the water. "Yeah! Uh, I'll call you later!"
"So now that Sari and Fanzone know, you think we should tell Prime about the Dinobots?" Bulkhead asked.
"Perhaps, but what will become of them?" Prowl asked.
"As long as they stay out of my city, I don't have a problem with them," Fanzone winked.
"Thank you. And thanks for your help on the island," said Prowl.
"Yeah, you know we make a pretty good team. You're not a bad guy to have your back for a machine," said Fanzone.
"You're not so bad yourself for a human," said Prowl.
"Hey, guys! I've definitely got it this time!" Sari cheered. She jumped up and kicked Bulkhead in the knee. Bulkhead waited for a second and clenched his knee, and he bounced on one leg and accidentally fell down an open shaft.
"I'm good!" he proclaimed.
"I still ain't so sure about teaching ninja moves to eight-year-olds," Fanzone crossed his arms.
"Perhaps you're right," Prowl agreed. "It seems Sari is capable of taking care of herself. In her own unique way."
"That's what I told you in the first place," said Blackarachnia.
"And you were right." Prowl nodded. "Maybe you should put some more consideration to your organic. Denying that part of yourself is only going to hold you back."
Blackarachnia towards the sun. "I admit it comes in handy from time to time, but I'm still not sure whether I'm myself. I know it sounds strange."
"It's not strange at all, but have you considered that perhaps your caterpillar waiting to become a butterfly?" Prowl asked.
"I doubt my brother would see it that way; he remains convinced that I'm infected. I guess we'll just have to wait to see what the future holds before I can make that determination, but I will consider what you said."
"Good enough."