IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #33

Title: Slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken

Written by: James Roberts

Pencils by: Alex Milne

Inks by: Brian Shearer and John Wycough

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Rewind is taken to a table to recover and wake up, whilst the others continue to wonder what exactly is going on, especially with more "continuity" issues they keep noticing. Rewind wakes up, and gets a bit of a shock by Megatron being an Autobot, Skids and Nightbeat being alive, and Nautica being female. Nightbeat asks him what happened to the Lost Light, and he goes into a bit of a state, but ejects a data slug and gives it to Nightbeat.

Meanwhile, Nautica marvels at the exposed Quantum drums and foam outside of the ship (despite them not supposed to being exposed) and after a small talk with Riptide, finally realizes what's happened to the ship. She runs over to Nightbeat and the others and tells them that she thinks that when the Lost Light had it's accident on take off, she believes the Quantum engines malfunctioned and cloned the ship and it's crew, and now that they came into close proximity to it, the universe is essentially "fixing" the problem by removing one of them.

Nightbeat confirms the theory by revealing some of the events shown on the data slug, which had Rung go missing after take off, and Rodimus being killed during the Sparkeater incident, after which Magnus takes command of the ship. After a short while Overlord's presence on the ship is discovered due to Drift caving in and admitting everything. Someone however betrays the crew and disables the cloak on the Slow Cell and alerts the DJD to Overlord's location, leading to their attack and slaughter of the crew.

Rewind reveals that the DJD forced him to record everyone's deaths, ootehrwise they'd kill Chromedome as a punishment. However in the end they try to force Chromedome to erase his memories of Rewind, but he refuses, resulting in Vos killing him using his own finger needles.

After the catch-up, Riptide notices that the Quantum Foam is going a bit out of control, which Nautica realizes means that the below planet (which could be populated) would be in danger of destruction, so the Autobots decide to try and stop it and save the doomed planet in the process, however the foam is so dense now, that only a pair of small Autobots could stop the drums from exploding from contact. kids remembers the shrink ray used on him and some others to solve Magnus' Nanocon problem (in the Annual) and the group go to Brainstorm's lab to try and find the gun.

At the lab, they are unable to find the gun, but do find Brainstorm's dead body, with his face mask removed, which Nightbeat finds a Decepticon insignia on the back of. The group are distressed by this, Riptide theorizes that Brainstorm must have been the one to alert the DJD, and Ravage points out that the OTHER Brainstorm must be a double agent too if this one was.

Seeing the situation as dire as it is, Megatron reveals that due to his old hand gun mode he can mass shift (but didn't say anything earlier as he doesn't want to sacrifice himself for others).

Soon, Rewind and Megatron head out towards the drums under Nautica's instructions and bbegin disabling the drums (turning off the engines fully, and reseting the Quantum incursion, erasing the duplicate Lost Light and it's dead crew, and hopefully bringing back the "proper" version). Rewind realizes that this probably mean he'll go as well, but doesn't care, as at least he'll be with Chromedome this way. They turn off the engines and a white light encompasses them.

Later, the missing crew members are all start returning, in reverse order on board the Rodpod, Chromedome returns and Skids tells him to go outside, onto the hull, where he sees Rewind, and happily goes to sit next to and embrace his resurrected love (N'AWWWWW!!!)

Blaster reports that the Lost Light has returned too, and Megatron asks to be put in contact with Rodimus, so he can warn him about Brainstorm, he also invites Ravage to stay on the Lost Light with him, now that he's seen the terrors of the DJD first hand.

Meanwhile, Nightbeat and Nautica wonder why Rewind survived, Nightbeat jokes that it was "the power of love", but that doesn't explain why he still has the dead Brainstorm's briefcase in his hands...

On thee Lost Light, the crew are celebrating their return in Swerve's bar, when Brainstorm walks in, sits down next to Atomizer and opens his briefcase. A second later the whole bar, except himself are knocked out, and the room starts to go dark....

Characters

Autobot

Megatron - Tank

Nautica - Submarine

Nightbeat - Car

Riptide - Boat

Getaway - Car

Skids - Van

Ammo

Huffer - Truck

Ratchet - Ambulance

Swerve - Van

Tailgate - Car

Chromedome - Car

Blaster - Acoustic Tank

Hound - Jeep

Brainstorm - Jet (Decepticon Double Agent)

Atomizer Knocked out by Brainstorm

Doublecrosss - Two Headed Dragon Knocked out by Brainstorm

Brawn - Van Knocked out by Brainstorm

Joyride - Buggy Knocked out by Brainstorm

Repugnus - Insectoid Monster Knocked out by Brainstorm

Streetwise - Car Knocked out by Brainstorm

Squafend -- Buggy Knocked out by Brainstorm

Other Lost Lighters Knocked out by Brainstorm

Rodimus - Car (Mentioned)

Crosscut - Van (Mentioned)

Pharma - Jet (Mentioned)

Alternate Lost Lighters

Rewind - Memory Stick

Brainstorm - Jet Crushed to Death

Rodimus - Car (Flashback) Killed in Sparkeater Incident

Drift - Car (Flashback)

Cosmos - Orbiter (Flashback) Killed by Tesarus

Pipes - Truck (Flashback) Killed by Helex

Cyclonus - Jet (Flashback) Killed by Tarn and Vos

Dipstick - Car (Flashback) Killed by Kaon

Chromedome - Car (Flashback) Killed by Vos

Crosscut - Van (Poster)

Ultra Magnus/Minimus Ambus (Mentioned)

Animus (Mentioned)

Rung (Mentioned) Lost at Launch

Decepticon

Ravage - Cassette

Tarn - Tank (Flashback)

Helex - Mobile Smelting Chamber (Flashback)

Tesarus - Metal Grinder (Flashback)

Kaon - Variable Volt Harness (Flashback)

Vos - Rifle (Flashback)

Overlord - Tank/Jet (Mentioned)

Other

Cyclonus - Jet

Sparkeater (Flashback) Killed by Rodimus

Scraplets (Mentioned)

Nanocons (Mentioned)

Knights of Cybertron (Mentioned)

Notes

• It's confirmed here that the Lost Light and it's crew were duplicated on take-off. It's also confirmed that the signal the DJD picked up and went after in issue 8 was from this ship.
• It's interesting that Rung was "lost" on take-off...more suspicions on him, and uniqueness here...
• Getaway seems to know Rewind, despite him joining the crew AFTER Rewind's death. This could just mean he knew him from before the take-off though.
• Considering the alternate Crosscut had completed his play within a few weeks of the launch and yet not being finished on the regular version. That could mean Crosscut was amongst the injured from the hull-breach in issue 1, and he just didn't become active again until closer to Dark Cybertron.
• Brainstorm's face-mask-less face looks like his G1 US cartoon counterpart's rather than his more usual forms.
• Megatron is revealed to still be able to mass-shift from his days with a hand gun alternate mode.
• Shouldn't Ratchet have returned to the Rodpod hand-less?
• Rewind and Chromedome's love of sitting on the hull of the ship, and picturing things in the stars was mentioned in issue 16.
• Considering his past working with the Institute, i's possible that Brainstorm has been under the influence of a Shadowplay of some sort. Perhaps the opening of his briefcase is the trigger to turn him evil?
• When Brainstorm opens his briefcase, the bar goes quite dark...sort of similar to what he claims happened when he opened it on Hydrus-5....