Kidnapping!? The Targeted Jumbo Jet



Seeking live humans for their Destroid experiments, the Decepticons attack jumbo jets, bringing the Autobots into contact with a young girl named Minerva.


 * English/Malay dub name: "The Case of the Missing Plane"
 * Also known as: "The Targeted Jumbo Jet"

Detailed synopsis
In the skies above the Strait of Dover, just off the English coast, Flight 308 from the Republic of Mont Porte suddenly hits unexpected turbulence and is bombarded by purple lightning - the work of Blood, who spirits the plane and all its passengers away!

Meanwhile, in Japan, Shuta searches for Cab in the forest surrounding the Autobots' new base, and is quite amazed to discover that the wild boy has built a live-in treehouse there, rather than move into the school dorimtory. It's at this point that Cab drops out of a tree and holds his knife to Shuta's throat - but he's just playing, as Cab's pet parrot confirms when it flies out cheering that Cab has "won." Cab shows Shuta around his treehouse, where his pet armadillo is lounging around, and the two boys admire the view from the treetops, talking about how they can help the Autobots fight the Decepticons. Across the forest, in the Autobot base, Hawk is looking into the disappearance of the Mont Porte jumbo jet, and recieves a report from Lander that no trace of it has been found. Naturally, Hawk suspects Decepticon involvement, as does Diver, when he radios in that a second jet has been attacked near Corsica. This jet, however, has crashed, rather than disappeared, and the Pretenders head for the accident site to help. Cab and Shuta catch Metalhawk before he leaves, both begged to come along, and their incessant arguing amongst each other is enough to convince Metalhawk to make commercial flight arrangements for the boys so that they can come and help out.

Metalhawk meets with Diver on the Corsican coast, and they head for the hospital where the plane's injured passengers have been taken. There, posing as government invesigators, they encounter a young girl who was on the craft, but escaped mostly uninjured - Minerva, daughter of Mont Porte's ambassador to Japan, who was also on the flight. She tells the two men of the "bat monster" she saw attacking the plane, and it becomes clear to the Autobots that the Decepticons' evil is at work.

At the same time, in Rome, Blood, Gilmer and Dauros unleash their newest creations on the unsuspecting populace - Destroids created from the living passengers of Flight 308. Dauros berates Blood for allowing the second jet to escape his clutches, and exposition from Gilmer reveals that the Decepticons are searching for Mont Porte's famous Nobel-Prize-winning biologist, Professor Blanieux, to put his knowledge to use in improving their Destroid experiments. News reports of the attack on Rome soon reach the Autobots in Corsica (now joined by Cab, Shuta, Lander and Phoenix), and they realize what the Decepticons have done with Flight 308. Speeding to Rome, they employ knock-out gas to avoid huring the Destroids, and Lander and Diver pursue the Deception Pretenders into tunnels beneath the city, only to turn up nothing.

Back in Corsica, Cab and Shuta meet Minerva, and both boys are instantly smitten with the pretty girl, instantly leading to more arguments. Hawk soon returns from the Autobots' mission, and talks with Minerva's father, who intends to complete his trip to Japan the next day. Professor Blanieux is coming with him to attend an academic conference, having taken a chartered flight from Mont Porte to Corsica after news of the first attack. Hawk requests that he and Phoenix be allowed to accompany them, and the ambassador allows it.

The next day, the Hawk, Phoenix, Cab and Shuta join Minerva, her family and Blanieux on their flight to Japan, but it's not long before Hawk spots a crackle of purple lightning in the clouds nearby, followed by the silhouetted form of Blood. He and Phoenix Suit On and confront the Decepticon on the wing of the plane - much to the shock of Minerva, who turns on Cab and Shuta for lying to her. However, the true danger then becomes apparent - the plane's flight attendant has secretly been transformed into a Destroid! Cab and Shuta defend the professor from the Destroid, and then hold her back as she attempts to bring the plane down, while Blood, Metalhawk and Phoenix transform to jet mode and dogfight in the skies outside. The two Autobots are struck from behind by Kraken Seacons which emerge from the waves below, but they easily dispatch them and Blood flees. Cab and Shuta, meanwhile, manage to incapacitate the Destroid, but the plane is still in nosedive, until Phoenix and Metalhawk slip under its wings and lift it on their own backs, carrying to safety.

Back on the ground, the Autobots apolgize for lying to Minerva, but she forgives them after seeing both theirs and and Cab and Shuta's heroic actions. As she is coming to live in Japan with her parents, the two boys invite Minerva to attend the International School with them. With the people turned into Destroids returned to normal through the expertise of Professor Blanieux, all is well for now... but the most incredible transformation yet is just about to occur!

Stats
Original airdate: 26th April 1988

Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Transformers references

 * The Destroids, which previously appeared in "Terror! The Decepticons' Manhunt," are named here for the first time. It's also their last appearance.

Real-world references

 * As in the Headmasters episode, "Terror! The Six Shadows", London is depicted as being famously foggy (but not, at least, as a forest with a clock in it). Indeed, this is a not-uncommon depiction of London in fiction written by people who've never been there - London hasn't had thick fog of the type such stories talk about since the 1950s.

Miscellaneous trivia

 * As will become more and more clear as the series progresses, Super-God Masteforce is not a show that spoon-feeds its audience the obvious, relying on the intelligence of the viewers to put two and two together without having to be explicitly told that they make four. For example, in this episode, it is simply said that the Decepticons want Blanieux "for their experiments" - it is up to the audience to realise that they want his prize-winning biological skills to improve the Destroid conversion process.