King of the Hill (Part 2)

King of the Hill (Part 2) is the second episode of Season 3 and the forty-seventh overall of Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Plot
The Bee Team finds themselves struggling to contain the Stunticon while trying to avoid catastrophe at a nuclear waste disposal site.

Synopsis
As five guided missiles head towards them, the Autobots turn tail to try to draw them away from the nuclear waste disposal site in Grand Valley, but swiftly realize Grimlock is lagging behind. Drift fortunately recognizes the type of missile and the Autobots are able to use their comms to remotely short out the detonators. That dealt with, they return to the task of apprehending the Stunticon and start making their way towards his hiding place on a rocky outcropping.

Russell's football game is not going well, and he dejectedly leaves the field, believing he can't make a field goal while the opposing team has that one really tall kid.

When Sideswipe and Strongarm reveal that they encountered a hermit before, Bumblebee tells them to go make sure he leaves the area. The Autobots split up, with Bumblebee and Drift finding their path goes through a disused gas station. Observed by the mysterious Mini-Con, the pair start making their way across, only to find the Stunticon's scattered oil-filled barrels around. The boastful Heatseeker appears and starts blowing the barrels up with missiles, forcing the pair to take cover.

Strongarm and Sideswipe find the hermit, who is still determined to find some aliens. Sideswipe takes the initiative to transform to robot mode and reveal that he's an alien. The hermit is about to go contact the Army, but when the pair try to talk him out of it, he concludes he's hallucinating due to being drugged by the government, and drives off in panic.

As Grimlock joins Bumblebee and Drift, Bumblebee asks him to create a distraction. Grimlock charges at Heatseeker and quickly gets knocked around by exploding barrels, but this successfully allows his fellow bots to sneak up behind the Stunticon. Heatseeker takes out Drift using a stunt flip, then sends Bumblebee hurtling into a huge pool of oil. Bumblebee desperately tries to get traction with his tires as a missile streaks towards him... and then suddenly the Mini-Con links with him, giving his vehicle mode flight capability.

Russell packs away his helmet, and when Hank questions him, he claims he's injured his ankle. Denny sits down and tells Russel about his days as a straight-A student, and the emotional crash of the day he got a D... and then how he refused to allow himself to wallow in that setback, and got right back to working hard and making good grades (and then sell vintage stuff to discerning collectors).

Bumblebee takes a moment to enjoy his new flight mode before trying to question the Mini-Con. He doesn't get anywhere before more of Heatseeker's missiles appear. The rest of the Autobots pick Drift up and observe Bumblebee's flight as he shakes the missiles. They all head after Heatseeker, who's found the hermit trying to fix his broken-down RV. They manage to surround the Stunticon, letting the hermit escape. The cornered Heatseeker prepares to fire more missiles, and the Autobots dogpile him quickly, but not quick enough to stop his armed missiles from detonating right in the middle of the pile of bodies. As the smoke clears, Heatseeker has run for it, and the Bee Team is unconscious... and merged into one big robot.

Heatseeker continues to run for it, but as he passes by the abandoned gas station, he notices a half-buried piece of Cybertronian technology.

Russell returns to the football game, realizing that giving up really isn't an option, volunteering to kick a field goal. He talks to Hank about adjusting their strategy, and with a little change in their setup, he's able to clear the extremely tall kid and score the winning field goal. The combiner decombines, and the Autobots regain consciousness none-the-wiser as to what's happened. As they try to work out what's happened, Bumblebee realizes his Decepticon Hunter is missing, and they decide to head home and prepare for future confrontations.

Heatseeker meets with his chief, who is not surprise with the Stunticon's return. But Heatseeker quickly lies about why he's back, omitting the whole "Autobots beat him up" thing and showing off the new technology-tracking device he found.

Meanwhile, the Mini-Con, in possession of the missing Decepticon Hunter, opens a purple GroundBridge portal through which the voice of Soundwave orders him to bring the weapon.

Autobots

 * Ultra Bee
 * Bumblebee
 * Strongarm
 * Sideswipe
 * Grimlock
 * Drift

Decepticons

 * Heatseeker
 * Motormaster
 * Soundwave (Voice Only)

Humans

 * Denny Clay
 * Russell Clay
 * Hank

Others

 * Stuntwing

Quotes
"Hi guys! I'm alive!"
 * —Grimlock tries out for the role of Captain Obvious

"No, you're not aliens. No visitors from another planet would disguise themselves as flashy cars!"
 * —The hermit displays impeccable logic.

"You know... I was a good student, when I was your age. Got all A's. But then, I got a D. It floored me, for a long time after that. I didn't think I could ever get an A again."

"So you quit school and started a successful business selling vintage stuff?"

"Nnnnoooo... I realized that if I quit then, I could find a reason to quit anything for the rest of my life, and I didn't wanna do that. So I went back, figured out what I was doing wrong, and worked at it. Hard. And I started getting A's again. ...and after I graduated, then I started a successful business selling vintage stuff."
 * —Denny gets a little real with Russell

"Chief. It finds Cybertronian tech. And there's tons of it on this mudball!"
 * —Heatseeker tells Motormaster that scavenger hunting never changes.

Continuity notes

 * Sideswipe mulls over what affects the area's background radiation might have on them. This actually does come up later....
 * The fact that Earth seems to be nothing less than Cybertron's favorite dumpster for various artifacts and relics has been a continuing thing since "Masters and Students".
 * Soundwave was trapped in the Shadowzone way back in "Deadlock", and escaped briefly in "Portals" before being chucked back in by the Bee Team.

Transformers references

 * Sideswipe makes an approximation of the classic transformation noise while transforming in front of the hermit.

Trivia

 * Before this episode, the only time Soundwave spoke in his own voice in the Aligned cartoons was in "Minus One", for the purpose of trolling his Autobot captors. Apparently his "choosing not to speak" thing has been dismissed in the name of efficient communication with his new minions.