Bee in the City 2: Electric Bugaloo
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| "Bee in the City 2: Electric Boogaloo" | |||||||||
| Original presentation | April 29, 2012 | ||||||||
| Written by | Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop | ||||||||
| Continuity | TransTech and a Generation 1 universe | ||||||||
"Joe" escapes from Axiom Nexus with his most devious scheme yet: marketing clout!
Synopsis
Across the mutliverse, the Transformers fight their war, raging across all of space time, except for one universe. This universe, home to the the highly advanced TransTechs of Axiom Nexus, stands guard to multiversal threats, one of which is happening right now, one that could change the multiverse forever.
This is not that story.
Reporting from Around Cybertron on ANN, Andromeda receives a call from a "Joe", who reveals live on-air that he is in fact the Predacon Megatron! Hanging up from the payphone as Andromeda traces the call and signals the authorities, exactly as he planned. Interrupted by his supervisor, Snapdragon, Megatron tells him to inform Cryotek that he's done being a dishwasher, and explains to his lackeys Soundwave of Planet X and a Malgus Lugnut his plan. Having been previously defeated by the TransTech, along with a little yellow Autobot and his pre-teen friend, Megatron will finally have his revenge, which starts with being arrested. Officer Stungun arrives, and Megatron tells the three to comply. Reading their identification bolts, which Soundwave has hacked and edited to place their home dimension as Primax 984.17 Alpha, the underpaid Stungun sends them back to their "home universe". Arriving in the rocky mesas of Madagascar, the three quickly travel across the globe with a scene transition, where Lugnut finds the sign pointing to Autobot Headquarters. The three watch as three Autobots-Bumblebee, Blaster, and Road Rage, who has always been there-wander about. Megatron greet the three, introducing himself and his team as "Joe", "Soundblaster", and Lugnut, a group of publishing agents from Planet X. "Joe" entices Bumblebee with an offer to have him write his memoirs, but when Bumblebee sees that his "office" is a car wash, he gets suspicious. As he and Blaster banter, Megatron springs the trap, forcing the three Autobots into the carwash, which is really a giant burlap sack.
Meanwhile, Stungun, having realized his mistake, has enlisted the help of an Aurex Optimus Prime to go and hunt down Megatron. Knowing from his experiences with his Megatron that the Predacon will go for the closest plot device he can find, and the two set out. At Megatron's secret canyon based, Bumblebee and his friends have been wired up to a huge machine, as Joe reveals his true identity to the three. Before he can explain his nefarious plan, however, Optimus Prime and Stungun confront him, having bribed the writers with sandwiches. Megatron grabs Bumblebee, telling them to stay back, and Prime stops Stungun from advancing, realizing with this particular Bumblebee, the entire franchise could be changed forever. Megatron laughs, telling them all his plan; using Bumblebee's harmonic signature amplified through Soundwave and Blaster's sonic energies, and aided with the instability caused by this years "Invasion" exclusive comic, Megatron will rewrite his narrative structure and take Bumblebee's place. Doing so, he will gain the greatest power of them all: being the face of the franchise! And after all that is done, Megatron will send Bumblebee to the most horrible place of all: the world of My Little Pony fanfictions. Horrifed, the others beg Optimus to stop him, and Prime quickly uses Megatron's one weakness: flattery. Reminding him that he's already popular, and one of the most well regarded versions of Megatron by the fandom, the Autobots manage to convince him to let Bumblebee go, but he still plans on kill Optimus. Thinking fast, Bumblebee rushes to the red button marked "overload", causing the machines to blow up in Megatron's face. The other two are quickly defeated in combat, and Megatron rants, letting it slip that he hails from the Beast Wars. Stungun tells everyone to never speak of these events again, and they all agree, going home to their respective times and places, and everyone laughs as the day comes to a close.
The end!
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons/Predacons | Others |
|---|---|---|
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Quotes
Notes
- The cast:
- Characters mentioned but not seen include: two powerful and evil minds, other Megatrons, Cryotek, a ridiculous little yellow Autobot and his pre-teen human friend, Primax 984.17 Alpha's Megatron, Primax 984.17 Alpha's Soundwave, Primus,
Continuity notes
- This story follows the events of the original "Bee in the City" a few years later, with Megatron attempting to get his "extremely overwrought and melodramatic revenge." The story also takes place around the same time as the BotCon 2012 comic "Invasion", the multiversal fallout of which Megatron attempts to use in his scheme.
- The beginning narration mentions that there is over fifteen quadrillion realities in the multiverse, a fact originally spouted by Bug Bite in "Games of Deception".
- Andromeda and Around Cybertron showed up in the two TransTech-themed Around Cybertron comic strips, published in the last two issues of the 2008 Club Magazine run.
- Cryotek and his business showed up in the TransTech prose stories published in 2008.
Transformers references
- Characters in the story include:
- Beast Wars Megatron.
- Cybertron Soundwave and Optimus Prime.
- Animated Lugnut.
- Generation 1 Snapdragon, who serves as Megatron's manager at Cryotek's place.
- Along with original The Transformers characters Bumblebee and Blaster, Road Rage, a Collector's Edition e-HOBBY exclusive, appears. Her function as a bodyguard is mentioned in passing.
- Megatron claims he is the winner of the Smoothest Voice in Axiom Nexus Award three years running, in reference to actor David Kaye's baritone Megatron voice.
- Megatron works for Cryotek as a dishwasher; various versions of him worked for their universe's Cryotek before betraying him.
- While Megatron and Soundwave's i.d. bolts have been edited to present them as being their counterparts from the original cartoon, Lugnut's has been edited so that it claims he is the Giant Purple Griffin from "Aerial Assault".
- Much of this story is dedicated to lightly poking fun of various quirks and oddities of the original cartoon:
Real-world references
- The title is a reference to the 1985 film Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, which has been lampooned across pop culture in the years since.
- As with the original "Bee in the City", the story makes multiple references to the concepts of kid-appeal characters and .
- The beginning narration, while describing the story, proclaims that "this is my handle, this is my spout", in reference to the nursery rhyme "I'm a Little Teapot".
Errors
- In the beginning narration, the announcer describes the story of "Invasion" as involving two evil minds from across dimensions teaming up. This isn't what happens in the comic; the main antagonist is Ultra Magnus, with Gigatron (presumably who the other evil mind is) fighting against him. Is this from an earlier draft, or just a plain mistake?
Trivia
- Though titled "Bee in the City 2", the story has very little to do with the first "Bee in the City" story aside from the return of Megatron and his manipulating a Bumblebee character. Towards the end, the characters even question why this story was even titled "Bee in the City 2" since it didn't take place in a city or really focus that much on Bumblebee at all.
- Having not played Blaster in over two decades, Buster Jones's performance in this script reading was far more laid back and unenthusiastic compared his more lively, upbeat Blaster in the The Transformers cartoon, despite his dialogue in this script reading evidently meant to evoke Jones's more enthusiastic Blaster performance from the cartoon.
