RID - Sideswipe vs Thunderhoof

Plot

Sideswipe and Strongarm are driving along a road when they start arguing and have an impromptu play-fight in robot mode, suddenly another vehicle starts driving towards them forcing the two robots back into their vehicle modes. Suddenly the normal pick-up truck's front wheels burst and the vehicle is forced to stop, but another truck is coming around the corner and is about to collide, unless the two Autobots intervene.

The two Autobots line up on either side of the pick-up and guide it off the road, allowing the other truck to pass safely, at least in theory, but the truck is going too fast, and turns out to be an oil tanker, Strongarm puts on her sirens and places herself (in vehicle mode) in front of the tanker to try and stop it, luckily he manages to stop just before hitting Strongarm, much to the Autobot's relief. The two Autobots leave before the humans can find out they're robots and comment that they actually work well together, but wont admit that to the rest of the team.

The Autobots return to the junkyard where Bumblebee is waiting, and asks how their training session went, the Humans notice the scrapes on Sideswipe's body and they tell them how they stopped the collision, but stayed undercover much to Bumblebee's relief. All of a sudden there's an intruder alert in the junkyard.

When they return to the command center they find out that it's three humans who Russell knows from school, who are delinquents and have repeated the grade a few times. The Autobots revert to vehicle modes so Denny and Russell can see what they want.

Russell confronts the teens and they claim that this is their new hangout, but Denny soon appears and reveals to them that he and Russell own and live there. They start to leave, but see something they find interesting...a giant T-Rex statue...GRIMLOCK!

Denny and Russell try to say that Grimlock was just a prop from a Japanese monster film, but Steve claims to have never seen him in any film, and even points out that he's a dinosaur, not a Kaiju. When examining him, Grimlock notices a tattoo on one of the boy's arms with a cat on it, which causes him to freak out and break character, due to his fear of cats. The teens think they accidentally turned on the animatronic, and Denny lures the Dinobot away. the bullies start to threaten Russell when they think he's messing with them, and suddenly Sideswipe, in vehicle mode starts revving up to scare off the teens. Strongarm and Bumblebee joined in, and scare the teens away, Bumblebee compliments Sideswipe on his plan to protect Russsell and get rid of the teens safely.

Fixit detects a large number of Decepticon signals at the docks in Crown City, and the Autobots head towards there via the Groundbridge.

In an old steel mill at Crown City, Steeljaw is talking with Thunderhoof and Underbite, and gets annoyed with Thunderhoof when he starts going on about how he should be in charge again and attacks the other Decepticon, but lets him go as he needs the troops to help him in his long-term goals on Earth.

Thunderhoof, annoyed, goes for a walk, and Underbite tags along. They soon arrive at the docks and start discussing Thudnerhoof's stint as the Kospego when he first got released on Earth when they suddenly hear some commotion from inside the factory nearby. Inside, they find three more Decepticons stealing some of the products being stored there, the two Decepticons approach the newcomers, but find them aggressive towards them and they attack.

The Decepticons fight amongst themselves, and the Autobots bridge into the area outside and find the Decepticons fighting, and soon enter the battle too. Thunderhoof loses track of his opponent, Slink, and Sideswipe takes him on instead.

Whilst the others fight, Slink gets to a forklift and loads it up with her stolen goods and tries to get her henchmen to leave with her and the goods. Strongarm manages to rush to Sideswipe's aid against Thunderhoof, but are interrupted when Slink rushes past with the forklift, she shoots out the lights in the factory and has her team use their night vision goggles to see in the darkness, however thanks to the moonlight through the windows, Thunderhoof can still see the others, and gives them chase.

Due to all of the fighting the factory starts to collapse around the Cybertronians, the Autobots escape and give chase to Slink's team, whilst Thudnerhoof it left behind, seemingly trapped, but not for long, he escapes from the rubble and is angry.

The Bee Team soon find the newer Decepticons and manage to stop their plan, and capture them, the team head through the Groundbridge to head back to base, but Sideswipe is intercepted before he can leave by Thunderhoof and is forced to fight him again, he manages to use Thunderhoof's size to his advantage and tricks him into plummeting into the harbour's water. Bee returns through the Groundbridge and is complimented by his team leader for his quick thinking, Sideswipe claims he owes it all to his good teacher, and Bumblebee says the same, thinking about Optimus.

Characters

Autobot

Bumblebee - Sports Car

Sideswipe - Sports Car

Strongarm - Police SUV

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

Fixit

Optimus Prime - Truck (Vision in water)

Decepticon

Steeljaw - Van

Thunderhoof - Tractor

Underbite - Cybertronian Car

Slink the Catbot Captured by Bee Team

Sneak the Weaselbot Captured by Bee Team 

Snitch the Ratbot Captured by Bee Team 

Human

Denny Clay

Russell Clay

Joey

Johnny

Steve

Notes

• This is the second book in the new RID2015 series
• The first chapter of this book was previewed in the previous book, but included different pictures and was formatted differently.
• The teenagers seem to be well-versed in films, with Steve apparently seeing all Kaiju movies, and Johnny recalling Jurassic Park and Christine (but not saying their names). Considering this series should be sset in the future from now, these movies should probably be quite old by this time.
• This story has no sign of Drift or his Mini-Cons, further implying that his insertion in the last book was last-minute.
• Steeljaw reveals his plan is to find the Anti-Spark...could this be the major danger hinted at throughout season one of the cartoon?
• Thudnerhoof's line of "would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling bots" is a reference to the famous line from the Scooby-Doo series. To add to the similarities this was after he disguised himself as a local legend monster and was unveiled as fake.
• The only bit of information about the new three Decepticons we get is that Slink is black, none of them transform in the story, but appear to be small since they can all use the forklift in the factory.
• Slink's plan was to steal all the pet food in the factory and force the humans to pay through the nose to get it back so they can feed their beloved pets....that is EVIL!!!
• Why didn't one of the newer Decepticons take the form of the forklift rather than getting a normal one to ride in?