Megatron has a strut to pick with the world in general. Sure, he comes from a nice family, and he got into the prestigious new JAAT pretty easily, but there's all kinds of evil authoritarianism everywhere, he can see it! And now that he has a superpowered secret identity as Galvatron, he can fight back as an anarchist Decepticon vigilante. The world will hear his rage, and there's nothing those do-gooder Autobots can do about it!

Biography

Megatron was forged circa v.42.165.100 by the Cybertronic Timekeeping Standard. He was originally raised in Tarn, adopted out of the Automica crèche by Lugnut, Strika, and Obsidian. Coming from a relatively high class household thanks to his parents' careers gave him an early life of comfortable security. The volatile mixture of Tarnish and Carcerian cultures in his family only reinforced his hardheadedness and passion. He was happy in Tarn, with his doting creators and best friend Kiloton.

Lugnut was head of the Enforcer Corps in the city of Tarn. This put him in the line of fire during some particularly rough insurgence attempts, and he was nearly fatally injured. His helm was destroyed, although his processor was intact enough to save him, and a prosthetic helm was quickly built for him. Megatron spent his late sparklinghood and early nymphood watching his creator work through physical therapy to regain lost function. Although he healed well, Lugnut would never be an active Enforcer again, and decided on an early retirement to an administrative position in Iacon. Already traumatized by the harrowing injury and recovery, Megatron reacted to the move with months of anger. He would not just quietly accept leaving behind his best friend and the city he loved to instead live in Tarn's historic rival city-state.

Once in Iacon, Megatron had the good fortune of meeting Orion Pax, a fellow nymph attending the same education center. The two of them became close friends and spent a lot of time with each other's families. It was around this time that Megatron became more aware of functionism in his life and society as a whole. While he, thanks to his parents, was already promised a safe position as a site overseer rather than a more dangerous function as a mine laborer, Orion had no such advantage and would likely be slated as a dockhand or other menial worker. Megatron bent all his precocious tenancity towards interrogating the adults around him as to why, why does it work this way, why are the two of us treated differently, why do I get to change my future and he can't? They had no satisfactory answers for him. Even Orion didn't know what to say.

A righteous anger at functionism grew in Megatron, festering until it became something of a surly, bitter rage at anything he could lash out at. His friendship with Orion deteriorated until they stopped seeing each other regularly soon after becoming younglings. Within a few vorns, he recruited recent immigrants Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker Safeguard to be replacement friends-slash-lackeys. The four of them became a somewhat stable friend group where Megatron developed almost bullying tendencies to convince them to follow along, also beginning to self-identify as an anarchist.

In v.42.168.429, the Jhiaxian Academy of Advanced Technology hosted entrance exams for its first set of students. Megatron sat these exams and passed, looking forward to the Academy as an opportunity to get away from his parents and find new ways to rage against the machine. On the first day the JAAT opened, he discovered to his horror that Starscream would be one of his roommates. As a devastating storm broke over the school the next day, he convinced the trine to experience the disaster firsthand. The four of them nearly died when a chunk of debris catapulted them into the school library. In the rubble, they found mysterious Primal relics of power. Megatron took the Requiem Blaster and powered up into Galvatron. [s1e01]

Relationships

Decepticons

Galvatron leads the Decepticons by charisma and brute force, and also by virtue of the fact that he's the only one with a vision of what the faction ought to be like. Even as kids, he is quite accustomed to shouting at the trine until they either do what he says or heckle him into silence, a dynamic that transfers over almost exactly. It isn't the healthiest or most respectful form of leadership, especially since he is more prone to violence while powered up. Nevertheless, Hellscream, Scourge, and Cyclonus all fight alongside Galvatron and take up his ideals willingly. Their team spirit needs some work, especially in Hellscream's case, but the four of them have an understanding born of a shared experience with their relics. Even when Hellscream challenges Galvatron's leadership, Scourge starts arguing with him about semantics, or Cyclonus wanders off to watch the sunset, they all firmly believe in being Decepticons and would never give that up. Besides, Galvatron knows they'd rat out his secret identity in a sparkbeat, so he can't push them too hard.

There are a lot of things about Thunderblast that irritate Galvatron, but there are a lot of things that thrill him too. Her sheer power and her willingness to jump into the fray are invaluable. When she volunteered to join the Decepticons by appearing out of nowhere to show off her abilities, [s1e12] he decided her passion was worthwhile, even if her clear desperation for attention is overwhelming sometimes. But, if that's what inspires her to rise up in rebellion like he wants, who is he to stop her? She's completely unpredictable due to her secrecy, but he's learned to count on her suddenly showing up to lend a hand just when things are going wrong.

Triptych is another mystery, both for his unknown secret identity and also for whatever is going on in his processor. Galvatron isn't sure what part of his behavior is mental illness and what part is relic quirks, but whatever the balance is, he's clearly a dedicated Decepticon. He was already crowing Galvatron's rhetoric when he joined the faction [s2e08] and has remained just as passionate since, sometimes in unnerving ways. Regardless, Galvatron loves to see someone empowered by his ideology and counts Triptych as a formidable member of the faction.

While the Decepticons grew in number quickest, they are also the only faction to lose members. Sixshot was an early addition [s1e09] whom Galvatron counted on for their skill and strength, until being blindsided by their disillusionment and defection. [s2e15] He remains angry and slightly hurt by their departure for a long time, and never quite figures out how to handle it. Drift came onto the battlefield already antagonizing the Autobots, [s2e11] and while Galvatron didn't quite understand his particularly spiritual mindset, he still enthusiastically accepted him on the team, as with anyone willing to fight the system with him. When Drift too had a change of spark and left the Decepticons, [s3e14], Galvatron reacted more quietly with confusion and introspection. If people who were originally so impassioned by his movement end up finding it so ill-fitting that they desert him entirely, perhaps he needs to rethink the nature of the Decepticons.

Other Factions

There are few people who grind Galvatron's gears more than that insufferable bootlicking Autobot idiot Optimus Prime. Sure, he plays all nice and honorable, claiming to set a positive example to encourage growth, but Galvatron knows he's simply another spineless fool unwilling to do the hard work that real change requires. The rest of the Autobots are annoying enough, but Optimus in particular has earned his ire, and more often than not they will end up arguing loudly, if not outright fighting. This is the basis for most of the aggression between the two factions, and when an outside threat forces them to work together, they're both able to begrudgingly set aside their differences.

Watching the Elite Guard at work is a stunning display of skill and power, one which Galvatron would probably seethe at if he didn't admire it so much. Their leader Elita 1 is bold, strong, and more than capable of kicking his aft. More than once he's been caught up in bantering with her mid-fight only to find himself flat on his back from an unseen blow, Elita smirking above him. Too bad they're all softsparked like the Autobots and would rather settle for playing nice instead of buckling down for a proper revolution.

Galvatron feels conflicted about the Predacons, and that makes him wary of interacting with them. When they first showed up, driven and unbowed by anyone else's opinions, [s3e05] for a moment he wondered if they simply were going to replace the Decepticons. With Sixshot in their ranks, it certainly seemed like theirs was the new, better ideology. There is no comfortable rapport between them like there is for the Autobots and Elite Guard. Whatever role this new faction has to play, Galvatron has learned to leash his temper long enough to feel it out before he makes enemies strong enough to run his team into the ground.

JAAT

Megatron is a resident of Room 1 in the Navitaneon dorm of the JAAT. Starscream is one of his roommates, and Skywarp and Thundercracker are in neighboring rooms. The proximity makes it easier to arrange their jaunts as Decepticons, but also makes it easier to get on each other's nerves. Megatron mostly ignores his other roommates. Powerglide is just another arrogant flier, and he has a lot of practice at tuning those out. Swindle still tries plying him for business on occasion when he thinks one of the school's black market items might interest him. Flamewar has learned to focus her mischevious energy elsewhere, unless she wants to get in a shouting match with him.

Being in the same school as Orion again makes Megatron grumpy. Can't he just stay thoughtlessly angry at this kind, patient, gracious mech making the best of it instead of being made to confront his own irrational bitterness every time he gets that tentative smile pointed his way? Really, it was so much easier to lash out when he didn't have to think about what direction he was pointing his anger, and who deserves it. It's much more fun to hang out with Ariel, a Carcerian exchange student always willing to throw a riot with him. He enjoys learning some of his parent's culture from her, and validates her big emotions when other Cybertronians shy away.

Megatron tolerates the school staff. They are, after all, working for a subtly rebellious institution. However, they still count as authority figures, so he'll throw in some surly uncooperativeness from time to time, just to remind them he is an anarchist. One who has won his respect is Termagax, a philosophy teacher. She may be a pacifist, but her work is inspiring. Her instruction has started Megatron down the path from typical rebel youngling to critical thinking activist, a change he sorely needed. When the junker Terminus is hired on her recommendation, [s3e06] Megatron soon finds himself listening to the both of them. Their ideals and life experiences have a deep impact on his worldview. He'd never tell them his secret identity as Galvatron of course, which is apparently better than Starscream can do. The idiot seeker went and told Skyfire, of all the random faculty he could have chosen, [s1e14] and then proceeded to not tell him there was someone who knew the Decepticons' secret identities until two vorns later! [s3e11] He supposes Skyfire is at least decent, as he hasn't turned them in yet.

While he's a little too standoffish to make many friends, Megatron is still charismatic enough to draw people to him when he's got a good idea. In the JAAT, that means recruiting other kids to join his punk metal band The Knights of Unicron. He doesn't have as much time to dedicate to it as he'd like, considering his side gig as a vigilante, but he's written at least one song he thinks is good enough to perform. Not everyone is as dedicated as he is, so there's been multiple tryouts with several additions and dropouts, but the most significant band members include:

• Skywarp, vocalist
• Aileron, guitar
• Slipstream, keyboard
• Flareup, bass
• Warpath, drums
• Rumble and Frenzy, tech and sound mixing
• Megajet (formerly)

Family

Megatron's trio of creators raised him fairly well, despite his bad attitude. Lugnut was forged in Tarn, while Obsidian is from Carcer and Strika lived there for a good portion of her life, so their household has a lot of strong wills and high emotion encouraged by their multicultral blend. Megatron has never gotten the opportunity to visit Carcer but he'd like to someday. He loves what pieces of Carcerian culture his parents have been able to share with him. When he isn't choosing to argue with them to vent his anger, they get along well, often cooking together or watching reality shows to relax.

Under all the bluster and youngling angst, Megatron loves his parents. Probably. They don't see any problem with functionism! And he's almost an adult but they're still so sappy, and it's infuriating. Obsidian still sends him homemade dessert packets every week, Strika calls to make sure he's safe whenever another disaster strikes, and Lugnut uses his position as an administrative consultant for Iacon's Enforcers to help crack down on vigilante activity in defense of the JAAT. They know how much anger he has against the system, although they have no idea why it developed, and they try to steer him away from destructive tendencies. Megatron may not realize it, but their overprotectiveness comes from fearing one day, when their status is no longer enough to protect him, the horrific consequences of his rebellion will come crashing down on his helm, and they won't be able to do anything.

Attributes

As Megatron:

He's a size 3 tracked plow, slow but strong, with a broad enough chassis to support prosthetic plow blade, sledge, or drill fixtures. In alt mode he can maintain a stubborn forward pace despite obstacles, much like his brute force attitude. He has a notable temper, but also a lot of intelligence, mostly used to come up with reasons to be angry.

Interestingly, Megatron has a difficult time sensing any ghost in the Requiem Blaster. There's something there, just one. It's faint, wispy, like it's incomplete. Mostly he gets emotional impressions from it instead of anything concrete. After some experimentation, he discovered that getting deep into a songwriting mood helps him connect to the barely-there ghost. He uses these moments to refine his ideals for the Decepticons, as is only fitting for the relic that caused the faction to form in the first place.

As Galvatron:

With the Requiem Blaster, Galvatron has a bigger frame, greater strength, and a multitude of new powers. Some of the typical relic upgrades he received include bleeding blue with innermost energon, swift healing, an internal comms system that allows him to speak with other relic bearers, and a well of subspace in which he can store items. He chose his name in honor of the original Galvatron, Tarnish tyrant from an ancient era and one of the legacy members of the Knights of Cybertron. Just as the original had a feud with Nexus Prime, this Galvatron also seeks to destroy a Prime.

His alt mode is like a weaponized version of his civilian frame, a larger and stronger tank capable of withstanding the recoil of his cannon. His individual abilities are:

• the Blaster, the most destructive projectile weapon ever created
• the entropic energy the Blaster fires, which can be harnessed in other ways
• a terrifying roar, one that sounds strangely similar to a mysterious enemy
• an energon-powered blade that can spring from his left gauntlet
• booster jets that give him speed and reach
• a subconscious but comprehensive knowledge of melee fighting, one of the few things likely contributed by the ghost in his relic

Trivia

Motivation:

Rage at the machine, rage in general, teenage angst, the punk aesthetic, some genuine solid philosophy, and spite

Hobbies:

Baking, songwriting

Favorite Food:

Hardtacks, nuts and bolts, and other crunchy snack mixes