After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish contact with Jazz, Silverbolt gave up and closed the static-filled communication channel. He needed to get down to the control room to find Jazz himself since Jazz may need help. But, as he formulated his plan, he caught a glimpse of Slingshot dashing toward the entrance to the base out of the corner of his optics, and the Aerialbot leader turned in surprise to see what the matter was.
Slingshot stopped short of the entrance to regard the large, closed blast doors. In a moment of disbelief, he walked up and put his hand on the metallic surface. A few seconds later, Silverbolt emerged around the rock outcropping and tensed when he saw the base closed off.
"What's going on? Why did they close the doors?" Slingshot asked Silverbolt, confused, as the Aerialbot leader ran toward him.
Seeing action, Air Raid quickly followed the other two and landed next to Silverbolt in time to hear Slingshot's question.
"I don't know," Silverbolt began, shaking his head. "Jazz said they were being attacked by Insecticons, and then the signal went dead."
"Then we have to get in there!" Slingshot concluded and stood back, quickly pulling his neutron rifle from its subspace pocket and taking aim at the doors. He cursed as several blasts deflected harmlessly off the blast doors, one barely missing Air Raid as he ducked out of its path. "Serves them right for holing up inside this wreck!" He feigned a frustrated kick before hammering his fist against the large blast doors. The rap sounded insignificant through the thick metal.
"You just need to pick the lock, Slingshot," Air Raid explained as he produced his own weapon and sighted up, aiming for the control panel at the side.
"No! Wait!" Silverbolt called out fervently.
Air Raid lowered his weapon and both Aerialbots looked at their team leader as if he was crazy.
"You mean you don't want us to break in and help the others?" Slingshot retorted.
"No," Silverbolt replied, and then blinked at the double meaning of his answer. "'No' is not what I mean. If you destroy the controls we'll never get in."
Slingshot was incredulous. "Who cares about the controls if it's locked?! We just need to get the door open!"
"Slingshot, we have to try," Silverbolt instructed his contemptuous charge. "Air Raid, see if you can find a way to get the door unlocked…without ruining the controls."
"Right away," Air Raid acknowledged and ran over to the control panel.
Slingshot crossed his arms and looked away. This was wasting time.
Air Raid furrowed his optic ridges as he made attempt after attempt to open the blast doors. Seeing that Air Raid was not having any success with the lock, Silverbolt approached to help. After many painfully long minutes, Air Raid finally turned to Silverbolt with desperation in his vocalizer. "It's no use. It must be locked from the inside."
Slingshot's patience was thinning. "How on Cybertron did Insecticons get past us?" Slingshot asked in frustration.
"They went underneath us," Silverbolt answered plainly. He radioed the other two Aerialbots out on air patrol and explained the situation to them, requesting their return to the base.
"Okay, so tell me why don't we form Superion and break the door down then?" Slingshot shot at Silverbolt.
Silverbolt was accustomed to Slingshot's challenges, but he was starting to push the limits of Silverbolt's patience with him. He paused to reflect on Jazz's request and considered their options. As he did, Skydive came in quickly from patrol and transformed into robot mode behind the three Aerialbots, followed closely by Fireflight.
"Because," Silverbolt reminded them, "you'll leave the base defenseless until the door gets fixed."
"That should be the least of our worries!" Air Raid sniped, not believing his own auditory receptors.
"What exactly happened, and what are we doing?" Skydive inquired as he approached the other three Aerialbots.
The others turned to face him.
"Well, let's see," Slingshot began in a mocking tone. "Insecticons burrowed underneath us into the base and are attacking the others as we speak, but our fearless leader here doesn't think we should blast the controls or break the door down to get-"
"Slingshot! I didn't say that!" Silverbolt snapped then quickly collected himself. The other Aerialbots jumped at their leader's flash of anger. "Sorry, guys," he apologized to the others then sternly faced Slingshot. "You're not helping anything get done here."
Slingshot withheld the signal to his vocalizer. Seeing that Slingshot was still riled up, Silverbolt addressed the others.
"Jazz instructed me to find out how the Insecticons are getting in," he explained with firmness in his vocalizer tone. "The others are not defenseless, so I'm not in any rush to break down the door at this point. For all I know, they were closed on purpose."
Air Raid exchanged a look of acknowledgement with Skydive and Fireflight. Silverbolt's assessment made sense.
"Now, SkyDive, I want you to stay here at the entrance with me, and the rest of you go find where those Insecticons burrowed and make sure that no more get in."
A wide smile spread across Air Raid's faceplate as he quickly pulled his fist back toward him with excitement. "Finally, some action!"
Before he and Fireflight charged off for the skies, Skydive was quick to catch their attention. "That area where those radar anomalies disappeared…check it again. I bet that's where the Insecticons went."
"Right, good idea," Silverbolt agreed.
Fireflight nodded and both Aerialbots jumped into the sky, transformed, and roared off in jet mode. Slingshot remained, brooding. But he was not about to look foolish in front of Silverbolt. As he prepared to leave also, he tried a different approach.
"Yeah, well, let me know when you feel like knocking the door down," he began in a more pliant tone as he subspaced his neutron rifle. "Otherwise, I'll be out in the field with those two."
A gust of hot exhaust blasted toward Silverbolt and Skydive as Slingshot catapulted himself skyward, transformed, and shot up with a sudden thrust of his engine.
"Not very cooperative today, is he?" Skydive responded.
"Tell me about it," Silverbolt replied with exhaustion.
As the three Aerialbots flew across the landscape to find the Insecticons' entrance holes, Skydive tried his hand at working the blast door controls. Silverbolt attempted to call some of the other Autobots, but it became clear that all communication with the base was cut off.
Jazz hurried back to the lounge as fast as he could since it was not safe for any Autobot to be alone while Insecticons lurked inside the ship. The metallic sound of his bipedal stride gave him away before he emerged through the door to find team two and Ironhide's group of three gathered in the lounge. Having just learned more of the seriousness of their predicament, he urgently addressed those present.
"Guys, I got bad news!"
"Oh no, more bad news?" Beachcomber asked woefully, putting his head in his hands.
"What could be worse?" Windcharger called out.
"Aw, don't ask a question like that," Ironhide criticized, shaking his head, "'cause you'll always get it."
"Let him talk," Hound called from the back of the room.
Jazz's figure slumped before he spoke. As he looked about the lounge, he counted nearly half the Autobots were now elsewhere in the Ark. This spelled a new problem.
"An Insecticon got into Teletraan I and chewed up the communications hardware. Without a repeater here underground, all our communicators are dead."
Expressions of dismay were exchanged as the implications set in. At last there was a reason why Teletraan I did not issue an alarm with Insecticons inside the ship.
"Good thing you came looking for me, Ironhide," Powerglide stated to the red and grey Autobot nearby, as he held an injured arm. Sparks shot out of the rupture in his forearm as he flexed the fingers of his right hand. "This is not the kind of situation where I'd want to be left alone."
Ironhide grinned and tilted his head to one side. "Yeah, well you sure took care of that Insecticon," he mused as he recalled the smoking chassis of the stag beetle clone in the hallway when he met up with Powerglide. "But I'd have liked to help."
Windcharger called out over the others for more information. "Hey Jazz! Did you figure out how the Insecticons got in?"
The guardian of the Ark shook his head. "It's nice and quiet outside. I told Silverbolt to find out where they got in, but the signal broke up halfway through," Jazz answered with hands upturned. "I just hope he got the message."
"He didn't come down to the control room?" Hound inquired.
Ironhide grumbled in response. "Sounds strange to me."
"I can only guess he must have tried," Jazz figured. "There was no time for me to go up there and have a discussion. We're in the middle of somethin' here and we've just got to handle it."
As Jazz finished his sentence, the lights briefly flickered again. The Autobots looked up with worried expressions.
"You know, that's really starting to get annoying," Powerglide complained. "Why are they doing that?"
"'Cause the Insecticons must be going after the power." Jazz's expression relaxed as he revealed the reason for the Decepticon invasion. He appeared cool about the Insecticon problem as he stood his photon rifle on its end beneath the palm of one hand.
"Of course," Beachcomber agreed quietly.
A few of the others turned in surprise to hear his reflective realization behind them.
Beachcomber was silent for a moment before sitting up straight and looking about at everyone, waiting for Jazz's queue to continue. Jazz's lip components twisted to one side in a cunning smile, signaling for Beachcomber to explain.
"It's rrreal simple," the geologist explained to the others. "This volcano's positively radiating energy with its activity. The Insecticons must have smelled the energon we're producing and come looking for it."
"Like ants to sugar!" Hound interjected.
"Like what to what?" Warpath finally spoke up, wondering what Hound's statement had to do with the problem. Beside him, Windcharger shrugged in response.
Hound explained. "Ants are Earth insects that work together in groups, sort of like the Insecticons. When they smell sugar – or in this case, energon – they won't rest until they find it."
"That's why they attacked Bumblebee?" Windcharger asked with surprise. "Because they could smell the energon he'd been drinking?"
"Dumb bugs!" Ironhide cursed. "Look, when are we gonna stop yappin' and start fightin'? All this talk ain't doin' us any good!"
"I'm WHAM with Ironhide!" Warpath exclaimed with excitement in his vocalizer. The maroon tank minibot pushed out the tank gun barrel of his chest assembly and clenched his fists, ready for action. "YEAH, let's do this!"
Jazz picked up his gun and held it firmly. "Well guys," he began, "now that we know what the Insecticons are up to, we're going to have to change the plan."
It was up to Silverbolt and the other Aerialbots to find out how the Insecticons got in and stop any more from getting in. But it was up to Jazz and the others to deal with the Insecticons inside the base.
"Beachcomber," Jazz addressed the blue and grey minibot seated at the bench across the room. "Take Powerglide over to medical bay."
"But what about the Insecticons? I can't fight with a damaged arm," Powerglide stated with concern.
"Don't worry, Powerglide," Beachcomber responded. "Ratchet and the others just went that way, so it must be safe." He looked to Jazz, who signaled his agreement.
"Now, what I have in mind is for the rest of us stick together," Jazz continued, addressing the others. There was a gleam in his optics as he explained his new plan for dealing with Insecticons going after their power source. "We're going to find team two then shut down the generator."
Windcharger was stunned. "But that'll leave us in the dark!"
Jazz grinned. Things were just starting to get interesting.
"We'll have to use our headlights," Hound stated, to which Ironhide nodded.
"Easy for you to say," Windcharger responded gruffly, with quick support from Warpath.
"It won't matter 'cause we'll all be together," Ironhide responded confidently.
"Right," Jazz finished. "Now let's boogie on out of here."
Ironhide narrowed his optics and pulled his weapon out of subspace.
As Jazz lead Warpath, Windcharger, Hound and Ironhide out of the room, Beachcomber drew his weapon. With Powerglide's arm injured, Beachcomber led the way to medical bay.