As the battle worn Autobots begin their re-charge cycles Cliffjumper exits his quarters, and begins to walk to the Ark's labs. He scans the area for certain components that Megatron has ordered him to locate. Before he can exit the laboratory Perceptor enters and is shocked to find Cliffjumper.
"What are you doing in here? You should be resting after sustaining such injuries." Perceptor questions.
"I.. I'm.. Uhh just looking around. Uh Cccouldn't fall into um recharge. Sorry." Cliffjumper stutters.
The red Porsche exits and Perceptor hesitantly proceeds to begin an experiment.
Several days pass, and several Autobots begin wondering why the Porsche has been acting so nervous and jittery.
"Aww it's probably just the after shock of bein' injured like that." Ironhide guesses.
"Maybe, but he's never acted this way after an injury before." Bluestreak interjects.
"Other than being a little on edge he's still the same Cliffjumper." Brawn adds.
The conversation in the mess area stops as Cliffjumper walks in, and grabs his daily serving of energon. Bumblebee approaches the table and tries to start a conversation with Cliffjumper.
"Hi. What's going on?" Bumblebee politely asks.
"Nothing much. Just trying to relax before the next duty shift starts." Cliffjumper plainly says.
"So, quite a battle the other day huh? I'm glad you got though it okay."
"Yeah me too."
Cliffjumper quickly finishes his energon and leaves the mess area, and returns to his quarters. Upon entering his quarters he uncovers variously stolen devices from the Ark's labs. Acting as a natural made scientist the clone quickly begins building an energy needle.
"Just two more parts to this thing." Cliffjumper thinks.
At a Northeastern Oregon energy facility several Decepticons begin a raid.
"Surrender this facility flesh creatures!" Megatron threatens.
One of the workers trips a silent alarm alerting the Autobots of their situation.
"Bluestreak, Ironhide, Jazz, Brawn, Cliffjumper report to the command center immediately."
In a few astroticks the Autobots report to the bridge, are informed of the situation, and transform and roll out.
Quickly arriving at the facility the Autobots transform and halt the Decepticons' progress.
"Autobots!" Starscream yells.
"Decepticons stand your ground and attack!" Megatron orders
Shots ring out and the Autobots return fire while trying to protect the humans and the facility. Soon after the battle starts Cliffjumper does everything possible to avoid the fight. As Starscream approaches him he whimpers like a petro-rabbit caught in a energon shackle.
"No wait don't shoot please!" Cliffjumper begs.
"Ironhide takes down Starscream and Cliffjumper transforms and speeds away from the fight.
"Prime we've gotta problem with Cliffjumper!" Ironhide informs Optimus.
Megatron takes advantage of Ironhide's distraction and shoots him down.
"Starscream, Thundercracker, Soundwave get the energon out of here and fall back!"
"Autobots retreat as well. Ironhide are you okay?" Prime asks.
"I'll be fine, but what's up with Cliffjumper?"
The real Cliffjumper begins pondering how he will get out of his cell. His wounds have healed somewhat with the help of his internal repair systems.
"Well at least I can stand now. Although now I need to find some way outta here. Commlink is burned out. Hmmm."
As the warrior mulls he hears footsteps coming near the cell.
"Open the cell!" Megatron commands.
Bombshell enters and proceeds to preform a scan on Cliffjumper. Without thinking Cliffjumper lunges directly at Bombshell's abdomen, knocking him to the floor. Cliffjumper quickly wrestles the Insecticon's gun out of his grip, rolls over him, and out of the cell. Cliffjumper is easily taken down by a blast from Megatron's fusion cannon.
"Run a complete scan on him. No doubt the Autobots know that they're Cliffjumper is not the real one."
"Ratchet when you repaired Cliffjumper did you run any scans on him?"
"I ran the basic work ups to assure there had been no serious damage to any of his vital systems." Ratchet explains.
"Run them again, and look for anything out of the ordinary."
The clone quickly returns to his quarters and proceeds to finish the energy needle.
"There. Now all that remains to be done is to hook it up to a strong enough power source to increase it's absorption ability."
Sneaking out of his quarters he makes his way to a primary control panel.
"I should be able to re-route the power to Teletran 1 and the recharge beds."
After implanting the device Cliffjumper returns to his quarters and signals the Decepticons that his task is finished.
At that moment Ratchet contacts Prime.
"Prime I need to see you in the medbay immediately." Ratchet says.
Prime soon arrives at the medical bay.
"What is it Ratchet? Did you find anything."
"Yep I found something alright. Cliffjumper isn't Cliffjumper. He's an almost exact copy all the way through. There's only one problem." Ratchet brings up Cliffjumper's normal wavelength pattern, and overlaps his present pattern. "Notice the slight variation in the wavelengths?"
"Yes, but was does that indicate?" Prime inquires.
"You see we're each created with a unique frequency, and Cliffjumper' has been altered by a new type of cerebro-shell. Normally I'd think it's the real Cliffjumper, but in this case he's not being directly controlled by Bombshell. This is essentially a shell with an incomplete copy of Cliffjumper's personality." Ratchet continues, " The injuries the real Cliffjumper sustained must have had an effect on the personality transfer."
"In other words Cliffjumper is a prisoner of Megatron."
"Optimus I just ran a diagnostic on Teletran 1's computer systems, and there's a large irregularity in the energy flow." Prowl informs Prime."
"Can you trace the source of the anomaly?"
"Yes, but it will take some time." Prowl says.
As Prime exits the medbay he activates the ship wide comm system.
"Autobots I need some volunteers to rescue Cliffjumper from the Decepticon's desert base!"
Prime proceeds to the bridge and sees Blaster, Brawn, Hound, Mirage, Bluestreak, and windcharger ready and waiting.
"What's your order Prime?" Brawn inquires.