Flashback: Joe Gladki and his daughter look at the rings of Saturn through a telescope in their back yard, though Joe seems somewhat perturbed. As they head inside, Joe's newly installed perimeter lights and burglar alarms activate. Joe has also purchased a gun and stores it in his closet. After tucking his daughter into bed, Joe pensively watches BNN news coverage of the Decepticon invasion...

Driven by his worries about his family's safety, Joe had researched the Transformers online and purchased a certainly illegal item, kept hidden from his family, bu his fragile mental state isn't helped by the fact that his radio began talking to him. Joe listens...

Present: Bumblebee is shot and severely wounded, and Skywatch agents immediately restrain the shooter, Joe Gladki, who screams that the Cybertronians must be stopped. Pennington tells the agents not to hurt him, a request Brawn is less than enthusiastic about. Gladki's rants are picked up by the media. As Joe is taken away, the agents present Pennington with Gladki's weapon: a gun resembling Megatron's Walther P-38 alternate mode, complete with Decepticon insignia.

Aboard a Skywatch jet heading to the scene from Korea, Optimus Prime grows antsy, trying to understand how human civilians managed to get hold of a weapon that could harm Bumblebee. Smokescreen accuses Skywatch of spreading around Transformers-derived weaponry. Witwicky denies this; Skywatch doesn't want the weapons around unaccounted for any more than the Autobots do. Smokescreen points out that Skywatch didn't want anybody knowing about their prior mission either, and that didn't go so well. At that point, Campolongo pipes up from the cockpit that something is coming in, moving way too fast. Jazz yells at the humans to don their crash suits immediately. Something hits the jet, and it explodes.

At Skywatch's base, Brawn argues with Pennington about keeping Gladki's weapon on site. Brawn recognizes the weapon as Megatron, but Schwalbe is less sure, as a shot from Megatron should have been fatal. Brawn angrily disagrees with this, but Ultra Magnus orders him to let it go; if Brawn doesn't check his temper, Magnus will restrain him.

At the least, Schwalbe is confident he can keep Bumblebee on-line until Ratchet returns with the others. At that point, Silverstreak comes in, bearing the news about Prime's group on the jet. Recovery teams are on the way to the crash site, but the ETA is in 5 hours. Maria comes in to tell Pennington that there are protesters outside and that it's also on the news. Pennington is dismissive, having larger problems to worry about, but Maria insists he see it and turns on a news broadcast.

The news reporter interviews Ben Simpson, a spokesperson for a loosely affiliated anti-Cybertronian group known as "Earth's Children". Simpson is quick to disavow any link to the assassin, and even questions the use of the term "assassin", as it's not clear to him whether the Cybertronians are even alive. Questioned about Gladki's visits to his group's website and whether its reactionary rhetoric could have been an influence, Simpson denies responsibility and insists that the people must be able to protect themselves from "invaders", especially if the United States government colludes with them. Watching this at the base, Silverstreak worries that things are about to go further downhill.

Outside the base, the guards order the protesters to disperse when an explosion rocks the area. Using the explosion and confusion as cover, Soundwave arrives with Rumble and Frenzy in tow and liberate the Decepticons that were imprisoned in Skywatch's holding cells.

Flashback: Four months ago, in Quetzaltenango, Mexico, a young boy named Carlos Tuyuc had discovered something that had fallen from the sky. Whatever it was, it burned for days and glowed at night, continuing to glow once the flames had gone out. Carlos had told his uncle about it, and shortly thereafter s

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