IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #31

Title: Twenty Plus One

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Atilio Rojo

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editorial Assistance: Vincent Kings

Editor: John Barber

Plot

About two years ago, Drift, Riptide and Pipes enter the Festival of Lost Light to find the owner of the Quantum Spaceship they saw, and plan to buy it. Drift soon finds the owners and communicates with them through Chirolinguists (hand talking) and buys it from them for a Billion Shanix, with Drift explaining that he just KNOWS it's the right ship for them.

Back in the present, Megatron, on the Rodpod, asks for Riptide to stop talking about how he bought the ship, and for them to concentrate on what happened to the ship in the present, but Nautica apologizes saying she asked for the story as she finds the ship's Quantum engines interesting, as they are impossibly strong. She then theorizes that the engines actually made themselves and the ship vanish into non-existence as a result.

Rodimus contacts the Rodpod telling them to head to the planet Ofsted XVII to rendezvous. Megatron takes a headcount, and finds there to be 20 members of the crew on the shuttle.

Before long, the Crosscut and Cyclonus start discussing the ethics of making a lecture planet like Ofsted run by the council, and for currency, but suddenly the lights go out and Crosscut vanishes. Tailgate immediately thinks Megatron is responsible and aims a gun at him and suggests they lock him up, but Megatron takes out his own hand gun and aims at the small Autobot, saying he wont be imprisoned again, leading to Riptidde aiming a gun at him too. Cyclonus tries to make everyone calm down, leading to Huffer and Gears turning on him, bringing up his involvement on the Kimia attack as evidence of his evilness.

Nearby, Hound aims his gun at Nautica, who seems shocked, until she learns that Ravage has been hiding under her console and he was the one being aimed at. The lights go out again, and Megatron shoots Ravage, saving Hound from his pounce. Unknown to the others, Megatron talks to Ravage through Chirolinguistics, telling him to play dead, and that the crew are starting to trust him. Meanwhile, Nautica notices that more of the crew have vanished.

The crew try to determine why people are vanishing when the lights turn off, and Nightbeat believes it may be something to do with people being Forged or not, like with Tyrest's device. However when everyone's status is determined, it seems that there's no pattern there.

Afterwards the crew talk about the ethics behind the creation of soldiers for specific wars, and how several of them have had reported mystical experiences over the years, when the lights turn off again and more crew disappear.

Amongst the newly vanished was Cyclonus, but his Great Sword was left behind, Nightbeat starts to examine why it was left when he sees a giant human eye behind him. Ultra Magnus rescales his holo-avatar to a smaller size and reports that everyone else on the Leading Light (which would include Rodimus) and all the other shuttles have vanished. Tailgate looks out the window and can't see the Leading Light, leading Magnus to realize that he's vanished too, shortly followed by his avatar.

Nightbeat has Ratchet quickly write down all the information he has on all the crew on the Rodpod. to see if there's any helpful information. After finishing, the lights go out, and more crew are gone. When Ratchet leaves however he leaves his hands behind, after which Riptide reveals that he wasn't on the Lost Light before Dark Cybertron, he was SUPPOSED to be on the ship, but was knocked out in a bar fight with the Lost Light's original owners when he confronted them after learning they had a Sparkeater trapped on the ship, and that they are Mortilus worshippers.

This final piece of information solves the mystery for Nightbeat. Everyone who has vanished was a member of the original Lost Light Crew after it's purchase, and anything external added to them (like the new hands for Ratchet or Cyclonus' sword) were left behind too. Megatron points out that Nightbeat has failed as he solved the mystery too late to save anyone.

Before long the ship arrives around Ofsted XVII, where Nautica sees the wreckage of the Lost Light in orbit of the planet!!

Characters

Autobot

Megatron - Tank

Nightbeat - Car

Riptide - Boat

Nautica - Submarine

Getaway

Skids - Van

Chromedome - Car Missing

Blaster Missing

Hoist - Crane Missing

Ammo Missing

Swerve - Van Missing

Tailgate - Car Missing

Ratchet - Ambulance Missing

Crosscut - Van Missing

Gears - Van Missing

Huffer - Truck Missing

Dipstick - Car Missing

Hound - Jeep Missing

Highbrow - Helicopter Missing

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport (Via Holo-Avatar) Missing

Rewind - Memory Stick (Flashback)

Pipes - Truck (Flashback)

Drift - Car (Flashback)

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned) Missing

Perceptor (Mentioned) Missing

Brainstorm - Jet (Mentioned) Missing

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter (Mentioned) Missing

Scattergun (Mentioned)

Dominus Ambus (Mentioned)

Pharma (Mentioned)

Thunderclash (Mentioned)

Windblade (Mentioned)

Chromia (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Ravage - Cassette

Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet Missing

Lost Light's Past Owners (Flashback)

Festival of Lost Light Attendees (Flashback)

Primus (Mentioned)

Adaptus (Mentioned)

Mortilus (Mentioned)

Necrobot (Mentioned)

Alchemy Seven Crew (Mentioned)

Chief Justice Tyrest (Mentioned)

Other

Galactic Council (Mentioned)

Verity Carlo (Mentioned - Used as Holo-Avatar basis)

Notes

• This issue is essentially a bottle episode, often used in TV series' to save money on actors or set pieces etc. In a comic though it doesn't really save money at all.
• It's revealed here that the Lost Light was purchased by Drift, Pipes and Riptide, and that they renamed it before launch (despite that being VERY unlucky in nautical traditions). This could explain some of the crew's problems of late! (Incidentally all three purchasers had a bad time in particular, Drift was exiled, Riptide was left behind, and Pipes was violently murdered)
• Chromedome and Rewind are shown to be amongst the Festival goers in the opening scenes, possibly indicating that it is a romantic ceremony as well as a seemingly memorial one (based on the name, and the floating lanterns)
• Nautica's Brainstorm worshipping was hinted at in the recent issues, where she even claims that Perceptor is inferior to him. However what is new here, is that Nautica seems to actually respect Megatron as a leader (most likely due to her being from another planet)
• Nautica believes that the Lost Light's engines are what is making the ship disappear, as they have proven themselves to be impossible, thus they are becoming that!
• Nautica is shown using a pair of blasters on the front cover during the Mexican standoff, despite being revealed in Windblade #3 that people from Caminus do not believe in using ranged weapons (in the issue itself she uses her wrench, but it's still note-worthy)
• Several character's Forged/Constructed Cold statuses are revealed in this issue, but Megatron refuses to reveal his status (though since he's supposedly a Point One Percenter, he is likely Forged.
• It's revealed that Nova Prime had a stockpile of sparks from his Matrix syphoning project, which were found later on, to be used to create new troops for major battles.
• It's likely that the blackout on the Lost Light during Megatron's therapy session was what made the Pyrobots disappear (likely naming them as original crew members then)
• Megatron remembers Verity's appearance, despite their only real interaction being a brief glimpse when she wandered into the Decepticon's original Earth base and found him them. He has a good memory!
• Nightbeat's obsession with solving a mystery was shown in this issue to be more important to him than saving people.
• Hoist mentions his old friend "Scattergun". This was also the name of one of Chromedome's past Conjunx Endurae. As shown in this series though, some characters do just happen to have the same names as each other.
• Ammo is noted as being a Monoformer in this issue.