Hot Rod and Arcee walked across ruined alleyways looking for survivors, awol soldiers, and emigrants. They were to kill anyone that deserts. They came across a bot that said to join the people escaping, they were starving and didn't want to be collateral damage anymore. Hod Rot shot and killed him. He said, "I'd rather die than be a coward. I guess you just did both." Arcee was not surprised, she was thinking of deserting, they kept eachother out of trouble. They had an argument. Decepticons heard them and shot Arcee. Hot Rod fled carrying Arcee's body under a maintenance area of a collapsed bridge. Hot Rod cried "what do I do, I'm useless. I never wanted you to die." He was starved of energon. He was saved by awol autobot and emigrant leader Optimus, an ex-prime. Optimus said, "We're all a part of eachother, if you do not join us, you will be killed by enemy forces, or starve and die. I will not leave you." Hot Rod said, "I can take care of myself. I don't need anyone. You can leave, traitor." but Optimus never left, and then Hot Rod came with.
The plan was to steal a ship and leave. There were three phases to this plan, the ship, the energon to power the ship, and escorting the bots to the ship. Hot Rod made himself a part of all three, but he was always looking for a way to leave. Each time he left and came back, he knew that if anybody knew of his betrayal he'd die. He stole the ship and was the pilot, he could've left everyone behind, but the refugees needed him, he couldn't fly the ship either, but he would never want to admit that. The autobots had control of a nearby energon supply. He could've just double crossed them there, but he took out all the guards stationed before he realized he could've made a plan to. He left escorting the bots, and got half of them killed, and he felt really bad, blaming himself for all the deaths he's caused, and feeling remorse at all the refugee's he's killed, directly or indirectly. He tries to fly the ship but has to admit he can't fly the ship and only after that, the ship crash lands on earth.
Hot-Rod tries to go out to earth as himself, but is spotted. All the refugee cybertronians have to use alternate modes that are cars because they are transformers. He realises that because everybody is really hostile towards giant war mechas, it's better for them to be robots in disguise so nobody dies. He is driving as a car, when a dude's car is stolen. This dude is really hot and sexy, so Hot Rod stops to pick him up. He says in hologram form "hey, need a lift?" and the dude is like "yeah, I tried to call one but I'm out of service and I don't want to waste my data. Ohhh, are you offering?" and then they had sex, eventually. It turns out this human is really scared of giant war mechas and vows "If they come near me I will destroy every single one." Hot Rod becomes one of the first transformers to be fitted with pretender technology, it's really painful, but the result is that him and his new boy toy can have sex, so they have sex. Boy toy finds out that Hot Rod is a transformer, and tells his dad who is a military general, and then boy toy feels bad. Hot Rod deals with general by learning that sometimes you have to use diplomacy. Hot Rod and boy toy make up, and boy toy teaches Hot Rod how to be a human and live in human world.
All of a sudden, the Autobots and Decepticons arrive on earth and they're extracting resources to continue their long war. When the decepticons discover the refugee's they try to kill them, but then Optimus fights with Megatron and then they retreat and it happens again but with Autobots and Optimus dies. Optimus hands Hot Rod the matrix of leadership and now he's Rodimus Prime. Now Autobots and Decepticons are destroying earth and trying to kill the refugees. Rodimus has to defend his new home and the people he's come to rely on. He defeats Starscream, who says "you've ditched your cats and your mufflers for some balls, autobot" in his really high pitched voice. With the Decepticons without a leader or power, they have to succumb to being refugees. Bumblebee the leader of the autobots kills Rodimus and says, "we could've used you on our side. It sucks that someone so selfless for the wrong cause had to die." before eating a town full of people, because people are energon.
Boy Toy says "no" really dramatically, and vows to destroy the autobots. They gather rodimus' body and boy toy and rodimus become the first headmaster pair. Their personalities merge and everything that was separated about the two is now conjoined, they are the same person. With Rodimus's newfound strength, he defeats Bumblebee. But with his partner inside him, he wishes to return home, to a place that's safe. Now that nobody is there to calm him down, he gets really self conscious. He can't return home because it's destroyed, the war destroyed it. The End.