As Scrap Iron follows Cobra Commander down the hallway, he asks if he is really giving up. Cobra Commander stops, points to his mask and asks, “Is this the face of a patsy?” Scrap Iron stutters out a negative response and Cobra Commander adds that he will master and manipulate the new leader and will become an even greater power behind the throne.

Duke marches beside some generic Joes and salutes General Hawk, who tells Slaughter that the Joes are once again looking sharp. The Joes’ drill sergeant tells Hawk that the Joes were always good, but they simply forgot what it takes to stay that way. Dial-Tone announces over the PA system that a Cobra Night Raven has invaded American airspace and Hawk orders the Conquest X-30s and Tomahawks to intercept.

Slipstream, who is flying a Conquest X-30, catches sight of the Night Raven, which detaches its smaller drone ship, and tries to squeeze Slipstream in a missile sandwich, however, Slipstream angles out of the way and the two missiles hit each other.

The two planes shoot at Slipstream, but after shooting at the Night Raven, the two Cobra planes crash into each other. While the pilots eject, the planes plummet to the ground and Lift-Ticket and Lifeline climb out of their Tomahawk in order to examine the wreckage, and they find a Cobra message pod.

At Joe headquarters, Mainframe pulls out a large gold bar and a roll of parchment, which he hands to Hawk. After reading the message on the paper, Hawk tells the Joes that Dr. Mindbender has sent a communiqué to Zartan and his Dreadnoks, and Sgt. Slaughter asks, “You mean they can read?”

Inside an auditorium, all of the Joes are told by Hawk that the Cobra message pod contained a contract between Dr. Mindbender and Zartan for a mission that is so important that Zartan has been asked to bring in Zandar and Zarana, Zartan’s brother and sister. As the Joes talk quietly among themselves about the news, Sgt. Slaughter raises the gold bar and notes that it is Zartan’s very heavy down payment. After adding that Zartan is hiring another Dreadnok, General Hawk asks for three volunteers. Sgt. Slaughter quickly points to himself, Low-Light and Beach Head and asks about Hawk's plan.

Zartan welcomes the various bikers and ruffians to the first annual Dreadnok audition and tells the contestants that he has made the rules simple in order to match their collective IQs - whoever is left standing is the winner. A man with sunglasses tells Zartan that will be him and a biker nearby tells him that he will be the first to fall. “That’s what you think, fat stuff,” he tells the biker as he slips a bomb into the biker’s pouch. Zartan tells the men to start auditioning and the brawl begins. The bomb explodes and the biker is knocked out before he runs over his opponent with sunglasses.

Sgt. Slaughter tells the Joes to not move since the fight is almost over. A stun grenade explodes and the man with the silver sunglasses walks forward and makes no apologies for cheating. After all, did they expect sportsmanship? After the winner introduces himself as Monkeywrench, he adds that his hobbies include heavy metal, unprovoked mayhem and loud explosions. But a man with green streaks in his hair approaches the group and explains that he is the only applicant suitable for the role as the new Dreadnok. Telling the group that his name is Thrasher, Buzzer, Ripper and Torch remain unimpressed since Thrasher stayed behind while the other fought. But Thrasher replies that this move proves his intelligence, a quality lacking in the current Dreadnoks.

Angered by the insult, Buzzer, Ripper and Torch pick Thrasher up from the ground and toss him into the muddy swamp waters.

While everyone laughs at him, Sgt. Slaughter, Low-Light and Beach Head surround Zartan and his crew, and Slaughter threatens that unless Zartan tells him what Cobra has planned, he will rotate the mercenary's ears. Zarana strikes a match and tries to burn the parchment with all of the details, but Low-Light knocks it out of her hand and stomps out the fire. Low-Light passes the parchment to Slaughter and the drill instructor tells the Joes that Cobra plans to rob the graves of history’s most infamous leaders, however, the list of targets went up in smoke.

Thrasher then drives into the opening with his Thunder Machine, pops open the door and tells Zartan that he has returned to repay him for his insolence, however, he offers to kill the Joes in exchange for membership as a Dreadnok.

Zartan agrees and Thrasher drives after the Joes, who decide to make their stand at a cabin.