As the Autobot raiding party begins there trek to the Decepticon headquarters the real Cliffjumper is on the receiving end of Astrotrain's fists.
"Hughh! Arghh!"
"Astrotrain do not toy with him kill him quickly." Megatron commands.
"Alright. Your lucky Autobot your death won't be as painful as I had in mind." Astrotrain says with a sigh of disappointment.
"Shut your vocalizer you useless piece of scrap!" Cliffjumper barks.
Just then the base rocks about after a loud explosion.
"Megatron Autobots have made their way inside the base." Starscream informs Megatron.
"Bring the Autobot to me! The rest of you scramble and attack!" Megatron quickly says.
Outside the base the Autobots fight off the ill-prepared Decepticons with ease.
"Brawn Mirage I want you to retrieve Cliffjumper and get backout here quickly."
"You got it." Mirage cooly says.
"Alright time to crush some decepticans!" Brawn exclaims.
Quickly rushing into the gapping hole Brawn and Mirage are fired upon by Soundwave a Starscream. The two mechs dodge the blasts by diving behind a conjoining wall.
"Your comrade is our hostage now!" Starscream gloats.
Brawn charges directly at Starscream during the recoil of the seeker's weapon. Brawn jumps up and plants both feet on Starscream's face until his head contacts the ground. Mirage quickly shoots Soundwave down, and they dash towards the Autobot signal. As they quickly proceed to their friend's aid Megatron fires two shots at the Autobots.
"Make another move and your comrade will be nothing more than a fleeting memory!"
Warrior and Spy remain motionless. Just then another explosion rocks the base and Brawn takes the few seconds to bring Megatron to the ground freeing Cliffjumper. Mirage attempts to pick up the wounded mech, but Cliffjumper snarls,
"No thanks I can still transform." Cliffjumper transforms but not very smoothly.
All three mechs retreat back to the battleground, and Prime orders his troops to fall back.
"Decepticons allow them to withdraw. The energy needle has been installed and activated. Bombshell deactivate the drone!"
The Autobots rush their wounded friend back to headquarters, and receive a communique that the duplicate Cliffjumper was deactivated. Upon returning to the Ark the Autobots are met up with by Prowl.
"Prime energy needle active. Energy levels low." Prowl informs Prime.
"Where!" Prime questions as Cliffjumper exits the leader's trailer.
Prime quickly transforms, and notices Cliffjumper struggling to catch up.
"Cliffjumper can you transformer back to your robot mode?" Prime inquires.
"I'm pretty sure I can." Cliffjumper does so but in visibly great pain.
"Get hm to the medbay now!" Optimus commands.
The other Autobots meet up with Wheeljack, Prowl, and Perceptor.
"Report Preceptor." Prime says with exasperation in his vocalizer.
"Well the energy needle has been artificially fused into our main power core, world energy component, emergency power, and recharge chambers. It is infeasible to remove the device without destroying at least three of these critical systems, and if the device is removed and a least one of the coupled systems is effective it will trigger an explosion of the compressed Energon."
"Prime I have an idea." Wheeljack interjects.
"Go ahead"
"The Law of Conservation of Energy. The energy has to go somewhere; so why don't we connect extraction devices to the conjoined systems and allow the cascade effect to transmit its energy to some pre-prepared energon cubes. We could erect a low level force field around the energy collectors to protect us from any energy surges." Wheeljack suggests.
"How would we get info energy for the force field?" Preceptor asks.
"Trailbreaker!" Prime quickly responds."Wheeljack, Prowl, Perceptor get started on the energon cubes and the transmission couplings."
Prime quickly walks to a comm panel and activates the ship wide communication frequency.
"Trailbreaker report to Level 3 subsection 2 immediately."
Several astrominutes pass, and the Autobots are ready for Wheeljack's idea. Prowl severs the connections, the couplings are attached, the force field activated, and the prepared energon cubes filled.
"YES! Wahooo! Alright!" The Autobots yell.
"Excellent idea Wheeljack." Prowl compliments while patting the engineer on the shoulder.
A new earth day comes about and the Autobots all reactivate after a long and much needed recharge. Ironhide and Blaster stroll to the medbay to check up on Cliffjumper.
"Hey buddy how's it shakin'?" Blaster asks.
"Good to see ya functional again Cliffy." Ironhide adds.
"I'm glad to be back. Although I'd rather be kicking some Decepticon butt than being held here for observation." Cliffjumper says with a bit of frustration.
"Hey. You'll rest until those three blaster wounds heal up at least to the point that you can walk a few meters." Ratchet quips.
The Autobots come to see Cliffjumper later during the day group by group. By the end of the second day Cliffjumper "returns" to active duty.
"Man! I'm glad to be back." Cliffjumper says.