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Transformers

Transformers: A History

This History has been updated yet again! View it by clicking here or here! Enjoy!

In the beginning, in dimension filled with life energy, called Zone Energy, there was only one Spark (or Lasercore), spawned from primal energies of that plane. The Original Spark (or Lasercore) had the ability to merge with any machine and become its central nervous system in order to give that machine life. Its offspring shared this ability. It divided into several smaller sparks, each possessing unimaginable power. Some of these sparks were violent and territorial, while others were peaceful and benevolent and shunned their brutal siblings. Many of the brutal sparks left the Zone Dimension, spread out across the universe, while the benevolent ones remained behind, growing in wisdom and knowledge.

The violent sparks devoured all life and destroyed all matter they encountered, growing stronger and stronger. When there was no matter left to devour they turned on each other. Most were destroyed or devoured by a powerful, dark spark. Some of the violent ones fled to other dimensions to escape the dark spark. Evetually all matter was destroyed and all life in the universe devoured, and that was left was the dark spark. Finally contented, the dark spark slumbered.

As it slept, the cosmic fragments of destroyed matter reacted with each other and created a new universe. The many of the benevolent sparks left the Zone Dimension and nurtured the newborn life that was growing in the universe.

Eventually, the dark spark awoke, and without questioning how this new universe came to be, began destroying and devouring anew. Most of the benevolent sparks were destroyed or devoured by the dark spark.

The most powerful of the benevolent sparks was found by an alien named Primacron, who named it Primus. As the Spark developed, Primus proved to be very powerful. Primus developed the power to reproduce without diminishing his own essence, unlike his siblings which multiplied by dividing, splitting into perfect duplicates of the parent (but with only half the strength and power of the parent Spark [or Lasercore], and thus giving their offspring common memories. Primus' children were individuals with no memories prior to creation. He found favor in the Primacron's sight. Primacron made Primus his assistant. Primacron would build magnificent robots (he even designed a body for Primus to inhabit) and Primus would fill them with life. Primus' joy grew greater and greater as more of his offspring came to life.

Primacron & Primus had worked together for many years upon a special project: a small planetoid that would fuel itself off of space debris, called Unicron, that could also transform into a robot. As the project neared completion, the dark spark found them. Primus battled the dark spark, but the dark spark was too powerful. Primus tricked the dark spark into merging with the Unicron body, trapping the dark spark within it, but also forging a psychic link between the two.

Primacron, unaware of the dark spark's existence, sees Unicron transform of its own accord. Primacron tries to override his creation, but to no avail. Unicron turns it's full fury upon Primacron's lab. Primus' body was destroyed, as well as his children. Primus, seeking to draw Unicron away from Primacron, fled, and led Unicron on a chase across the Galaxy. Primus finally hid within a large metallic, too large for Unicron to ingest. Frustrated, Unicron drifted away, to devour more and grow larger.

But Primus was not alone. Inside the planet lived metallic monsters, who devoured the very metal of the planet, as well as any other creature that happened to fall within their grasp. They attacked Primus, but were no match for him. Primus, unwilling to destroy another living being, placed the creatures into a deep sleep and entombed them deep within the planet.

Primus, sensing the mental link that he and Unicron shared, went into a trance, in the hope that he would remain hidden Unicron, perhaps even thought to be dead, until he was ready to face the dark spark again.

Millions of years passed. Unicron grew larger & larger with every meal. While journeying across the Galaxy, devouring planet after planet, Unicron decided on a new course of action. He found a race of sentient organic invertebrates on a planet the he was soon to devour. With some consideration, Unicron decided to use these creatures to his advantage. They had a very high intelligence potential, but were very weak bodied. He took them all and reformed them into Cyborgs, half-organic, half mechanoid. He placed into their unconscious minds to seek out Primus' planet and destroy anything resembling a Lasercore, or Spark, that they discovered and after preparing them for space travel, sent them off into the Galaxy. Unicron wiped their minds of any knowledge of himself, their homeworld or their "creation".

The Quintessons after thousands of years discovered and colonized the planet. They were merchants and capitalistic industrialists, so they mined the planet's ores, and rebuilt the planet into a gigantic factory. They named it Cybertron.

The Quintessons became VERY prosperous because of this Planet. It became home to them. After a failed attempt to produce Cyborg slaves (named TransOrganics), they chose to pursue completely mechanical servants. They produced Mechanoids for every possible use. The most successful were the Slave units (available in two forms, light duty/social work and heavy-duty slaves) and the Gladiator Units (mainly sold as Military Hardware). The Quintessons developed stellar energy gatherers on Cybertron. These units turned gathered energy into Two forms: Energon and Plasma Energy (the latter was potent, unstable, and destructive to mechanoids). Gigantic rocket boosters were also built to keep the planet aligned, for optimal life support around their home star.

The noise of such an industry stirred Primus, who was hidden deep within Cybertron. When Primus emerged, he saw a planet teaming with machines like he had never seen before. They were strong & versatile. They were exactly what he needed to prepare for the coming conflict with Unicron. Primus reproduced, and gave life to a few of the robots: some Gladiators, some Slaves. Primus wanted peaceful coexistence with the Quintessons, but upon discovering some of his Children, they quickly destroyed them. Every attempt a peace was met with the same response, death. The Quintessons viewed the Sparks as an infection and a threat to their way of life. They sought to kill every last one of Primus' Children. A war for survival had begun.
To bolster his forces, Primus begat more Sparks to live within more robots.

Primus and his children won a decisive battle at the planet's core, and Primus merged with the Supercomputer that ran the planetary factories, Vector Sigma. He placed his Lifeforce into a mobile receptacle to be carried by his Children, so that life could be spread. Only two of Primus' Children could access this "Matrix", one from the Slave class named Primon, the other, from the Gladiator class, named Maximo. They became the leaders of their respective races.

The Gladiator Class did most of the fighting, while the Slave Class kept up supply lines, repairs, and construction of new troops.

The Quintessons were losing the battle quickly. As often as they would kill a thousand robots, two thousand more would be created. As a final effort, the Quintessons built an army of giant robots, called Dark Guardians. With them the Quintessons hoped to finally eradicate the rebels. They didn't count on the Matrix or the resourceful rebel Autobot known as A-3. The Dark Guardians inflicted many casualties among the robots. The Quintessons finally had the upperhand. They had A-3 and his army cornered, ripe for destruction, but A-3 had developed a device called the Coda Remote, that could deactivate the Dark Guardians. At this point, A-3 activated the Coda Remote and shut down all of the Dark Guardians. The Quintessons lost their main advantage that day, but were able to retain control of much of the planet, until Primon used the Matrix to give life to the Dark Guardians (who afterwards became known only as Guardians). The Guardians joined Primon's and Maximo's rebels and together they drove the Quintessons from Cybertron. The Quintessons could not leave all of Cybertron's resources to the Rebels, then they would unstoppable. The Quintessons rigged Cybertron's greatest energy resource, the Plasma Energy Chamber, to overload any mechanoids that attempt to access it. The energon facilities were safe in rebel control.

The Quintessons would continue to spy on their "Creations" and would even abduct some for experimentation, to find some weakness. In time, they learned how to clone the Sparks of their abductees, although they "dumbed them down" for control purposes, and began production of a new type of servant.

Thus begins the Golden age of Cybertron.

With peace at hand, and fearing that his Children are not ready to fight Unicron, Primus goes back into his trance. Vector Sigma continues to function with Primus' intellect within its memory banks. The Matrix is used as communication with Primus, since his essence is mingled with that of Primon. Primon becomes a sort of Avatar of Primus. Primus & Primon are joined at a Psychic level, but one so deep that Unicron isn't aware of it.

At this time the Transformers could reproduce by splitting (as seen in G2 comics).

Hundreds of thousands of years pass, and the Robots, who had adopted the names Autobot & Decepticon for the Slave & Gladiator class, respectively, coexisted peacefully. Many of the robots, who were previously known only by letter and number designations chose names for themselves, for example, A-3 changed his name to Alpha Trion.

For millennia, Primon grew in popularity and respect from both sides. He became so respected that many Decepticons held his word above Maximo's. Maximo watched as more and more of his "children" turned their backs on him to follow Primon.

Unicron watched Primus' children from far across the galaxy. He was not quite powerful enough to destroy Cybertron, so he concocted a plan to destroy Primus without having to come near him. Unicron would teleport some of Primus' children and keep them unconscious to study them. They were not unlike the ones that they had built with Primacron, but were much more powerful. Many that he abducted were given background programs to cause unrest and chaos among Primus' children. Maximo was one taken to Unicron. Unicron sensed his discontent. Unicron awoke Maximo. He made a proposal to Maximo. If he would bring the Matrix to Unicron, the Chaos Bringer would grant him his wildest dreams. Maximo was tempted, but felt that he could not betray his "father". So, Unicron rewrote Maximo's Spark (or Lasercore) and Programming to mimic his own. There was very little of Primus left in his heart. After this Maximo was VERY willing to perform Unicron's task. But Unicron had put too much of himself into Maximo. Treachery filled Maximo's being. Maximo thought of a way to destroy Primus and Unicron. Maximo would steal the Matrix, the source of Primon's power & wisdom, and merge with Primus for himself. Then He alone would rule with the Power of BOTH titans.

When the time was right, he tried to knock Primon unconscious and then take the Matrix secretly, but Primon proved too powerful for Maximo to quietly subdue. Maximo killed Primon and took the Matrix. Upon accessing the Matrix, Maximo grew in size, strength, and intellect. He then changed his name to LIEGE MAXIMO. Due to the changes made by Unicron, the merge was not smooth and Liege Maximo was transformed into a hideous being. Several Autobots came to investigate the noises of the struggle, and found Liege Maximo standing over Primon's Body. He killed all but one (whom he had left for dead). He then returned back to the Decepticons and claimed sovereign rule of Cybertron, by Primus' own hand.

The Survivor told the story of what happened to the other Autobots, and an outraged group of Autobots approached Castle Decepticon to bring Liege Maximo to justice. These were slaughtered without mercy by Maximo's elite guard.

This and other diplomatic disasters touched off the 1st Cybertronian war. The Guardians, whom no one could match, quelled this war. The Matrix rejected Liege Maximo and was rescued by the Autobot who later became Prima, after an epic battle. Liege Maximo retreated into the depths of Cybertron, where he went into hiding, influencing events from the background and shadows. Many of the Original Autobots and Decepticons were destroyed during this war.

Hundreds of thousands of years pass.

The Decepticons and Autobots mistrust of each other grew as time went on. The two races seldom interacted, and had even begun to dwell separately. Treatment of the Autobots worsened in the Decepticon sectors until the Decepticons finally started enslaving the Autobots that wandered too near their territories.

When this was discovered, the Second Cybertronian War began. It was a short-lived war due again to the intervention of the Guardians. It was during this war that they developed the Ability to transform.
Cybertronians abducted by the Quintessons at this time would share this new discovery with their former "masters", through force, of course. The end result was a limitless group of killing machines known as Sharkticons. Prima was killed in the Second War, as was his successor, Prime Nova. The Matrix was passed to a new Autobot leader, who became Sentinel Prime. At this time, there was a predetermined memory erasure of the former reproduction by division. This was instituted by Primus, and completely affected every Transformer. Now the only way for them to reproduce was either through Vector Sigma, or the Matrix.

After this, attempts at reconciliation were started, and it looked as if they would succeed. During this time Primus was deified in a form of ancestor worship. This was started primarily by Liege Maximo, and the Cult of the Ultimate warrior was born. The Autobots who worshipped Primus became known as the Sons of Cybertron. Both groups destroyed all records of Unicron's name, thinking it a source of evil. Unicron was only to be referred to as "The Chaos Bringer". Also at this time a cult of the Chaos Bringer was started secretly. They alone possessed knowledge of Unicron's name. The following details the Cybertronians' religious aspects:

--The Sons of Cybertron--
The religion of the Autobots:
They deify Primus and believe that he alone is their Creator, that Primus chose Cybertron as the Final Battleground for fight with the Chaos Bringer.
They also believe that all Mechanoids should stay on Cybertron and protect their Sleeping Creator.
Regard all life as precious and worthy of existence.
Refer to Primus' Final Guardian as "The Last Autobot".
Basic Tenets include:
Equality among Sentient beings
Fight only when all peaceful means fail
The end does NOT justify the means
To them "Till all are one" means Reuniting Primus' Children.

--The Ultimate Warriors--
The religion of the Decepticons:
They also deify Primus and believe him to be their Sole Creator.
They think that the best way to protect Primus is to take the fight to the Chaos Bringer, so that he will come no where near Primus.
They hold that Cybertron should be a Capitol to a vast Cybertronian Empire, utilizing EVERY resource in the Galaxy to fight the Chaos Bringer.
They regard Primus' final guardian as "The Ultimate Warrior"
Basic Tenets include:
Esoteric warrior society (might makes right; the strongest shall lead)
Honor driven (honor among themselves)
Goal oriented (the End justifies the Means philosophy)
Believe that all other races should be subjugated to help in the battle to come. They are viewed as resources.
"Till all are one" means that all shall live under one Decepticon Empire.

--Souls of Cybertron--
Religion of some from both groups
They deify Primus, believe he is their Sole creator.
They are caught in the middle: they believe that the Decepticons should fight, while the Autobots support them with supplies and repair facilities on Cybertron, while the Autobots are guarding Primus.
They are indifferent to the Civil war.
They are xenophobic and believe that Cybertronians should stay uninvolved with Alien races.
Call Primus' final guardian "the Soul of Cybertron"(most are wiped out in the 3rd, Great, War, the survivors either joined one side or the other, or went into hiding)
Basic Tenets vary; many divisions exist among this group.
"Till all are one" means the day that distinction between Autobot & Decepticon are done away with.

--Bearers of the Void--
Unicron Worshippers
Deify Unicron, they believe Primus is dead
Try to hamper all preparation for Unicron's coming
Infiltrate other sects
Cause mistrust between Sects & Races
Facilitate the rivalry and division between Autobots & Decepticons
Constantly seek to assassinate the Matrix Bearer.
They are the only ones that know Unicron's true name; all others refer to Unicron as "the Chaos Bringer", "god of darkness", "god of the void", & "the fallen god".
Anyone who discovers them will either become one of them, or be killed by the "bearers".
Basic Tenets include:
Unicron will triumph
The Universe will be consumed
The Matrix is not Primus' Spark (or Lasercore), but a weapon developed by those who fear Unicron, to use against the Chaos Bringer
All beings that refuse to bow to Unicron, must be destroyed
The Autobots and Decepticons must NEVER be allowed to unite
Any means necessary to bring about Unicron's triumph must be enacted
Secrecy is top priority, disclosure could bring unity to the Cybertronians, and punishment by Unicron
"Till all are one" refers to Unicron's final triumph, and He has consumed everything and his chosen ones dwell on him.

--Evolutionaries--
Don't believe in Primus or Unicron
Believe that they evolved from Non-Living Machines that developed into Sentient Mechanoids.
Some joined the Autobot Cause for Moral or Political reasons, to overthrow the Decepticons genocidal conquest.
Others joined the Decepticons because they believe that they are the Epitome of the Perfect Lifeform & have the Inherent right to rule all that they survey.
Many pretend to follow another sect, often dwelling among them.
"Bearers of the Void" ALWAYS kill Evolutionaries for their unbelief.
With Evolutionaries, the end justifies the means, in most cases.
No basic tenets.
"Till all are one" is a political statement with varied meanings, to Evolutionaries.


Thousands of years passed.
As Unity was finally claiming victory across Cybertron, Liege Maximo developed a new plan for conquest & revenge. He would build a new type of Decepticon, stronger, faster, tougher, and complete with enough firepower to kill a guardian.

The Bearers of the Void used all of their resources to try to break up the Unity spreading across Cybertron. They exploited the Metallikato Tenet of spreading Decepticon Rule and take the final battle to Unicron by pitting Decepticon rulers against Autobot leaders that advocated staying on Cybertron and preparing for the Chaos Bringer's coming.
The Bearers convinced the Decepticon Leaders to utilize the Ancient Quintesson rocket boosters to make Cybertron a Mobile weapon. The Autobots vehemently opposed this action. The Decepticon army took control of the Rocket boosters by force. They restored the engines, but were stopped from igniting the boosters, by the Guardian robots, lead by a consortium of Autobot Leaders.

This was the final straw.
Liege Maximo created Three new Decepticons and took them to Vector Sigma to give them Life. They declared themselves: "Soundwave", "Shockwave" and the largest and strongest "Megatron". These Decepticons were also given the newly developed and top secret ability of personal flight.

These Decepticons were the first of a new army that would plunge Cybertron into the most destructive war yet, The 3rd Cybertronian War, also known as The Great War. Megatron slew Sentinel Prime, in hopes to steal the Matrix for himself, but the Matrix had known of Megatron's plan, and had been secreted away by the oldest living Autobot, Alpha Trion.

During the early stages of this war Megatron injured a young Autobot named Orion Pax. He was taken to Alpha Trion for repairs, who discovered that Orion Pax was the heir to the Matrix. After extensive reconstruction and merging with the Matrix, Orion Pax became Optimus Prime.

Megatron rose in power and popularity among the Decepticons, surpassing or eliminating all that stood between him and complete control of the Decepticon Military forces. No leader before had inspired or united the Decepticons as he had. Megatron forged the Decepticons into a single fighting entity bent on one goal: Peace through tyranny.

Two brilliant Cybertronian scientists, Skyfire and Starscream, left Cybertron to explore a previously uncharted planet. During the expedition Skyfire was lost. Starscream searched the planet, but never found Skyfire. Upon his return, Starscream forsook the quest for knowledge and fully committed himself to the Decepticon Cause, becoming one of the most vile and murderous soldiers in the Decepticon fleet. Eventually he rose to Aerospace Commander, second only to Megatron.

Optimus Prime taught the Autobots to fight back as the Guardians were exterminated one by one. With the Autobots' rebuilt battle ready bodies they were able to fight the Decepticons to a stalemate.

Megatron lead a successful raid on the Rocket Boosters. The Decepticons fired up the engines, and moved the Planet out of its orbit, destroying one of Cybertron's moons in the process. An Autobot attempt to override the Decepticon computer systems running the rockets to return Cybertron to its orbit failed miserably and the planet spun out of control into space. The rockets eventually burned themselves out, leaving Cybertron drifting out of control through space.

Sometime afterward, a Quintesson reconnaissance mission reported that Cybertron was gone, and a great deal of debris was left where it once was. The Quintessons assumed that their former slaves had finally destroyed each other, and took the Planet with them. The Quintessons rejoiced at the hated rebels' apparent demise. Justice, they felt, had been served. The Third Cybertronian War raged back and forth for 5 million years. Megatron and his Decepticon Scientists developed many new weapons of war. Megatron was able to sway the Constructicons to his side, and to betray their friend, Omega Supreme, in order to destroy an Autobot stronghold. In exchange for this favor, Megatron gave the Constructicons the newly invented ability to merge into a Giant robot, as large and powerful as a Guardian: Devastator. Omega Supreme, the last Guardian & only one to be given the ability to transform, was appalled by the destruction of his beloved Crystal City and betrayal by his best friends. He could only explain their treachery as a forced attempt by Megatron to rewrite the Constructicons programming. After an attempt by Devastator to reprogram Omega Supreme, Omega swore to get revenge on the Constructicons, and hunted them where ever they went.

Finally, Cybertron's resources were exhausted. There was no more fuel left. Planet wide blackouts were occurring.

Optimus Prime led a group of his best officers on a trek for more energy, to tip the balances of the war. Megatron discovered this plan and pursued them with a crew of his own.

Megatron had a Spacecruiser designed for interplanetary travel. A strange Crystal known as "The Heart of Cybertron" powered it. Its origin is shrouded in mystery. It was an object of unimaginable power found in the center of a world without any energy sources left. It is rumored that it is actually a piece of Primus' Spark (or Lasercore), or perhaps another god's.

Two asteroids collided near the two ships, pummeling them with fragments. The Decepticons were discovered following the Ark. A boarding party of Decepticons invaded the Ark's bridge.
All of the Ark's energy reserves were depleted from clearing a path through the asteroid fragments & from the insuing battle.
As they approached the third planet, its gravitational force pulled them down. The Decepticon ship followed behind on a crash course with the planet.

The 2 crews crashed on an alien planet, Earth, and were not heard from. An escape pod was released from the Decepticon ship, crashing on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The Decepticons who survived the crash imprinted on Earth Insects, and became known as Insecticons.

Shortly after Megatron's Disappearance, Liege Maximo came out of hiding and led the best Decepticons off to conquer other worlds, since their home was a dead husk. The Decepticon scientists had accidentally rediscovered the ability to reproduce through splitting. With a limitless supply of Decepticons, they were no longer dependent on Vector Sigma to repopulate. They left Cybertron on a mission of conquest. A group of Autobots followed them, but they were dispatched, and dumped on the Planet of Junk.

The Decepticons started advancing on the Galaxy, conquering Planet after Planet. At some point, the new Decepticon Empire left the Milky Way Galaxy and spread to Intergalactic Star Clusters. They established a center of power which they named "The Hub", with Liege Maximo as leader. The Decepticons renamed their empire "The Cybertronian Empire". They went about reforming planets, especially inhabited ones, into new versions of Cybertron, completely replacing indigenous lifeforms with Decepticon technology and soldiers.

Many groups of Autobots left Cybertron, some in search of Optimus Prime, others seeking to flee the war consuming their world.
One group of Autobots crashed on a previously uncharted world. It was uncharted, because it had not existed very long. In fact, it was manufactured...by the Quintessons. Its name was Quintessa, and it was the new home to the Quintessons. All of the crew perished either in the crash or after being devoured by the wild mechanoid beasts that roamed the planet. The Quintessons never even knew that the Autobots were there. Only one survived, a small feisty Autobot named Wheelie.
Shockwave stayed behind on Cybertron, left behind and unaware of Liege Maximo's departure, fighting the Autobots and leading the Decepticons that were still on the planet, awaiting Megatron's return.
Cybertron's progress was slowed massively, due to the constant energy shortages and planetary blackouts that would sometimes last for centuries or even millennia.
The Constructicons left Cybertron, to search for their lost leader, Megatron and to flee their persecutor, Omega Supreme.

Four Million Years Passed

Earth Year- 1965
A stellar radiation burst reaches the Planet of Junk. The blast of Energy revitalizes the crashed Autobot ship's computer repair program. 90% of the ship's memory and crew's memories were lost. The computer found only one functioning vehicle on the entire planet, a two wheeled ground vehicle, and modified the Robots to transform into variations of it. Seeking information to synthesize a working language for the robots, who dubbed themselves Junkions, the computer used radio signals that had been transmitted from Earth decades before, but were just reaching the planet. An entire culture was developed around these signals. Through alien radio signals they learned the Universal Greeting.

Earth Year- 1984
A volcanic eruption in Mt. St. Hilary infuses energy into the Ark's Computer, Teletran I. Teletran I's memory banks were damaged during the crash, four million years before. It no longer knew the difference between Autobot & Decepticon. Teletran I sent a probe called "SkySpy" out to survey the planet, & bring back information on any life it may contain. Due to lost memory files and computer damage, Skyspy machines as the dominant lifeforms. It prepared to adapt the Transformers to earth by making their secondary mode mimic the earth "lifeforms" that closest suited their Cybertronian functions.
Teletran I began by repairing a Decepticon, Skywarp. Skywarp then pulled Megatron into the repair beam. The other Decepticons followed shortly thereafter.

The following Decepticons were repaired by Teletran I: Megatron
Starscream
Thundercracker
Skywarp
Soundwave
Buzzsaw
Laserbeak
Ravage
Rumble
Frenzy
Reflector
The newly awakened Decepticons quickly set about their work where they left off. Megatron prepared to gather energy from the earth, and build a new Spacecruiser, in order to return to Cybertron.
Unfortunately, for the Decepticons, they had not seen the end of the Autobots. Against warnings from Megatron, Second-in command Starscream fired a few shots at the Ark.
This caused tremors to pass through the Ark; enough to cause Optimus Prime to fall into the path of the repair beam.
The repaired and reconfigured Optimus Prime quickly repaired the other Autobots. The Autobots were primarily configured after ground vehicles. The following Autobots were reactivated on the Ark:
Optimus Prime
Prowl
Jazz
Ironhide
Ratchet
Trailbreaker
Mirage
Bluestreak
Hound
Sideswipe
Sunstreaker
Wheeljack
Windcharger
Bumblebee
CliffJumper
Huffer
Brawn
Gears
The Decepticon Ravage was dispatched to investigate a possible Autobot sighting near the Decepticon stronghold. It was, in fact, a human vehicle, which Ravage had the pleasure to contact first. The humans fled for their lives.

The Decepticons went from place to place stealing resources and converting them into Energon Cubes. The Autobots attempted many times to thwart the Decepticons, but Megatron's forces prevailed and continued to gather Energon.

At one such battle, on an oil drilling platform, the Autobots made contact with humans and brought two back to the Ark for information on Earth and it's resources. They were Sparkplug Witwicky and his son, Spike. The Decepticons completed the new Spacecruiser and lifted off after a brief battle with the Autobots. The Autobot Mirage had stowed away aboard the Spacecruiser, where, upon discovery, he sabotaged the Decepticon's controls, and escaped from the ship.

The Spacecruiser crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. The Decepticons began developing the crashed spacecraft into an undersea base of operations. The Autobots obtained contact and alliances with many of Earth's Governments in exchange for technology.

The Decepticons contacted Cybertron. Shockwave was still in control, but the planet was in dire straits. New technology had been invented, a teleportational device called a Space Bridge, but Cybertron didn't have enough energy to test it properly. The initial attempt to send Energon over the Spacebridge failed, with the Cubes lost in space. During a battle Megatron was blown into the Space Bridge as it was activating. Due to his ability to pilot himself through the void of space over the Space Bridge, Megatron arrived on Cybertron safely.

Upon Megatron's return to Earth, he sought out a newly discovered Antimatter formula. With the help of a young human scientist, Chip Chase, Megatron was stopped before he could use the Antimatter effectively. Soon afterward Optimus Prime was injured in a battle with the Decepticon Jets and a later assassination attempt by Laserbeak. This prompted Chip Chase and several Autobots to travel to Cybertron by hitching a ride on the Space Bridge. This revealed that humans could travel and dwell on Cybertron, and breathe the atmosphere.

Investigating a sudden and dramatic drop in the Earth's temperature, the Autobots discover that the Decepticons had tapped into the Earth's molten interior and was turning the heat energy from inside the planet into Energon Cubes. During their excavation, the Decepticons discovered and revived Starscream's lost comrade Skyfire and inducted him into the Decepticons. While the Autobots fought the Decepticons, several Autobots were captured. Skyfire disobeyed an order to execute the Autobots and was shot by Starscream. The Autobots repaired Skyfire and he joined them. Skyfire became involved with a dogfight with Starscream. While defeating Starscream, Skyfire went into a nose-dive and crashed, buried beneath tons of arctic ice. A search team returned later and freed Skyfire from his icy prison.

Tremors from within Mt. St. Hilary prompted the Autobots to discover the fossils of dinosaurs. This discovery inspired Wheeljack and Ratchet to build three Autobots with the ability to transform into dinosaurs. They were named Grimlock, Slag, and Sludge, since the recently recovered sparks of the Dynabots were used to give life to their bodies. They had some programming and personality problems, mostly due to the lack of a vital element in Cybertronian Neuroprocessor construction, called Cybertonium. Initially, Optimus Prime had the Dinobots, as they were called, put away due to unpredictability, lack of control, and destructive tendencies(because of their immense size and strength), but they were later proved to be an asset, especially after Wheeljack developed a way to lessen the problems caused by their faulty Neuroprocessors. The Dinobots proved to still have major character flaws, which Megatron used to turn them against Optimus Prime. The Dinobots attacked Optimus Prime as he came to relieve them from guard duty. The Dinobots defeated Prime, but did not destroy him as Megatron had instructed. Meanwhile, under an earlier command from Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Chip Chase designed and constructed two new Dinobots, Snarl and Swoop, using the sparks from those two Dynabots. The original Dinobots turned the injured Autobot Leader over to Megatron. The new Dinobots arrived and engaged Grimlock, Slag and Sludge in combat. As the battle continue Grimlock was stunned and in danger. Optimus Prime pushed Grimlock from the peril.
Grimlock, Slag and Sludge realized that Megatron had manipulated them against a great leader. At this point, facing five Dinobots, Optimus Prime and Autobot reinforcements on the way, Megatron and his troops retreated. The original Dinobots reaffirmed their allegiance to Optimus Prime and the Autobot cause. Optimus accepted.

Soon afterward, Megatron enlisted a human scientist, a Doctor Archeville, to assist him in attempts to enslave the human race. Dr. Archeville invented a microchip, called a Hypnochip, that, when attached to a human head, would override the victim's freewill, making them mindless slaves. Megatron used these human slaves to keep Autobot fire off of his energy gathering installations. Megatron then used three Space Bridge ports, and the unwilling assistance of Optimus Prime, to teleport Cybertron itself in to Earth's orbit. Cybertron's gravitational pull started many natural disasters; earthquakes, floods, tidal waves, volcanic eruptions, and freak storms devastated the Earth. Spike, Brawn, Bumblebee, and Skyfire travel to Cybertron and discover a way to negate the affects of Dr. Archeville mind control chips. They returned just as Megatron prepared to fly a spacecraft loaded with enough Energon Cubes to revitalize Cybertron and give the Decepticons the edge that they needed to overpower the Autobots and conquer Earth. The Autobots deactivated the microchips. All weapons were directed upon Megatron's ship as it neared Cybertron. The Energon Cubes detonated and the resulting explosion knocked Cybertron out of Earth's orbit and sent it adrift through the Solar System, along with Megatron.

Presuming that Megatron had perished, Starscream assumed the role of Decepticon Leader. He immediately pursued Dr. Archeville and his scientific expertise, while the Autobots attempted to help Earth repair the damage caused by Cybertron's Gravity. Starscream uses another of the Doctor's inventions, an Exponential Generator, and sets it on a timer to explode and destroy the Earth. He then would gather the energy released, and revitalize Cybertron himself. Upon setting the bomb, Starscream forced Dr. Archeville to travel with him to Cybertron and await the Earth's impending doom. As Starscream waited on Cybertron, Megatron returned to Decepticon Headquarters and was informed by Laserbeak of Starscream's alliance with the Doctor. Megatron rushed to Dr. Archeville's laboratory to discover Starscream's plans. Optimus Prime arrived and the two leaders battled in the lab. Shockwave communicated an emergency message to Megatron about the bomb. Megatron and Optimus Prime worked together to defuse the bomb and shot it into space. Dr. Archeville was injured when he tried to override Starscream's bomb. He was "repaired" by service droids, resulting in his paralysis and immobilization. When the bomb did not go off on schedule, Starscream flew to earth to investigate. The bomb exploded near him and sent him hurtling to Earth, where he found, much to his dismay, that Megatron was alive and well.

Strange reports from the Pacific Island of Bali caused the Autobots and Decepticons to look for giant robotic insects. These turned out to be the Insecticons that had escaped from the original Decepticon Spacecruiser four million years earlier. They joined with Megatron in his attempts to steal resources and defeat the Autobots, but turned on Megatron and stole Energon from him when the Autobots gained an upperhand.

Megatron then challenged Optimus Prime to a trial by combat, with the loser and his army banished to wander deep space. To gain an edge Megatron had ALL of the earthbound Decepticons turn over their Power Rectifier chips in order to gain the special abilities of each Decepticon in addition to his own. This would disqualify Megatron, so he sent the newly arrived Constructicons to sabotage Teletran I, and by this cover the true source of his new powers. Optimus Prime was defeated easily by Megatron, but the Constructicons met with resistance from the Dinobots. Overwhelmed by the Dinobot's firepower, the Constructicons merged into the giant Decepticon, Devastator. While the Dinobots battled Devastator, the Autobots had Teletran I assess the damage to Optimus Prime. The Autobots discovered Megatron's treachery and joined the Dinobots in their fight against Devastator (who was joined by the Decepticons). Devastator was fooled by a hologram of an enormous Autobot that dwarfed even him. The Autobots then drove the Decepticons into a crevasse filled with molten lava. Months pass.
The Decepticons escaped their prison of liquid rock and began their campaign of conquest once again.
The work to repair the Ark uncovers a section of the ship thought to be completely lost. There they found several other Transformers who were thought to be dead. Many were beyond repair, but among those still alive and in stasis lock were 12 Autobots and 5 Decepticons. The Decepticons were retrieved by Megatron, who gave them modified Vehicle modes. These are the Autobots & Decepticons that were discovered:
Skids
Hoist
Smokescreen
Tracks
Inferno
Grapple
RedAlert
Blaster
Perceptor
Warpath
Powerglide
BeachComber
Thrust
Dirge
Ramjet
Blitzwing
Astrotrain
Temporal distortions on Earth allow the discovery of an island dubbed "Dinobot Island", when the Dinobots were temporarily relocated to hone their skills. Tracking the Constructicons across the galaxy, Omega Supreme arrived on Earth to find the Autobot Crew thought to be lost forever. He joins their ranks to protect the Ark, but secretly desires only to destroy Devastator.

Soon afterward, a group of Human archaeologists discover and unearth the lost Decepticon Spacecruiser, the Nemesis. Upon discovering this, Megatron sought to reclaim the Heart of Cybertron. He incorporated it into his body and became an immense powerhouse of destruction. Autobot Scientist, Perceptor, devised an plan to shrink 3 Autobots and to invade Megatron's body and remove the Heart of Cybertron. The Heart became unstable and threatened to cause a catastrophe on Earth, so once he was outside of Megatron's body, Perceptor shot the crystal into orbit, averting the disaster.
As the Decepticons began exploring space again, they began to expand their empire again. Several discoveries were made, such as: Microorganisms that devour Cybertronian metals known as "Cosmic Rust" Underworld connections to fuel the Decepticon Military Long forgotten resource centers for the empire and Life on other planetary bodies within earth's solar system. During this time, Megatron discovered one of the human Voyager Space Probes and placed a hidden message for future Decepticons upon it's Golden Disk.

The Autobots also began exploring to counter the Decepticon's conquest, and to build alliances with other alien races. "Female" Autobots were thought to be extinct, until a group of them were found in hiding: being led by Elita One and the ancient Autobot, Alpha Trion.
In order to give himself more ground troops, Megatron stole an Activation Key to Vector Sigma from Alpha Trion to give life to his newest warriors, the Stunticons, who merged into the giant Menasor. To counter the Decepticon's air superiority by bolstering their own air force and add another Combiner giant to their effort, Alpha Trion merged with Vector Sigma to allow Optimus Prime to give life to the Aerialbots. They combined to form Superion.
Due to a disagreement with Megatron, Starscream was humiliated in front of the other Decepticons. Starscream planned a coup by stealing the lasercores of five incarcerated Decepticons that had rebelled against Megatron. He rebuilt these Decepticons into the Combaticons, who merged into Bruticus. Bruticus engaged Devastator in battle and had gained the upper hand when Menasor interfered, making Megatron the victor. Megatron exiled Starscream and his Combaticons into deep space.

Starscream deserted the Combaticons as they drifted through space on an asteroid. The Asteroid drifted close to Cybertron, where the Combaticons attacked the planet and ejected Shockwave into space. They then set the Spacebridge to move the Earth into the Sun in order to kill Megatron & the Autobots. Shockwave and Starscream met up in Space and returned to Cybertron, only to be captured, but not before Megatron was warned about the Earth's fiery fate. The Autobots and the Decepticons joined to fight against Bruticus. Starscream was reinstated as second-in-command after he revealed Bruticus' weakness. The Decepticons faked Bruticus' destruction in order to reprogram the Combaticons without the Autobots' knowledge. Soon afterward the Protectabots, who merge to form Defensor, joined the battle against the Decepticons.

In a second attempt to harvest the vast energy from Dinobot Island, Shockwave sends the Spacebridge to the strange island, so that he may send the gathered energy directly to Cybertron. Problems arise when the Spacebridge refuses to respond, due to the temporal interference around the island. Shockwave travels to Dinobot Island to repair the Spacebridge. The Dinobots, who are training again on the island, become aware of Shockwave's presence there. Shockwave repairs the Spacebridge and sends it back to Cybertron, but that causes a wholly unexpected disturbance in Dinobot Island's temporal energy: Shockwave and the Dinobots are sent back several million years into the island's past. Before Shockwave can try to fix the situation, he is attacked by the Dinobots. They battle furiously, but the fight ends in a draw as Shockwave is burried under tons of rock from a collapsing cliffside, and the Dinobots are forced into a huge tar pit and buried under debris. They all lay buried for millions of years.

Buster Witwicky, Sparkplug's youngest son, comes to live with his father. Sparkplug is much more protective over Buster than he is Spike, so he dislikes the prospect of Buster becoming caught up in the Transformers' conflict. Sparkplug opens a mechanic shop out of his house in Oregon, so that he can spend more time with Buster, while Spike and Carly continue as human liasons to the Autobots.There is little that he can do to stop that, as a battle breaks out at a Drive-In Movie theatre that Buster, his girlfriend Jessie, and his friend "O", are visiting, and Buster has to drive the wounded Bumblebee back to his home to save him. Reluctantly, Sparkplug allows Buster to get involved with the Autobots. In the mean time, Sparkplug works with Wheeljack and Perceptor on developing a new superfuel for the Autobots.

Elsewhere, the Decepticons take over the Harrison Nuclear Power Plant, and reshape it into a new land-based headquarters, named Castle Sinister. From there they learn of the Autobots' plan for a new Superfuel, and how Sparkplug Witwicky is a major contributor to the project. Desiring to steal the secrets of the new superfuel, the Decepticons kidnap Sparkplug and take him back to their new base. With Spike and Carly away on a mission in space, with Omega Supreme and Cosmos, Buster is left alone with the Autobots in the Ark.

Ratchet, unable to contact the Dinobots through Teletran-1, sends a probe to Dinobot Island to discover why the Dinobots have failed to respond. The Probe scans for Cybertronian lifesigns, and begins removing layers of earth from the first lifesign it discovers. It accidentally uncovers Shockwave, freeing him from his rocky prison, which has held him in stasis for millions of years. Shockwave destroys the Probe, and heads to the Decepticons' underwater Headquarters.

The Autobot Gears leads a mission to free Sparkplug and succeeds, but not before the Decepticons get the formula for the superfuel, and more. Sparkplug is traumatized by the ordeal, and is even less prepared for the accusations of weakness and cowardice that comes from some of the Autobots. He has a heart attack, and is rushed to the hospital by Ratchet and Buster.

Shockwave discovers the Decepticon Base deserted, scans from the computer that the other Decepticons have left to attack the Ark, powered by the SuperFuel. Shockwave leaves to assist the assault.

While Ratchet and Buster race to save Sparkplug's life, the Decepticons, powered up by the superfuel attack. The attack begins to go in the Decepticons favor, disabling and wounding many of the Autobots, but then something unexpected happens. The Decepticons writhe in pain and one by one drop to the ground. It turns out that the superfuel formula that Sparkplug gave the Decepticons is highly corrosive, and eats away at the Decepticons from the inside.
But just as the weakened and weary Autobots' victory seems assured, the ceiling explodes with fury. Shockwave, discovering the situation and weary of Megatron's repeated failures, arrives at the Ark and single handedly defeats the weakened Autobots; taking over the Ark and command of the Decepticons in one fell swoop. The three combiner teams, the Contructicons, Stunticons and Combaticons are all extremely damaged from the corrosive.

Shockwave takes all of the deactivated Autobots and strings them up within the Ark, as spare parts for the wounded Decepticons. He informs the recuperating Megatron that he is taking command. After years of successful campaigns on Cybertron, which is now almost completely under Decepticon control, Shockwave will no longer cow-tow to Megatron, who is proving to be inept through his repeated failures. Logic demands that Shockwave take command, for the good fo the Decepticons. Megatron is shocked and furious at Shockwave's treachery, and swears to make him pay for it. Shockwave, seeking the Matrix but uncertain as to exactly what it is, dismantles Optimus Prime, leaving only his head functional.

Buster and Ratchet leave the recovering Sparkplug in the hospital and return to the Ark to discover that the Decepticons are now in control of the Autobot Base. Ratchet waits in hiding, while Buster sneaks past Rumble and Frenzy, who are acting as door guards, to find the wounded Autobots and Optimus Prime's head. Optimus Prime, knowing what Shockwave is seeking, the creation aspect of the Matrix, passes that portion of the Matrix to Buster, to keep Shockwave from using the Matrix to create a new army of Decepticons, and repairing the gravely injured combiner teams. Buster sneaks out of the Ark, and informs Ratchet of the state of the Autobots. Ratchet returns Buster to his home, neither of them aware that Buster is carrying the creation aspect of the Matrix.

Meanwhile, Shockwave leads an attack on a new high-tech offshore Oil Platform/Refinery, developed by tycoon G.B. Blackrock and engineering prodigy Josie Beller. The Decepticons harvest the oil, but Beller suffers neurological damage from the attack. Blackrock has a helicopter take Beller to a hospital on the mainland, where they diagnose her as a quadraplegic, except for some motor skill in one of her arms. Josie Beller develops a pathological hatred for all Cybrtronians as she lay in her hospital bed, using her genius, and Blackrock's resources, to make a way for her to move again, and seek revenge.

After Shockwave and the Decepticons return from the successful raid on the Blackrock Oil Platform, Megatron, still recovering, attacks Shockwave. Shockwave easily subdues Megatron, and rather than kill a warrior of Megatron's stature, he forces Megatron to swear fealty to him. Though he outwardly swears loyalty to Shockwave, Megatron plots Shockwave's defeat. Shockwave takes all of the Decepticons, except Megatron (who is left on guard duty in the Ark), to harvest more oil from the conquered Blackrock offshore drilling platform/refinery, while sending Soundwave and his cassettes to infiltrate and takeover Blackrock Aerospace Plant #1. Soundwave successfully gets past the guards and enslaves the workers there. While the Decepticons are distracted, Ratchet sneaks back into the Ark and discovers the incapacitated Autobots, including Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime encourages Ratchet to find a way to stop the Decepticons, and to think as a warrior. Ratchet crept around the Ark, searching for something that would allow him to free his comrades, when he was discovered by Megatron.

Megatron gloated at Ratchet about how easily he could destroy the weak Autobot. As Megatron prepares to destroy Ratchet, Shockwave radioes in orders for Megatron to prepare the head of Optimus Prime for immediate transport. Megatron, in his anger at Shockwave, drops Ratchet and smashes the viewscreen. ratchet seeing an opportunity, thinks as a warrior, and strikes a deal with Megatron. Ratchet agrees to show Megatron Shockwave's destruction, in return Megatron promises to give the Ark, and the Autobots inside, over to Ratchet.

Ratchet rushes to Dinobot Island, and searches for the Dinobots. He finally finds them resting at the bottom of the Tar Pit. After a breif interlude with Slag, he finally convinces the Dinobots to come back to the Ark with him. Meanwhile, Back at the Ark, Shockwave arrives and takes Optimus Prime's head and the incapacitated Skyfire to his new base of operations, the Blackrock Aerspace Plant, leaving Megatron alone again, to guard the Ark.

Ratchet returns and greets Megatron at the appointed locaton, high atop a mountain near the Ark. Ratchet shows Megatron a video of the Dinobots destroying Shockwave (downloaded from the Dinobots' memories), fulfilling his deal to show Megatron Shockwave's demise at the hands of the Dinobots. Megatron believes that Shockwave is destroyed, and betrays Ratchet, stating that he will now destroy Ratchet, and be rid of the Autobots altogether. Ratchet knows that Megatron had no desire to fulfill his end of the bargain, so he has kept the Dinobots in hiding under the snow on the mountain top. As soon as Megatron shows signs of betrayal, Ratchet signals for the Dinobots to attack. Though not fully healed, Megatron proves to be more than a match for the Dinobots. Megatron stands at the edge of the cliff chiding Ratchet for his failed treachery. Ratchet, in sheer desperation rushes Megatron, but merely bounces off the powerful Decepticon's chest. Megatron continues mocking Ratchet, when suddenly the cliff crumbles from beneath Megatron and he falls. Megatron tries to fly, but his flight systems are still too damaged to help. Instead, he opts to transform into his small gun mode, to try to shield himself from as much damage as possible. Megatron falls down below the clouds and disappears into the snow, far, far down the mountain.

The Dinobots congratulate Ratchet on his victory, and turn to go to the Ark. Swoop rushes ahead of the others, though the skies. As he lands in front of the Ark, though, it is ambushed and badly damaged by an Autobot Guardian unit. The Guardian Unit, a sentry drone different from the giant Guardian robots of the past, has been reprogrammed by the Decepticons to attack any Autobots that it encounters. Ratchet and the other Dinobots arrive and assault the rogue Guardian. The Guardian takes massive damage, from Rachet zapping his cerebral access port with a laser scalpel,and flees into the depths of the Ark; the Dinobots pursue, seeking revenge for Swoop. Ratchet gets to work on repairing the other Autobots.

Wheeljack, revived by Ratchet, discovers that the Guardian is booby trapped with a thermonuclear bomb. If the Guardian is destroyed, the nuclear device will detonate, destroying the Ark, the Autobots and Mt. St. Hilary as well. Unable to reach the Dinobots in time, they usethe Ark's computers to remotely control Optimus Prime's headless body, which is near the Guardian and the Dinobots, to keep the Dinobots from destroying the Guardian and setting off the bomb.
The Guardian unit retreats deep into the volcano, and decides that it must activate its failsafe sequence to fulfill Shockwave's orders. It arms the thermonuclear bomb, begins a countdown and heads for the highest concentration of enemies, which happens to be Ratchet's repair bay. Ratchet is just completing the repairs on Swoop when the Guardian unit bursts through the doors and begins attacking the other Dinobots. To save the Autobots and the Ark, Swoop grabs the Guardian Unit, and flies it as far as he can away from the Ark. He releases the Guardian just before it explodes. The Autobots are unable to find Swoop's body, and assume that he was completely destroyed by the nuclear blast. After a memorial ceremony honoring Swoop, the Dinobots part ways with the Autobots, choosing to go their own way.

Meanwhile, at the Blackrock Chronic Care Institute, Josie Beller completes her creation; a suit made completely of microcircuitry, capable of not only restoring her mobility fully, but also enabling her limited flight (using electromagnetism), the ability to access computers and storage media with a mere thought and giving her the ability to generate massive blasts of electricity. She nicknames herself "Circuit Breaker" and leaves the hospital plotting revenge upon all of the Cybertronian Robots, for whom she feels only patholgical hatred.

At the same time, G. B. Blackrock, enraged at the loss of two of his facilities to the Decepticons, plans to unveil a weapon his engineers have designed to combat the robots, a Photonic Cannon. Upon hearing of Blackrock's plans, the Autobots decide to send envoys, to try to form an alliance with Blackrock. Blackrock's vast control of fuel reserves would greatly help the Autobots in their fight. Shortly before th unveiling of his Photonic Cannon, Blackrock has an impromptu meeting with Jazz, who explains that the Autobots want to help protect Blackrock Enterprises in return for fuel. Blackrock agrees, and the two of them return to the unveiling ceremony. Unfortunately, when the Cannon is supposed to display its firepower, it malfunctions, because Circuit Breaker has sabotaged it. She wishes for Blackrock to use her and her creation to destroy the robots. Blackrock wants to refuse, wishing for Josie to suffer no more harm at the hands of the Decepticons, but he feels trapped. Fortunately, he doesn't get a chance to decide, because Starscream and Frezy swoop down from the sky, seeking to destroy the Photonic Cannon.

Circuit Breaker leaps into action, preparing to assault the Decepticons with her electrical blasts, when Jazz and Wheeljack intervene to protect Blackrock. Circuit Breaker,, refusing to distinguish one robot from another, first blasts Jazz, disabling his arm and gun, allowing Starscream to hit him with his cluster bombs.Wheeljack enters the fray, taking Frenzy out, while Circuit Breaker blasts Starscream, keeping him from blasting Wheeljack as well. Wheeljack thanks Circuit Breaker for the assistance, but she returns the Autobot's gratitude with a massive blast of electricity. Wheeljack goes down, and Josie preapres the killing stroke. Blackrock rushes in and begs Circuit Breaker to spare teh Autobots lives, because they are friends and not foes. Josie restrains her fury enough to blast the robot mock-up that Blackrock had prepared for the demonstration, and agrees to spare Jazz & Wheeljack for now, but next time, Blackrock will not be able to stop her. In the confusion, as dazed and wounded Starscream and Frenzy retreat back to the Aerospace Plant.

Back at the Aerospace Plant, Shockwave uses the residual Matrix energy in Optimus Prime's head to heal the Constructicons, making Devastator fully operational again. Shockwave disassembles Skyfire in order to gather technical information, so he can make a fleet of Decepticons created from Skyfire's unique body design, which is superior in speed and firepower to the current Decepticon airfighter design. Skyfire is reassembled without his lasercore (which is left in stasis), so that further tests and studies may continue, without the resistance of Skyfire's free will.

The Autobots figure out, with Blackrock's help that they can eavesdrop on the Decepticons in the Aerospace plant using the special telephone system that Blackrock has installed within it. They listen, as Shockwave figures out that Optimus Prime no longer holds the creation matrix, and discovers that Buster Witwicky is the most likely candidate to possess it. Laserbeak follows Bumblebee & Bluestreak to Buster's location, then relays the data to Shockwave. Not willing to waste any more time, Shockwave orders Skyfire, now a sparkless drone, to quickly retrieve the human boy and bring him to Shockwave. Without a lasercore, Skyfire complies.

Bluestreak and Bumblebee battle Laserbeak and Skyfire to protect Buster. Laserbeak is easily defeated by Bluestreak, but Skyfire is not so easily dispatched. Skyfire is finally brought down when Buster uses the power of the creation matrix to stop the sparkless robot. The creation matrix gives Buster the ability to disassemble, reassemble and mentally program any sparkless machine. Buster reprograms Jetfire to obey only him, and sets off in the jet, in a plan to rescue Optimus Prime from the Aerospace Plant. Meanwhile, Soundwave detects that they are being listened to by the Autobots, so Shockwave decides to use their spying against them.

Buster arrives at the Aerospace plant unconscious, because he blacked out from the massive g-forces exterted on him from Skyfire's manouvering. While Shockwave hold Buster captive, he reveals that he will dump Optimus Prime's head in a nearby swamp. In reality, though, it will be a false head, that Shockwave will use to remotely control Optimus Prime's body, and destroy the Autobots, with the help of several Decepticons, who lay in wait. He has Skyfire drop the false head in the swamp, and the Autobots retrieve it, attaching it to Optimus' body. When Skyfire returns, however, Buster reawakens and uses Skyfire to attack Shockwave, and take Optimus' real head to the Autobots, as well as freeing the human hostages. Optimus Prime is able to override Shockwave's control and re-attach his head to his body. Many Autobots are hurt, but Optmus repels the Decepticons who are attacking them. Shockwave arrives and confronts Optimus. Optimus defeats Shockwave and throws him into the swamp. As Shockwave sinks into the mire, he mocks Optimus saying that he has still failed, for by this time, Shockwave's machines will have extracted the creation matrix from Buster's head, and given life to hundreds of new Decepticons who await life in the plant. Optimus rushes to save Buster, but, to his surprise, he finds that Buster is already free. Buster used the creation matrix to free himself from Shockwave's machinery, thwarting the Decepticon's plan. They restore Skyfire's spark to his body, and Buster passes the creation matrix back to Optimus Prime.

Back in the Ark a heated debate divides the Autobots. Prowl suggests that the recently returned Creation Matrix should be used to create an army of Super-Autobots, designed solely for fighting, in oirder to bring the war, and the Decepticons, to a swift end. Jazz opposes this, saying that it's a perversion of the Creation Matrix, and not the Autobot way. The Autobots divide behind each view's proponent, and they all demand that Optimus Prime make a decision on this plan. Optimus Prime states that it would be wrong, and dangerous to Earth to make such beings to destroy the Decepticons, but even he doubts his decision after hearing the grumbling and murmurs from the Autobots. Ravage overhears the debate, and allows the Autobot sensors to detect him. The Autobots pursue and capture Ravage, as Laserbeak watches. Laserbeak reports back to Soundwave, who is acting as Commander in Shockwave and Megatron's absence, much to the disdain of Starscream. The Autobots lock Ravage up in one of their Maximum Security cells, but Ravage easily escapes. Bumblebee discovers that Ravage has escaped and informs Prime, who is still in debate with Prowl over the creation of Super-Autobots. Prowl tells Bumblebee to get Mirage and Hound to pursue Ravage, but Bumblebee decides to disobey and chase after the Decepticon himself.

Bumblebee tracks Ravage across the desert, and is led into a Decepticon ambush. The Decepticons easily overpower Bumblebee, and drop Bumblebee's severed arm outside Autobot headquarters as a challenge to Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime accepts the challenge and battles the Decepticons. He defeats Rumble, then the Decepticon Jets, paying particular attention to Starscream, who gleefully gloats about the many leaders he has slain, before Optimus silences the Decepticon. Optimus then defeats Soundwave and rescues Bumblebee. Optimus returns with his resolve and purpose renewed. He announces that he has made his decision; the Autobots are not killers and will not risk innocent lives in order to gain victory. His decision silences all dissent.

Elsewhere, disgruntled Roxxon researcher Professor P. Morris, discovers the body of the lost Dinobot, Swoop, in the bottom of Lake Dena (a man-made reservoir in Northern Oregon). He uses his invention, the Neural Relay Link, to take control of Swoop's body, and live vicariously through the Dinobot's body and his device. Discovered using his device (which is actually owned by Roxxon Corporation) without permission, he accidentally uses Swoop to kill a security guard, after the guard tries to blackmail Morris. Morris then uses Swoop to attack the Autobots, thinking that all Transformers are the products of Roxxon's greatest competitor, G. B. Blackrock.

The Autobots battle Swoop, refraining from using lethal force, seeking only to subdue what they think to be just a rogue comrade. The Autobots fight to bring their former ally under control using force, but to no avail. Finally, Optimus Prime remembers how much Swoop despised his authority, and shouts out a direct order to Swoop. Something deep inside Swoop snaps, enraged with rebellion against Prime, and Professor Morris loses control of the Dinobot. Swoop then turns and angrily flies towards Morris' lab. Morris, realizing that he had taken control of a living being, and not one of Blackrock's constructs, begs for Swoop to spare him. Remorse for killing the guard strikes Morris, and he tells Swoop that he does deserve to die for what he has done. Swoop takes the human out and presents him to Optimus Prime, as the cause for all of the trouble. The Autobots forgive Morris, but state that he will have to be punished for his crimes according to human laws. Suddenly, Swoop turns feral and begins attacking the Autobots. Morris uses his device to bring Swoop back under control, so that the Autobots may return him to the Ark for repairs. Morris then vows to turn himself in to the authorities, as the Autobots leave. After they get back to the Ark, the Autobots discover that Swoop is suffering from a neurological degenration, a flaw in his design most likely aggravated the millions of years that he spent buried in the tar pit, that has more than likely affected the other Dinobots, who are roaming free, and shared his time trapped in the tar. The Autobots break into teams to track down the Dinobots.

The Autobots tracks down Snarl in Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Mirage, Brawn and Trailbreaker track Snarl to a secret US Military base, after the Dinobot attacks a contingent of curious soldiers. Te commander of the secret base, General Carl Thompson, uses all of the force available to him to repel that mad Dinobot, but to no avail. With no other option, the General sets the base to self-destruct, to protect the secrets within from falling into anyone else's hands, and orders the base personnel to flee the base. Snarl is caught in the strange blast, that consists of force and light, but no noise, from the secret government project, called a Disintegrator. The Autobots watch in horror, until Snarl stumbles out in Robot mode, and falls to the ground. As the Autobots ponder the strange blast and retrieve the wounded Dinobot, Laserbeak watches from the distance, then reports his findings back to the Decepticons.

Windcharger, Gears & Cliffjumper travel to Northern California to track down Sludge. Deep in the inland swamp, near Littlewood, CA, a reporter, Joy Meadows, finds Sludge wandering, and attempts to tame the beast. Before the three Autobots can catch up with Sludge, the Decepticons, led by Soundwave, attack the Dinobot and subdue him. When Windcharger, Gears and Cliffjumper arrive, they are ambushed by the Decepticons. The Decepticons leave with Sludge, and the three Autobots as their captives.

Later, in Old River Valley, Idaho, Soundwave, Skywarp and Scavenger search for Laserbeak, who has gone missing after being sent to search for Slag. They find a badly wounded Laserbeak, who relays how Jazz, Ironhide and Skyfire overpowered and used Laserbeak to block Slag's flamethrower, causing and explosion that stops the rampaging Triceratops. The Autobots leave Laserbeak for dead and return to the Ark with Slag.

Soundwave sets the feral Sludge (who is being tormented by Scavenger's mind piercing device, the Sonic Lance) against Grimlock, who is also in an animal-like mind state. The two battling Dinobots not only destroy the small town of Doonstown, but they severely damage the three Autobots sent to retrieve Grimlock; Sideswipe, Huffer & Bluestreak. Sideswipesends a distress signal back to the Ark, bringing Optimus Prime, Prowl, Ratchet & Bumblebee to the battlezone.

While Prowl and Optimus try to stop the raging Dinobots, Ratchet administers aid to their wounded comrades and Bumblebee tries to figure out how Sludge got there. Grimlock is unconscious from the battle and neurological damage, while Sludeg rages on. Bumblebee detects a strange energy source, which turn out to be Windcharger's Team's Shuttle. There he discovers the three missing Autobots and the Sonic Lance, which is set to make the entire shuttle explode if it is tampered with. Bumblebee, expecting a Decepticon trap, gets his three wounded comrades away from the Shuttle, and detonates the trap. Without the Sonic Lance goading him, Sludge falls into unconsciousness, just as all of his fellow Dinobots have. The Autobots gather all of their wounded into Prime's shuttle and return to the Ark.

Elsewhere, a human named Joey Slick, flees from Mafia hitmen and finds Megatron, still in gun mode in a stream. He uses Megatron, who is damaged and has no will of his own, to destroy his attackers. Joey then begins to go on a crime spree with Megatron, robbing banks and destroying the authorities that try to stop him. Joey uses Megatron to attack Lomax, the mafia lord who put the hit on him. After taking out Lomax's hired guns. Joey confronts him, but decides that he want to take Lomax down with his bare hands. He tosses Megatron aside, jarring the Decepticon's circuits, and bringing Megatron fully online again. As Joey delivers the knockout punch to Lomax he looks up to see the figure towering over him. Megatron threatens to destroy the human, but then, in a moment of insight, spares Joey's life, after Joey shows bravery in facing his doom. Megatron leaves the human, and goes to reclaim his place as Decepticon Leader.

Megatron runs out of fuel in the Powder River Basin, in Wyoming. A secret government group called I.I.I. (The Intelligence and Information Institute) and their paramilitary force, called R.A.A.T. (Rapid AntiRobot Assault Team), led by Walter Barnett, wishing to turn public opinion and the rest of Earth against all of the Transformers, hires a man named Donny Finkleberg to pretend on National Television that he is an international terrorist called "Robot Master". Robot Master, posing in front of Megatron's frozen form, claims to be the real force behind the Transformers, and that all other information known about them has only been pretense, in his game to dominate the world using the giant robots.
The Autobots rush to the scene, to capture Megatron and to stop this charade, but they are attacked by para-military fringe group. Unwilling to harm any humans, the Autobots don't fire back. While this occurs, Soundwave arrives and refuels Megatron, who destroys the humans' armaments and causes the wounded Autobots to withdraw. Megatron decides to keep the "Robot Master" as a captive, to continue his broadcasts, in the hope that he can further damage the Autobots' relations with the human governments.

Back at the Ark, Optimus discovers that Wheeljack and Rachet has created a robotic exosuit for Buster, becomes extremely angry at them for attempting to drag humans into their war. Optimus orders them to dismantle the suit, but Buster feels that he can gain Optimus' confidence if he uses to prove himself. He travels to Castle Sinister, believing it to be empty, or at the very least having only a token guard. He finds Frenzy there and attacks him. Buster defeats Frenzy, but doesn't count on Shockwave arriving.

Buster fights desperately against Shockwave, using very trick and trap he can think of. He tries to match Shockwave strength and firepower, and realizes that he is vastly outmatched. Shockwave, frustrated by the humans' resourcefulness, begins to lose his cold, logical demeanor, and begins to give in to a maddening rage that wells up within him, which has long been suppressed. Buster blasts Shockwave at point blank range with a force so powerful that the exosuit is destroyed.Shockwave is largely unharmed by the blast and prepares to kill Buster. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, arrive and threaten to destroy Shockwave if he harms Buster. Shockwave retreats, leaving Buster with the Autobots, and realizing a key weakness that the Autobots have.

Back on Cybertron, and Autobot Scientist, named Spanner, works desperately to duplicate the Spacebridge Technology that Shockwave created, so that the Autobot Fighters on Cybertron will have a new source of energy, and new resolve to battle for their planet. A rival lord of Shockwave, Lord Straxus, kidnaps Spanner, and forces him to create the Spacebridge for himself. Straxus seeks to shake off his dependancy upon Shockwave for fuel from Earth and even to overthrow Shockwave eventually, and take his place as Leader of the Decepticons. Blaster, Perceptor, Powerglide, Cosmos, Warpath, Seaspray, and Beachcomber travel to Cybertron to search for Spanner. They are joined in their search with the ne'er-do-well Autobot spy, Scrounge. Scroungemakes friends with Blaster, and is able to infiltrate Straxus' lair and find out that Straxus has Spanner. He also discovers that the new Spacebridge is operational. Unfortunately for Scrounge, his intrusion is detected, and he is captured as he attempts to return to Autobase. He is thrown in the Smelting Pool, a horrifying pit, filled with molten metal, where captive Transformers are melted down into their base metals, to be used by the Decepticons as they see fit. Blaster finds the dying Scrounge, and retrieves the information from him before he expires. Blaster is rescued out of the Smelting Pool by Powerglide and gets back to Autobase with the information

Meanwhile, on Earth, Shockwave learns of Megatron's return, due to the frequent broadcasts by the Robot-Master. The two Decepticons face off, but when Shockwave learns of Straxus' plans, he decides to postpone their battle for Leadership until they handle Straxus. Megatron agrees, and they begin building a temporary base of operations in the Powder River Basin Coal Mine.

On Cybertron, the Autobots lead an attack against Straxus and destroy his base, Darkmount. During the battle they discover that Spanner has actually been built into the new Spacebridge, and if the destroy it, they destroy him. The Spacebridge opens a portal to Earth, and Blaster battles Straxus inside the Spacebridge, and Straxus falls from the bridge into the void, apparently destroyed by the energies that surround the bridge. The Spacebridge appears to destabilize, and the Autobots flee across it, back to Earth, where they are surrounded and attacked by RAAT and Circuit Breaker. The humans quickly overpower the Autobots and take them as captives back to their base of operations.

Optimus Prime leads most of the Autobots on an attack against the Decepticon Coal Mine Base. On the way there, in the town near the Coal Mine, Skids accidentally damages a human's car, but is ordered to keep moving, rather than attempting to make amends with the human.

Megatron leads a contingent of Decepticons to meet with who they suppose are Straxus' Decepticons, but instead,find the Autobots being taken off by RAAT. Back at the Decepticon Coal Mine Base, the Autobots launch a full assault upon the Decepticons. In the confusion, Donny Finkleberg, the Robot Master, is able to escape. Shockwave, greatly outnumbered radios to Megatron for help, Megatron and the his troops return and repel the Autobots. Starscream is damaged in the battle, and taken captive by the retreating Autobots. Shockwave admits that Megatron has proven that he is a fit commander, and that logically, he should lead, ending their contest for the Decepticon Throne. Ravage is sent out after Donny Finkleberg, and slips up on the Autobot convoy. He takes out Skids, who is the last Autobot in the convoy. Unseen by the other Autobots, Skids tumbles down a mountainside, out of their view.

Ramjet, Thrust, Dirge, Blitzwing and the Insecticons are sent to Cybertron aboard Astrotrain, to keep order on Cybertron and to make sure that the battles on Cybertron go in favor of the Decepticons. There they are joined by Octane and Macabre. The ten of them work together to wreak havok on the Autobots, and do so successfully..

Skids is discovered by a human named Charlene, who thinks him to be a normal vehicle, abadnoned in the mountains. Charlene takes the Autobot to a mechanic, where he receives repairs. Charlene begins to drive Skids home, still thinking that he's a normal Earth vehicle, when the angry driver Skids ran into spots the van that hit him. The angry human, named Jake, tries several times to run into Skids, but the Autobot is much more agile and manueverable than the human, and keeps Charlene, and himself from being harmed. Jake eventually gives up on his chase, and Skids has to reveal his identity to Charlene, after performing a number of stunts, and driving without her guidance. Skids, being an anthropologist, makes a deal with Charlene to function as her vehicle, while he studies human culture in disguise. At a nearby restaurant, Donny Finkleberg (in a stolen change of clothes), overhears Jake's story, and surmises that the van in question is an Autobot. Seeking sanctuary, Donny tries to track down Skids. Donny spots and follows Skids, and catches Skids and Charlene conversing. While he confronts them, Ravage attacks, in an attempt to kill Finkleberg. Skids, again, is forced to reveal himself. He tries to flee from Ravage, with the two humans inside of him. He is again spotted by Jake, who decides that the score is not quite settled yet. Jake attacks Skids again, but with little effect. Ravage shows up again and Skids battles Ravage. Realizing that this is not a car that he's been after, but an Autobot, Jake has a change of heart, and decides to help Skids by crashing his car into Ravage, damaging the Decepticon's flight circuits. Skids tricks Ravage into jumping down into a dry well, trapping the Decepticon. Skids, realizing that he has a duty to take the "Robot-Master" to the Ark, bids Charlene as sad farewell, and heads back to the Autobot Base.

Meanwhile, RAAT troops kidnap Professor Morris for use in their "Project Centurion", which is a plan to use the information they've gathered from the captured Autobots to build their own human-controlled Robot Warriors. Morris is shown the first of the line, called Centurion. They want his expertise to be used to recreate the Neural Link Relay for use on the Centurion Units.

Elsewhere, Joy Meadows, the reporter who found Sludge and secretly witnessed the battle between the Autobot team sent to retieve the Dinobot and Soundwave's group of Decepticons has made a report refuting Robot Master's claims, with help from G. B. Blackrock. She appears on national TV announcing her claims. RAAT decides that she must be eliminated, while Sludge, who also views the broadcast, decides to seek out the human who treated him kindly while he was ill. The Dinobots arrive just as agents of RAAT are about to kill the reporter, and Sludge's fury sends the assassins to flight. The Dinobots agree to do an interview, telling the truth about the Autobots and Decepticons, and debunking Robot-Master's lies. Joy calls for her technical crew to meet her, and the transmission is picked up by Soundwave, who reports it to Megatron. Unwilling to have his ruse so easily dismissed, he leads a group of Decepticons to keep that interview from occuring. I.I.I. also intercepts the transmission, and has agents sent to stop the camera crew from reaching Ms. Meadows. Swoop, sent to Portland Oregon, to bring the crew to the interview's location, arrives just in time to see Megatron attacking the camera crew. He engages the Decepticons in an attempt to save the humans, while the I.I.I. agents watch. Megatron overpowers Swoop and prepares to kill the Dinobot, when Centurion appears on the scene and attacks Megatron. Megatron defeats Centurion with the help of Mixmaster, but their battle gives Swoop enough time to recover, giving him the opportunity to escape with the Camera crew. A sniper from I.I.I. tgs Swoop with a tracking device that will allow them, and Centurion to follow.

Morris, recognizing Swoop, barracades himself alone inside of the I.I.I. canturion Control Room, which is practically impregnable once it is sealed up. He then begins to use Centurion to follow Swoop.

The Decepticons also detect the I.I.I. homing beacon and track down the reporter, her crew and the Dinobots and attack them. Centurion joins the fray and turns the battle to the Dinobots' favor. Soundwave, sensing a defeat, corners the humans, and forces them to give up all of their research and footage that refutes the Robot-Master ruse. Reluctantly, Joy meadows complies. With the evidence in their hands, the Decepticons leave the battle, victorious. Optimus Prime arrives at the scene, but neither the humans or Dinobots would give him any explanation of what occurred. Back at the Ark, Optimus Prime, Prowl and Ratchet suddenly disappear in a flash of black energy. At another location, three Decepticons from the year 2005 appear; Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge.

Meanwhile, on Cybertron, the Wreckers (Impactor, Roadbuster, Whirl, Topspin, Twintwist and Rack-n-Ruin) plan an assault against the Decepticons. The strike, planned by Emirate Xaaron and Ultra Magnus is called Operation Volcano. It's purpose is to wipe out most of the Decepticons' most deadly warriors in one fell swoop. All appears to go as planned, until the Matrix Flame (fueled interdimensionally by the Matrix in Optimus Prime's chest) goes out. Disturbed by this, Emirate Xaaron sends Ultra Magnus to investigate. Ultra Magnus appears on Earth through a rip in space, caused by one of Spanner's original prototypes for the Spacebridge. He only has alimited amount of time to handle his mission on Earth before he misses the opportunity to set off Operation Volcano, which may fail without him.
Galvatron travels to the Coal Mine Base and greets Megatron. He declares himself as a Decepticon Leader from the future, and asks to have temporary command of the Constructicons. Megatron answers with a blast to Galvatron's chest. Galvatron responds by burying Megatron and Soundwave alive beneath tons of rock. Galvatron then takes the Constructicons to a specific location, to build a massive weapon to destroy his future master, Unicron. He chooses the very ground where Autobot City will one day stand, so that all of his enemies are destroyed at once.

The Autobots, thinking that the disappearances of Optimus, Prowl & Ratchet are caused by the Decepticons, see and overhear what occurs between Megatron and Galvatron. Jazz and Hound follow Galvatron and spy on his project, but are blasted by Cyclonus from behind. Jazz tumbles down into the deep pit that the Constructicons are digging. Before Cyclonus can kill Hound, Ultra Magnus blasts the gun from his hand. Cyclonus is startled at first, thinking that it is the Ultra Magnus from the future. Once he realizes that it is not the Ultra Magnus from the future, he laughs and reports the Autobot activity to Galvatron.

Ultra Magnus takes Hound back to the Ark, and there Hound reports all that he saw and heard. A division in the Autobots arises as Ultra Magnus wishes to find out what happened to Optimus Prime, while other other Autobots wish to attack Galvatron. They soon receive a message from Galvatron, showing them Jazz being tortured. Galvatron goads them into attacking to save their friend. The Autobots ask Ultra Magnus to help them, but he refuses, keeping to his mission to find Optimus Prime.

The Autobots attack Galvatron at the Coal Mine Base and are defeated badly. Nothing they do harms Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge. They are all defeated and mocked by Galvatron. Galvatron refuses to kill them, but rather leaves them utterly defeated and alive. He warns them to stay out of his way from now on and returns to completing the weapon. The Autobots, desperate to stop Galvatron, dig Soundwave and Megatron out of the rubble and forge an alliance with them against Galvatron.

As Megatron plots with the Autobots to destroy Galvatron, Starscream awakens, breaks out of Autobot detention and overhears the recent events. He decides that if Galvatron is so powerful that even Megatron stands no chance against him alone, then that's where his alliance should be. Starscream sneaks out of the Ark, in search of Galvatron. Starscream finds Galvatron, and after being treated roughly by Cyclonus, is welcomed by Galvatron, who puts Starscream to work.

Scourge, searching for metal for Galvatron's weapon, is attacked, defeated and captured by the Autobots, led by Megatron. At the same time Shockwave, Frenzy & Thundercracker all disappear in a blast of black energy, while elsewhere 3 Autobots from the future appear, Hot Rod, Kup & Blurr. The three Autobots have been unwittingly and secretly snatched from their places, and sent into the past by Unicron to thwart Galvatron's plans. Hot Rod, Kup and Blurr travel to the Ark seeking Optimus Prime, but find only Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus offers to help the 3 Autobots stop Galvatron.

On Cybertron, anticipating that Ultra Magnus may not return in time for Operation Volcano, Emirate Xaaron recruits two Triple-Changing Autobot warriors to replace Magnus; Springer and Broadside. They begin training with the Wreckers.

Galvatron offers a prisoner exchange; he will release Jazz if the Autobots will release Scourge. What the Autobots don't realize is that Jazz has been programmed to attack them at Galvatron's command. The Autobots at the exchange are taken unawares by Jazz's attack, and quickly subdued.

Back at the weapon site, Soundwave attack Cyclonus, who they believe to be alone, but while they fight with Cyclonus, Starscream backshoots them, rendering them both unconscious. Starscream prepares to kill Megatron, but he is stopped by Galvatron, who beats Starscream into submission, just as Ultra Magnus arrives.

Ultra Magnus battles Galvatron and leads him away from the site. While Magnus keeps Galvatron distracted, Hot Rod, Kup & Blurr create a ruse to trick Galvatron into returning to the future. They create a mock up of Starscream and place it near the weapon site and hide the real Starscream, who is in stasis lock. They also plant explosives throughout the weapon, after damaging Cyclonus and Scourge further. When Galvatron returns, the weapon explodes, and the false Stascream stands nearby mocking Galvatron. Galvatron, in his rage, destroys Starscream. Shocked by his own action, Galvatron realizes that without Starscream, his future will not exist. He returns to his time with Cyclonus and Scourge. Unicron pulls Hot Rod, Kup & Blurr back to their time and place, wiping their memories of the events. Unicron leaves one parting suggestion in the minds of the present-time Autobots, that the spot where Galvatron's weapon was would make an excellent place to build themselves a city. As soon as the Future Autobots and Decepticons disappear, the missing Autobots and Decepticons from the present reappear where they were. Both groups repair their wounded. Jazz's programming is restored by Ratchet, as the Autobots lick their wounds from their numerous defeats.

Ultra Magnus hurries back to Cybertron, because he is late Operation Volcano. Impactor and his Wreckers have set a trap for Thrust, Dirge, Ramjet, Blitzwing, Astrotrain, Octane, Macabre & the Insecticons. Operation Volcano will lead the ten Decepticons into an ambush, where they would be destroyed. The Decepticons take the bait, which is Emirate Xaaron and a false crowd of Autobot Leaders, and rush to amphitheatre to annihilate the Autobots, but they are stopped short by a transmission from Megatron, calling them back to Earth. Macabre, unwilling to miss this opportunity continues on alone seeking to kill Emirate Xaaron. Just before Macabre takes his shot, though, Impactor spots him and jumps in the way, and takes the blast meant for Emirate Xaaron. Impactor dies, passing leadership of the Wreckers to Springer, but not before his assassin is killed by the Wreckers.

Back on Earth, Optimus Prime, working with information given by Donny Finkleberg sends Skyfire and Donny to check the location where Blaster and the other Autobots supposedly crossed the Spacebridge back to Earth. They arrive and only find a small trail of energon from one of the wounded Autobots. They return and report their findings. Optimus sends Skids and Donny out to follow the trail, and discover the whereabouts of the missing Autobots. By saving a woman trapped under downed powerlines, Skids alerts his and Donny's presence to R.A.A.T. and the Decepticons. Megatron dispatches the newly repaired Stunticons to kill Skids and Donny. The Stunticons attack and Skids sends out a distress signal to the Ark. The Aerialbots are sent to deal with the Stunticons. RAAT and Circuit Breaker beat the Aerialbots to the scene and engage the Stunticons. The Stunticons suffer damage from the humans' attacks but continue searching for Skids and Donny. The Aerialbots arrive and attack as Superion. The Stunticons merge into Menasor and fight Superion, while RAAT continues firing upon both giants. Superion begins to gain the upperhand over the wounded Menasor, until Circuit Breaker blasts him in the head, bringing the giant Autobot down. RAAT repels the Stunticons, while Donny & Skids escape to continue their mission. RAAT takes Superion captive and returns to their headquarters with him. Donny, learns of RAAT's reward for any Transformer that is turned over to them, and calls them, turning Skids over to them for money, while the Autobot rests in power reserve mode.

Back in the Decepticon Coal Mine Base, Megatron sends for the Battlechargers, Runamuck and Runabout, from Cybertron and sends them as messengers to Optimus Prime to pass along a challenge of mortal combat. The message is never delivered, though, as the Battlechargers take off on their own, defacing buildings and landmarks across the United States. RAAT follows and attacks the two Decepticons, but Circuit Breaker is wounded in the battle. The Battlechargers escape to continue their graffitti spree. Unable to stop the Battlechargers on her own, Circuit Breaker is persuaded by Donny to interface with the captured, and dissected, Autobots, in order to stop the two rogue Decepticons. Circuit Breaker makes a deal with the Autobots that if they will cooperate with her that she will set them free. She hastily has several of the Autobots cobbled together into a gestalt form, with herself as the nerve center. They attack and defeat the Battlechargers, sending them into the waters near Ellis Island. Duringthe battle, the Autobots work to protect Circuit Breaker from the Decepticons' blasts, and true to her word she sets them free after reassmbling them. RAAT is disbanded shortly after this.

Optimus Prime, unhappy with the Autobots performance during the Galvatron incident, especially that they went to Megatron for aid, devises an exercise where the Autobots will think that he has died. While pretending to go one a recon mission alone, Optimus will fake his own death in an attempt to get the Autobots to learn to work together cohesively in his absence.

Megatron, seeking the best set of hunters known to the Decepticons, summons the infamous Predacons, five of the most savage Decepticons, who merge into a nearly unstoppable giant named Predaking. After they arrive and adapt to the planet by choosing forms that imitate Earth animals, they are sent out to hunt down and kill Optimus Prime. But, unknown to Megatron, the Predacons have secretly been given orders to disarm Megatron, and leave him unarmed to fight Optimus Prime. The Predacons execute their plan after they have disarmed Optimus Prime, leaving the two leaders to battle hand to hand. Megatron, though is never completely unarmed,and he produces a small hand-held blaster to use as a weapon. Optimus Prime tricks him into destroying the fake Optimus Prime mock-up, that he had originally intended to use to fool the Autobots, and used the opportunity to attack Megatron from behind. Megatron summons the Spacebridge to effect a retreat, but Optimus Prime forces them to pass through the bridge before the activation cycle is complete, and they are both dumped on Cybertron, but not in the same location.

Megatron finds his way to Polyhex, where he is greeted by Straxus, who is now only a head attached to life-support equipment, thanks to his battle with Blaster on Spanner's Spacebridge. Optimus Prime rescues the Autobot named Outback and the two of them travel together to Autobase.

Megatron, anticipating Optimus Prime's survival passes along a rumor through the Decepticon ranks, and into the hands of Autobot spies that a Decepticon pretending to be Optimus Prime is attempting to infiltrate the Autobot ranks. Optimus Prime is attacked and captured by the Wreckers, who prepare to execute him as a Decepticon spy. Outback rescues him from from the Wreckers, but is damaged badly as they escape. Ultra Magnus suspects that there may be more to this "spy" than what they know, so he summons Emirate Xaaron (the only one of them that actually knew Optimus Prime before) to accompany them as the corner the fugitives. Xaaron identifies Optimus Prime as genuine, and they return to Autobase together to repair Outback.

Back on Earth, and finally reassembled and set free, the Autobots once held captive by Circuit Breaker are travelling back to the Ark when, with a flash of black energy, Skids disappears. Not far away, Galvatron reappears. Again he has travelled back in time, but with a different plan. His arrival is spotted Centurion, the man-made robot controlled by Professor Morris. Centurion goes to investigate and is attacked and destroyed by Galvatron, who mistakes the robot for the future Autobot Leader, Rodimus Prime. The formerly captive Autobots follows the sounds of battle and find Galvatron. They battle him and it appears that he will be victorious over them, when the Dinobots, seeking their silent comrade Centurion, arrive. Together the Dinobots and Autobots attack Galvatron. The battle attracts the attention of Shockwave, who surmises that Galvatron is seeking to take over the Decepticons, and leads a group of Decepticons to assist the Dinobots and Autobots. They repel Galvatron, since Galvatron refuses to destroy those who will be his troops in the future.

On Cybertron, Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus lead the Wreckers in many succesful raids against the Decepticons. They finally invade Polyhex, in a bid to destroy Megatron.

Inside Polyhex, though, Straxus uses a device to force Megatron to switch bodies with him. At first the device appears to be succesful, but the end result is both Megatron and Straxus trapped together in Megatrons body, their minds intermingling, causing Megatron to become mentally unstable. Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus corner Megatron, and he begins to release antimatter in the fortress, threatening to destroy the entire area. RatBat and Octane, who were serving under Straxus see what Megatron is doing, and activate their Spacebridge's portal, throwing Ultra Magnus, Optimus Prime and Megatron thought it, to the Earth. The three appear at separate locations on the planet.Megatron makes his way back to the Decepticon Coal Mine Base, with amnesia regarding the Predacon attack upon him. Optimus Prime returns to the Ark, much to the joy of theAutobots, who have thought him dead. Ultra Magnus, lost in a forest and unfamiliar with Earth's geography, begins to search for the Ark.

Bumblebee and First Aid are on patrol together when First Aid disappears in a blast of black energy. Suspecting more time-travelers have arrived, Bumblebee goes to inform the Autobots what has occurred, but he is stopped short by the time-traveler, Death's Head, who blows Bumblebee to pieces, so that there will be no interference from other Transformers.

Ultra Magnus, travelling alone, it rocked by a huge earth tremor. He hears cries forhelp and rescues three travelling women, Cindy Newell, Corrinne and Judy, from a burning, overturned vehicle. Ultra Magnus takes the women with him as his guides across the country. As Magnus attempts to stop a forest fire, he is discovered by Galvatron. The two of them battle as the women flee, and are trapped in the forest fire.Galvatron defeats Ultra Magnus, and drags him to the source of the tremors, Mount Verona, a nearby volcano, that Galvatron has altered by capping it with a power siphon, with which Galvatron hopes to attain ultimate power by forcing a massive eruption and gathering the power released into himself.. As Galvatron explains this to Magnus, Rodimus Prime, Kup & Blurr arrive from the future.

Elsewhere, Death's Head stalks, attacks and defeats Soundwave and Laserbeak, forcing them to divulge Galvatron's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Wreck-Gar discovers Bumblebee's body and repairs the small Autobot.

Rodimus Prime, Kup & Blurr attack Galvatron, just as he is about to throw Magnus into the volcano's crater. Galvatron hurls Ultra Magnus at the three Autobots, and starts to face off against Rodimus Prime, when Death's Head arrives. Death's Head demands that he be allowed to fight and kill Galvatron, so that he may collect the reward offered by Rodimus Prime. As they argue, Galvatron blasts Death's Head, crippling one of his arms. Death's Head retreats for repairs while Rodimus battles Galvatron. Galvatron fights furiously against Rodimus and it appears that Rodimus will lose, untilMagnus causes a distraction by blasting the Power Siphon. Ultra Magnus, Kup, Blurr and Rodimus Prime retreat and regroup, meeting up with Wreck-Gar and Bumblebee.

Wreck-Gar, Bumblebee, Kup and Blurr attack Galvatron as a distraction, so that Rodimus can steal Galvatron's time-jump trigger. Ultra Magnus fights Galvatron again, to buy Wreck-Gar the time he needs to change the time-jump trigger into an override device that will send all of the future-robots back to their own times. Ultra Magnus is defeated before the device is completed, so Rodimus battles galvatron to give Wreck-Gar more time. Galvatron defeats Rodimus and is about to kill him, when he is hit by a missile; fired by Death's Head. Death's Head and Galvatron battle, and Galvatron rips off one of Death's Head's arms. It buys Wreck-gar enough time to finish the device, which he activates. In a flash all of the robots from the future disappear, except for Galvatron. Somehow the Time-Jump Override was misconfigured, and allowed Galvatron to remain. Ultra Magnus rushes to battle Galvatron again, while Bumblebee sabotages the Power Siphon. Bumblebee escapes as Ultra Magnus battles Galvatron, keeping him on top of the Siphon, until it explodes, seemingly destroying them both.

Megatron becomes increasingly agitated and mentally unstable. Shockwave again uses the Predacons in an attempt to make Megatron destroy himself. Megatron in a paranoid rage blasts the Spacebridge in mid activation, apparently destroying himself. Shockwave re-assumes command of the Decepticons.

Unknown to Shockwave, though, Megatron survives the trip over the Spacebridge, and is found by a small Decepticon named BlackJack. Blackjack leads Megatron back to Straxus' old base. Once inside, Megatron finds a duplicate Megatron body. Straxus had a contingency plan, in case his plan to take over Megatron's body failed, which it had. The plan causes the transfer machinery to reactivate and transfer Straxus' lifeforce into the duplicate Megatron body, which it does. The process frees Megatron from Straxus, but it causes irreparable damage to Straxus' mind. Megatron recovers before Straxus becomes conscious again, and causes damage similar to that which he sustained from the Spacebridge, then sends the unconscious Straxus to Earth over the Spacebridge, where he awakens, still beliving himself to be battling Megatron in the original body. He finds himself in the sewers under London, and battles the G.I. Joe team, Grimlock and the rebuilt Centurion. Both Centurion and Straxus-Megatron appear to be destroyed. On Cybertron, Megatron begins covertly rebuilding his powerbase on Cybertron, and successfully attacking and defeating Autobot resistance.

A Decepticon Spacecraft crashes mysteriously in the desert. Blitzwing, Octane and Astrotrain are sent to retrieve it's cargo. Suspecting Decepticon activity, Blaster and Bumblebee are sent to investigate. Both groups discover the cause of the crash: Scraplets. Scraplets are tiny creatures that transform to resemble nuts and bolts and devour Cybertronian alloys,; multiplying rapidly. New additions, the Throttlebots (Chase, Freeway, Wideload, Rollbar and Searchlight) are sent to back-up Bumblebee and Blaster, and find out that the two Autobots as well as the Decepticon Triple Changers haveall become infected. It seems that they all will die of the horrible disease until it's discovered that water kills the Scraplets, curing all of the infected Transformers.

Elsewhere, Swoop becomes aware that the Predacons are on earth, and sees his old nemesis, Divebomb. Swoop goes to settle the score he has with Divebomb,and reclaim his old name, but their battle is interrupted when the other Predacons come to rescue Divebomb. The other Dinobots show up to rescue Swoop, as the Predacons gang up on him. The Dinobots keep the Predacons from mergeing into Predaking, and take them down one by one, except for Swoop, who can't seem to best Divebomb. He tricks Divebomb into attacking Grimlock, leaving Divebomb to Grimlock's tender mercies. In the end, though, Swoop convinces Grimlock and the other Dinobots to let the Predacons go, since this victory won't restore his lost honor and name.

A human archaeologist, Susan Hoffman, researching on Mt. Verona, discovers the bodies of Ultra Magnus and Galvatron entombed in solid rock. Joy Meadows hears of the story and reports it on television. Autobots and Decepticons alike view the broadcast and each send their own teams to the location. The Autobots go to free Ultra Magnus, while Shockwave sends the Combaticons to kill Galvatron. The military surrounds the mountain, and Cindy Newellslips past their guards, to tell Susan about Ultra Magnus and Galvatron. Soundwave and the Combaticons arrive and blast their way through the human troops. They begin laying explosives all over the mountain in hopes of destroying Galvatron. Blaster, Bumblebee and the Throttlebots arrive and see what is going on. Cindy begs them to helpUltra Magnus, but they tell her that if there's a chance that the Combaticons can kill Galvatron, then they won't interfere, and that Ultra Magnus would agree.

Defying the Autobots, the three women attack the Combaticons using a tank and the Combaticons' own explosives. Seeing that they have no choice but toprotect the human, the Autobots join the fray. They repel the Decepticons. Soundwave tries to detonate the explosives remotely, but Blaster jams his signal, allowing the Throttlebots to defuse all of the bombs. As everyone leaves, Galvatron breaks free from the stone.

Straxus-Megatron is discovered in the bottom of the Thames River by humans, but he is quickly recovered by Shockwave's Decepticons. Shockwave, believing him to be the real Megatron, uses the Psycho-Probe to delve into Straxus-Megatron's mind. There, the Megatron personality overcomes the Straxus personality, asserting Megatron's traits fully again. As this occurs, Shockwave programs him to destroy Galvatron, since Shockwave knows Galvatron's true identity (which Shockwave keeps as a closely guarded secret) and is aware that Galvatron is loose again. The Sparkabots (Sizzle, Fizzle & Guzzle) arrive from Cybertron seeking Ultra Magnus. They locate him in Mt. Verona and dig him out. Ultra Magnus battles Galvatron again. This time Ultra Magnus defeats Galvatron, sending the Decepticon into retreat. Ultra Magnus returns with the Sparkabots to Cybertron.

On Cybertron, in the ancient City-State of Kalis, the dead walk. Ultra Magnus and the Sparkabots find many strange events occurring in Kalis, where Autobase is currently hidden. They discover that the unusual phenomenon are actually caused by a rogue Autobot scientists named Flame, who wishes to reactivate the ancient power reactor that lies beneath Kalis. Xaaron and the Wreckers try to stop him, but his legions of dead transformer minions make it difficult, especially when their dead leader Impactor is among them. Flame abducts Xaaron, who pleads for him to not activate the reactor, because it may explode and destroy all of Kalis, and possibly the rest of Cybertron. The Autobots, with some help from the Decepticons break through Flame's defenses. Impactor's personality reasserts itself, helping Springer and his Wreckers. Impactor rescues Xaaron, kills Flame and deactivates the reactor, sacrificing himself again.

Cyclonus and Scourge appear through a rift in time. They desperately hunt for Galvatron, to retrieve his Time-Jump Device. The Wreckers arrive on Earth, locked onto Galvatron, through a portal justabove the Deceoticons from the future. Springer, overhearing what Cyclonus and Scourge want, pretends to have the device they seek. Cyclonus & Scourge pursue Springer, but the Wreckers are able to set them to flight. Cyclonus and Scourge seek refuge with Shockwave. As Shockwave completes his work on Straxus-Megatron, Cyclonus lets it slip that he and Scourge are responsible for Shockwave's death in the future. Shockwave has Straxus-Megatron attack Cyclonus, while Scourge flees. Cyclonus is extremely damaged, and believed to be dead, by Shockwave, who uses Cyclonus' body to decorate his wall. Cyclonus' Targetmaster partner Nightstick is killed in the attack.

In an attempt to destroy Megatron, past and future, Shockwave sends Straxus-Megatron to confront Galvatron. Galvatron, unsure if this is still his timeline or not, reveals his origin to Straxus-Megatron (thinking that he may be talking to his past self, or one of its alternate timeline counterparts). Straxus-Megatron laughs at such an idea and attacks Galvatron. The two battle, with Galvatron withholding deadly force, unwilling to slay this Megatron, which may or may not be him. Eventually, Straxus-Megatron breaks free of Shockwave's programming (to kill Galvatron) and decides that Galvatron would make a fair ally. The two of them leave together.

Investigating a disturbance in the timestream, Rodimus Prime, Kup, Blurr, Arcee, Ultra Magnus and Red Alert step through a portal into this time period. Not long afterward, Soundwave and the Terrorcons appear from the future, displacing present-day Soundwave and five other Decepticons nearby. The Autobots' Time-Jump causes Optimus Prime, Red Alert and four other Autobots to vanish, so the six Future Autobots appear and the six Present Autobots disappear, all in front of the eyes of the present Autobot troops' eyes. . The present Autobots that remain think that their friends have been destroyed by these newcomers and attack. The fight continues until Bumblebee arrives and explains that those occurences are normal for a Time-Jump, and that these Autobots from the future are who they say they are, because he has met them before. Rodimus Prime further proves his claim, by using the Matrix as a rapport to Optimus Prime, as he floats in the pocket dimension, where Time-Jump displacement moves its targets to. Soundwave, spying on the Autobots, overhears their warnings about Galvatron and how Space-Time is unravelling from Galvatron and his minions activities in this time period.

Elsewhere, a Decepticon transport lands, and the Autobot elite fighting group, the Wreckers, disembarks along with their Decepticon counterparts, the Mayhem Attack Squad (Carnivac, Snarler, Catilla, Battletrap, Flywheels, Venom, Chop Shop, Ransack & Barrage). They have been assigned to work together to stop Galvatron, because he is a threat to Autobot and Decepticon alike. As the Wreckers and the Mayhem Attack Squad storm Galvatron's base, they are attacked by Galvatron and Straxus-Megatron. The two powerful Decepticons tear through the ranks of the elite forces. Galvatron and Megatron are soon joined by Ravage and Scourge who each fight to protect their respective leaders. Springer convinces Scourge that fighting on Galvatron's side in this time period is pointless, because if they stay, they will all be doomed. He tells him that he must return to the future, along with Cyclonus and Galvatron.

Scourge, who also thinks Cyclonus to be dead, leaves to retrieve Cyclonus' body from Shockwave. Shockwave seems to be in a nearly catatonic state until Scourge triesto remove Cyclonus' body. Shockwave blasts Scourge, wounding him badly, and slaying Fracas. Ravage finds Scourge wounded outside of Shockwave's base. Scourge tells Ravage that it he doesn't get Cyclonus then they are all doomed, and that Shockwave appears to be deranged. Scourge leaves to surrender himself to the Autobots and be sent back to his time. Ravage tries to appeal to Shockwave's logic by explaining to him the string of logic that unless they return Cyclonus to his own time, that they all will be destroyed. It brings Shockwave out from his stupor, and Shockwave determines that regardless of whether he dies now or in the future, Cyclonus must be returned.

Back at Galvatron's base, many of the Wreckers and Mayhems die at the hands of Galvatron and Straxus-Megatron. The Future and Present Autobots and Decepticons fight alongside each other to stop Galvatron. The Future Decepticons retreat back to their own time, while the rest battle on. During the fight, Optimus Prime uses the Matrix as a stepping stone to transport himself from the pocket dimension, through Rodimus Prime, so the two of them stand side by side versus Galvatron. Galvatron, lost in madness and confused by the conflicting images he sees before him stands hallucinating, as the forces attack him.

The Time-Rift grows until it reaches the Earth. It sucks in Galvatron. Scourge flies through it under his own power, and at the last moment, Shockwave arrives with Cyclonus' body, blasting it through the rift. The tear in space-time seals and the universe appears to return to normal. Rodimus and his future Autobots quickly return to their own time, to keep the rift from re-opening. Rodimus swears to destroy all of the Autobot and Decepticon Time-Jump machines in his future. All of the displaced Autobots reappear. Outnumbered by Autobots, the Mayhems return to Cybertron.

Straxus-Megatron and Ravage (who believes him to be the real Megatron) return to Cybertron, and dislike the state of affairs they see in Helex, one of the capitols of the Decepticon Empire.. They find out that Helex is run by a Triumverate of Decepticon Warlords (Legonis, Octus and Seizer) who, rather than destroying their enemies, the Autobots, spending their time lazily watching enetertainment in the Arenas, as Autobot prisoners battle Decepticons for sport. Straxus-Megatron is disgusted by this lack of motivation, and challenges the Triumverate for leadership. The Triumverate are cowards and try to send their followers to do their work for them.Straxus-Megatron subdues the warriors who attack him, without killing them. He then speaks to the crowd, with a speech about the glorious right of conquest that is the destiny of all Decepticons. He asks them to shake off this complacency and to join him. The crowd turns on the Triumverate and kills them, making Straxus-Megatron their leader.

Later, Straxus-Megatron begins to have identiy crises again, between his two personalities. This is compounded when the real Megatron arrives at Helex, after hearing of his couterpart's deeds. Ravage is confused by the fact that there are two Megatrons. Megatron explains his origin to Straxus-Megatron. Straxus-Megatron realizes that he is not Megatron possessed by Straxus, but rather Straxus possessed by Megatron. The Megatron side of his personality wins when he commits suicide rather than let Straxus have control. Megatron then merges his powerbase and territories with those that Straxus-Megatron had reclaimed, as well as his troops. He doubles his efforts to eradicate the Autobots and conquer Cybertron. Megatron sets everything in order, calls Shockwave (who is shocked to learn that the Megatron under his control was an imposter) back to Cybertron to over see the operations there. Megatron returns to Earth to claim the energy they need to complete their conquest of Cybertron.

Spike and Carly marry and they have a son, named Daniel.

1998-
Battles between the Autobots and Decepticons raged across the Earth, until the governments of the world decided that enough was enough. In a unanimous vote, the world leaders determined that they would mobilize all of their militaries in a united front with the Autobots to stop the Decepticons at any cost. Human casualties were vast, but thanks to the bravery of the humans and the firepower of the Autobots, the Decepticons were defeated on Earth. Megatron and his troops were taken captive.

1999-
The Nations of Earth united once again to build the Autobots a new ship, the Ark II, with which they could return to Cybertron with their Decepticon captives. Six human scientists and Autobot-Human liason, Sparkplug Witwicky were to join the Autobots on their trip. Optimus Prime leaves a piece of the Matrix, in a necklace, for Spike.

The trip ended in disaster just outside of the Earth's atmosphere, when the Ark II exploded, seemingly killing all board it. The explosion was caused by human sabotage. There were still elements in the government and military who wished to see all of the Transformers destroyed or under their control. They caused the Ark II to explode, and searched the globe to find any Transformers that may have survived the blast.

2000 - 2001
More time travelling Transformers appear on the Earth, which has been devoid of Cybertronians since the Ark II's explosion. Descendants of the Decepticons (called Predacons, not to be confused with the Decepticons that form Predaking) have come to Earth in the year 2000, from the far future, in search of a lost battle station called Brave Maximus. The leader of these Predacons, called Gigatron, attacks a millennium festival in New York and abducts one of the world's top scientists; Dr Onishi. Autobots from the future, led by a robot named Fire Convoy have known about Gigatron's journey to the past, and have laid in wait, disguised as regular Earth vehicles, even to the point of being used daily by humans. When Gigatron and his Predacons strike, the Autobots reveal themselves and attack. Gigatron escapes with Dr.Onishi Dai'ichi initially, but the Autobots gain help from Dr. Onishi's son, Yuki.

The Autobots and Predacons batlle back and forth across the planet, each utilizing secret bases. Also, the Autobots create secret modes of transit using technology based on the Spacebridge to travel in tunnels beneath the Earth's crust and across the globe in mere minutes. Their main goal is to discover the "O-Parts", wherewith they can locate and activate Brave Maximus. The Predacons also find the missing crew that accompanied Brave Maximus, still encased in their Stasis Pods. Gigatron reprograms them as Decepticons, basing five of their designs on the original Combaticons; they merge into a giant named Ruination. The newly programmed Decepticons receive a sub-leader, who was imprinted upon Fire Convoy, calling himself Black Convoy.

Eventually the Autobots find the O-Parts and activate Brave Maximus. Gigatron battles Fortress Maximus and Fire Convoy, but he is defeated. He and his Predacons, save for one who escaped, were captured and returned to their own time.

In 2002, a man named Lazarus appeared, controlling several of the Transformers thought to be dead from the Ark II's explosion. Lazarus hires the robots out to the highest bidders as mercenary war machines to quell rebellions or overthrow governments. The US Government contacts SpikeWitwicky, the person who has had the most experience with the Transformers, to help them. The US Governemt has received pictures of Megatron attacking various countries, alone and beside other Autobots and Decepticons. The government also takes him to the facility where they are holding, and attempting to revive Optimus Prime. The scientists can't wake Optimus up, but Spike believes he can. He has them open Optimus' chest, and Spike drops the fragment of atrix into the Matrix Holder (which appears to be empty). The Matrix glows brilliantly, and Optimus Prime awakens. Optimus immediately goes to awaken the other Autobots. Using the Matrix he brings the Autobots out of their deep slumber.

Meanwhile, Megatron awakens on his own after he was subconsciously triggered by Lazarus attempting to make him bow to him. Megatron reactivates the other Decepticons with him and begins his campaign on the Earth again.

The Autobots battle the Decepticons again, and more human treachery ensues, as a rogue Miltary leader, General Hallo launches a nuclear missile at the battling Transformers. Superion stops the missile, and the General, realizing that his life is ruined, commits suicide after confessing to being behind the Ark II's explosion.

The Autobots gained more ground on Earth, due mostly to advancements in Human technology from Cybertronian influences. The humans gained the ability to make weapons powerful enough to fight back against the Decepticons without Autobot intervention. Inversely the Autobots were losing their hold on Cybertron as the Decepticons acquired resources from places other than Earth.

In 2003, the Autobots and humans built an enormous dwelling place for the displaced Autobots, who had fled Cybertron en masse. The US Government offered the tract of land to make amends for tragedy of the Ark II and for General Hallo's actions, as well as increased trade in Cybertronian technology. They named it Autobot City and it served as an operations base. A gigantic Autobot called Metroplex formed part of Autobot City. An important part of Metroplex's transformation mechanism, the transformation cog, was destroyed by the Decepticons, crippling the Autobot and leaving him unable to assume his robot mode.
At the same time, the Decepticons were building a transforming city/battle station on Cybertron. They were locked in a race to complete their city before the Autobots completed theirs. The Decepticon battle platform was known as Trypticon. Trypticon was a brilliant thinker and a powerful weapon. The Decepticons finished their project first but during its maiden battle the Autobots used the Spacebridge to randomly teleport Trypticon to a random location. The Autobots only saw Trypticon's dinosaur mode before he disappeared. The Decepticons could find no trace of Trypticon. Eventually, the Autobots and Humans drove the Decepticons completely from Earth and the Decepticons conquered all of Cybertron, except its moons. Years pass. The Earth was rebuilt and renewed by the new technology and the temporary time of peace.
Long forgotten due to the 9 million years of war, Unicron drew nearer to Cybertron. Now he was massive: the full size of a planet. The planet Lithone was devoured as the Chaos Bringer closed in.

Earth Year - 2005
The Decepticons intercept an Autobot Shuttle on a Fuel Transport Trip from Cybertron's Moons to Earth and kill all of the Autobots aboard. They then sneak past the early warning systems that protect Earth and lead an attack on Autobot City.
Many Autobots were killed during this battle.

Optimus Prime and Megatron squared off against each other. Megatron was critically wounded in the fight. Optimus Prime died, but not before passing the Matrix to City Commander, Ultra Magnus.

The Decepticons fled Autobot City after Megatron and several other critical Decepticon Warriors were injured or killed.

As they traveled back to Cybertron, Starscream took this opportunity to throw Megatron and the wounded Decepticons into deep space to die. He then proceeded to take command of the Decepticons. As Megatron and his fallen minions drifted through space helplessly, Unicron pulled them toward him. Unicron feared his brother's power. He wanted the nexus of Primus' power destroyed well before he reached Cybertron. He made a deal with Megatron. If Megatron would destroy the Matrix, Unicron would rebuild Megatron and his troops. After haggling with Unicron, Megatron accepted. Unicron placed a pain inducing circuit in Megatron's brain, where it could not be removed to keep him under control. He was, after all, one of Primus' children. Megatron was not aware that Unicron was the fabled "Chaos Bringer" due to the erasure of Unicron's name from historical records by religious zealots. Megatron was reborn as Galvatron. Skywarp, Thundercracker, and many Insecticon clones were formed into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps.

Galvatron arrived at Cybertron just in time to see Starscream being crowned Leader of the Decepticons. In order to reclaim his place as ruler he quickly dispatched the usurper to his throne and gained the servitude of all Decepticons present.

Soon afterward, Unicron arrived at Cybertron and devoured two of its moons and everyone inhabiting them.

From there Galvatron led another attack on Autobot City. This forced Ultra Magnus and several other Autobots, namely Arcee, Springer, Blurr, Perceptor, Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots to lead the Decepticons away in two shuttles. Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots were shot down and crashed unknowingly on Quintessa. Ultra Magnus fooled Galvatron into thinking that he had destroyed the Matrix, but Unicron knew better. Magnus and his crew crash-landed on the Planet of Junk. Unicron informed Galvatron of Magnus and the Matrix's whereabouts, and Galvatron quickly pursued him.

Meanwhile on Quintessa, Hot Rod and Kup, separated from the Dinobots, were captured and taken to be put on trial before a Quintesson Imperial Magistrate in a mock trial and REAL execution for the Quintesson's amusement. They watched as Kranix, the last survivor of Lithone was fed to the Quintesson's executioners, the Sharkticons.

The castaway Autobot Wheelie witnessed Hot Rod's & Kup's capture and sought out the Dinobots to rescue the imprisoned Autobots.

Hot Rod and Kup fought valiantly against the hordes of voracious Sharkticons, but the sheer numbers soon overwhelmed them. Just as they were being buried beneath the mob of Sharkticons, the Dinobots kicked the door and trampled Quintesson and Sharkticon alike. Grimlock then turned the Sharkticons against the Quintessons. Wheelie showed the Autobots where a Quintesson Spacecraft could be found.

Back on the Planet of Junk, Galvatron destroyed the Autobot Shuttle. The Sweeps blew up Ultra Magnus, and Galvatron gained the Matrix. He planned on using the Matrix to control Unicron.

As the Decepticons left, the remaining Autobots were attacked by the Mechanoids indigenous to the planet of Junk, the Junkions. As the Junkions, who perceived the Autobots as thieves and trespassers, were closing in for the kill, the Quintesson ship with Hot Rod, Kup, Wheelie and the Dinobots arrived. Hot Rod greeted the Junkions properly and they immediately formed an alliance. The Junkions rebuilt Ultra Magnus, and informed them that Galvatron left for Unicron with the Matrix. The two groups, Autobot and Junkion both left to battle Galvatron and his master Unicron and to regain the Matrix.

Upon reaching Unicron, Galvatron confronted and threatened Unicron with the Matrix. Unfortunately for Galvatron, he could not open the Matrix to use against Unicron. Unicron was furious with Galvatron for this treachery. Unicron transformed into his robot mode, revealing his true nature and identity as that of the "Chaos Bringer" of legend. Unicron attacked Cybertron to punish Galvatron. The Decepticons counter attacked. Unicron swallowed Galvatron after Galvatron fired upon him.
The Autobots and Junkions arrived and joined the battle. Hot Rod drove the Quintesson ship through one of Unicron's eyes. The Autobots bailed out of the crashing ship. Hot Rod was separated from the group and stumbled upon Galvatron and the Matrix. Galvatron proposed a truce in ordered to fight the Chaos Bringer, their common foe, but Unicron used his torture implant to force Galvatron to destroy Hot Rod. As they fought, Galvatron prepared to crush the life out of Hot Rod. Hot Rod grasped the Matrix and light broke forth. Optimus primes voice spoke from the Matrix "Arise, Rodimus Prime" and Hot Rod was transformed into the newest avatar of Primus.
Rodimus Prime easily defeated Galvatron and threw him through the walls of Unicron and tumbling through space. Rodimus then unleashed the power of the Matrix inside of Unicron. He evacuated the Autobots trapped within Unicron by bursting through Unicron's remaining eye, as Primus' power shredded the Chaos Bringer from the inside out. As his body exploded, Unicron's head was ejected into orbit around Cybertron, replacing the moons he devoured with an eyeless gaze and a shocked expression upon his face. The Decepticons had fled Cybertron as their attacks on Unicron proved ineffective, leaving the empty planet for the Autobots to retake with virtually no resistance. The new leader of the Autobots declared an end to the Great War and a new age of peace, but he was proven wrong in this assertion.

Earth Year - 2005 - 2006
As Earth & Autobot-controlled Cybertron enjoyed peace, an ancient enemy resurfaced. The Quintessons had discovered through the capture of Hot Rod and Kup and the subsequent battle that their rebellious slaves had not destroyed themselves, but had merely been displaced. Through reconnaissance they discovered that Cybertron still existed and was near a solar system that could support Quintesson life. A plan to retake Cybertron was hatched.

Meanwhile, the Decepticons had regrouped on a burned-out planet known as Chaar. With their empire shattered and their home planet and capital gone, the Decepticons quickly turned upon each other as their warrior society collapsed in on itself. Cyclonus and the Sweeps set out on a quest to discover the fate of their missing leader, Galvatron. Their expedition to Unicron's head, in order to track Galvatron's last known location, gave hints that the Chaos Bringer was not quite expired. Galvatron's location was determined to be the plasma planet Throll.

The Quintessons kidnapped Kup, Ultra Magnus, and Spike to interrogate them and procure information on Cybertron's defenses. The Quintessons were especially disconcerted by the unpredictability that humans exhibited. At first Rodimus believed that the Decepticons had performed the kidnappings, but upon surveying the planet Chaar, he knew that they could not have been responsible. The Matrix revealed that the Quintessons were behind the disappearances. Rodimus led a rescue squad to Quintessa to liberate Kup, Spike and Ultra Magnus. When the Quintessons learned that the Matrix Bearer was on the planet they sought revenge by evacuating the planet and detonating it. Rodimus and the Autobots scarcely escaped with their lives. With their ships destroyed, the Autobots drifted through space. With their home world destroyed, the Quintessons made a deal with the desperate Decepticons.

Upon reaching Throll, Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps discovered that Galvatron had gone mad. Apparently the plasma on Throll had fused the torture circuit into an on position and for Galvatron was constantly and ceaselessly tormented. As they traveled back to Chaar they intercepted an Autobot shuttle carrying the newly constructed replacement transformation cog for Metroplex. The Decepticons attacked the ship and it's crew crashed on Jupiter's satellite Io. Thinking the Autobots destroyed, Galvatron continued on his course to his new home.

The Quintessons agreed to keep the Decepticons fully fueled if they would destroy the Autobots for them. All of the Decepticons agreed, except Blitzwing, who remembered the aliens (but couldn't recall the details of who they where). The Quintessons carried the Decepticons to Goo, a debris collection mechanism, where the Rodimus and his crew had crashed and were stranded.

Soon after the Quintessons' departure, Galvatron arrived to greet all of his loyal subjects...Blitzwing. Enraged at being deserted, Galvatron streaked after the Quintesson ship. He arrived just as the battle with the Autobots on Goo was beginning. The battle ceased with Galvatron's arrival, as he "greeted" the new leaders of the Decepticons. The Quintessons proposed an alliance, and offered to give the "Decepticon Matrix" to Galvatron if he agreed. Galvatron accepted their offer.

Together the Quintessons and the Decepticons, led by Galvatron, attacked the Autobots trapped on Goo.

Rodimus Prime was able to contact Wreck-Gar, the Junkion leader, and he rescued the Autobots from the Decepticon/Quintesson Assault.

The Quintessons & Decepticons then prepared an assault on two fronts: one on Earth, the other on Cybertron. The Quintessons had technology that could search and find the lost Decepticon battle platform, Trypticon. Trypticon was discovered to be buried on Earth, underneath a major city in NorthWestern North America. The Constructicons were dispatched to repair Trypticon. They used portions of the human city to rebuild Trypticon. Unfortunately, being teleported into solid rock had severely damaged Trypticon. Although his body was repaired completely, his brilliant mind was lost forever. The massive battle station destroyed the city it was recreated out of and headed for Autobot City, after a quick stop by Mt. St. Hilary, where Trypticon completely destroyed the volcano, burying the Ark beneath tons and tons of debris and rock.
SkyLynx was dispatched to rescue the Transformation Cog and its couriers and return them to Metroplex where the Cog could be installed. The Predacons were dispatched to keep the Transformation Cog from reaching Metroplex, but they were defeated by Skylynx. The Autobots successfully repaired Metroplex and a battle between the Colossal Cybertronian began. The fight caused several vital sections of Trypticon's body to salt water and the Decepticon had to retreat for repairs.

The second invasion was launched on Cybertron. It served as a front to allow the Quintessons to send a team of Sharkticons to activate a device that would immobilize all Cybertronian Robots and enable a quick and effortless victory for the Quintessons.

The machine was powered up and all Cybertronians were deactivated. The Quintessons had won. Or so they thought. The human Spike Witwicky destroyed the immobilization device, releasing all of the Autobots and Decepticons. The Quintessons were appalled at this development and quickly evacuated Cybertron. The Autobots and Decepticons halted their hostilities temporarily as the Decepticons left in pursuit of the Quintessons.

A Quintesson Scientist conducts behavioural studies by kidnapping specimens from the various races involved in the Cybertronian War.
He abducts Ultra Magnus as his Autobot specimen by disguising his ship as Skylynx. He conducts his first experiment by having a holographic Rodimus Prime attack Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus defends against the Rodimus hologram, but tries not to harm what he believes to be his leader. After the initial experiment, the Quintesson reveals Ultra Magnus' true predicament. The Quintesson sets course for Charr, for his next specimen. On Charr, Cyclonus is going through target practice simulations, when he is summoned to a ship to speak with Galvatron. Inside, he is attacked by Galvatron. Cyclonus defends himself against what he believes to be his leader, and subdues him, in much the same manner as Ultra Magnus. The Quintesson Scientist heads toward Junkion.
By using a television show, the Quintesson traps Wreck-Gar. The scientist tries to shock the Junkion by placing him in a sterile room; a stark contrast to his cluttered life on the Planet of Junk. Instead of going catatonic, as the Quintesson expects, Wreck-Gar rips pieces of the wall and floor down, and makes a mess of the place, sitting happily among the debris.

Later, at an Earth Defense Command Space Station. Marissa Fairborne is greeted by her father, Flint. Once inside the ship, the doors close, and her "father" shapeshifts intoa Quintesson monster, but makes no agggressive move. Captain Fairborne quickly attacks the hologram monster. She too, like the others, soon learns that she is being held captive by the Quintesson Scientist. The Quintesson scientist lowers the Electron bars so that he may experiment on her. He begins by shocking her into submission. Wreck-Gar launches his hand at the cell controls, shorts out the Quintesson's submission device and releases Marissa. While Marissa tries to free Ultra Magnus, an Electron storm hits the ship, arcing through the ship and the robots aboard.
The Quintesson guard fights to steer the ship out of the storm, while Marissa futily tries to free Ultra Magnus. Finally, Ultra Magnus grabs the bars and shorts them out with his own body, releasing the other prisoners. A fight ensues.
While the robots fight their captors, Marissa tries to change the ship's course to take them back home. To her horror she finds that the ship is now caught in the gravitational field of a black hole. They send out a distress signal. The Quintesson scientist flees toward the aft section of the ship. The others chase after him.
They find him in an escape pod, and force him out of it. They begin arguing over who should get the pod to escape, and Ultra Magnus and Wreck-Gar go to put Marissa in the pod, but the Quintesson Guard prevents that. The escape pod lauches unmanned and is sucked into the void. The decompression sucks Ultra Magnus out of the airlock and toward the black hole. Cyclonus rescues Ultra Magnus from the collapsed star, believing that warriors should die in battle.
They spot a derelict ship being pulled into the singularity, foreshadowing their own fate. Soon their engines give out and they are pulled in. They are ejected from the other side of the black hole, called a white hole, where colors are reversed. The Quintesson Scientist surmises that if they go into the white hole at the correct trajectory, then they can return to their universe. Using parts volunteered from the robot captives they repair the engines and pass back through the event horizon.
Back in their original universe, they discover a stand-off between the Autobots, Decepticons & Quintessons. Each agrees to rejoin their respective parties and leave the area, ending the battle and returning to their homes.

In Decepticon space, a scuckzoid is cornered by the Combaticon Blast-Off, as the small alien blasts debris with his death crystal cannon. Blast-off forcibly takes the cannon from the scuckzoid and makes the creature tell him where to find more ammunition for the devastating weapon.
Meanwhile, back in Autobot City, Kup gets an alert about a destroyed EDC ship on Goo #8739. Kup takes Grimlock, Wheelie & Blurr aboard Skylynx to investigate. They're met by Wreck-Gar on the debris collector, whoi shows them a shredded Space Station on the Goo, as well. Kup determines that Death Crystals were used to attack the structures.
While they study the remains, Blast-Off and Runamok attack with the Death Crystal Cannon. The Autobots board Skylynx and engae them. As the Decepticons flee, they blast a comet, causing it to disintegrate. Kup states that he hasn't seen Death Crystals in over 100,000 years. He reveals that Death Crystals can only be found growing on the monster known as Chaos, who lives in Queeg Mountain on the planet Dread. Kup tells them his story about Chaos.
Many years ago, creatures called Orbs captured many robots, including Kup, and forced them to mine for Death Crystals in Chaos' caverns. Kup escaped when the monster approached, but he abandoned many of the robots that still were captive in the caves.
Kup regrets leaving the other robots in the caves to the mercy of the monster.

Meanwhile, on Planet Dread, Galvatron and the Decepticons use many of the slaves on the planet to mine Death Crystals for them. Galvatron uses the Predacons to guard the slaves. Galvatron has built a gigantic Death Crystal cannon, which he plans to use on Cybertron.

When the Autobots land they are attacked by the Predacons, who knock Blurr into the nearby Quickmud. Skylynx and the Autobots battle the Predacons and save Blurr from the Quickmud. The Autobots assault the Decepticons, but they are outgunned. Kup goes into the caverns to find Chaos. As the old Autobot enters, the cavern mouth collapses, trapping him inside. Kup taunts Chaos into fighting Predaking. While Chaos leaves to fight the giant Decepticon, Kup frees the slaves inside the cavern. Kup and the slaves hijack Galvatron's Death Crystal Cannon, and turn it against Chaos, apparently killing the monster, and destroying the mountain. The Autobots and slaves flee aboard Skylynx, leaving the planet Dread smoldering.

In another attempt to destroy the Matrix, the Quintessons reanimated the corpse of Optimus Prime. The plan was to have the "resurrected" Optimus lead the entire Autobot Fleet into a Supernova. Upon Optimus' "return" Rodimus returned the Matrix to his predecessor. The REAL Optimus Prime (from inside the Matrix) overrode the Quintesson programming and sacrificed himself to stop the Quintesson plan and to save the Autobot fleet. But before the star went nova, a human research vessel discovered Optimus Primes' body and secreted it away to their laboratory on Earth.

Some time later, Perceptor leads Blaster, Blurr & Wreck-Gar to investigate a disturbance in the Chronal Energy in a nearby asteroid field. The Autobots are attacked by Sharkticons, so Blaster ejects his cassettes to help in the fight, while he transmits to Rodimus Prime for help.

The Autobots discover Quintesson scientists attempting to open a portal to 11 Million years in the past. Perceptor is damaged in the attack, and the other Autbots accidentally fly through the Time Window's portal. The Quintessons are forced to retreat when Rodimus and the Aerialbots arrive and attack. They find a strange Autobot named A-3 near the Time Window. Elsewhere, Blurr, Wreck-Gar, Blaster & his cassettes discover that they are 11 million years in the past, and have to defend themselves against a dark guardian robot. They are saved by a female Autobot named Beta. She notes that they wear the "Slave Mark", aka the Autobot Insignia. She explains that the robots are fighting to overthrow the Quintessons and drive them from Cybertron. Beta is searching for one of their leaders, A-3, who has gone missing. The Autobots surmise that the Quintessons were trying to stop the Cybertronian Rebellion before it occurred, by removing A-3 and his new device, the Coda Remote.

Back in 2006, the Time Window is leaking Chronal Energy across the galaxy, twisting time & space and altering reality. Some things repeat in a never ending loop, while others run in reverse or become evn more bizarre. One such anachronism is displayed when EDC Captain Marissa Fairborne, on Earth, is changed into an infant.

A-3 awakens and thinks that Rodimus and the others are working for the Quintessons, who pulled him from the Empty Lands. While Rodimus explains who they are, the Quintessons return, attacking to shut down the time window and preserve the time/space continuum. A-3 is blown into space and Superion flies to rescue him. There he discovers that A-3 is a past version of Alpha Trion. The Chronal ripples make a temporary duplicate of Superion, who is able to drive off the Quintesson attack. The Autobots notice that something strange is happening to the stuff of space, when the Quintesson contact them for a compromise, to get them to shut down the Time Window.

11 million years in the past, the Autobots from 2006 lead and attack against the Dark Guardians and their Quintesson masters. The Dark Guardians surround the rebels and the Quintessons demand that they surrender. A-3 jumps through the time window and tells the Future Autobots to go back through the Time portal, after he neutralizes the Guardians with the Coda Remote.

The Decepticons fail to defeat an Autobot expedition for the substance known as Isotrite, which is necessary for their weapon systems, due to Galvatron's erratic behavior. Motormaster, Swindle & Laserbeak threaten Cyclonus that if something isn't done to stop Galvatron's violent mood swings, then the Decepticons will turn against him.
A Quintesson, seeking to be rid of Galvatron, tells Cyclonus that a planet called Torqulon specializes in mental help, and that they may be able to fix Galvatron. Cyclonus tricks Galvatron into travelling to the planet, by telling him that Autobots are there. Once they arrive the Psychiatrists there capture Galvatron with their Inhibitor Rays and prepare for his rehabilitation. Galvatron's metaprocessor, which contains his mind, has been damaged by his plasma bath on the planet Throll.
Galvatron goes through various therapies, all of which fail to cure him of his madness, and usually result in Galvatron attacking the other patients or the doctors. The Torqulon psychiatrists prepare Galvatron to be patched into the planetary network, to accelerate the decay of Galvatron's metaprocessor, and remove his madness, though the process may permanently lobotomize Galvatron, leaving him a mindless machine. Cyclonus objects to this process, but he and the Sweeps are restrained by the planet's webs. Torqulon is a living planet made of webs, spun by creatures called Alya. The Alya connect Galvatron's mind to the planet, causing the planet to go mad itself. Galvatron breaks free from the planet, and has learned where the planet's memory core from his merge with it.
Galvatron and Cyclonus fight their way to the Memory Core, where Galvatron destroys it. They finally leave after Galvatron has razed the entire planet, leaving few survivors, and the insane patients running free.

Damaged while battling Superion in space, Scourge and Cyclonus take cover in a spatial anomaly. The anomaly leads them to the planet Paradron, an energon rich planet which is populated by pacifistic Autobots who left Cybertron "after the fourth Great War". The two Decepticons decide to take over the unarmed planet. The radio back to Galvatron and lead him to the defenseless world.

An Autobot named Sandstorm tries to alert the population to the danger that the Decepticons pose, but he is silenced by stun beam from Cyclonus. While the Decepticons begin draining the energon from the planet, Sandstorm breaks out. He is pursued by Brawl and Razorclaw, who knock him into a ravine,but Sandstorm possesses a third flight mode that allows him to get to a spacecraft and give them the slip. Divebomb tries to prevent his escape, but he is foiled by the spacecraft's launch.

Sandstorm is found by the Autobots, and interrogated by Kup. Rodimus prepares an assault team to stop the Decepticons' conquest of Paradron. The Decepticons fire destroy the Autobot invasion craft with a Molecular Cannon, but it turns out to be a decoy ship, causing the Decepticons to lower their guard and allowing the Autobots to invade and evacuate the planet.
Ultra Magnus, Blurr and Wheelie move in to sabotage the planet's energon core, while Sandstorm, Springer, Rodimus & Skylynx distribute weapons to the pacifist Autobots. The Autobots of Paradron begrudgingly take up arms to stop the Decepticons.

The Autobots leave the planet in escape pods, while Sandstom catches up to and leads Ultra Magnus through the booby trapped Energon Core. They set the time bomb and race to get off of the planet before it explodes. Galvatron catches on to the planet, and orders the Decepticons to abandon the planet.

Paradron explodes as energon erupts throughout its surface as Rodimus Prime leads the prodigal Autobots back to Cybertron.

After his defeat at the hands of Metroplex, Trypticon relocated to the deserted Dinobot Island. There he was to recuperate until Galvatron came for him. The Triple-Changer Octane stole Trypticon and took him to the Socialist, Democratic, Federated Republic of Carbombya, where the human dictator, Abdul Fakhaddi used Trypticon to bolster his national defenses. This caused Octane's expulsion from the Decepticons and a bounty to be put on his head, after Galvatron found out and reclaimed Trypticon.

Octane sought asylum with the Autobots as an informer. That didn't keep assassins away from him on several occasions. Finally Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps tracked him down on Cybertron. Octane sought refuge in the Decepticon Crypt. As he hid, he discovered that although, the traitor Starscream's body had been destroyed, his Spark (or Lasercore) lived on. Starscream possessed Cyclonus' body and pretended to capture Octane (who was in on Starscream's plan to enact revenge upon Galvatron). When Starscream (in Cyclonus' body) arrived on Chaar, Starscream told Galvatron that Rodimus Prime awaited him for a one on one battle. When Galvatron arrived, Cyclonus/Starscream deserted him and the Autobots ambushed Galvatron.

As Starscream and Octane laughed in the Decepticon Throne room about Galvatron's fate, a battered, but all too alive Galvatron entered the room. Starscream revealed himself to Galvatron, and Galvatron promptly blasted Cyclonus, but not before Starscream left his body.
Soon afterward Starscream possessed the body of Scourge and attempted to assassinate Galvatron. Scourge fought Starscream's will and the two of them flew of into space. Starscream led Scourge to Unicron's head. There Starscream made a deal with the still living Unicron. If Starscream would perform 3 labors for Unicron, Starscream would receive a new body. The first labor consisted of stealing Metroplex's eyes to replace the ones that Unicron had lost because of Rodimus Prime. The second labor was to bring Trypticon to Unicron and install Trypticon's Transformation Cog into Unicron. The third and final labor was for Starscream to attach Unicron's head to Cybertron, in order for him to make it his new body. During the last task, as Starscream had Trypticon under his control, Scourge escaped and a handful of Decepticons inside of Trypticon sabotaged Starscream's plans by blasting Trypticon's core computer. Meanwhile, the Autobots were setting explosive charges underneath Unicron's head to eject him from the planet. Trypticon was useless and Scourge was gone, so Starscream convinced Unicron to give Starscream the new body, in order to finish merging Unicron with Cybertron. As son as Starscream got what he wanted, he betrayed Unicron and told him to connect himself. At that moment, the explosives went off blowing Unicron & Starscream off of Cybertron.
Galvatron spotted Starscream tumbling through space and blasted him as he passed. The wounded Starscream continued tumbling through the void and Unicron's head orbited the planet once again.

A lost Quintesson Journal has been found on the Planet of Junk, but all attempts by Sharkticons to retrieve it have been met with failure due to attacks from the Junkions. The Quintessons decide to use subliminal messages to make the Junkions retrieve the Journal, as well as making the Junkions xenophobic to keep the Autobots and Decepticons out of the way.

A fight near Junkion between Astrotrain & SkyLynx is cut short when the Junkions attack them both. Astrotrain & SkyLynx report this to their respective leaders; Rodimus orders the Aerialbots to investigate, while Galvatron shows complete apathy towards the occurrence. The Quintessons camoflauge their ship in cosmic gases, to keep the Junkions from attacking them. The Aerialbots are attacked by the Junkions and the Quintessons when they arrive, so they merge into Superion. Superion attacks the Quintesson ship, damaging himself and the Quintesson ship. The Quintessons are left defenseless after the fight. During the battle, Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps investigate the odd occurences on Junkion,and are attacked as well. They retreat back to Charr, while SkyLynx takes the wounded Superion back to Cybertron, where the giant Autobot warns that the Quintessons are present and hiding the cloud.

Back on Junkion, the Quintessons discover that they have been sending the wrong subliminal message since Superion's attack, causing the Junkions to broadcast the Subliminals all over the Galaxy, throwing worlds into chaos, and causing the planets to war against all lifeforms that are different from them. The Quintessons surmise that they could use this chaos to their advantage.

On Charr, Cyclonus tries to report more odd activity on Junkion to Galvatron, but the Decepticon Leader still doesn't care. Cyclonus and Scourge decide to investigate it more on their own. They attack Omega Supreme, Rodimus Prime, Blaster & Ultra Magnus, as the Autobots approach the planet of Junk. The Quintessons become concerned, because the warring alien races are all converging on Junkions, so they must retrieve their Journal before the alien fleets do.

Omega Supreme forces the Decepticons to retreat, allowing the Autobots to continue to Junkion. Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps encounter Galvatron as they return to Charr. Galvatron has been subverted by the Quintesson subliminals and is now travelling to Junkion, drawn by the signal. The Decepticons follow him there. Galvatron blasts Omega Supreme and battles Rodimus Prime, while the Quintessons deperately try to snatch the Journal. A deflected blast causes the Journal to be blown into space; spinning out of sight.
Blaster and Ultra Magnus determine that the signals are coming from the Junkion transmitter and take it out of commission, ending the subliminal madness.

The Quintessons continue to seek for the missing journal in space

The planets Zytoxis and Lynark are caught in a lengthy and bitter genocidal war with each other, causing the Galactic Peace Conference's envoy Melchor to step in to stop the planets' citizens from going extinct. The Autobots are chosen as the mediators for these peace talks.

Meanwhile, Predaking and Perceptor simultaneously discover the missing Quintesson Journal's signal and trace it to a vegetation planet in the Angalic Sector. SkyLynx, Outback, Blaster, Steeljaw & Ramhorn race through carnivorous plant life to beat the Predacons to the Quintesson Journal. The Autobots leave the planet with the Journal, but they are captured by the Quintessons, who want their Journal back. The Autobots break out of the Quintesson cell by bribing and attacking the Sharkticon Guard. Outback grabs the Journal and the Autobots flee from the Quintesson ship, but the Decepticons attack and steal the journal from them.

Back at the Peace Negotiations, tempers flare as Argar of Zytoxis and the Lynarkan ambassador threaten each other and leave the conference room with their respective parties. Both groups contact their weapon suppliers, the Quintessons, requesting shipment of their final weapons against the other planet, world destroying Omega Bombs.

Elsewhere, Galvatron activates the Quintesson Journal and discovers that it is a collection of records detailing how the Quintessons have exploited various planets. The planet Tixlar's economy was destroyed by the Quintessons and then brought under Quintesson control. The planet Alaxaool were sold Manufacturing facilities which caused Isotopic Rains which destroyed all of the planet's vegetation, after which the Quintessons made much profit by selling the planet Plantobots to replace the lost plant life. Also, a record of the manipulation of Zytoxis & Lynark's war is discovered.

The Quintessons retrieve the Journal and are preparing to deliver the Omega Bombs to their clients, when SkyLynx steals the Quintesson Journal. SkyLynx takes the Journal to the Peace Conference, revealing the Quintessons' treachery and turning the Zytaxans and Lynarkans against them. The Quintessons try to drop one of the Omega Bombs on the Conference, to keep their secrets safe, but SkyLynx, Ultra Magnus & Rodimus Prime force the Quintesson ship to crash into an asteroid, detonating the Omega Bombs and destroying the Quintessons on board.

The Autobots celebrate as Perceptor's new Power Core is activated and triples Cybertron's energy output, making Cybertron self-sufficient for its energy needs. From space, the Quintessons watch with hatred and envy. The Quintessons decide to use the Decepticons to unleash their first creations, the Trans-Organics, who they hope will destroy Autobot & Decepticon alike. The Trans-Organics were the Quintessons' first attempt at creating cyborg slaves, but they proved to be too savage and unusable. Many of the Trans-Organics were destroyed, but the ones that the Quintessons could not destroy were captured and placed in stasis deep below Cybertron's surface. The Quintessons send the Decepticons to steal the Power Core, but they give them the coordinates to the chamber where the Trans-Organics are held in stasis.
Galvatron and the Decepticons fight past the Autobots and delve deep below the surface. They find the chamber, but not the Power Core. They fire at the stasis sacs and release the Trans-Organics. They fight futily against the monsters, as their weapons appear to have little to no effect upon the Trans-Organics. They flee into an adjacent room and find an even more horrifying Trans-Organic waiting for them; a giant tentacled energy leech called the Dweller.

The creature quickly drains the energy from Scourge and some of the Sweeps, transforming them into Energy Vampires under its influence. Wreck-Gar is drained and transformed while trying to save Ultra Magnus from the creature. Wreck-Gar drains and transforms Springer into an energy vampire as well. Galvatron blasts the corridor on his way out, trapping Arcee, Ultra Magnus & Kup with the energy vampires. Kup is drained and made into a vampire when he saves Arcee from the Dweller. Ultra Magnus blasts their way out of the chamber. Arcee & Magnus flee into the tunnels. The Dweller and its robotic vampires spread into the tunnels.

Galvatron battles some of the vampires, but their weapons only feed the creatures, so he begins throwing Sweeps to the vampires to slow them down. Soon they drain and transform Cyclonus into a vampire as well., while Galvatron flees higher toward the surface.

Galvatron corners Ultra Magnus and Arcee, but the Dweller attacks him and Ultra Magnus. Arcee uses Galvatron's cannon to free Ultra Magnus, when suddenly the Dweller drops them and burrows toward the surface, toward the Power Core.

The Vampires attack Perceptor, Rodimus, Arcee & Ultra Magnus and Perceptor hypothesizes that a massive power load will restore the robots to normal. They try it and it works restoring all of the vampires present back into normal Transformers. The Decepticons quickly flee from Cybertron, and meet up with Galvatron in space. The Dweller bursts through the surface and attaches to the Autobots' new Power Core. The creature grows exponentially as it drains the Power Core dry.

The Autobots launch the Power Core and the Dweller into space, in order to save their planet from the ravenous monster. The Dweller, now massive in size, passes near the Quintesson ship and attaches to it draining it of all of its power as its crew screams in horror.

A crime syndicate run by Victor Drath blows up several buildings in order to cause a diversion so that they may be able to steal a volatile substance known as Newtronium. The Autobots foil their heist and send the thugs running. Drath decides that the Autobots must be taken care of, so he contacts Ol' Snake, an aging Cobra Commander, to procure Cobra's old Synthoid Technology. Synthoid Technology could make artificial humans and even duplicates of existing persons out of synthetic materials. Drath sets a trap for the Autobots and captures Rodimus Prime, Arcee, Springer & Ultra Magnus. He then transfers their Lasercores into synthoid bodies, which he orders to be destroyed. Ol' Snake convinces Drath to use the Autobots' bodies as tools to further his criminal operations.

The Autobots, now in "human" bodies escape from their execution, and realize their new limitations. Arcee & Ultra Magnus split off to contact Autobot City, while Rodimus & Springer try to find out how Drath made them into humans, and if it could be reversed.

Drath's thugs search for the escaped Autobots, while Drath and Ol' Snake prepare the Autobot's bodies for their own purposes. Rodimus is chased by Drath's security force and is wounded. Drath's wife, Michelle hides him, not realizing who he is.

Elsewhere, Springer see Drath's thugs travelling in their robot bodies. The operator of his robot body can't quite control it, so Springer offers to help, since he "operates heavy equipment". The other occupant of his body obliges happily, since they need a quick getaway.

Arcee and Ultra Magnus have little luck contacting the police about their predicament, and decide to see what Drath is storing in his warehouses. They find bombs, weapons and ammunition, but accidentally set off the silent alarm. They soon see their Robot bodies burst through the warehouse door to attack them. Ultra Magnus uses the artillery in the warehouse to keep their robot bodies at bay, while Arcee steals a motorcycle from Drath's goons and heads straight toward Autobot City. The human police in Autobot City don't believe Arcee's claims that she's really an Autobot, and drag her off to a psychiatrist.

Back in Drath's estate Michelle pretends to help Rodimus, but leads him to a trap, where Drath & Ol' Snake wait for him. Drath explains that he is sending their bodies into Autobot City full of explosives, to destroy the rest of the Autobots and prevent retaliation from them.

Springer, operating his own body, discovers the plan, throws the goon out of his cockpit and rescues Ultra Magnus. They fly in above the bodies of other other 3 Autobots and fire upon Metroplex, to keep Drath's thugs from entering the city. Under heavy fire, Drath's men abandon the Autobots' bodies.

Soon afterward, Perceptor uses the Synthoid Technology to tranfer the Autobots' Lasercores back into their robot forms, as Drath and his people are taken off by the police.
As the police drive off into the distance, Ol' Snake looks on, laughs and shouts "COOOO-BRAAA*cough**cough**.

During a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on Earth's moon, a signal was sent out from Primus' intelligent computer (left to watch for signs of the Primacron). The Primacron had indeed survived, but he had gone mad. He had created a new being, made purely of energy that would devour any energy source that it came near. He named it Tornitron. Tornitron went about draining life and energy from every source that it could; individual beings, cities, planets and even stars. The computer, who referred to itself as Primacron's Assistant (Primus' old title, whom it had imprinted upon), called out to the most primitive and instinctual of Primus' children, the animal Transformers. Together, Autobot and Decepticon joined forces to stop Tornitron, but one by one they failed. Only Grimlock remained. He tracked down the Primacron's lab, reversed the function of Tornitron (causing it to return all of its collected energy to its point of origin), and promptly destroyed the lab.

Later, a freak accident gave Grimlock, the Dinobot Leader, the greatly enhanced intellect of a Super-Genius. During a campaign against Galvatron and his newly acquired Gestalt Combiner Abominus, who was formed by the Terrorcons, Grimlock created the Technobots, who formed Computron and downloaded all of his newly gained intelligence into Computron, returning Grimlock to his normal intelligence level.

Seeking to gather power from and possibly alter the past, Galvatron has his time-travel device secretly rebuilt on Charr, and travels back in time. Rodimus Prime searches for Galvatron to no avail, so he puts a bounty out on Galvatron, in hopes that it will flush Galvatron out of wherever he is hiding. The expensive bounty catches the eye of a notorious mechanoid mercenary, known as Death's Head. Death's Head tracks down Galvatron's last known accomplices, Cyclonus and Scourge. He beats them until they tell him what they suspect: that Galvatron has travelled into the past again. Discovering and using Galvatron's time-travel device, Death's Head follows Galvatron into the past. An Autobot spy learns of Death's Head's encounter with Cyclonus and Scourge, and that he travelled back in time. He reports this information to Rodimus Prime, who, using the original time device on Cybertron, takes Kup, Blurr and Wreck-Gar back in time to stop Galvatron. Soon afterward, Rodimus Prime, Kup, Blurr, and Wreck-Gar reappear at their Time-Jump Device, while Galvatron and Death's Head reappear at the one on Charr. Death's Head, wounded, outnumbered and out-gunned retreats, swearing to be back to complete the contract on Galvatron.

While driving near a cliff, Rodimus Prime was run off of the road by the Stunticons. When they went to inspect him, they found and stole the Matrix, and took it to Galvatron on Chaar. There Galvatron placed it within his cannon, but the ghosts of the dead Autobot leaders "persuaded" him to return the Matrix. When the spectres left, Galvatron ordered Scourge to destroy the Matrix. Disobeying Galvatron's orders, Scourge placed the Matrix inside of his chest, where it transformed him, and exponentially increased his strength and power. He immediately deposed Galvatron and Cyclonus, then Scourge led the Decepticons on an all out assault on Earth. Rodimus (now Hot Rod) squared off against Scourge and defeated him, taking the Matrix back into himself. Galvatron and Cyclonus revived and dealt with Scourge accordingly.

After attempting to rebuild Optimus Prime for nearly a year, the humans who had found him gave up. They had, at first intended to use Optimus to destroy the Autobots and Decepticons, due to their prejudice against Cybertronians. When this failed, they informed the Autobots that they had the body of their former leader, but when the Autobots came to retrieve Optimus' body, the scientists infected the Autobots with a space spore that induced hatred in its victims. The Autobots soon began fighting and infecting each other. The infection spread to the Decepticons, then to humans. Soon the galaxy was consumed by the plague. SkyLynx, acting on Rodimus' final orders before he was infected, found a lone Quintesson that was able to truly resurrect Optimus Prime. With a coating of a special alloy, Optimus was able to retrieve the Matrix from Rodimus Prime and released its power into the galaxy, destroying the Hate plague.

Earth Year - 2007
For almost a full year, peace existed between the Autobots and Decepticons. It was not a reunion of the races, though. The Decepticons simply were not heard from and had not attacked any Autobot outposts. Even ships that traveled near Chaar were not bothered. It seemed that the Decepticons had given up the fight, or had completely left the Galaxy. It was enough to instill a false sense of security.

Then the attack came.

The entire Decepticon Battle Fleet descended upon Autobot City. The Decepticons punched a hole through the Earth's outer defenses, and implemented a lightning attack against the Autobots. The battle, though, was just a distraction so that the Decepticons could steal the key to the Plasma Energy Chamber.

The key was stolen successfully and the Decepticon Scourge rushed to Cybertron to open the chamber and fry the Autobots on Cybertron. Optimus Prime was informed that the key was stolen and warned Cybertron of Galvatron's plan.

A group of Autobots chased Scourge deep into Cybertron in a Shuttlecraft. Scourge opened the chamber before the Autobots arrived and was overloaded by the Plasma Energy. The Autobot Cerebros was able to take the key back and begin the shutdown sequence of the Chamber, but as it was closing, a blast of Plasma Energy hit the Shuttle. The Shuttle was blasted through the planet's surface and sent careening through space, where it crashed on the planet Nebulos. As the Autobots escaped the crashed ship, it exploded.

The Decepticons arrived at the Plasma Energy Chamber to find out why the Chamber was not open. They discovered Scourge's body and reactivated him. He told of how the Autobots retook the key and were blasted out of the Chamber. Galvatron ordered them to track them down and find the key.

While traversing Nebulos, the Autobots were captured by a group of the indigenous lifeforms, Nebulans. The Nebulans were a humanoid species that were caught up in the middle of a civil war. One side, known as the Hive, had subjugated much of the planet with huge machines that they controlled via telepathy. Their bodies had withered and for the most part had become useless as they developed their Technopathic abilities. The other group consisted of rebels who sought to overthrow the Hive and free Nebulos. These rebels mistook the Autobots for Hive machines and were prepared to destroy the Autobots, when the Decepticons arrived.
The Decepticons attacked and were repelled by the Autobots, but not before the Decepticons took several Autobots captive. The Autobots tried to give chase to the Decepticons, but the Hive Machines kept the Autobots from continuing any further.

The Autobots didn't have enough experience to combat the Hive machines effectively, and the Nebulan rebels had the experience, but not the power. So the Autobot Scientist Brainstorm and Nebulan scientist Arcana proposed that the Remaining Autobot's heads be restructured into exosuits to house the Nebulan rebels, in order to combine the Nebulans experience with Autobot strength. They named the new merged Autobot/Nebulan force "Headmasters". The Headmasters easily defeated the Hive Drones and made their way to the Decepticon Ship, where the Captive Autobots were being held. The Hive took notice of this and also saw how the rebels had bonded to the Autobots. The Decepticon ship was destroyed during the fray and the Autobots returned to the rebel headquarters.

Soon afterward, the Decepticons were captured by the Hive Machines who took them to the Hive city, called Scorponok. There they were presented to the Hive leader, Lord Zarak. The Hive informed the Decepticons that they were to surrender their heads, or die. Cyclonus objected and offered their weapons instead, but Cyclonus also ordered the Decepticons with animal modes to remove their heads for "Binary Bonding".

The Decepticon Headmasters and Targetmasters (as the ones that gave up their weapons were called) stole the Plasma Energy Chamber key, once again. Brainstorm analyzed the Nebulan Targetmasters and soon converted the remaining Autobots into Targetmasters. As the Autobots fought to regain the key, Zarak raised the Hive City, Scorponok, where it transformed into an enormous scorpion with Zarak as it's controller. The Decepticons then boarded Scorponok and left for Cybertron.

On Cybertron, Galvatron had been reconstructing the Ancient Quintesson Rocket Boosters. The Autobots that were defeated were incorporated into the Boosters as raw material. Scorponok arrived just as Galvatron fired up the repaired Rockets and Cybertron began to move out of its orbit.

A rescue shuttle found the Autobots stranded on Nebulos, and carried them to Cybertron's former location. Spike and the Autobot Cerebros stayed behind on Nebulos to work on a "special project" involving a deserted Hive city that Cerebros had discovered. Upon discovering that Cybertron was gone, they surmised that the only place it could have gone was Earth. As Cybertron moved nearer to Earth, Galvatron planned to open the Plasma Energy Chamber to make the Sun go Supernova and destroy Earth, Cybertron, the Autobots, & the Humans.
As Galvatron set the Plasma Energy Chamber to open after a set period of time (allowing the Decepticons to escape the exploding star), Spike and Cerebros arrived in the form of Fortress Maximus (the refashioned former Hive city).

Scorponok engaged Fortress Maximus in battle, while the Autobots sought to stop Galvatron's plans.

The Plasma Energy was released and began to overload all of the Autobots. Scorponok began to retreat from Cybertron, when a bolt of Plasma Energy hit the Hive stronghold. It was blasted deep into space.

The Plasma Energy had started a chain reaction in the Sun, so Spike proposed that the Rocket boosters be reconfigured into energy siphons leading directly to Vector Sigma. Vector Sigma pulled the excess energy from the Sun and redistributed the energy throughout Cybertron, replenishing its long lost resources.

The Headmaster and Targetmaster Autobots led by Cerebros, Spike and Fortress Maximus, returned to Cybertron to wipe out what was left of the Hive and its tyranny.

Upon their return, the Headmasters and Targetmasters found the Hive still functioning as if nothing had happened. They were shocked. They supposed that with Zarak and the Hive lost in deep space that the machines would just lay there deactivated, but the Machines were just as active as before.

What the Autobots and rebels didn't know was the Hive had successors to their thrones. Where ten Hive members had left, nine arose to replace them. Zarak's throne was left empty, awaiting his triumphant return. Daniel was separated from Arcee, after he was successfully treated for the injuries that required him to be kept in an exosuit.

Back on Cybertron, Optimus Prime was having visions of Alpha Trion. Alpha Trion informed Optimus that Rodimus had passed the final stage of merging with the Matrix. There had never been two full Primes at once and if this continued, then Hot Rod could die. Optimus' life and the Matrix itself were also at stake. Also frightening nightmarish visions plagued Optimus Prime. Visions of death and apocalypse.

Meanwhile, in a distant sector of the Galaxy, Galvatron began the construction of the Decepticon Warworld, which he named Destron. During this time Decepticons fuel resources were very low due to the massive construction effort. Zarak began experimenting with genetically engineering Nebulan Clones that could produce energon with their bodies. The engineered Nebulans could then be bonded with Decepticons and provide a continuous personal fuel resource. Galvatron approved of this plan, in spite of his hatred for fleshlings he stated that if they could sweat energon that even HE could grow to like filthy flesh-creatures, but it was still unlikely.

Subject after subject were tested and tried, but only two Decepticons and their Nebulan partners survived and functioned correctly as Powermasters. All of the other test subjects either died or were damaged so badly that they were of no use to the Decepticon Cause and were destroyed. Galvatron ordered that no more Powermasters be created, for troops were very limited and resources scarce as Galvatron put more effort into building the Warworld. Several Decepticons decreased their size in order to conserve power.

Elsewhere in space, a group of Decepticons that had fled Cybertron during the battle with Unicron, and had not regrouped with the other Decepticons, were searching for energy. They were dangerously low on energon and would not survive any longer without it. They happened upon a system with only ones planet with any viable energy. This was their last hope.

The Decepticons sent a survey party to investigate the world, what the found was disturbing. These Decepticons had never served on Earth, and so they were never treated with Corrostop, the compound created by the Autobot scientist Perceptor to protect any metal against corrosion. This planet was alive with Cosmic Rust. The energy from the planet fueled the microorganisms desire to feed. The scouts were devoured in mere seconds. The Decepticons invented a form of Synthetic Flesh to form an outer coating for the next scouting party to use. The "Syntho-flesh" proved resistant to the microorganisms. Only a few did not opt to gain Outer Shells. The "organic" Outer Shells had the ability to mimic different textures and colors, giving the Decepticons maximum camouflage capabilities. Some Outer Shells were made to mimic metallic substances and even vehicles. The group's leader, Roadblock, opted for this, due to his distaste for ANYTHING organic. As they attempted to find Cybertron, if it still existed, they discovered a badly injured Decepticon, who when repaired only referred to himself as "Vornos". Vornos was outfitted with an Outer Shell. Vornos then challenged Roadblock for leadership of the group. Roadblock accepted, and was killed by "Vornos". "Vornos" then took as, his first act as leader, six of the Decepticons and refitted them to merge into a Combiner, Monstructor. "Vornos" led the Decepticons toward Chaar, where a single Decepticon lay in an energon conservative slumber: Trypticon.

Back on Nebulos, the Autobots that fought the Hive were finding them too resourceful. Unknown to them, the Quintessons had begun to supply the Hive with new Technology in order to combat the "Autobot Menace". The Hive masters were supplied with Decepticon captives who were granted freedom from the Quintessons in exchange for service to the Hive. The Hive Masters binary bonded with these Decepticons, but there were more Nebulans than there were Decepticons, so several Hive masters shared Decepticons as Targetmasters, two Nebulans for one Decepticon. Three became Headmasters, one Nebulan per Decepticon. The leaders of this new Hive became known as Singe and Hairsplitter.

After finding Trypticon, "Vornos" and his crew discovered Optimus Prime's spacecraft traveling to Nebulos to bring Hot Rod back to Cybertron. They followed it secretly, and the location of Nebulos was disclosed. "Vornos" quickly returned to bring Trypticon to Nebulos for refueling. The Hive discovered the Decepticons, and after a bit of fighting, an alliance was formed. Both sides were to few to actually pose a threat to the Autobots, but together (with the Quintessons) they could become a force to be reckoned with.

A joint effort between the Decepticons, the Hive and the Quintessons produced the first Targetmaster Gestalt: Pirahnacon. The Decepticons worked secretly with the Hive using their machines to combat the Autobots.

This weakened the Autobot forces enough to give the now battle starved Decepticons, led by Vornos, the chance to attack. A number of guerrilla warfare tactical battles proved successful for Vornos. Confidence in his leadership grew. Morale grew among the Decepticons, and the Hive grew dependent on him. The Quintessons grew distrustful of him, but could not deny his results. Lightning quick attacks on Autobot strongholds were effective, but still were not putting a dent in the Autobot forces. At best it was a stalemate, and one that the Decepticons couldn't hold for long.

By this time Galvatron had arrived back to Chaar and discovered Trypticon missing. His search led him back to Nebulos where the Old Hive leaders regained their places. Vornos met with Galvatron and swore complete and total loyalty to him. Galvatron was pleased with Vornos' accomplishments and gladly accepted his service. But seeds of rebellion had been planted by Zarak during the Decepticons' long journey and many Decepticons were becoming tired of Galvatron's madness. Few would speak of it aloud, though, because Galvatron could sense the dissension and had become more paranoid than ever, becoming more and more violent by the day.

Galvatron reassigns Vornos and the Pretenders to oversee the construction of the Warworld. The Battle begins anew, on Cybertron, Earth and Nebulos as Galvatron Continues building the Warworld in Deep Space.

Discovering the Decepticon created Powermasters, the Autobots attempt to duplicate the process and create a handful of Autobot Powermasters.

Galvatron disappears mysteriously.

The Matrix of Leadership, believed to be empty, was kept in a special chamber with Autobot City. The Matrix Chamber was broken into and the Matrix was stolen. The Autobots found a Scuckzoid who admitted to stealing the Matrix to sell to the Quintessons (He had a wife and kids to feed, y'know), but was unable to deliver it to the Quintessons since his ship was destroyed and only he escaped in a Pod.
The Autobots began their search for the lost Matrix. They searched many different worlds with several search parties, investigating various phenomenon on the worlds that sounded as if the Matrix had landed there.

Their searching caught the attention of the Decepticon Thunderwing. He took his own group to find out what the Autobots were searching for. When he discovered that they sought the Matrix of Leadership, he became filled with obsession for it.

The Autobots, Grimlock, Jazz & Bumblebee found the Matrix on a desolate world. Thunderwing followed them there, defeated them and a deadly alien creature, and claimed the Matrix for himself. The part of the Matrix that was Liege Maximo called to him.
Thunderwing arrived at the Autobot Base, which orbited Earth, where Optimus Prime was. Thunderwing used the Matrix to slip by their security scanners and attacked the Autobots. The fight was going in his favor, until Thunderwing was wounded. At this point, a dark demonic entity resembling Liege Maximo emanated from the Matrix and enveloped Thunderwing. The Autobots were losing badly, so in a desperate attempt to save themselves, they harpooned Thunderwing with a shuttle, which was set on self destruct, and jettisoned the Shuttle, Thunderwing and the Matrix into space, where it exploded.

Galvatron, abducted by Unicron, via his new constructs Hook, Line & Sinker, was presented before the Chaos Bringer. Unicron revealed that when he had imploded, it formed a spatial rift that teleported him light years away from Cybertron, Junkion and Earth. He survived and reformed what was left of his new body into a smaller version of his form.

Unicron told Galvatron that by all rights he should extinguish his puny, treacherous life, but he would give him a chance at redemption, and the promise of a cure for his madness, if he would perform a simple task for him: Go to Cybertron and prevent an Autobot/Decepticon alliance from forming.

Vector Sigma begins giving warnings to Optimus Prime and Hot Rod about the Chaos Bringer's return and revenge. Optimus Prime, fearing Unicron's return without the Matrix, begins setting up a cease-fire with Zarak, who is now in sole command of the Decepticons. Zarak reveals to Optimus that he is becoming uneasy with Leadership of the Decepticons due to numerous assassination attempts and rumors of mutiny.

Galvatron put on a show for Unicron and his minions, by destroying Autobot Facilities and spreading chaos across Cybertron, but as soon as he got away from Unicron's watchful eye, he sought out a high ranking Autobot, Emirate Xaaron, and told him of Unicron's plans and that he sought to betray Unicron again. Galvatron and Xaaron traveled deep into Cybertron's interior and discovered Primus' Chamber, where they awoke their sleeping progenitor.
Just as the peace accords and preparation for Unicron's return are being made, Shockwave returns to dethrone Zarak. Shockwave would not allow a "Flesh-Creature" to command even one Decepticon, and a Decepticon Civil War Began as Decepticons chose sides. The new Civil War was cut short when all of the Transformers were Teleported to Cybertron by Primus, who had now possessed Emirate Xaaron.
Primus named Optimus Prime as the leader of the Autobot/Decepticon Alliance. This caused the Bearers of the Void to reveal themselves as they sought to assassinate Optimus Prime en masse. They were thwarted by the combined efforts of the Autobots and Decepticons. Galvatron remained in the background, unnoticed by the other Transformers. As Primus continued to prepare his children for the coming attack, Unicron was able to slip up on Cybertron, by drifting towards it, while in a trance, hiding himself from Primus, as Primus had done to him for so long.

The attack came without warning, and the Alliance was in Chaos. Without the Matrix they had no idea what to do, until Galvatron revealed himself and led the attack on Unicron. Many Transformers died during this epic battle. Primus, in Xaaron's body confronted Unicron. For a moment, Primus had Unicron fooled by an illusion, but Unicron overcame it and destroyed Xaaron and apparently Primus as well. Unicron's attacked damaged the Headmasters, Targetmasters and Powermasters, killing some of the Transformers and Nebulans. Scorponok was destroyed in this battle, but a loyal Decepticon secretly rescued the gravely wounded Lord Zarak, after the Autobots and Decepticons presumed him dead.
Just as the battle seemed to be hopeless, Thunderwing appeared with the Matrix, but in its Dark Form. Unicron easily defeated him and blew him to pieces. The corrupted Matrix was no match for the Chaos Bringer. As Thunderwing's debris blew by, Optimus Prime grabbed the Matrix. The Dark Influence tried to possess Optimus, but Optimus overcame the darkness and redeemed the Matrix's Light. He then flew into Unicron's maw and opened the seemingly rejuvenated Matrix, destroying the Chaos Bringer; blowing him into tiny fragments.
The Junkions, not suspecting that the Chaos Bringer yet lives, gather the debris left around Cybertron and take it to Junk, where Unicron's essence slowly begins to dominate the minds of the planet's inhabitants.

Optimus Prime did not escape from Unicron's body before he exploded. His severely damaged body was found, and he apparently died, but Hi-Q, his Binary Bond Partner secretly housed the Lasercore or Optimus Prime within his BioMechanical Body. The Matrix was missing again, and assumed destroyed in Unicron's explosion. In the meantime Grimlock assumed leadership of the Autobots, for Hot Rod, without the Matrix, could not become Rodimus Prime. He did, however feel obligated to search for the Matrix while Grimlock led the Autobots on Cybertron. In order to keep the Decepticons in the dark, though, Hot Rod goes by the name Rodimus Prime, so that the Decepticons, and Quintessons don't realize that the Matrix is, yet again, gone.
Again, Galvatron had vanished, and with Scorponok believed to be dead, the Decepticon Civil war had abated and Shockwave ruled again. The Decepticons returned to Chaar, but Shockwave, knowing that many of the Autobots' defenses were destroyed by Unicron, began setting up new Decepticon bases on Cybertron. The Autobot and Decepticon forces balance out as an uneasy Cold War of sorts between the warring factions begin, neither having the upperhand, or willing to start the war up again in earnest, though minor skirmishes constantly occur at the borders.

Meanwhile, Shockwave hires the mechanoid known as Death's Head to kill Rodimus Prime. Seeking to subvert Shockwave authority and grab glory for themselves, Cyclonus and Scourge thwart Death's Head's assassination attempt on Rodimus. They fail, though, to eliminate Death's Head or Rodimus. Rodimus outwits Death's Head, and turns the mechanoid against his assailants, by paying Death's Head to hunt down and kill Cyclonus & Scourge instead. Cyclonus and Scourge, fearing to face Shockwave, due to their treachery, and fleeing Death's Head, arrive on Junkion, where they are confronted by Unicron again.

Death's Head tracks Cyclonus & Scourge to Junkion, where all three are subverted by Unicron and used to protect Unicron, while the Junkions, also possessed by Unicron, attempt to reconstruct their Planet of Junk into a new body for Unicron. Unicron then uses Death's Head, Cyclonus and Scourge to kill Shockwave and place Cyclonus and Scourge as the new Decepticon Leaders. Cyclonus and Scourge, as directed by Unicron, lead a full scale attack upon the Autobots. Unicron hopes to use the evenly matched armies of the Autobots and Decepticons to wipe each other out, making the destruction of an weakened, undefended Cybertron simple.
Unknown to Unicron, though, Inferno and Red Alert return to Junk with Wreck-Gar, who discovers the enthralled Junkions and Death's Head. Wreck-Gar distracts Death's Head while Inferno and Smokescreen return to Cybertron to warn the Autobots of Unicron's plans for the planet of Junk. Inferno sacrifices himself to get Smokescreen back to the Autobots, where Smokescreen warns Rodimus of what is occuring with the Junkions.
Rodimus chooses to risk losing Cybertron to the Decepticons in order to stop Unicron. He leaves Cybertron for Junk, as Grimlock and the Dinobots continue to lead the Autobots against the Decepticons. As he arrives on Junk, he hears the Matrix call out to him. In the debris of Junk, he finds the Matrix, still intact, and truly becomes Rodimus Prime again.
Death's Head defies Unicron again and again, finally using the psychic link that Unicron uses to control him against Unicron, by entering into Unicron's mind. Motivated only by profit, Death's Head is furious with Unicron for using his services without paying, so Death's Head attempts to destroy Unicron, with the help of Wreck-Gar, by making Unicron Implode upon himself. Death's Head uses the distraction of the mental attack, to avert Unicron's attention from Wreck-Gar, who is laying explosives beneath the partially rebuilt Chaos Bringer. While Rodimus Primeand the Autobots with him attack, Unicron calls psychically to Cyclonus and Scourge to come to his aid, breaking off the Decepticon attack on Cybertron.Death's Head, free from Unicron's mental control, approaches Rodimus Prime with the information he gathered from Unicron's mind, and his plan with Wreck-Gar, to destroy Unicron. Using Death's Head's mental link with Unicron, Rodimus Prime engages Unicron psychically, capturing his essence in the Matrix, as the explosives destroy Unicron's new body. Death's Head disappears in the implosion. Cyclonus and Scourge, along with their Binary Bond partners, are thrown back in time by the blast, leaving Soundwave in charge of the Decepticons.

Tremors continue from Unicron's last attack on Cybertron, and have released strange demonic looking mechanoid demons that claimed to be inhabitants of the planet before it became Cybertron. They devoured any Transformer that they came across, keeping themselves hidden in the depths of Cybertron, attacking with stealth, and disappearing as quickly as they appear.

Scavenging in space, the Junkions find another Quintesson Information Canister, this one detailing various inhabited planets targetted for Quintesson colonization and domination. The canister is taken to Wreck-Gar, who leaves to inform Rodimus Prime of this new Quintesson scheme, but the Quintessons abduct Wreck-Gar after learning of the new canister's discovery.
They take Wreck-Gar to one of their outposts for interrogation, but Wreck-Gar escapes, with the help of Wheelie, who was spying on the Quintesson Outpost. They flee to broadcast the contents of the Information Canister to the various targetted worlds, while the Quintessons launch a two-pronged attack against the Transformers.

The First attack goes to Autobot City on Earth, where the Quintessons use high speed Trident fighters to get past Earth Defence Command's barriers and early warning sensors. The Quintessons use sheer numbers and speed to overwhelm, Autobot City's forces, though this is just a diversion.

On Cybertron, Rodimus Prime finds out that Autobot City cannot be contacted. A scout confirms that Autobot City has fallen and he takes most of the Autobot Armada to Earth, leaving the rest behind to protect Autobase on Cybertron.

At the same time, a Quintesson envoy informs Soundwave that they can easily overtake Autobase if the Quintessons & Decepticons joined forces. Soundwave mocks the Quintesson, and takes the Decepticon forces to overthrow Autobase. On their way there, the Decepticons are caught in a Quintesson trap, and forced to call to Autobase for assistance. Ultra Magnus leads the Autobots from Autobase to assist Soundwave and the Decepticons. Magnus saves the Decepticons, but the Decepticons' bases are so heavily damaged from Quintesson attack, that they are forced to abandon their operations on Cybertron, again. They retreat back to Chaar. Meanwhile, on Earth, Rodimus Prime is ambushed by the Quintessons, led by the Quintesson General Ghyrik, who steals the Matrix from Rodimus. Rodimus runs a desperate gambit, but succeeds in stealing the Matrix back, and activating Metroplex, who easily destroys the Quintesson fleet.

A savage Time Storm rages across the galaxy, devouring worlds, including the newly built Quintesson homeworld. It threatens to devour Cybertron as well as Earth. Rodimus Prime has a new Time-Jump Device created. Rodimus, Kup, Blurr, Arcee, Ultra Magnus and Red Alert step through the portal into the past to discover the source of the Time Distortion. They are followed by Soundwave and the Terrorcons. Cyclonus and Scourge reappear, badly damaged. They spend much time recuperating.

After Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Arcee, Kup, Blurr, and Red Alert return, Hi-Q is completely rebuilt and merged with a new body for Optimus Prime. Sensing a warning from the Matrix, Rodimus once again relinquishes the Matrix, and returns to being Hot Rod. The Matrix is moved to a new secret location.

The Spacebridge on Cybertron is reactivated by the Autobots, while the Decepticons rebuild another Spacebridge on Chaar, so that work can continue easily upon the Warworld Galvatron returns via the Spacebridge, with the Decepticon Headmasters in tow. Soundwave abdicates power back to Galvatron upon his arriuval. Hearing of Galvatron's return, Cyclonus and Scourge return to Charr.

Galvatron sends Sixshot and Trypticon, along with many Decepticons on an assault upon Earth during which Blaster and Soundwave battle and destroy each other. Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Optimus Prime is led away by Alpha Trion's spectre to Vector Sigma

Hot Rod goes to the Chamber where the Matrix is kept, and finds that it is regenerating the essence within it. Through his contact with the Matrix, he learns that Optimus is going to join Vector Sigma. He rushes to find Optimus Prime. Hot Rod, now Rodimus Prime again, arrives just as Optimus is joining with Vector Sigma.

Soundwave is rebuilt as Soundblaster. Blaster is rebuilt as Twincast. Lord Zarak returns, calling himself Scorponok, even though he doesn't have his Giant City sized body. Zarak has been reconstructed with an almost entirely mechanoid body, save for his brain, which controls it. The Autobots discover a new metal that will increase their endurance many, many times. Galvatron learns of this and begins a raiding party to steal the new metal. Zarak, fearing that Galvatron will become too powerful to depose, orders his Decepticons to set charges upon the plasma Energy Chamber and Vector Sigma. Cybertron and apparently Galvatron explode, but not before the Autobots evacuate the planet.

Rodimus leads several of the Autobots into space in a search to find a new home planet. Scorponok/Zarak destroys Mars with Plasma Energy bombs and reveals his newly rebuilt body.

Just before Scorponok is crowned Decepticon Leader, Galvatron returns, thanks to help from some mysterious aliens.

During a Decepticon assault on Earth, Sixshot challenges Ultra Magnus to a duel. Ultra Magnus dies at Sixshot's hands.

En route battle Scorponok for leadership of the Decepticons, Galvatron is battled by the Autobot Headmasters and is buried deep within the Arctic Polar Ice Cap. Sixshot, persuaded by Daniel, switches sides and joins the Autobots against Scorponok. Sixshot kills Pounce & Wingspan, the Decepticon Clones.

Zarak abandons his body, to escape plasma bombs that he has planted on Earth. Fortress Maximus destroys Scorponok's body. Zarak escapes into space.

The Autobots, under Fortress Maximus and Spike's Leadership, and under pressure from Earth Governments, remove all Transformer Presence from Earth, as Humanity decides to put their trust in their own Defenses to repel attackers and feel that the Autobots indirectly threaten Earth because of the continued Decepticon attacks upon Earth and by fright at the destruction of Cybertron & Mars.

Agreeing to the terms, but uneasy to leave Earth unguarded, the Autobots uses the Synthoflesh Technology to create Autobot Pretenders that mimic humans and can move freely among humans and watch for Decepticon threats, without alerting Human governments to the breach of their agreement.

These are the Autobot Pretenders stationed on Earth:
MetalHawk
Cloudburst
Waverider
Landmine


Vornos, receives word that the ancient, lost , nearly omnipotent, Cybertronian Super Database, called the Underbase, is passing near the Earth. He sets out to merge with it and become god-like, but is cut short by Autobot & Decepticon intervention.
Vornos, only possessing part of the Underbase, goes mad and begins a rampage across Cybertron, slaying many Transformers, including the Dinobots.
Vornos is eventually tricked into absorbing the entire Underbase, and is destroyed by the very power that he sought to possess.

Bludgeon is left in charge of the construction of the Warworld. Bomburst, Skullgrin and SubMarauder go AWOL from the Warworld Project for reasons unknown.

The missing Decepticon Pretenders as well as several Decepticons who were thought to be dead begin a new assault on Earth.

A mysterious being known as DevilZ is revealed as current Leader of the Decepticons on Earth. Devil Z keeps the Decepticon Pretenders enthralled to do his bidding.

Several humans receive Transectors allowing them to merge with the bodies of some Transformers who were thought to be dead, namely Squeezeplay, Fangry, Horribull, Darkwing, Dreadwind, Siren, Nightbeat, Hosehead, Joyride, Slapdash, Getaway and Optimus Prime. The robots, who are just blank slates, are controlled by the humans. The origin of these Transectors is shrouded in mystery, as is why they are attached to what are thought to be replicas of Deceased Transformers.

The following humans controlled their respective Transtector Bodies: Human-----------------------Transtector
Cancer........................Squeezeplay
Wilder........................Fangry
Bullhorn......................Horribull
Hydra.........................Darkwing
Buster........................Dreadwind
GoShooter.....................Siren
Minerva.......................Nightbeat
Cab...........................Hosehead
Ranger........................Joyride
RoadKing......................Slapdash
Lightfoot.....................Getaway
Ginrai........................Optimus Prime
It is discovered by Ginrai that Devil Z created the Transectors and sent them out in the bodies of certain Transformers for humans to bond with. The Autobots battle a new Decepticon Transtector named Overlord, who is controlled by two humans named Giga & Mega
Fortress Maximus arrives to warn the Pretenders that Scorponok has been rebuilt and may be approaching Earth. Fortress Maximus begins working on the Godbomber Project, to upgrade Ginrai's form.

Overlord appears and attempts to kill Ginrai while Scorponok arrives on the Moon. Ginrai merges with Fort Max's new creation Godbomber to form God Ginrai. God Ginrai and Fortress Maximus battle Overlord and Scorponok, as Overlord tries to escort Scorponok to Earth.
A Decepticon Transtector Mercenary, Double Dealer, manages to infiltrate the Autobot Base on Earth.
Scorponok arrives on Earth and begins laying waste to different countries. He is then possessed by Devil Z and becomes Black Zarak. The Zarak part of Scorponok is discarded by Devil Z into space.
Black Zarak reforms Buster & Hydra into purely mechanical beings, merging them completely with their transtectors.
The Decepticon Headmasters turn against Black Zarak and strike out against the Decepticon forces on their own.
Black Zarak manages to almost completely destroy North America. The Decepticon Transectors reject their Human Hosts and reveal that they now have fully matured Lasercores and since they no longer require the Humans' presence, they seek to kill their former hosts. Black Zarak and Overlord move to destroy Europe where Black Zarak punishes Buster & Hydra nearly to the brink of death, turning Overlord against him.

Overlord nearly dies battling Black Zarak, but God Ginrai and Sixknight intervene. Black Zarak kills Sixknight.
Fortress Maximus arrives and attacks Black Zarak, destroying his head. Devil Z reveals his true form, that he is truly a sibling Lasercore of Primus and Unicron that left their home dimension recently and was battled by the combined efforts of the Autobots and Decepticons. Then, Devil Z kills Giga & Mega, just as Overlord fully matures into a true Transformer.

Devil Z reveals that he cannot reproduce as Primus can, but rather drains the lifeforces from other beings to fashion into his "children". To his dismay, the unpredictable nature of the Human Mind made his newest "children" quite disobedient.
The Autobots combine their powers to apparently destroy Devil Z. With Devil Z gone, the Transtector Bracelets lose their power, and the Transtectors become independent of their hosts. The Decepticon Pretenders are freed from Devil Z's influence as well.
The New Autobots leave the Earth and their human hosts behind, as they travel into space.
Grimlock, seeking a way to bring his dead comrades back to life searches for a fabled, life-giving substance called Nucleon to resurrect the Dinobots.

Persuaded by the Decepticon's almost unhindered assault upon Earth, the Earth Defense Command agrees to allow Autobot presence back on Earth, to help rebuild the shattered planet and to strengthen it's defenses. The Autobot in command of the Earth Forces is named StarSaber. Under his command are Blacker, Laster, and Braver, who combine for form Road Caesar along with other Brainmaster and Micromaster Autobots.
A new Decepticon Commander arises, Deathsaurus and begins a new campaign against Earth, to gain more energy for the weakened Decepticon Forces. He leads the Decepticon Breastmasters with Leozak as his second-in-command, with the Decepticons Killbison and Hellbat as underlings. Deathsaurus has rebuilt and reprogrammed Vornos' creation, Monstructor into his own gestalt, Dinoking.

StarSaber discovers GreatShot, formerly Sixshot, dwelling among the Micromasters on a distant planet. GreatShot joins StarSaber in his endeavors. Two Transformers, Blue Bacchus and Black Shadow had been partners with GreatShot as mercenaries, but GreatShot left when the others became to violent and murderous.
On the Micromaster planet, the Decepticons destroy a penal colony on one of planet Micro's moons, releasing the Decepticons inside, including Leozak's old comrade Gaihawk.

The Decepticon Breastmaster now have the ability to merge into a giant named Lio Caesar, but Leozak prefers a Decepticon named Cobra over Hellbat as a member of the Gestalt.

Hellbat is in danger of having himself replaced by a Decepticon named Cobra, so Hellbat kills Cobra and blames it on the Autobots. StarSaber battled Lio Caesar and was almost killed, if not for the sudden appearance of God Ginrai. God Ginrai saves StarSaber The war soon afterward returns to Earth.

Later, as StarSaber is about to be killed by Deathsaurus, God Ginrai again intervenes, but is critically injured.
Perceptor rebuilds God Ginrai into Victory Leo.
Victory Leo gains the ability to merge with StarSaber into Victory Saber. Deathsaurus rediscovers a lost Decepticon Space Fortress and re-energizes it with the remains of Sub-Atlantica.

Victory Saber leads the attack on the Decepticon Space Fortress The Autobots manage to destroy the Space Fortress and Deathsaurus. Meanwhile, a god-like Quintesson, known as the Violenjaiger creates strange, twisted dopplegangers of giant Decepticons, such as Devastator, Menasor, Predaking, Overlord, and BlackZarak. It also creates an evil doppleganger of Metroplex, called Metrotitan. Violenjaiger uses these robots to destroy planet after planet, searching for an artifact called the Zodiac, which could harness Zone energy from the dimension that Primus and Unicron originated from.

Victory Sabre battled these giants and Violenjaiger and died. Taking this as an opportunity to wipe outthe Autobots, Violenjaiger launched a full assault on Victory Sabre's bases. While they were successful initially, they caused three Autobots to step up to take Victoiry Sabre's place. They were Dai Atlas, Roadfire & Sonic Bomber. Together they led Victory Sabre's former troops against Violenjaiger and his dread forces, defeating them all, and freed the Zodiac from Violenjaiger's grasp, using its Zone energy to destroy him, but new perils were on the horizon.

Violenjaiger's use of the Zodiac had allowed another being of immense power to cross over from called Dark Nova. Dark Nova travels to Earth, and extracts Galvatron's remains from the polar ice, reforming him into SuperMegatron. Dark Nova also makes an evil mockery of Optimus Prime, and sends SuperMegatron and the Optimus Prime doppleganger separately against the Autobots and Earth.

The Zodiac was eventually placed under the protection of the massive Autobot, Grandus, who faced off against the giant Optimus Prime doppleganger. At the climax of their battle, Grandus unleashed the power of the Zodiac against the Optimus clone, wiping out Dark Nova's programming, and infusing the original Optimus Prime's lifeforce into the robot's body, via a link the Zodiac has to Vector Sigma, through Zone Dimension. Optimus Prime is reborn as Star Convoy. Grandus gives Star Convoy the Zodiac, not just for Star Convoy to protect, but to power Star Convoy, as well as retaining Optimus Prime's link between Vector Sigma (which had been rescued by the mysterious aliens who also rescued Galvatron from Cybertron's destruction), the Zone Dimension and his new body. Joined by another giant Autobot, Sky Garry, Star Convoy & Grandus battle and defeat SuperMegatron. DarkNova takes SuperMegatron's remains and reshapes them into a more powerful form named Ultra Megatron. Ultra Megatron attacks the three giant Autobots, who defeat Ultra Megatron. Taking matters into its own hands, DarkNova merges with Ultra Megatron to form the being known as Star Giant. Grandus, Sky Garry & Star Convoy merge to form the Battlstar Station, and destroy Star Giant, using their combined forces, as well as the Zodiac.

Grimlock discovered the mysterious fuel known as Nucleon on a planet called Hydrus Four. He is warned by the denizens of the planet of strange side-effects that the Nucleon can have, but he disregard them and resurrects the Dinobots with Nucleon, after testing it on himself first. The Decepticons, direly needing energy and with many troops deactivated, sought out the newly discovered energy source Nucleon. It had been rumored that Nucleon was a nearly inexhaustible fuel that could heal wounds and even raise the dead. Word spread across the Galaxy about this new "Miracle Fuel" and even the Autobots considered it for use.
Many Autobots and Decepticons filled themselves with Nucleon, but there were some unexpected and unpredictable changes. All gained tremendous power. Many lost the ability to transform. Some went mad and went on murderous rampages. Others died all over again, but more slowly and vividly than before. Other Autobots and Decepticons abstained from Nucleon, from fear of its possible results.

Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps return with the gravely injured Ultra Megatron, found among the Star Giant's debris. Cyclonus had persuaded Ultra Megatron to take Nucleon, in an attempt to cure his wounds. Nucleon seemed to have little effect on Ultra Megatron at first, but after some time it seemed that it had made his condition worse. He would cry out in pain, unlike he had ever done before and run or fight with phantoms that only he could see. Finally he began to fall apart. Cyclonus was regretful that he had influenced Ultra Megatron into taking Nucleon, and felt that he had betrayed him. Finally, Ultra Megatron lay in the infirmary as the Decepticons waited around him for his final words. Just as Ultra Megatron was about to state his wishes, he plunged into a final horrendous screaming rage; then he fell silent. As the Decepticons began to bicker over who would lead next, a shaft of light broke through Ultra Megatron's armor.
As the armor fell away, a newly reformed Megatron emerged like a moth from a cocoon. Megatron stood before the gathered Decepticons stronger than ever before, back in his original form.

Vornos returned to Chaar from space. His Pretender Shell evidently had the ability to repair him, or so he claimed.
Megatron then returned to Chaar to be proclaimed leader again. Megatron, restored back to his right mind began noticing some very familiar quirks about Vornos. Also Vornos NEVER removed his pretender shell. Finally Megatron tired of the games and the flattery that Vornos so elegantly drowned Megatron in. Megatron cornered Vornos in his throne room and tore the Outer Shell off of him to reveal...Starscream.

Starscream was shocked at Megatron's actions, and pleaded for his life. Megatron graciously accepted, but warned Starscream that if he even SUSPECTED him of treachery, that Starscream would be immediately executed. Starscream accepted Megatron's terms, but continued to plot secretly against him.

Zarak returned in a new body, calling himself DoublePunch. He kept his identity a secret, as he, too plotted to overthrow Megatron for leadership of the Decepticons.

One Decepticon in particular, a greedy opportunistic mercenary named Gutcruncher, gained extremely powerful capabilities from Nucleon, making him powerful enough to, for awhile, share equal rank with Megatron among the Decepticons. This self-interested and short-sighted Decepticon squandered his rank and power to only further his monetary status and captialistic empire. Using his avarice against him, Megatron caused the downfall and self-destruction of Gutcruncher, but not before he learned the powerful secrets that Nucleon had revealed within Gutcruncher's body. For some time the Nucleon fueled Transformers enjoyed the effects of this new fuel, but as time passed it seemed to take its toll. Some transformers just fell over dead for no apparent reason. Many had Nucleon melt their circuits. Others found themselves crippled for no apparent reason. A few even exploded from overloads due to Nucleon. That's when, almost simultaneously, both Autobots and Decepticons dumped all of the Nucleon from their systems and were retooled to run off of Energon and Transform again. Some did not survive the Nucleon dump and retooling. Megatron had himself rebuilt in a more powerful tank mode, using pieces and specifications from Gutcruncher's form, with many new abilities, but most reverted back to their original forms.
Rodimus Prime, Kup and Blurr, after searching and surveying countless worlds for a new home could never find a suitable planet. Rodimus felt an urge in the Matrix to return to Cybertron.

Finally to their great shock, they discovered a perfect, and seemingly uninhabited, replica of Cybertron. They could not understand how this could be, until Optimus Prime greeted them, in his original form. Star Convoy used his new body and the Zodiac to heal and rebuild Cybertron, using the debris from the shattered Cybertron, as well as the remains of Mars. When the new planet was completed, Optimus Prime took on his original form again. He then took the newly merged Zodiac and Vector Sigma from the Star Convoy body and placed it within Cybertron, though from that moment on, it would not remain in one location, as Vector Sigma had, but would phase in and out between Cybertron and the Zone Dimension. It eventually became known as the Oracle of Cybertron. The Oracle set the balance between Optimus Prime & Rodimus gave the Matrix back to Optimus Prime, reverting again to become Hot Rod.

They all returned to gather the Autobots to the new Cybertron. That's when the reports came. Grimlock and his crew reported planet after planet on the other side of the Galaxy and beyond had been reformed into versions of Cybertron and populated with thousands of Decepticons. The further they traveled, the more "little Cybertrons" they found. Optimus Prime went to investigate. As He and Grimlock's crews investigated an abandoned Decepticon facility on a world that collapsed under their "reconstruction" efforts Optimus Prime realized that this was a conquest much TOO big for the Decepticons to have undertaken. That was when they were captured.

An enormous Decepticon Ship, the Twilight, arrived at the facility and all of the Autobots were captured. They were taken before the Commander of the fleet, Jhiaxus. there they were informed that their war had been over for Four million Years, ever since the groups of Decepticons left following Liege Maximo and forged the "Cybertronian Empire". Jhiaxus gave the Autobots a choice: join the Cybertronian Empire or Die. Optimus Prime refused, and the captured Autobots followed suit. The Autobots broke out of the Twilight's brig and escaped in their own spacecraft. The Autobots were reeling from the sheer enormity of the "Cybertronian" threat. This new Empire was more than they could handle or even have dreamt. In their struggle to find a way to combat this new foe, the Earth was left unprotected.
Megatron traveled to Earth with Starscream to uncover the buried Ark. The two of them repaired the Arks engines and prepared to take it to use against the Autobots.

An aging Spike discovered their plan and alerted Fortress Maximus about the danger. Spike rejoined Cerebros as his Binary Bond partner. Fort Max was severely damaged by the Ark's weapons, but Spike & Cerebros infiltrated the Ark and were both critically wounded by Megatron. While Megatron was distracted, Cerebros and Spike broke through the Ark's antimatter chamber and jumped in, causing a chain reaction that killed them and destroyed the Ark, but not before Starscream and Megatron could escape. Bludgeon, unaware of Megatron's return, led the finally completed Warworld to Earth, to try and draw out the holder of the Matrix, so that he could fill his newly built army with life
Bludgeon blitzed Earth from orbit. The Decepticons continued to attack Earth and with new fuel taken to the Warworld, Megatron arrived. Bludgeon was not quick to relinquish his role as Decepticon Leader and challenged Megatron. Megatron quickly destroyed Bludgeon and fully regained his role as leader.
Megatron called for a minimizing of destruction and a maximizing of Energon production. New troops were built and awaited Lasercores. Meanwhile, after being on the run from the Cybertronian Empire and far out of communication range, Optimus Prime left the Autobot Fleet to return to Cybertron. There it was revealed through the Matrix how the Cybertronian Empire had grown without the Matrix or Vector Sigma. They were multiplying by dividing, a long forgotten method of Cybertronian reproduction wiped from the minds of all transformers by Primus himself. These visions also showed a dark energy escaping into the Void after each reproduction. Optimus Prime ordered Grimlock and the Autobot fleet to stay on Cybertron as he left to stop Megatron and talk peace with him. Optimus Prime sought to form an alliance with Megatron in order to combat the Cybertronian Empire.

Instead of talking peace, the newly rebuilt Megatron defeated Prime and tore the Matrix from his chest. As Megatron prepared to kill Optimus Prime again, Grimlock and the Autobot fleet arrived to rescue Prime and Earth. Megatron had what he wanted. He and the Decepticons boarded the Warworld with the Matrix and millions of Energon Cubes. Meanwhile, a planet distant from Earth has every Mechanoid and machine devoured and turned to dust by a Swarm of dark matter. While the Decepticons, under Megatron's command, were testing the new troops that had been given life by the Matrix, a distress call from Skullgrin was received. Megatron had dispatched a group of Decepticons to investigate the reports of a vast Cybertronian Empire in Fahl Space. The reconnaissance party had encountered hostilities, and suffered heavy losses. They retreated to Nebulos, now under Decepticon rule. The Cybertronians followed and exterminated all resistance on the planet. Only Skullgrin escaped, as Nebulos fell to the Cybertronians and was being reformed into a facsimile of Cybertron. Skullgrin died after reporting Nebulos' fall.

The Decepticons were filled with rage that this had happened. Megatron rallied his Decepticons together to lay waste to the Cybertronian Empire. After hearing reports of Megatron's approach, Jhiaxus left Nebulos devastated, but incompletely reformed, to meet the Decepticon armada. The battle from start to finish was in the Cybertronians' favor. The superior strength, endurance and numbers of the Cybertronian forces massacred the Decepticons. Megatron faced off against Jhiaxus and was treated to a humbling defeat and re-entry as Jhiaxus dropped him into a nearby planet. The Decepticons retreated, and a search party later retrieved the melted remains of Megatron, whom they thought dead, until he uttered one word: "Revenge!"

The Decepticons regrouped in Earth orbit as the partially repaired Megatron went to Autobot City to discuss peace and an Alliance with Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime accepted the offer of a temporary alliance, until the Cybertronian Empire was no longer a threat.
Together, for the first time since the battle with Unicron, the Autobots and Decepticons fought side by side to save a planet threatened with genocide by the Cybertronians.
After the battle, as Optimus Prime and Megatron discussed more peace accords aboard the Warworld, Soundwave informed them that Starscream was missing.

Then, the Autobot/Decepticon alliance received a distress call from a planet being completely destroyed. They arrived too late. Everything on the planet was destroyed on a molecular level. They had never seen anything like this. No devastation had ever been so complete. It was obviously not Jhiaxus' forces. But the sight reminded Optimus of his frightening visions of destruction for their race.
Elsewhere, a Cybertronian Extermination Squad encounters the Swarm while destroying an inhabited planet. The Swarm completely devoured the Cybertronian forces. After this, the Swarm knew its purpose: to Devour all Cybertronian life.
Meanwhile, Starscream finds Jhiaxus and offers to join the Cybertronians in exchange for betraying the Autobot/Decepticon alliance. Jhiaxus was pleased.

Autobot Scientist Perceptor discovered, samples taken from the decimated planet showed that whatever had destroyed it contained a Cybertronian Genetic structure similar to the Transformers' own genetic structure. Optimus Prime revealed to Megatron the visions that the Matrix had been giving him about the Cybertronians' rediscovery of Reproduction by Division and how it would lead to death, and this strange phenomenon was directly related.

Then came Jhiaxus' assault upon the Autobot/Decepticon Base on Earth. Starscream allowed Jhiaxus & his fleet to surpass all of the Autobot & Decepticon Defense grids. Starscream gave vital information about the Warworld's defenses also, allow it to be easily taken. While the Cybertronians chased Decepticons that were fleeing the captured Warworld, Starscream entered the chamber that held the Matrix.
Optimus Prime gave the order for all Autobots & Decepticon retreat and regroup elsewhere. Meanwhile Optimus Prime & Megatron boarded a ship in order to retrieve the Matrix from the Warworld.
In deep space, a group of Cybertronians heading to Earth to reinforce Jhiaxus's fleet encountered and was devoured by the Swarm. From these Cybertronians the Swarm ascertained Earth's location, and changed course for it.

Back in Earth's orbit, the Cybertronians were shocked to find the Warworld attacking them with massive force, allowing Optimus Prime & Megatron to board the Warworld. Once inside they were taken, forcibly, into the Matrix Chamber where they discovered that Starscream had artificially bonded himself with the Matrix. Starscream then sought to torture & kill both Optimus Prime and Megatron, but somehow, subconsciously the Warworld seemed to be helping them to survive.

Optimus Prime sensed the Swarm was drawing nearer and wished to speak with Jhiaxus, in order to stop the hostilities between the Generations and unite against the swarm. He reached the communications center and sent a message to Jhiaxus. Jhiaxus' response to Prime's plea was to destroy California on screen, for Optimus Prime to watch.

Starscream focused the power of the Warworld to stop Jhiaxus. Starscream couldn't explain why he had the urge to protect the Earth. Optimus told him that the Matrix's influence was rewriting his programming to it's own specifications and desires, which included protecting Earth. Then the Swarm arrived.

Jhiaxus' ships attacked the Swarm and were devoured as each ship fired. Optimus Prime retrieved the Matrix from Starscream, who did not care for the new impulses that he was getting from it. Optimus then left the Warworld for Jhiaxus' flagship, Twilight.

Meanwhile, Megatron and Starscream gathered stolen Rheanium Gas reserves, which had been recently plundered by the Decepticons, in order to give their troops a better chance against the Swarm.

As Optimus reached Jhiaxus, he was greeted with a brutal beating. The only thing that kept Jhiaxus from crushing the life from Prime's body was the Swarms' invasion of the Twilight. The Swarm quickly consumed Jhiaxus, and ruptured Twilight's reactor, blowing Optimus away from the wreckage of the Cybertronian Flagship and Swarm.

Meanwhile Megatron, whose armor had just been made Superdense by Rheanium Gas, carried the remaining canisters through the Swarm towards the Autobot & Decepticon troops on Earth. Grimlock, leading the forces on Earth, prepared shields for a last stand against the Swarm.

Optimus Prime awoke on the Warworld, pulled in via tractor beam by Starscream. Only then did Optimus realize what the Swarm was searching for.

The Swarm had broken through the Autobot/Decepticon Alliances shields on Earth and began devouring the Transformers there. The Swarm also began devouring all sentient life, i.e. humans that it came in contact with. Many Transformers and most of Humanity died before Megatron arrived with the Rheanium Gas.

Starscream abandoned Optimus Prime on the Warworld just as the Swarm began devouring it. Starscream offered Optimus some Rheanium Gas, but Optimus refused. Starscream disappeared without a trace after leaving the Warworld. Optimus Prime allowed the Swarm to consume him, absorb everything that he was. As death claimed him, Optimus released the Matrix into the Swarm. The Swarm ignited, glowing with the power of the Matrix. The Swarm ceased it's attack upon the Autobots and Decepticons, just a the wave of Matrix energy swept through and permeated all of the Autobots and Decepticons.

The Swarm had been given what it had truly sought, life and meaning. As an act of gratitude, the Swarm reformed Optimus Prime and returned him to the troops on Earth. Then the swarm departed for space. The Autobots and Decepticons then sought, at least outwardly, to continue the fragile truce between their factions.

Meanwhile, at the center of the Cybertronian Empire called the Hub, the sole survivor of Jhiaxus' troops, Rook, reported Jhiaxus' failure and the Swarm's involvement to Liege Maximo. Liege Maximo plotted the Autobots' & Decepticons' destruction.

The governments of Earth, recovering from the devastating attacks, agreed and signed a pact with Optimus Prime and Megatron that ALL Transformer life was to be removed from Earth, and Earth was to be made OFF LIMITS to any and all Transformers. All references to the location of Earth on Cybertron were classified and hidden. Even without further attacks from Decepticons or Cybertronians, Humanity's fate seemed unsure as famine, plague and lawlessness swept over the shattered planet. Only a handful of humans remained.

At this time, Hot Rod fell deathly ill. It seemed that his lifeforce was being drained from him. It was shown to Optimus Prime, by Alpha Trion, that the Matrix's energy had been spread too thin, with two Primes existing simultaneously, and the Matrix being released into the Swarm. The Matrix could not regenerate itself and was approaching the point of death, along with Hot Rod, unless something was done. Optimus Prime's life was threatened by this also.

Soon afterward Megatron mysteriously disappeared. Cyclonus assumed command of the Decepticons, with Scourge and the Sweeps backing him.

To keep from losing the Matrix, as well as two Primes, Alpha Trion led Optimus to Vector Sigma. There, Optimus Prime returned the Matrix to Hot Rod, making him Rodimus Prime again. Optimus' mind merged with Vector Sigma, and his lifeless body fell to the floor of Vector Sigma's chamber. Rodimus returned to the surface as Leader of the Autobots.

The Autobot/Decepticon Alliance weakened periodically, and skirmishes broke out, but all appearances of peace and diplomacy was kept up. For the Autobots it meant a hope for continued peace, for the Decepticons it meant a chance to lick their wounds, continue their plans secretly, and keep the Autobots off of their backs. Any marauding Decepticons during this time, whether under orders from the Decepticon government or not, were dismissed as renegades publicly by the Decepticon High Command.

Liege Maximo then began his new attacks against Cybertron. These new assaults helped to solidify the shaky alliance between the Autobots & Decepticons by providing them with a common foe, the Cybertronian Empire. As this new war raged, and the peace between Autobot & Decepticon grew, many political and social changes began on Cybertron. Several sub-groups broke off from their original factions and started inducting new members. The largest of these new factions were the Maximals and the Predacons. Peace on Cybertron was held secure as the war was confined to deeper space, away from Cybertron, as the Cybertronian Empire lost more and more conquered planets.

The Predacons and Maximals, seeking to maximize fuel resources and increase their populations, downsized their bodies. The Predacon Alliance remained treacherous, as their Decepticon ancestors had, but they did so privately, in order to keep the peace between the factions.

The peace between the Maximals and Predacons was threatened when Double Punch created a new body for himself, a gigantic war machine he called Majin Zarak. This massive robot was equiped with a prototype Transwarp Space Drive, which, in theory, allow it to to attack without warning, due to the amazing speed of the drive. The Maximals discovered Double Punch's plan, and made a secret preemptive strike against him. Double Punch tried to escape, but he was captured. The Transwarp Drive, already activated, sent the juggernaught into the void, pilotless, with no way to track or retrieve the war machine. Double Punch was imprisioned in a maximum security Cybertronian penal colony.

Two facilities were built on Cybertron for the production of Maximals and Predacons. The Maximal facility was named The Matrix. The Predacon facility was named The Pit.

One newly created Predacon did not like suppressing his desires for conquest. He had named himself Megatron: half an honor to the Former Decepticon Leader, half arrogant self-conceit. He openly defied the Maximals and Autobots. He gathered vile and discontented Predacons around him, as he planned to overthrow the Autobot/Maximal tyranny of peace. For almost 250 Earth-years this new Megatron watched as Decepticon and Predacon alike were held in check by the Autobots and Maximals. His hatred for them and the stagnation that they represented grew decade by decade. He called out publicly for a revolt against the Pax Cybertronia, the governing body of Cybertron. He encouraged the overthrow of the Autobot government, and this caused him to lose face before the Predacon Alliance. They, too, felt the short leash that they had been given by the Autobots, but their revolution would progress slowly, with cunning and deceit. Megatron threatened that plan. He was branded an outlaw. His underworld contacts had alerted him to the whereabouts of an Artifact that the Autobots & Maximals guarded extensively: a golden disc containing the secret location of Earth. Megatron broke into the secret archives of Cybertron and stole the Golden Disc. The authorities were soon alerted, but Megatron escaped in a stolen Transwarp ship that he had prepared.

While in hiding, Megatron discovered some anomalies on the Golden Disc. These anomalies proved to be a secret message from the original Megatron. From there, Megatron used the promise of untold wealth, honor and Energon to procure a crew to help him pilot the Transwarp craft to his destination: Earth, in its Prehistoric past.

The Pax Cybertronia, through intelligence reports, discovered Megatron's position in space and sent the nearest Maximal ship, the Axalon, to pursue and capture Megatron and his crew. Before the Axalon could stop them, the renegade Predacons opened a Transwarp vortex and entered it. The Axalon pursued them.

The Axalon followed Megatron and his crew to a primitive planet with two moons, Prehistoric Earth (though they believed initally that they had reached the wrong planet). The two ships engaged in battle and both crashed on the planet below. The Axalon, commanded by Optimus Primal, released their embryonic crew members, known as Protoforms, into orbit around the planet in Stasis Pods.

They discovered that the planet was full of raw, unstable energon crystals, and the ambient radiation for them made it unhealthy for Cybertronians to dwell without protection. Both crews constructed alternate modes based on local lifeforms, made out of Synthoflesh, which would shield them from the dangerous levels of energon radiation.

The Predacons each declared themselves, after they had received their new modes, likewise: Megatron, Scorponok, Dinobot, Terrorsaur, Waspinator, and Tarantulas.

Dinobot felt that Megatron's leadership was faulty and challenged him for leadership. Megatron had Scorponok remove Dinobot from the base, and ordered the remaining Predacons to seek and destroy the Maximals.

The Maximals declared themselves as follows: Optimus Primal, Rhinox, Rattrap and Cheetor. Dinobot allied himself with Optimus Primal and his Maximals against Megatron. Hostilities soon commenced between the rival crews, as Optimus Primal sought to keep Megatron from gaining the fuel resources to start another Great War.

Meanwhile, back on Cybertron, a Maximal General named Lio Convoy was lost while searching for the Axalon. He was later found on a planet named Gaia (which is the uninhabited Earth, in the distant future) when a crew of Maximals responds to a distress beacon stating that Predacons have invaded the forbidden planet. The Maximals find that Gaia is permeated with a strange energy, called Argonomoa Energy, which causes Maximals to malfunction, so the Maximals take on synthoflesh animal forms to protect them from the dangerous energy. The Predacons, led by a rogue named Galvatron (not to be confused with the Original Galvatron), were unaffected by the Argonomoa Energy and took on machine modes that were suited to the planet. These two groups fought back and forth across the planet, as Galvatron gathered up more and more of the mysterious Argonomoa Energy.

Back on Prehistoric Earth, it was also discovered that a mysterious race of alien beings had built several strange structures and beacons, as well as placed the energon deposits on the planet on purpose. As Stasis Pods fell from orbit each crew sought to capture the Protoforms within to bolster their troops. Two Maximals and Two Predacons arose from the Stasis Pods. The Maximals were Tigatron and Airazor. The Predacons were Black Arachnia and Inferno. The Predacon reprogrammed the Maximal Protoforms into the new Predacons. Tumbling through Space & Time, Starscream's Lasercore/Spark encountered the Maximals & Predacons and possessed Waspinator. Starscream's spark was blown back into space, where it continued to tumble aimlessly. Inferno discovered an Alien Disk, which detailed information on the Aliens, their devices and their plans for the planet. He delivered it to Megatron.

The Aliens arrived on the planet to investigate the Cybertronian presence there. The aliens activated a planetary destruction device, which was disguised as one of the planet's moons. Optimus Primal, piloting a Stasis Pod rebuilt by Tarantulas and Black Arachnia into a spacecraft destroyed the device, and seemingly was destroyed in the process, through Megatron's treachery.

What in fact happened was that the Transformers on Gaia discovered an alien craft which had a form of dimensional teleporter. Galvatron activated the teleporter, seeking to lock onto his Predacon comrade Megatron, but instead pulled through the lost giant, Majin Zarak. The portal, aimed at Prehistoric Earth, also pulled Optimus Primal through space and time, just as the Transwarp explosion went off in his Stasis Pod. Optimus Primal joined forces with Lio Convoy's troops, and helped them defeat Galvatron and destroy Majin Zarak. Optimus Primal passed back through the Dimensional Portal, thinkingthat it would take him back to Prehistoric Earth. It did that, but it sent him back to the precise moment he left, causing him to be caught in the Trasnwarp explosion, destroying his body.

All of the remaining Stasis Pods fell from orbit.

A Quantum Surge blew across the planet, resulting from the destruction of the Planet Destroyer. Some of the Maximals and Predacons were altered physically by the Quantum Surge. Rattrap, Cheetor, Megatron and Tarantulas were all altered into new, Energon Resistant forms called Transmetals. The Quantum Surge knocked Scorponok and Terrorsaur into the lava below, where they died. Two malfunctioning Stasis Pods landed in Predacon Territory. The DNA Scanners merged two lifeform imprints, instead of selecting just one, resulting in Mutated Beast Modes for the Protoforms inside. These were called the Fuzors: Silverbolt and Quickstrike. Megatron reached the Fuzors first and adopted them into the Predacons under his command. Meanwhile, Rhinox traveled astrally back into the Matrix, seeking Optimus Primal's Spark or Lasercore. Rhinox had discovered a Stasis Pod that contained a Protoform lacking a Spark. As the Remaining Maximals, Rattrap and Cheetor, along with Dinobot, attempted to defend the Axalon from the Predacons, Rhinox returned from the Matrix.
Just as it appeared that Megatron had defeated the Maximals, Optimus Primal's Spark returned via means that Rhinox had set up, and entered the empty Protoform, emerging as a Transmetal, as well. Optimus Primal sent the Predacons to flight, and Silverbolt changed allegiances, to join the Maximals. Dinobot infiltrated the Predacon Base and stole both the Human and Alien Disks. He gave the Alien Disk to Rhinox, but kept the Human disk in a hidden location.

On Gaia, the Maximals and Predacons continue dto fight, even as a gigantic world destroyer, called Nemesis approached the planet. Galvatron took control of the device and used it to gather all of the Argonomoa energy, storing it in capsules through the machine. The Maximals travelled into space and battled the Predacons on and inside of Nemesis. Lio Convoy faced off against Galvatron, and destroyed his ability to control the world-destroyer. Nemesis exploded, killing all who fought inside of it, and sending the Argonomoa capsules scattered through Space and Time.

Dinobot attempted to rejoin the Predacons when he realized that the strange planet that was actually prehistoric Earth. He returned the Human Disk to Megatron, but rejoined the Maximals when he realized that Megatron's plans would destroy them all.
Tigatron and Airazor, seeking the Lost Protoforms and scouting the terrain, discovered a previously undiscovered Alien Device. The Device captured them and beamed them into space.
Another Alien Machine, a Metal Hunter, formed on the site and rendered all of the Non-Transmetal, Non-Fuzors inert. Megatron entered the device using the alien Disk and attempted to take it back to Cybertron, to use as a weapon against the Maximals and the Autobots. Tarantulas, revealing a deep hatred for the Aliens joined forces with the Maximals to stop Megatron. While the Maximals distracted Megatron, Tarantulas destroyed the Alien Metal Hunter and the Alien Disk with a Transwarp explosion.

Back on Cybertron, some of the Argonomoa Energy capsules were discovered. They showed the residual effects of time travel. A group of Maximals, led by Big Convoy, was sent to retrieve these strange capsules. A rival Predacon group, led by Magmatron, was also sent out to capture the Argonomoa Capsules. What neither groupknew, was the Argonomoa Energy once fueled Unicron, and was lost when his body exploded in 2005. It has drifted, then condensed on Gaia, where it was found by Galvatron. Unicron learned of the rediscovery of the Argonomoa Energy and escaped his prison within the Matrix, and went in search of his lost energy. When he arrived at the wreckage of the world-destroyer Nemesis, he found some of his energy, but also a new, powerful body to inhabit: Galvatron's empty shell. The Predacon Galvatron was dead, but the body was still habitable by the Chaos Bringer. He then took and reformed three Transformers into his new minions, the Blentrons (Rarto-Rarta, Elphaorca and and Drancron). Together they fought the Maximals and Predacons for the Argonomoa Capsules, and when they had gathered enough, Unicron went to Cybertron, and prepared to merge with the planet. He began reshaping Cybertron into the likeness of his former self, when the Maximals and Predacons, united, attacked him. They assisted by the resurrected Lio Convoy (thanks to Vector Sigma) defeated Unicron and trapped his essence inside of Vector Sigma.

Back on Prehistoric Earth, A giant Stasis pod was discovered by Cheetor, containing a being known as Protoform X,; a Protoform Cloned from part of Starscream's immortal Lasercore which turned just as evil as it's progenitor. Apparently, Protoform X was just as indestructible as Starscream. While Protoform X lay injured, Megatron removed the main portion of his spark, to use as a submission device. Megatron renamed Protoform X Rampage. The Maximals and Predacon realized that they were in Earth's distant past, and that the future may be able to be manipulated by the actions that they take.

Dinobot downloaded a copy of his personality and other information into the Maximal Computer. Megatron then made a push to destroy the Human Race before it existed by wiping out Humanity's ancestors. Dinobot discovered Megatron's plan and fought to keep him and the Predacons at bay while the Maximals raced to save the protohumans. Dinobot stopped the Predacons from killing off Humanity's Ancestors and destroyed the Human Disk, but died from all of the damage he received in the process.
Detecting the Transwarp Explosion from the Alien Metal Hunter, the Predacon Alliance sent the Decepticon Ravage to investigate, and blocked the Transwarp wave from Maximal & Autobot sensors. During a battle Silverbolt refused to fire upon Black Arachnia, whom he was secretly involved with, allowing Black Arachnia to escape to a location that Megatron had plans for: Mt. St. Hilary.
Ravage captured Megatron easily, but switched sides when he discovered that this Megatron was acting upon orders from the Original Megatron which was hidden within the Human Golden Disk. Rattrap destroyed Ravage's ship and killed Ravage, while the other Maximals neutralized the other Predacons while Megatron left for Mt. St. Hilary. Silverbolt and Black Arachnia dug their way into the volcano, discovering the Ark, the ship that the original Optimus Prime, Megatron and their crews crashed on Earth in. Megatron arrived soon afterward, damaged Silverbolt and entered the Ark. He had Black Arachnia seal up the Ark, to keep the approaching Maximals out.

As the Maximals fought to get inside, Megatron entered the bridge of the Ark and focused his main weapon upon Optimus Prime's head. Time began to change and reality, as they knew it began to come apart, but Black Arachnia used Teletran One to remove Megatron from the Ark. Black Arachnia then defected to the Maximal side, but remained a Predacon. Due to the damage inflicted upon Optimus Prime, his Lasercore and the Matrix had to be removed from his body while Rhinox began repairs. They placed Optimus Prime's Lasercore and the essence of the Matrix inside of Optimus Primal's body. This caused Primal to mutate into a new form, called Optimal Optimus.
While the Maximals worked to repair Optimus Prime's body, the Predacons destroyed the Axalon.
When Prime's body was completely repaired, Optimal Optimus replaced the Matrix and Prime's Lasercore, but he retained his new body. A rebellious maximal named Depth Charge arrived on prehistoric Earth seeking Protoform X, now known as Rampage. He battled Rampage, but was wounded and taken back to Mount St. Hilary, where the Maximals had set up their new base. Rampage destroyed Depth Charge's ship.

On Cybertron, the giant flying battlestation Brave Maximus and the ships accompanying it are lost in a freak Transwarp accident. The Predacon named Gigatron discovered that the battlestation most likely ended up on Earth, near the turn of the 21st Century. Using Transwarp technology, he travelled back to the year 2000, when there was the least amount of resistance from Transformers in his target time window, and began to search for Brave Maximus. The Pax Cybertronia learned of what Gigatron had done, and sent Fire Convoy and his crew to stop Gigatron and retireve their lost battle fortress.

Megatron developed a new means to make Transmetal, using an Alien Machine that he had found, called an Alien Transmetal Driver. At first he used it to produce Cyborg Velociraptors made to hunt down Protohumans, but later used it to produce a Transmetal Clone of the deceased Dinobot, using the interior of Rampage's Spark. Cheetor was caught in an energy bolt from the Transmetal Driver and was transformed into a new Transmetal form. Depth Charge stole the Driver and thought that he destroyed it by throwing it into some lava, but Black Arachnia saved it and hid it for herself. Black Arachnia tried to use the Alien Driver to remake herself into a Transmetal, but was interrupted by Silverbolt. This caused her to malfunction, and caused her Predacon shell program to degrade and threaten her life. While Rhinox attempted to remove her Predacon Programming, Tarantulas caused a power interruption which allowed failsafes within her programming to take her offline, but the alien Transmetal driver activated and remade her into a new Transmetal Black Arachnia, minus her old Predacon Programming. Rattrap retrieved personality programming that Dinobot downloaded into the Maximal Computer and tried to upload it into the new Transmetal Dinobot, in the hope of bringing his old friend back, but it appeared that the evil nature in Rampage's Spark dominated and overrode the old Dinobot's programming. Seeking more power, Megatron broke into the Ark again, but this time he merged his Spark with the Lasercore of the original Megatron, which mysteriously changed him into a larger, Transmetal Dragon. The Aliens, revealing their name as the Vok, detected continued threats from Megatron on prehistoric Earth, merged and possessed the bodies of Tigatron and Airazor into a new being known as Tigerhawk, who had the ability to control the elements.

Tigerhawk arrived on prehistoric Earth and destroyed the Predacon Base, but was felled by Tarantulas, who disclosed that he was NOT a descendant of the Autobots and Decepticons inside of the Ark. He then sought to remove the Vok from Tigerhawk's body and use it for his own purposes. The Vok turned on Tarantulas, causing him to destroy himself.
Megatron, searching through Tarantulas' database, found Tarantulas' greatest discovery, the original Megatron's Warship: Nemesis. Inferno, Quickstrike and Waspinator, seeking a new base, found suitable quarters in a Protohuman Cave Dwelling, but when ordered to attack, Waspinator expressed his displeasure with the Predacons and quit. As Megatron attempted to raise the Nemesis from it's watery resting-place, Depth Charge fought Rampage underwater.
Depth Charge drove a shaft of pure, raw energon straight through what was left of Rampage's Spark, causing an explosion that killed them both. The destruction of Rampage allowed the programming of the original Dinobot to begin to reassert itself in the New Dinobot's mind, slowly turning him against Megatron.
Megatron attacked Optimal Optimus and Tigerhawk with the Nemesis' full armament. While Optimal Optimus left to warn the Maximals, Tigerhawk stayed to fight and was killed by Megatron.
Megatron then went to the Protohuman Cave Dwelling and proceeded to destroy it as well as Quickstrike & Inferno. The Protohumans escaped the attack. As Megatron approached the Ark, to destroy it with the Nemesis, Dinobot downloaded information giving the Maximals access to an Autobot Shuttle, hidden within the Ark.
Megatron ordered Dinobot to fire upon the Ark, but Dinobot refused, declaring that honor was more importantly. Megatron, furious, threw Dinobot across the room and prepared to fire the Nemesis' Fusion cannon upon the Ark.
Before Megatron could fire, though, Rhinox crashed through the Nemesis' bridge taking Megatron out. The Nemesis began to explode and crash into parts unknown, taking the new Dinobot down with it.
The Maximals captured Megatron and returned to Cybertron in the Autobot Shuttle.
Waspinator became king of the Protohumans.

Eventually, though, the humans tired of Waspinator and exiled him. He spent millions of years trying to devise a way to get back to Cybertron. Eventually he made it back.

All seemed to be going well for the Maximals as they travelled through Time and Space to return to their home planet of Cybertron, until Megatron ripped himself free from the shuttle and tumbled out of Transwarp early.

Megatron arrived on Cybertron before Optimus Primal and his Maximals. He arrived and found Cybertron crawling with transformers wearing synthorganic beast forms. He found entire alien gardens transplanted on Cybertron, and felt utter disgust at what he saw as his homeworld's violation by organic infection, He was determined to rid the planet of it. He developed an insidious virus that would inhibit transformation capabilities, scramble memory, devour Vok alloys and eventually shut down its victims. He also began secretly producing a new type of Drone called Vehicons, that he could network and guide by himself. He used these drones to plant viral bombs all over the planet, and when the time was right, he struck, releasing the virus, and deactivating millions of transformers, Maximal and Predacon alike. He used the few drones he had to take over larger factories, with virtually no resistance. Soon he was producing thousands of Vehicon drones, armed with viral and conventional weapons to take care of anyone the Viral bombs missed. Within an amazing amount of time, Megatron had control of the entire surface of Cybertron. Many Transformers who were off-world or deep underground were spared from the Virus, though Vehicon drones hunted many of them down. Megatron built vast facilities that would harvest the sparks from the immobilized Cybertronians,and store them in what was once the Maximal Citadel in Cybertropolis (the city built upon the ruins of Iacon). He also took control of the spaceports and planetary defenses.

When Optimsu Primal and his crew dropped out of Transwarp, they were immediately shot down and attacked by Vehicon Drones. Silverbolt and Rhinox were immediately infected and captured. The Vok transmetal forms in Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor and Black Arachnia gave them more time to fight the virus and to flee from the Vehicon drone. Malfunctioning worse and worse as the went, they delved deep into the planet, as Optimus was guided by some unknown force.

Deep within Cybertron they were met by the Oracle of Cybertron, which cured them of the virus by creating new Technorganic bodies for them. These new bodies were Synthoflesh mingled with technology. They gained the ability to harnass Zone energy and discharge it in offensive and defensive manners, as well as running off of Zone Energy for fuel.

The Technorganic Maximals waged guerilla attacks against Megatron and his Vehicons. Requiring assistance commanding his millions of Vehicons, so he procured three sparks to use as Generals. He chose sparks that would be familiar with his enemies, so he chose the sparks of Silverbolt, Rhinox and Waspinator to be reprogrammed and become the Vehicon Generals Jetstorm, Tankorr and Thrust. He initially kept Tankorr's intelligence in check, due to his prior experience with Rhinox programmed as a Predacon, but tampering by the Maximals released his mind, though he was still bound in many areas by Megatron's Programming. Tankorr continued to play dumb around Megatron, and secretly plotted to overthrow him. He took Megatron's diagnostic drone and reprogrammed it to serve him. He used it to hinder Megatron's plans, as well as finding and accessing the Oracle for himself. He used the Oracle to transmit false visions to Optimus Primal, and seed misinformation to both the Maximals and Megatron. He recreated the Key to Vector Sigma, and caused Megatron to arm his Vehicon drones with copies of the Key, which can transform any organic matter into technology. A side effect, though, is that Technorganics are driven insane if changed with the Key.

Tankorr led Primal to the Plasma Energy Chamber, which he could use to destroy technology all over the planet. The Maximals attack Megatron and fall as they are each blasted by Vector Sigma Keys. Tankorr reveals himself, blasts Primal with the Key and threatens Megatron with the same. Megatron had anticipated such a move and a preprogrammed cascade failure hit Tankorr, eliminating his threat.

Primal, going mad from the effects of the Key, activates the Plasma Energy Chamber. Megatron then blasts all of the Keys, to eradicate all organic life on the planet.

Primal is restored by the Oracle and uses his body as a conduit to channel the Plasma Energy and the Energy from the Keys and send them into the Oracle. Tankorr dies and Megatron is apparently dead as well.

The Maximals begin to search for the missing sparks, and find instead a synthorganic shapeshifting being named Noble who changes into a mindless firebreathing reptile called Savage. The Maximals take him in and protect him. Eventually, the Maximals go back to the Citadel to search for more clues about the missing sparks. Once in there, Noble uses Spark extractors to remove his own spark, and join with Megatron's gigantic floating base, revealing himself to be Megatron.

The Maximals continue to battle Megatron, and they eventually free Silverbolt from being a Vehicon. They are joined by another commander, named Botanica, and eventually overthrow Megatron from his floating base, discovering the missing Sparks. Megatron's new Generals, Stryka and Obsidian, continue to assail the floating base, and eventually bring it down. The Maximals trick them, though, and blast them into orbit. They defeat Thrust and remove his spark. Megatron, though chooses a new body, a copy of Optimus Primal's Optimal form. One by one the other Maximals fall and have their sparks extracted, as Oprimus and Megatron face off. Megatron begins merging the sparks with his own. Primal attacks, dragging Megatron into the depths of Cybertron, reformatting the surface of the planet into Technorganic matter and giving all of the sparks Technorganic bodies.



That's all...for now.


Written by BlackZarak (blackzarak@hotmail.com)


 
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Written by: BlackZarak .................... © 2003 Axalon Underground
 
Classic Transformers: Episode Guide