Title: Crucible Part 2: Lustrare
Written by: James Roberts
Art by: Casey W. Coller
Colours by: Joana LaFuente
Letters by: Tom B. Long
Editor: David Mariotte
Publisher: Greg Goldstein
Plot
On Mederi, the team left on the surface continue to barricade themselves into Ward Zero, where First Aid manages to hack into Mederi's files discovers a possible cure for the Sparkeater disease, but it is a concussive medicine, meaning it has to be "punched" into the victims. They prepare to use a generator to administer the cure, but Misfire worries that the organic aliens in the ward could be harmed by the generator. First Aid agrees that this is a risk and tries to find another cure, only for Nickle to turn it on anyway. Outside the Sparkeaters are knocked out, and Velocity commends Nickel, since the organics would have been killed regardless if the monsters got inside, but luckily the generator didn't hurt them anyway. Nickel plays it off that she knew that...and not that she just didn't care about the aliens...
On the Lost Light, Cyclonus has flown off through the corridors with Star Saber chasing him, the two having unfinished business since their last encounter on Luna-1. Rodimus is left with Getaway and Scorponok, the former of which just watches as Scorponok pummels the Autobot. Rodimus taunts Getaway about how he'll never be a Prime, not just because of him not being worthy, but because "Getaway Prime" sounds stupid, to which Getaway just orders Scorponok to kill him.
In the now flooded Shuttle Bay Four, Grimlock manages to slice the Scraplet combiner in half, but it quickly reforms. It starts to grab for the team, until it notices Whirl and speeds off towards him. Whirl screams out a "No!" before being shocked at the Scraplets reforming into a hand and caress his face gently....
Back in the corridors, Star Saber is getting bored with just flying in circles, that is until Cyclonus transforms and draws his sword, bisecting the still speeding Star Saber from end to end, seemingly killing the murderous zealot. He offers him a brief prayer to hope Primus forgives his sins, as he also hopes the same for himself one day.
On the Bridge, Scorponok is about to squish Rodimus' head, but is teleported away by Tyrest, since the Grand Architect needs his "lieutenants" with him for the next stage of their plans. Getaway is left alone with Rodimus, and decides to run for his life rather than fight him there.
On Mederi, some of the Sparkeaters are brought into Ward Zero to complete their treatment, when suddenly the aliens begin a count-down, leaving everyone to worry about what they are counting towards...
Back on the Lost Light, Rodimus follows Getaway to the furnaces, where he contacts Cyclonus to let him know where he is, and he is ambushed by Getaway. The two fight, with Getaway threatening to use some Nucleon rods to destroy the ship. The two talk, and Getaway explains that when they arrived on "Cyberutopia" they found nothing, since the crew didn't have a consensus of what Cyberutopia would be like, and were soon attacked by the Grand Architect's Worldsweepers. Getaway managed to save his own life by claiming that Rodimus and Megatron, along with their allies would be coming to stop the Architect's plans, and offered to help them fight them off. As payment and a show of loyalty, he had his crew handed over to Scorponok to be turned into Sparkeaters.
Getaway admits that everything he ever wanted was pointless now, Cyberutopia was just a fantasy, and he'll never be a Prime. The only thing he has left is to kill Rodimus. Rodimus declares that Getaway is obsessed with him, but Getaway claims the opposite to be true, since he chased him across the universe, and rather than help out his crew on the surface of Mederi, he opted to come to the ship to kill him. This makes Rodimus pause for a moment to consider it, giving Getaway a chance to detonate the Nucleon rods...
LUCKILY, Cyclonus arrives and slices off Getaway's arm, leading him to run off in fear into the open furnace, planning to die by his own hands. Rodimus, having reconsidered things, runs in after his long-time enemy and recovers him, carrying him out as his paint job reverts back to its original state.
Rodimus puts Getaway on the ground as he and Cyclonus look for the sprinkler system controls to put out the furnace flames before they spread too far, however Getaway wakes up and grabs Cyclonus' discarded great sword. He goes to skewer the ancient Cybertronian, when he is stopped by an image of Primus himself in the now-activated Sprinklers. Primus holds out his hand to Getaway, which he takes to mean he has been chosen as the new Prime, he hold's his god's hand and is finally happy.
Then Primus breaks apart into the Scraplet army and tear Getaway apart, killing him in a violent fashion, leaving just a few scraps behind.
Behind the Scraplets, Whirl explains that the Scraplets that he looked after as a baby that snuck on the Lost Light from Luna-1 a few Christmas' ago were a part of the swarm and they have taken control of them. They hacking into the Mederi computers and gave Getaway his happiest wish, validation from god, before killing him.
All seems well, until Rodimus receives a call from Ratchet on Mederi, he explains about the organics having completed their countdown and tells his captain to look out the window, as there's a massive tear in space above Mederi.....
Characters
Autobot
Rodimus - Car
Ultra Magnus - Vehicle Transport
Drift - Car
Getaway - Car Eaten by Scraplets
Ratchet - Ambulance
First Aid - Ambulance
Velocity - Race Car
Brainstorm - Jet
Chromedome - Car
Rewind - Data Slug
Rung - Photonic Crystal Generator
Swerve - Van
Tailgate - Car
Nautica - Submarine
Riptide - Boat
Grimlock - Tyrannosaurus Rex
Thunderclash - Truck
Whirl - Osprey Helicopter
Sparkeater Inferno - Fire Truck Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Sparkeater Waverider - Submarine Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Sparkeater Siren - Car Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Sparkeater Slamdance - Cassettes Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Sparkeater Gears - Van Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Sparkeater Powerflash - Jet Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Other Lost Lighter Sparkeaters Knocked out by Concussive Medicine Wave
Sparkeater Bluestreak - Car (Flashback Only)
Sparkeater Hound - Jeep (Flashback Only)
Sparkeater Hoist - Crane (Flashback Only)
Skids - Van (Mentioned) Dead
Decepticon
Nickel - Rocket Powered Buggy
Misfire - Jet
Spinister - Helicopter
Fulcrum - K-Class Bomb
Crankcase - Van
Krok
Other Cybertronian
Scorponok - Scorpion
Star Saber - Jet Bisected by Cyclonus
Cyclonus - Jet
Roller - Truck
Wipe-Out - Car
Anode - Bi-Plane
Lug - Backpack Equipment
Primus (Scraplet Construct Only)
Tyrest (Voice Only)
Other
Scraplets
Alien Telepaths Comatose on Mederi
The Grand Architect (Mentioned)
The Beast (Mentioned)
Notes
- You may think it's harsh of Nickel to use the concussive wave generator around the organics, before they tested if it was safe for them, but do remember that her homeworld of Prion was destroyed by organics...so I guess it's okay for her to be a little kill-happy with them!
- Despite being the focus of the cover I got (Hey I love Star Saber!) His fight with Cyclonus lasts all of five panels....yay....we don't even get to see him transform into robot mode...
- Also....DAMMIT CYCLONUS! DON'T KILL MY STAR SABER SENPEI!!
- Rodimus gets annoyed with Scorponok for referring to him as "Hot Rod", similarly to how he got annoyed with Fortress Maximus for the same reason. This is what you get for renaming yourself!
- Oh...what a shock...the scraplets are being controlled by the ones Whirl befriended in the Holiday Special...I totally didn't call that in the previous Lost Light review....
- According to Rodimus, Drift believes in what are essentially guardian angels named Slivers...hope they're not related to the poo aliens from the movies of the same names...
- Rung has "heard" the pronounced coat of arms for the Knights of Cybertron/the Grand Architect's faction before in the past...I wonder if this has some connection to his still unexplained alternate mode?
- Having finally taken back his ship, and gotten "revenge" on Getaway by not killing him like he wanted, but intending for him to be taken into custody for his crimes, Rodimus' colour scheme, which Drift gave him to signify that he wanted to kill someone, burns away in the flames, and returns to his classic look.
- Tyrest states that "The Beast" approaches. Considering this issue was originally meant to be released before Unicron #1 coming out, we can assume that this is referring to the planet eater.
- The crack in space near Mederi looks similar to the tear in time/space from the Marvel UK Time Wars event.
- My updated idea for the plot now, is that The Grand Architect's plan is to use the threadbare space created over the past few issues to try and trap Unicron within it, to try and save the Universe (obviously it'll fail, but whatever)
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