IDW - Lost Light #16

Title: The Everlasting Voices 1: Metastasis

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: Jack Lawrence

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rodimus and Cyclonus wake up in separate rooms and walk outside them, with them looking shocked and happy (respectively) to see a giant Matrix in the sky above them.

Soon afterwards, Rodimus contacts Ultra Magnus, who is also there, to see if he can identify where they are, arranging to meet "under the Matrix", where Rodimus comes across Ten, who thanks Rodimus for taking him in, and says that everyone made him so happy. At the moment of his happiness, Ten is stuck with light from the Matrix, his chest tears open and his spark leaves his body, leaving him dead on the ground. Ratchet arrives just afterwards, now not in his intangible form.

Back in the awakening rooms, Nautica is analysing the glyphs on her own bed when Brainstorm and Nightbeat arrive, Nautica deciphers the glyphs to be the creation story told by the Clavis Aurea, which tells about how Primus split into five individuals to start the Cybertronian race. Soon Drift arrives to tell them to come see what he's found outside...

Ratchet examines Ten's body and determines that he is indeed dead when Magnus arrives, with Whirl, Velocity and Swerve in tow. The assembled crew try to determine where they are, only for Swerve and Cyclonus to explain that they must be in the Afterspark, having been killed when Ten directed them to a portal where they were exposed to compressed space, and killed the entire crew.

The crew, especially Rodimus are distraught over this news, but Ratchet refuses to believe that he and the others are in some after-life, as that goes against everything he believes in. On cue, two of the long dead previous crewmates ppear from nowhere, Trailcutter and Pipes! The crew are shocked, and Cyclonus speeds off to find something...

Back with the other group, Drift explains to them how they died and is now in the Afterspark. Nightbeat is upset since this is yet another one of the great mysteries he has been denied of solving. Suddenly Roller appears with his friend from his days as a cop, Springarm, who was murdered on the job by Senate thugs. Roller rides off with him again after introducing him to his new friends, all whilst Brainstorms warning device freaks out and even burns his hands, showing that they are indeed in danger...

Ratchet examines Pipes to determine if he's actually alive or not, but can't find anything wrong. Trailcutter and Pipes explain that they are in a limbo-like location BEFORE entering the Afterspark, where their minds can be shielded from the intense emotions in the real Afterspark, but will be able to ascend when they "put their affairs in order".

On the note, Cyclonus locates what he was looking for, Tailgate, who was seemingly waiting for Cyclonus to arrive so they could pass on together, and the two embrace upon finding each other again.

The crew don't know what to do, but Whirl manages to get Rodimus out of his funk by asking him what he thinks Megatron would do in this situation. Rodimus immediately sets about to try and get answers, he asks Trailcutter who is in charge, which he just says "god" so Rodimus does the reasonable thing....he yells at the sky, demanding that Primus speak to him directly. The rest of the drew and embarrassed by his actions, until Rodimus gets struck by lightning and vanishes.

Rodimus arrives on a dias, where he is surrounded by the giant figures of the Guiding Hand, Primus, Epistemus, Mortilus, Solumus and Adaptus, and he offers them his hand in greeting!

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Swerve - Van

Velocity - Race Car

Nautica - Submarine

Nightbeat - Car

Brainstorm - Jet

Afterspark Tailgate - Car

Afterspark Trailcutter - Van

Afterspark Pipes - Truck

Rung - Photon Crystal Generator (Flashback Only)

Chromedome - Car (Flashback Only)

Rewind - Data Slug (Flashback Only) Injured by Sword Slash

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Getaway - Car (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Skip - Space Shuttle (Flashback) Dead

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Roller - Truck

Ten "Ascended" to Afterspark 

Afterspark Springarm - Motorcycle

Afterspark Primus

Afterspark Mortilus

Afterspark Adaptus

Afterspark Epistemus

Afterspark Solomus

Anode - Bi-Plane (Flashback Only)

Lug - Backpack Equipment (Flashback Only)

Wheelarch - Motorcycle (Mentioned) Dead

Kroma (Mentioned)

Notes

• We rejoin Team Rodimus following the events of issue 13
• I know all the crew are mentioned as being killed before this issue, but I don't believe it happened, so I wont be putting it in the character list section.
• So....Rodimus' communicator/phone works in the afterlife? hmm....
• Here's a weird thing...where are Anode, Lug, Chromedome, Rewind and Rung in the Afterspark? I could understand the former four as they would be "happy" and could instantly move on, but we know Rung has massive issues and worries in his life...so where is he?
• The characters in the Afterspark don't all remember what happened following Ten's big announcement...perhaps this is because they are false memories, planted by whoever placed them here?
• So...why is Pipes one of the guys summoned to show the crew the way to the real Afterspark? I mean I like seeing him again, but why is he there? His main joke was that no-one really cared about him. Wouldn't Skids have been a better choice, given the people assembled?
• Trailcutter being summoned and being of interest to Rodimus is a nice nod to how broken up he was over his death. He even tried to re-write history to make Trailcutter not die!
• Drift refers to Primus as the "Celestial Architect"...wonder if that is somehow connected to the "Grand Architect"? Perhaps he was called that before being split into five, and having the name inherited by one of his components? 
• It's confirmed here that the disappearances of Luna-1, Ark-1 and the purpose of Rung's alternate mode are the "Big Three" mysteries that Nightbeat has been investigating in his spare time since the start of IDW's Transformers line!
• Trailcutter's projection of what the Afterspark looks like seems VERY similar to what was believed to be Cyberutopia in issue 12 huh?
• If they are all in the Afterspark, then why are some of their belonging (Rodimus' phone and  Brainstorm's early warning device) with them?
• Pipes knows both who Velocity is, and what Nautica's nickname for her is....why? Pipes doesn't know who either of them are, having died well before either joined the crew. Maybe he can watch the Lost Light from the Afterspark? (or something more sinister!)
• Can I just say how perfect it is that the egotistical Rodimus is so confident in himself that upon meeting his creator Gods, he just asks for a handshake with a grin!
• Of note, the only four dead Cybertronians we see in this issue all died violent ways, Springarm was decapitated, Pipes was stomped to death, Trailcutter was torn apart and crushed against his own forcefield and Tailgate was (supposedly) killed by a spark explosion. Even if we count the Guiding Hand, they all were mentioned as dying or being turned into a new item during a war.
• Okay, it seems painfully obvious that the "Afterspark" isn't what it appears to be. There are so many things wrong there that it hurts. I've mentioned a few throughout these notes, but one major thing I haven't mentioned is that Brainstorm's Early Early Warning Device has been going off, and overheating throughout the issue, it even gets too hot to touch right after Roller rides off with Springarm.
• Here's my theory on what happened. At the end of issue 13, Ten told the crew what to do to save themselves and they wound up in the Warren and arrived at Cyberutopia, where they were knocked out and left to wake up in this scenario. The dead characters are facsimiles made from reading their memories, possibly including Ten himself who is noted as sounding different throughout the story. The crew are being tested to see if they can be used in whatever the Cyberutopians want to do to the Universe and that is what will be revealed over the next couple issues.
• Following the usual adverts, the back page features a funeral/memorial announcement for Kup, acting as an advert for Transformers vs Visionaries, where he died (and giving a small announcement about the "road to Unicron"underneath)