Chapter Summaries

Pioneer defeated the [Constructicons] and discovered that [Sideways] had escaped, then reported the exposed base’s situation to Sun Cheng. He incapacitated [Wheelie] with a Plasma Anesthetic Round and approached the still-twitching [Constructicons] with a dagger.

• Pioneer easily defeated the [Constructicons], while [Sideways] fled after being injured by missiles.
• Pioneer noticed [Wheelie] had secretly sent a long-range communication and relayed the battle and the base’s exposure to Sun Cheng.
• [Wheelie] begged for his life and offered information about Lord Frenzy and Lord Soundwave.
• Pioneer fired a Plasma Anesthetic Round at [Wheelie], paralyzing him without immediately killing him.
• Pioneer drew a dagger and walked toward the still-twitching [Constructicons].

Sun Cheng welcomed Pioneer back in Belize with an AllSpark fragment after Pioneer defeated a Constructicon and captured Wheelie. Impressed by the results, Sun Cheng promised to improve Pioneer's body and ordered him to document the battle for review.

• Pioneer knelt before Sun Cheng and presented him with a lead box containing an AllSpark fragment.
• Sun Cheng praised Pioneer for his success and reflected on the dangers facing his small force among the Autobots, Decepticons, and human powers.
• Sun Cheng ordered Pioneer to send battle recordings and a report on the strengths and weaknesses of his new body to him and the base.
• Sun Cheng examined the Constructicon's severed head and the captured Wheelie, considering how they might help him learn about the Devastator Project and Soundwave.
• Sun Cheng promised to have the Engineers improve and reinforce Pioneer's body once matters in Belize were settled.

Sun Cheng secured the AllSpark fragment, the Constructicon's head, and the unconscious Wheelie before setting out with Pioneer for Washington to investigate a dormant Decepticon. After avoiding military surveillance and several groups of Autobots and Decepticons, they finally reached the capital.

• Sun Cheng sealed the AllSpark fragment in a radiation-proof container and stored it with the Constructicon's head in his Spherical Space.
• Sun Cheng locked the unconscious Wheelie in a reinforced cage and stored him away for later.
• Sun Cheng asked Pioneer if he could fight again, and Pioneer declared himself ready.
• Sun Cheng and Pioneer flew toward Washington in stealth, evading American radar and satellite scans as well as nearby Autobots and Decepticons.
• Sun Cheng and Pioneer arrived in Washington after more than ten hours of flight.

Sun Cheng and Pioneer entered Washington under heightened security and reached the National Air and Space Museum to find a dormant Decepticon they believed might be Pathfinder. The chapter left Sun Cheng inside the exhibition hall, looking at the Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft.

• Sun Cheng and Pioneer landed in Washington and noticed that its air defenses and alert level had increased.
• Sun Cheng wondered whether an incident beyond the stolen AllSpark fragment had alarmed the United States, but chose not to investigate through his covert contacts.
• Pioneer led Sun Cheng past the museum's guards and surveillance systems to the exhibition hall where the suspected Decepticon slept.
• Pioneer cut an opening through the hall's rolling shutter, and Sun Cheng entered and looked toward the Blackbird aircraft.

Sun Cheng discovered that the Blackbird in the museum was Jetfire, an ancient Decepticon whose spark was depleted and body was nearly beyond repair. After accessing Jetfire’s memories, Sun Cheng learned how his creator Wheel had named him and sent him out to explore Cybertron.

• Sun Cheng and Pioneer inspected the Blackbird and confirmed the Decepticon insignia beneath its fuselage.
• Sun Cheng scanned the aircraft and found that Jetfire was on the verge of death, with a depleted spark and badly decayed internal structures.
• Sun Cheng connected to Jetfire’s core and accessed his memory chip.
• Jetfire’s memories showed Wheel naming him and raising him in a laboratory on Jetfire Plateau for over two thousand years.
• Wheel told Jetfire to leave, explore Cybertron, and seek knowledge from Shockwave.

Sun Cheng stole all of Jetfire’s memories and discovered the ancient Decepticon elder’s history and scientific expertise. As dawn approached, Sun Cheng realized the memories could give him a major opportunity to build his own strength.

• Sun Cheng relived Jetfire’s memories, including his meetings with Shockwave, Sentinel Prime, and Megatronus, who later became the Fallen.
• Pioneer warned Sun Cheng that dawn was near after killing two guards who had patrolled into the exhibition hall.
• Sun Cheng struggled with the flood of memories but recognized how much he had gained from them.
• Sun Cheng recalled his precarious position among the Decepticons and his growing need to establish his own faction.
• Sun Cheng learned that Jetfire had been an ancient scholar and warrior who helped Shockwave transform the Global Defense Force into the Decepticons and design their bodies and weapons.

Sun Cheng absorbed Jetfire’s memories and discovered the legendary Space Bridge technology. He decided to take Jetfire’s Blackbird body into his Spherical Space, despite the risks of bringing along a still-living Decepticon elder.

• Sun Cheng reviewed Jetfire’s memories and found valuable knowledge of ancient Cybertron, including the Space Bridge.
• Sun Cheng realized his expanded Spherical Space could hold the Blackbird and chose to remove it from the exhibition hall.
• Sun Cheng judged that Jetfire’s AllSpark was exhausted and his body was decaying from old age, not Cosmic Rust.
• Sun Cheng worried that Jetfire could pose a danger if revived, but decided not to risk using an AllSpark fragment to awaken him.
• Sun Cheng touched the Blackbird and made it vanish into his Spherical Space.

Sun Cheng and Pioneer escaped Washington with Blackbird and flew toward their South American base, but Sun Cheng detected four Autobots in Louisiana and later encountered signs of four Decepticons near Port of Lázaro Cárdenas. The chapter left Sun Cheng and Pioneer facing an unexplained Decepticon presence in Mexico.

• Sun Cheng transferred Blackbird into the Spherical Space within his body and left Washington with Pioneer before dawn.
• Sun Cheng and Pioneer flew south for hours, avoiding U.S. military bases and reaching Louisiana.
• Sun Cheng detected four Autobot signals nearby, and he and Pioneer wondered whether the Autobots had tracked them or their earlier battle in Mexico.
• Sun Cheng chose to detour around the Autobots and continue toward South America to deliver Jetfire to Base Two.
• Near Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, Sun Cheng detected four violent, erratic signals that belonged to Decepticons.

Sun Cheng detected four Decepticons near Mexico’s Port of Lázaro Cárdenas and sent Pioneer ahead to Base Two while he investigated. He recognized two of the Decepticons aboard a cargo ship as members of the Demolishor Team, deepening his suspicion that something dangerous had happened beyond his notice.

• Sun Cheng detected four Decepticons near the port and ordered Pioneer to continue to Base Two while he stayed behind.
• Sun Cheng considered whether the American military’s heightened alert and the Autobots in Louisiana meant nuclear weapons had been stolen again.
• Sun Cheng found the four Decepticons disguised as construction vehicles aboard the cargo ship Mrs. Windsor.
• Sun Cheng recognized the green truck as Excavator and the blue-and-white cement mixer as Mixmaster, both members of the Demolishor Team.

Sun Cheng discovered that Long Haul and three other Demolishor Team members were hiding aboard the cargo ship Mrs. Windsor, suggesting the Decepticons were preparing a major operation. Before leaving the port of Lázaro Cárdenas, he obtained the ship’s records through a human informant while taking precautions against Soundwave’s surveillance.

• Sun Cheng recognized Long Haul and three other Decepticons as members of the Demolishor Team and suspected the Decepticons were planning a major operation.
• Sun Cheng waited a day at the port of Lázaro Cárdenas, but the Decepticons aboard Mrs. Windsor made no move.
• Sun Cheng decided to leave for Severodvinsk and return to Starscream’s sight rather than keep waiting.
• Sun Cheng received a call from a Mexican senator he had paid to obtain the Mexican Maritime Commission’s records on Mrs. Windsor.
• Sun Cheng instructed the senator to send electronic copies of the ship’s records to a secure mailbox, then received the files through a communications satellite under his control.

Sun Cheng suspected the cargo ship [Mrs. Windsor] was carrying four Decepticons toward the Philippines, but he could not spare time to follow it. Back at Base Two, he handed [Wheelie] to his engineers and prepared to examine Jetfire before returning to Russia.

• Sun Cheng examined the [Mrs. Windsor]'s history and questioned why an American ship normally sailing between the United States and Europe had appeared in Mexico bound for the Philippines.
• Sun Cheng considered whether Megatron might still be alive in the Mariana Trench and chose not to assume the four Decepticons aboard the ship were connected to him.
• The [Mrs. Windsor] departed the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas, and Sun Cheng recorded the four Decepticons' electromagnetic spectra and visual data before flying back to Base Two.
• Sun Cheng asked a high-ranking CIA official to gather more information on the [Mrs. Windsor] and gave [Wheelie] to Atlas and the other engineers for interrogation.
• Sun Cheng summoned most of Base Two's engineers and Phantom to conduct a thorough examination of Jetfire.

Sun Cheng’s engineers examined Jetfire and discovered that his independent energy system had kept him alive after his Spark went out. Atlas said that only the Matrix of Leadership or the AllSpark might revive him, prompting Sun Cheng to suspect Atlas was hiding something.

• Sun Cheng’s engineers scanned Jetfire and identified his powerful weapons system and auxiliary energy supply.
• Sun Cheng silenced the engineers when they proposed reading Jetfire’s memories without permission.
• Atlas told Sun Cheng that Jetfire could perhaps be revived with the Matrix of Leadership or the AllSpark.
• Sun Cheng recalled that he possessed AllSpark fragments and realized Atlas might be trying to trick him.

Sun Cheng refused to spend an AllSpark fragment reviving Jetfire and decided to read the elder Decepticon’s memories himself, keeping their secrets from his engineers. As he considered how to use Jetfire, Phantom reported that a satellite had gone missing.

• Atlas claimed an AllSpark fragment could revive Jetfire with at least eighty percent confidence, but Sun Cheng declined to awaken him for now.
• Sun Cheng ordered that Jetfire’s memories be read, especially to obtain advanced Cybertronian technology, and refused to let Atlas or the engineers handle the task.
• Sun Cheng’s cold response intimidated Atlas and the other Decepticons, who left the laboratory after he dismissed them.
• Sun Cheng considered how to maximize Jetfire’s value until alarms sounded and Phantom reported that contact with a satellite had been lost six minutes earlier.

Sun Cheng discovered that satellite A-6 had gone offline and suspected Soundwave was responsible. He ordered the satellite’s ground station erased, then considered why Soundwave might be targeting him.

• Phantom told Sun Cheng that satellite A-6 had lost contact over the Atlantic and would not respond to diagnostics.
• Sun Cheng ordered Phantom to activate A-6’s self-destruct mechanism, but Phantom reported that it could not be activated and the satellite was completely lost.
• Sun Cheng ordered Phantom to erase the ground receiving station in French Guiana and abandon it.
• Sun Cheng ruled out the Autobots and suspected Soundwave, whose intelligence skills could have let him seize or destroy A-6.
• Sun Cheng wondered whether Soundwave was coming after him, but questioned why Soundwave would act before recovering from his injuries or abandoning Megatron.

Sun Cheng traced the satellite attack to an intelligence report about Dylan Gould and the freighter Mrs. Windsor, which had transported four Decepticons in Mexico. He concluded that Gould was highly suspicious and decided to investigate him further.

• Phantom showed Sun Cheng information about Mrs. Windsor that had been uploaded to A-6's receiving station shortly before the satellite was attacked.
• Phantom confirmed that B-2, the CIA agent investigating Mrs. Windsor's owner, had sent the report and that B-2's satellite communicator could no longer be located.
• Sun Cheng learned that B-2 had likely been killed and identified the freighter's owner as Dylan Gould, a wealthy investor and collector.
• Sun Cheng connected Gould to the four Decepticons he had found aboard Mrs. Windsor in Mexico and resolved to keep investigating him.

Sun Cheng suspected Dylan Gould and his father James of serving a Decepticon, and he found a watch that had passed from James to Dylan and appeared in photographs across decades. Before returning to Russia, he ordered Phantom to begin the Awakening Plan as insurance.

• Sun Cheng considered whether Soundwave, Starscream, or Megatron had secretly supported the Goulds, but could not determine who stood behind them.
• Sun Cheng searched photographs of James Gould and Dylan Gould and asked Phantom to identify what was both different and the same in them.
• Phantom spotted the watch on both men, which James had worn from 1969 until 1997 and Dylan had worn ever since.
• Sun Cheng set aside further investigation, decided to return to Russia, and ordered Phantom to begin the Awakening Plan.

Sun Cheng arrived at Base Two’s precision factory to begin the long-prepared Awakening Plan. He inspected three powerful Decepticon bodies, intended to awaken Blackout, and hesitated before the task.

• Atlas and the engineers welcomed Sun Cheng as he entered the underground precision factory area.
• Sun Cheng saw how the factory had been converted to produce and store Decepticon bodies.
• Atlas showed Sun Cheng three completed bodies prepared for awakening.
• Sun Cheng examined the bodies and focused on the largest, knowing he intended to awaken Blackout.

Sun Cheng prepared to use the [Awakening] technology he had developed to revive Blackout, hoping to strengthen Base Two as Earth’s conflicts threatened to escalate. He knew reviving a former Decepticon elite could be dangerous, but he concluded that expanding his forces was his best option.

• Sun Cheng recalled how the Battle of Las Vegas had given him the [AllSpark] fragments, parts of Jazz, and Blackout's head, along with valuable knowledge from their memory chips.
• Sun Cheng considered how Decepticon medical technology and experiments with medical spiders had enabled his Engineers to master [Awakening].
• Sun Cheng thought of Frenzy, whose revival had left him loathing the control Soundwave had exerted over his fate, and recognized the risks of awakening Blackout.
• Sun Cheng judged that Earth's gathering threats left him too little time to improve his own strength, so he decided to strengthen Base Two by reviving Blackout.

Sun Cheng considered the risks of reviving Blackout and ensuring his loyalty, then approved the final inspection of Blackout’s newly designed core. After examining it himself, he handed it to Atlas as the engineers prepared the body for activation.

• Sun Cheng weighed ways to control Blackout’s loyalty, including altering his memories, but recognized the risks and drawbacks.
• Atlas told Sun Cheng that Blackout’s new core was ready for installation and asked whether he wanted to inspect it.
• Sun Cheng approved the inspection and explained that the core had been kept in storage until his personal authorization.
• The engineers moved the other unactivated bodies aside and retrieved Blackout’s dark green core from the laboratory.
• Sun Cheng scanned the core for nearly a minute, then returned it to Atlas.

Sun Cheng and the engineers awakened Blackout in his new body using an AllSpark fragment, preparing to subdue him if he went berserk. Blackout instead accepted Sun Cheng as his commander, and Sun Cheng renamed him Thunder.

• Sun Cheng ordered the engineers to awaken Blackout after Atlas installed his core in the new body.
• An engineer brought an AllSpark fragment to Blackout’s Spark, which flared to life as Sun Cheng ordered the fragment withdrawn before it could fuse with him.
• Blackout’s new body convulsed as energy spread through it, and Sun Cheng ordered the engineers back while Atlas and Pioneer prepared to control him.
• After about ten minutes, Blackout stopped twitching, recognized Sun Cheng as his commander, and pledged to fight for him again.
• Sun Cheng welcomed Blackout back and gave him the new name Thunder.