Fire on the Mountain

by Ragey

Trailbreaker and Brawn are on the trail of two jets that they have a hunch are Starscream and Thundercracker, which is one of the few times the "robots in disguise" tagline actually plays a part up until the jets reveal themselves as the two Decepticons out of the sight of the Autobots. They bust a hole in the wall of the steel factory and start pinching the stuff, but two giant jet-like robots plucking girders from workers isn't exactly the most inconspicuous sight in the world, so it's no surprise the two automobile mechanical humanoids show up. Thundercracker and Starscream leg it out the back with the rods, the latter of them firing missiles from his chest and destroying the factory while taking to the skies, leaving Brawn and Trailbreaker no choice but to report to Prime.

Prime is clueless to their intentions, so he lets Spike give it a shot, who doesn't so much answer it as take the easy way out for answer getting via launching a sky-spy to see what the Decepticons are up to.

Megatron, Soundwave, Skywarp and Reflector are up on over at an Incan temple in the Peru portion of the Andes mountains, using ancient legends are their new way of universe conquering due to it supposedly leading to the Earth's core with a crystal as the bathplug; they take this out, stick it in a cannon made from the metal they stole and use the power that channels into the crystal to blow up things up.
 

Semi-conveniently for them, the sky-spy zooms in on their location and reveals their antics to the Autobots, but also provides a target for them to test the cannon with. This explosion in the sky alerts the occupants of a nearby village, who believe this is the work of the ancient gods back to punish them, what with the blast coming from the temple, but a young girl named Luisa^[1] claims that the gods are "history." No duh.

Megatron is overjoyed with the cannon's success, but is less chuffed with the annihilation of the cannon itself, having the blame pointed at Starscream who then blames it at Thundercracker, whose attempt at defending his innocence is met with being punched off the temple. The two are left to look after the temple with Skywarp to keep an eye on them (who lets out a really wacky laugh for no reason at this assignment) while Megatron, Soundwave and Reflector fly out to a nearby mining town to get some real cannon material.
 

Meanwhile, over in the Arctic Circle, Wheeljack and Sideswipe are digging into the ice and eventually unearth a large frozen figure in an iceberg, one that's familiar to them: Skyfire. After transforming back to his regular form, Wheeljack briefs him that he was dug out so he could return to Autobot headquarters to pick up Windcharger and Brawn and deliver them over to the Andes mountains. He doesn't stop to tell them who he or Sideswipe are, what with them never meeting in the past, nor does he tell them where Autobot headquarters is, or even mention how upset everyone was over his apparent demise. He doesn't even say hello, he just leaps straight into "can you transform?" Poor Skyfire. He probably feels like he woke up from a hangover and he's the one left to clean up the upchucking.

Skyfire catches up with the Decepticons and allows Brawn and Windcharger to drop onto the backs of Soundwave and Reflector, driving them into cliffs and stripping them of their dignity. Megatron is unhappy with these midgets manhandling his comrades and blasts Brawn, leaving Windcharger to make a hasty exit to contact Skyfire while Brawn is left to get further attacks from Megatron. The Decepticon leader transforms into pistol mode and Soundwave takes aim with him and points the crosshairs at a defenceless Brawn, feebly trying to contact Skyfire to get his ass outta there.

Windcharger rolls back and gets Brawn onto his bonnet as they fly off a hill and into the cargo bay of Jetfire, conveniently, but the only thing they found out through that escapade was that something big is going on with them Decepticons. So with that basic knowledge, they return to headquarters, load up the rest of the Autobots and head over to Peru, where they all roll out while Skyfire takes his own means of transport and quickly discovers the temple.

Over at the mining town, the Decepticons snag themselves some better cannon material (you can tell it's better because it glows!) before the Autobots show up and give them a pounding, Optimus Prime ramming Megatron through a wall and then getting blasted by his own cannon from Brawn; the Decepticon leader has less luck with kicking ass, his attempt at shooting Brawn misses and hits an electricity pylon, about to fall on Luisa!

Spike and Bumblebee drive up and save her, receiving a thank you and everything there is to know about the crystal of power as gratitude, while Megatron decides he's had enough of this failing-at-everything lark and calls for Skywarp to come and collect the cannon materials. Spike and Luisa find a secret passage leading to the crystal chamber, while Skyfire climbs the stairs of the temple to destroy the weapon (even though it's kind of already in bad shape), and...
 

Gets ambushed by Thundercracker! Well, not so much as ambushed as stepping out behind him and stating he has no problems with him destroying the cannon since that could be blamed on Starscream, only for the red armoured jerk to show up and blast Skyfire off the temple while berating his comrade for such treachery, claiming any further attempt will be reported to Megatron. Skywarp arrives at the mining town and is loaded up with the materials, so with no need to stick around, the Decepticons retreat, but not without firing at a mountain and causing a rockslide.
 

I never understood why cartoon villains do that, because it never works. They either destroy it easily or get swept beneath the rocks only to suffer no damage at all. In this case, the Autobots simply blast at the boulders until they're no more than pebbles. Meanwhile, Skyfire is ditched in the temple's chamber where Megatron plans to override his circuits with ones that'll make him join their alliance again, and Bumblebee arrives after the Decepticons leave, with Spike attempting to fix up Skyfire while Bumblebee stares in awe of the energy shooting up from where the crystal was removed, and

Oh snap Ravage

Bumblebee wrestles with the cassette hound while the Autobots arrive near the temple, landing themselves in hot water with Megatron firing at them with his cannon while all his troops sit at the front lines. Spike manages to get Skyfire up and running again, and just in the nick of time for him to grab Ravage and throw him; not at a wall or the ground, but just to throw him, leaving the dog to scarper with his tail between his legs. Robot or not, harming animals is bad, apparently!

Patched up and rearing to go, he flies out to join the battle and doesn't really do an awful lot aside from his appearance giving the Autobots the motivation to climb the temple, getting shot down the whole time until Brawn reaches the top and tackles Starscream, sending him tumbling into Megatron and screwing up his cannon fire, allowing Ironhide to leap up and start pounding Megatron's face in.

Skyfire takes out Soundwave and Reflector while Megatron overpowers Ironhide and throws him back down again, aiming the cannon straight at him and Optimus, only for Skyfire to destroy the cannon. With nothing to channel it's energy to, the power from inside rips through the temple roof, leaving the Decepticons no choice but to vamoose.

What with the crystal of power being totalled in the destruction of the cannon, there's nothing left to stop the energy and very soon the whole mountain could explode! No more than five seconds after that Wheeljack and Skyfire drop their mechanical plug on the energy, stopping it quite nicely. So much for suspense.

With the day saved and the other Autobots shining their headlights so they can actually see things, Luisa and Spike hitch a ride in Bumblebee back to town with the others following. In the obligatory gag, Luisa promises to show Bumblebee her brother's convertible, named Juanita, whom she feels will get along like a house on fire with the Autobot.

"Aw shucks."

^[1]Luisa isn't actually named in the episode, but the scripts provide her with one.

What's up with Skyfire? Thundercracker is punched off the temple and is back on his feet in no time to do guard duty, and Megatron is thrown off as well and lands on his head and gets up no more than a second later to retreat, while Skyfire is out of commission from a simple laser blast off the temple and requires his insides to be tinkered with.

You also wonder why Skyfire was brought back when Brawn seems to steal the spotlight for a majority of the episode. Optimus Prime gets less screen time than the little jerk!