Fun Pub - Cybertron's Most Wanted

Writers: Jesse Wittenrich & Pete Sinclair

Pencils/Inks: Matt Frank

Colours: Thomas Deer

Letters: Jesse Wittenrich

Plot

It's a normal day in Axiom Nexus when suddenly a small group of Decepticons and Evil Autobots disrupt the peace by driving through a pedestrian area, however they are stopped when they run into a group of Seekers. Whilst trying to get past them however one of the Seekers identifies one of the problem-starters as a Megatron, causing a small panic. However before anything more can happen, the group are captured by the Offworlder police force.

The group are taken into custody, where a member of the Convoy (a group of Optimus' and other leaders formed to help keep the peace in the Multiverse) named General Prime agrees with the Seeker that he could be a Megatron, despite Cheetor's insistence that it's impossible for one to breach the ban on high ranking individuals (Shockwave, Ultra Magnus, Megatron etc) in Axiom Nexus, but General Prime isn't sure still.

In their holding cell the group meet up with Oilmaster and Packrat, who were previously imprisoned, and they end up working together to escape, exploiting the Transtech's lack of knowledge on Oilmaster's Double Pretender status, they send his smallest component  to disable the power to the complex, allowing them to escape.

At first the plan seems to fail, but suddenly the power is completely down, allowing the group of criminals to attempt an escape. Along the way they take down several Autotroopers and Blast Charge guards and blow their way out, only to find the exterior power is also down, implying that it wasn't Oilmaster who actually knocked out the power, and rather something outside. The group decide to head back to their base in the tunnels under the city.

Back inside the complex the prisoners are rioting and General Prime learns from Cheetor that all the Transtechs have been knocked out due to a power surge in the main computers, which all Transtechs were linked up to. The only reason Cheetor and Stungun were spared was because they were disconnected from the main system at the time. Cheetor orders General to investigate what's happening at the planet's core, and to resolve the issue before the public find out about it. General orders Bruticus to take control of the jail again, whilst he and Sergeant Hound head out to investigate.

In the tunnels. Burn Out and Lift-Ticket are investigating something, when C-81's crew return and they're scared off further into the tunnels. The group assume they are with the security forces and arm themselves up, to get ready for the upcoming raid.

Instead of the raid from security however, some insect-robots attack the group from the shadows, and begin to swarm them under their commander's orders. The group fight them off, but decide to evade them after a short while. During their escape, Scalpel examines the body of one of the dead insects and discovers that they've been eating some of the old metals at Cybertron's core, and probably caused the power-outage.

After a while, the group are led into the insect's lair, and end up trapped and injured, however they are saved when General Prime and Sergeant Hound appear, and Lift-Ticket and Burn Out make another appearance too, revealing the insects to be Waruders. They say that the Waruders have poisoned the main computers by eating into it and spreading their venom into it, but it can be reverse if they get a sample of the venom from their commander.

The groups join forces and fight the Waruders, and joining the battle it's revealed that Lift-Ticket and Burn Out are actually just piloted mech suits run by Humans, simply disguising themselves as Transformers for this mission. The battle ends when C-81 directly attacks the commander, and hints to him that he knows of a place where they can go to have all the old metal they could possibly want to eat.

Soon, C-81 has made a deal with the Waruders, that in exchange for some of his venom, they will send the Waruders to one of the many abandoned Cybertrons in the Multiverse, so they can live in relative peace. The Diaclone humans are unhappy with this, but are somewhat happy that they now know what the Waruders like the eat, so they can use that for traps etc now.

General Prime and C-81 part ways on good terms, with General claiming that he'll just pretend that his crew got away after the battle, and he plans to drop his pursuit of him as a Megatron.

General and Prowl leave, and C-81 seems happy, despite them not getting anything for their actions in the long-run, they did save the world, and they had an adventure, so that was enough...then Packrat mentions that he stole one of the cop's credit sticks, much to the ire of his companions.

Later, General relays the events of his adventure to the rest of the Convoy and some Transtechs, and claims that C-81 and his team escaped, but that he was also wrong about C-81 being a Megatron too. Afterwards, Starscream issues orders to the Convoy members to sort out some issues that cropped up during the invasion, such as repairing the tunnels, settling some Insecticons down (they feel the Waruders are an invading faction of bugs) and to rejail the rioting prisoners.

Afterwards, Beast Prime assures General Prime that he and the others will leave C-81 alone, and that if he's earned his trust, then he's earned theirs too.

General looks out over Axiom Nexus and comments on how everyone has the capacity for change, as Axiom Nexus is perfect proof of.

Characters

Autobot
SG Stepper - Sports Car
SG Nebulon - Gun
G1 Black Convoy/Nemesis Prime - Sports Car
G1 Sentinel Maximus - Truck
G2 Hero Prime - Truck
RID Ignition Prime - Fire Truck
General Optimus Prime - Armoured Jeep
Sergeant Hound - Front End Loader
RID2015 Strongarm - Police Cruiser
RID - Prowl - Police Chaser
G1 Blastcharge Strika Drones - Tanks
G1 Kiss Players Autotroopers - Sports Cars
RID2015 Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex
G1 Clipper - Sports Car
G1 Tap-Out - Porsche
G1 Generations Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet
G1 Legends Windblade - VTOL Fighter Jet
G1 Doublecross - Two Headed Dragon
Kreon Scrounge
Off-Worlder Ultra Magnus' (Mentioned)

Decepticon
Movie C-81/Megatron - Armoured Truck
Movie Scalpel - Dual Bladed Weapon
Movie Boombox - Cannon
Movie Heavyweight - Mace
G1 Battletrap - Helicopter/Armoured Car
G1 Oilmaster - Pretender Shell, Van and Jet
Galaxy Force Gasket Police Type - Police Motorcycle
G1 Skywarp - Fighter Jet
G1 Nacelle - VTOL Fighter Jet
G1 Redwing - Fighter Jet
G1 Acidstorm - Fighter Jet
G1 Thunderwing - Fighter Jet
G1 Action Master Thunderwing - Fighter Jet
G1 Sunstorm - Fighter Jet
G1 Hotlink - Fighter Jet
G1 Bitstream - Fighter Jet
Movie Hailstorm - Multiple Rocket Launcher Truck
Alternators Decepticharge - Sports Car
G1 Flamewar - Motorcycle
G1 Lugnut - Bomber Plane
G1 Minicon Overbite - Wolf
TFA Scalpel - Microscope
G1 Slugfest - Cassette
G1 Hellbat - Jet
Kreon Straxus
Movie Fearswoop - Fighter Jet
Cybertron Undermine - Spinosaurus
Off-Worlder Shockwaves (Mentioned)
Off-Worlder Megatrons (Mentioned)
Insecticons (Mentioned)

Maximal

BW Packrat - Ratackrat - Rat
BW Leo Prime/Lio Convoy - Lion
BW Beast Prime/Optimus Primal - Gorilla
BW Ramulus - Ibex
BM Primal Prime - Treaded Vehicle/Jet/Ape
BW Prowl - Owl

Predacon

RID Predacon Bruticus - Chimera Dragon
Prime Blight - Land Dragon
BW Antagony - Ant

Transtech

Starscream - Jet

Cheetor - Race Car

Stungun

Prowl

Rhinox - Crane

Rattrap

Silverbolt - Jet

Heinrad

Andromeda (Hologram)

Cryotek - Tank (Mentioned)

Other Transtechs

Diaclone

Lift-Ticket Mech  Tow Truck Damaged by Waruders

Burn Out Mech - Van

Spy-Eye - Camera

Waruder

Beet-Chit - Stag Beetle Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Zaptrap Mech - Stag Beetle Damaged by C-81

Buzzer - Wasp Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Storm Rider Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Paralyzer Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Parasite Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Mudfighter Mechs - Wasps Sent to Parallel Cybertron

Other

Dia

Cline

Other Off-Worlders

Primus (Mentioned)

Xal (Mentioned)

Notes

• This is the comic made to "advertise" the Botcon 2015 boxset and souvenir sets
• Even Axiom Nexus has a hoard of Seekers...just like every collector's dusty toy shelf!
• C-81's appearance and Mini-Con partner Scalpel would place him as from about the Dark of the Moon era of the movies.
• Things start to get a bit confusing here as Prowl from Robots in Disguise appears in the same panel as Strongarm from Robots in Disguise 2015! Why is life hard?
• Oilmaster is based on one of the proposed Double Pretender toys from the G1 toyline. This would explain why the Transtechs wouldn't know too much about his technology's design since it was an aborted project originally.
• One of the things found in the holding cells was a Matrix of Leadership from the Movie-verse...why is it there?
• The under city of Axiom Nexus (where most Offworlders live) uses artificial solar rays to keep it alight. This does make some major sense really, since the buildings shown in the art would be too high to allow light to naturally reach the lower depths. Clever old Transtechs! Clever!
• Burn Out and Lift-Ticket are designed on the pre-Transformer versions of Hoist and Skids from Dialone.
• Also, the human names "Dia" and "Cline" are also based on the original concept of the robots being piloted mechs rather than sentient, and of course...their names are based on the line too.
• The Waruder's were a villain faction in Diaclone (same as here) which were remade as the Insecticons for Transformers.
• Battletrap now acts as a Triplechanger instead of a modular robot, much like how Flywheels has been redesigned the same way in IDW.
• Oilmaster's shell can bleed....that is worrying!
• Black Convoy, aka Nemesis Prime, is the same character who appeared in the Balancing Act arc from the TFCC Magazine. He's been off in the Alternity continuity recently, and has been "reborn" as an Autobot (I had to look it up as I haven't followed the Japanese exclusive continuities recently)
• Despite being, presumably, Maximals, Lio Convoy/Leo Prime nad Optimus Primal/Beast Prime are the same size as their Autobot counterparts
• Ignition Prime/RID Optimus Prime is using his yellow Universe "Sam's Club" repaint. This is probably to bring more variation to the colour schemes in the group shots.
• Spy-Eye, one of the Diaclone robots has apparently decided to remain in Axiom Nexus...wonder if this will lead to more adventures with the Diaclone guys?
• Why is Primal Prime allowed to wander the streets of Axiom Nexus? Isn't he classed as an authority figure? He is the living embodiment of the Matrix after all!