Devisive

2012-06-04T23:09:36Z

86.129.241.162: /* Notes */ Can't believe you guys missed that?

{{Comicstory|
|seriesissue=''[[The Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' #4
|prev=Stick Together
|next=A Better Tomorrow
|caption=
|image=RID4_cvrA.jpg
|title="Devisive"
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]]
|date=[[April 25]], [[2012]]
|coverdate=April 2012
|story by=[[John Barber]]
|art by=[[Andrew Griffith]]
|colors by=[[Josh Perez]]
|letters by=[[Shawn Lee]]
|editor=[[Carlos Guzman]]
|continuity=[[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW continuity]]
|chronology=[[IDW timeline|Current era (2012)]]
}}

'''A murder rocks the already-unstable political climate of Cybertron, and Prowl has to deal with his own instabilities while hunting down the culprit.'''

==Synopsis==

Things are starting to look up for the [[Decepticon]]s on [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]] since [[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] joined [[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]]'s government: no longer serving as enforcers because brutishness is expected of them, several of them have been given jobs in the [[reclamation tunnel]]s beneath the city sorting refuse, including [[Dirge (G1)|Dirge]], [[Swindle (G1)|Swindle]] and the [[Constructicon (G1)|Constructicons]]. Swindle is in the process of testing Dirge's patience, nattering on about the changes Starscream has made, but his day suddenly gets exponentially worse when he comes across the dead body of [[Skydive (Predator)|Skydive]] atop a mound of garbage, and turns to see the murderer.

Far less enamoured with Starscream's entry into politics than Swindle is [[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]], who grimly watches as the Seeker leader runs rings around Bumblebee and [[Metalhawk]] in a public speech. [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]], lurking nearby, coldly taunts Prowl over recent events, including the death of [[Ratbat (G1)|Ratbat]], how he has worked with Starscream to cover it up, and the fact that at least some Transformers believe he was responsible for destroying the ''[[Lost Light]]'', but Prowl shrugs it off, telling her he doesn't have the luxury out doubting his decisions. [[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] arrives with the news of Skydive's murder, and Prowl leaves to investigate personally after learning that the only witness, Dirge, is "acting real weird". After sorting out the confusion over the victim's name—he's the Decepticon [[Predator (subgroup)|Predator]], not the [[Aerialbot (G1)|Aerialbot]]—Prowl questions Dirge, who merely repeats that he did not see anything over and over again. Fortunately, the mystery has an easy answer: Dirge is being controlled by one of [[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]]'s [[cerebro-shell]]s! Wheeljack is able to easily whip up a device to track the shell's signal back to its source, and Prowl sets off with Arcee and the mesmerized Dirge to track Bombshell down.

They soon find Bombshell in a techno-jungle on the outskirts of the city, where he has taken control of [[Sunstorm (G1)|Sunstorm]] and is chittering about bringing their race closer to being part of "[['Til all are one|all-who-are-one]]". Arcee bursts from the foliage and disables Sunstorm by cutting him off at the knees, but Bombshell reacts by reasserting control over Dirge and ordering him to seize Prowl. While Arcee is distracted by the crippled Sunstorm, Bombshell makes a break for it, racing back into the city and into the reclamation tunnels, with Blurr, ordered to pursue by Prowl, hot on his heels. Prowl soon gets the better of his hypnotized opponent, while Arcee simply kills Sunstorm outright, prompting him to chastize her for the unnecessary act, but she doesn't care in the slightest. The pair take Dirge and follow Blurr into the tunnels, only to find he has been set upon by the Constructicons. Prowl leaves Arcee to deal with the Decepticon team while he continues his pursuit of Bombshell, using Wheeljack's passcode to override the tunnel systems and corner the [[Insecticon (G1)|Insecticon]] in a dead end. Bombshell refuses to talk, and that's the last straw for Prowl: he remembers the time he believed he had changed for the better on [[Earth]], how [[Spike Witwicky (G1)|Spike Witwicky]]'s treachery undid that, and how, after Ratbat's murder, he is now as guilty as Spike was of breaking the law and conspiring with Decepticons to hide that fact. Filled with anger and already having crossed the line, Prowl gives in to his rage, and mercilessly executes Bombshell.

With Bombshell's death, Dirge is freed from his control, and a very tense moment follows as Prowl aims his gun at this one witness to his brutal actions. A sudden wave of trash drops into the tunnel through a nearby chute, jostling Prowl's arm and causing him to shoot Dirge in the shoulder, and the Decepticon makes a break for it, prompting Prowl to call Arcee in to pursue him while he takes over her battle with the Constructicons. Prowl orders the 'Cons to back off or have their [[Inhibitor/deterrence chip|I/D chips]] detonated, but they merely laugh, knowing that the chips don't work. Having been made aware of this fact by Bombshell, Prowl simply uses Wheeljack's passcode to override the network and re-activate them, killing all five Constructicons in one fell swoop. Arcee, meanwhile, corners Dirge, but when he promises to keep quiet, wishing just to live his life, she allows him to go...

Back at the Autobots' headquarters, the injured Blurr lambasts Prowl for breaking his own rules and ordering him in without back-up. Prowl counters with the claim that Bombshell's actions are evidence of a Decepticon conspiracy, but Blurr believes this is merely another symptom of his growing paranoia. Bumblebee attempts to calm Prowl down, but the police 'bot is beyond the point of listening: Cybertron is the Autobots' planet, and he's going to see it that they maintain control of their world, no matter who gets in their way.

==Featured characters==
{{Featuredcharacters
|c1=
*[[Bluestreak (G1)|Bluestreak]] (3)
*[[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] (5)
*[[Blurr (G1)|Blurr]] (10)
*[[Bumblebee (G1)|Bumblebee]] (13)
*[[Prowl (G1)|Prowl]] (15)
*[[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] (16)
*[[Wheeljack (G1)|Wheeljack]] (17)
*[[Sideswipe (G1)|Sideswipe]] (18)
*[[Streetwise (G1)|Streetwise]] (19)
*[[Warpath (G1)|Warpath]] (20)
*[[Broadside (G1)|Broadside]] (25)
*[[Sizzle (G1)|Sizzle]] (26)

|c2=
*[[Swindle (G1)|Swindle]] (1)
*[[Hook (G1)|Hook]] (2)
*[[Scavenger (G1)|Scavenger]] (4)
*[[Long Haul (G1)|Long Haul]] (6)
*[[Dirge (G1)|Dirge]] (7)
*[[Bonecrusher (G1)|Bonecrusher]] (8)
*[[Acid Storm (G1)|Acid Storm]] (9)
*[[Skydive (Predator)|Skydive]] (11)
*[[Starscream (G1)|Starscream]] (12)
*[[Bombshell (G1)|Bombshell]] (21)
*[[Sunstorm (G1)|Sunstorm]] (22)
*[[Mixmaster (G1)|Mixmaster]] (24)

|h3=[[NAIL]]s|c3=
*[[Metalhawk]] (14)
*[[Tappet]] (23)

}}

==Quotes==

"Cold, calculating '''Prowl'''. I '''know''' what you did to Rodimus' ship." 
"What?! I '''didn't'''—" 
"Come '''on'''. I know you didn't '''destroy''' it. You're not '''that''' hard. But you '''are''' cold and calculating enough that even '''Bumblebee'''—even your '''only friend'''—thinks '''you might've'''."
:—'''Arcee''' prods '''Prowl''' with a big, pointy stick

'''Wheeljack:''' "'''System bypass:''' lock trash chute 18-11." 
'''Prowl:''' "Handy. Can I get the '''password?'''" 
'''Wheeljack:''' "The three most '''important words''' in the Cybertronian language, buddy." 
''(Later...)'' 
'''Prowl:''' "'''Subsystem bypass.''' Password: Wheeljack Wheeljack Wheeljack."

"That looks '''bad'''. Can you handle it?" 
"Can I handle '''five Constructicons'''?" 
"Try not to let '''Blurr''' see you." 
"'''That's''' more like it—I was '''hoping''' for a '''challenge'''."
:—'''Prowl''' and '''Arcee'''

"I—'''look'''. I don't want any '''part''' of this. You did what you '''had''' to. Just leave me alone and I'll leave '''you''' alone. I just want to get on with my life." 
"We all want what we can't have. '''That's''' life." 
:—'''Dirge''' doesn't have '''Arcee'''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s experience when it comes to being stuck with a life you don't want.

==Notes==

*Swindle mentions "all the stuff [he] managed to do on Earth", referring to most of the second year's worth of events from the [[The Transformers (IDW)|ongoing series]].
*Swindle also recalls the old Cybertronian saying first heard in ''[[Spotlight: Ramjet]]'', "Always bet on the leader".
*Skydive and Drift are noted to have had a friendship in the past, in reference to Skydive's only previous appearance in IDW continuity in the ''[[The Transformers: Drift|Drift]]'' mini-series, where Drift was his superior officer.
*Bombshell utters a warped variation on "'Til all are one", clearly viewing his experiments in mind control as a way of uniting the Transformers race as a singular intelligence (that just happens to be his). In that respect, the choice of Sunstorm as his victim for his scene on the part of the writer is probably a deliberately easter-eggy one, as Sunstorm has a history of these kinds of pseudo-religious ramblings in other continuities.
*Among the NAILs that Blurr nearly runs over in his pursuit of Bombshell are the Tonka ''[[Rock Lord]]s'' characters Nuggit (the yellow one), Brimstone (red), Boulder (green), Granite (grey) and Spearhead (blue).
*A bit of continuity juggling from Barber sees the rather anomalous and all-but-forgotten portrayal of Prowl from ''[[Ride-Along|Spotlight: Prowl]]'' finally mentioned again, and explained to have been a temporary change of mind for him that was subsequently undone by Spike's betrayal, returning him to being the behind-the-scenes schemer previous stories had featured.
*''[[Spotlight: Blurr]]'' is called back to when it is noted that Blurr has been with the Autobots since before [[Optimus Prime (G1)|Optimus Prime]] had the [[Matrix of Leadership|Matrix]].
*Warpath unlike other characters who have War for Cybertron alternate modes Is drawn in the style of his Generations toy figure.
===Covers (3)===
* '''Cover A:''' Prowl presses his gun to Bombshell's temple, by Andrew Griffith and Josh Perez
* '''Cover B:''' Blurr is surrounded by the Constructicons, by [[Casey Coller]] and [[Joana Lafuente]]
* '''Cover RI:''' Prowl, by [[Marcelo Matere]] and [[Priscilla Tramontano]], the second half of a combined image formed with the RI cover to ''[[The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye|More than Meets the Eye]]'' [[Life After the Big Bang|#4]]

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Devisive