"Sorry you didn't make the soccer team, Cody," Jackie said as she and Abby gave him a ride back to the firehouse.
"It's okay," Cody said as he looked down.
"Wanna drive Abby?" Jackie pulled back on her horse's reins.
"Sure."
Jackie helped him dismount. She put her helmet on his head. "Safety first. Okay, put your left foot in the left stirrup and swing yourself into the saddle—oh! —hold the reins first! I almost forgot!"
Cody was now in the saddle. "So, how do I make her go?"
"The reins are your steering wheel and breaks. Pull left to go left, right to go right, back to stop, and more back to go back. Your posture is key to speed. Now give her a little kick with your heels and you're off."
Cody gave Abby a kick and she shot off. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"Heels down! Pull the reins!"
Xxx
"And that's the last air filter," Graham said. "Thanks for the help, guys."
"Happier to be done," Heatwave said.
K-9 ran into the garage and opened one of the doors.
"What are you—what the?!"
Cody screamed when Abby threw him. Luckily, Kade caught him.
"You okay?" Kade asked.
"Yep."
"How did tryouts go?" Graham asked.
Cody looked down. "I didn't make the team."
"I'm sorry, what?" Kade asked.
"I-I didn't make the team."
"Oh. I'm sorry, Bud. Th-that's too bad," Graham said.
"No, no, no, no, no 'too bad'. He just ruined our family legacy," Kade said before pointed at some trophies. "Look at these trophies—Dad, me, even Graham. We had to build a whole shelf for Dani. Every Burns is a soccer star."
"Wait, is soccer the one where they run back and forth across the same patch of grass?" Heatwave asked.
"I think it's called 'football', Boulder said.
"Both are correct," Jackie said as she tossed Kade the ball and grabbed her horse's lead.
"Cody, don't worry. You're good at lots of other things," Graham said.
"But nothing that counts," Cody said.
"When he's right, he's right," Kade said.
Graham elbowed him and Jackie threw her extra socks at him.
"There's always next year. You got tons of time to practice," K-9 said.
Chief Burns came on the communication vid-screen. "I want the whole team at the Griffin Rock Fun Zone, now!"
"Why, Dad? Need more tokens?" Kade asked.
"Nope, but I could use a mechanical-bull spotter!"
They heard a bull growling.
"Cody, take note," Jackie mounted Abby. "And give me my helmet."
Xxx
"I believe it has spotted us, sir," Chase said.
The bull charged and Chase grabbed it by the horns. The bull was not backing down and threw Chase.
"Holy— "
Chroma and Ally came just in time and got Chief into the side car.
The bull totaled a red car before running off.
Xxx
The twins were on their way with First Aid when the bull ran by them.
"Follow that steer!" T.J. said.
"It's supposed to be a bull," Raychel said.
"But, it doesn't have—oh!"
The bull hit Heatwave, knocking him into a fire hydrant, breaking it.
The twins helped Kade out and First Aid checked Heatwave for side-lining injuries.
Xxx
Jackie was getting her lasso ready as she, Abby and K-9 followed the sound of the song the bull was playing.
"Whoa!" Jackie pulled on the reins when the bull came dragging Blades.
Dani and Blades released the bull before it crashed through a red building.
"I hope the owners are insured," K-9 said.
"Hm. Red," Jackie looked at her red jacket and at K-9. "Have you been practicing your transmetal mode?"
"Yes. Why?"
Jackie took off her jacket and put it on K-9.
"Make it count."
Xxx
Chief and Chase saw the bull enter an ally, followed by Jackie and Abby. When they got in, Jackie was trying to calm it with her agsaber.
"The bull has artificial intelligence. Maybe we can talk it down," Chief said.
"I will attempt to reason with it," Chase walked to the bull. "Halt." Chase got the bull's attention. "This area is not zoned for livestock… or mechanical-stock."
Jackie walked to the bull's side and patted its neck. "Blue." She put a halter on it.
The bull lied down.
"Ah. I see we share a respect for civil coding," Chase said.
Ally and Chroma showed up.
"Ally, can you please get my jacket off K-9 and put it in my saddle bag?" Jackie asked.
"Sure."
The others showed up.
"Don't worry. The muscle's here," Heatwave said.
"Huh, boy!" Jackie said as the bull stood up. "Heatwave, get outta the bull's sight!"
The bull got up and snorted fire and charged Heatwave.
"Heatwave, hold on!" Boulder shouted.
"Do I have a choice?!" Heatwave held the bull's horns. "I never liked bullies!"
"This will either tickle you or kill you!" Jackie said as she moved to press a button on her agsaber.
"Wait, wha—GYAH-HA-HA-HA!" Heatwave and the bull fell and twitched.
Boulder pulled out some wires from the bull.
"Looks like the tech's in sleep mode," Graham said.
"Is Heatwave dead?" Kade asked.
"What was in that agsaber?!" Chief asked.
"I didn't know what to set for a rouge robots bull stun, so I chose 'bull elephant in rut'," Jackie said. "Lindsy and Emerald are en route with a livestock trailer. We're gonna need a flatbed for Heatwave."
Xxx
Cody and Jackie were the first two to arrive at Doc Greene's lab.
"We're gonna need room in B.L.F.," Jackie said.
"Doc, the bots are bringing you— "
"Don't tell me! I-is it a space-time continuum rupturing toaster?" Doc asked.
"Why would you guess that?" Jackie asked.
Emerald unhitched her trailer and helped Boulder get the mechanical bull out.
"That was my next guess," Doc said.
"Again, why?" Jackie asked.
"I'm afraid this is too big and dangerous for B.L.F. It belongs on the Island of Misfit Tech," Doc said.
The three eldest Burns kids were surprised the legend existed.
"Oh, dear. I seem to have spilled a top secret. Hold on while I get my memory-erasing earmuffs."
"It's okay, Doc," Heatwave said, "the team will keep the secret."
"What's the big deal about another island anyway?" Chroma asked.
"It's where Griffin Rock puts its most hazardous experiments. It's located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, completely impossible to find," Doc said.
"How can we send tech there?" Cody asked.
"I think there's a groundbridge behind the false wall," Jackie pointed at the 'rock face'.
"There's nothing there," Kade said.
"You can't see the lines?"
"Jackie's correct, it is a false wall, but there is no groundbridge. Follow me," Doc said.
The team walked through the hologram and entered another building.
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the Beam Box," Doc gestured to a large bottle like object, blue with and orange door. "It has a scientific name, but mine's quite catchy, don't you think?" he pressed a button on the control panel and opened the doors. "Teleportation through this is the only way to the island."
"Since you can barely control teleportation in your own devices, I'm guessing this was made a few decades ago," First Aid said.
"Hey, that's kind of rude," Heatwave said. ("But also, true.")
"It's true. In fact, I have no idea who made it or how it works. Luckily, my predecessors left this instruction manual!" Doc held up a large old, red, dusty book.
"Oh, yeah. Sounds totally safe," Kade sarcastically said.
"Please don't jack this up," Jackie said.
"That's it!" Heatwave said as the bots dropped the bull. "This thing's failed technology! Just destroy it!"
"Maybe they might need to salvage parts from the devices for later use," First Aid put a hand on Heatwave's shoulder.
"A failure in one category may be a success in another," Doc said. "For example, nobody thought mold on an orange was useful until one scientist discovered it was medicine."
"Speaking of which, you might have to put that orange in the compost," K-9 covered his nose.
"This device"—Doc pulled out some kind of mini-lightsaber-scythe— "is horrible for trimming nose hair, but is excellent on plants. That's why we put a recall tag on everything we send there."
"Like an attic or a basement?" Jackie asked.
"That's one way to look at it."
"Bringing back that bull is about as unlikely as the soccer team changing its mind about Cody," Kade said.
"Oh, you—you didn't make the team?" Dani put a hand on Cody's shoulder.
"Why didn't you tell me, son?" Chief asked.
"Because he's humiliated! Come on, guys, show a little sensitivity," Kade crossed his armed before getting another jab in the ribs by Graham.
"Cody, it's all right, soccer's not the only sport out there," Chief said.
"It's the only one that matters," Cody said.
Doc put the recall tag on the bull's head and it started to power up.
"Should those optics be glowing?" Chase asked as Chroma grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Hmm. It appears one of the bull's internal systems is activating," Doc said.
"I'm on it!" Heatwave went in front of the bull.
"A-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh!" Jackie waved her hands, but it was too late.
The bull saw Heatwave's red armor and went berserk. It charged him, but First Aid pushed him out of the way, getting a horn in the side.
First Aid screamed as the bull ripped its horn out, with a spray of energon.
The bots shielded the humans and Jackie activated her wings and covered Cody.
"First Aid!" Heatwave put his hands on the medic's injury.
First Aid was whimpering as he held onto Heatwave.
The energon in the bull's optics irritated it, but also calmed it down.
"What does that bull have against me?!" Heatwave exclaimed.
"It's your paint job," Jackie calmly said as she put a harness on the bull and began to clean the energon from its optics. "Someone didn't tell whoever programmed this guy that Mythbusters debunked the cape myth."
"H-Heatw-wave—I-I'm s-sorry!" First Aid said.
Heatwave picked First Aid up. "You need to save your strength. We're getting you into stasis. Blades, Chroma, you're with me! Chief, I'll be right back!"
"Take your time," Chief said.
The four bots ran out and headed to the tunnels.
"Cody, can you hold this?" Jackie handed him the lead rope once she was sure the bull was calm enough. "I'm going to get my jacket. It's a little cold in here."
"Uh, okay. He seems calmed down a bit," Cody took the rope and Jackie walked out.
The bull sniffed Cody and laid down.
"I'll get the Beam Box ready," Doc walked over to the panel.
Jackie walked back inside with her red jacket on. "Heatwave's pulled into the drive way. He looks pretty upset."
"That's understandable," Chief said. "Are you sure that you should be wearing your red jacket?"
"Relax, I think El Robo Toro is colorblind now," Jackie walked to the bull as Doc turned on the Beam Box.
The bull saw her red jacket and charged, taking Cody and Jackie into the Beam Box, teleporting them.
Xxx
Razor exited the ground bridge into the bunker.
"Thank goodness you're here!" Blades greeted. "First Aid is refusing to go into healing stasis and he's hurt pretty badly!"
"You said you could see his ribs?" Razor asked as they walked into the sick bay.
"Yeah, it's really gross."
"NO! LET ME DIE!" First Aid yelled.
"Calm down!" Chroma said as she tried to restrain him. "We're trying to help you!"
"I don't need it!"
"Hello, First Aid," Razor said. "Why are you refusing medical treatment?"
"I want to DIE!" First Aid started to sob. "I need to die. I have to die…"
"First Aid, why do you have to die?" Razor asked as she sat down next to him on the berth.
"I did something I regret as a medic, but not personally."
"Can you tell us?"
"No!"
Razor opened her medical case and pulled out a syringe filled with a light pink liquid. "I have a euthanasia syringe. If you tell us, I'll give this to you."
"What?!" Blades exclaimed.
"Razor, what are you doing?" Chroma asked.
First Aid thought for a minute before nodding 'yes'. "C-can you two tell Heatwave that I'll… you know?"
Blades nodded as he and Chroma went to the command center.
"What did you do?" Razor asked.
"I slipped a plant that causes miscarriages in livestock in Heatwave's energon when I found out he was carrying. I crushed it up so it would be so tiny he wouldn't see it. I did it for five days. I don't regret it at all," First Aid said.
"Okay, give me your arm," Razor said.
Blade and Chroma walked back in, looking as if they were about to cry, as Razor injected First Aid.
"What did you tell him?" First Aid asked.
"Th-that your injuries were—were—" Blades began sobbing hysterically.
"Heatwave turned off his commlink," Chroma said as she started to cry.
Razor laid First Aid down on the berth. "Do you need any comfort?"
"Yes!" Blades sobbed.
"I was talking to First Aid."
"If it will make the others okay," First Aid said.
Blades and Chroma were holding First Aid's hands while Razor kept track of his pulse.
First Aid lost consciousness.
"Okay, let's get him into a stasis pod," Razor said as she patched First Aid up.
"B-but he died!" Blades exclaimed.
Razor pointed at a sticker on the now empty syringe. "First Aid can't tell the difference between dark blues and greens. The fluid I gave him was a sedative and looks like euthanasia. I put blue stickers on euthanasia, First Aid's was green."
"He's just asleep?!" Chroma exclaimed as Blades fainted.
Xxx
Cody and Jackie freed themselves from the bull and it ran off with Cody's jacket.
"There goes our communication," Jackie said.
"Come back!" Cody shouted.
Jackie put a hand his shoulder. "He's a free cow now. Whoa, mama! What's that?!" Jackie pointed at a large yellow robot crab?
"Scrapmaster data online," the machine said.
"Chance this thing will eat us?" Jackie asked.
"Refuse marked for destruction," the scrapmaster scanned them.
Jackie went T1, grabbed Cody, and flew to the different part of the island.
Xxx
Heatwave wiped the tears from his optics and walked into the building to see Doc explaining that he couldn't bring back Cody and Jackie because they didn't have recall tags.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Jackie messed up by putting on her red jacket," Lindsy said.
"The bull charged and took Cody and Jackie into the Beam Box," Ally said.
"The only way to get them back is to send someone else with a recall tag," Doc said.
"Then I'm going. I got a score to settle with that bully!" Heatwave pounded his fists.
"Are you certain, Heatwave? The bull may hurt you," Chase said.
"Did you not see what happened to First Aid?" K-9 asked.
"I know… h-he died," Heatwave said.
Everyone was shocked.
"B-but he didn't have his guts gored!" Kade said.
"He could've gone into shock," T.J. said.
"And that can be lethal," Raychel said.
"L-look, Heatwave, I'm going with you to keep you from making any mistakes," Kade said.
"No, just me," Heatwave said.
"Heatwave, transform so I can install a transmutate tracker so you can find Jackie and maybe Cody faster," Lindsy said.
Heatwave went into his alt mode and Lindsy uploaded the program.
"Remember, kids first, bullfight later," Emerald said as Heatwave went back into robot mode.
Doc put the recall tag on Heatwave's arm. "I'll beam you and the kids in one minute from now," Doc said as Heatwave got into the Beam Box.
Xxx
"I'm going to inform Heatwave that—" Chroma gasped and backed up at the blaster pointed at her spark chamber.
"Well, well, well! Look who we have here!" Rotors said with his hands behind his back. "First Aid's bodyguard, the sister of a Decepticon, and a flier with a fear of flying."
Blades yelped and put up his hands.
Rotors walked over to the stasis pods and put a hand on First Aid's stasis pod. "Get him out."
Blades shook his head.
Rotors began to motion with his other hand, but Chroma tried to shoot him. One of Rotors' mechs grabbed her blaster arm and Razor was shot in the shoulder.
"One down," Rotors held up a digit on one hand, "Two to go. Give him to me!"
"Don—AAHH!" Chroma fell after being stabbed in the back with a katana like sword.
"Well?"
Blades shakily opened the stasis pod.
First Aid fell out and Rotors caught him and carried him out. "Take care of them," he said to a large hover.
The hover shot Blades and Razor before they all left.
"Blades, are you alive?" Razor asked.
"Y-yeah, my canopy's gone. Are you okay?"
"I can't move, can you?"
Blades grunted and dragged himself to her. "What do I do?"
"Contact Optimus Prime's team."
Xxx
Jackie and Cody landed.
"I think we're—whoa!" Jackie dodged a paint glob that hit Cody.
"Ew!" Cody said.
Jackie turned around. "Bad paint bot. Very, very bad!" she scolded the machine.
They then heard a buzzing and saw a hovering lumberjack bot.
"Why the fuck did they not turn off these motherfuckers?!" Jackie grabbed Cody's arm and ran.
Xxx
"Ratchet, do not worry, we will find First Aid," Optimus commed. "Focus on your patients."
"What are your orders?" Arcee asked.
"Bulkhead, go to Doctor Greene's lab to assist them. Arcee, you and I will search for signs of Rotors. Autobots, roll out!"
Xxx
Bulkhead pulled up to Doc's lab and saw the team getting a plan into action.
"Is everyone okay?" he asked.
"For the most part," Boulder said. "Why?"
"Rotors attacked Chroma, Blades, and Razor then botnapped First Aid! Optimus told me to help you guys."
"But, First Aid's—ugh! Don't tell me Rotor's a necro!" Kade exclaimed.
"No, he's sedated, making him vulnerable. Need me to do something?"
"Well, it'd help if you could scrap the scrapmaster," T.J. said.
"Preferably without destroying any of the other technology in there! It's highly sensitive!" Doc said.
"Got it!" Bulkhead activated his wrecking balls. "Wreck 'n' rule!" he yelled as he ran in and soon came the sound of Autobot vs. rogue machine.
The Wrecker walked out a few minutes later with the remains of the scrapmaster.
Xxx
"That worked out better than expected," Jackie said as she gave Cody back his jacket from the bull after she wiped off the paint from Cody with hers.
The bull approached them after trashing the lumberjack bot. The bull nuzzled them after seeing their blue paint.
"Good thing he likes blue," Jackie patted the bull's head. "Test your comm."
Cody got nothing but static. "I wonder what's going on."
Jackie noticed a dent in the bull's head.
"I'll be right back," she went to leave.
"I think it'd be better if we stay together," Cody said.
Xxx
The kids and the bull and paint machine walked through the forest, looking for what was jamming the comm.
Jackie stopped them. "You guys see the ship?"
"No," Cody said as the bull growled and stomped its hoof.
"Hide in the bushes," Jackie went dragon and broke into the ship. She walked through the ship until she heard talking.
"You are so sweet when you're asleep, First Aid," the voice said. "I'd bed you here and now, but I can't do that to you asleep."
A hover shoved a blaster in her face, but she bit his head off and scarfed him down. She found a control panel blocking transmission and broke it.
"Come on, First Aid, wakey, wakey," the voice said.
Jackie rammed the door down and saw Rotors petting First Aid's head.
"What the-?!" Rotors shot up and grabbed a knife but dropped it when he saw her breathe explosive gas into the room.
She backed him into a corner and slashed his T-cog, picked up First Aid with her mouth, got him out of the ship, and went back and ignited the room.
Xxx
"Looks like these security droids have been shot," Bulkhead said as he showed blaster marks to Kade.
"Yikes," Kade said.
"Hello, can anyone hear me?" Cody asked.
"Loud and clear," Heatwave said.
"Where are you?" Kade asked.
"Just out of some trees by a canyon," Cody said.
"I'm in some kind of dry gulch, but Jackie's nearby," Heatwave said.
"Jackie, shoot up some fire at 15 second intervals," Bulkhead said. "We'll meet there."
They saw a bright blue flame in the sky.
Xxx
"What in the AllSpark?!" Heatwave exclaimed as he was covered in blue paint.
"You'll thank us later," Cody said.
The bull saw the red beetle things that were attacking Heatwave and destroyed them. Heatwave crushed the last one.
Jackie helped them all to the other side of the gulch.
"This stuff washes—First Aid!" Heatwave grabbed the medic off Jackie's back and checked his pulse. He gave a sigh of relief. "Wh-what was he doing here?!"
Bulkhead showed up with Kade.
"Cody!" Kade hugged his brother. "You okay?"
"I am," Cody said.
Jackie growled as three hovers came from the other side with blasters cocked.
"Hand us the medic and no one gets hurt," the leader said.
Cody used the paint machine to shoot one of the hovers. Too bad the paint was yellow.
"No wonder you're here," Cody told the machine.
Bulkhead activated his blasters but the hovers aimed their blasters at First Aid's head. Bulkhead deactivated his blasters.
Heatwave held First Aid tightly.
The lead mech's blaster whined up, but something shot into the blaster a took out his arm.
They all looked at Cody, who had another baseball in his hand.
"Guys, run!" Bulkhead reactivated his weapons and charged.
They ran to where they arrived on the island.
"Jackie, keep lookout!" Heatwave ordered before focusing on First Aid. "Come on, come on!" he rubbed the medic's temple with his thumb. "Wake up!"
First Aid stirred and opened his optics. "I'm… alive? Either that, or we're all dead."
"No, but you had us worried."
"How the hell did you get here?" Kade asked.
"I-I—" First Aid gasped as he pushed Heatwave away and curled into a ball.
"Threat's neutralized," Bulkhead said as he walked back. "Okay, we all have to be in physical contact for all of us to be beamed back."
"N-no!" First Aid squeaked.
Jackie picked him up and tossed him onto her back, Bulkhead put the humans in his subspace, and Heatwave grabbed the bull and painter.
Xxx
Doc pressed the recall button on the control panel.
"Aw, man! We're stuck!" Heatwave said as the doors opened.
Chase took the bull and painter from him, and Boulder and Emerald tried pulling them out.
Optimus and Arcee walked into the building to assist and eventually Heatwave, Bulkhead, Jackie, and First Aid dog piled when they got out.
"Everyone okay?" Chief asked as Bulkhead got Kade and Cody out of his subspace.
"For the most part, but First Aid's scared out of his wits," Heatwave said.
"Let's get him back to the firehouse."
Jackie picked up the bull in her mouth and the painter in a claw.
"I think Jackie wants those two," Lindsy said.
"Dad, they helped save us and First Aid. If the bull never took me and Jackie, First Aid could've been really hurt," Cody said.
"Okay, but Jackie needs to keep an eye on them," Chief said.
Xxx
Blades and Chroma arrived back at the firehouse a few weeks after the incident.
"Chroma!" Chase picked her up as he hugged her. "I was so worried."
"Hmph! That's why you failed at protecting my son!" Ratchet said as he put his bag down.
"Uh, yeah, Ratchet's going to be staying here for a while," Blades said.
"Optimus personally assigned me to protect First Aid until Rotors is terminated," Chroma said as she looked down. "I failed to keep him safe."
"But, didn't Optimus Prime's team catch him?" Chase asked.
"No. He left that island," Ratchet said.
"But, they did capture a few of his bots," Blades said.
"And Razor found his CNA on Jackie's claws. She got him good," Chroma said.
Ratchet grumbled. "Okay, which room am I going to stay in?"