Written and Drawn by: Nick Roche
Colours by: Josh Burcham
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editor: John Barber
Plot
On Cybertron, Optimus thanks Prowl for showing him the error of his ways, by following his every suggestion, and making Cybertron a peaceful world without Decepticons. However this is all a fantasy, and Prowl finds himself tied up in some spider-webs in a dark room, where he is greeted by a voice from his past, Mesothulas. Prowl is shocked that he's still alive, but refuses to talk to his old "friend", so Mesothulas tells him to get cozy, as he'll give him a reason soon.
At the warehouse, the Wreckers are arguing with Arcee over her implication that Verity or Kup know what happened to Prowl. Stakeout gives Verity her old exo-suit again to help her keep warm, when all of a sudden she becomes sick again, and needs to step outside, Stakeout follows her to make sure she's kept safe.
Outside, Stakeout finds Verity on the end of a dock where she says that she understands why he left her before, but is glad that he's back, and admits that she's scared. Suddenly however a rabbit appears and steals her back, containing the Aequitas files. Stakeout chases after it across the frozen water and Verity goes to inform the Wreckers so they can help too.
Verity reaches the Wreckers and tells them what happened when Kup faints, only to wake up again suddenly, but controlled by Prowl from his prison using the Mind-Uplink he had implemented when Kup was revived in the past. He tells them that he's being held by Mesothulas, that he detected sea water on his body before entering his current location, so he's probably on an off-shore facility, and tries to warn them about the effects of the Noisemaze, all before being suddenly cut off from his communication. Hubcap reports that he detects no other Cybertronian life-signs in the area for them to go after.
In the Wildernesses, Guzzle and Impactor are patrolling when they come across a polar bear, who seems to instinctively attack the two invading tanks, Guzzle takes this as a challenge and shoots the innocent creature, which Impactor admonishes him for, until it turns out that the polar bear is actually Polar Claw, a Transformer, whom Impactor allows Guzzle to take on.
Stakeout follows the abnormally fast rabbit into a gap in the ice, where he finds it swimming into the mouth of a waiting whale he decides this needs to be reported back to the others.
Back at the warehouse, Kup is back to himself, but has now learned about all the Autobots he killed during the rescue missions to save him, distressing him to no end. Arcee still thinks that Verity and Stakeout have something to do with Prowl's disappearance, but is soon shut up when Stakeout reports in about the rabbit and the whale, then relays that more sea animals are appearing from the whale's mouth as well. The group put their differences aside and head out to Stakeout's location.
Along the way to the battle site, Springer begins to ask Verity why she was blackmailing Prowl, but she changes the topic to whether Springer dreamt during his coma, which he confirmed that he did, and his dreams were about Garrus-9. Verity begins to tell him what's happened to her, but before she can, Springer is attacked by a wolf from the ground.
Springer is forced into robot mode, but manages to grab Verity in his arms, and crashes down to the ground. Carnivac reveals himself and explains that he leads a group called the Mayhem, and starts to explain to Springer that they are trying to bring down the oppressive command structure amongst the Autobots and Decepticons, and also explains that his Outlier abilities allow him to paralyze and force-convert an opponent.
Impactor and Guzzle arrive, along with Polar Claw's dead body, which Carnivac allows them to keep, as he is already dead and serves no further use to them. However once Carnivac is gone, Guzzle tears the corpse in half and drains him of energon, causing a power surge in the Autobot. Springer is shocked by this, having recovered from his attack, but decides to use Guzzle as a weapon against the Mayhem.
The other Wreckers and Arcee arrive at the break in the ice, where they start shooting into the water and attack the whale, Tidal Wave. The other three Mayhems, Stampy, Claw Jaw and Cybershark leap out of the water and into robot mode, which somewhat confuses the Autobots, since they STILL cannot detect any Cybertronian lifesigns from them. The groups begin to battle, with Tidal Wave even converting into a tank mode to join the battle. Duiring the battle, Tidal Wave tries to transform to his robot mode, but is stuck halfway through, leaving some areas exposed.
Springer and the others rejoin the group and join the battle. The team head inside Tidal Wave, minus Kup, Impactor and Guzzle, who continue the fight outside, and take an injured Claw Jaw along with them.
The group are led down a corridor where they locate a gate, which Claw Jaw says they need to use to reach Prowl, so they enter it, into the Noisemaze...
Back in his holding area, Prowl is woken up by Mesothulas again, but he still refuses to engage with his captor...until Mesothulas shows Prowl the copy of the Aequitas files now in his possession, which finally catches the Autobot's attention....
Characters
Autobot
Prowl - Police Vehicle Imprisoned by Mesothulas
Arcee - Sports Car
Kup - Pick Up Truck
Springer - Helicopter/Car
Impactor - Tank
Guzzle - Tank
Roadbuster - Armoured Jeep
Hubcap - Sports Car
Stake Out - Police Car
Optimus Prime - Truck Cab (Fantasy)
Perceptor - Tank (Mentioned)
Mayhem
Carnivac - Wolf
Tidal Wave - Whale/Tank
Stampy - Rabbit
Claw Jaw - Squid Captured by the Wreckers
Cybershark - Shark
Polar Claw - Polar Bear Killed by Guzzle
Decepticon
Overlord - Tank and Jet (Flashback)
Neutral Cybertronian
Mesothulas (Voice Only)
Tyrest (Mentioned)
Human
Verity Carlo
Notes
- Just going to announce this here, my comic reviews have been a bit missing recently due to my comic supplier going bankrupt. Hopefully things should be back to normal soon though :)
- Originally it was planned for the positive-reinforcement prison that Mesolthulas uses on Prowl here to be used in Garrus-9 for the prisoners instead of Spark extraction, but Prowl found this method too humane.
- I would do speculations on he identity of Mesothulas here, but since I already have issue 3 I know it's Tarantulas, explaining the speech patterns and spider webs etc.
- Verity still owns her exo-suit that she was given by Ultra Magnus.
- When Prowl is controlling Kup, the energy coming from Kup's eyes resemble Prowl's forehead crest.
- The Wreckers and Arcee learn about Prowl implanting a mind-uplink into Kup here, and are obviously pissed off about the abuse.
- Again, I know what happened due to me owning issue 3 already, but when Prowl's communication is disrupted, you can clearly see Hubcap doing something to his head, much like he does next issue when he uses his abilities!
- The polar bear from last issue and the bunny rabbit from the start of this story are revealed to be Cybertronians, along with several others based on Beast Wars Maximal characters.
- Along with the Maximal re-purposes, Carnivac is based on his G1 character, but with a new character model, and Tidal Wave is clearly based on his Armada design, but with a new whale and tank alternate mode.
- Verity reveals that she went to Nome so she could see the Northern Lights before...whatever is happening to her takes it's toll.
- The effect given to Guzzle after drinking Polar Claw's energon resembles what happened to Razorbeast in Beast Wars: The Ascending when he was dosed with Angolmois energy.
- The final shot of the issue shows Prowl's face lined up against the Autobot insignia on the Aequitas data-slug, which is very apt since the Autobot insignia was designed based on Prowl's toys face.
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