| abstract | - Starscream, Blitzwing and Astrotrain are using their weapons to carve their faces along with Megatron's into a mountainside. They agree one of the faces doesn't belong, then decide to band together and overthrow Megatron. Flying back to base, Blitzwing and Astrotrain decide who should lead Megatron into the trap, one of them suggesting Starscream while the other counters how the Air Commander has constantly been attempting to become leader of the Decepticons and failed. Starscream retorts as usual and says he will do it, and the other two gloat about manipulating him. Starscream leads Megatron into the sewers, stating that a secret Autobot energy base is present there, but the doors close around them. Megatron recognizes it's a trap but gets frozen. Starscream gloats and tries to escape through a hatch but finds out that it's been locked by his "allies". This leaves Astrotrain and Blitzwing as joint Decepticon leaders. Heading for a stadium, Blitzwing, in a display of great intelligence, smashes his way into the interior of a football arena that he mistook as "a human battle simulation arena" where after a brief (harmless) skirmish with one of the players that ended with him firing off the football overhead (and earning a substantial amount of points from the score-board), he drafts a football coach to be his second-in-command and demands tactical advice from him. Blitzwing misinterprets the coach's suggestions of "zone defense" and "long bomb" and has the Constructicons build a massive highway maze, then begins firing "long bombs" from the stadium into the surrounding city. Prowl leads a group of Autobots to investigate, but they end up crashing into each other and flattened by Blitzwing in the Constructicons' maze. Meanwhile, Astrotrain heads to a train station, where he "conscripts" the Astroforce, human trains which are to be his army. He sends them into a tunnel to collect energy lines and convert them into energon. It actually goes quite well for Astrotrain. The Astroforce? Not so much. Meanwhile, Powerglide flies over the maze, where Scrapper has built himself a throne...made of Prowl, Tracks, Skids, and Bluestreak. Guided by Powerglide from the air, Hoist and Smokescreen (though exactly how a mechanical being like Scrapper can get ashmatic problems from Smokescreen's...uh...smokescreen is anyone's guess) manage to rescue the Autobots, causing Blitzwing and Scrapper to crash into each other. At the train station, the Seekers come to see how Astrotrain is doing. To his credit, he has gotten a lot of Energon cubes, but his Astroforce has somehow gotten off their tracks and into a knot. Astrotrain urges one of the trains to gather some energy from a gas main, but it turns out to be a water main, which floods the tunnel. Worse, it heads into the tunnel in which Megatron and Starscream are trapped. Online again, Megatron accuses Starscream of another attempt at treason. Starscream maintains that he was tricked. Optimus Prime, Ironhide, and Spike Witwicky see the two Decepticons, only to be distracted by the water main flooding the city. Trailbreaker uses his force field to push back the water, while Optimus and Ironhide seal the main. Heading for the station, Megatron and Starscream encounter Prime, who claims that he's looking for the real leaders of the Decepticons, implying it isn't the two of them. This really angers Megatron, who tries to kill the Autobot leader, but Prime escapes. Megatron leaves to put Astrotrain and Blitzwing in their place, while the Seekers watch and place bets on who will win. Optimus, however, is content to sit back and wait for the outcome. At the stadium, the Constructicons demand a share of the power Blitzwing promised, but he refuses and tells them to go jump off a bridge. Bad idea, for the Constructicons form Devastator. The flood from the water main finally dies out at the stadium, depositing Astrotrain, who decides to scrap Blitzwing as well. Megatron and Starscream arrive, and Megs beats his would-be usurpers senseless, but Devastator knocks out Megatron, then turns his sights on the Air Commander. Starscream manages to dodge Devastator, then Megatron slams the giant. Megatron, Blitzwing, Astrotrain, Starscream, and Devastator then engage in a battle royale which sees Megatron emerge victorious. He decides to spare the traitors, saying the Decepticon cause is too important, but warns them never to betray him again. As the Autobots look on, they're impressed that Prime knew that Megatron would handle the Decepticons for them. The previously injured Autobots form a throne for their commander to sit on, but Optimus Prime declares that he'd rather roll.
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