| abstract
| - Far outside of Detroit, a lone worker monitoring some oddly coloured mining machines hears a strange noise. Alerted, he looks around, but returns to his drink... only to be attacked by something. The construction machines stop their work, and they too get attacked. Outside Detroit, Prowl, in his alternate mode, looks on at the snow-covered city before a plow comes along and rather rudely covers him in snow. Transforming, he rises from the snow with a sad look on his face. When Prowl returns to the base, he goes on a rant about Nature's beauty and how humanity destroys it at every turn. Bumblebee and Sari are playing a video game, ignoring his vent. Prowl looks down on Bumblebee and asks why he's so devoted to machines, where Bumblebee retorts by noting that Prowl is "electrical components" too, nudging his Autobot insignia to activate a hologram of Prowl. The friendly banter takes a decidly unfriendly turn when Prowl shuts off the video game, enraging Sari and Bumblebee. Before something worse than insults is thrown, Optimus Prime interupts, noting that there is a Cybertronian energy signature coming from the forest, made of non-sentient metal, and he wants Prowl and Bumblebee to investigate. Sari is thrilled at the prospect of a camping trip, while Bumblebee is horrified by the prospect of being cut off from entertainment. The three of them head off into the woods, and Bumblebee laments unpaved roads, while Sari is excited, saying that they'll roast marshmallows, tell ghost stories and the like, though Prowl comments that nature is more than camp fires and marshmallows. When they prepare to proceed on foot, it's learned that Bumblebee brought a few entertainment devices...stored in a place that makes him a little ashamed. After finding a suitable camping site, Prowl sits quietly to commune with Nature while Bumblebee searches for an outlet to power his flatscreen TV. As campers, Sari and Bumblebee are miserable failures. They can't pitch a tent or get a fire going, and Sari is forced to admit that she's never been camping before, so Prowl does both within seconds. When Bumblebee commandeers Prowl's holographic imager to watch a movie, the ninja bot smashes Bumblebee's portable media player, much to the yellow bot's horror. Prowl 1, Bumblebee 0. During the night, the trio is awoken by a crunching noise. Bumblebee cries monster. Prowl says it's a bear, which are hardly monsters. Lo and behold, a monstrous creature covered in purple tentacles and pink eyes does stomp out into the open and attack them. Bumblebee 1, Prowl 1. The creature absorbs Prowl's shurikens and holds its own against Bumblebee's stingers. What's more, Sari's Key glows, indicating that the creature is Cybertronian in origin. Unable to fight it off, the trio retreat. Losing the creature, Prowl tries to figure out what the creature was, despite Bumblebee's snide comments. They both determine the creature is made up of space barnacles, scourge of space-going vessels everywhere. Normally, barnacles drain power and act like computer viruses, but these barnacles appear to have been mutated by something and made more powerful. They decide to go back and destroy the barnacles, rather than risk the creature reaching Detroit and infecting other machines. Glowing in the direction of the Cybertronian energy, the Key leads them to the mine shaft. When they're not looking, the creature drops a snowbank on them from above, sealing 'Bee and Sari inside. Prowl fools the creature into smashing the entrance open, and Bumblebee uses his stingers to fry the barnacles. However, Prowl's prolonged contact with the creature has infected him and taken over, turning him into a barnacle zombie. 'Bee and Sari make a run for it, but they know they can't go back to the city because the barnacles may spread. They backtrack, hoping to lure Prowl to the mine and seal him inside, but end up sealing themselves inside too. Now trapped, 'Bee and Sari seal themselves in a furnace room, and Sari hatches a plan to heat up water from a fire hose to scorch the barnacles off Prowl. However, Prowl's touch has infected Bumblebee as well. Sari tries to use the Key on the furnace machinery, but it doesn't work (for once). She manages to light the furnace by scratching a spark (not that kind of spark) from the Key instead. The furnace heats the water, and Sari sprays her two friends, boiling off the barnacles. The two Autobots are restored, and the three return to the plant to recount their harrowing tale to Prime. Back in the woods, Professor Sumdac arrives in a truck and finds the Cybertronian machinery that was formerly coated by the barnacles, machinery that bears the Decepticon insignia. Sumdac comments that he's finally found what he's been looking for for several years, and that Megatron will be pleased with his discovery. What, oh what, could it be?
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