Mainspring

Mainspring is a Velocitronian from the novels portion of the Aligned continuity family.

You can't see me!

_{This character has no official visual representation in any Transformers product or media... yet, at least.}

Mainspring is a mechanic, content to work behind the scenes and in the pits on his native world of Velocitron, repairing those competing and optimizing them for speed. Nevertheless, he does sometimes tire of his life fixing wheeled vehicles, and yearns for other challenges on other worlds, and likes to measure things, especially time. This may be because he is, in fact, a fifth of an ancient, legendary combiner. His weapons are twin energy cannons.

Fiction

Aligned novels

Long ago, Mainspring was a component of the first combiner, Nexus Prime. When Prime realized that The Fallen would try to rebuild the shattered Star Saber, he split himself into five pieces, each one with at least one Blade of Time attached (to allow a passage to Vector Prime), a piece of the Star Saber built inside (to keep The Fallen from rebuilding it), and a piece of the Cyber Caliber, also inside of them, for Nexus Prime himself to use as a weapon (man, Nexus Prime likes hiding relics and things inside of his components, doesn't he?). The component that would become Mainspring landed on Velocitron, and his landing site was thought to be haunted. He then took a new robot mode.

In his new mode, Mainspring was the chief of Blurr's pit crew, at which point he had no memories of his previous life. Soon after the Autobots' arrival on Velocitron, during a celebration in Delta after the Speedia, he was hanging around the edge of a crowd of Velocitronians, led by Blurr, talking with Silverbolt. He asked Silverbolt if he was the fastest flier where he came from. Silverbolt replied that he had never seen one faster, but then humbly admitted that he'd never actually been in a race before. Blurr introduced him and commented on his need to measure everything, and Silverbolt joked that the next time he saw Starscream, he would race him.

Sometime after Jazz's latest progress report of the Space Bridge's repair, Mainspring completely surprised Optimus Prime by asking him if he could come with him, claiming that he felt that he had never really fit in on Velocitron. Prime asked him if he had asked Override if he could. The answer was no one cared, as it was a free planet, and anyone could leave if and when they want. His only complaint was that before the Autobots had arrived, there had been nowhere else to go. Prime pointed out that there would be nowhere to go if Megatron and the Decepticons hunted them down and killed them. Mainspring was fine with that, because the only thing to do on Velocitron was racing, and he wasn't really interested in that. Jazz interrupted their conversation, asking Mainspring what he was into, if not racing. Mainspring explained that he liked to tinker with machines, and, like Blurr said, he liked to measure things, especially time. Jazz joked that the Ark would have lots of clocks onboard, then went off to repair the Space Bridge some more. Prime went off to complete a Matrix-compelled mission, and Mainspring was left on his own.

When Prime got back from his mission, someone had partially detonated a bomb near the Ark's fuel supply, and Mainspring was one of the 'bots fixing it. Silverbolt called him over to assess the damage, but he was already doing that, so the two worked together, with Mainspring pointing out where the reserve had been damaged. They completed their job, but the finished product was not expected to last long.

When the Autobots and other Velocitronian sympathizers prepared to leave, they were attacked by Ransack and his followers. Claiming Velocitron for his own, Ransack forced the Autobots to leave, lest he "finish what Megatron so elegantly started." Mainspring and the other Autobots struck the first few blows, then escaped in the midst of battle.

Mainspring stayed with the Autobots on their trip. Some 'bots were discussing when the Space Bridge had last been used. Mainspring made his input, confirming that no one knew when it had last been used. Optimus explained that there was a network of Space Bridges, but no one knew where they leaded. Mainspring advocated finding out, as did Ratchet, who felt that he didn't repair the Space Bridge for nothing.

When the Autobots reached their next stop, Junkion, the traitor/spy set yet another bomb. Mainspring was the one overseeing the diagnostic subroutine onboard the ship, which would've let him know if the explosion had been an accident. Prime assigned Mainspring to assess the damage again, along with Clocker, Jazz, and Ratchet. Clocker and Mainspring both reported regularly.

He was really mad when the Seekers shot up his newly repaired fuel tank. He then took part in the battle, using his dual energy cannons well and severely damaging Starscream with them. Then, when the Nemesis pulled the Requiem Blaster out of the core of Junkion, he escaped with the rest of the Autobots (including Clocker, of course). Shortly after, Chaindrive arrived to assist the Autobots.

Later, when Megatron put his plan to destroy the Autobots with the Requiem Blaster into action, and shortly after Optimus Prime's return from his attempt to dislodge the Blaster, the true purpose of himself and several others was revealed. Himself, Clocker, the Autobot Chaindrive and the Junkion Pinion had awakened the presence of a fifth and final Transformer: Cannonspring. Once he explained his presence to Optimus and the other Autobots, Cannonspring and the other four Transformers combined into Nexus Prime. Nexus Prime, with all his ancient-ness, was nonetheless a Prime, thus fought very well. Although he did not enjoy death, he could accept the mutuability in it. After the battle ended, the Star Seekers were noticed. Nexus Prime then made a visit to Megatron to warn him that he should get better, because Nexus could kill him if he wanted to, but wouldn't. Then he paid a similar visit to Thundertron, to instruct him to leave or he would kill him, too. After that, he talked to Optimus Prime, and instructed him to leave, too! He then completely disappeared, never to be seen again. However, on Cybertron, his presence was felt by Alpha Trion. Exiles