Classified - Battle Mountain

Plot

Ironhide takes on Dr. Porter's tank drones to test if they are capable of taking on Transformers, and easily defeats them, he damages the tanks and is told to stop by Optimus and the humans however.

Ironhide is moaned at for damaging the tanks by Dr. Porter who needs their data to improve them for the next test. Ironhide is introduced to Dr. Porter's son Douglas, who also happened to be the remote control operator for the tank.

Douglas talks with the Autobots, who are somewhat impressed with the young human's abilities, and reveal their own friendship with Kevin to him. Dr. Porter chastises his son for not doing good enough with the tank to defeat Ironhide and tells him to do better next time.

Later Douglas signs on as his alter-ego Stealth Leader, and receives some secret footage of the battle at the army depot a month ago from Simon Clay, where he watches the battle and sees a small human, Kevin Bowman, his girlfriend's brother's friend with the Autobots. Douglas has Clay start to enhance the footage of the cylinder used by Reverb in the battle, and to get ready for a new mission at his father's labs (Clay doesn't know it's Douglas' father's lab though)

Kevin has been escorted back to his house to pick up some of his clothes to return to his new home at the NEST base when he gets emotional, he leaves, along with Gears and the NEST team to get back to his new home.

Kevin and Gears return to the base where they, along with the Autobots are debriefed about the discovery of an energy signal similar to the one at the army depot from a month ago being detected in the mountain ranges around the town of Battle Mountain, and Kevin believes that there's another cylinder there, and his brother was transported there! However before anything can happen, NEST recieves a call from Hyperdynamix Labs about a Decepticon attack.

NEST and the Autobots decide to go to Hyperdynamix and leave the Battle Mountain mission til later. General Marcus asks Kevin and Gears to go see Chief Lindsay in his lab to see if they can give him some more insight into what the cylinder does (since the two of them saw it before and after it was turned on.

The two of them enter the lab, and Kevin learns that Reverb is being held prisoner in the base as well, however neither of them can remember if there were any of the strange marks that are on the cylinder now before it was turned on or not. Kevin learns about Jetfire being able to use his teleportation powers to get to Egypt before, which makes Kevin more hopeful that his brother was just transported somewhere instead of disintegrating.

Kevin gets a phone call from Douglas Porter, who is outside and asks to meet with him, Outside, Kevin and Douglas chat away, and Douglas says that he's detected a Cybertronian message about coordinates, which Gears translates as Battle Mountain. Kevin says he thinks his brother was transported to Battle Mountain by the cylinder, the two humans, Gears and Bumblebee decide to head to Battle Mountain themselves, rather than wait for Optimus and the others to come back so they can save Kevin's brother.

After they leave however, an MP3 player that Douglas forgot in the area is left alone....

At Hyperdynamix, Dr Porter finds out that all his prototype tanks are missing, but the R & D section hasn't been breached yet, and the attack is still taking place. Clay reports to Douglas that the mission is a success, but Optimus has arrived and they need to leave, but Douglas orders that they stay, for the next part of the plan to succeed. The Autobots and NEST take on the Decepticons and help defend the lab, whilst Dr Porter reports about the tanks going missing, which confuses everyone as to what the Decepticon's objectives could be.

Outside the NEST base Douglas convinces Gears to take on a new alternate mode that isn't rusty and they head off. On the way to Battle Mountain, Gears and Kevin start a game of 20 questions again, and Douglas helps Kevin with some tricks to help him get the answers easier.

At the NEST base, the MP3 player transforms into a drone piloted by a human elsewhere, it infiltrates Reverb's jail and frees the Decepicon, Reverb escapes and takes on a new Jeep mode and sets off for Battle Mountain as well, so he can get at Gears, which the MP3 controller revealed to him.

Still on the way to Battle Mountain, the humans get hungry, so Bumblebee picks up some food through a drive in for them (he uses NEST credit card numbers, and uses his radio to tell the kiosk operator to leave the food through his window, and then passes it into Gears' window for the kids to eat) rather than Gears taking a small detour and having the kids get it themselves.

At Hyperdynamix the Autobots are looking for the Decepticons in the lab, when Optimus learns of Reverb's escape fromt the NEST base, and that Gears and the others have left, he assumes they've headed to Battle Mountain. Optimus orders Ironhide to get there himself as well, ASAP.

Gears and the others arrive at Battle Mountain, where they encounter Blowback, and engage him. Kevin and Douglas however run off towards the mountain range, to look for the storehouse themselves. The Autobots battle Blowback, and try to keep the fight out of the town itself. The two Humans find the entrance and manage to open it the way Gears opened the one from Hawthorne a month ago, and they enter it, with Kevin screaming for his brother.

Blowback reveals that he has reinforcements in the form of Sawtooth, Burnrate and Roadrash in the area, and the four Decepticons gang up on the two Autobots. During the fierce battle Blowback accidentally kills Roadrash.

Inside the storehouse Kevin doesn't find his brother, but all the weapons inside are decayed and rusted, due to a leak somewhere at some time entering the store and ruining everything. They find a second corridor, but the door is sealed shut, they find a monitor on the wall, which analyses their speach to be able to talk in English and communicates with them (though it's systems are dying due to the damage inside). It asks for the code to access the door, but they don't have it, but are told that if they can say what is inside the store then they will be allowed access, but they only have 12 attempts, including questions about the item before the esystem locks down, meaning they have to play a dangerous game of "20 questions" here to try and save Duane.

Outside the battle continues, Bumblebee kills Sawtooth and they prepare to battle remaining two Decepticons.

Inside the store Douglas starts asking questions, but the monitor is dying, Douglas takes out his phone and shows the monitor an image of the cylinder from Hawthorne from the footage he has and asks if that's the item  inside the store, and it confirms it, opening the door.

The last two Decepticons are killed, and the two Autobots start to head for the store as well.

Inside the store the humans find the cylinder intact, unlike the one in the base and douglas starts recording it. Kevin goes into the corridor again and asks the monitor how the cylinder works, and it says that it needs certain coordinates and transports all those in it's range to those coordinates in space, and then it dies out. Gears and Bumblebee arrive in the area.

Gears and the others prepare to move the cylinder when Gears sees Reverb heading into the town below, Ironhide arrives and Douglas asks if they're going to go after the Decepticon, as he can get a Hyperdynamix truck to transport the cylinder for them, but Ironhide refuses, saying that he's going to transport it. (Ironhide doesn't like/trust Douglas) and has them all load into a NEST transport with the cylinder to return to base.

The Decepticons at Hyperdynamix are found and killed, and the team from Battle Mountain return to base, with Optimus upset with their actions, but Douglas takes full blame as it was his idea. The Cylinder is taken to Lindsay's labto be examined, but they learn that the coordinates could be to anywhere, and there seems to only be one use in each cylinder, meaning they can't just keep testing it. At Hyperdynamix, Dr Porter asks his son why the Decepticons would keep attacking despite the tanks already being gone, but he doesn't know what to say.

Later, Reverb has been led to Simon Clay's home, where he'll be situated now with the human. Douglas contacts them to tell them that he'll be working on a new plan to defeat the Autobots soon, and allow Reverb to lead his own army (the tanks)

At home, Douglas laments his loss of the cylinder, but is glad about gaining the trust of everyone, bar Ironhide, and looks at another still from the footage from earlier, with a clear image of the coordinates on the cylinder, and considered how to use it, even the possibility of Kevin seeing it one day.

On a blue planet far away, Duane and his team are getting ready for another night on this starnge world with wolf-like monsters roaming around, and Duane promises his team to get them home....

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck Cab

Gears - Vintage British Car (Former Rusty SUV)

Bumblebee - Concept Camaro

Ironhide - Pick Up Truck

Ratchet - Emergency Humvee

Tailgate Hologram (In Footage)

Skids - Smart Car (Mentioned)

Mudflap - Smart Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Reverb - Black Jeep

Blowback Killed by Gears

Sawtooth Killed by Bumblebee

Burnrate Killed by Bumblebee

Roadrash Killed by Blowback

Trio at Hyperdynamix Killed by Autobots and NEST

Megatron (Mentioned)

Jetfire - Stealth Jet (Mentioned) Dead

Human

Kevin Bowman

Douglas Porter/Stealth Leader

Simon Clay/Stealth One

General Marcus

Dr. Alexander Porter

Science Lab Chief Lindsay

Gilbert Poole

Sergeant Cooke

Collier

Leitch

Duane Bowman Lost on Blue Planet

Duane's Four Man Team Lost on Blue Planet

Jimmy Lemmon

Jimmy's Friends (Mentioned)

NEST Personnel

Military Personnel

Hyperdynamix Labs Staff

Battle Mountain Civilians

Nevada Highway Patrolman

Charlene Poole (Mentioned)

Mr and Mrs Bowman (Mentioned) Dead

Mrs Porter (Mentioned)

Sam Witwicky (Mentioned)

Mikaela Banes (Mentioned)

Leo Spitz (Mentioned)

Seymour Simmons (Mentioned)

Other

Battle Mountain Storehouse Computer Out of Power

Hyperdynamix Tank 1 Destroyed by Ironhide

Hyperdynamix Tank 2-13 Stolen by Stealth Team

MP3 Drone - MP3 Player

Alien Wolf Things (Mentioned)

Dorsata Secundus (Mentioned)

The Fifth Baron-Warlord of Polyhex (Mentioned)

Seekers (Mentioned)

Notes

• This story is set about a month after the previous one (Switching Gears)
• This story establishes that there are other weapons stores on Earth, which survived the natural shifting of Earth (though the one here was flooded at some point and therefore ruined too)
• This story shows Gears changing his alternate mode from an SUV to a smaller car, and Reverb taking on a Jeep mode (despite his toy and cover appearances have him in his motorcycle body) meaning that characters in this continuity at least aren't limited to certain sized alternate forms
• The party Douglas threw for his girlfriend in the previous story was used to give him a cover-story for his whereabouts during the battles he set up.
• Gears and Kevin have taken a liking to playing "20 questions" with each other, however Gears keeps making his answers things that Kevin couldn't possibly know about from Cybertron or other planets.
• The next part of this story is out in September 2013, and is called Satellite of Doom.
• Sawtooth COULD be a reference to the Movie One toy Mudflap, who's original repaint name idea was also called Sawtooth. I'm not sure though, so I won't put his alternate mode as a crane here, just in case.
• Ironhide is only cast member here shown to mistrust Douglas, he's also the only one here to die in DOTM...coincidence?