IDW - More Than Meets the Eye #14

Title: Remembrance Day

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colour by: Josh Burcham

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

4.2 Million years ago on Luna 2, two Miners find a powerful green spark and report it in, when a Functionist comes to investigate he confirms it and grants the foreman who reported it, Momus, as alt mode exempt, however he tells the two miners that due to them being explosed to the first flash of the spark they'll die within 6 hours.

Much Later, on the Lost Light Chromedome has entered Overlord's mind to try and find out what makes  Phase Sixer exist, he talks with Overlord and makes him relive the final battle at Garrus-9. He then flashes him back to Overlord's time in the pits, and watches him battle Megatron before the war, and estimates that Overlord is about 4.2 million years old (it was his spark found above). Next Chromedome takes him forward a bit to after the start of the war and watches as Megatron beats him half to death, and has him taken to a lab.

In the lab, Overlord has been stripped to his endoskeleton and placed in a tank, where Megatron has Rossum embalm him in Ununtrium, to make him almost invinsible, Megatron assists Rossum in the process and it's successful, as his first act after his rebirth however Overlord grabs Rossum's head, and crushes it.

Chromedome has the information he needs now on how to make a Phase Sixer and prepares to leave, however Overlord tricks him into having a shared memory of when he attacked the New Institute, where Chromedome (Tumbler) then worked and shows him kidnapping Trepan, afterwards Chromedome remembers how Pharma came to fix him, when he suddenly realizes that Chromedome couldn't have seen this as he was gone.

Overlord reveals that he learned Mnemosurgery from Trepan as he planned to use it on Shockwave to find a way to remove his killswitch, but Megatron has Trepan killed before he could teach him much. Overlord reveals he could have done this, and broken free from his cell at any time, but lacked the motivation, until Chromedome let it slip that Megatron was still alive somewhere, giving him frive again.

Overlord explores Chromedome's mind for any mention of his own name, and sees Chromedome meeting with Prowl before Optimus returned after the Chaos event and watches as Prowl reveals Overlord is still alive, and that he wants Chromedome to use his skills on him to learn how to make Phase Sixers for the Autobots to use as well, Chromedome refuses, but Prowl threatens to reveal all of Chromedome's dark secrets to Rewind if he refuses. Chromedome snaps and attacks Prowl, removing this conversation and those memories from him, but imperfectly.

Sometime later, Chromedome is taken to Brainstorm's lab where he's working on the new holoavatars used on Hedonia, Drift reveals that Prowl had the Duobots and him bring Overlord onboard and were to get Chromedome to enter his mind when he was at his lowest (when Rewind was injured). The slow cell is explained to him, and reveals that it's used mostly so that even if Overlord managed to escape then the crew could mobilize to take him down if needed. Chromedome is given the code for the cell, which of course Overlord also sees.

Overlord breaks free of the cell and breaks the connection suddenly too, leaving Chromedome briefly disabled. Overlord leaves the cell and turns on the cell's systems, meaning that although it'll take Chromedome about 5 seconds to cross the cell and escape, Overlord would have been on the ship to do anything he wants for much more than that.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!! (OMFG!!!)

Characters

Autobot

Chromedome/Tumbler - Car

Prowl - Police Car (Memory)

Drift - Car (Memory)

Brainstorm - Jet (Memory)

Pharma - Jet (Memory)

Mirage (Memory)

Impactor (Memory)

Springer (Memory)

Ironfist (Memory)

Trepan (Memory) Killed by Megatron (Offscreen)

New Institute Staff Some Killed by Decepticons

Sentinel Prime (Mentioned) Dead

Zeta Prime (Mentioned) Dead

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax (Mentioned)

Bumblebee (Mentioned)

Rewind (Mentioned)

Grimlock (Mentioned)

Fortress Maximus (Mentioned)

Shock (Mentioned) Dead

Ore (Mentioned) Dead

Overload (Mentioned)

Perceptor (Mentioned)

Rung (Mentioned)

Autobot High Command (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Overlord - Jet and Tank

Megatron - Tank (Memory)

Starscream - Jet (Memory)

Thundercracker - Jet (Memory)

Soundwave (Memory)

Shockwave (Memory)

Rossum (Memory) Killed by Overlord

Medics (Mentioned)

Sixshot (Mentioned)

Black Shadow (Mentioned)

Heretech (Mentioned)

"Tarn" (Mentioned)

Other

Momus (Flashback)

Frak (Flashback) Dead within 6 Hours

Drill Guy (Flashback) Dead within 6 Hours

Three of Twelve, The Authenticator (Flashback)

Verity Carlo (Memory)

Pit Crowd (Memory)

Guardian Droids (Memory) Killed by Overlord

Aequitas (Mentioned)

Functionist Council (Mentioned)

Adaptus (Mentioned)

Medibots (Mentioned)

Notes

• Chromedome was taught Mnemosurgery by Trepan, who was last seen in Shadowplay
• Transformer sparks seem to just randomly appear on Cybertron or it's moons and are "born" that way
• Phase Sixers are revealed to be individuals who have a rare and powerful spark type, which is enhanced by a rare compound called Ununtrium. Also the phase sixers were originally called the "Warriors Elite"
• There's a fourth phase sixer called Heretech somewhere (maybe Tarn's real name?)
• Rossum, who devised the rule of thirds is shown here to have joined the Decepticons.
• Brainstorm is shown to have been an operator with Chromedome in the "New Institute" maybe meaning the gun he found with Skids was designed by someone he knew?
• It's revealed here that the White Out Vacuum mentioned as the location of Overlord's spark in the cover story doesn't actually exist.
• Prowl's damaged mind as mentioned by Bombshell in RID is explained here as Chromedome attacking him with his needles
• From the names Brainstorm gives the Overlord-based projects, I can assume he knows it'll fail (ie "Total Insanity", "Asking for Trouble" and "End in Tears"
• Overlord's slow cell is set so every 5 seconds for the person inside it (when it's active) is 30 minutes for the outside world, which explains why Red Alert's recording of his voice was so slow.
• It's implied here that Drift was the one who removed Red's data slug from Rung's hand, however it's not clear if he was also the one who decapitated the poor guy too.
• Drift being alerted to Rewing talking about Overload (rather than Overlord) is a common mistake in this franchise of ours. This is also confirmation of the Micromaster (if he is one here) as a character in this universe!
• The older a Transformer is, the worst his memory for details gets, as shown here with the pit crowd being badly coloured and detailed
• Megatron had Shockwave implant kill switches into the Phase Sixers, just in case they go wrong, This was shown with Sixshot in Devastation, and Overlord has Shockwave remove his "Achilles heal" in Last Stand of the Wreckers, which was likely this very switch.