Do Over

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"Do Over"
Publisher Fun Publications
First published February 13, 2009
Written by Trent Troop and Greg Sepelak
Illustrations by Yuki Ohshima
Colors by Drew Eiden
Cover Yuki Ohshima
Continuity Shattered Glass
Chronology Current era (2009)
Page count 30pp

Ricochet springs a trap for Megatron as Optimus Prime prepares to launch a rebuilt Ark towards Earth.

Synopsis

Starscream enters the Dinocons' pen to check up on them, but is shocked to find that Overkill and Slugfest are missing. He contacts Soundwave to check the security recordings and asks Goryu if he ate them. Finally, Starscream discovers two octaltrack data cartridges that suddenly transform into the missing Dinocons. It seems that the Decepticons' eight captured Dinos inexplicably have embers where they had none before, and they can transform. Megatron asks Cliffjumper if this revelation may be related to his recent adventure, but the reality-displaced Autobot's memory mysteriously lacks details of the Omega Terminus and its effect on Grimlock.

With that issue unresolved, the Decepticons turn their attention to Optimus Prime's plans to revive the Ark and invade Earth. Megatron believes it easier to stop the Ark after it has launched, so the Decepticons will follow the Ark in the Nemesis. The Autobots (and therefore the Decepticons) will need to move soon, due to the Plait Expanse. Once Cybertron enters the Expanse, off-planet travel and communication will be impossible for a whole Earth year. Megatron appoints Cliffjumper as head of the mission due to Cliffjumper's knowledge of Earth.

While Cliffjumper is occupied with those tasks, Megatron arrives at the ruins of the Temple of Knowledge. During the earlier meeting, he had received a call from Boltax, but upon his arrival, ambush awaits him. Ricochet and his Targetmaster partner Nightstick attack Megatron, bringing him down. The maniacal, sarcastic Ricochet hangs Megatron upside-down over a deathtrapped chasm and gathers his minions, the cowardly Scoop and the indifferent Crosshairs. He then calls up the Decepticons and alerts them to his capture of Megatron, demanding ransom.

Cliffjumper convinces Starscream that sending a large force to rescue Megatron would jeopardize their Earth mission, so they agree to send the Micromasters: Razorclaw, Rampage, Divebomb, and Whisper.

Meanwhile, Optimus Prime oversees the preparation of the Ark. Jazz offhandedly mentions that Ricochet has taken care of the Decepticons. Ricochet believes that as long as he has Megatron, the Nemesis won't launch. Prime is outraged at this news. Insisting that only he will be the end of Megatron, he rushes out to confront Ricochet.

Razorclaw and the other Micromasters sneak into Ricochet's hideout, the Underbase, under cover of Whisper's cacophonous distraction. Scoop cowers at the noise, imagining an invading army. After Ricochet sends Scoop and Crosshairs to root out the intruders, Megatron says that if Ricochet kills him, Prime will be furious, but the crazed schemer plans to place the blame on Crosshairs.

In the dark corridors of the Underbase, Whisper torments Scoop, pretending to be the ghost of Boltax. But Whisper hasn't counted on Scoop's more level-headed Targetmaster partner, Holepunch, who transforms into a helicopter and exposes the Micromaster. Frustrated, Scoop fires wildly, bringing down the ceiling, and Whisper escapes.

The sound of the battle draws Crosshairs's attention, but Rampage and Divebomb knock him down. Again, the Decepticon Micromasters are taken unawares by a Targetmaster, this time Crosshairs's partner Pinpointer. The small Autobot fires three missiles at Divebomb, who flees the seeking projectiles. The apathetic Crosshairs and the enthusiastic Pinpointer then close in on Rampage, but Divebomb circles around and guides the missiles into the floor, causing the two Autobots to plummet to the level below.

Back at the Ark, Rodimus wishes to leave Prime behind and convinces Goldbug of his plan. Blurr objects.

At the Underbase, Prime finally bursts in on Ricochet, halting him from dropping Megatron into his trap. Attempting to save face, Prime takes credit for Ricochet's plan. Razorclaw bounds down from the ceiling, toppling Ricochet and destroying the mechanism that would release Megatron into the deadly chasm. Optimus chooses simply to shoot his adversary, but again, Razorclaw foils Prime, this time by biting his knee. Divebomb and Rampage arrive and take care of Ricochet while the newly freed Megatron takes on Optimus. Megatron quickly gains the upper hand while also taking out Ricochet. He snatches Ricochet's weapon, but the Targetmaster takes over Megatron's arm. Optimus charges, using Megatron's tank/sword, but Megatron shifts his body so the blade cuts through his wrist. This gives Megatron control of his arm again, but at the loss of his hand. He then calls out to his tank module/sword, Rumbler, which detaches from Optimus. At that moment, Prime receives word that the Ark has launched without him. His long-term plans in shambles, he orders a retreat.

Upon his arrival at the launch site, Nightbeat and Blurr inform Prime that Rodimus and Goldbug have dumped anyone they deemed too loyal to Optimus off the Ark.

The Ark and the Nemesis soar away from Cybertron and make their transwarp jump to Earth. Once in Earth orbit, they resume battle, although the Nemesis is outgunned. Astrotrain flies from the Nemesis to the Ark, releasing his Micromaster partners Submarauder, Fasttrack, Tailwind, and Stonecruncher to cause mischief. The Ark loses control, and Rodimus flees in an escape pod. The others brace for impact as the Ark heads toward a sea where California should be.

Back on the Nemesis, Soundwave cheers the Autobots' fate—until a nuclear weapon from Earth strikes the Nemesis, leaving it no better off. While Starscream and his crew struggle to keep the ship in the air, Heatwave communicates with it, bypassing failed systems to access details of the damage. He reports that the falling ship is beyond immediate repair, so Starscream has it evacuated. He and Cliffjumper remain to guide the Nemesis away from population centers as it plummets toward the planet.

Months later, on Cybertron, Remote Patrol Six scan the Plait Expanse's radiation, looking for a way to escape the planet. The group is harboring Hound from Prime because he faked his death when Rodimus threw everyone out of the Ark. (Hound, master of fear, is afraid of Earth.) But when a familiar signal is detected, Hound considers coming out of hiding sooner rather than later...

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Decepticons Autobots Others

Quotes

"Overkill and Slugfest are missing. Did you see where they went?"
"Nope. Sorry."
"You didn't... eat them, did you?"
"Whut? No, never! Well, don't think so... maybe if I wuz starvin', and they wuz bein' mouthy, but they weren't and I wasn't..."

—Starscream and Goryu discuss the Dinocon's eating habits.


"If'n he breaks loose, or if I throw this big switch on the wall, he gets zapped, ground up an' roasted... it ain’t gonna kill him, but it do dump him inna thousand-meter drop fulla old cables and nasty sharp edges, and at the bottom of it all... the ol' standby, big-aft fraggin' vat o' acid! You gettin' alla this, Megsy?"
"I do believe so. You weren't satisfied with merely one cliché deathtrap, so you went with five."
"Anythin' worth doin’ is worth overdoin'."

—Ricochet and Megatron


"I zink hyu miserable Zcrounges are going to vind up in ze scrap yard, crying for hyu manufacturer! But it iz mein job to make zhure zat doesn’t happen! Zo hyu! Zuck in zhat pipe, straighten up, feet togezer! Ven I zay 'attenshyun!' hyu give me attenshyun! Hyu!"
"Zir, I mean, sir, yes, sir!"
"Vat are hyu?!"
"I am a Scrounge, sir!"
"Hyu are vat I sez hyu is! If I choose to call hyu Little Mhiz Zparkle-Bootz, hyu will answer, unterstand?!"
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"Unt vat is zat hyu have zher, hanging off hyu verthless chassis?!"
"This is my special arm, sir! There are many like it but this one is mine!"
"Guut!"

—Blaster gives the Little Mhiz Zparkle-BootzScrounges the "Full Metal Jacket" treatment.


"Your attacks are futile! I am everywhere, yet nowhere! There is no tech support here! You are doomed, forsake all hoooope! Your demise will be slow and painful! Antroids shall devour your optics while razor-snakes constrict your mechanisms! Your warranty is voided! Your head is a bucket, you suck turboworms, I hate your feeeeeeeeeeet!"

—Whisper does quite possibly the worst impression of a ghost ever.

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Cliffjumper is shocked to hear that Prime is again attempting to flee Cybertron on the Ark, since, in Cliffjumper's home universe, the head bad guy (Megatron) was always hatching new schemes, not improving old ones.
  • Cliffjumper, as noted, is flummoxed by the presence of Demolishor and Heatwave, because they don't exist in his home universe. Indeed, Demolishor seems to be an alternate-universe version of Armada Demolishor (an exception to the idea of Shattered Glass as an alternate Generation 1) and is not entirely what he seems, and Heatwave has a greater destiny.
  • As the out of control Nemesis enters Earth's atmosphere, Cliffjumper mutters, "Here we go again."

Transformer references

  • Whisper mentions razor-snakes, which were first mentioned (spelled as "razor snakes") in the toy bio for Beast Wars Spittor.

Real-world references

  • Bits of Whisper's ghost impression are lifted from a Kids in the Hall skit about a rather mouthy little demon added to a room as a "redecoration".
  • There is a sea where California should be in the Shattered Glass universe. Various bits of information in "Eye in the Sky" later reveal this to be due to some sort of hostile attack that wiped out most of the Western seaboard during World War III.

Errors

  • Not "technically" an error internal to the story, but every subsequent piece of fiction Slugfest appears in (all of which is written by different authors) ignores his intelligence boost from gaining an ember.
  • In "Dungeons & Dinobots", the following is said about Slugfest: "[I]ts design clearly marked it as having a memory-cartridge alternate mode". Yet somehow Slugfest only gains an alternate mode in this story.
  • Similarly in "Dungeons & Dinobots", Cliffjumper did not recognize Slugfest or Goryu as the counterpart of someone of his dimension (and indeed, Slugfest and Gōryū did not appear in any of the Marvel stories or Classics stories prior). He didn't pay it any specific attention, nor that the number of Dinobots in the Shattered Glass universe is much larger than in his universe. Yet for some reason, he makes a big deal out of not recognizing Demolishor and Heatwave in "Do Over", going as far as to claim he thought he knew everyone on his planet.
  • On page 6, Ricochet shoots one of his victims with his flame-cannon, but somehow doesn't hit Megatron who's standing between them and couldn't even tell where the shot was from.
  • On page 11, Divebomb is an eagle. On page 15, he's a falcon. He goes back to being an eagle on page 17. This would later be corrected to him being an eagle consistently.
  • "Do Over" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club
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