Lug (IDW)

This article is about the treasure hunter. For the Nebulan Headmaster, see Lug (G1).

Lug is an unaligned Transformer from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

At first she was essentially Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense.

A geologist born on Cybertron, Lug and her Conjunx Endura, Anode, did not stick around for the war, and instead began adventuring the galaxy, their treasure-hunting leading them to places such as the Terralese Acid Wastes, the Nightmare Spires, Killtopia, and Caminus, all of which Lug deems less dangerous than Cybertron. Being the much more cautious of the two, Lug often tries, and fails, to stop Anode from leading them to danger. But such is the life with Anode, and Lug wouldn't have it any other way. She transforms into a backpack, which allows Anode to carry her around, and stores multiple tools for archaeology in her chest. She likes mood pipes.

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

First appearance: Lost Light #1

This section covers fiction that is ongoing. It will be added to as the story progresses. If it isn't current, you can help by updating it.

Lug of Celestica Tetracornacapria This Machine Kills Fascists was born on Cybertron before the war, and was friends with the blacksmith Wipe-Out. At some point of time, Lug met Anode, and Anode met Lug with the two eventually becoming Conjunx Endura. Like everyone else on Golden Age Cybertron, the two were born assigned male. An Axe to Break the Ice She was one of the many 'bots to abandon the planet due to the Great War and swore never to return. Some Other Cybertron While travelling the stars, the two met several alien races with both male and female genders and came to realize they were more comfortable as "she". An Axe to Break the Ice

During their travels Lug and Anode met many dangers together, but they got separated when Anode went on to train in her profession at a Camien medical facility. Some time later, Anode left Caminus and came back to Lug. Anode told her that she missed her too much, and that's why she quit. Lug would come to feel tremendous guilt for the event, thinking that she had ruined Anode's career. Bad Moon Rising

Five hundred years ago, Lug and Anode travelled to Luna 2 at the request of their mysterious client, the "Grand Architect". They found themselves being attacked by a Decepticon Cybernought; although Anode successfully deployed a forcefield, Lug was still convinced they were going to die. The time-travelling Necrobot arrived, attempting to rescue them both from what would have been their presumed deaths (as was his habit).

After recovering from the time jump in a stasis capsule, Anode awoke on the Necroworld, and suggested to Lug that they'd been rescued. They were informed of recent events they had missed by Ultra Magnus. After this, the two were met by Swerve, who asked them some nonsensical questions under the guise of "background checks". After Anode was alarmed by hearing Velocity's name uttered by Swerve, the duo attempted to leave by way of the teleporter, but were stopped by Rodimus and Drift.

When Rodimus and a small group of Transformers decided to use the teleporter to head back to Cybertron to pick up another ship, Anode stayed behind with the other time-displaced Cybertronians. Some Other Cybertron After repairing diplomatic relations following Anode's insulting of Ultra Magnus, Lug sat by the Memorial to the Disappeared and played some music to relax before Anode tracked her down. The two discussed their plans for the future and whether or not they owed the Autobots anything, before Fangry interrupted the discussion by being violently thrown into the memorial by Tailgate. When Anode tried to calm the minibot, he backhanded her, sending her flying, and to be impaled on a piece of debris. Panicking, Lug called for help and Kaput soon arrived. Lug was by Anode's bedside when she awoke and watched as Velocity tried (and failed) to perform a citizen's arrest on Anode before the medic demanded to discuss the Lighthouse. Anomie

Anode explained she was a blacksmith and the snowflake was a piece of sentio metallico but that she hadn't stolen any as the records said. She'd falsified them to have a pretext to leave the planet. Realizing that she'd been left in the dark about this, Lug rushed out of the room, A World Misplaced and fled back to the memorial. Anode followed her back and Lug confessed her feelings of betrayal as she'd always believed she was the reason that Anode had abandoned her apprenticeship. Anode revealed the role she'd played in the death of a protoform and faked a theft as an excuse to flee despite her co-workers being understanding and sympathetic. Lug believed that Anode needed to feel hated for what she'd done. Anode offered an apology but when she looked up, Lug was gone...Bad Moon Rising

...because Lug hadn't ever been with her on Necroworld. She was just a hallucination that Anode had developed as a result of timesickness; a look at the security camera footage showed Anode exiting her stasis pod alone and talking to thin air. A despondent Anode checked the names on the Memorial to the Disappeared and mournfully concluded that Lug had not survived the explosion the Necrobot had saved her from. Modes of Production

She lives, she dies, she lives again!

A disheartened Anode was taken by Kaput, Nautica, and Velocity to where Lug's memorial flowers grew on Necroworld, and Kaput, having made a hobby of studying Censere's archives, explained that after saving Anode he had returned to find Lug barely still alive, allowing him to perform the Rites of Transition on her. Anode's explosive fury at the violation of her friend's lack of religiousness was cut off by Kaput's continuing: when the Necrobot found someone before they died, he would transfer the last flicker of their actual Spark into one of his flowers...a flower Kaput now offered to Anode. It only took a moment for Anode to realize the possibilities this and the sentio metallico, returned to her by Nautica, opened, and she bolted for the Necrobot's fortress.

Reaching a laboratory, she recruited Kaput into helping her transfer the Spark-flicker into the "snowflake" to create a protoform, noting that in principle it was no different than an assisted birth. The process seemed to go smoothly, until the new protoform's temperature began to precipitously drop, reminding Anode of her past failings at her calling—failings she determined not to repeat, as she desperately worked to save/revive her friend...successfully, as later she showed off her "new backpack" jubilantly to the returning Roller. This Machine Kills Fascists After regrowing, Anode confessed the truth to Lug about the Lighthouse. After the two made up and shared an embrace on the field, Lug went to make friends, leading her to play with Roller. She was later part of the group that left Necroworld. After Megatron

When the Rod Squad took a stop at Troja Major's Howling Town, Lug and Anode joined Velocity and Nautica in traversing the town. Nautica found them irritating, complaining how Lug's and Anode's detours slowed them down. Lug was complicit in Anode stealing mood pipes from a Rust Giant. After fleeing for their lives, she received the stolen item as a survival gift from her conjunx, and was successfully enamored. Lug commented on how much the market had changed in the past five centuries which Velocity explained was due to a spiritual ley line the market was built on, leading Troja Major to a rebranding as the bereavement capital of the galaxy. After Nautica shooed away a Catharsian merchant praying on Lug, she followed Anode on the trail of some sentio metallico.

The couple found a newborn mech (with a coffin alternate mode) before they were ambushed by the Black Block Consortia. When Anode refused to step aside however, Lug tackled her to safety which allowed the Consortia a clean shot at the newborn, killing him. As Anode grieved, their old friend Wipe-Out made himself known and spirited the two away to a bar where the three of them could compare notes. After the femmes explained their new genders, Wipe-Out explained the seeming hunt for blacksmiths and who the Black Block Consortia was. When the trio concluded the Grand Architect was on their tail again, they tried to cheese it only for his troops to teleport into the bar. An Axe to Break the Ice After Anode had throughly embarrassed herself thinking Flame was the Grand Architect, she turned to jet mode and flew Lug and Wipe-Out to safety. Returning to the funeral compound where they'd found the mysterious mech, Lug stood off to the side while Wipe-Out realized the mech had been able to turn into virtually anything before they got a call from Velocity. When the trio arrived, Nautica's super-sized alternate mode burst out of the building before the group made a brisk getaway. Chasing the Infinite

Die mad about it.

Notes

• Lug's transformation scheme is patterned on Titans Return Rewind.
• Her name is a type of electrical connector.