Sea funnel

{{#ifeq: ||}}{{#ifeq: |File|}}

Megatron's sea funnel was part of one of his many schemes to gather energy and conquer the universe. The sea funnel was an immense beachfront energy collector with long, high, inward-pointing walls that would... well, funnel incoming tidal waves into banks of hydropower turbines. These generators would then convert the unwithstandable kinetic energy of the tidal waves into energon cubes, generating a gigantic payload in mere moments.

It had obvious design flaws that prevented repeated usage, but since the scheme involved destroying Earth altogether, these were not seen as deal-breakers.

{{#if:|

“	The Autobots... they're riding the wave!	”
{{#if:| —{{{2}}}{{#if:|, {{{3}}}}} }} }}

{{#if:Rumble and Megatron"The Ultimate Doom, Part 3"|

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

Bringing Cybertron into Earth-orbit triggered massive natural disasters worldwide, and Megatron meant to harness these in order to gather enough energy for his final victory.The Ultimate Doom, Part 1 Dr. Arkeville's mind-controlled slaves built the main structure of the sea funnel, with Megatron berating Starscream into installing the generator itself. As the sea funnel neared completion, Dr. Arkeville repeatedly warned that its structure was not strong enough to withstand the force of the tidal waves, which would "snap it like so many matchsticks" and drown all his slaves. Nobody cared.

The first tidal wave impact went off without a hitch, and Megatron cackled at the sight of suddenly generating an entire ship-full of energon cubes. Shortly thereafter, Optimus Prime, Jazz, Bluestreak, Ratchet, Prowl and Ironhide motor-surfed their way towards the sea funnel.... while not seeming to know it was there, and being surprised to find themselves trapped between it and another giant tidal wave. Unable to escape the funnel walls, they were blasted straight into it by the ocean surge - but before they could sustain too much damage, this second tidal wave shattered the funnel walls, and the Autobots were washed to relative safety. Megatron quickly took off with a starship full of energon, but the Autobots were unable to pursue him as they needed to first rescue all the human slaves before they drowned.

Dr. Arkeville was left clinging to the shattered wreckage of the sea funnel, pleading for Megatron to save him; instead, Starscream emerged from the sea and they departed together. Megatron later explained to Reflector that he had left Starscream behind to prepare to capture the next tidal waves, and that Dr. Arkeville would be of no further use to him. The Ultimate Doom, Part 3

Notes

• Apparently Megatron expected Starscream to rebuild and operate the whole thing by himself, as he had already been told the slaves would drown and had abandoned Dr. Arkeville.
• Seriously, what were the Autobots even doing on those surfboards?