The Autobots were on patrol in town, near East State Street. Then they were bombarded by Decepticon jets. The jets fired at the Autobots. Then more Decepticons arrived. Skyfire and Powerglide took to the while Shortstop and the others fought on the ground. Powerglide flew overhead of Thrust and Dirge. He dropped two bombs on top of the two enemy jets. They fell out of the air. Shortstop was surrounded by Skywarp, Thundercracker and Ramjet. Ramjet charged. Shortstop punched him then kicked him across the face. Skywarp charged, but Shortstop just picked him up and threw him into Thundercracker.
"Too bad there are only three of you. Battling less than four Decepticons at a time is boring."
"I hope I don't bore you." A voice said behind him.
Shortstop turned around to find the female Decepticon known as Noxica.
She was about as tall as Shortstop, very slender and feminine looking. She was pink in some areas and black in others. There was something about her that reminded Shortstop of Starscream. She had wings on her back that folded slightly back. Her face was grey with red eyes.
"So you're the fifth I'm supposed to beat?"
"Don't get cocky. I might surprise you."
"I doubt it." Shortstop said as he narrowed his eyes.
They squared off. They ran at each other. He threw a punch but she grabbed him and drove her knee into his back. He swung around to backhand her but she just grabbed his arm and threw him aside. He fired his arm lasers at her. She was hit in the chest and fell to the ground. Then she jumped up with her duel rifles and fired repeatedly at the headmaster. He fell. He lied there while she walked over to him. He jumped up and kicked her across the face. She retaliated with a punch to the chest. He came back with a flying roundhouse kick. The kick connected with her face and she was flipped onto her back. He attempted to smash her face in with his foot but she grabbed it and threw him into a tree. She stood up and cracked him across the face with the butt-end of her rifle. She hit him repeatedly until he fell. While he was falling, she flipped her rifle around and fired at him. He was hit continually.
Inside of the head of Shortstop the control board exploded, sparks went flying. Then oil started spewing out.
"Damn, oil leak." He shouted.
Then the oil caught fire. Dustin was covered in oil. He started to catch. Finally the emergency sprinklers kicked in and put out the fire. Shortstop laid there unconscious. He passed out from the pain.
"Hmph, never send a man to do a woman's job." Noxica snorted.
"Decepticons return to base. We have won."
The Decepticons left in victory. Skyfire and Powerglide landed and ran over to Shortstop. The Autobots loaded him into Skyfire and they all headed back to Autobot City with their tailpipes tucked.
"And that's how it happened." Powerglide concluded.
Wheeljack manually disengaged the head. The head automatically transformed into exosuit form. Wheeljack set Dustin on a lower table so Carly could take a look at him. She came over and took off his helmet. His face was black, covered in oil. Sarah helped Carly take off his exosuit. Carly took a pair of scissors and cut open his shirt. His torso was badly burned. She listened for a heartbeat and found it. She covered him in some kind of burn spray. Wheeljack and Hoist worked on the body, While Ratchet and First Aid worked on the other Autobots. The body hadn't transformed back into the car when the head disengaged. It was so badly damaged that the transforming mechanism wouldn't activate.
"I've done all I can. He'll be alright. He's in a lot of pain but he just needs to heal."
Sarah nodded as she held Dustin's head in her arms and she cried.
"Why did you have to go on that away mission? You told me that everything would be alright and that nothing would ever happen to you. Liar." She thought.