A cruise liner sails across a nice looking sea at night, where the glow of the full moon keeps everything lit up. The captain of this ship is singing quietly as the guests of the ship enjoy the ride and look out across the ocean from the sides, and one couple in particular have only just got married and the husband is filming his wife who is showing her new ring off.



The peace is shattered though when horrible looking creatures suddenly appear and start to attack the cruise liner, with the captain being the first to due when one of the creatures bursts through a window. The couple we saw just a few seconds a go are then attacked by another monster, who tosses the girl overboard.



BLOOD



Another monster attacks the passengers, as Blood flies forward and calls out to Gulf, saying he summons them.



GULF



Several Gulfs attack the ship, causing an explosion which sinks the ship.



GILMER



"Come out, Metalhawk!"



Some time later, a boy called Shūta is in a soccer match and scores the final goal. His father Professor Gō and his friend Hawk are watching. Gō goes off with Hawk and tells him that it's all thanks to his occasional coaching that his so good at football and that he sees him as a brother. As the two of them drive off, Hawk is contacted by another one of his friends, Diver, who tells him that a cruise liner was attacked last night and it's the handiwork of someone they know.



Hawk heads back to where Shūta lives and loads up some data Diver sent to him, where he sees the creatures that attacked the ship the night before, and recognises them straight away. There is no doubt about it: it's the Destrons. They have returned. Shūta then walks in and his father tells him to go back downstairs, but Hawk says he must hear this. His life could be in danger someday if they have returned.



"Shūta...I am not from Earth."



"So your from outer space then? You know Mr. Hawk, if you want to fool me, you'll have to try better than that."



"I'm serious!"



They go outside and Hawk explains that he is not from Earth, and is actually a robot known as a Transformer, and came from the planet Cybertron. In his case, is part of a special group of Transformers known as the "Pretenders" -a group which can mimic any living thing. He says that on Cybertron, there was an endless war between two factions -the Cybertrons and Destrons -which continues to this day. Hawk and his team once chased after a group of Destrons, but their ships were damaged and both groups crashed onto the planet Earth, thousands of years a go.



With their ship heavily damaged, Hawk's group could not return home and changed themselves to look like primitive humans whilst the Destrons changed to demons. The two sides fought once more and the Destrons were eventually sealed away but now, they are somehow back. And elsewhere, a giant tentacle being attacks several warehouses!



TENTAKIL



Some military helicopters are sent in to stop Tentakil, but the Destron shoots them all down.



The next morning, people run in panic as Tentakil storms through a city, causing mass destruction. Up above, there is another Destron who is pleased with Tentakil's work.



DAUROS



Dauros wants Tentakil to make as much of a scene as possible and kill everyone, but then Blood shows up. He thinks Dauros is trying to act as the leader, but Dauros says Blood's actions are far too weak. This leads to the two almost fighting each other, but Gilmer shows up and tells them to stop. Down below, some tanks show up, but are no match for Tentakil's lasers.



Blood wonders if they will have frightened the Cybertrons off, but Gilmer says they will come -Hawk is that kind of guy. A news team films the chaos from their helicopter, and Hawk and Gō see it. Hawk knows it is the work of the Destrons.



"SUIT ON!"



Shūta goes back home as he's just seen the news, but he finds Hawk standing outside, wearing what appears to be a suit of armor. Without saying anything to him, Hawk suddenly calls out the word "Pretender" and undergoes a transformation.



METALHAWK



Metalhawk leaps off the edge of a cliff and transforms into a jet. He then gets into contact with his fellow Cybertrons, saying that the Destrons have appeared and the Cybertron Pretenders need to assemble.



Diver, who works as a marine biologist, takes the call to arms and changes to his robot mode as he dives into the water and then transforms into his strange looking underwater vehicle mode.



The next Cybertron Pretender shown is Lander, who was on a date and is annoyed that Hawk has called him now as he knew that he was on a date. But he knows he has a job to do and ditches his girl to change to his robot mode before transforming into a vehicle.



Phoenix is the final Cybertron Pretender shown, although he's already in his robot mode and then quickly transforms to his jet mode and blasts off.



Metalhawk arrives first and lands near Tentakil. Dauros wants to go down there himself and smash Metalhawk, and so does Blood, but Gilmer gets them to wait as he wants to see how Tentakil fares first. Tentakil attacks first, but Metalhawk avoids the move and strikes the Destron in the head, causing a large dent.



Tentakil still has plenty of fight left in him though and despite taking several more hits, he smashes Metalhawk into a building just as Shūta arrives. Metalhawk recovers and goes back to hitting his opponent repeatedly, as Shūta cheers him on.



However a second Tentakil appears, and grabs Shūta. Metalhawk notices and is distracted, allowing the first Tentakil to shoot him. Metalhawk gets back up and pulls out his titanium saber. He uses the weapon to deflect some more laser blasts before destroying the first Tentakil with a single attack.



He goes to fight the other one, but then the Destron Pretenders all enter the battle, changing to their robot modes. They are angry with him as he was the one who sealed them away all that time a go, but he just wants to know how they escaped. They refuse to tell him as it is just payback time as far as they are concerned. They all attack Metalhawk.



3 against 1 isn't fair and Metalhawk soon takes a hit. Gilmer tells him they will take the Earth and form a new Destron empire on it, but now, he can die. Before he can administer the finishing blow, Phoenix shows up and blasts Gilmer into a building. Blood instantly transforms into his jet mode and dogfights with Phoenix.



Lander and Diver arrive at the battle, and Lander wrestles with Dauros. Meanwhile Diver knocks down Gilmer by punching him in the face.



Metalhawk kills the other Tentakil by throwing his saber into it, and saves Shūta. He runs back as the Tentakil explodes.



As the Destrons get taken out, they see that the Tentakils have been destroyed and decide to call it a day. They all retreat. Later, Metalhawk explains to Shūta that the first humans they saw seemed to be such weak, helpless creatures, but they soon showed the ability to love one another, show pity and possessed the courage to sacrifice themselves to protect the ones they loved.



This is why the Cybertron Pretenders chose to change into human forms, and as long as they are around, they will protect the Earth to the end. The Pretenders change back to their human forms and they and Shūta walk off.


NOTES

This series does still take place in the G1 canon, although how many years after The Headmasters this is is never made clear. Strangely, human technology seems to have been put back to a present day (1988) setting, rather than the futuristic stuff seen in season 3 and The Headmasters.

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