A few weeks later. Hound (disguised as an olive-green Mercedes-Benz Unimog military tactical ambulance), Crosshairs (disguised as a green and black 2016 Chevrolet Stingray Corvette C7) and Drift (disguised as a red and black 2018 Mercedes-AMG GT R) are driving around Optimus Prime's current location in South Dakota trying to find their missing leader.
"This was Prime's last current location!" Hound said as the three Autobots transformed into their robot modes to discuss the plans.
"Face it Hound, he's gone!" Crosshairs said.
"You don't know that Crosshairs, Prime has been through much worse and still survive!" Hound explained to Crosshairs.
"Stop talking about Prime like he's a god! He is just fragile as the rest of us!" Crosshairs yelled trying to explain that Optimus Prime isn't any different from the other Autobots.
"Well I'm not giving up!"
"And if we don't find him…..then what?" Crosshairs asked.
"Then we go searching for the others on our own!" Hound said.
"I still think we're going to lose this war anyway but….whatever!" Crosshairs said having no faith in his team as usual.
"Oy….Drift found anything?" Hound asked.
"Several tire tracks few of them belong to a large vehicle, most likely to…"
"OPTIMUS!" Hound shouted in excitement.
"Oh brother!" Crosshairs said as they all transformed into their vehicle modes and drove off following the tire tracks. They drive to the middle of the forest where they find Optimus Prime. He is motionless and is stuck in his truck form completely covered in rust.
"Optimus?" Hound asked as he, Crosshairs and Drift transformed out of their vehicle modes. Optimus transforms back with a few small parts flying off, after the transformation was completed he slammed his fist to the ground barely able to stand.
"Hound? Crosshairs and Drift?"
"What are you three doing here?" Optimus asked spitting out energon.
"Hound, Drift and I have spent cycles looking for you! What are you doing here?" Crosshairs replied to Optimus explaining that he along with Hound and Drift have been searching for him and the others for quite a while.
"I have been in stasis, recovering from my wounds and….the mourning the loss of an old friend!" Optimus Prime said.
"Old friend? Optimus who died?" Hound asked with a concerned tone in his voice. Optimus didn't say a word but moved his head back pointing to the Cybertronian corpse behind him. The three Autobots walk towards the dead Autobot and find out who it is.
"No!"
"Leadfoot!" Hound took of his helmet and placed it on his chest mourning and saluting his old friend. Leadfoot's stomach was torn open, his right forearm and entire left arm torn out, the shades that were covering his optics were smashes open and most of his face has been torn open.
"Who did this Prime?" Crosshairs asked.
"Barricade…..Hooligan….And….Soundwave!" Optimus barely able to speak mentioned the three Decepticons who mutilated Leadfoot to death.
"Those dishonorable savages!" Drift said in anger as he bowed down mourning the last of the Wreckers.
"Autobots! Listen up!"
"Sensei what is it?" Drift asked as both he, Crosshairs and Hound walked towards Optimus Prime.
"Megatron is traveling to Arizona, he found a few Decepticons residing there! You must stop him now!" Optimus Prime gave the three Autobots their instructions.
"Are you coming Boss?" Crosshairs asked.
"I….cannot!" Optimus said as he started collapsing to the ground.
"I need to go! I need to go now!" Optimus said lifting himself off the ground.
"Where are you going?" Hound asked
"I need to recover from my wounds! Need to get far away from this war for a while!" Optimus explained as he transformed into his truck mode.
"But Prime we can't win this war without you!" Crosshairs said to Optimus who ignored and drove off.
"I can't believe he abandoned us!" Crosshairs said shocked at how Optimus is acting.
"Come comrades, we must bury Leadfoot and then travel to Arizona!" Drift said putting both of his hands on Hound's and Crosshair's shoulders and walked towards Leadfoot's corpse. After burying him and saying their goodbyes they drove to Arizona where Megatron is re-grouping with more Decepticons. After a few days of traveling, they make it to Arizona and drive to an old town where Drift has picked up multiple Cybertronian signals.
"Okay we're here Drift! Where are the Decepticons?" Crosshairs asked.
"The Decepticons are slightly far from here but I am picking up Autobot signals close by, they seem to be chased by the Decepticons!" Drift explained. Suddenly they hear the roar of an engine in front of them and see a silver 2009 Chevrolet Stingray corvette, a red 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia and a blue 2013 Chevrolet Volt driving straight towards them.
"Decepticons?" Hound said as both he and Crosshairs grabbed their guns and aimed at the vehicles.
"No….they're Autobots!" Drift said to Crosshairs and Hound, the two Autobot lowered their weapons and both the silver corvette and the Ferrari transformed.
"Sideswipe? Dino?" Crosshairs said.
"Hound, Drift, Crosshairs you guys need to hide!" Sideswipe said with a concerned and panicking tone in his voice.
"Sideswipe, what's wrong soldier?" Hound asked
"We are being pursued by the Decepticons!" Dino said.
"Sideswipe, Jolt, Ratchet and I were searching for Optimus and you three before three Decepticons ambushed us!" Dino began explaining.
"We were separated from Ratchet and they chose to follow us instead of him! I don't even know if they're still after us!" Dino continued explaining their crisis.
"Jolt come on let's move!" Sideswipe said to Jolt and both of them drove off (Sideswipe didn't need to transform since he had wheels for feet in his robot mode) to hide by the small buildings around them.
"Oh shit, they're here I can hear them coming!" Dino said hearing more vehicles driving by and a fighter jet flying alongside them.
"Quickly you three hide now!" Dino said activating his cloaking ability causing his entire body to disappear out of sight allowing to perfectly hide. Hound, Crosshairs and Drift immediately took cover near the buildings with Drift hiding near the same building as Sideswipe.
"Shhhh. Quiet here they come!" Sideswipe whispered to his comrades. Suddenly a black and grey confederate motorcycle drove by and transformed revealing itself to be the Decepticon torturer "Mohawk".
"Ah hell yeah man, Decepticons in the street!" Mohawk said with Nitro transforming in mid-air and landing on the ground behind Mohawk and in front of Onslaught, Hooligan, Barricade, Soundwave and Megatron.
"Where are those little Autobot scumbags?" Nitro said slamming his fists together ready for some action.
"I don't see them anywhere fool!" Mohawk said climbing on one of the telephone poles.
"Ugh how unfortunate, I was looking forward to knocking some heads!" Nitro said disappointed that he can't slaughter any Autobots.
"You want to knock some heads off Nitro? Leave that to me and my Decapitator!" Onslaught said showing off the weapons attached to his right forearm which was basically two large blades that work like extremely powerful and sharp pliers.
"Oy!"
"Hear Onslaught goes again, showing off another one of his weapons that never work!" Hooligan says insulting the Decepticon tactician.
"I'll use these on you if you don't shut up scavenger!" Onslaught insults Hooligan back.
"Quiet all of you!" Megatron ordered his Decepticons.
"I need to send a message to Starscream and the others. To inform them of where to meet us!" Megatron said as he sent a message to Starscream, Mindwipe, Bonecrusher, Brawl and Blackout to let them know where to meet up with him. Starscream receives the transmission and sends to the other four Decepticons who immediately respond and start heading straight to Arizona.
"Alright the message has been sent now find those Autobots!" Megatron ordered the six Decepticons he's currently with to search for the Autobots. The Decepticons begin searching tearing apart the abandoned buildings.
"Hey I'm going to throw a grenade!" Hound whispered to the Autobots through the comm-link as he pulled out a frag grenade from his inventory.
"Don't do it Hound!" Sideswipe whispers back.
"I'm going to do it!" Hound said causing the other Autobots to whisper back trying not to draw so much attention. Hound begins to ignore them causing Dino to lose it.
"Are you insane Hound you're going to draw the Decepticon's attention to us!" Dino de-activates his cloaking ability in front of the Decepticons and yelled at Hound.
"Oh shit!" Dino said slowly turning his head to his left side in fear facing the Decepticons who were aiming their weapons at him.
"DINO GET BACK!" Hound yelled throwing his grenade at the Decepticons. Dino falls to the ground and covers his head with his hands as the grenade goes off. The explosions causes all the Decepticons (except for Hooligan who was on the roof) to collapse to the ground from the impact.
"AUTOBOTS FALL BACK!" Sideswipe ordered all the Autobots to retreat. They quickly transformed into their vehicles modes and began driving away from the abandoned town.
"DON'T LET THEM ESCAPE!" Megatron ordered.
"On it!" Barricade said transforming into his Ford Mustang police car form and driving after the Autobots. Hooligan and Onslaught follow Barricade while Mohawk, Nitro and Soundwave were still recovering from the explosion.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" Megatron said to the Decepticons that stayed behind.
"On it Megatron!" Nitro gets up and starts transforming into his second vehicle mode a silver Cadillac Cien.
"Let's go Mohawk!" Nitro drives off with Mohawk jumping back up from the ground and transforming back into a motorcycles to catch up with Nitro.
"Oh hell yeah!" Mohawk drove off trying to keep up with Nitro. Barricade, Hooligan and Onslaught were still on catching up to the Autobots. Hooligan and Onslaught were struggling with keeping up with Barricade in their robot modes so Hooligan chose to transform into his Volkswagen mode and Onslaught into his green and white Western Star 4900SF tow truck vehicle form. Nitro managed to get in front of the other Decepticons and activated his stealth-mode and began firing at the Autobots. Sideswipe turned around and activated his stealth mode and fired back at Nitro. Nitro was hit by Sideswipe's bullets and flipped over and transformed back into a robot. Barricade, Hooligan, Mohawk and Onslaught crash on him and flip over, transforming back into their robot modes and land on the ground. Sideswipe hides his stealth-mode weapons and turns back around and drives off with the other Autobots.
"YOU IDIOTS!" Megatron and Soundwave arrive to the scene and notice Nitro, Barricade, Onslaught, Hooligan and Mohawk laying on top of each other. Megatron berates them for their incompetence and informs them that Starscream, Brawl, Blackout, Mindwipe and Bonecrusher are nearly here. "Your superior officers will be arriving here soon, GOOD! I don't how many of you I can put up with at once!" Megatron said.
The Autobots manage to drive away far from the town and far from civilization and decide to transform into their robot modes.
"Okay I think we're far from the Decepticons now! Sideswipe said.
"So any luck on finding Optimus?" Sideswipe asked concerned for their leader. Drift, Hound and Crosshairs looked at each other not sure how to explain it to them.
"We did…..find Optimus Prime!" Hound said.
"And?" Sideswipe asked.
"He….abandoned us!" Crosshairs said scratching his own head and looking down at the ground in shame.
"What?" Jolt asked with a concerned tone in his voice.
"Why would he do such a thing?" Dino asked.
"He was badly hurt! He wanted to be separated from us until he recovered!" Hound explained.
"Hound you're a f*cking medic! You should've repaired him!" Dino said.
"I know I should've!" Hound said.
"Well now we need to find the rest of the Autobots without Prime. Bumblebee, Hot Rod, Wheeljack….We need go look for Ratchet again since he separated from us!" Sideswipe said. Out of nowhere a white 1960s Ford truck drove by and transformed in front of the Autobots.
"Wheeljack? Is that you?" Jolt immediately recognized the Autobot.
"Jolt! Boy am I glad to see you!" Wheeljack said as he hugged his close friend.
"I've been searching for you guys for years!" Wheeljack said and the rest of the Autobots looked at each other in confusion.
"I'm sorry you said years?" Sideswipe asked.
"Yes based on Earth's timeline I arrived here during the 1960s!" Wheeljack said.
"That's impossible. The rest of us we arrived here in 2017!" Sideswipe said.
"Oh dear it's just as I feared!" Wheeljack said with a concerned tone in his voice.
"Feared what?" Crosshairs asked.
"The Space Bridge was badly damaged, when we teleported through it we each traveled to different timelines on this planet and re-wrote human history!" Wheeljack explained.
"Oh Primus!" Drift said.
"I heard a lot about this World War 2 and you're not going to believe this. Bumblebee and Hot Rod helped the allied forces win the war!" Wheeljack said.
"Hot Rod? My student is alive?" Sideswipe asked with a relieved tone in his voice.
"Yes but…." Wheeljack was interrupted.
"He's not the only one you should be glad about! Look!" Dino pointed at two vehicles driving by.
"It's Ratchet he's back! And he's with."
"OPTIMUS!" Hound said in excitement and relief. Ratchet transformed out of his vehicle form and into robot mode and Optimus transforms also and has scanned a new form a red and blue Western Star 5700 truck with flame decals.
"Optimus you're back!" Dino said in relief.
"Of course he's back he's a Prime!" Crosshairs said having faith in winning the war once again.
"It's good to see you my fellow Autobots!" Optimus said happy to be reunited with his close friends.
"Optimus…Hound told us you abandoned us why?" Jolt asked.
"When I left Hound, Crosshairs and Drift behind, I was looking for Ratchet to help and repair me. While driving to Arizona to find him I noticed that I was leaking energon and lucky for me I managed to find another truck stop and scan a new-form slightly healing myself only then did I resume my search for Ratchet!"
"It's a good thing you found me Optimus! You had some serious damage old friend!" Ratchet said to Optimus. Optimus then placed his hand on Ratchet's shoulder as a sign of their close friendship.
"We are glad you both are back! Ratchet…..when Onslaught, Mohawk and Nitro attacked us and separated us from you we feared the worst! From now on we're sticking together Autobots!" Sideswipe said.
"I am a medic and a war veteran, I can take care of myself and to be honest I was more worried for you three!" Ratchet said laughing at them.
"Oh Sensei!" Drift said trying to get Optimus Prime's attention.
"Wheeljack has some shocking news you should hear!" Drift said pointing at Wheeljack.
"We will talk about this news later, in the mean time we must destroy Megatron once and for all!" Optimus said.
"Optimus! Bumblebee and Hot Rod are still missing and Megatron just called in four more of his warriors to reunite with him! I'm afraid we won't win this one!" Sideswipe said with a concerned tone in his voice.
"We will win this war Sideswipe!" Dino said.
"With Prime leading us again, we have a shot at winning! Plus I'll try to get Starscream next you so then you can mutilate the crap out of him!" Dino said trying to get Sideswipe pumped up.
"You had me at mutilating Starscream!" Sideswipe said in excitement fist pumping Dino.
"AUTOBOTS ROLL OUT!" Optimus shouted his battle cry as the Autobots transformed into their vehicle modes and drove after the Decepticons…