The Decepticons

This article is about the Robots in Disguise episode. For the Transformers faction, see Decepticon.

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<img alt="" src="/w2/images2/thumb/7/78/The_Decepticons_Titlecard.jpg/300px-The_Decepticons_Titlecard.jpg" width="300" height="228" border="0" /> …teach the Egyptians about medicine, science, constructing pyramids, space travel, and scaring the hell out of Abbott and Costello.
"The Decepticons" 敵? 味方!? ブラックコンボイ (Teki? Mikata!? Black Convoy) "Friend? Foe!? Black Convoy"
Airdate	5 July 2000 (Japanese) September 22, 2001 (English)
Written by	Junki Takegami (Japanese) Tom Wyner (English)

Find six protoforms
Megatron hatches a plan
Six Decepticons

Synopsis

As Koji talks to Optimus Prime about Earth's history of UFO sightings, T-AI breaks in to announce that she has managed to decode Doctor Onishi's microchip. It shows a location at grid co-ordinates L3, Delta 5.2.; Koji explains that that's Castle Peak, where eyewitnesses claimed to have seen UFOs sixty years ago. Prime decides to investigate the site with the Autobot Brothers. When they arrive they pass by Kelly.

Prime is a peeping tom.

The four Autobots at first find a expedition site run by the Predacons. Sky-Byte hits a weak point in the ground with his claw, causing a cave to collapse onto him and unearthing the ship in question. Caught in the disaster (of course), Kelly yells that another vacation has gone down the drain. The ship turns out to have come from Cybertron sixty years ago, with six Autobots who'd been sent to Earth. Optimus scans the ship to find the six Autobots in protoform mode and intends to bring them to base to help the battle against the Predacons. The Predacons have other plans, arguing the ship is theirs because they found it first. Optimus counters that this is only valid if the ship is abandoned by its crew. Then Megatron arrives and renders the point moot by stealing the protoforms, with the Predacons stalling the Autobots enough to allow him to get away with it.

They're already here, you're next!

He then brings the protoforms to McKinley Army Base, where Kelly, who has been rescued by the soldiers there, is sitting on a jeep, griping that her vacation's been ruined again. Megatron hopes to make the protoforms scan the most powerful vehicles in the army base and then infuse them with his spark energy to turn them to his command. Dark Scream and Slapper then scan a missile truck, despite being fired at by the base's vehicles. T-AI informs Optimus what's happening at the base, but by the time the Autobots arrive, they're too late; Mega-Octane has been created. He transforms to robot mode, and Optimus welcomes him to Earth as an Autobot, only to be refused and fired upon.

While Mega-Octane provides cover for the completion of the scanning process, Slapper scans a tank, Gas Skunk scans a jeep armed with a large cannon, and Dark Scream scans a helicopter. Sky-Byte starts to look for a vehicle, only for Optimus Prime to intervene. Prime's action backfires when the beam scans a shuttle. Megatron infused all four protoforms with his spark energy, which turns them into Decepticons. He still holds the last protoform, however.

The Coming of the Redecos

Kelly boards a tanker truck holding 10,000 gallons of rocket fuel and tries to get away, but almost overturns it. Optimus saves her, but this allows Megatron to scan the tanker, Optimus and Kelly all at once, creating Scourge. After a dramatic pause, Scourge declares allegiance to Megatron and says his purpose is to lead the Decepticons to victory. Mega-Octane at first objects, insisting he should be leader, but Scourge manages to retain his position. The Decepticons open fire on the Autobots with all weapons. Optimus tries to convince Scourge to reject Megatron's evil, but to no avail. Prime then fires a Blizzard Storm attack, which proves equally ineffective. Even so, Megatron tells Scourge that he is not at full strength and that they should withdraw. After the Decepticons leave, Optimus hopes that they will reject the evil in them and realize their true selves, but notes they are dangerous enemies until that happens. Meanwhile, the Predacons are (not unreasonably) concerned that they may be out of a job.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Predacons	Humans
Optimus Prime (2) T-AI (3) Prowl (4) X-Brawn (5) Side Burn (6)	Slapper (8) Gas Skunk (9) Dark Scream (10) Sky-Byte (11) Megatron (12) Mega-Octane (13) Armorhide (14) Rollbar (15) Ro-Tor (16) Movor (17) Scourge (18)	Koji Onishi (1) Kelly (7)

Notable quotes

"In the past 60 years, there have been thousands of UFO sightings all over the world. My dad is one of the scientists that would investigate them, Optimus."
"It's a fascinating subject. I find it strange that many people on Earth still refuse to believe they exist."

—Koji and Optimus Prime discuss those weird people who don't believe in alien robots.

"That incompetent fool must've gotten his tongue caught in the drill again."

—Sky-Byte has the utmost confidence in Slapper.

Megatron: "They will be my loyal and dedicated servants! Invincible warriors!"
Sky-Byte: "With your spark energy they'll be unbeatable..."
Dark Scream: "...not to mention sneaky, sly, and deceitful...."
Gas Skunk: "...underhanded, diabolical, and devious..."
Slapper: "Let's not forget overbearing, egotistical, arrogant, conceited and verbose! Bombastic, power-hungry, vain, self-serving, greedy, maniacal and a real pain in—"
(Megatron punches his head down into his shoulders)

—Slapper just doesn't know when to quit

"Whenever I try to take a vacation something always ruins it. It's not fair. On the other hand, the soldiers that rescued me after the earthquake are really cute! And I think one of them has a crush on me! This could be a pretty good vacation after all!"

—Kelly, trying to look on the bright side, unaware that it's all about to go horribly wrong (again).

"I have only one purpose: to serve Megatron. I have only one desire: to destroy Megatron's enemies. I have only one mission: to lead the Decepticons to victory!"

—Scourge has a clear mission statement.

Other notes

Changes

• In Car Robots, there is an additional shot that was edited out for Robots in Disguise. Before the missed protoform beam hits Movor, it ends up heading for a bird in the sky. Sky-byte then imagines what a Predacon bird would look like. This is gone in the US version. The reason for this edit is unclear, since it's doubtful that it was a post-9/11 edit due to the fact it does not entail buildings getting damaged or destroyed.

Continuity

• The microchip T-AI finds the ship's location on was retrieved by the Autobots in "The Secret of the Ruins".

Real-world references

• There are several mountains in the US named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Peak" class="extiw" title="wikipedia:Castle_Peak">Castle Peak</a>, but none of them at the co-ordinates indicated on T-AI's map.

Transformers references

• The UFO over the Great Wall looks like a blue version of Cosmos.
• The idea of Transformers existing as protoforms in stasis pods originated in Beast Wars.
• The protoforms are also referred to variously as "Transformers", "Cybertrons", "Autobots", and "proto-entities".

External links

• "The Decepticons" transcript on RiDForever.info