The Lake Trap

Tasmania Kid's desire to make a name for himself lands the rest of the Maximals in danger.

Synopsis
While out on the prowl, wishing he had scanned a beast mode that would let him fly, Tasmania Kid stumbles across the Autorollers constructing a Predacon base along the shores of a lake. Observing from afar, he decides to advance his standing amongst the Maximals by taking the base down himself, and radios the Yukikaze to tell them he's “bringing something back” to make up for his failure to return on time. While Diver speculates that it might be some tasty oil, Apache bellows at Kid to reveal his position. Kid cuts off the transmission, and Apache continues ranting at the console until Diver points out that Kid is no longer listening.

Up on the moon, Artemis is particularly distressed to observe the disruption of Gaea's Angolmois energy as the Predacons suck it up. Moon, on the other hand, is more interested in sucking up all the juice he's drinking, earning him a bonk on the noggin from Artemis's hammer.



Back at the lake, Tasmania Kids sneaks closer to the Autorollers' building site, and meets a real Tasmanian devil along the way. While thinking on how to proceed, Kid observes the little animal burrowing into the ground, and hits upon the idea to dig his way under the building site and plant some explosive charges. Kid grins happily as his bombs tear the base apart and the Autorollers peel out, but his levity is abruptly brought to an end when a cage of electrically-charged bars suddenly springs out of the ground around him. Starscream's voice sounds over a loudspeaker, confirming the Maximal's suspicion that the whole thing was a trap. The real Predacon base is, in fact, at the bottom of the lake, and Kid is quickly transported there and locked in a cell. Starscream taunts him that the other Maximals will soon come to rescue him, and walk straight into their trap. Determined to fix his own mistake, Kid escapes into an air vent, but the Combatrons are able to observe his movements from the control room and laughs as they see that he is moving himself into a corner. Suddenly, Megastorm appears on the viewscreen, demanding an update on the plan. Dirge and Thrust suggest that the plan might go smoother if they were put in charge, and the whole group starts bickering, but Megastorm threatens to execute them all if their fighting causes the plan to fail.



Nearby, Lio Convoy, Bighorn and Apache are tracking Kid's last transmission when they cross paths with the Tasmanian devil. The animal gets their attention and leads them to the lake, where they catch the scent of gunpowder from the explosion. Jut as they realize that the lake was the site of the Decepticon base, the electrified cage suddenly appears around the Maximals, but they are all able to leap clear before it traps them. Starscream's voice is heard once again, announcing that they have captured Tasmania Kid, and that the Maximals must surrender if they want to see him alive again. To convince them, Starscream plays them a hologram of Kid in the base's ventilation system, dodging jets of flame and razor-sharp blades that spring out of the walls. As Lio Convoy struggles with the decision, Diver quietly pops his head out of the lake and whispers to his leader that he has discovered the Preadcon base on the bottom of the lake. With this knowledge, Lio Convoy quickly puts a plan into place and agrees to surrender. The cage surrounds the team, while Diver silently swims off, followed by Scuba and the Tasmanian devil.



Beneath the waters of the lake, Thrust and Dirge head out in a small submersible to collect Lio Convoy and the Maximals. When Dirge looks through the periscope to sight the Maximals, however, he is shocked to see the face of the Tasmanian devil looking back at him, and mistakes it for Tasmania Kid, thinking that he has escaped the base. The pair race back to the base, allowing Diver and Scuba to follow their submarine through the airlock. While Dirge and Thrust chase the Tasmanian devil through the base, Diver and Scuba split up to rescue Kid and deactivate the cage. Scuba follows Dirge and Thrust, and watches as they are chastised by Starscream for mistaking the Tasmanian devil for Kid, since they can see that he is still in the ventilation system on the viewscreen. Scuba chooses this moment to step forward, weapon drawn, but suddenly hears Kid's voice, as the young Maximal bangs on the vent wall to attract his team-mate's attention. The vent is in the process of flooding, and Scuba quickly shoots out the wall, freeing Kid. BB immediately opens fire on the two Maximals, but misses, and the duo disappear into the smoke as Starscream swats his comrade and tells him not to fire inside the base. The four Combatrons give chase, and Kid and Scuba think they have shaken them when Thrust and Dirge transform to jet mode and are unable to turn a corner to follow them. Unfortunately, they are playing on the Preadcons' home turf, and the villains shut off corridors to halt the Maximals' escape and soon catch up to them. Cornered, Kid at least begs them to let the Tasmanian devil go, but Scuba tells him it is too early to give upand true enough, just as the words pass his lips, the door melts away, revealing Lio Convoy and the other Maximals, who have been freed by Diver.



Meanwhile, Megastorm has been watching the whole sad scene on his viewscreen, and, enraged, announces over a loudspeaker that he intends to blow up the entire base with the Maximals inside. As the corridor closes off in front of them, allowing the Combatrons to escape, the Maximals are left unsure of which way to go to escape, but the Tasmanian devil comes to the rescue once again and leads them outside with moments to spare. As the Maximals hauls themselves out of the lake, the Galvaburg II disconnects from the base and bursts out of the water seconds before the complex self-destructs. The Maximals grumble about the fact that the Predacons escaped, but Kid tries to find the silver living by pointing out that at least their base was destroyed. The other Maximals aren't particularly impressed, and Lio Convoy tells Kid that he should thank the Tasmanian devil for his help. Kid pets his new friend, and promises to repay him by crushing the Predacons.

Featured Characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Animation and/or technical glitches

 * Throughout the episode, the colors of the Tasmanian Devil constantly shift back and forth from mostly dark brown to the light-brown of Tasmania Kid.

Transformers references



 * Megastorm is in charge of the Predacons due to Galvatron being unconscious, after the events of "White Lion, Run!"

Miscellaneous trivia

 * Beginning with this episode, the out-of-continuity after-show featurette seen in the previous episodes is rechristened "Artemis and Moon's Second Report", and is now hosted by the titular characters. Although ostensibly about Angolmois energy (which Moon mistakenly calls "Anko-mochi energy", after a kind of sweet rice cake), before any interesting information can be divulged, Tasmania Kid butts in to highjack the segment and talk about how awesome he is.