Tales of the Beast Hunters

For the Beast Hunters subline imprint of the Transformers: Prime toyline, Hasbro drastically reduced the length of on-package bios, and instead included short prose paragraphs titled Tales of the Beast Hunters on the instruction sheet for each Deluxe, Voyager, and Ultimate Class toy. Whilst written to provide some exposition regarding the appropriate character, in the manner of a traditional bio, these short pieces also form an overarching narrative, in a similar way to the box-back fiction for Takara's Transformers United EX line.

	Tales of the Beast Hunters chapters:
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24

Overview

With Predaking at large, Bumblebee and Wheeljack follow information from an Iacon relic to an ancient starship in the asteroid belt, looking to plunder its cargo of powerful weaponry. However, the Decepticons intercept their communications and both Megatron and Predaking follow them there. A battle erupts, and Optimus Prime uses an overclocked GroundBridge to reinforce his allies, but it soon ends when rogue Predacon Lazerback surreptitiously detonates explosives across the craft, leading to Megatron's apparent demise. Back on the Nemesis, Predaking's description of events leads to Starscream being blamed for the explosions, forcing him to flee.

Shockwave, meanwhile, continues awakening new Predacon clones, but Ripclaw, the most recent, is approached by Lazerback, who convinces her that Predaking is dead and both the Autobots and Decepticons should be destroyed. As such, she finds and critically injures Bulkhead, who had been experimenting with one of the few weapons retrieved from the cargo ship.

With Autobots falling fast, Smokescreen is sent to locate the Predacon cloning facility. He succeeds, but is discovered and unwittingly drawn into a battle intended by Shockwave to destroy the increasingly problematic Predacons and lay the blame on the Autobots. Smokescreen barely escapes with his life and some data discs, but not before the fighting inadvertently releases Skystalker from his Hyperevolution Chamber.

Dreadwing, who has been looking to bring Starscream to justice, finds the Air Commader but becomes convinced of his innocence, and the two Decepticons set out to find and retrieve their fallen leader. Meanwhile, in the desert, a pre-emptive attack by Ultra Magnus leads to a vicious beating from the Predacon Grimwing, who had in fact been seeking only answers.

At Autobot base, Predaking arrives for a final confrontation with Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader appears outmatched, but in the nick of time, Ratchet successfully activates the ancient weaponry with the data stolen from Shockwave, allowing Prime to inflict a defeat on the Predacon.

With the situation on Earth increasingly chaotic, Knock Out and Shockwave flee to Cybertron with the final gestating Predacons, which they release upon arrival. On Earth, Arcee comes to realise that the Decepticons fear the Predacons as much as the Autobots do, and transmits the location of a Predacon hiding spot to them.

Meanwhile on the derelict cargo ship, Megatron, who has been following events on Earth through his malfunctioning comm unit, is restored to health by the power of an ancient sword, and returns for a confrontation with the Predacons, hoping to eliminate them before Predaking learns of their existence. As the battle begins, the nearby Prowl and Bumblebee sit back and watch...

Continuity

Tales of the Beast Hunters appears to take place in a micro-continuity in which the climatic events of Transformers: Prime's second season unfolded noticeably differently. For instance, although reference is made to the Iacon relics that were the focus of much of that season, Dreadwing still lives, Prowl appears unexpectedly and without explanation in the final two chapters, and the Autobot base is seemingly intact. Additionally, the GroundBridge is incapable of spanning stellar distances, and the Jackhammer is not wrecked.