Power Surge
Title card via TFWiki, fan-archive fair use
Terrorsaur finds a mountain of unstable red Energon and uses it to seize power, briefly overthrowing Megatron.
A wild and free bird majestically soars through the air, experiencing the wonders of aviation as it feels the wind flow around its proud wings. The bird explores its domain with a grace and sincerity and deliciousness. The latter-most attribute is of interest to a hungry Terrorsaur, who quickly swallows the bird as a snack.
Terrorsaur discovers a massive mountain elevated into the sky—defying gravity. Flying closer, he discovers the mountain houses an incredible cache of energon. To check the energon's stability, he transforms into his robot mode, at the risk of having raw energon radiation harm his circuits. When he tries to take a sample for study, bolts of pure energy surge though him, greatly enhancing his abilities. Naturally, the first thing the overcharged Predacon does is fly back to his base to overthrow Megatron. Luckily, Cheetor also finds the airborne crag, and watches Terrorsaur leaving at top speeds.
Outside of the Predacons' crashed ship, Megatron shows his troops some newly installed territorial defenses. Terrorsaur arrives, and flowing with power, immediately announces that he's taking over the Predacons. Megatron obviously disagrees, and the two fight, but the pumped-up Terrorsaur easily blasts Megatron over the edge of a cliff, where he lands in pieces. With the remaining Predacons under his control, Terrorsaur announces the Maximals are his next target. Cheetor, having followed Terrorsaur from the floating mountain, perceives the new developments as bad news.
Before he can lead the final battle against the Maximals, Terrorsaur finds his new charge has a short life and he must return to the floating mountain to reinvigorate himself. Tarantulas follows in secret, eager to steal the source of Terrorsaur's new capabilities. Scorponok is left alone with Waspinator, so the two begin to re-assemble and repair Megatron.
Cheetor rushes back to the Maximal base and scrambles onto the bridge, where he spits out an incoherent sequence of words vaguely relating to the current crisis. Giving explanations a second try, Cheetor explains the story thus far to his fellow Maximals. Rhinox concludes that the floating mountain isn't totally scientifically impossible, given enough energon. Optimus Primal and Rattrap prepare to destroy the entire island.
A weakened Terrorsaur flaps back to the island; on the ground, Tarantulas climbs a webline up to the suspended formation. Optimus and his cargo, Rattrap, arrive moments later. The two watch Terrorsaur re-charge his systems. To give Rattrap time to plant the explosives, Optimus Primal engages Terrorsaur in an airborne chase. Primal swiftly dodges most of what Terrorsaur fires, but eventually is hit by his optic blasts. He lands to deliver the finishing blast to Primal, who is now trapped in his beast mode thanks to energon buildup. But before a final shot can be fired, Terrorsaur's energon enhancements run out again, and he is forced to go for another recharge, promising to return to finish Optimus.
Rattrap meanwhile, has been tussling with Tarantulas, the two of them staying in their beast modes as they wrestle. With a toss of mud, Rattrap blinds Tarantulas and the spider blindly runs off the side of the mountain to the ground far, far below. Rattrap is passed by the flapping Terrorsaur, and concludes that Optimus Primal must have lost their bout. Terrorsaur, meanwhile, discovers the timed charges Rattrap left and flees in panic, deprived of a chance to recharge.
The explosives detonate, causing the energon crystals to collapse and explode. Before the ground loses form, Optimus arrives to carry Rattrap away from annihilation. With his ratty companion, Optimus Primal swan dives off the exploding alp and somehow the two survive thanks to Primal grabbing onto a tree.
—Megatron's famous last words.
—Waspinator and Scorponok. Be patient, Waspinator.
—Terrorsaur realizing the source of his energon addiction is coming to an explosive end.
—Rattrap witnesses Optimus Primal coin his motto.
—Terrorsaur returns to see a very mad Megatron, and pales at the consequences.
- Insecticon was at one point slated to join the cast of the Beast Wars TV show. A remnant of this can be found in the script to "Power Surge" on Ben Yee's website, where it is noted most of Insecticon's intended lines (including the "If you are second in command, what is your command?" exchange with Scorponok) were transferred to Waspinator.
- This is the only episode in the entire series where Waspinator both has a speaking role and doesn't get damaged in some way, shape or form. That and the fact he’s often heard without his normal tic of referring to himself and others in the third person are probably explained by his role originally being meant for Insecticon, as above.
- Rattrap plays holographic cards. According to the Cybertronix text, he's playing old maid.
- When charging on the unstable energon, Terrorsaur appears to flicker in and out of existence. That can't be good.
- When Terrorsaur sees the newly repaired Megatron, his entire body changes from red to white in complete terror.
- The word "cycle" is used repeatedly in this episode, beginning the phasing out of human units of time that the series had been using up to this point.
Screencaps via TFWiki (Teletraan I), used under fan-archive fair use.