Battlecharger
- The Battlechargers are a Decepticon subgroup in the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Battlechargers are a devilish duo of deadly Decepticon dragsters dedicated to destruction, demolition and deviance. They are Runabout and Runamuck, respectively.
Fiction
Marvel Comics continuity
The Battlechargers were summoned to Earth from Cybertron by Megatron, who wanted a dramatic way to announce his challenge to Optimus Prime for a fight to the death. Thus, with their orders, the two reckless Decepticons left and began to raise a bit of random highway havoc. During a break in the mayhem, they rested in a parking lot and saw a defiant youngster expressing his disgust of family vacations through graffiti. His dad angrily escorted him back to the station wagon, and their holiday trip resumed. The Battlechargers, impressed by the boy's disregard for authority, began following the family on a road trip through the U.S., defacing any monuments they happened upon (such as Mt. Rushmore, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and the Washington Monument). They wrote insults, jokes, and (presumably) Megatron's message in a Cybertronian language, thus attracting the attention of RAAT, which had already captured thirteen Autobots.
RAAT caught up with them in Philadelphia, where Circuit Breaker engaged them in a battle that nearly killed the graffiti-inclined boy. Because of her disregard for civilian safety, Circuit Breaker was temporarily stripped of her command and ordered to stay out of action. Itching for revenge, she found her only allies to be the partially-disassembled Autobots in her RAAT lab. She didn't have time to rebuild them all properly, but she knew she could jury-rig them together into a single form which she could partially control. However, she needed the Autobots' consent, and they only agreed to do it if she would release them afterward. She agreed, and she soon fought an aerial battle with the two Decepticons at the Statue of Liberty (where, incidentally, they had written "humans are wimps" in poor English). The two hooligans met quick defeat at the hands of her makeshift gestalt, their charred bodies sent plunging into the harbor. Circuit Breaker's release of the captive Autobots cost her her job at RAAT, as well as that of Donny Finkleberg, AKA Robot Master, who had helped her do it. Donny had received a $50,000 reward for turning the Autobot Skids in, and he ended up using that money to help pay for the cleanup of the Battlechargers' antics. Decepticon Graffiti!
For quite some time, the Battlechargers remained out of action (probably rusting under the sea). However, when Shockwave wanted to wrest control of the Earth-based Decepticons from Scorponok, the Battlechargers mysteriously returned and for unknown reasons joined his motley band of rebels. They attacked Scorponok's New Jersey base, and a battle ensued. Just as the battle ended, the combatants were transported to Cybertron by Primus, who was gathering his Transformer children to stand against the demigod Unicron. The Battlechargers survived that planet-rending battle, but the next day Runabout was strolling with Battletrap when he was attacked and devoured by a strange Cybertronian creature (the same type of creature that later fought the Dinobots during Grimlock's Nucleon-induced transformation).
For a time, Runamuck fared better; he didn't die until he and the other Decepticons ran into Jhiaxus's second-generation Transformers. He was among the first casualties of a battle that nearly cost even the new-and-improved Megatron's life.
Generation 1 cartoon
Dreamwave continuity
IDW continuity
Toys
Both Runamuck and Runabout featured pull-back motors and auto-transformations.
