IDW - Lost Light #19

Title: Crucible Part 1: A Dance Before Dying

Written by: James Roberts

Art by: E.J. Su

Colours by: Joana LaFuente

Letters by: Tom B. Long

Editor: David Mariotte

Publisher: Greg Goldstein

Plot

Rodimus, his team, and the Scavengers look on in horror as the mutinous crew of the Lost Light rain down on them, now turned into Sparkeaters. Brainstorm approaches the now "zombified" Perceptor and tries to reason with his old friend and lab-mate, but the Sparkeater just sprays acidic vomit from his mouth on the Autobot. Nautica gets him out of the way and the group flee from their old friends.

A shuttle appears above them and drops what they believe to be a bomb, but is revealed to be Grimlock, who proceeds to crush some of the Sparkeaters, and slices up Mainframe. Magnus uses Crankcase as a gun to stop Grimlock, explaining that those are Autobots his is killing. Soon, the shuttle fires lasers at the monsters, causing them to scatter, before it lands, revealing First Aid, Riptide, Thunderclash and Wipe-Out inside.

With this moment of calm, the Scavengers reunite with Grimlock, to Magnus' shock, and First Aid and the others explain what Getaway's been doing on the Lost Light, and how they all met up on Troja Major. All of a sudden, the Lost Light appears in the sky and fires upon Wipe-Out's shuttle, damaging it, and Rodimus is horrified to see the Grand Architect's symbol on the bottom of his ship.

Inside the Lost Light, Getaway is talking to someone over a communicator about how they need to take out Rodimus and the others before they can proceed with the Grand Architect's plans. He denies to the other person that he wants them to get back onto the ship, as he watches the Scraplets in the Oil Reservoir combine into a massive form...

Back on Mederi, the crew watch as the Lost Light flies away, and the weather starts to change to a stormier scene, however before they can do anything about it a second wave of Sparkeaters appear and start attacking Rodimus and his crew. They try their best to disable the monsters, without killing their friends, but due to their bodies being messed up they keep causing them to die.

Rodimus soon realises that this is part of Getaway's plan, to make him murder his own crew, so he does as Whirl suggested earlier...think like Megatron, and gets a plan..

Back aboard the Lost Light, Getaway is being admonished by another person, Tyrest over a communicator, for his plan taking too long, and states that they're sending in some help. Tyrest states that Getaway's mission is pointless since Megatron isn't even with Rodimus and his crew now, and he's the "dangerous one" they're there to take out. Which Getaway just declares that they didn't need Megatron to defeat him last time...

Several of the Mederi team have barricaded themselves into Ward Zero, so they can distract the Sparkeaters from Rodimus and the others, who have repaired Wipe-Out's shuttle and infiltrate the Lost Light. Whilst there, they can use the advanced medical facility to try and cure the Sparkeaters, and return them to their old Autobot states.

Rodimus and his team manage to get onto the Lost Light, as the doors to Shuttle Bay Four are open and they exit to find no guards or crew. As soon as they land, the doors start to close, but Rodimus and Cyclonus manage to escape just in time. The ceiling to the shuttle bay detonates, and the oil reservoir above them floods into the room, leaving them trapped in oil with a massive combined red Scraplet monster!

Rodimus and Cyclonus rush towards the bridge, where Rodimus is certain Getaway will be, also sure that the others can handle anything that comes at them in the shuttle bay. The duo are stopped however when they reach the bridge to find Getaway, flanked by Star Saber and Scorponok....

Characters

Autobot

Rodimus - Car

Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport

Drift - Car

Ratchet - Ambulance

Velocity - Race Car

Brainstorm - Jet

Nautica - Submarine

Chromedome - Car

Rewind - Data Slug

Whirl - Osprey Helicopter

Tailgate - Car

Swerve - Van

Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator

Thunderclash - Truck

Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex

First Aid - Ambulance

Riptide - Boat

Getaway - Car

Sparkeater Perceptor - Tank

Sparkeater Blaster - Acoustic Tank

Sparkeater Hound - Jeep

Sparkeater Hoist - Crane

Sparkeater Brawn - Van

Sparkeater Crosscut - Van

Sparkeater Xaaron

Sparkeater Powerflash - Jet

Sparkeater Hosehead - Fire Truck

Sparkeater Siren - Car Crushed by Grimlock

Sparkeater Gears - Van

Sparkeater Huffer - Truck

Sparkeater Mainframe Killed by Grimlock

Sparkeater Slapdash - Race Car Killed by Krok

Sparkeater Bluestreak - Car Killed by Ratchet

Sparkeater Jackpot - Car Killed by Thunderclash

Sparkeater Lost Light Crew

Megatron - Tank (Mentioned)

Decepticon

Krok

Misfire - Jet

Crankcase - Van

Fulcrum - K-Class Bomb

Spinister - Helicopter

Nickel - Rocket Powered Buggy

Scorponok - Scorpion

The First Born (Mentioned)

Other Cybertronian

Cyclonus - Jet

Roller - Truck

Anode - Bi-Plane

Lug - Backpack Equipment

Wipe-Out - Car

Star Saber - Jet

Tyest (Hologram)

Agonizer/The Curator (Mentioned)

Other

Red Scraplets

Alien Telepaths Comatose

The Grand Architect (Mentioned)

Notes

• A small update: Last issue I questioned whether the organic aliens were long living or being cared for on Mederi. I remembered since that issue that there was a massive store of organics in pods under Demus' facility, so that's most likely where they were coming from.
• This issue marks the start of the seven-issue finale to Lost Light, which will also in some way link into the overall finale to the IDW universe along with the Unicron series and finale to Optimus Prime
• This issue features E.J. Su, the artist who did the art for the early IDW series, such as Infiltration, Revelation and others. In this case he is emulating Jack Lawrence's style, which in turn was emulating Alex Milne...this is confusing!
• So...following their leaving the Lost Light, First Aid and the others were heading to Troja Major to repair Thunderclash, along the way they run into Grimlock, who escaped from Scorponok's Worldsweeper, and on the planet they hire Wipe-Out for his ship and hunt down the Lost Light, which First Aid left a tracer on before he left...so that was a whole lot of coincidence just to get all these side characters to arrive on Mederi to save Rodimus and his crew huh?! Who wants to bet that Fort Max and the Luna-1 crew will also turn up before the finale?
• Unshockingly, Getaway has joined forces with the Grand Architect's crew, which also includes the long missing Tyrest and Scorponok.
• Mederi is now beginning to suffer the same weird weather as what was beginning on Troja Major. The two worlds were mentioned to be on the same spiritual ley-lines last issue, indicating that they are linked...who wants to bet they are in some way under attack from Unicron here?
• It's kind of funny that Rodimus refers to First Aid as "loyal" since we learned that he was actually amongst those who agreed to mutineer against Rodimus in an earlier issue.
• Okay, I understand most of the choices for the crew to return to the Lost Light. Rodimus and Cyclonus want first hand revenge on Getaway. Drift, Grimlock, Magnus, Roller, Whirl and Thunderclash are all good fighters and can handle themselves in a crisis, as mentioned in the issue, and Crankcase was needed for his piloting skills...but why are Anode and Lug here? They have no connection with the Lost Light, haven't shown any battle skills and have no connections with any of the other characters. my only guess is they're there for a plot point involving Scorponok or someone else on the ship to be revealed later.
• We learn in this issue that the Oil Reservoir is located above Shuttle Bay Four...what would Getaway have done if they chose to enter the ship in any of the OTHER shuttle bays?
• I'm getting the feeling that the Scraplets, or at least some of them, may be revealed to be the "baby" from the Holiday Special, and they recognize Whirl as their "father" and help him out.
• From how empty the ship is, it can be assumed that the entire crew, minus Getaway and Star Saber, have been turned into Sparkeaters now...I wonder if that includes Sunder and Froid though....