TFtember: Fire on the Mountain

 "Fire on the Mountain", The Transformers, December 22 1984. 

Skyfire returns!

Trailbreaker and Brawn are on patrol when they spot Thundercracker and Starscream stealing a refinery's steel. They report back to Prime, who sends out a spy. They find some strange readings coming from Peru. 

The Decepticons are in the Andes looking for the Crystal of Power. They find it, but the crystal is so powerful they can't even use it as it melts the metal frame. The local villagers are taking this as signs, but the chief's granddaughter figures someone is using the crystal. 

Up in the Artic, Sideswipe and Wheeljack are hammering the ice to free Skyfire. They find and thaw him before having him fly them back to the Ark to pick up Brawn and Windcharger on their way to the Andes. They make it to Peru but the fight against the Decepticons goes poorly. Skyfire manages to pull everyone out and gets them back to the Ark before returning with a larger party.

The second attack goes much better, with Brawn even managing to swipe Megatron's arm cannon and blast him with it. Spike and Luisa (chief's granddaughter) slip back into the crystal's temple but Ravage is hot on their heels. 

Decepticon Thundercracker spots Skyfire and a moment of crisis. If he shoots him, Starscream might take all the credit. If he does nothing the temple might be ruined. Sure the Decepticons loose, but Starscream would be in that number. 

Pity Starscream gets the drop on him. He blasts Skyfire and blackmails Thundercracker. 

The rest of the fight ends with the Decepticons fleeing and Bumblebee maybe getting a date with a convertible.

Ups and downs aplenty here. Douglas Booth did the honors. Skyfire is brought back but in a way to make the Autobots seems like the biggest jerks around. So he didn't die just get buried? Why didn't they dig him out?

Also Skyfire can fly from the North Pole to the Andes back to the Ark (implied Pacific Northwest) in what, a few minutes? That's pretty fast. We also see that crystals are the single most powerful things on the planet. 

We do get a nice character moment with Thundercracker but we'll get to him later.