End of the Decepticons' Pursuit

"Buzz buzz buzz..."

The morning light cut across the horizon, shining down on the yellow sand and Gobi Desert, reflecting a faint golden glow.

Under the watchful eyes of Stark and the others, a pitch-black Attack Helicopter descended slowly into the camp like a massive black eagle.

When the cockpit door opened and Stark saw the young, boyish face of the person stepping out, his eyes went wide.

"Merlin! My god, Merlin's Beard, it really is you." Just moments ago, when Frank and the others told him that Merlin was in charge of logistics and planning for this mission, he hadn't quite believed it.

After all, the other party was still a High School Student. The thought of him traveling thousands of miles to Afghanistan to rescue him was something Stark hadn't even dared to imagine.

Merlin smiled and waved at him. "Long time no see, Mr. Stark."

"Long time no see. Honestly, seeing you really gave me a shock." Stark shook his head, a hint of emotion in his voice.

The two chatted for a while, then Merlin turned his gaze to the two people lying on the ground.

Erica, clad in red, had a short fork pierced through her chest, her breath already gone.

As for Bullseye, his back was a mess of blood and flesh, but he still had a faint breath of life.

"Bullseye's vitality is pretty tenacious, but even if we save him, he'll only be paralyzed in bed from now on," Frank said. With that last shotgun blast, Bullseye's spine had been shattered by him.

If the distance had been closer, it would have been a gaping hole.

"Tch. Wouldn't it have been better to just finish the mission properly? Had to go for the kill steal." Merlin shook his head.

The mission had gone smoothly. With his constant callouts, basically no one got hurt. Even without Merlin, they could have handled the enemies, but the margin for error would have been high.

But in the end, internal conflict left one dead and one crippled.

Still, Merlin had expected something like this and wasn't too surprised.

"That said, I'm actually surprised you didn't finish him off with a killing blow," Merlin remarked, thinking of Frank's usual methods.

"We're still teammates for now," Frank said flatly.

The game wasn't over yet.

Merlin shrugged, then looked at Stark and the others.

"Are you coming back with us, or waiting for someone to pick you up?"

"There are two empty spots now." Merlin pointed at the two on the ground.

Yinsen looked at Stark. Honestly, he was still a bit confused about the situation.

"Of course I'm coming with you. I don't want to stay in a camp full of corpses," Stark answered without a second thought.

"Alright then, lift them up and put them in the middle of the cabin. Let's go. We can talk on the plane."

"What about my armor?" Stark pointed at the prototype suit he was wearing.

"Leave it here. My helicopter can't fit it."

"If you can't bear to part with it, you can call your people to come pick it up."

"Guess that's the only way..." Stark certainly didn't want to abandon it. This was his first suit of armor, crude as it was, it had sentimental value worth keeping.

After stripping off the armor, he followed Natasha and the others onto the helicopter. He also called Obadiah and Pepper to report he was safe and asked them to send someone to retrieve the armor, then left the camp with the group.

Natasha, meanwhile, reported the scene to Director Fury.

But Fury was currently dealing with a headache over a mysterious intrusion signal.

Apple City, Manhattan, Broadway.

Broadway was the theater and entertainment hub of Apple City, close to Wall Street, and had long been a place for high-society entertainment.

Yet today, chaos erupted on the bustling streets of Broadway. A yellow Chevrolet sports car sped down the road, with a police car in hot pursuit.

The two vehicles raced through the streets. In the driver's seat of the beat-up Chevrolet was a short-haired High School Student, both hands clutching his head in panic, shouting incoherently.

And the pursuing Ford Mustang police car was even stranger—the driver's seat was empty, with no one at the wheel.

"Bumblebee, stop! Hand that human over to me!" Barricade's shout spread out as a special frequency.

Receiving the frequency, Bumblebee didn't reply. He just carried Sam headlong toward an open area.

Soon, under the chase, they arrived at a secluded spot beneath an overpass, desolate and filled with concrete pillars.

Bumblebee slid sideways into a drift, swung open the door, and flung Sam out.

Then, right before Sam's stunned eyes, he began to transform.

"Clank! Clank! Clank..."

With a crisp series of mechanical sounds, the car's parts disassembled and reassembled. The Chevrolet his father had bought for four thousand dollars had turned into a towering robot.

The moment Bumblebee transformed, his hand cannon shot out, aiming at the pursuing Barricade police car.

"Boom!" The Plasma Cannon exploded right in front of Barricade, kicking up a thick cloud of smoke and sparks.

Barricade slid sideways to dodge, then transformed into a giant robot with glowing red eyes, bursting through the smoke. His hands turned into cutting claws as he lunged straight at Bumblebee.

At the same time, a small robot popped out of Barricade's body like a spider and chased after Sam.

Barricade was a scout and hunter among the Decepticons, typically equipped with a Cybertronian Spider that functioned like a hunting dog.

Facing the pursuit without understanding what was happening, Sam could only panic and dodge frantically through the Stone Pillar Forest.

But in his blind flight, he clearly couldn't outrun the small robot chasing him, and soon its grappling hook snagged his backpack.

"Thud!" Dragged by the small robot, Sam suddenly fell to the ground.

"Whirrr..." The small robot's claws spun at high speed, drilling toward Sam like a bit.

"Tell me! Are you Mr. Popular!"

"No, no, no, I'm Sam, Sam Witwicky." Sam stared at the drill getting closer and shouted in terror.

"No, you are Mr. Popular."

As the drill drew nearer, Sam suddenly thought of something. "Wait, wait, my online username is Mr. Popular..."

But before he could finish, the robot's head was pierced by a red laser beam.

Sam turned in shock and saw a modified red Ducati motorcycle speeding toward two massive Autobots.

"Whoosh!!!" At that moment, a piercing sound came from the sky as a gray F22 Raptor fighter jet suddenly appeared on the battlefield.

"Fwoosh! Fwoosh!!!" Four missiles screamed out, enveloping Bumblebee.

"Boom boom boom!!!"

Under the impact of the fiery explosion, Bumblebee was sent flying and slammed heavily into a concrete pillar.

But just as Starscream was about to transform and grab Bumblebee, several missiles suddenly exploded on his body.

"Boom boom boom!!!" Fireballs burst across the F22 Raptor jet that was Starscream's alternate form, and his body plummeted straight toward the ground.