It was the afternoon, and the Autobots met with Sari at a place called Dino Drive, where she agreed to show them a bit more earth history. To assist in explaining all of this, she had also brought her Tudor-bot.
"Welcome to Dino Drive, guys," Sari greeted the Autobots as they arrived. "You guys wanna learn about earth's history? This is the place."
It was then that Bulkhead arrived and began smashing through every single car in the parking lot.
"Sorry! My bad! Hey, above that out!" he said as he demolished every single car in his path. "Sorry, I'm late, guys. Did I miss anything?"
"No," said Bumblebee, who had observed that every single car in the parking lot was now crushed and somehow one lands up in the palm trees. "I'd say you had about just every car in the lot."
Sari then jumped into Bumblebee and began driving into the park. Once they reached the first exhibit, they immediately transformed and came face-to-face with several giant organics, some of whom were even taller than they were.
"As you'll see, many of the animals replicated here are from the Jurassic Era, which means they are over two hundred million years old," Tudor-bot said.
Ratchet huffed as he folded his arms, not looking too impressed. "We have been around for over 10 billion years."
Blackarachnia elbowed him hard. "I think you're missing the point.
"Everything we've learned about dinosaurs are from the bones, especially those found in ancient tar pits. Many scholars speculate that despite their massive size, dinosaurs were capable of moving with tremendous speed and grace."
"If you ask me dinosaurs more graceful than some Autobots," Bumblebee laughed while pointing at Bulkhead "inconspicuously."
"Very funny!" he retorted.
Then they witnessed a brontosaurus raising its head.
"Those dinosaurs are pretty big for organic life forms," Optimus stared.
"True, but they weren't known for their intellect," Tudor-bot continued. "A dinosaur would be no mental match for an XL-4 Processor, such as mine."
Bulkhead suddenly grew an interest in the pteranodon. He grabbed the branch it sat on and shook it.
"Does this one fly?!" he eagerly asked.
"Bulkhead, wait!" Blackarachnia yelled.
Too late, the pteranodon screeched and fell off onto the triceratops, cutting its head off and sending the head flying into the T-Rex's chest. The T-Rex started to fall, landing on top of a stegosaurus, snapping its tail off. The tail then punctured the brontosaurus causing it to topple over.
Everyone quickly jumped out of the way as the brontosaurus fell towards them. They all managed to get clear except for Tudor-bot.
"Opps," said Bulkhead.
"The bot did say there were replicas, as in fakes," said Blackarachnia shaking her head.
"No match XL-4 processor. No XL. No match processorrrrr," Tudor-bot's screen shut off.
Bulkhead hung his head down, looking embarrassed.
All of the destroyed robots were now within Professor Sumdac's lab, and Megatron was examining them, though he was not very impressed.
"XL-4 processor? How primitive," Megatron grumbled as he looked at the Tudor-bot head, "my captor already possesses the means to manufacture robotics, but clearly nothing of the scale I shall acquire for my own robotic body."
His eyes then began to glow as he reactivated Tudor-bot's latest lesson for Sumdac's daughter. The head's screen turned on and displayed an image of a T-Rex, which looked just like the robotic one that was in the process of being rebuilt along with the other robotic dinosaurs.
"Dinosaurs were capable of moving with tremendous speed and grace. Besides the valuable information dinosaur bones provided, fossils also gave way to fossil fuels which today power our automobiles."
"I can't believe I programmed you with such simplistic information," Professor Sumdac sighed as he entered the lab. "Everyone knows all of this."
"Oh, but I did not."
"Well, everyone but you," said Professor Sumdac, and then his eyes widened as he dropped everything. He then turned his head towards Megatron. "You—you spoke?"
"Where? Where am I?" Megatron asked, faking confusion.
"You're in my lab. In the city of Detroit. On the planet Earth. It is a long story."
"Since he does not appear that I will be going anywhere soon, I have plenty of time for a long story."
As he worked, Professor Sumdac then began explaining how you encountered Megatron's head 50 years ago.
"And so that is how I found you and how your friends, the Autobots, became heroes," Professor Sumdac finished and then looked back at him. "The Autobots are your friends, right?"
"Oh, we have quite a history," Megatron assured him.
"I have always worried what they would do with they discovered where my robotics knowledge really came from and that I've been keeping you a secret. I suppose now I have no choice but to tell them the truth."
"No!" Megatron roared, taking Professor Sumdac back a bit. "Rather, I am certain they will be more receptive to your borrowing of their robotic technology. If they first see that you repair the dear old friend. Until then, we shall simply keep my existence your little secret. In the meantime, perhaps I can lend a hand, so to speak, so that you might restore these magnificent fleetfooted and extremely powerful creatures."
At the plant, Prowl was teaching Bulkhead how to move graciously. Sadly Bulkhead couldn't get the hang of it and began creating small earthquakes every time he moved as well a smashing place.
"No, you must move like a gentle wind," said Prowl. "Observe."
Prowl then began to demonstrate his moves which were so gentle they would disturb a mouse. He then turned and looked at Bulkhead, who pointed at himself, asking Prowl if he wanted to perform the same movements. Prowl nodded.
Bulkhead attempted to do exactly the same thing as Prowl, but his movements could bring animals out of hibernation.
"Gentle wind," Bumblebee laughed. "You'll be lucky to get him down to an Omega class solar storm."
Bulkhead then tricked over some oil drums and began losing his balance. He then began to topple over towards Prowl and Bumblebee, who quickly jumped out of the way, but Prowl wasn't as lucky and got crushed beneath the giant Autobot.
When he came to, Prowl was looking up the other Autobots.
"Nice, Prowl. Maybe next time you could try teaching an engine block to float," Ratchet grumbled.
"Perhaps a better use of your time would be to teach Bulkhead how to control his strength," Blackarachnia advised. "Because even a nearsighted Autobot can tell that Gentle is not Bulkhead's strong suit."
Back at Professor Sumdac's lab, Megatron had finished rebuilding the dinosaurs.
"They are wonderful!" Professor Sumdac stared at the robotic dinosaurs. "The Autobots will be most surprised by my—I mean—our latest robotic creation. Our little secret," he winked and left the lab.
"Oh, they'll be surprised, all right, yes. And the five of you will be perfect prototypes for my future army of attack drones," said Megatron.
Deciding that Bulkhead needed more space, Prowl took Bulkhead to a nearby island to train and accompanying them was Blackarachnia.
"This island will be the ideal place to train you," said Prowl, looking across the lake. "Quiet. Peaceful. And nothing for you to damage."
"I wouldn't be too sure; I think that Bulkhead is quite capable of damaging anything around him," said Blackarachnia.
"If you're not going to offer any helpful advice, please be quiet," said Prowl walking right past an approach to his student. "Now watch and learn. Assess the situation. Choose your move." Prowl leapt into the air and sliced through the most of the falling leaves. "Execute with graceful precision. Now you try."
"And on that note, I'm going to keep my distance," said Blackarachnia took a few steps back.
"Access the situation. Choose my move," Bulkhead repeated. He swung at the leaves with all his might. "Attack with graceful precision!" he accidentally slammed himself into a rotted tree which fell over and knocked down four other trees in a domino effect until the final one landed on Prowl.
"Oops," said Bulkhead.
"What did I just say?" said Blackarachnia shaking her head.
Later that night, Professor Sumdac had invited many people, including the Autobots, to unveil his newest creations at Dino Drive.
"Utilising state-of-the-art robotics, I now bring Dino Drive into the 22nd century! I give you the Dinobots!"
The animatronic dinosaurs rose up and roamed the grounds. The pterodactyl actually flew over everyone's heads, the T-Rex and brontosaurus roared, the triceratops and stegosaurus grunted. The brontosaurus. The audience stared in awe and flashed their cameras.
However, unbeknownst to anyone, monitoring everything was Megatron, and he was about to the first part of his plan into action.
"You primitive lifeforms are so easily entertained," he said, looking at the news feed for the Dinobots. "Perhaps you'll find what I have in store even more entertaining." His eyes glowed red.
At the same time, the Dinobots eyes glowed red, and they snarled at the audience.
"No need to panic," said Professor Sumdac calmly at the startled people. "Just a little glitch. Nothing I can't fix."
He then desperately pressed down on his control, trying to re-control the Dinobots. Unfortunately, they were completely out of control, and Optimus narrowly pushed Professor Sumdac out of the way just as the Tyrannosaurus Rex bit down on where he was once standing.
The Dinobots broke through the cage and smashed the area. Ratchet tried to stop the triceratops with his magnets, but it pushed through the magnetic field. Bumblebee shot at the pterodactyl with his stingers, but it was easily avoided. Prowl attacked the tyrannosaurus but to no avail. Blackarachnia attended to web up the stegosaurus. Optimus tried to fend off the brontosaurus with his axe. While this was going on, Bulkhead just stood there.
"Bulkhead! A little help?!" Prowl yelled.
"Access the situation. Choose my move," Bulkhead said to himself.
"Bulkhead, let's get it in in gear!" Optimus yelled swung at the tyrannosaurus, but his axe was caught in its mouth, and he and it were thrown away.
Bulkhead charged, swinging his wrecking balls while still chanting. "Access the situation! Choose my move! Execute with graceful preci—OW!" Bulkhead tripped over a car and fell on top of Prowl.
"If this is the best you Autobots have, then you truly are pathetic," Megatron laughed.
"Bumblebee!" Ratchet called. "However little electricity to go along with my magnetism?"
"Gotcha," Bumblebee replied. "We'll make an electromagnetic pulse and shut 'em down."
Bumblebee charged his stingers and fired them into Ratchet's magnetic field. The EMP field surrounded the Dinobots, who writhed wildly. Sari's key was then pulled towards the Dinobots.
"Wow, this is new," she said as she approached Ratchet and Bumblebee. Then, she got an idea. She climbed onto Bumblebee's shoulders and inserted her key into his stinger. "Hey, let me give you guys a boost!"
The field seemed to become stronger and actually peeled the skin off the Dinobots.
"Gah!" Megatron screamed, "That key. It is though it sensed something within the Dinobots. Something Cybertronian.
The EMP field dissipated, and the Dinobots were no longer functional.
"I don't know what went wrong; I'm absolutely certain that Meg—my assistant and I thought of everything," said Professor Sumdac and approached the Dinobots and opened a hatch. He looked up and down at the circuits. "I'll have to see you what went wrong. Pull them apart. Pull out the wiring and circuitry."
"Isn't that a little extreme?" Prowl asked.
"They're just machines."
Prowl frowned as he looked at the Dinobots.
Professor Sumdac brought the Dinobots was back to his lab for further examination. Megatron wasn't too impressed with the Dinobots' performance.
"The primitive materials available on this planet are useless," Megatron moaned. "It would take countless stellar cycles for creating attack drones capable of my needs. And without more substantial robotics for my own body, my prospects are grim. Locked within this prison of a lab."
The Tyrannosaurus rex then began to move.
"Grim…locked. Grim…lock," it moaned.
"So, the Autobots didn't destroy you," said Megatron turning to the Dinobots, which were now moving on their own. "What did they do?"
He tried to regain control over them, but it was as if they had willed their own. "Strange, you don't respond to my Cybertronian commands, yet you all continue to function. Almost as if you had sparks."
"Me Grimlock!" said the t-rex.
"Then listen well, Grimlock. My name is Megatron, and I am your leader."
"Me Grimlock leader!" Grimlock announced.
"Me followed leader Grimlock," said the brontosaurus.
"Obey me!" Megatron growled, trying to get control over them. However, he only accomplished was reactivating the newly repaired Tudor-bot.
"Good morning Sari," he said. "Today will learn the origin of fossils."
"Ugh, not you," Megatron sighed.
"Today, we will discuss fossils," the bot continued. He displayed an image of a dinosaur.
"Which gave way to fossil fuels," the Tudor-bot continued. "Which today power our cars and trucks."
"Cars and trucks eat dinosaurs," said Grimlock. "Cars and trucks bad!"
"We destroy cars and trucks," said pterodactyl.
"We make them pay for eating dinosaurs," the triceratops growled.
"Yes, there is your enemy!" Megatron encouraged. "They feed upon your fossils; they seek your extinction! You must destroy them!"
"Destroy cars and trucks! Cars and trucks bad!" Grimlock roared.
"And the only thing worse than cars and trucks are cars and trucks that transform into robots," said Megatron showing them an image of the Autobots transforming during the nanobot disaster.
"Cars and trucks bad! Car robots worse!"
"But how do we destroy cars and trucks?" the stegosaurus asked.
"By look deep within yourselves for your true power!" Megatron instructed. "You have something deep inside waiting to come out."
The Dinobots opened their mouths, and fire immediately blew out, incinerating the Tudor-bot.
"Me Grimlock like! But how?"
"I designed you, and if you succeed, I will create an army just like you. Now go, destroy the fossil feeders!"
The Dinobots then roared loudly.
Fifteen minutes later, the Dinobots had torn through Sumdac tower trying to find the "fossil-feeders" and now burst outside in an explosion. There were cars lined up as far as their eyes could see.
"Destroy fossil feeders!" Grimlock ordered.
The police had arrived and had created a perimeter when Captain Fanzone arrived.
"How bad is it?" he asked.
The officer simply pointed at the Dinobots. Grimlock shot fire out his mouth. The pterodactyl flew above their heads, burning everything from above. The brontosaurus was cars beneath its giant feet. The stegosaurus was crushing several drones with its tail. The triceratops head-butted a car sending it flying right onto Fanzone's car.
"Give me that!" he said and snatched an RPG out of a nearby officer's hands and shot it at the short one.
The explosive flew across the air, and then the triceratops ate it. Seconds later, it exploded, but the triceratops remained unfazed.
"This is why I hate machines!" Fanzone snarled.
The Autobots were making their way to Sumdac Tower to deal with Dinobots' rampaging.
"Don't these things ever learn?" Ratchet grumbled.
The Dinobots soon came into view as they were destroying any nearby cars.
"Cars and trucks bad!" said Grimlock.
"Dinobots, destroy cars and trucks!" said the brontosaurus.
"Apparently, they were to talk," Prowl noted.
"Swoop, destroy cars and trucks!" said the pterodactyl, breathing fire down some police cars.
"And some other tricks," Optimus noted.
"Looks like they've given themselves names as well," Blackarachnia observed.
"So, what are we waiting for?" Bumblebee asked. "Let's send them back to the Stone Age."
"Actually, from what I've read, dinosaurs were already extinct during the Stone Age," Blackarachnia corrected him.
"Then let's make sure that these guys are extinct!"
"Wait! I was thinking," Bulkhead interrupted. "Maybe we should lure them someplace safer first?"
"Good thinking, Bulkhead!" Optimus cheered.
"He said 'good thinking,'" said Bulkhead.
"And 'Bulkhead,'" Bumblebee reminded.
Once they approached the Dinobots, Bulkhead slammed into Grimlock, knocking him over. Then they probably drove away to get them to chase them.
"Cars and trucks hurt leader Grimlock," said the stegosaurus.
"Then we hurt them!" the triceratops growled.
At Sumdac Tower, Professor Sumdac was observing everything on the TV in his lap. The Autobots were certainly leading the Dinobots away from the major part of the city, though, to the casual observer, it was as if they were just running away.
"Judging by the view from our News 44 copter, the so-called Dinobots seem to have the Autobots on the run," said the anchorman.
"It doesn't make sense," said Professor Sumdac confused. "I followed your plans exactly, but still, the Dinobots malfunctioned."
"I blame myself," said Megatron.
"No, it's this antiquated equipment and forced to use," Professor Sumdac assured him.
"True, your planets technology is rather prehistoric," Megatron admitted.
The Autobots came to a halt in the middle of Detroit Central Park. The moment they start, they immediately transformed.
Upon seeing them, the Dinobots came to a halt.
"Me Grimlock forget. Uhh, cars and trucks…bad. Car robots, WORSE! DINOBOTS DESTROY CAR ROBOTS!" Grimlock commanded.
The Dinobots simultaneously attacked the Autobots with their fire breath. Swoop attacked Prowl, Blackarachnia engaged with the stegosaurus, and Optimus was left fighting the brontosaurus and triceratops. Bumblebee and Ratchet tried creating another EMP against Grimlock, but it seemed to have no effect this time.
"You think this's got something to do with Sari's key and EMP blast?" Bumblebee asked.
"Something tells me it's more than that!" Ratchet replied.
Swoop then swooped in and unleashed fire breath upon Bumblebee, as did the triceratops, encasing him in a circle of fire. The brontosaurus then started to move towards Bumblebee, practically stepping over the flames.
Then Blackarachnia jumped onto the brontosaurus and quickly injected her stingers, injecting him with cyber venom.
"That one down," said Blackarachnia.
Prowl quickly jumped in, tossing his shuriken at the triceratops, and Optimus used this distraction to unleash his foam cannon to put out the flames.
"Nice!" said Bumblebee.
The stegosaurus then jumped in unleashed its fire breath, but Blackarachnia jumped in unleashed hers, which he took from the brontosaurus, putting the two of them at a stalemate. Swoop turns attention on Optimus and unleashed his fire breath, and Optimus countered with his foam cannon.
Professor Sumdac was completely shocked upon seeing the fire breathe and then turned to Megatron.
"The Dinobots, their fire breath. It was—it was in your designs specs!" Sumdac accused. "You—"
"I planned it, yes," Megatron replied, faking shame. "I wanted a powerful body of my own again, so I experimented. Added features to the Dinobots."
"Features? Plural?! As in more than one?!"
"Please don't tell my Autobot friends."
"Oh, of course not, and don't worry, one day together, we will rebuild your body. You will be whole again, I promise."
The Dinobots were proving to be extremely powerful as Grimlock unleashed his fire breath upon Ratchet. Ratchet used his magnets to lift some metal plating and use it as a shield. Prowl dodged his own set of flames coming from the triceratops. While all this was going on, Bulkhead had moved an inch.
"Access the situation. Choose the right move. Execute with graceful precision," Bulkhead chanted, "Access the situation."
"Bulkhead! What are you doing?!" Prowl demanded.
"I'm doing what you do!"
"Better idea! Do what you do!" Prowl yelled, avoiding the triceratops' fire breath.
Bulkhead gasped with realisation and charged right into the triceratops, knocking him to the ground.
"Excuse me," he smiled. He jumped up and grabbed Swoop by the legs, then slammed him down upon the stegosaurus. "Sorry, my bad!"
"Thanks, and welcome back, big guy," said Optimus.
"I'm just doin' what I do," Bulkhead patted Prowl on the back, knocking him down with a grunt.
Blackarachnia smiled. "I told you that you simply had to play to your strengths."
"Uhh, sorry to break up the lovefest," said Bumblebee as he and Ratchet were pinned down by Grimlock's fire breath. "But we're getting the tar kicked out of us here!"
To make matters worse, Swoop, the triceratops and stegosaurus had recovered. Additionally, the brontosaurus seemed to have recovered from Blackarachnia's cyber venom. The fourth of them gathered around Grimlock and unleashed their fire breath attacks.
Optimus optics widened when he saw the tar pit behind Ratchet and Bumblebee and got an idea. "Tar! That's it!"
Bulkhead got the idea and charged towards the Dinobots. "I'm on it!"
He then struck the triceratops so hard that he was sent flying across the air and landed on top of it. He quickly launched his wrecking ball, striking Swoop, and he also landed in the tar. He then grabbed the stegosaurus' tail and spun around with all his strength before tossing him into the top of it. He then tackled the brontosaurus as hard as he could with enough force to knock him into the tar pit. He then finely approached Grimlock and picked him up, and tossed him in with the others.
"Dinobots, destroy car bots!" Grimlock ordered as they picked themselves up. They tried to move, but they found themselves unable to move within the tar. "Destroy black sticky stuff!"
They all used their fire breath, but the tar simply pulled them in deeper.
"NO! why black sticky stuff not destroy?!" They were soon down to their neck in tar.
The police then arrived in placed the Dinobots in a containment cell, so as they waited for the tar to harden.
"I can't thank you enough," said Professor Sumdac to the Dinobots. "And again, my apologies for the uh, 'glitch' in their programming."
"You call breathing fire a glitch?!" Ratchet retorted.
"I suppose I was so overly inspired by you, Autobots, and your powers. I should be more careful what I try to reverse engineer alien technology."
"What are you going to do with them?" Prowl asked.
"Keep them in the energy cage for now, then melt them down first thing in the morning," said Professor Sumdac.
"Melt them?"
"After all, they are still mindless machines."
Prowl looked at the Dinobots, deeply concerned. "But I sensed something… a life force… a spark. What if they are more than just mindless machines?"
"They do seem to show some kind of intelligence, albeit primitive," said Blackarachnia.
"That's awfully what if," said Optimus. "But I think Professor Sumdac's right. These things are far too dangerous. Come on, Autobots, let's roll!"
With that, they transformed and made their way back to the plant, though Prowl can help but look back at the Dinobots.
The following day, Professor Sumdac went to the laser cage, but when he got there, he discovered that the Dinobots were gone.
Prowl had rescued the Dinobot and took them to the island, and they made themselves home within the bottom of the island's caldera. Though he did not do this alone, both Bulkhead and Blackarachnia helped him.
"They do look kinda happy," said Bulkhead.
"They certainly look more at home here than in the city," Blackarachnia agreed.
"I'm sure they are," Prowl nodded and looked at the two of them. "And thanks to you again for your help getting them here, and thanks for keeping it a secret from the others."
"Let's just hope that Optimus never finds out; he'll blow a gasket if he does," said Blackarachnia.
"The Dinobots will be able to stay here and be free. And with some holographic trickery," Prowl pulled out a holo-cube and set it down on the ledge behind a bush, "no one will even know they're here." An image of a canopy shrouded the caldera and hid the below valley.
Then the three of them left.
"Do you really think that it's the right thing to do?" Bulkhead asked.
"Just because something is big, lumbering, and destructive doesn't mean you just give up on it," Prowl replied with a smile and looked at Blackarachnia. "And you are right; I should have worked on his strength rather than his weaknesses. Though don't you think that I'm right regarding your techno-organic nature?"
"What do you mean?" Blackarachnia asked.
"It's just that you were pulsed by organic half, but maybe if you accepted it, you could find that peace of mind you've been seeking."
Blackarachnia narrowed her optics, though it would seem as if Prowl's words had reached her spark.
Back at the caldera, Grimlock watched some birds in a tree.
"Cars and trucks bad! Nature…good…" he said, but then a couple of birds then pooped on snort.
"Gah! Stupid nature! Come back and fight like Dinobot!" Grimlock roared, trying to hit the birds with his fire breath, but missed.
In his rage, something happened. He began to transform, much to the astonishment of the other Dinobots. He was now taller than Optimus, and then he drew a bone light sword which immediately burst into flames.
"Me Grimlock…like…"