Jealous of the bomb being Hi-Q's work, Hi-Test quit the research team. Not long after, two Decepticons Darkwing and Dreadwind come looking for Scorponok and his Decepticons. Hi-Q warned them of the poisonous fuel but they didn't listen. The first time they refueled, they started to deteriorate and die. Meanwhile, Hi-Test made friends with Throttle, a thief who was willing to break into Hi-Q's lab and steal his newest invention, the Powermaster process. The two rebuilt themselves into engines for the two Decepticons.
The newly revived Decepticons began to terrorize the world, but had to constantly stop so that Hi-Test and Throttle could eat enough to power them (Hi-Q said they had to eat 10 times more food). About that time, Fortress Maximus obtained a disk with the deceased Optimus Prime's personality on it He sent Goldbug, Joyride, Slapdash and Getaway to Nebulos, where they hoped they could build Optimus a new body. There, they asked Hi-Q to help. Hi-Q told them about the fuel poisoning and the two Decepticons, but yet the four Autobots stayed. While Hi-Q and his assistants Rev, Hotwire, Lube and Kari worked on Optimus Prime's new body, the Autobots went out to stop the two Decepticons.
The fight took a heavy toll on all the Autobots except Goldbug, leaving them low on fuel. When they returned, Optimus Prime was brought back to life in his new form, but had to be given the tainted fuel. Hi-Q, who originally believed the Autobots were mindless machines became convinced they were alive and agreed to become a Powermaster component for Optimus. Rev then wanted to become bonded to Getaway, Hotwire to Slapdash, and Lube to Joyride. Kari refused to bond with Goldbug, but it wasn't needed because Goldbug wasn't low on fuel. Now Powermasters, Optimus, Joyride, Slapdash, and Getaway attacked the two Decepticons, overwhelming them. The Decepticons and their human partners were banished from Nebulos, and the Autobots left soon after.
Shortly after suffering heavy losses from the Underbase-powered Starscream, Optimus sent the Pretenders Landmine and Cloudraker to Grand Central Space Station to buy new microchips for their fallen Autobot friends. At the station, they met Hi-Test and Throttle, who offered them the chips they needed. As it turned out, the two were in business with the Mecannibals, a group of robots that fed on other robots. Landmind and Cloudraker also met Berko, an Earthling friend of Sky Lynx, who went missing after Berko made a deal with Hi-Test and Throttle.
When Landmine and Cloudraker went to see the Mecannibals, they saw the captive Sky Lynx and freed him without giving themselves away. Later, they went back to Berko and revealed their identities as Transformers to him. Hi-Test and Throttle saw this, and when the two Autobots went to the bar to pay off Berko's tab, they were attacked by the bartender and pushed out the airlock where they were captured by the Mecannibals. In a strange turn of events, the Mecannibals sent them to an alien planet to get spices.
When the two Decepticons followed them to make matters worse, Sky Lynx found out about Hi-Test and Throttle's real connections to the Decepticons and when they returned to the Mecannibals their secret was revealed. The Mecannibals pursued the Powermasters all the way to Cybertron.
Thinking they lost the Mecannibals, they joined up with the newly returned Megatron in a plot of revenge on Optimus Prime and Scorponok. Megatron sent Darkwing and Dreadwind to get the remains of Starscream, who was then rebuilt as a Pretender. The Decepticons were defeated, and the Powermasters escaped.
During the Unicron War, Getaway was eaten by Unicron, and Optimus Prime sacrificed his life to destroy Unicron. Together with the unanticipated side effects of the Powermaster process, this trapped Optimus Prime's mind in Hi-Q's body. Hi-Q and the NeoKnights stayed on Cybertron when the Autobots went after the Decepticons, in order to find the Last Autobot and save Cybertron. Upon waking, the Last Autobot rebuilt Optimus Prime as an Actionmaster, using Hi-Q's body as the core.
When Megatron returned yet again to challenge Bludgeon for leadership, Dreadwing attempted to sneak up on him. He failed, and his body was destroyed by a single blast from Megatron's new rail gun. He was later rebuilt as the non-Powermaster robots Dreadwing and Smokescreen.
During the war against the Cybertronians, Joyride died when Jhiaxus and his troops attacked the Autobase on Earth. He was blown up by a shot from an unidentified Cybertronian jet.