The Toxic Transformer
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 We're waiting on "Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxitron". Or a musical adaptation. | |||||||||||||
| "The Toxic Transformer" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive) | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 20, 2016 | ||||||||||||
| By | Luke Thompson | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Dan Khanna | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Jake Isenberg | ||||||||||||
| Colors by | Thomas Deer and Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Managing editor | Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Of Masters and Mayhem | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 14pp | ||||||||||||
The story of Toxitron, Decepticon bioweapon!
Synopsis
On Cybertron, seventeen cycles of a holding action have killed so many Autobots in a 500-strong platoon that Spin-Out the cook has become ranking officer and he dares not sit down in case he turns out to be sitting on a corpse. But the Decepticons have at least left a man behind and the Autobots have a really disgusting, ugly, smelly prisoner. To his utter shock, Spin-Out is shown that the prisoner has a face resembling Optimus Prime himself!
Unfortunately the prisoner turns out to be an experiment—acidic discharge melts his bonds, melts Powerflash, and melts any weapon used on him before he rips through the Autobots! After wiping out Spin-Out's makeshift unit, he announces himself as "Toxitron", a name taken from his experiment's project name, before he kills Spin-Out for being just a bit too shiny...
At a Decepticon science base that officially doesn't exist, mad scientists Oil Slick and Loudpedal are reporting on progress to Shockwave and Knock Out. While they haven't made a combiner like they were supposed to, they have created a walking toxic sludge that heals himself! And just to make him more dangerous, they made him look like Prime for the psychological effect and use cognizant statis to leave him paralysed between missions, stewing in negative emotions so he'll be worse when he's let loose. The bosses consider this good work.
Meanwhile, the Autobots are spending rare resources on the Ark Project and it's Red Alert's job to ensure nobody learns about it, nore that anything happens to its engine factory. When what seems to be Optimus is coming their way alone but not reporting anything, Red and Brawn head out to investigate. What seems to be Optimus starts melting the gates and the Autobots are faced with Toxitron, who kept the severed head of Spin-Out so as to fool Autobot transponder scanners! Brawn is crippled and no shot can stop the chemical agent, and Jetfire has to wade in as his heat shielding will hold off the acid just barely. When Red Alert tries to help, he's cut cleanly in two. Jetfire orders all Autobots to retreat as the factory's a write-off and hopes he can hold Toxitron back for long enough.
Back at the Decepticon base, Loudpedal talks about new force shields that allow the Decepticons to block Toxitron's acid... and lets slip that Toxitron's stasis-lock implant has already melted, and the freak is just too mentally conditioned to have noticed. They think. Knock Out is very unimpressed that the emergency backup takes time to charge and there's a resupply ship, AKA a way to escape, docking at the base at the same time they have no real way to restrain Toxitron if he wants out. Oil Slick gets confused at the suggestion that Toxitron planned this... at the same time that the klaxon alarms sound!
Eventually the secondary backup does kick in and paralyses Toxitron, but not before his captors and creators had died a very messy death. He's left to rot in the abandoned base as time passes and everyone forgets about him. One day the base shakes as some great, destructive battle goes on overhead and he sleeps quite happily after that.
Later still, Counterpunch, Impactor, and Fractyl arrive at the base, following old and incomplete records. They inform the immobile Toxitron of Thunder Mayhem and the fall of Cybertron before they remove the stasis implant: whatever the Decepticon wants to do after that, he can. ("He might just kill us," worries Counterpunch.) Toxitron decides to listen (and maybe kill them later), asking why these Wreckers want him as a member, just because they think he likes breaking things too; do they honestly believe he's better than Thunder Mayhem and the former Mayhem Attack Squad, that he wouldn't have killed the same numbers if given the chance?
Impactor doesn't care. He just wants a genocide machine to fight the other genocide machine in the name of revenge.
Made into a monster and then finally given the chance to be part of a group when they only want monsters? Toxitron finds that funny as hell! He's IN!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
"You still stepped up when we needed it, and that’s what counts."
"Is that... supposed to make me feel better? I stepped up because the forty-eight Autobots ahead of me were already dead!"
- —Outback isn't good at cheering up Spin-Out
"Your armor shines too bright."
- —Toxitron
“Knock Out isn’t going to award the fellowship based on looks. [pause] What am I saying? Of course he will. He keeps an autographed picture of the Stunticons in his glovebox!"
- —Oil Slick knows the score
“Then why would you want my help? Because I like to break things too? Do you think I’m different than them? How many more would I have killed, had I not been shut down and buried? Would you be approaching them to fight with you against me?”
“I’m not delusional. We’re all broken. Our time in this universe is done, and none of us are going to win regardless of whether we survive. So yeah. I would team with them to fight you. I want to pitch one walking genocide against another and make sure I drag them all down with me when I go.”
- —Toxitron and Impactor
“Tortured into existence, deprived of will, of simple connection to others. Molded to do nothing but kill... to be nothing but a monster. You give me a choice, offer me inclusion. I can belong—and there’s nothing left to belong to except a group of killers who need a better monster.”
- —Toxitron tells a funny joke
Notes
- Characters mentioned but do not appear in the story include Optimus Prime, the Stunticons, Straxus, Primus, and Thunder Mayhem.
- Characters in the illustrations but not called out in the text include Mainframe, Wheeljack, Perceptor, and Grapple.
- The original version of this story had Loudpedal as "Vivisector"; the reveal of the Loudpedal toy a day after prompted the writer to revise the story to use the toy's name. The original name does get a reference as Knock Out briefly congratulates Loudpedal for his promotion to vivisectionist.
Errors
- The word "hangar" is consistently misspelled as "hanger".
Continuity notes
- Continuing from the previous story, Impactor, Counterpunch, and Fractyl are assembling a new Wrecker team from fellow Cybertronian survivors.
Transformers references
- The "film rating" on the title illustration reads "Under 17 requires accompanying Autobot or Decepticon. (Under 3 requires kids meal purchase.)"
- Spin-Out is based on the red Diaclone mecha whose mold became Generation 1 Sunstreaker, utilizing Sunstreaker's preliminary name.
- Loudpedal is based on the Finnish Diaclone Black Tracks toy.
- Oil Slick is based on a combination of the Encore Ratchet Emergency Green toy (itself a homage to live-action movie Ratchet) and Go! Hunter Ratchet.
- Like his IDW Generation 1 counterpart, this story's Knock Out strongly homages Prime Knock Out, but also with elements of Generation 1 Micromaster Knockout.
- There was a brief mention of the Stunticons, which may be a nod to the Animated version of Toxitron, who liked to hang around with the Stunticons.
- The classic G1 Autobots have their colorations from the Marvel G1 comic.
- They shot Brawn! Right in the shoulder!
Real world references
- The story's title references The Toxic Avenger, with the title page homaging the film's theatrical poster.
External links
- "The Toxic Transformer" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club
