"Yes, ma'am," Carjack said as Blueberry's mother left the room, but as soon as Blueberry's parents were out of earshot, he turned to Tomato—his personality changed drastically, just as Blueberry had described. "So, you think you can get it on with my girl, do you, little guy?"

"I'm only a little smaller than you, Carjack," Tomato reminded him.

"And I'm not your girl!" Blueberry yelled.

Carjack pulled Blueberry into a hug and even though she tried to resist, he just said, "Oh, come on…of course you are! You're marrying me!"

"Only because my parents want me to," she insisted. "Do you honestly think I would want to marry you?"

"Yes, you would," Carjack told her. "Nobody would make a better husband than I would."

"What about Hotwire?" Blueberry cried. "I know he'd make a much better husband! I bet even Megatron would be a better husband than you!"

"How dare you!" Carjack shouted, shoving Blueberry hard into the wall of the ship.

Blueberry kicked him in the shin, but he was so much bigger than she was (he was bigger than Tomato, too).

"Leave me alone!" Blueberry said, kicking him again.

"Cut it out!" Carjack tossed her aside, letting her land on the ground. Carjack was even worse than Blueberry had described; Tomato was getting angrier every second. And everyone knows that it's NEVER a good idea to get a Decepticon angry.

Carjack might be bigger than I am, Tomato thought to himself, reaching for Megatron's sword. But he's not stronger.

Before anyone else had noticed, Tomato had unleashed Megatron's sword and ran up to Carjack, slashing him hard in the chest. Immediately raw energon began to spew from the wound. Carjack tackled Tomato and punched him right in the face.

"Be careful!" Blueberry called anxiously from the sidelines.

"I'll be all right," Tomato reassured her, getting up and punching Carjack's face right back and karate-kicking him in the chest so that he skidded across the floor and hit the side of the ship.

"That's the way!" Blueberry shouted happily. "Carjack, he's going to kick your aft."

"Oh no he's not!" Carjack got up from the floor, steaming with red-hot anger. As he walked towards Tomato, he pulled out a sword of his own, a medium-length blunt dagger with which he was pointing right at Tomato's spark chamber.

"Why don't you try it?" Tomato taunted, holding up Megatron's sword. "I could use a laugh!"

"PREPARE TO DIE, HOTWIRE!" hollered Carjack, tackling Tomato again and forcing the dagger right at his opponent's spark chamber. Tomato grabbed onto Carjack's servos and pushed the dagger back with all his strength as the two of them grunted with effort. Finally, Tomato kicked Carjack off of him and onto the ground, quickly standing up to give himself the advantage of height.

Carjack got up too, by now downright livid, and withdrew his dagger once more. Unfortunately for Tomato, he jabbed the dagger right at Tomato's spark chamber, but Tomato dodged before it was too late. Carjack was undaunted; he ruthlessly stabbed Tomato four times, twice in the leg, once in the stomach, and once in the arm.

Tomato ignored the pain and instead focused on his anger and determination. Of course he wasn't going to let Carjack win. Tomato could do better than that. As quick as a flash, he punched Carjack once in the chest then again in the face. Carjack cried out and swung his dagger blindly. Again, Tomato nimbly dodged.

Using Megatron's sword, Tomato swiped hard at his enemy, not particularly caring where the sword landed. When Tomato looked, he realized the sword had caused a huge gash from Carjack's right shoulder all the way to his upper left leg; Carjack clutched his stomach and dropped to the ground.

Carjack was by now bleeding profusely and covered with bruises. Tomato held him down with one foot and pointed his gun directly at his opponent's face.

"Don't move a diode, or I'll shoot," he threatened.

"How does it feel to be the one on the receiving end?" Blueberry called from the sidelines, a rather snarky note in her voice.

"Promise you'll leave Blueberry alone," Tomato demanded. "I mean it."

Carjack could barely get the words out, but finally he squeaked, "I-I promise."

"Okay then." Tomato put Megatron's sword away and removed his foot from Carjack. Part of him expected Carjack to get up and start fighting again, but his expectations were apparently too high—Carjack covered his face with his servos and moaned, turning over on his side.

Blueberry ran over to Tomato and gave him a huge hug, tears glimmering in her optics. In a voice so quietly Tomato could hardly hear it, she whispered, "Thank you."

"No problem," he whispered back, kissing her on the cheek.

Just then, Tomato felt the pain from his own injuries intensify. His adrenaline was gone, and although he most certainly could take a punch and several stabbings, the wounds were pretty bad. Sure, Tomato had physically harmed Carjack more than Carjack had harmed him, but Tomato still found himself gasping in pain and grasping Blueberry's servo tightly.

"Oh, no, we need to get you to my mother," Blueberry said worriedly. "She's a nurse. She'll know what to do. Come on."

Quickly, Blueberry dragged Tomato down the hall to the repair room, where Blueberry's mother was changing the sheets on one of the beds. Upon hearing their arrival, Blueberry's mother turned around and cried, "Oh dear, what happened?"

"Hotwire is hurt!" Blueberry cried anxiously. "No time to explain now. Please fix him up!"

The two of them led Tomato to the medical bed, where they gently lay him down. Blueberry's mother inspected the stabbings and shook her head. "We're going to have to have an actual doctor for this one. Hotwire has a lot of puncture wounds that need serious medical treatment."

"Will he be all right?" Blueberry asked worriedly.

"As long as he gets treated soon enough, he will be," Blueberry's mother replied. "Don't worry, my daughter."

"I'll get Red Alert," Blueberry said hurriedly, and rushed out of the room.

Tomato lay on the medical bed for several cycles while Blueberry's mother cleaned up his wounds. She was humming softly, which gave him some small comfort.

Soon, Blueberry and Red Alert ran back into the room.

"Is that Hotwire?" asked Red Alert, approaching the medical bed.

"Yes," Blueberry replied worriedly. "He's gotten into a battle. He won, but his opponent still stabbed him four times."

"Indeed," said Red Alert, walking up to Tomato. It appeared that the wounds, coupled with Tomato's Autobot disguise, prevented Red Alert from recognizing Tomato's identity. Quickly, he reached over for his supplies and got his medical supplies and clean bandages.

Red Alert numbed Tomato with his EMP generator then began fixing the wound. As he did, he and Blueberry's mother interviewed Blueberry about how Tomato got so damaged.

"Carjack attacked me," Blueberry explained, coming to Tomato's defense. "He shoved me into the wall and onto the ground. I was so scared; I thought he was going to hurt me. Hotwire tried to stop him, but Carjack just turned on him instead. They kept on battling, and Hotwire won, so now I'm safe."

"Did Carjack really try to hurt Blueberry?" Blueberry's mother asked Tomato, looking beyond worried. "Did he hurt my little girl?"

Tomato looked up from the medical bed and weakly added, "Yes, and he tried to hurt me too. I knew I had to protect Blueberry, so I had no choice to fight back. I'm sorry it had to come to this, but Blueberry told me Carjack hurts her all the time, squashing her dreams and 'punishing' her when she doesn't do what he says. I thought it needed to be stopped."

"Where is Carjack?" asked Red Alert.

"Well…for all I know, he's still in the other room, bleeding and bruised," Tomato told him.

"Oh, no, I'll go check on him," Blueberry's mother said, then hurried out of the room. When she came back, she was dragging a half-offline Carjack into the repair room. Carjack was hanging limply on her arm, muttering incomprehensively.

"Carjack's even worse," Red Alert said. "Nurse, please clean the wounds and get him to stop bleeding while I finish working on Hotwire, all right?"

"All right," Blueberry's mother said, and proceeded to do as the doctor said. As she did so, she commented, "I can't believe Carjack actually acted like that. Why did you never tell us?"

"I-I didn't want to tell anyone," Blueberry admitted sadly. "Besides, I was sure you wouldn't believe me."

"Your father and I would always trust you to tell the truth, daughter," Blueberry's mother said. "We love you and only want the best for you. You should know that by now."

"Believe me, I know." Blueberry ran up to her mother and gave her a hug. "I love you too, and Father."

Blueberry's mother continued to clean Carjack up. "After I'm done here, we can all discuss this in the main monitor room, all right?"

"Father will kill Hotwire," Blueberry told her mother worriedly. "Remember, he really likes Carjack, and he hardly knows Hotwire. I know who he'd side with."

"I know he'll understand," Blueberry's mother told them.

…

As soon as Tomato was all patched up, and Red Alert was fixing Carjack, Blueberry and Tomato entered the main monitor room to talk to Blueberry's parents.

"Your mother told me what happened with Carjack," Blueberry's father said seriously, putting one servo on his daughter's shoulder. "I decided that as soon as he's better, I'm going to kick him off my team."

"Thanks, Father," Blueberry told him. "That means a lot to me."

"We could never let anything happen to our precious little angel," Blueberry's mother cooed, hugging her daughter.

"Can I stay with Hotwire?" Blueberry asked hopefully.

Blueberry's father pointed at Tomato's puncture wounds, now covered in medical tape and on their way to healing. "If Hotwire was willing to sustain these injuries for you, Blueberry, then he is worth your time. I approve your relationship."

"I do too." Blueberry's mother smiled.

"And I approve it most of all," Tomato said, attempting to hug Blueberry, but wincing in pain as he reached for her.

"Now, now, don't hurt yourself, my love," she giggled, and kissed him on the head.