What Goes Up

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What Goes Up
Season	1
No. in season	8
Airdate	September 6, 2025
Writers	Gretchen Mallorie
Animation studio	Omens Studio LTD
Continuity	Cyberworld
Watch this episode on YouTube

Three Autobots, three Decepticons, one race to the top.

Synopsis

Optimus Prime, Elita-1 and Grimlock race towards a spawn point in search of energon. Bumblebee takes the chance to show off his speed, but as they arrive, Megatron is there waiting. Him and Prime stare each other down, as he compliments Bumblebee on his resilience, and tells Grimlock that teaming up with Prime definitely violates their truce. Mirage drops out of the sky, his leg sparking from injury, and before he can slink away, Megatron grabs him, furious. Chop Shop wanders into the gathering, muttering to himself about energon, paying little heed to the others. With everyone arrived, the module activates, forming a climbing challenge to scale to the summit of various platforms.

Optimus Prime selects himself, Elita-1, and Grimlock, while Megatron conscripts Mirage and Chop Shop. Even as they start to climb, Megatron berates Mirage for not eliminating Optimus Prime, refusing to hear out his excuses. Running through a corridor with lasers shooting back and forth, Chop Shop is blasted away, and Megatron coldly abandons him to catch up. On the Autobot side, Elita-1 bickers with Prime about being able to trust Grimlock, especially after hearing about a truce with Megatron, but Optimus notes they are short on allies as is. Grimlock throws them both up through a vent, although they instantly trigger a trap, being forced to run downwards from a boulder, until Grimlock catches up to knock it sideways. Both groups make it to open platforms, but each fall into traps as they jump. Mirage and Chop Shop are chained together and Grimlock is magnetised to one, although their allies manage to "free" them - for the Decepticons, Megatron knocks them both down, while the Autobots jump and spin the platform around, sending Grimlock flying upwards. As Optimus and Elita try to catch up, they are accosted by Megatron, who wastes no time knocking Elita off the platform just as he already did to Grimlock. Prime right away pulls out his axe, but Megatron counters with his own, taunting Prime for fighting so impulsively. Prime tries to ask Megatron if he brought them all to Cyberworld, but Megatron doesn't answer, instead hitting a button to make the platform disappear as he jumps away, leaving Prime to fall to the ground. In the commotion, Mirage and Chopshop make it to the top, with Megatron quickly joining them, rewarding them with the win and the energon. Descending to the ground, Megatron insults the Autobots, promising them that they will not be spared next time they meet. He walks away, dragging Mirage by the collar.

With their truce now definitely over, Grimlock advocates for fighting Scorponok sooner rather than later, to escape Cyberworld before Megatron comes back. Optimus notes that the Tech Specs showed his weak spots, but having lost a lot of energon, they are more than ever counting on Bumblebee.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Others
Optimus Prime (1) Elita-1 (2) Grimlock (3) Bumblebee (4)	Megatron (5) Chop Shop (7)	Mirage (6)

Quotes

"Hello Prime. I'd heard of your arrival. It's... horrible to see you."

—Megatron greets his old nemesis.

"Chops and I are at the top! Just need you now, Megs."
"Call me Megs again, and you won't see another rotation."

—Mirage and Megatron.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Megatron found out about Optimus's arrival from Sky-Byte back in "River Race Ruckus". He then recruited Mirage to "eliminate" him, which we saw him try in "Smoke & Mirrors".
• We learn the truce that Grimlock and Snarl had was with Megatron, previously hinted at in the previous episode.

Character levels

• Optimus Prime is Level 3, halfway to Level 4
• Grimlock is Level 5.
• Bumblebee is Level 3, very close to levelling up.
• At the start of the challenge, Elita-1 is Level 3, halfway to Level 4 - identical to Prime, in fact. Midway through, she's dropped down to Level 2, almost at Level 3.
• Megatron is Level 9. Someone's been grinding.

Real world references

• Mirage's line "Look at us, who'd have thought? Not me!" is a quote-turned-meme originally said by Paul Rudd on Hot Ones.
• The boulder chasing Optimus and Elita-1 is a common enough trope, made most famous by Indiana Jones.

Trivia

• As usual, this was initially uploaded in a combined video with the previous episode with an SEO-baiting title ("Optimus and Megatron Race to the Top"). The individual title comes from series writer Ali Lightfoot's Twitter feed.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Rencontre au sommet" ("Summit meeting")
• Original airdate: September 6, 2025