Escalation issue 2

Script: Simon Furman
Art: EJ Su
Lettering: Neil Uyetake
Colors: Zac Atkinson
Editors: Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor

• Major characters (in order of appearance): Senator Alexander Holt, Runabout,Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, Jimmy Pink, Verity Carlo, Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Wheeljack, Drake, Ratchet.
• Originally published: November, 2006

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot details follow. Please give an expiry date ({{spoiler|(story)|DATE}}) - either the date of the next episode/issue in the series or 30 days after release, whichever is sooner

The issue opens nine months before the events chronicled in Infiltration, as a senator of the United States government discusses stability in the Gulf with a US Army general during a stroll in Washington, D.C. - both unaware that they are beign observed by a black sports car.

Skipping ahead to the present day, we find Optimus Prime, Jazz and Wheeljack speeding alogn the I-57 as Ironhide briefs them about the ambush that claimed Sunstreaker and Hunter. Although the attack isn't out of pattern for the Decepticons, Prime refuses to assume the Autobots' enemies are behind it and sends Jazz and Wheeljack to retrieve Sunstreaker's remains while tasking Ironhide with transporting Verity and Jimmy back to Ark-19.

Jazz and Wheeljack arrive at the impound lot, only to find Dante's team have beaten them to it, loading Sunstreaker onto a truck. They use their disrupters to distract the two Autobots while escaping, but Prime intercepts the truck and brings Sunstreaker's reamins back to Ark-19 - where Ratchet immediately identifies them as not being Sunstreaker. Ironhide immediately notifies Verity and Jimmy that both Sunstreaker and Hunter may be alive, interrupting a braodcast by the same senator at the start of the issue - who is now in play for the Presidency, and arguing for US military intervention in the Gulf...

Errors

• None yet identified.

Items of Note

• The female anchor of the "T-SPAN" news program seen in the final panels of page 22 is identified as "Arcee Arthur". This may simply be a re-imagined nod to original G1 continuity - or, perhaps, the avatar of yet another Autobot opeating undercover...

• Jimmy Pink doesn't seen too upset that Hunter might be dead, but Verity is sobbing her heart out. could Jimmy be a decepticon agent?
  
  
  From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.