Title: Speak, Memory! (Part 2)
Written by: James Roberts
Art by: Hayato Sakamoto
Coordination by: Phases
Colours by: Joana LaFuente
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editor: John Barber
Publisher: Ted Adams
Plot
Sunder continues his attack on Skids' mind, and forces him to relive his time at Grindcore prison.
At the prison, Skids is revealed to have repaired the prison's transport generators, which will allow the prison to send it's prisoners to other locations for hard-labour. Skids is returned to his cell, where Quark moans at him for helping the Decepticons, but Skids justifies t by pointing out that because of him, fifty of the prisoners are to be shipped off soon, which means they're going to be off this horrible place. The two are stopped in their conversation when Tarn starts to play the Empyrean Suite over the intercom....
Back in the present, Rung blocks Sunder's gaze, and stops the memories, in the meanwhile, Froid opens Sunder's cell and unshackles the mad-man (for some reason he never really explains). The guards, Fervor and Kindle rush into the ship and order him to stand down and return to the cell, but Sunder simply uses his full Mnemosurgery kills to attack the duo, shocking both Skids and Rung in the process. Rung sends off a transmission to someone....
A little while later, Tailgate has woken up from his coma, and is exploring the Lost Light for any signs of people, finds all the lights turned off, and several orbs lining the corridors. He finds himself in the brig, where he tries to get Getaway to explain what happened, but he gets no response from the prisoner, and gets angry, not knowing that Getaway has been stripped of his limbs and mouth as part of his punishment.
Soon, Tailgate encounters Rung, Froid and Skids who explain about Sunder being on the loose, and his ability to trick a Transformer into thinking the best option to defend against him is to transform, but also makes them forget how to transform properly, forcing them into an orb shape. Rung explains that the crew have been locked in their rooms, and the lights were turned off to help slow down Sunder, but they're looking for Chromedome to help lock down the memories in Skids' head before he is mentally scarred. Sunder creeps up on the group and Skids begins to remember again...
Back in the past, Tarn thanks Skids for his help, and confirms that the prisoners were transported to the Manganese Mountains. Skids tries to bargain for more prisoners to be sent off-world again, but Tarn tells him that he doesn't need his help any more, since he had Snare learn how to make the repairs by watching Skids previously, but does plan to send Skids on the next transport tomorrow. Skids is interested, but asks if someone else can take his place....
Rung forces himself and Froid in front of Sunder to block the memories again, but in the process Froid is inverted into a sphere too. After his inversion Sunder is shot by the newly arrived Thunderclash. Thunderclash, along with Megatron give chase to Sunder, who is now heading to the shuttle bay again, whilst the similarly newly arrived Chromedome quickly seals up Skids' open memories. Rung and Tailgate head off to join the others whilst Chromedome works on Skids.
Sunder returns to his and Froid's shuttle, which Megatron recognizes are being his long dead brother, Sceptre. Sunder transforms the shuttle into a battle-suit for protect himself, and uses his powers on Thudnerclash, turning him into a sphere. Before he can do the same to Megatron however, Rung appears with his model ships and uses them to attack Sunder, taking out his eyes, and disabling his abilities.
Tailgate prompts Megatron to pick up Thunderclash's gun and shoot Sunder, but Megatron instead tries to talk down the mad-man. Tailgate however decides to not try to reason with him, picks up the Rodpod, and throws it t the battle-suit bound robot, knocking him out, much to everyone's shock.
Later, on the bridge, Rung hands in his resignation to Megatron, pointing out that despite him disagreeing with the tribunal's decision in the past, he was struck off, he will tell the crew, but won't allow them to change his decision.
Rodimus then comes to the bridge, having been returned to normal, and Rodimus shares Velocity's report on Tailgate's new abilities, saying that due to his agitated nature and stress, in combination with the radiation from their time travelling in the past caused Tailgate to become a new Outlier with increased strength, speed and invulnerability. Rodimus asks Megatron why he refused to shoot Sunder, which Megatron reveals is due to his new decision, that following recent events, he has decided to defy violence, and will never harm another living creature, ever again...
Back in the past at Grindcore, Skids and Quark are both led into the transport chamber, since Tarn was so "touched" by Skids' actions that he let him go too, along with his friend Quark. The entire group are led into the chamber, and the door is locked, and they find the entire room very...hot...
Skids soon notices that the floors are engraved with drainage ducts, which he quickly understands the purpose for.
Suddenly the room's temperature rises and the Empyrean Suite places extremely loud, causing everyone in the room pain. Skids is suddenly teleported out, and finds himself in Tarn's office again. Once there, Tarn reveals that Megatron needs the raw materials from the Autobots to make new MTO soldiers for the war, so he's been using the euphemism of a teleporter to get people to queue up for it. Tarn coaxes Skids to his window, where he tells Skids that he doesn't believe in heaven, but he does believe in a hell...as they watch over the melting and screaming bodies below them.....(and now I throw up!)
Characters
Autobot
Rodimus - Car
Megatron - Tank
Thunderclash - Truck
Tailgate - Car
Rung
Skids - Van
Chromedome - Car
Kindle
Fervor
Sunder - Car Captured or Killed by Tailgate
Sceptre - Space Shuttle/Battle Suit Dead
Getaway - Car Imprisoned in Brig
Quark - Electron Microscope (Flashback) Smelted in Grindcore
Grindcore Prisoners (Flashback) Smelted in Grindcore
Velocity - Race Car (Mentioned)
Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Mentioned)
Decepticon
"Tarn" - Tank (Flashback)
Talon - Jet (Flashback)
Snare - Jet (Flashback)
Cybertronian
Froid - Jet
Cyclonus - Jet (Mentioned)
Primus (Mentioned)
The Necrobot (Mentioned)
Mortilus (Mentioned)
Notes
- Tarn is never called "Tarn" in this story or the previous one, similarly to Chromedome's original name and Shockwave's identity in previous past-set comics. This somewhat adds to the idea that he is really Roller in disguise, and this is before he joined the DJD
- Tarn is shown having his transformation addiction even this early on in his career.
- From the tyres on his wrists, it's safe to assume that Sunder turns into a car or land vehicle of some sort.
- Either Sunder is taking the time to write down "Mortilus Saves" after inverting crew members, or someone else is following him. Either way it's kinda odd.
- Getaway's imprisonment is designed to be escape proof, due to him being a famed escapologist. His limbs are removed for obvious reasons, but his mouth and voice box are removed to stop him from manipulating people with his "silver tongue".
- Tarn is shown with several corpses displayed on his office walls...I'm afraid....
- Tarn is so obsessed with the Decepticons that his Engex bottle has a Decepticon insignia stopper.
- It's unclear if Froid survived his inversion, but let's hope he died for his black-mails etc.
- Based on Sceptre's ship-mode's insignia, it's very likely that he and Sunder are actually Autobots.
- It's revealed that Rung has outfitted his model ships with working engines and weaponry...wonder if the Lost Light model has a working miniature Quantum Engine?
- How on Cybertron did Tailgate get the idea to even TRY and pick up the Rodpod?!
- During their time travelling adventures, it was discovered that Sentinel Prime tried to use radiation to create artificial Outliers, it's revealed here that his theory was correct, but he was simply using the wrong type of radiation.
- Sunder's "Mortilus impression" is represented by a black text-box, his normal voice uses a regular white one.
- The horrible memory that Skids has repressed, his loss of faith in Primus, and his interest in music and the Empyrean Suite are all revealed to the audience, but not Skids himself here.
- I'm going to admit something here, originally I considered using the final panel for one of my screenshots here...but it has been giving me nightmares since I saw it D:
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