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As the Nemesis struggles its way through a storm, on board Megatron's temper is flaring—not because of the Vehicons' piloting skills, but because Starscream has failed to deal with the Autobots. Megatron demands that he do something to draw out their foe. Luckily, Starscream has a plan. Not far away, Air Force One is minding its own business. A Secret Service guy lets the President know that her husband, Jerry, is cooking dinner just as the plane is attacked and flooded with sleep-gas, thanks to Starscream.

The next morning, the Autobots are given a rude awakening by Agent Fowler, who has brought the black box from the missing Air Force One. It contains a recording from Starscream threatening the President if Optimus Prime isn't delivered to him bound and gagged. From the clues on the tape, Optimus works out Starscream is holed up at the Grand Canyon, the previous site of the battle against the Terrorcons.

All five Autobots turn out to the Grand Canyon and immediately find Air Force One, as well as Starscream and a mess of Vehicons with cannons. The Autobots take cover and Optimus works out a plan—Ratchet and Bulkhead will protect the plane, Bumblebee and Arcee will take care of the cannons, and Optimus himself is going after Starscream. Bumblebee and Arcee jump the cannons and assault the Vehicons from behind, while Optimus takes advantage of Starscream's distraction as a result to come up on the Decepticon. Though the Vehicons are quickly defeated, Starscream points out he has the ultimate defence—the unconscious President in his hand. Optimus solves this problem by slicing Starscream's left arm off and catching the President.

As Starscream retreats, wounded, Optimus announces the Autobots should depart before the humans wake up, and indeed the President and her crew are soon puzzling over exactly how they ended up in the Grand Canyon.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bulkhead (7) Ratchet (8) Optimus Prime (9) Arcee (10) Bumblebee (11)	Megatron (1) Starscream (2) Vehicons (3)	Secret Service guy (4) President of the United States (5) Agent Fowler (6)

Quotes

"Aghh! Who does Megatron think he is? He's not the boss of me! Well, OK, he is the boss of me... but not forever..."

—Starscream

"*Yawwwwn* What time is it?"
"Saving-the-free-world O'clock, Scrapheap!"

—Bulkhead and Fowler

"Does he really believe any of the words that come out of his own mouth?"
"I'm afraid so. Starscream is as insane as he is dangerous."

—Bulkhead and Ratchet

Notes

Errors

Though Optimus only slices Starscream's arm off, the Decepticon's missing a good third of his right-hand wing when he flees.

Trivia

As mentioned in the story, the Grand Canyon was previously the location of two battles, including the Terrorcon fight from "Darkness Rising, Part 3" and "Darkness Rising, Part 4". Though it wasn't named onscreen, IDW Publishing's Transformers Prime: Darkness Falls identified the location. The Grand Canyon was also previously the location that the Decepticons got Raf to open the GroundBridge to in "Tinker, Tailor, Gamer, Spy!".

Articles and features

Use Raf's codebreaker to crack the Cybertronian codes in this comic!
Starscream profile - he once dreamt of becoming the Prime to take Cybertron back to the Golden Age!
Episode Guide: Volume 1: Masters & Students
Competition: win new Transformers: Prime toys!
Starscream's Stumpers
Bumbleblee and Megatron posters.
Mega-Mouth: Megatron and Arcee check out Transformer drawings send in by readers. Will Centetron, Epsilon or Skywing end up being released by Takara in 20 years time?
Ratchet and the Vehicons - Help Ratchet find the Vehicon base.
Road to the White House - Help Optimus traverse the maze to the White House to protect the President.
Awesome Prime Wordsearch!
Build Optimus! - cut out and paste Optimus into a figure, but ask an adult to help!

Free Gift!

Battle Blaster!

Mega-Mouth

"Prepare for domination, fleshlings. The Decepticon empire will choke your puny planet."
"Cough Cough! I'm choking already! Mind pointing that exhaust pipe the other way?"
"Very funny, Autobot"

—Megatron and Arcee

"Too many frowny faces if you ask me. There better be some Autobots representing next time around!"
"Nonsense. We Decepticons are the rightful rulers of all, including these pages."

—Arcee and Megatron.

Notes

Errors

The episode guide for "Masters & Students" attributes Skyquake's death to Optimus instead of Bumblebee.
A multi-choice quiz question in the aforementioned episode guide gives a potential answer of "Bumblee and Soundwave".
On page 15, the Cliffjumper toy is mistransformed; his waist section is backwards.