Reality Check

« Story of Binaltech Chapter 9 »
"Reality Check" リアリティ・チェック
Published in	March 2005
Story	Hirofumi Ichikawa
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Packaged with	Overdrive

No sooner is Override back in action than he suspects that someone is trying to alter history.

Synopsis

The Omnibot Overdrive had been so badly injured in the Cosmic Rust attack that his revival in a Binaltech body is taking a notably longer amount of time than his fellow Autobots. While Override's central processor is steadily being repaired, Honda's Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center continues working on his new body, moving through a significant number of prototypes before the final model is completed. When Wheeljack arrives from Cybertron to implant Grimlock's brain casing in a Binaltech body, the Override prototypes are donated to him for use in his experimental "Project: Bodyshop". Override himself, meanwhile, is successfully restored, albeit at the cost of the vehicle-mode weaponry he enjoyed in his old body.

Overdrive goes to work as a strategist for Ultra Magnus's Autobots on Earth helping to co-ordinate the supply runs to Optimus Prime's forces, currently battling Megatron on Cybertron. Override's strategies began to suffer numerous setbacks as the result of strange coincidences, culminating in the catastrophic explosion of a supply shop loaded with energon cubes on the launchpad. These disasters are, in actuality, the work of the time-tossed Decepticon, Ravage, who is secretly working to try and alter the flow of history. Naturally, no-one but Ravage is aware of his involvement, but Override, an old hand at cross-dimensional travel, detects a fluctuation in reality with his Quantum Dial, and comes to suspect that someone is attempting to disrupt the timeline and change the future.

Notes

• This chapter of the Binaltech story was printed in the pack-in booklet included with the Overdrive Binaltech toy. The story of his transformation into a Binaltech warrior is covered in his bio and Tech Specs also published in the booklet, rather than in the story chapter itself.
• The Honda Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center were responsible for creating the real-life robot, ASIMO. In the Binaltech story, it is this expertise with robotics that allows them to complete the construction of Override's body so fast.
• Wheeljack came to Earth in the earlier Binaltech story chapter, "Beast in the Machine". Project: Bodyshop will become important in future installments; it is named for Wheeljack's lab, referred to as his "bodyshop", from the Marvel UK Earthforce stories.
• The existence of multiple copies of Override's body serves as an explanation for the fact his toy was released in Hasbro's Alternators toyline as Windcharger.
• Override's loss of vehicle-mode weaponry as a result of "humanitarian concerns" on the part of Honda is apparently a sidelong reference to the real-life company's USA branch insisting that the Windcharger version of the mold have it's gun's barrel be removed to appear less weapon-like.
• Override's experience in travel between realities is a geek-tastic expansion of a single line of information from the final mail-order catalog to offer the Omnibots for sale, which warned the buyer that the trio would be leaving to "fight a war in another universe". Override's "Quantum Dial", though, is an Ichikawa original.