The Stunti-Con Job

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"It's a very difficult job and the only way to get through it is we all work together as a team. And that means you do everything I say."
"The Stunti-Con Job"
Publisher	Fun Publications
First published	BotCon 2011, June 2, 2011 BotCon 2011, June 3, 2011 (script reading version) November 16, 2011 (retail edition)
Story	Marty Isenberg, Derrick J. Wyatt & Matt Youngberg
Writer	Marty Isenberg
Pencils	Marcelo Matere
Inks	Marcelo Matere
Colors	Thomas Deer and Jesse Wittenrich
Letters	Jesse Wittenrich
Editor	Pete Sinclair
Continuity	Animated cartoon continuity

Two cop-bots on the trail of stolen weapons and body mods stumble upon a far more sinister plot.

Synopsis

Italics indicate events from the BotCon 2011 live script reading version of the story.

Sideswipe reflects on the reaction of the Cybertronian public to Optimus Prime's successful capture of Megatron. He recalls Sentinel Magnus's sense of irony in commissioning the conversion of the derelict Decepticon fortress of Trypticon into a new prison to house its former masters, right in the heart of Kaon. Indeed, general public sentiment is extremely optimistic, with talk even of the dawning of a new golden age in Cybertronian history. Sideswipe, however, is unimpressed, as he has more important things to see to. The veteran cop is nearing retirement, with just one case he'd like to solve before he's done: a rash of thefts of modifications and weaponry. Unfortunately for him, he's been partnered with Cheetor, a recently transferred rookie with a severe disregard for his or anyone else's safety.

"You wouldn't hit a man with no trousers on, would you?"
"All right, pull 'em on!"

The trail leads to "legitimate business bot" Rattletrap, who has been attempting to sell the "authentic" energy axe that took down Megatron. Cheetor, in his enthusiasm, tackles the criminal, and starts to browbeat him. Sideswipe reminds the rookie that if they're going to play good cop/bad cop, they can't both be bad cops. Resuming the interrogation with Sideswipe taking the lead this time, Rattletrap is questioned about the axe. Forced to admit it is a fake when brought before Optimus Prime himself, he reveals that it is a prop he had stolen from a local performing troupe: Motor Master's Stunt Convoy. Pressed for more information, Rattletrap also claims that he saw a large stockpile of stolen modifications backstage at the show. Sideswipe apologizes for bothering Optimus, but as Prime thanks him, Sentinel Magnus, decked out in his new Magnus decor and pompous as ever, butts in. Sentinel dismisses Rattletrap's claims, and tells Optimus to come with him to the rehearsal...

Cheetor, seeming to have watched too many police drama holovids, charges into the show's rehearsal with guns blazing. Thankfully, he only manages to hit Breakdown, and is shortly thereafter yelled off the set by Wildrider. The rehearsal continues while Sentinel Magnus and Optimus Prime look on. The plot, apparently heavily influenced by Sentinel, involves Drag Strip being chased by the other actors until she is rescued by Toxitron. The Stunticons then turn tail and flee when confronted by a giant hologram of Sentinel Magnus. Optimus asks if this might well be a bit over the top, but Sentinel replies that he intends it to be visible from Megatron's cell. The rehearsal is again interrupted, this time by the director when Toxitron brandishes his "axe thingy" which is in reality a rather large plunger. Asked where his replica axe went, Toxitron is dumbfounded until Sideswipe and Cheetor show that they are in possession of it. Pressing the advantage of surprise, they ask to look backstage. However, all they find is the various supplies for the stage effects. Sentinel Magnus orders the Autotroopers to escort them out. Meanwhile, another pair of bots, Minerva and Warpath, have come to the stadium on their own little quest. Minerva, an excited young medic, wants to meet Ratchet, whom she considers the greatest field medic on Cybertron, and Warpath, knowing Sentinel and through him able to meet Optimus and his crew, has offered to help. Arriving as Sentinel has the Autotroopers kick out Sideswipe and Cheetor, Warpath goes up to Sentinel and tries to tell him that Minerva wants to meet someone. Sentinel assumes that she wants to meet him, however, and gives her his autograph, not even bothering to get her name right. Minerva's anger is short-lived when she spies who she assumes to be Optimus Prime; Warpath is reluctant to give chase, but Minerva reminds she was the one who re-attached his leg, and she can do that operation in reverse.

"Does he really need all this equipment?"
"He says he does..."

Upon returning to the precinct, Sideswipe and Cheetor discover an odd detail. None of the Stunt Convoy actors have any records on file, which means they can't perform a background check. However, they have little time to ponder the implications of this, as an Autotrooper informs them there's been a break-in at Ironfist's workshop. Hurrying over, they find the place ransacked, many of the Autobot engineer's weapons projects already stolen, and Ironfist himself lying wounded on the floor. Still online, he is questioned by Sideswipe, but only manages to sputter out the name of Optimus Prime. Looking up, the duo see a silhouette that does indeed resemble the Autobot hero, but Cheetor recalls their time at The Motor Master's show. He fires at the window to reveal the oozing form of Toxitron! Cheetor opens fire, heedless of Ironfist's warnings about the manifold munitions surrounding them. Miraculously, he manages to not blow everyone to Nebulos, and Toxitron is apprehended. Sideswipe is less than impressed with Cheetor's methods, as they continue to endanger his ability to live to retirement. Cheetor retorts by reminding Sideswipe of the rumors of his youth, wondering why he can't be more like he once was. Sideswipe grumbles that he found something to live for. Suddenly, Minerva and Warpath arrive on the scene, having mistaken Toxitron for Optimus Prime. Minerva attends to the injured Ironfist as Sideswipe and Cheetor take Toxitron when Optimus Prime arrives on the scene, looking for his duplicate as well. Prime greets Ironfist, an old friend of his, and he asks both him and Minerva for a favor...'

Last night, Mr. Governor, my toilet was broken into!

Under the hot lights, Toxitron proves a tough nut to crack. Part of this is due to the fact that the addled doppelgänger doesn't really understand plea bargaining, continually demanding a longer sentence. With such an unreliable interrogation suspect, the security bots find it difficult to make the charges stick, and ultimately have to release Toxitron. This leaves them with the unenviable task of filling out the datatrax regarding the stolen modifications. While doing so, they begin to notice a disturbing pattern: while some of the stolen goods actually are modifications, the vast majority is excavation equipment and explosives. This connects in with the fact that the Stunt Convoy show is right next door to the prison, perfect for staging a jailbreak of Megatron himself! Meanwhile, deep in the tunnel they'd dug, Wildrider reports to General Strika that not only will the plan to blow open Trypticon go off without a hitch, none of the Autobots attending the show will survive its finale.

...hold on lads. I've got a great idea...

The defense bots barely arrive at the show in time to stop it. Realizing they've been discovered, the Stunticons go on the attack, revealing that the stolen modifications had been installed directly into them. With the possible exception of Breakdown's abominable luck, the Stunticons have Cheetor and Sideswipe on the ropes until an unlikely savior barges in. Toxitron plows through his troupe-mates, only to reveal himself as Optimus Prime in disguise. He had convinced Ironfist to equip him with an electronic paintjob, had Minerva use her medi-kit to mimic Toxitron's leaking fluids, and used his heroic reputation to talk the Autotroopers into making the switch. Playing a recording of the Stunticons from his infiltration, he reveals their plan to the whole stadium. Desperate, The Motor Master takes Sideswipe hostage, threatening to blow his head off and detonate the explosives unless the Decepticons in Trypticon are released immediately. Sideswipe acts on instinct, grabbing a nearby energy axe and firing its rocket engine, knocking The Motor Master back and enabling the defense bot to grab the detonator. In a turnabout, Cheetor asks Sideswipe if he was trying to get them all scrapped. Sideswipe tells Cheetor that there was no chance he was going to let Motor Master ruin his retirement.

Later, the Stunticons are imprisoned in Trypticon, along with the very Decepticons they were trying to break out. Sentinel Magnus gives Cheetor and Sideswipe commendations for saving Cybertron, a smile forced onto his face. Optimus, meanwhile, had his popularity swell even further, with many wanting for him to be the next Magnus. Sideswipe begins his retirement on a placid energon farm, looking up at what he believes to be a meteor shower. Soon though, he realizes that these are no meteors, but the descending forms of Team Chaar!

Musical interlude

During the intermission, entertainment is provided by a music number, brought to you by donations from Sumdac Systems, Iacon Arts & Culture, and viewers like you: Grimlock and Grimlock perform "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)"! The two Dinobots butt heads throughout the song, each professing to be the best Grimlock, before eventually getting confused and forgetting what they were doing.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Omega Supreme (1) Bulkhead (5) Optimus Prime (7) Bumblebee (8) Jazz (9) Ratchet (10) Prowl's coffin (11) Hubcap (12) Sentinel Magnus (13) Warpath (14) High Wire (15) Leader-1 (16) DUCK-E (17) Reachout (18) Grindor (19) Sureshock (20) Autotrooper (21) Sideswipe (22) Beachcomber (file photo) (23) Scrounge (file photo) (24) Jackpot (file photo) (25) Rattletrap (26) Mudflap (file photo) (27) Cheetor (28) Ironfist (35) Alpha Trion (37) Perceptor (38) Blurr (cube) (39) Cliffjumper (40) Botanica (41) Arcee (42) Jetstorm (43) Jetfire (44) Brawn (45) Ironhide (46) Rodimus Prime (47) Red Alert (48) Hot Shot (49) Bumper (50) Sedan (51) Grandus (52) Mirage (53) Powerglide (54) Longrack (55) Rosanna (56) Pipes (57) Huffer (58) Minerva (59) Cosmos (60) Tracks (61) Tap-Out (62) Flareup (63) Lickety-Split (64) Wheelie (65) Chase (66) Searchlight (67) Freeway (68) Lightbright (69) Erector (70)	Lugnut (2) Shockwave (3) Megatron (4) Wildrider (29) The Motor Master (30) Drag Strip (31) Dead End (32) Breakdown (33) Toxitron (34) Strika (36) Blot (71) Sky-Byte (72) Mindwipe (73) Oil Slick (74) Scalpel (75)	Sari Sumdac (6)

Musical interlude characters: (Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots
Generation 1 Grimlock (1) Animated Grimlock (2)

Quotes

"We already got you on trespassing, breaking-and-entering and possession of stolen goods. You're looking at ten thousand stellar cycles in the stockade minimum."
"No deal. Toxitron am take twenty thousand stellar cycles."
"You do realize you're supposed to plea bargain your sentence down, right?"
"Okay. Thirty thousand and not one nanoklik less."

— Sideswipe finds Toxitron a tough nut to crack

"General Strika, Ma'am! The Motor Master is pleased to report The Motor Master's prison break mission is proceeding exactly as The Motor Master planned!"

— Guess who.

Notes

• Characters mentioned in the musical interlude include: Unicron and "Spider-Bot".

Continuity notes

• The opening page is a recreation of the final scene in Animated's finale, "Endgame, Part II"
• Trypticon Prison had previously been mentioned in The AllSpark Almanac II, and was intended to appear in the fourth season, where Megatron would escape from Cybertron by teleporting it to Earth. Here, it's explained that it was a former Decepticon stronghold, turned into a prison by the Autobots after the Great War.
• Aside from Rattletrap, others who appear in Sideswipe's files include: Beachcomber (whose bio in The AllSpark Almanac II indicated he was addicted to various Cybertronian drugs), Scrounge (bit of an odd one out, here, as nothing in his history or that of his Generation 1 counterpart depicts him as a criminal), Jackpot (who was seen at the TransTech Division's station in "Moving Violations"), and Mudflap (who was seen on a wanted poster at the station in "Moving Violations").
• Cheetor was transferred from the TransTech Division in "Moving Violations", a two-page prequel comic on the Club's website.
• Cliffjumper has a crushed-up cube with him at the opening night; this is Blurr, who was compacted by Shockwave in "TransWarped", and given to Cliffjumper for smelting. Evidently, once Shockwave's gig was up, the Autobots found out the truth and retrieved Blurr.
• Botanica, Mirage, Wheelie, and Scalpel previously only appeared in The AllSpark Almanac II.
• Team Chaar was last seen in "TransWarped"; their membership has changed since then, with Strika and Oil Slick being the only two remaining from the original team.
• Additional continuity notes from the script reading include:
  • An Autotrooper at the beginning notifies Sideswipe that Patrol 16 had found a perp on Avalon Boulevard, previously seen in The AllSpark Almanac II and named for the Energon character.
  • Warpath mentions having arrested one of Optimus Prime's crew; he arrested Prowl back during the Great War for avoiding the draft, as seen in "Five Servos of Doom".
  • Animated Grimlock mentions "Spider-Bot", a.k.a. Blackarachnia, who used her feminine charm to woo the Dinobots.

Transformers references

• The cover has a blurb from a "review" by Rook at ABN; Rook was a news reporter who was sold at BotCon Europe 2002, while ABN showed up in various universe in the club's Around Cybertron comic strip.
• Trypticon Prison, like the Animated incarnations of Metroplex and Fortress Maximus before it, is a non-sentient building based on the Generation 1 Trypticon's city mode.
• Several new characters appear, including:
  • High Wire, Leader-1, Reachout, Grindor, Sureshock, and DUCK-E, the Mini-Con guards at Trypticon Prison. The first five are based on the Armada Mini-Cons High Wire, Leader-1, Longarm, Grindor, and Sureshock; Reachout has to be renamed since Shockwave used the name "Longarm" as part of his Autobot disguise. DUCK-E is the odd one out, being based on the titular character from 2008 Disney/Pixar film WALL-E but with duck features, inspired by Beast Wars Megatron's Rubber Ducky. They were intended to appear in season 4 in the same role as seen here.
  • Longrack, based on the Cybertron character. A different character named Longrack Major appeared in The AllSpark Almanac II, based on the Beast Wars Neo version of the character; Longrack's tech specs indicate he was named for Longrack Major.
  • Erector, based on the Generation 1 character. Erector was designed as part of a faux "History of Erector" video, having managed to be nominated for the Transformers Hall of Fame for...immature reasons.
  • Blot, Sky-Byte, and Mindwipe of Team Chaar. Blot is based on the Generation 1 Terrorcon's creature alt-mode, with kibble such as tank treads indicating that it serves as his robot mode. Mindwipe is based on the Generation 1 Headmaster; his head had previously appeared in The AllSpark Almanac II. Sky-Byte is based on the Robots in Disguise Predacon; he also appeared in The AllSpark Almanac II, albeit with a much more monstrous design.
• Sideswipe's mug has an image of Kremzeek, the little electrical imp from The Transformers episode of the same name.
• Cheetor uses the euphemisms "jumpin' gyros" and "ultra gear" when meeting Optimus Prime, much like his Beast Wars counterpart would do.
• Speaking of Beast Wars, Cheetor snarks claims that he would work with Rattletrap in another lifetime; his Beast Wars counterpart was part of the same group of Maxmimal's as Rattrap, Rattletrap's counterpart.
• The "jumbotron" screen on page 6 shows the box art for the BotCon 2011 convention toy set.
• Sentinel's new "Magnus" duds include a larger helmet and shoulder pads reminiscent of Starscream's from The Transformers: The Movie, based on early concept art for season 4.
• Sideswipe prepares "to be blown clear to Nebulos", the home of the various "Master" partners from the latter years of the original The Transformers toyline.
• References exclusive to the script reading include:
  • Sideswipe disparagingly calls Rattletrap a glitch-mouse, a type of Cybertronian animal mentioned in The Transformers episode "S.O.S. Dinobots".
  • Sentinel calls Minerva "Minelba"; Minelba was the English mis-romanization used on Masterforce Minerva's packaging.
  • Generation 1 Grimlock mentions the time he kicked Unicron's butt, as seen in The Transformers: The Movie. He also mentions wearing a gold crown (as Grimlock did during his first tenure as leader of the Autobots in the Marvel The Transformers comic) and that he was the first Action Master (as seen in Marvel's The Transformers issue #76).

Real-world references

• The comic's cover is based on the movie poster for the classic 1969 British caper film The Italian Job.
  • The note on the poster ("This is the Mayhem Masquerade Society") is a reference to the song "This is the Self-Preservation Society" part of the soundtrack for The Italian Job.
• The Motor Master's mannerisms are based on those of professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage.
• Toxitron's depiction is based on DC Comics supervillain Bizarro, a failed clone of Superman.
• References exclusive to the script reading include:
  • Sideswipe calls Rattletrap "Cheesy Rider", after the 1969 drama film, Easy Rider. Ramulus called his Rattrap by the same nickname in "Wreckers: Finale Part II".
  • Wildrider's speech patterns are based on American actor Jonathan Harris.
  • Morgan Lofting claims the musical number is possible because of, besides others, "viewers like you," riffing on the PBS slogan.
  • "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)", as noted in the script reading, is a musical number from the 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun.

Art and technical errors

The italicized errors were fixed for the Diamond Edition.

• Drag Strip and Toxitron play the role of Autobots in Motor Master's Stunt Convoy, yet have Decepticon symbols.
• On page 5, One of Rattletrap's stripes is colored blue, like the handle of Prime's axe.
• On page 9, Sideswipe is colored as Breakdown as he watches Breakdown, Dead End and The Motor Master menace Drag Strip in the distance.
• On page 17:
  • The radar-thingy on Grandus's shoulder is colored as part of Pipes's hand.
  • Hubcap's open mouth is colored light gray like the rest of his faceplate.
  • Bulkhead's fingers are the same color as his arm.
  • Pipes and Huffer's colors are switched.
• On page 18, the black borders under Alpha Trion's eyes are colored like the rest of his face.

Continuity errors

• The first shot of Trypticon prison shows a rainstorm taking place on Cybertron, yet Sentinel remarked in "Where Is Thy Sting?" that Earth was weird for having liquid fall from the sky.

Other trivia

• This story takes place shortly after the events of "Endgame, Part II".
• While Marty Isenberg is credited with the final script, Derrick J. Wyatt and Matt Youngberg collaborated with him on the main story direction and how to work it in with their (yet unrealized) plans for season 4.
• Upon entering the arena, Cheetor has two chainsaw-weapons, though his toy only has one. Good luck replicating that scene!
• The Animated versions of Wheelie and Mirage, previously seen only in The AllSpark Almanac II, make their first fictional appearances here.
• This comic story was adapted into a script reading performed live at BotCon 2011 on Friday, June 3, with some additional scenes added into the story by Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop. The following cast members performed the following roles:
  • Neil Ross: Sideswipe, Wildrider
  • Gregg Berger: Cheetor, The Motor Master
  • Jack Angel Chris Ho: Breakdown, Rattletrap, Ironfist, Autotroopers
  • Morgan Lofting: Drag Strip, Strika
  • David Kaye: Dead End, Optimus Prime, Toxitron, Warpath
  • Marty Isenberg: Sentinel Magnus
  • Abby Collins: Minerva
• Obviously, several characters had to have substituted actors, as their normal ones weren't guests at the convention. These include Strika (normally voiced by Tara Strong), Rattletrap (normally voiced by Tom Kenny), and Sentinel Magnus (normally voiced by Townsend Coleman). Marty Isenberg's voice for Sentinel Prime sounds rather like David Cross.

Covers

• BotCon Edition: Image based on the movie poster for The Italian Job. Pencils & inks by Alex Milne, colors by Josh Perez.
• Diamond Edition: Sideswipe and Team Stunticon, by Thomas Deer.

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External links

• Audio recording of "The Stunti-Con Job" script reading on SoundCloud