IDW - Monstrosity #3

Story by: Chris Metzen & Flint Dille

Art by: Livio Ramondelli

Letters by: Tom B. Long & Shawn Lee

Editor: John Barber

Plot

On Junkion, Megatron and Pentius have finally reached the Pillar of Rust, where they wait for a shuttle to arrive for them to take, Megatron begins to doubt that anyone will come, but suddenly the Terrorcon's shuttle arrives and the crew get ready to kill Megatron for his failures, and attack him. Of course, being Megatron, he easily defeats all 5 Terrorcons, by also removing the spark from Pentius and using it to heal his own weakened spark.

Back on Cybertron, Optimus learns about the Energon deposit under the Toraxxis Crater, and the sleeping Trypticon as well. he asks Jetfire and the other scientists to examine the Energon to make it safe to use, and has them make the crater off-limits without permission from him.

On Junkion, Megatron has made sure the Terrorcons survived their battle, and re-recruits them to his side, he leaves with them on their shuttle back to Cybertron, where he plans to deal with Scorponok, and he bids Pentius farewell.

At the Toraxxis Crater, Kup is searching the radiation wastes, looking for Grimlock and finds him, as well as the other Dynobots, who agree to go with him to see Optimus, and surrender themselves for their crimes.

At the Starsreach Spaceport in Iacon, the Autobots are trying to get any of the non-aligned Transformers (future NAIL's) who want to leave the planet into shuttles to leave, but things are getting heated up, as there don't seem to be enough shuttles to go around. Dai Atlas resigns from his position on the Convocation as he plans to leave with the Circle of Light, meanwhile Bulkhead and others plan to stay behind to help with the rebuilding.

Optimus receives a report from Prowl that the civilians are getting antsy, and a riot is starting. Optimus sends out his troops to intervene, Dai Atlas tries to get him to try a more peaceful response, but Optimus reminds him that he no longer has any position in the running of Cybertron any more.

On the way back from Toraxxis, Kup and the Dynobots receive the message about the riot, and redirect themselves, inside Sky Lynx to help out as well.

At the Spaceport, Optimus has arrived, and after a small skirmish, he convinces the civilians that he's not there to stop any of them, or to harm them, they just want the civilians out of the way. Dai Atlas and the Circle of Light board their shuttle, and Atlas has some last words about how incompetent Optimus is as a leader, then leaves.

Kup and the Dynobots arrive just after the small riot, where Grimlock explains to Optimus that their strange new alt modes are due to their 6th member Skar tinkering with their scanning equipment and they scanned the monsters at Toraxxis, which made them unpredictable, and also reveals that Grimlock himself accidentally killed Skar after losing control, Optimus promises to help him out.

Suddenly the civilian shuttles are attacked by the Decepticons, who also blast a hole into the Spaceport control room too, Grimlock gets angry and turns into his monster form and goes on a rampage.

Grimlock tears through the Decepticons and forces several to escape, Optimus manages to get the monster into a head-lock, and calms him down, forcing him to revert back to robot mode. The other Autobots look on worried, and wonder whether the scientific Autobots can really help or not.

On their way back to base, the attacking Decepticons are contacted by Scorponok, who orders them to head to Toraxxis. Back at Starsreach, the Dynobots have decided to leave Cybertron again, as they don't think they can be helped, and Optimus feels he has to agree, despite his true desire to help. Their shuttle takes off, and Optimus looks on sadly.

Astrotrain and the others arrive at Toraxxis where they find Scoponok watching several jets blasting at the crater, breaking the seal on Trypticon's "cage" and then witness the giant beast, Tyrpticon rise from the ground!!

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Truck

Grimlock - Toraxxian Monster

Snarl - Toraxxian Monster

Swoop - Toraxxian Monster

Sludge - Toraxxian Monster

Slag - Toraxxian Monster

Kup - Pick Up

Bumblebee - Car

Hound - Car

Prowl - Car

Springer

Blaster

Sky Lynx

Jetfire - Jet

Wheeljack

Ratchet

Perceptor

Decepticon

Megatron - Tank

Scorponok

Shockwave

Soundwave

Starscream - Jet

Hun-Gar - Two Headed Monster

Sinnertwin - Two Headed Monster

Cutthroat - Winged Monster

Rippersnapper - Shark Monster

Blot - Bipedal Monster

Skywarp - Jet

Dirge - Jet

Ramjet - Jet

Thrust - Jet

Astrotrain - Shuttle

Blackwall

Blitzwing - Tank/Jet

Other

Dai Atlas

Trypticon

Pentius Spark torn out by Megatron

Bulkhead

Circle of Light

Leaving Cybertronians

Grimlock's Victims Killed by Grimlock

Skar (Flashback) Killed by Grimlock

Primus (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the collected print version of issues 7,8 and 9 of the digital releases (made so people like me who hate digital copies can read this before TPB-time)
• Pentius is shown to have a green spark, much like those of the point one percenters shown in MTMTE right now, he's shown using it to seem and repair himself as well.
• It's a bit ominous that our last view of Penitus is of his "death" face, smirking off watching Megatron leave isn't it?
• Bulkhead is shown deciding to stay on Cybertron here, possibly hinting that he eventually joins the Autobots (like all his other continuity counterparts).
• Grimlock's "beast" mode is revealed in full here, I'm guessing at some point before the events of Spotlight: Shockwave, he'll get rid of that and retain a tank mode again.
• It's shown here that Skar fitted the team with scanners to take on new alt modes, which activated when the Dynobots went up against the monsters in the Toraxxis caverns.