After Ultra Magnus and Thunderwarp tracked down two former Combiner team members, Alpha Bravo and Offroad, and their respective brothers, Charlie Delta and Broadway, Magnus revealed his true identity as Minimus Ambus to the entire group.
Ambus then used his load-bearing spark and the spark-brother bond between the two sets of siblings to create a new Combiner team: The Geminibots.
The newly formed Combiner took the name Pater Magnus, the Great Father of this unlikely family. But Thunderwarp thought "Pater Magnus" was too formal and gave him the nickname "Big Daddy."
As Big Daddy began to hear of the horrors wrought throughout the galaxy by the Constructicon Combiner Devastator, every alloy of Pater Magnus' being strained to hunt down his enemy and bring the Titan to justice. But the wisdom and experience of Minimus Ambus prevented his new brothers from acting prematurely.
Though the Geminibots had managed to successfully combine, most of the team members were still new to acting with a shared consciousness, meaning Bid Daddy's psyche was still developing, and his stability was tenuous at best.
Taking on Megatron and Starscream for their first mission as a Combiner was overly ambitious to begin with, but things really went to hell when Thunderwarp's submerged consciousness sensed his former tormentor, prompting him to immediately break his link with Big Daddy and teleport straight for Starscream's throat.
To their credit, the rest of the Geminibots didn't hesitate to join the brawl.
After all, Ultra Magnus had his own scores to settle with Megatron, and the rest of the team members didn't exactly shy away from violence.
Despite the collapse of their combined form, the Geminbots' greater numbers helped them overwhelm their more powerful enemies.
Generally one to show restraint in battle, Magnus decided that he would show Megatron the same mercy that Megatron had recently shown Magnus. Which was none.
Going forward, some of the Geminibots would need to learn how to conduct themselves with greater dignity in victory.
And some would need to stop getting so easily distracted before the battle was completely finished.
But all in all, it wasn't bad for their first outing as a team.
The Geminibots soon learned that they could improve the stability of their combined form by allowing their current mission and their general attitudes toward each other to dictate their limb positioning.
With the trucks as arms, Pater Magnus could throw crushing blows, while his helicopter legs allowed him to fly short distances.
Mensaor barely had time to register what was happening when Big Daddy dropped out of the sky and began to pummel the Decepticon monster.
The ragtag family of mismatched bots had now taken down their first legitimate Combiner, but they still had a long way to go.
In some ways, reining in Autobots was even more difficult than crushing Decepticons, as the Autobot Geminibots had greater reservations about attacking their former allies. But Superion's recent battles had become increasingly destructive, with blatant violations of the Code of Interplanetary Conflict.
Alpha Bravo was particularly reluctant to fight his former teammates, but with the helicopter twins as arms, Pater Magnus was able to fire his blasters with lightning speed and pinpoint accuracy.
This allowed Big Daddy to incapacitate Superion and convince the Aerialbots to join his crusade in ending the Combiner Wars with as little collateral damage as possible.
After learning of Menasor's destruction, the jet Combiner agreed to follow Pater Magnus and only fight when ordered to do so.
Big Daddy next hoped to gain information about Devastator and his plans, but first the Geminibots would need to defeat Bruticus. With both sets of twins at odds over the recent battles against Menasor and Superion, Pater Magnus set out to face the Combaticons with the spark-brothers combined diagonally from one another.
Despite his awkward appearance, Pater Magnus was actually at his most balanced in this form, in terms of speed, accuracy and brute strength. It was probably the only reason he survived Bruticus' opening attack.
Although several of the individual Combaticons possessed remarkable intelligence and strategic judgment, Bruticus himself was rather slow-witted.
So while it was likely that Bruticus knew who Thunderwarp was and possible that at least one of the Combaticons knew about the little Seeker's teleportation ability, it certainly never occurred to Bruticus that the skill might be used by Pater Magnus.
At least not until Bruticus saw the sword sticking out of his chest. With the military Combiner defeated, Pater Magnus was finally able to interrogate the true brains behind the Combaticons...
Big Daddy forced Shockwave to reveal that Devastator's path of destruction would eventually lead back to Cybertron. All the Geminibots had to do was return to their home planet and wait. The question was whether they'd be ready when the Constructicons arrived. Pater Magnus realized he needed more help.
Following the near calamity of Big Daddy's fight with Bruticus, the Autobot and Decepticon Geminibots were split - literally - on how to deal with Defensor and the Protectobots. This was especially dangerous because lining up with helicopters and trucks on opposite sides was Big Daddy's most erratic, clumsy and unstable form.
Fortunately, Pater Magnus ultimately went with his Autobot instincts and chose diplomacy over a brutal attack on the empathetic guardian.
The Protectobots seemed eager to help end the destruction that had followed in the Combiner Wars' wake.
Meanwhile, the Geminibots, who had all felt either abandoned or betrayed by their respective factions, were once again realizing that others outside their new family could also be trusted.
As rumors of Devastation continued to reach Pater Magnus, he knew that he would have to confront the Constructicon Giant soon, but Big Daddy was planning to recruit one last ally.
Ultra Magnus was hoping that he and his old friend, Optimus Prime, could lead their respective Combiner teams in the charge against Devastator, but there was one problem: Prowl.
The Autobot military strategist's pride was poisoning the Combined psyche of Optimus Maximus, preventing even Magnus from reaching his longtime brother-in-arms. Instead, Optimus Maximus chose to take on Devastator alone.
This did not go well, especially for Prowl.
With Optimus Maximus out of commission, it was finally up to Pater Magnus and his new family to stop the mighty Devastator. But when the battle seems hopeless, and family just isn't enough...
... that's when it's nice to have friends.
"I will rule the universe. Even if I am the only one left in the universe!" -Starscream, "The Revenge of Bruticus"