The Return of the Immortal Emperor

After a quick re-cap by the narrator of how the Decepticons have destroyed Mars, we are shown how Broadside (who, rather strangely, is in his battleship mode rather than his jet mode) is taking Spike and Arcee through debris of Mars. Spike's readings find that everything is just about stable, so they return to Athenia and show their findings to Fortress. The results aren't good: the universe is getting into a critical condition and could be destroyed entirely if another planet explodes due to the amount of plasma energy being released. Fortress tells the others that absolutely cannot let the Decepticons destroy any more worlds.
 

Wheelie and Daniel head outside and argue about how easily Fortress could destroy Scorponok, and Daniel ends up pushing Wheelie into a lake and calling him a weakling. Just then however a strange bright light appears some distance away, and the 2 wonder what it is but it suddenly charges straight at them, making them both run for cover. The light then continues on and vanishes, and Daniel thinks that it must have been a UFO.
 

Fortress and the other Autobot Headmasters are out on patrol and receive news from Arcee about Daniel and Wheelie's encounter with the UFO, and that it did not harm them or the Autobot base in any way, but it has gone now. Fortress can't really worry about it though and just tells Arcee to update him if anything new happens. Fortress then asks where Chromedome and Hardhead are at, only to find out that the two hot-headed Autobots have decided to go and invade Charr. On their own. Fortress knows they haven't got a chance and so has to follow them in his ship.
 

On Charr Zarak is informed by Counterpunch that Fortress is nearby on patrol, but then Charr's radar system finds that two Autobots are on the way. Zarak transforms into Scorponok and takes the other three Decepticon Headmasters with him to fight them, and both Chromedome and Hardhead and beat all the way back to Fortress' ship by hits from Scorponok's pincers.
 

Scorponok then attacks the ship but is blasted back by the bottom engines. Scorponok then transforms into robot mode and starts to beat the ship repeatedly with his pincers, and Fortress can't transform due to him not having enough energy to transform again. But help is on the way...
 

...because that strange light Daniel and Wheelie encountered earlier appears at the battle. Scorponok is forced to jump off Fortress' ship at the light passes through. This gives Fortress enough time to take off and get away. Meanwhile the light continues through space and Zarak and the other Decepticons watch it, having no idea what it is, although Zarak is angry because he was just about to destroy Fortress.
 

At the Earth Decepticon base Soundblaster is about to report to Sixshot when suddenly, the bright light appears yet again. Soundblaster runs for cover but Sixshot stays put, but after a bright flash he and the light are both gone! Soundblaster looks around for Sixshot but he's clearly not there any more, so Soundblaster goes off to tell Zarak what's just happened.
 

Back on Charr Cyclonus and Scourge tell Zarak that the preparations for the ceremony are complete. The ceremony will officially make Zarak the new "emperor of destruction", in other words the Decepticon leader, and that all Decepticons will be attending it. Scourge goes on to say that Zarak will eventually become ruler of the universe, but Zarak says he must first defeat Fortress and the Autobots.
 

On Athenia Twincast introduces Fortress to the Autobot spy Punch. Punch informs Fortress that the Decepticons are heading to the moon. Fortress guesses that the Decepticons must be planning to blow it up, but Punch says they may be there for the ceremony he heard about. Twincast goes to inform Autobot City on Earth whilst Punch is sent back to continue spying. Fortress meanwhile gathers the Autobots together to prepare for an attack.
 

On the moon, the Decepticons gather at a recently built Decepticon stadium, and Cyclonus introduces Zarak to everyone. Zarak proclaims that he is the new leader of the Decepticons and that they will destroy the Autobots and Autobot City on Earth. Before he can go on any longer however...
 

...a large assault for of Autobots turn up to ruin his parade and being to attack the Decepticons. The combiner teams unite into their larger robot forms and start shooting, whilst the Headmasters fight each other.
 

Fortress drives his ship straight into Scorponok but the two can't fight each other for very long because suddenly, the bright light appears before everyone. The fight stops for a moment as the light heads down and touches the surface, and Sixshot appears. Soundblaster demands to know what is going on here as the light starts shooting at the Autobots...
 

...and then stops. The light then reveals itself to be a spaceship of some kind, which then drops down to the near surface of the moon again and a pink light beams from the ship to the ground, and a figure starts to walk out. The Decepticons recognise who it is...
 

It's Galvatron! He somehow managed to survive the destruction of Cybertron after all!
 

Galvatron tells the Decepticons to stop gawking at him and fire at the Autobots. Every Decepticon turns and runs towards the Autobots, guns blazing. With the sudden return of Galvatron the Autobots are a little shocked and are forced to retreat. Galvatron tells everyone to let them go as they can take them on at any time.
 

Zarak is annoyed that Galvatron has returned but keeps it to himself. Galvatron then says that now that he's back, he will retake control of the Decepticons. Later on he takes over the ceremony and tells the Decepticons that now he is back then can concentrate on destroying the Autobots once and for all, leaving Zarak to realise that his reign is over before it has even begun. The final scene shows the Autobots being very surprised to learn that Galvatron is back and then the narrator says that the Decepticon army will now be stronger with Galvatron being back and that the Autobots must find a way to defeat them.

Given how surprised Zarak is to see Galvatron come back, I'm guessing Zarak was simply telling lies in Zarak, The Shadow Emperor when he said Galvatron was still alive. He was most likely just fibbing to the other Decepticons as it gave him an easy path to become the new leader.

This episode marks the first appearance of Punch and his spy mode Counterpunch. He's a quite important character in episodes to come in terms of telling the Autobots what the Decepticons are up to, as they'd have no idea otherwise.