Professor Morris believes that the Transformers rampaging across Oregon are not warring aliens, as they claimed, but rather automatons, controlled by oil tycoon G.B. Blackrock. When he presents his theory at a meeting at Roxxon Oil (where he is employed) in Portland, he is shot down by Hemmings. Enraged, he retires to his laboratory, where he takes out his fury at both Blackrock and Hemmings by destroying dummies with his antiquated robots, which he can control through a device he has invented.