#duobots

Dear Rallying Racer,

The Rallybots have a long and storied history. The name dates back to some of the earliest Cybertronian documents, always in connection to the destructive forces known as "Destrons", led by an unknown evil whose own name has been lost to history. Long before the Autobots came to exist, the Rallybot title was used by a group of neutral Cybertrons, who underwent an experimental procedure to become a mighty super-warrior capable of opposing the Destrons’ combined form. They chose the name Champion for themselves—hardly the most ostentatious moniker, but one they did their best to live up to.

Those first Rallybots were an innocent group, unused to the idea of war, but determined to put their ideals into action and defend their way of life. They were lead by Paragon, a former politician who had abandoned the cities after deciding it had become time for actions, not words. His second-in-command, Blow-Out, was their guide and scout—she had spent so long in the deserts of Cybertron that her entire body seemed to be made of sand, and Paragon trusted her experience enough to let her lead in situations where he himself was uncertain.

Sprint backed them up, being their weapons expert—he used to repair energon harvesters, but after becoming fascinated by the Destron's new inventions, he wasted no time reverse-engineering them for the Rallybots. The last of the team was Splashguard, who had found herself thrust into action defending others when the Destrons first attacked. Abandoning her former career as a dam-builder, she went on to become the greatest warrior of the Rallybots.

Together the four of them left civilization, deep into the primordial wilderness of Cybertron, where the Destrons feared to tread. Their hit-and-run attacks, though ineffective on a material level, robbed the Destrons of their believed invulnerability, and proved to the rest of Cybertron that an uprising was possible.

From then on, whenever a group has taken the title of "Destron", it seems destiny causes another group of warriors to take up the Rallybot mantle. As you note, one instance was the Power Core Combiner Doubleclutch and his team of drones, but the Rallybot name has been borne alike by Scramble City combiners, Duobots, Triple-Combination teams, and Micromaster squads. No matter what form they take, each new incarnation of the team shares two things with their predecessors: a desire for a just peace, and off-road automotive alt-modes.

The latest group to bear the Rallybot name were recruited in the wake of the Combiner Wars. There, the machinations of Megatronus led a team of ancient Destrons to reawaken, and in response Optimus Prime chose a group of his bravest warriors to oppose them.

So Shock and Ore died before they even got on the Lost Light, right?

That was it, that was the end of the duobots.