After the brief fight between Starscream, Arcee, and Megatron caused the collapse of an old Energon mine, Megatron finds himself pinned under a mountain of rock, unable to move.
That would be humiliating enough... except he also ended up trapped next to one of the Autobots' pets.
The human, known as Jack, manages to get Megatron to talk about his past before the war... and causes him to make a startling revelation.
What if, all those eons ago... Orion had been right?
That would be humiliating enough... except he also ended up trapped next to one of the Autobots' pets.
The human, known as Jack, manages to get Megatron to talk about his past before the war... and causes him to make a startling revelation.
What if, all those eons ago... Orion had been right?
— Fic's description.
Climbing Out
is a Fusion Fic of Transformers: Prime and Transformers One, documenting what would happen if Jack managed to redeem Megatron. It is an ongoing fic, with the last update having been made in July 2025.
Tropes:
- Abled in the Adaptation:
- Since the Autobots chose to wait and coordinate with Soundwave after the Nemesis crashes down instead of taking the chance for an assault as in "Flying Mind," they are never paralyzed by the reanimated ship.
- Later on, Optimus crafts a new voicebox for Bumblebee with the Forge Of Solus Prime, which Ratchet and Knock Out surgically implant into him, granting Bee back his original voice.
- Acquainted with Emergency Services: Orion Pax used to get into trouble a lot. When Ratchet sees that Orion was dragged to the med bay by D-16 again, this is the first thing he says:Ratchet: By the AllSpark, what did you do to yourself this time?
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- While discussing that Cybertronians have no sense of taste, Miko comments that Starscream clearly has no taste because he "walks around in cha-cha heels". Leonidas lets out a short laugh.
- Chapter 29 has both Leonidas and Ratchet laughing when they find out Bulkhead and Bumblebee unintentionally walked into Optimus and Elita getting intimate.
- When Vince unknowingly catcalls Elita-One, Jack uses her holograms and the school website to trick Vince into thinking he just flirted with the high school principal. Jack laughs so hard at Vince's reaction that Elita, Knock Out, and Smokescreen get worried. When Jack explains what happened, the three 'Bots are laughing, too.
- When Ratchet provides Optimus with a jet pack, Leonidas groans that it’s the Iacon 5000 all over again. Nobody expected Optimus Prime to laugh.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The story is a Fusion Fic of Transformers One and the Transformers Aligned Universe (mainly with Transformers: Prime). It also takes elements from other Transformers media.
- Megatron was both a former miner and gladiator before he became friends with Orion Pax, leading to the events of the film.
- Bumblebee was friends with both D-16 and Orion and among the earliest Autobots. This means that their history of Megatron ripping out Bumblebee's voice box is a sour point for both when Leonidas joins the Autobots.
- Airachnid had served under Sentinel Prime, but managed to get Megatron to let her join the Decepticons by making a sob story on how Sentinel forced her into evil. Megatron allowed her as she was useful for their cause, but neither he nor Starscream are happy with her in their ranks.
- The Transformers: Animated version of Blitzwing was originally a scientist forced to work under Sentinel to invent the Triple-Changer process and the Insecticons.
- The Nemesis's original identity is Trypticon, taking from Transformers: War for Cybertron.
- Adaptational Badass: Megatron is a Triple Changer in this story, which he never showed in either One or the Aligned continuity.
- Adaptational Deviation: Megatron's Heel–Face Turn means that several events play out differently.
- Leonidas' tips on Energon reserves mean that the Autobots aren't desperate for fuel, and thus Ratchet doesn't test the incomplete SynthEn on himself as a last resort.
- The events of "One Shall Fall", "One Shall Rise", and "Orion Pax" don't happen.
- Because it was Starscream who attacked Bumblebee and Rafael instead of Megatron, Raf isn't exposed to Dark Energon.
- Leonidas is the one to intercept Nemesis Prime while he's attacking Fowler. He's also able to instantly tell that the double isn't Optimus. He flies Fowler out before Nemesis Prime can kill the human, and they both inform the military of what's happened. This prevents both the attack on Alden military base and MECH's attempt to destroy the government's relationship with the Autobots. Leonidas assisting Optimus in the fight at MECH's base also means that Optimus isn't stabbed.
- Adaptational Intelligence: Blitzwing is normally an average intelligence soldier. This story credits him with creating the process to turn Cybertronians into Triple Changers, which is normally attributed to Shockwave in other continuities.
- Affectionate Nickname: The 'Bots usually have these for each other. Knock Out gets in on it when Bulkhead and Smokescreen start calling him "K.O.". Miko refers to Leonidas as "Megs", while Optimus usually refers to him as "old friend" (though he uses this nickname for anyone he's known for a long time). When Soundwave joins, Miko calls him "Waves".
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: After Optimus tells the other 'Bots that Megatron is gone, Miko cheers. Bulkhead plays music to celebrate and Miko pulls Raf into a crazy dance while Bumblebee laughs.
- And This Is for...: Both Arcee and Starscream pull this while taking down Airachnid, with Arcee referring to Tailgate and Starscream referring to Jetfire.
- Anger Born of Worry: After the (mostly averted) events of "TMI", Bulkhead snaps at Miko for needlessly putting herself in danger. When she starts crying, he immediately starts to comfort her and apologizes for yelling.
- Armor-Piercing Question: In chapter 18, when Knock Out switches from calling the Nemesis by its title to his former name as Trypticon and asks about his plans for the Iacon Relics, Trypticon asks if Knock Out is a Decepticon or an Autobot, as a Decepticon would never treat him as a Sentient Being. Due to his growing doubt about the Decepticon cause after Breakdown's death, Knock Out can only say he is not sure before Trypticon paralyzes him.
- Armor-Piercing Response:
- Jack manages to get through to Megatron through one of these.
Jack: You wanted to do to Cybertron's leaders what they'd done to you. But then you would have been the oppressor keeping others from living their lives. What if, millions of years later, they rose up and the cycle repeated all over again?
Megatron: Then we would have crushed them again.
Jack: Let me put this another way. We both hate MECH, right?
Megatron: Hmm.
Jack: Well, their leader, Silas, told Agent Fowler that the reason why they're attacking Cybertronians is because they want to build a weapon that will force all of humanity to do what they want, and kill everyone who gets in their way. Human, Autobot, Decepticon, whoever.
Megatron: Your point?
Jack: They said they're being oppressed, but if they win they'll just keep the world hostage and scare everyone into doing what they say. Just like you wanted to do to the Cybertronians. I'm sorry about what happened to Cybertron, and I wish that you and Optimus hadn't ended your friendship. But oppression is wrong, no matter who it happens to. If you think forcing the Autobots, and every other Cybertronian, to do what you want is the only way... then you're no better than the ones who kept you in the mines.- After their mission fails, Wheeljack begins blaming Ultra Magnus for the death of every other Wrecker, namedropping several Wreckers who died in missions led by Ultra Magnus. Ultra Magnus fires back that he did care about the Autobots lost, and when Wheeljack implies that Ultra Magnus was among the first to flee Cybertron, he fires back with this:
Ultra Magnus: I was one of the very last to leave Cybertron. I was the one who stayed by Metroplex's side until he joined the Well of Sparks. - Bad Liar:
- Leonidas notes that Optimus "can't lie to save [his] Spark." Ratchet later notes that he always knows Optimus is telling the truth because he's that bad at lying.
- Ratchet and Bulkhead easily figure out that Smokescreen is acting too ignorant regarding the missing Phase Shifter.
- Bad Taste Call-Out: While discussing how Cybertronians are incapable of tasting things like humans can, Miko states that it's obvious some Cybertronians can't taste: why else would Starscream go around in cha-cha heels?
- Bifauxnen and Lad-ette: Arcee and Elita fits the dynamic. Whereas Arcee is the refined Team Mom with a strict attitude and fineness-based fighting style, Elita-One is the same fight happy warrior as she was in One and isn't afraid of using her fists to get what she wants.
- Big Damn Heroes: When June and Fowler are seemingly about to fight Astrotrain on their own (something they know won't end well), Knock Out drives in, shoots Astrotrain, insults his paint job, and tells him to get lost. He then has the humans jump into his alt-mode and drives them home.
- Big Damn Reunion: Optimus Prime and Elita-One are ecstatic to finally see each other again after countless years apart.
- Breather Episode: The "Human Factor" chapters were rather dark, between Silas returning as CYLAS in Breakdown's body, Starscream handing him to be Shockwave's newest test subject after CYLAS failed to show promise with Project: Damocles, and Shockwave figuring out that the Decepticons have a mole in their midst. Chapter 29, while still having heavy moments from the war such as the kids fearing an actual kidnapping and Leonidas and Ratchet discussing how to get Soundwave out of the Decepticons before he is outed as a mole, is a lighter chapter showing the various incidents Team: Prime has gotten up to.
- Canon Immigrant:
- Soundwave has his cassettes from the original franchise, which are comprised of Laserbeak, Ravage, Rumble, Squawktalk, Wingthing, and Ratbat.
- Astrotrain shows up after Starscream sends out a recruitment message, and becomes Scream's second-in-command.
- Canon Welding:
- The Predacon project in the early days of the war was meant to be a way for the Decepticons to fight the Dinobots.
- Ultra Magnus was the 'Bot who stayed by Metroplex's side as the giant Autobot was dying (as he'd drained himself of Energon to power the Ark, saving his friends at the cost of his life).
- Comically Missing the Point: In chapter 40, Leonidas picks up that Jack is on edge with his mom joining Agent Fowler and Knock Out in retrieving a Predacon fossil. As Leonidas assures Jack that Knock Out is more than capable of keeping the humans safe from Decepticons like Astrotrain, Jack blurts that he's worried thay they (June and Fowler) will like each other. Though giving the timing, this causes Raf and Leonidas to think that Jack is worried Astrotrain and Knock Out will like each other until he clarified what he meant.Raf: "...You think Astrotrain and Knock Out like each other?
Leonidas: That's impossible. Astrotrain likes femmes. - Curb-Stomp Battle:
- Leonidas versus Airachnid.
- Leonidas versus MECH.
- Leonidas and Wheeljack versus Hardshell.
- Knock Out versus C.Y.L.A.S.
-
Word of God states that Soundwave did this to 20 Vehicons in the past. 10 were destroyed, 9 were knocked unconscious, and the last one got space bridged to Mars. After that, nobody else was brave enough to fight him.
- Defiant Captive: After Rumble was taken prisoner covering for Soundwave’s defection, he decided to annoy the Decepticons by singing some songs he heard on the internet for 16 hours.
- Description Cut: In Chapter 41, Astrotrain wonders what the Autobots are doing at the moment and imagine them plotting the Decepticons' downfall. Cut to the team having a "movie night".
- Dies Differently in the Adaptation: In canon, C.Y.L.A.S. was given to Knock Out as a lab rat, but lived almost until the end of the series, when Airachnid killed him after he accidentally released her. Here, after Damocles failed to impress Starscream, the Decepticon leader gives C.Y.L.A.S. to Shockwave, who Starscream gives "complete creative freedom" of what he does to C.Y.L.A.S. What exactly happens to C.Y.L.A.S. after that isn't shown... and that's probably for the best.
- Disappointed in You: Smokescreen and Knock Out get this from Elita-One and Leonidas after their impromptu street race gets them seen by a human.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- According to
Word of God, Lockdown ended his partnership with Darkwing because the former overseer was that unpleasant. To quote the author, "there was a nasty break up that ended with Lockdown threatening to shoot Darkwing in the aft if he ever saw him again." - During “Operation Bumblebee,” Leonidas revealed how Optimus made a law against the removal of T-Cogs for any reason after Sentinel’s death. It was one law even the Decepticons willingly followed.
- According to
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Ratchet reacts in horror when he learns that Silas is now using Breakdown's corpse as a body, saying that no one deserves such a fate. Bulkhead, despite not trusting Knock Out yet, comforts him when he's clearly distressed at the news.
- If their reactions to Vince's actions at the stoplight are any indication, most Cybertronians have a low opinion of catcalling.
- Do not disrespect science in front of Shockwave:
Shockwave: (to Silas) You are correct in that I am a scientist. My experiments are meant to benefit the Decepticons, to ensure that we prevail in this war. You never intended to use science to benefit your species, you intended to subjugate it. In order to accomplish this subjugation, you ripped apart a Decepticon soldier and used the knowledge you gained to build weapons. Weapons you then used on your own species. I am not a moral mech, and I do not pretend to have mercy or compassion for those who die as a result of my experimentation. But I have used my inventions to benefit and protect my faction, never to attack them. Do not use science as an excuse to commit crimes against your own species. Especially not in front of me. - Exact Words: Before the Internal Reveal, Optimus uses this whenever he has to bring up Megatron or Leonidas to the Autobots, since he's a Bad Liar.
- Eye Colour Change: This is held up as a measure of a Transformer's sincerity and inner character, as the one thing that convinces most people of Leonidas's Heel–Face Turn is his optics turning from red back to their original gold.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: While most of them happen off-screen, there are a few deaths that are implied to be very gory:
- While discussing the past with Jack, Optimus and Leonidas remember how Megatron ripped Sentinel in half.
- Breakdown was dismembered by Airachnid.
- Starscream kills Airachnid by shooting her in the face with a missile.
- Foreign-Language Tirade: Played for Laughs in chapter 29, where Miko and Raf play-argue in Japanese and Spanish respectively in the kids' shared group chat after Raf tries to get out of an anime session with Miko and his older sister Rosita.
Word of God confirms neither of them knows what the other is saying, and Jack is learning French so he won't get left out of their little game. - Four-Girl Ensemble: After Elita joins the group, the main female Autobot members consists of Miko (the naive one), Arcee (the Team Mom), June (the pretty one) and Elita-One (the tomboyish one).
- Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Played realistically. When an attack from Starscream causes Bumblebee to crash and Raf to go airborne, Bee catches the boy before he falls too far. He gets a sprained arm from landing on hard metal, but he didn't fall far enough to be hurt any worse.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Much like in the Prime cartoon, any human swearing is replaced with more tamer curses. The Cybertronians use Cybertronian swears (most notably whenever Wheeljack is present).
- Heel–Face Turn:
- The main premise of the fic is Megatron pulling this after Jack forces him to look at his actions in a new light.
- Once he confirms that Leonidas is Megatron and has joined Team Prime, Soundwave confirms his loyalty is towards Leonidas, and at Jack's suggestion he becomes the Autobot's mole in the Decepticons.
- Knock Out's growing disillusion with the Decepticon cause thanks to Breakdown's death and his frustration with Starscream's failing leadership causes him to turn on the Decepticon by the events of the Nemesis reanimation, and cemented when he secretly sends a cure for Tox-En to the Autobots before he leaves to join them.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Bumblebee's T-Cog is stolen by MECH, Leonidas offers to donate his T-Cog to Bumblebee.
- Hope Spot: In-Universe in chapter 27. When Soundwave tells the Autobots that Breakdown's signal is back online, Knock-Out hangs on the hope that his Conjunx survived Airachnid's assault, especially as they never found his body. Elita advices him not to let his emotions get the better of him, a good call as the audience knows that it's really Silas piloting his body.
- Humans Through Alien Eyes: The first time Elita-One hears Jack's stomach growl, she panics and wonders what's wrong with him. Luckily, Arcee lets her know it just means Jack needs to eat.
- Innocently Insensitive: Played for Laughs. After Jack's abduction by Soundwave, Nurse Darby and Ratchet spend over an hour running medical tests on him to make sure he's okay. He ends up running from them because he can't take it anymore... only for Raf to innocently blow Jack's cover when he asks Optimus why Jack is hiding in the closet.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Bumblebee still loses his T-Cog to MECH, and Ratchet still offers to donate his as a replacement.
- Wheeljack still follows Dreadwing to Earth, Bulkhead is still captured by Dreadwing, and the final showdown still happens.
- The incident with Nemesis Prime still happens, and Silas still gets crushed by his own giant robot.
- Played for Laughs when the Nemesis still crashes down without Bulkhead to damage the engine... because two Vehicons thought it was a good idea to let an Insecticon steer the warship.
- The major events of the episode "Thirst" still play out due to Barricade and Astrotrain causing the inciting incident instead of Starscream and Knock Out. The loss of the Insecticons is attributed to one of them getting infected and spreading it to the rest.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: In chapter 21, Team Prime believes that Bulkhead will be fine after medical treatment for the Tox-En poison, right before he is sent flying injured through the Ground Bridge following his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Hardshell.
- Lighter and Softer: While still dealing with the dramatic moments of the show and movie, the fic is much more lighter than its source materials, mostly thanks to Megatron pulling a Heel–Face Turn early in the story.
- The Lost Lenore: Jetfire is this for Starscream, while Breakdown becomes this to Knock Out after he's murdered by Airachnid.
- Mama Bear: The second Nurse Darby learned what happened to Jack, she roped Ratchet into helping her perform numerous medical tests on her son to make sure he wasn't injured.
- Mythology Gag:
- Shatter and Dropkick are name dropped as being participants of Blitzwing's triple changer experiments.
- Once it comes to life (or more accurately, back to life), the Nemesis refers to itself as Trypticon, his old identity in the Transformers: War for Cybertron series.
- Sergeant Witwicky is a reference to Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky from the G1 cartoon. Similarly, Raf gets to pilot a remote-controlled drone named Chip, referencing Chip Chase.
- Never Found the Body: Like in canon, Silas is crushed under Nemesis Prime after Optimus and Leonidas defeat the imposter. But when the military goes to retrieve the fake Cybertronian, they didn't find Silas dead or alive, as the rogue soldier was retrieved by his surviving colleagues.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: What Knock Out does to C.Y.L.A.S. when they finally meet, as Knock Out is itching for vengeance for Breakdown.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Ratchet and Soundwave deem the Resonance Blaster is too dangerous for either Autobots or Decepticons to use, so they have Laserbeak destroy it beyond repair.
- Noodle Incident:
- The numerous other times that resulted in Ratchet treating Orion Pax for injuries (Ratchet mentions there were enough head wounds for him to wonder if Orion suffered memory loss).
- Knock Out and Breakdown were once caught getting... romantic on the job. Based on how Knock Out brings it up, the outcome was not fun.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: When Leonidas attacks MECH's base:Soldier: Sir! A Cybertronian has landed nearby! Faction unknown! They're blasting at our men left and right, no fatalities but multiple casualities!
Silas: (sighs) Not this again. - One-Steve Limit: Invoked. Miko says that she doesn't want Leonidas' nickname to be "Leo" because she knows there was a Prime named Leo, so she gives him the nickname "Megs".
- Papa Wolf:
- Optimus, as usual. He's the one to go to the mine to find Jack, and Megatron notes that he was digging/blasting rocks away with the strength and speed only a Prime would possess.
- Ratchet has moments of this as well. When he sees Jack being approached by Leonidas (not knowing about the other's Heel–Face Turn), he orders him to back away and threatens to "perform surgery." Later, when Raf is injured in an attack from Starscream, Ratchet immediately scans him to see how bad the injury is, and is relieved when he sees it isn't serious.
- Bulkhead is as protective of Miko here as he is in canon, with his first reaction when he sees Leonidas in the base is to bring Miko close to him and get ready to defend her. Earlier, he'd also gotten mad at her for sneaking along on a mission again.
- Leonidas is well on his way to becoming this as well. He's furious when Soundwave kidnaps Jack to force Leonidas to meet with him.
- Pass the Popcorn: While watching Leonidas and Bulkhead bond over video games, Miko, Jack, Arcee, Ratchet, and Optimus Prime watch with sodas and Energon, respectively. All of them find the gaming match very entertaining.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Played straight, as usual, with the Decepticons, who all have red eyes (the exception being the yellow-eyed Breakdown, the violet-eyed Airachnid, and the faceless Soundwave). Inverted, however, with Leonidas: the fact that his eyes turn from red to gold is the biggest indicator that he's truly turned good. By Chapter 15, Knock Out's eyes have turned from red to orange, indicating a future defection.
- Riddle for the Ages: Why do Cybertronians eyes change color in relation to their morality? It's been pondered in-universe without any definitive answer.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Aside from Agent Fowler and his men, the only ones aware of the existence of Cybertronians are the Darby family, Miko and Rafael.
- Predicting the reluctance of the rest of Team Prime to accept Leonidas, Optimus and Jack help hide his former identity as Megatron while Leonidas settles in as a silent ally. Ratchet is brought into the loop so he can treat Leonidas's injuries, and Raf becomes a secret keeper when the former warlord needs to protect him from Starscream. Eventually, they tell everyone the truth.
- Ship Tease: Chapter 40 has a lot of this between Agent Fowler and Nurse Darby.
- Shout-Out:
- Leonidas' name comes from one of Jack's favorite movies, which is implied to be 300.
- Bulkhead accidentally quotes Sokka when he's arguing about Leonidas' defection.
Bulkhead: Oh, great! He does one good thing and that erases an entire war's worth of crime. He deserves a prize, the "not as big an aft as he could've been' award!- How does Miko urge Jack to hurry up on a mission? "Push the button, Frank!"
- In chapter 32, Starscream rants about how every Decepticon that comes to contact with Earth turns traitor, a line taken from Blue Diamond.
- While hiding from him during a mission gone wrong, June refers to Astrotrain as "an evil Thomas the Tank Engine."
- Spotting the Thread: Soundwave is the first Decepticon to become suspicious of the fact that Megatron disappeared around the same time Leonidas appeared. He's also the first one to figure out completely on his own that Leonidas and Megatron are the same person.
- Staying with the Suffering: During an argument with Wheeljack, Ultra Magnus reveals that, when Metroplex sacrificed himself to get the Ark into space, Ultra Magnus sat with him as he passed, offering him comfort in his final moments.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Jack first speaks of Soundwave serving as Team Prime's mole, he asks why Jack brought up a burrowing mammal. Later on, when the topic of The Mole comes up again, Elita-One asks the same thing. Justified as both definitions of mole are human terms, and it appears that "small burrowing mammal" is the term most familiar to Cybertronians.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
- Ratchet admits that he doesn't trust Leonidas, but he believes his Heel–Face Turn is genuine and thus is willing to have him on the team. Leonidas admits that he has a long way to go before any 'Bot but Optimus is willing to trust him.
- Because she was in on Sentinel's plans, Megatron never liked or trusted Airachnid. However, he allowed her a place with the Decepticons because she was so ruthless when it came to hunting down, interrogating, and/or killing Autobots.
- Starscream only worked with Airachnid because Megatron allowed her a place, and despises her for killing Jetfire. Once he was gone and Starscream became leader, he started thinking of ways he could get rid of her.
- Starscream hates C.Y.L.A.S. for a lot of reasons, but allowed him to (temporarily) join the Decepticons when it seemed he had a valuable weapon to give. When that fell through, Starscream allowed Shockwave to do whatever experiments on C.Y.L.A.S..
- Leonidas and Ultra Magnus struggle to cooperate with one another due to their history in the War For Cybertron.
- This Is Gonna Suck: In chapter 35, Starscream is annoyed that the first Decepticon to answer his call is Astrotrain, whom the other Decepticons mocked for his train alt mode. Starscream doesn't want to give credit to the train mode but swallows his pride and says that it's acceptable because they need all the help they can get.
- Time Dissonance: Thanks to their long lives, Cybertronians experience time way differently than humans. Both Optimus and Arcee remark how short 300 is (a film that clocks in at 2 hours) and Bumblebee confirms to Raf that a movie on Cybertron lasts 200 hours.
- Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: After watching a zombie movie with the Autobots, Jack comments on the implausibility of the premise, not knowing what Barricade and Astrotrain had been up to in the Decepticon base.Jack: For one thing, the premise is unbelievable. Who would believe that two idiots messing with something they shouldn't could result in a zombie apocalypse?
[Answer Cut]
Starscream: So you're telling me that you two idiots messed with something you shouldn't have, and now we have a Terrorcon outbreak on our hands?! - You Do NOT Want to Know:
- Optimus Prime and Leonidas decide that Jack doesn't need to know about what Megatron did to Sentinel, with Prime saying this trope word-for-word. Jack still gets the implications, however, that Sentinel's was a Cruel and Unusual Death.
- After hearing from Soundwave what exactly happened to CYLAS during Shockwave's experiments, Ratchet decides that's not a detail to share to Raf or the other kids.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: After Starscream kills Airachnid, the Insecticons swear their loyalty to him as the current leader of the Decepticons.
- You Shall Not Pass!: When Shockwave confronts Soundwave about being a mole to Leonidas and the Autobots, Rumble volunteers to engage him and hold him off while Soundwave and the other cassettes escape.
