"Okay, bring him in gently. Don't drop him! That's it, right on the berth."
Techhound was directing Scrapper to put the damaged Dinobot on his berth. When he was placed down, I was able to get a better look at him. He was like no Autobot I've ever seen!
He was the only one that I had ever seen that could fly. He almost looked like a Pteradon. I could tell that he wasn't in his alt mode when he crashed, as it probably would have hurt him too much to transform. His wings and body were covered in ashes and burn marks. He was still alive, but he looked a little weak.
"Okay, Wreck-Gar." Techhound said. "I need a circuitry bed."
"A what…?" Grandus asked.
"One circuitry pad!" Wreck-Gar said, giving Techhound what she actually meant. We both knew Wreck-Gar's collection logic: you have to say what you don't want to get what you do.
"Thanks." Techhound said, as she did something I've never seen her do: she unfurled her fingers, and yellow electricity shot through them!
"Wuh—buh—How did you do that?" I asked, completely shocked.
"I learned how to do it when you were still sleeping." She said, not looking up from tending the biggest scratch on the Dinobot, by placing the electricity-charged hand on it, then placing the circuitry pad on that. "It's some sort of EMP generator or something."
The jolt of the EMP must have done something, because ever so slowly, the Dinobot opened his eyes up. He tried moving up, only to cringe and lie back down.
"Don't move around much." Techhound warned. "You'll need to heal for the rest of the night."
"Who are ya?" Flareup asked, only to point at his throat and mouth something.
"You can't speak?" Techhound asked, as the Dinobot shook his head. "Well, let's just see what we can do about that."
Techhound unfurled both hands this time, and put a very gentle pulse through, then started to gently massage the Dinobot's neck. Every so often, I could hear a static-laced noise, and it would get clearer and clearer as Techhound tweaked it. Finally, Techhound stepped back, and waited.
"Me…Swoop."
It seemed as soon as Swoop gained a voice, he gained a new personality. He cheered up fast, despite his injuries, and started chatting away. He told about Dinobot Island, and about his brothers. He also apologized to Scrapper for the way he treated him when he was deserted (not sure what that meant, but it had something to do about being bossed around by a "Grimlock"). Eventually, Techhound asked the question we were all wondering about.
"Swoop, how did you get these injuries? They don't look like they could naturally appear."
"Bad plane-bot attacked Swoop." Swoop said. "Flew higher than Swoop. Plane-bot was a big coward. Sounded sorry for doing this."
"I…don't know what that means…" Techhound said. "Sorry."
Since no one else could figure out what was going on, we all decided to call it a night. After all, we had somewhere to go.
The next morning, we were sailing straight ahead on Lake Erie towards Dinobot Island. Sari had managed (with the help of her dad) to rent a boat, and got it sailing towards the island, which had shrunk since the last time I saw it on TV. Finally, when we made it to the island, we let Swoop and Scrapper do the leading to find the other two Dinobots. Every so often, I could hear an odd rustling around us, but I tried to ignore it. Finally, Swoop pointed out a cave, and led us in.
"Swoop found Dinobots! He happily said, as the one that looked like the Tyrannosaurus Rex looked away, and the one that looked like a Triceratops happily hugged on to Scrapper, as if he hadn't seen him in forever.
We eventually managed to find out about the other two Dinobots. The T-Rex was Grimlock, and he was considered the leader, because he was the only one that could talk and he said so (he got pretty mad when Swoop showed out his newfound ability). The Triceratops was Snarl. Turned out, he was like a pet to Scrapper at one point. He had gotten stuck on the island during an explosion, and found a friend in Snarl. We explained the idea of the plan to them as Techhound helped Snarl find a voice.
"So, what do ya think?" Flareup asked them. "Will ya help us?"
"Me Grimlock say—" He started, only for Swoop to cut in.
"Yes!" Swoop happily said, and then smugly glared at Grimlock.
"I…guess that settles it." Flareup said, as she stood up, and we all walked out of the cave.
Suddenly, a purple blur leaped out in front of us! When it stopped, I could see what it was, and I soon wish I hadn't. It was a Decepticon!
However, there seemed something a little…off with him. He was a purple and black jet-based Decepticon, but what was on him was the most terrifying. He had a metal shackle around his neck, with a chain attached to it. He was trembling like mad. In fact, he looked terrified!
"You!" Swoop said, as he pulled out his flail. "You plane-bot! You hurt Swoop!"
"'Dat was him?" Scrapper said, surprised. "A clone of 'dat double-crossin' Starscream?"
"Who care's about that?" The clone screeched out in terror, frantically waving his arms around. "I'm trying to say that you gotta get out of here! You're in danger!"
"Why should we believe ya, ya little backstabber?" Mixmaster retorted.
Suddenly, there was a loud thumping noise, and the clone quickly hid behind us. Remember how I said I wish I didn't see the clone? Forget that, I REALLY wish I didn't see what came up towards us!
They were two of the most terrifying and revolting things EVER. One of them looked like a sickly mutated man-bat, with various stitches of fur, a drooling mouth of teeth, and wings of different sizes. The second looked like a mix of a shark, an octopus, a crab, and a man. Barnacles were on him every so often, as his gills sucked in air menacingly.
"We're all gonna die, aren't we?" Rattletrap asked.
"S-shut up, Rattletrap." Flareup said, but I could tell from her tone of voice that she didn't even know. We were truly doomed.