Crucible (Part 2): Lūstrāre

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« The Transformers:
Lost Light #20 		»
"Crucible (Part 2): Lūstrāre"
Publisher IDW Publishing
First published July 11, 2018
Cover date Late June, 2018
Written by James Roberts
Art by Casey Coller
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long
Editor David Mariotte
Continuity IDW continuity
Chronology Current era

At last: Rodimus vs. Getaway!

Synopsis

Inside Ward Zero on Mederi, Rung takes an interest in the alien telepaths who power the planet, who are still murmuring "Prepare, confront, repel" in unison. Ratchet repeats his instruction to ignore them and worry instead about the sparkeaters banging on the front door, but fortunately, First Aid has found a solution to that problem in Mederi's patient files: "concussive medicine," the delivery of a curative program code via kinetic force. A generator is quickly prepped to deliver the code, but Misfire questions if it is safe to use in the presence of the organic telepaths. Unsure, First Aid calls a halt to the plan... only for Nickel, not caring a fig for the safety of organics, to jump in and activate the generator herself. The shockwave it emits slams through the walls and into the sparkeaters, knocking them all out, and leaving the telepaths unharmed.

Aboard the Lost Light, Rodimus and Cyclonus confront Getaway, Scorponok, and Star Saber. Cyclonus immediately transforms to jet mode and appears to flee, with his one-time former adversary Star Saber giving chase. Scorponok, meanwhile, takes on his own old enemy Rodimus, easily overpowering him while Getaway watches. But just before Scorponok can crush Rodimus's head, he suddenly dematerializes—teleported away by Tyrest, who radios in to inform Getaway that the Grand Architect has need of Scorponok, in preparation for the approach of "the beast." Composing himself, Rodimus recalls stories Drift used to tell about Cybertronian guardian angels named "slivers," and finds himself pretty sure they must be true, since he's just had his fondest wish granted: him and Getaway, one-on-one. Getaway, on the other hand, has a different idea, transforming to vehicle mode and speeding away!

Down in the flooded shuttle bay, the rest of Rodimus's team contends with the menace of the red scraplets. Grimlock cleaves the scraplets' combined form in two with his sword, and the critters sink back under the oil... but a moment later, with a speed and intelligence Drift believes they should not be capable of, they recombine into a serpentine form and lunge directly at Whirl. Rather than devour him, however, they reform again... into a giant hand, that gently strokes the side of Whirl's face...!

Elsewhere in the ship, Star Saber continues to pursue Cyclonus, enjoying the chase. But it turns out Cyclonus isn't fleeing... he has merely lured Star Saber into following him. Quick as a flash, Cyclonus transforms to robot mode, and brandishes his Great Sword. Unable to react fast enough in the narrow corridor, Star Saber plunges headlong into the blade, and is bisected from nosecone to afterburner!

Back in Ward Zero, the unconscious sparkeaters are brought inside for examination. As Ratchet works, the telepaths again speak as one, this time "saying" the symbol of the Knights of Cybertron's coat of arms, which Nautica is able to recognize thanks to Skids writing down the pronunciation of it for her after he heard it himself. Rung also recognizes the "word," but cannot recall from where, knowing only that it is from "a very long time ago." But that's a mystery for another time, as the telepaths continue speaking, this time counting down from one thousand...

Rodimus follows Getaway to the ship's fuel furnace, where the escapologist attacks him using a pair of nucleon rods as cudgels. Rodimus punches Getaway off the catwalk they are fighting on, and as he lands, a piece of one of the rods breaks off. Getaway tosses it into the furnace, which flares up violently, shooting flames into the room that slowly begin to spread. As Rodimus closes in, Getaway threatens to smash the remaining rods together, setting off an explosion that will destroy the ship. Rodimus doesn't believe he'll do it; why destroy what he's fought so hard for? Getaway explains by way of relating what happened after the Lost Light arrived at Mederi, which they found empty, due to the crew lacking any kind of coherent vision of "Cyberutopia" for the telepaths to form an illusion out of. The Grand Architect's Worldsweeper fleet then attacked, and to save himself, Getaway struck a deal, claiming that Team Rodimus was on the way to foil the Architect's plans and offering to stop them in return for a position among his followers. To prove his loyalty, he allowed Scorponok to turn the rest of the crew into sparkeaters. But now that it's all ended in failure? With Cyberutopia an illusion, so he will never be able to become a Prime? Getaway has literally nothing left to live for. As a final jab, he accuses Rodimus of caring nothing for the ship or the crew, having only pretended to in order to get revenge on Getaway—an accusation that gives Rodimus just enough pause to provide Getaway with his opening. Just before he can bring the rods together, however, Cyclonus appears behind Getaway and severs his left arm with his sword. Terrified, Getaway flees into the raging inferno behind him... but Rodimus, determined to prove that he is not like Getaway, follows him into the fire. Amid the flames, he finds Getaway's unconscious body and carries him back out to safety, his purple paintjob burning away as he does so, restoring him to his original red.

Rodimus and Cyclonus try to get the sprinklers working to douse the fire, but Getaway, left unattended, reawakens and silently picks up Cyclonus's sword, preparing to stab the ancient Cybertronian in the back. Before he can, the sprinklers burst into life, and an unearthly vision appears through the rain: Primus himself, who Getaway believes has finally come to make him a Prime. Getaway euphorically takes the hand of god... only for "Primus" to turn out to be another scraplet construct! The mini metal-munchers swarm all over Getaway, devouring him until only a few scraps remain. Rodimus and Cyclonus stare in amazement as Whirl struts up and explains that the scraplet swarm isn't just made up of red scraplets; it's being led by the Luna 1 scraplets that snuck onto the ship the previous year, with which he formed a bond. Interfacing with Mederi's euthanasia program, the scraplets killed Getaway with his greatest desire: validation from god.

It seems like everything is over, until Ratchet radios Rodimus to tell him about the countdown, which has reached its end. Ratchet urges Rodimus to find a window and look outside... where space itself has torn open, and a blazing rift now stretches across the stars!

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Others

Quotes

"Of course! If the sparkeaters had broken into the ward, they'd have killed the telepaths anyway! You knew you had to take the risk!"
"Er... yeah. That's definitely it."

—Velocity assumes Nickel is a good person


"You're overlooking one thing. You can lie and cheat and kill—and you can betray those closest to you in your deranged quest for power—and you can convince yourself and all those stupid enough to follow you that you're display the Signs of Affinity. You can do all of that, but at the end of the day—even if Cyberutopia had been real... 'Getaway Prime' will always sound rubbish."

—Rodimus


"May Primus forgive your sins... as one day he may forgive mine."

—Cyclonus eulogizes Star Saber


"You're obsessed with me."
"Other way around, surely."

—Rodimus and Getaway


"He was terrified."
"He really thought we were going to kill him."
"Weren't you?"

—Cyclonus and Rodimus watch as Getaway flees


"I'll tell you who'd know exactly how the sprinkler system works: Ultra Magnus. He's obsessed with them! Swerve says he writes sprinkler fan fiction."
"I don't understand half of what Swerve says."
"I don't listen to half of what Swerve says."

—Rodimus and Cyclonus


"Y'know-cough cough-Drift's always going on about silvers. Not silvers. Slivers! Celestial mechs made of dappled light or trapped light or patterns of light or-I dont know. Whatever. Point is, they single out specific bots -the special ones-and act as their Protectors: They save their lives and make their dreams come true. I was a skeptic. Not anymore. You know why? Because someone just made my dream come true: you and me, one on one, for as long as it takes. So buckle up, you son of a bitch."

—Rodimus says a naughty word

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Scorponok refers to his previous clash with Hot Rod, in Maximum Dinobots.
  • Tyrest describes the Benzene Cluster as "threadbare"—not a random word choice, as "threadbare space" was one of the phrases Drift mentioned in issue #2 as having heard during the vision he had in issue #1.
  • While trying to recall what Drift has told him "slivers" are made out of, Rodimus runs through a list: "dappled light, or trapped light, or patterns of light." "Trapped light" is unlikely to be the phrase Drift used, as he did not ascribe any importance to the words when Ratchet found them inscribed over the door of Ward Zero in issue #17.
  • As footnotes remind us, Skids "heard" the Knights' coat of arms "spoken" by the giant ball of energy he encountered in More than Meets the Eye #21. He was asked by Nautica to write it phonetically in issue #50, hence her ability to recognize it in this issue.
  • Also referenced via footnote, the Luna 1 scraplets snuck onboard the Lost Light and formed a bond with Whirl in The Transformers Holiday Special. Hope you're not just reading this in trade paperback form, kids, as that's never been included in any of the collections of this series!

Transformers references

  • The visual of a tear in the fabric of the universe, specifically including a flaming red-orange-yellow color scheme speckled with black "Kirby Krackle" dots, feels like a reference to the rift in space-time that was the central threat of the climactic classic Marvel UK storyline, "Time Wars." Getaway being graphically stripped down to his endoskeleton also mirrors the fate of Galvatron in that same storyline.
  • The big red mega-scraplet looks a bit like a mecannibal.

Real world references

  • The title of this issue, lūstrāre, is the Latin word that the English word 'luster' is derived from. Specifically, lūstrāre means 'to purify ceremoniously'. The macrons (the little horizontal lines) are used as a pronunciation guide in dictionaries but do not usually appear when simply writing out words or sentences in Latin.

Other trivia

  • Originally solicited for release in late June 2018, as the second of two issues of Lost Light that were supposed to be released that month, this issue arrived late, in the second week of July, only a week after the also-delayed previous issue.

Soundtrack

TBC

Covers (3)

  • "I'll mop up the floor with ye!"
    "I'll mop up the floor with ye!"
  • Time to slice and dice.
    Time to slice and dice.
  • RI cover.
    RI cover.

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