Sideswipe stealthily lurked through the shadows, stalking the enemy. The Decepticon scouts, all new faces to Sideswipe, were completely oblivious to Sideswipe following them. He walked several yards behind them and ducked behind objects every chance he got just in case one would unrepentantly turn around. Sideswipe, being the highly skilled warrior that he was, could have sliced all of the scouts' heads off at any given moment. But he decided to hold off on the attack and wait to see what they knew. He followed them to NEST's communications center where he received Mudflap's call. The three scouts joined two Decepticon warriors. Top of the line warriors, from what Sideswipe could see before the door slid shut. Sideswipe grabbed a hidden security camera from its perch above the doorway, but left the wires still connected to the wall and the other cameras located all over the building. If Sideswipe wasn't to careless with the primitive and tiny human technology, he could hack into the camera in the next room and see what it could see. His plan worked without flaw. With Sideswipe's audio receptors pressed against the door, from one camera to the next, this is what he heard and saw.

"And here I thought we'd be wasting our time with this." One scout complained. "What was I thinking?"

"There's just a lot of data piled up and its taking time to filter through." A seemingly more intelligent scout reasoned with his acquaintance. This scout was at a computer rummaging through all of NEST's history. A warrior who towered over the scouts glared down at them. "I'm almost done." the second scout quivered.

"Then if you're so concerned about wasting time, you set the bomb." The warrior growled and dropped the bomb into the scout's hands. The scout tossed it around in mid air before clutching it in his right hand and running off with it. Sideswipe returned the security camera. He stepped back to pursue the bomber, but that was one step too many! CRASH! Sideswipe slipped on a metal tile that came loose from the floor, and loudly fell on his back! Sideswipe crawled out of sight just in the nick of time before a Decepticon warrior stepped out to investigate. The Decepticon scanned over his surroundings. He must have been scanning specifically for a cybertronian spark. If he had scanned for all signs of life, he would have picked up a human's heartbeat just a few feet away from him. But the scan did not expose the human and went right over him. The Decepticon who spoke to the scouts, hollered at the other warrior. "Well don't just stand there! Find the intruder!" Sideswipe felt disgusted by the fact that he was being called an intruder inside his home by the real intruders themselves! Apparently the warrior at the door didn't respond fast enough, because the warrior who seemed in charge stomped over to him, pushed him out of his way, and walked directly passed Sideswipe, saying "Oh never mind! I'll do it myself!" When the Decepticons were all gone, Sideswipe came out of his hiding place and transformed from his human hologram back into his normal robot form. He'd never felt so thankful to be able to do that. Everybody knew that sparks were almost impossible to detect when they were being hidden by human holoforms, which had the same characteristics of a solid human body. That's when it finally hit him! Like someone just turned on the light bulb above his head and handed him the answer!

The Decepticons got in because they were disguised as humans. And that was probably how they slipped past the humans at the security check point. But if the Decepticons knew the base would be empty as soon as the twins left to save the other twins, they would have had to be watching for them in their human holoforms as well. The security check point of course! The Decepticons waited there til all Autobots were far enough away so that if any 'Decepticon Alert!' alarms went off, the Autobots wouldn't be able to hear them. Sideswipe remembered the human guards that saluted to him and Sunstreaker earlier that afternoon. He watched the memory replay a few times, and then he caught it. Their eyes flashed red! Several times, and he would have never noticed! So Sideswipe was right. He and the twins went straight through the check point in the dark, without noticing it. There wasn't a single light or living soul to be found! 'Living.' Sideswipe thought. Surely the Decepticons must have murdered the human guards once they captured enough images of their bodies to make holograms for themselves. And what about Sunstreaker? Sideswipe assumed that he went directly back to base, yet he hadn't seen or heard from Sunstreaker for hours! Sideswipe couldn't feel Sunstreaker's presence on base. So that was good, or bad. Despite all of the overwhelming information, Sideswipe pulled himself together and focused in on the present.

'Okay.' Sideswipe thought. 'So there's a Decepticon bomber running off to the west wing and there's a larger more threatening Decepticon warrior off in that direction looking for me. Yippee. There's no telling when that bomb's going to go off and there's no telling how much time I've got to stop it. 'Almost done' doesn't sound very promising on time. Then there's Skids and Mudflap. Skids is still in critical condition. As long as they stay hidden, its out of sight and out of mind for the Decepticons. But now there's a Decepticon warrior actually looking for them. He'll expect them to be hiding. If they're still hiding in plain sight where I left them, they won't be hidden long! SLAG IT! He wants me and he's more than likely going to get to them first! I've got to help them! But there's still the bomb! Aw, why can't there be two of me?' Sideswipe reconsidered his last thought. Duh! Sunstreaker! Sideswipe immediately connected with his twin.

"Sunny! I gotta talk to ya! Its important!"

"I got something to tell you first!"

"Well I called first! Besides, I guarantee what I have to say is far more important than what you have to say!"

"Whoa! And the guys think I'm the selfish one!"

"Just listen! Decepticons are inside Autobot HQ!"

"Yeah. I knew that! I would've gone in and took them all on. But I knew Ratchet would wack me with a wrench if I got injured while being 'too brave', as he would say. Scratch that. He would wack me with a wrench, lecture me, fix me up and wack me again! So anyway, I called Optimus Prime. Those new Autobots that were coming, it was all a trap! The message they sent about where they were landing, the Decepticons faked it! They lead all of NEST, minus you, me, and the lower twins on a wild goose chase and then attacked! When I called Optimus, he was under fire."

"So the attack was all a diversion to get into NEST."

"That's what I said! I'm with the Autobots now and heading back to base. So if there's anything else important you'd like to tell me that you think I don't already know, I'd be glad to hear it!"

"Did you know there's a bomb?"

"Bomb?"

"Yeah! Decepticons are in here picking our network apart and they're gonna blow the place up when there's nothing left to take!"

"I'll pass the message on to Prime. Anything else?"

"Well Skids and Mudflap made it back with me safely but Skids is still in critical condition and there's a Decepticon that knows we're here and he's looking for us. Now that he knows that we're here..."

"Slow down, and tell me something important. 'Cause in my book, Skids and Mudflap don't count."

"Sunny, they're in danger. So am I!"

"Wait. Do you mean you're inside the base right now? Sides you've got to get out of there!"

"Not yet! I still need to..."

"Sides? SIDESWIPE!"

But there was no answer. The only way this could happen was if Sideswipe purposely blocked their connection, or something was very wrong with him! Sunstreaker set into panic mode! Sideswipe was in trouble! He just knew it! And he was right to panic. Moments ago, while Sideswipe was distracted, two Decepticons shot at his back and knocked him down! Sideswipe tried to hold the bond between him and Sunstreaker, but his body was in such a shock from the Decepticons' blast. His body would not allow it, and shut Sideswipe down into immediate stasis! The Decepticons dragged their trophy inside to show everyone else. Their evil laughs haunted Sideswipes last moments of consciousness. Sideswipe laid his head back, accepting (not happily or willingly accepting, but still accepting) total defeat.