Alternation

« Transformers: Alternity
"Alternation"
Published in	October 2010
Story	Hirofumi Ichikawa
Packaged with	Okamora Orochi - Thundercracker

Grab your aspirin, get your head-scratchin' hand ready and prepare for a brain-ache... the era of the Alternity comes to an end!

Summary

Times are dark for the Alternity. Thanks to the efforts of his Questors, Megatron has succeeded in penetrating Flatworld, the lower-dimensional realm of the two-dimensional beings known as the Planicrons, who now stand revealed as actually being their world's equivalent of the Transformers. In fact, as a result of their two-dimensional nature, the Planicrons are the first Transformers to have actually lived up to the race's manta of "'Til all are one": the super-spatial theory and warp technology they developed in order to simply communicate ultimately led to the fusing of their minds with the very forces of reality themselves. Thusly merged, they have become a colossal "reality computer" of sorts, dubbed the "Cosmic Driver", control of which has been Megatron's goal all along.

From his base on Menonia, Megatron observes the battle between his forces and those of the Alternity in Flatworld through one of the ancient tablets his Questors have found for him. Suddenly, Starscream appears in the midst of the battle, another tablet in his grasp, and announces that he has mastered the "magic" the tablets are capable of: the sorcerous ability to bend the Planicrons and the Cosmic Driver they comprise to the weilders' will. Before he can accomplish his stated goal of collapsing the Planicrons' world in on top of itself, however, Megatron makes an announcement of his own: he has foreseen Starscream's treachery, and indeed, the only reason he brought him back as a Questor at all was to see if there was a way to kill a lifeform infused with Alternium. Using a tablet's powers, Megatron causes the Alternium in Starscream's body to multiply rapidly, and Starscream explodes, much to Megatron's amusement. This test of the tablets' magic complete, Megatron uses the Planicrons to strike at the Alternity in the most terrifying way: he targets their higher-dimensional forms, successfully destroying their gestalt higher-dimensional consciousness. In the universal stream of Primax 109.0 Beta, a mass of Alternity operatives gathered in Vancouver, Washington, D.C., feel the deaths of their higher-dimensional selves, and realize that they are now individual beings once again, their consciousnesses now inhabiting their Auto-avatar bodies directly.

Observes all of this at the side of Megatron has been Thundercracker, who despite being reborn as a Questor has retained his characteristic doubts about Megatron's goals. The lives lost with every use of the tablets' power and the inability of the Planicrons to defend themselves stirs something in Thundercracker, and he moves away from the tablet sadly. A shout from Skywarp alerts him to a startling fact: without realizing or remembering it, Thundercracker has used the tablet himself, freeing the Planicrons from Megatron's control. Terrified of reprisal, Thundercracker flees.

Meanwhile, the Alternity have recruited a new ally to their cause: multiversal guardian of time and space, Vector Prime. Summoned by the Alternity just before their gestalt consciousness was destroyed, Vector Prime communicates with the Planicrons and discovers that their previous incursion into higher-dimensional space was an attempt to discover a specific diagram somewhere on Earth which would initiate their evolution beyond two-dimensional existence if they passed through it. The problem had been that they did not know which Earth this "door" was on, but Bumblebee deduces the obvious answer: universal stream Primax 903.0 Beta, the "BT World", the home dimension of the Alternity themselves!

The majority of the Alternity's forces spread out across the dimensions, in order to stage a simultaneous attack on Megatron's different aspects. In addition to keeping him distracted, they hope that destroying enough of his Auto-avatars concurrently will loosen his hold on Hytherion, allowing the time-beast to corrupt Megatron's mind. While this goes on, a small team of Alternity agents head for the BT World to locate the "door" for the Planicrons, which Vector Prime will then lead the two-dimensional Transformers through. The Earth of BT World has a strange history of its own: as a result of a quadrant lock the Quintessons placed upon the planet to trap the Binaltech Autobots, the planet was frozen in time until the Alternity were born and broke through it 900,000 years later. As such, it remains 2010 in the BT World. The Alternity team is welcomed by Optimus Primal and Grimlock, who inform them they have successfully located the "door" they are looking for: it is a diagram of the unfinished Critias Gate, a super-dimensional reactor the Autobots were working on at the same time as the Timaeus Project that birthed the Alternity.

A huge screen is assembled in Mackay Stadium, Nevada, and an image of the circuit diagram for the gate is projected upon it. With Vector Prime leading the way, the Planicrons begin to emerge through the gate, morphing into three-dimensional life-forms, and then beyond, into a higher-dimensional state of being, disappearing from the watchers' view as they evolve beyond the point of being perceptible by normal beings. Before they can fully cross over, however, the Planicrons are attacked by a raging Megatron, partially taken over by the Hytherion as a result of 667 of his Auto-avatars having been destroyed by the Alternity across reality. The Planicrons reshape themselves into a humanoid form and attack this "Megatherion", striking him with the same attack he made them use against the Alternity. In one mighty attack, the gestalt consciousness of Megatron is obliterated. The Planicrons then ascend to their full higher-dimensional life, taking the Alternity's place as defenders of time and space.

In the wake of the final battle, Thundercracker returns to Menonia. He blames himself for the destruction that has been wreaked across the planet, despite the fact that he apparently acted unconsciously. The letters on a nearby sign reshape themselves into a message from the Planicrons, thanking Thundercracker for helping them. He takes some consolation in that, but then, an ethereal voice tells him that he shall never be forgiven. Starscream's ghost hovers before his eyes, providing a bitter run-down of the new state of play: some Megatrons survived the destruction of their group consciousness, and both the Autobots and the Planicrons (now nicknamed the "Flaternity") will be watching for their re-mergence.

Now no longer higher-dimensional lifeforms, the former Alternity find their memories fading as they struggle to recall the indescribable sensory experiences associated with hyperdimensional life. All the remaining members gather on Athenia for their final meeting, following which they will all be returned to their home worlds and times. The future of the Protectors is less certain, though many still wish to remain active. Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Elita-7 joke and cry about the situation, and Optimus Prime delivers one final stirring speech: they should not think on their time as Alternity with the view that they were "once great"; instead, they should look back on all the great things they have done and how they have safeguarded what is to come. And who knows... maybe, one day, the time will come for the Autobots to advance again... and do great things once more.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Reference

• Full text translation