IDW - More Than Meets The Eye #38

Title: Elegant Chaos Part 3: Predestination: A Beginner's Guide

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Alex Milne

Colours by: Joanna LaFuente 

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: John Barber

Plot

Megatron starts to panic about Brainstorm trying to kill him at his creation, but Perceptor refuses to send him back in time to stop him, and sends Rodimus and his team along instead.

Back in the past, Brainstorm is still pointing his gun at Megatron's spark, when a grenade is thrown at him, and sends him flying, knocking him out, revealing Rodimus and his team to have arrived just in time.

The group figure out that this is during the Silver Harvest, and that Megatron was Constructed Cold. The start trying to fix the beginnings of Brainstorm's tampering, when Rewind reveals that his records haven't been changed yet, which means they've still failed the mission.

Rodimus calls Perceptor to see what's going on, whilst Perceptor starts to mes with the time locks to try and fix the problem. Rodimus realizes that Brainstorm's plans must be still going on, just as he stands up and points his gun back at Megatron.

Rung manages to get Brainstorm to put the gun down, when he works out that Brainstorm's been waiting for 10 minutes to shoot him, without getting the nerve to actually doing it. He reveals that he did all of this to try and steer Megatron away from evil, but it's all failed. Brainstorm collapses from his grenade injuries just as Rewind grabs his gun and shoots Megatron's spark, destroying it!

Rodimus reports this back to the future, and Megatron is of course unnerved, and rewind reveals that his database revealed to him that even though Cybertron is ruined from it's Functionist future without Megatron, the rest of the universe is happy, and none of them can fault his logic on the matter. Following this Rewind and Chromedome finally reconcile, and get back together.

Suddenly Tailgate notices that Megatron's body has gone missing, which Cyclonus notes is with Whirl in a locked room. Whirl has stolen the Luna-1 spark from Brainstorm's chest cavity and is implanting it into Megatron's body using his watch repair skills because he refuses to allow the Functionists to win after what they did to him.

In the future, Magnus reports to Rodimus that time has started moving outside of the ship again, meaning they've succeeded, but they're unable to return them to the present since the Quantum engines are out of power, and recharging them will cause them to lose their connection to the away team....Rodimus hangs up after swearing at him

In the past again, Tailgate borrows the time phone and makes a call to Cybertron to try and stop the Lost Light from taking off in the first place (the one seen in issue 1) and the team add in several points they want to add too, but he is cut off towards the end by Perceptor calling Rodimus back. Cyclonus tells them they are idiots for doing that, since most of the things the Lost Light have done have been good, and needed in general (such as finding the Cybercrosis cure, stopping Tyrest etc).

Perceptor has told Rodimus that there is an experimental Quantum engine on Cybertron at the time, so they can get there and use it to charge up the time case's abilities. Once there, he goes off to fix make the edits to the engine and case, whilst Cyclonus fights with the security guard.

Back at the Con Facility, Brainstorm reveals that he originally built the time cases to try and save Quark from dying in prison, but then after the original Rewind died, he decided to try and save everyone from the war instead.

At the secret facility again, Cyclonus is overwhelmed by the guard and his Turbofoxes, and shoots him into a small room, and locks it.

Rodimus finishes his edits, and Cyclonus returns to him when suddenly the ship around them, revealed to be the Lost Light, is flung into the future with advanced engines, having reacted with the time case. The crew are then all teleported back to the present day.

Brainstorm is placed in the brig, Chromedome and Rewind are sharing a hab-suite again, and the crew are in Swerve's bar for a Movie Night, including Rodimus and Ultra Magnus. Megatron sits quietly in his own hab-suite, with Ravage watching silently.

Rung goes to see Perceptor, who is analysing the time cases, and says that he thinks the other timeline is still around, but in an alternate universe to them now, thanks to him tampering with the time locks before.

Meanwhile, in the Functionist Universe, Quark has called One-of-Twelve about a discovery that one of the janitor's made about their prisoner Rung. One-of-Twelve points his gun at Rung's spark and plans to kill him to hide the secrets about his unusual alternate mode,..

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Megatron - Tank

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Riptide - Boat

Rung

Tailgate - Car

Perceptor - Microscope

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Hound - Jeep

Highbrow - Helicopter

Bluestreak - Car

Swerve - Van

Optimus Prime/Orion Pax (Mentioned)

Crosscut - Van (Mentioned)

Skids - Van (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Brainstorm - Jet Imprisoned

Ravage - Cassette

Decepticon Justice Division (Mentioned)

Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Swerve's Serving Droid

Security Guard Turned into Sparkeater by Cyclonus

Turbofoxes Defeated by Cyclonus

Megatron's Body's Original Spark Killed by Rewind

Cold Constructed Guys

Quark - Proton Microscope (Flashback) Died in Grindcore Prison Camp

Functionist Council (Mentioned)

Senate (Mentioned)

Chief Justice Tyrest (Mentioned)

Functionist Cybertronian

One-of-Twelve

Quark - Proton Microscope

Sweep

Rung About to be killed by One-of-Twelve

Notes

• Both Ultra Magnus and Perceptor were revealed to have earned Rodimus Stars in this issue
• This issue confirms that everything that has happened in this storyline was always MEANT to happen, from Megatron's batch number being missing, Megatron's evacuation from Messatine etc, and was caused by these events.
• Brainstorm reveals that he planned originally just to steer Megatron away from his evil ways, but decided only near the end to just kill him in the beginning and spare everyone his regime.
• The scanning scene at the start of season 2 in Rung's office is revealed to have been Brainstorm trying to scan Megatron for his timeline, but instead got Rung instead.
• Rewind reveals that even though the Cybertronians have a pretty lousy life in the Functionist future, the rest of the universe is great, and hasn't been damaged by the Civil War.
• As predicted by pretty much everyone, the spark implanted into Megatron here is the one that Brainstorm harvested on Luna-1 and placed into his chest.
• Ironically, Whirl, the guy who would later show Megatron the use of violence is also the guy who saved his life in the first place!
• Tailgate is revealed to be the one to send the message back to Cybertron in 2012, with the added comments from the rest of the team, bar Rewind (who never experienced these events) and Cyclonus (who points out what a stupid plan this was).
• The weapon Whirl took from Brainstorm's weapons lab is revealed to be a "Sparkeater Gun" which turns the victims into Sparkeaters. This means that the guy he attacked last issue turned into one, and probably started the legends of the Sparkeaters. The one turned by Cyclonus in this issue though is revealed to be the one found on the Lost Light in 2012, along with Turbofoxes!
• Brainstorm is revealed to have been observing Quark, his long lost love, when he spotted the time-travelling Rung at the bar.
• Brainstorm's obsession with Perceptor makes a little more sense now, his former love Quark was a scientist, who turned into a Microscope, and was designed to resemble Animated Perceptor.
• Perceptor mentions in this issue that he didn't know anything about Quantum Engines before joining the Lost Light, when it is shown here that he and Rodimus ended up INVENTING it in this issue, whilst sending the now super advanced Lost Light into the future for the NAIL's to find and bring back to Cybertron for Drift to buy!
• The film they play at Swerve's bar is Back to the Future 2.
• Following the revelation that Whirl was the only reason he still lives (and how the universe is better off without him) Megatron goes very quiet in his following appearances this issue.
• Perceptor's current alternate mode is revealed to be a Microscope now (it was a tank for a while as shown in LSOTW)
• Perceptor theorizes that his meddling with the time case's paradox lock may have created the possibility for alternate universes, despite him being the one who claimed it was impossible at the start of the story.
• In the postscript it's confirmed that Rung's mystery alternate mode is something very important, as we have all guessed already from the flurry of clues.
• Tailgate asks whether his message was a little too cryptic..a reference to how the real world audience has been deciphering it since that issue
• Ravage is revealed to be still on the Lost Light.