Editing No Exit: Dark Cybertron Chapter 6

{{Comicstory|
|series=mtmte|issueno=25
|prev=Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4
|next=Dark Cybertron Chapter 8
|seriesissue2=[[Dark Cybertron]]<br>Chapter 6
|prev2=Finest Hour: Dark Cybertron Chapter 5
|next2=Dark Cybertron Chapter 7
|caption=
|image=MTMTE25 cvrA.jpg
|title="No Exit"<br>Dark Cybertron Chapter 6
|publisher=[[IDW Publishing]]
|date=[[January 15]], [[2014]]
|coverdate=January 2014
|written by=[[James Roberts]] and [[John Barber]]
|art by=[[Atilio Rojo]], [[James Raiz]], and [[Livio Ramondelli]]
|colors by=[[Josh Perez]] and Livio Ramondelli
|letters by=[[Gilberto Lazcano]]
|editor=[[Carlos Guzman]]
|continuity=[[IDW Generation 1 continuity|IDW continuity]]
|chronology=[[IDW timeline|Current era (2014)]]
}}

'''The ''Lost Light'' crew explore the mysteries within Metroplex, the Necrotitan descends upon Iacon, and two Primes come face to face!'''

==Synopsis==

In the wastelands surrounding [[Crystal City]], the [[Dinobot (G1)|Dinobots]] stand watch over those wounded by the [[Necrotitan]]'s death-wave. Although badly injured himself, [[Slag (G1)|Slag]] expresses his desire to have gone with the other [[Autobot]]s and [[Decepticon]]s into the city; [[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] talks him down, but arguing is certainly something Slag has the energy left to do, including the insistence that his name his now "Slug", after [[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] told him his old name was "offensive". When the Necrotitan suddenly moves, a pair of binoculars donated by [[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]] lets Swoop get a closer look at the action, as the small surviving crowd of 'Bots and 'Cons comes running towards them, the Titan hot on their trail and heading straight for [[Iacon (polity)|Iacon]]!

On an alien world, deep underwater, the [[Rodpod]] carries its small crew deeper into the eye socket of the unmoving [[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]]. With [[Ratchet (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Ratchet]] unsure if Metroplex is either alive or dead, [[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]] scans for lifesigns and finds eight: a positive outcome, as there are only seven 'bots in the pod. [[Brainstorm]] analyzes the water on suspicion it may have reduced Metroplex to his sorry state, and, upon finding traces of what he believes to be [[Admium]], has [[Getaway]]—struggling to cope with the enormity of the situation—call [[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]] for his metallurgical expertise. Swerve is too busy fighting [[Ammonite]]s to answer his phone, but [[Ultra Magnus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Ultra Magnus]] rations that if they can save Metroplex, ''he'' can end the battle. That prospect suddenly looks a lot less likely when the Rodpod enters the Titan's brain chamber, and the crew find his [[brain module]] to be ''gone'', surgically removed. The pod heads for Metroplex's [[spark]] chamber to investigate further, even as the Titan's internal lights die out around it, his lifeforce ebbing away.

In Iacon, [[Starscream (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Starscream]] seeks an update on the wounded from [[Flatline (G1)|Flatline]], though the medic at first misinterprets his request as a report on the spread of the mysterious "deathmark" left on his chest by the Necrotitan's wave. Medical aide [[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] loses patience with Starscream and bellows a stream of insults at him before stalking off; Flatline's immensely obvious observations of the situation do nothing to improve Starscream's mood, but just as he is yelling at the doctor, the Nectrotitan comes stomping into the city, and fiery chaos ensues.

In the [[Dead Universe]], [[Optimus Prime (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Orion Pax]]'s team remained trapped in a containment field by [[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]], awaiting the arrival of [[Nova Prime]]. [[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] tries headbutting his way out, to no avail, but Orion follows his lead, landing a hand-shattering haymaker on the cube wall. Orion appears to lose his composure, and begins screaming threats at Nightbeat, but when [[Hot Rod (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Rodimus]] tries to intercede, Pax punches ''him'' too—but only, he quickly explains in whispers, to keep Nightbeat distracted from the small crack he successfully made in the cube with his punch. Rodimus joins in the effort, raising his palms to the detective in an imploring gesture, but with unexpected results: the sight of the mysterious object in Rodimus's hand affects Nightbeat's mind, bringing him to his knees... just as Nova Prime arrives.

The Rodpod berths at a dry dock within Metroplex (unsurprising, Magnus notes, as he ''is'' a city), where the team finds a series of hand-painted arrows drawn on its walls and floors that lead them on a disorienting Escher-esque tour of the Titan's insides. Alas, the final arrow brings them right back to where they started, and when [[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] starts to take out his frustrations on the Rodpod, Magnus stops him... but in the process gets closed enough to the pod to hear ''ticking''. Following a length of new cable running from the Rodpod with their eyes, the team spots a stowaway Ammonite—Perceptor's eighth lifesign—standing in a doorway, holding a detonator. Before any of them can move, the tiny 'bot pushes the switch, and the Rodpod explodes!

Nova Prime greets Orion as "Optimus Prime", waving aside Pax's attempted correction and instead musing that they are all trapped in the Dead Universe now, and that the two Primes may go down side by side. Spotting [[Cyclonus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Cyclonus]], Nova mocks his status as a perennial "hanger-on"... at which point Cyclonus gives Hardhead the word. The taciturn 'bot barrels into the cracked wall and smashes through, though the cube re-seals before the others can escape. Hardhead tries to take on Nova himself, but the ancient Prime simply catches his punch and crushes his protective force-field generator. As the others look on in horror, Hardhead is consumed by the Dead Universe, disintegrating and blowing away on the winds. Nova then informs Orion that he is taking him to meet a "friend" of his... a friend who turns into a [[space bridge]]... a friend we know as [[Kup (G1)|Kup]]!

==Featured characters==
{{Featuredcharacters
|c1=
{{{!}}border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background:transparent"
{{!}}-
{{!}}style="background:transparent; border-right: 0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*[[Slag (G1)|Slag]] (2)
*[[Swoop (G1)|Swoop]] (3)
*[[Sludge (G1)|Sludge]] (5)
*[[Arcee (G1)|Arcee]] (6)
*[[Prowl (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Prowl]] (7)
*[[Ironhide (G1)|Ironhide]] (9)
*[[Snarl (G1)|Snarl]] (12)
*[[Metroplex (G1)|Metroplex]]('s insides, 13)
{{!}}style="background:transparent; border-right: 0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*[[Getaway]] (14)
*[[Skids (G1)|Skids]] (15)
*[[Ratchet (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Ratchet]] (16)
*[[Perceptor (G1)|Perceptor]] (17)
*[[Brainstorm]] (18)
*[[Ultra Magnus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Ultra Magnus]] (19)
*[[Whirl (G1)|Whirl]] (20)
*[[Swerve (G1)|Swerve]] (22)
{{!}}style="background:transparent; border-right: 0px" valign="top"{{!}}
*[[Nightbeat (G1)|Nightbeat]] (27)
*[[Optimus Prime (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Orion Pax]] (29)
*[[Hardhead (G1)|Hardhead]] (30)
*[[Hot Rod (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Rodimus]] (31)
*[[Kup (G1)|Kup]] (33)
{{!}}}
|c2=
*[[Astrotrain (G1)|Astrotrain]] (4)
*[[Rumble (G1)|Rumble]] (8)
*[[Ravage (G1)|Ravage]] (10)
*[[Soundwave (G1)|Soundwave]] (11)
|c4=
*[[Necrotitan]] (1)
*[[Ammonite]] (21)
*[[Starscream (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Starscream]] (23)
*[[Flatline (G1)|Flatline]] (24)
*[[Tankor (BM)|Tankor]] (25)
*[[Octane (G1)|Tankor]] (26)
*[[Cyclonus (G1)/IDW Generation 1 continuity|Cyclonus]] (28)
*[[Nova Prime]] (32)
}}

==Quotes==

"Well, '''something's''' not right."<br>
"Easy on the '''jargon,''' Ratchet, we didn't all go to medical school."<br>
"Sarcasm: the first sign of a damaged brain module. Other symptoms include me '''hitting you in the face.'''"
:—'''Ratchet''' and '''Whirl'''


"He's not even the first guy named Tankor to yell at me today."
:—'''Starscream''' on the quirks of Transformer naming. Like they say, all the good ones are taken.


'''Getaway:''' "Weird. Some kind of '''arrow'''..."<br>
'''Ratchet:''' "Hand drawn. And pointing towards the spark chamber..."<br>
'''Ultra Magnus:''' "And another one over there. Pointing in a different direction."<br>
'''Brainstorm:''' "What do we do, fearless leader? Follow them?"<br>
'''Ultra Magnus:''' "Well we certainly can't ignore them... it'd be like ignoring a '''traffic sign.'''"<br>
'''Brainstorm:''' "And that way anarchy lies..."<br>
''(The team sets off.)''<br>
'''Whirl:''' "Come on, Perceptor!"<br>
'''Skids:''' "No one's locking the '''Rodpod?'''"<br>
'''Whirl:''' "Hopefully someone will steal it."

==Notes==
===Continuity notes===

*True to his word, we here see that Swerve has indeed made Orion Pax's distress call his ringtone, as he promised back in [[Dark Dawn: Dark Cybertron Chapter 1|Chapter 1]].
*Ultra Magnus remarks on a sense of deja vu when the team finds Metroplex's brain to be missing, presumably a reference to the [[sparkeater]] incident from [[Liars, A to D Part 3: The Chaos of Warm Things|''More than Meets the Eye'' #3]], where said sparkeater removed its victims' brain modules first in preparation for harvesting their sparks. Hence, Magnus's decision to check on Metroplex's spark upon noticing his brain was gone.
*To see ''[[Beast Machines: Transformers (cartoon)|Beast Machines]]'' Tankor appearing in this issue in such a manner is perhaps a little disarming; he is, of course, only here because this issue is packed in with his new ''[[Transformers: Generations|Generations]]'' toy. But! This is actually ''not'' his first appearance in IDW continuity! Given the timings involved, it can only have been an incredibly fortuitous coincidence, but Tankor first showed up in a crowd-scene cameo (as his original toy) back in the [[Primus: All Good Things|2012 ''Robots in Disguise'' annual]].
*The mysterious object on Rodimus's hand was alluded to back in [[Black Metal: Dark Cybertron Chapter 2|Chapter 2]].
*Kup was last seen in [[The Transformers: Infestation issue 2|''Transformers: Infestation'' #2]], in which he was sucked into the Dead Universe through a magic portal.

===Transformers references===

*The story catches up to the "Roll Call" pages this issue, with Slag officially renaming himself "Slug", the name Hasbro now uses for versions of the character which originated with his [[Slug|Aligned universe counterpart]]. The full details of his change of heart aren't gone into, merely that Arcee told him that his name was offensive—a double-reference to its status as both a [[Slag (slang)|Transformer swear word]] and a disparaging term for a woman in the United Kingdom, the latter being the reason Hasbro shelved it as the character's name. The story has tactfully avoided actually ''using'' "Slag" in dialogue up until now, which is not a problem IDW stories have faced before, but ''Dark Cybertron'' is packed in with toys. 

===Errors===
*As has already occurred twice, in chapters [[Winners & Losers: Dark Cybertron Chapter 3|three]] and [[Into the Abyss: Dark Cybertron Chapter 4|four]], Sludge is among the Dinobots on the first page of the story, despite the fact that he was sent back to the Autobot camp in [[Black Metal: Dark Cybertron Chapter 2|chapter two]]. When Swoop speaks to him, though, he calls him "Snarl", and further, dino-mode Sludge vanishes on page 3 and is replaced with robot-mode Snarl, suggesting that Rojo may be mixing up the characters regularly.
*The last panel of the first dry dock page: Presumably, the lines that begin with "Come on, Perceptor!" should not be coming from Perceptor himself. Whether the other balloon in that panel, trailing from Skids, is properly placed is not clear (we've attributed the questionable dialogue, quoted above, to Whirl, the only other character to appear in the panel).

===Trivia===
*Artist breakdown: Per the established pattern, Rojo draws the scenes on Cybertron, Raiz covers the ''Lost Light'' crew, and Ramondelli the Dead Universe.

===Covers (3)===
*'''Cover A:''' Orion and Rodimus in the grip of Nova Prime, by [[Casey Coller]] and [[Joana Lafuente]]
*'''Sub cover:''' Tankor by [[Phil Jimenez]] and [[Romulo Fajardo Jr.]]
*'''Cover RI:''' The Dinobots open fire, by [[Brendan Cahill]] and [[Josh Perez]]
<gallery>
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==External links==

*[http://www.comicosity.com/preview-transformers-more-than-meets-the-eye-25 Preview]
[[Category:Dark Cybertron issues]]