A Team Effort

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"A Team Effort"
Publisher Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published September 23, 2010
Written by Jesse Wittenrich
Illustrations by Casey Coller
Continuity Wings Universe
Page count 42pp

A strange meteorite approaches Cybertron as the Decepticon Warlords struggle for power.

Synopsis

In a Decepticon bunker, three of Megatron's men, Abacus, Datamine, and Deadbolt are hunkered down. While Abacus goes off on a religious rant about how great their leader is, the other two aren't so sure, particularly as Megatron seems to be ignoring their requests for backup. While they're still arguing, the Autobots blow up the bunker.

The explosion is relayed to the Decepticon War Council, who discuss how the Elite Guard is seeking to wipe them out, and also discuss ways to destroy the Autobots first.

Elsewhere, Stealth Team member Sprocket has an imaginary conversation with Councilor Halogen, much to the annoyance of Rumbler.

The Decepticon Warlord Gutcruncher returns to his base from the War Council meeting and talks to Charger, who thinks he's pinpointed the location of a particular celestial object. He has already sent Take-Off to secure transport. Unfortunately Take-Off is an idiot.

Tap-Out, Rumbler, and Sprocket join their leader Powerflash, who informs them that they have a new mission and presents them with a recording of Sentinel Major to explain.

In a neutral bar, Take-Off attempts to secure the help of Axer's ship. Unfortunately his ceaseless blabbing about the asteroid they're looking for and how great Gutcruncher is annoys Axer, who points out that there's an Elite Guard Autobot across the room listening to them. Needless to say, Take-Off doesn't secure Axer's services or ship, and the Elite Guardsman gets clean away.

The Guardsman in question is Delta Seeker, whose report is included in Sentinel Major's message to Powerflash's team. Sprocket thinks its a trap, but Powerflash has devised a plan, for which they'll need some electronic paint.

Sentinel Major meets with Magnum to report he's given the mission to Powerflash's Stealth Team. Magnum is pleased at the Elite Guard's progress in taking down the Decepticon Warlords, but not the recent loss of the Combaticons. Sentinel is annoyed that Magnum wants to take Metalhawk's Strike Team off the front lines, leaving Sentinel with only the Fast Attack Team in reserve. After Magnum leaves Sentinel's office, Sentinel literally runs into Ricochet, and finds that one of the datapads Ricochet is carrying is an acquisition request from Powerflash for a spaceship, with Sentinel's forged signature on it.

In preparation for their mission, Tap-Out and Powerflash are repainted, while Sprocket rambles about how he was taught to paint by Sensei Yoketron, despite Rumbler pointing out the flaws in his story. The repainting done, Powerflash and Tap-Out decide on their new identities as two neutrals, Bad Boy and Dealbreaker respectively.

Take-Off admits to Gutcruncher and Charger that he failed to get hold of Axer's ship, but claims to have a lead on another ship. He subsequently confides to Roadgrabber that he doesn't, and ropes Roadgrabber into helping him track down a ship.

Rumbler admires the Darklon, the ship Powerflash bought, while Sprocket claims to have made friends with the ship's computer. The pair take their hiding places in a fake chest in the ship's cargo bay. "Dealbreaker", meanwhile, meets with Take-Off to offer him the ship's services. When Take-Off starts blabbing again, Roadgrabber keeps him quiet and the two Decepticons take up Dealbreaker's offer. They head to the Darklon where the two Decepticons meet "Bad Boy". The disguised Autobots convince Take-Off of their veracity, and he and Roadgrabber report back to Gutcruncher. Charger is unimpressed that Take-Off didn't more thoroughly check it out, but all Gutcruncher is interested in is whether they can use it to get to the asteroid.

Gutcruncher turns out to be more than impressed with the ship once they lift off. Take-Off, however, reports that he may have momentarily detected two Autobot signatures in the hold. Gutcruncher orders him to get Charger to track down the signatures while he talks with the two neutrals. He proceeds to the bridge to find the two chairs empty and the auto-pilot on. "Bad Boy" quickly gets the drop on the Decepticon and reveals he's an Autobot before slapping a pair of stasis cuffs on Gutcruncher. While Tap-Out takes the prisoner to a cell, Powerflash heads down to release Rumbler and Sprocket. In the cargo hold, he attempts to bluff the three searching Decepticons long enough to get the drop on them, but blows his cover. He does manage to release Rumbler and Sprocket, however, and Rumbler's repeater sees the three Decepticons flee for their lives.

As the Decepticons run down corridors, Roadgrabber keeps firing behind them as "covering fire". Charge becomes so incensed that he mentally snaps, knocking Take-Off out and attempting to throttle Roadgrabber. When Rumbler and Sprocket arrive, he attacks them as well and is laid out by a punch from Rumbler.

The four Decepticons, all in the same cell, are thought to be neutralized, however Charger's wild mental break seems to have made him immune to the stasis cuff's submissive effect. He shorts out both Gutcruncher's cuffs and the energy bars imprisoning them.

The Darklon arrives at the asteroid, and the Autobots establish that it does, as the Decepticons had suspected, contain a power source of immense proportions that is emitting dangerous radiation levels. Powerflash instructs Tap-Out to fetch Charger to help check the power source out. Charger, Take-Off and Roadgrabber are making their way to the ship's exit however, and Tap-Out finds the cell empty. He doesn't have time to alert the other Autobots before Gutcruncher renders him unconscious and rigs up an explosive that will destroy the ship.

Powerflash and Rumbler disembark from the Darklon and are ambushed by Charger's group who has availed themselves of weapons from the armory. Sprocket emerges a short time later with the tracking equipment to find his comrades at gunpoint, but confides to them that he neglected to recharge the weapons after their last battle. Gutcruncher announces over the ship's intercom that the Decepticons now hold all the cards. While Roadgrabber stays on the ship, the other Decepticons and the Autobots track down the source of the energy, a crystalline monolith in a crater. Gutcruncher is transfixed by the sight of it, and places his hands on it. Suddenly it begins glowing and emitting rays of light which zaps everyone present.

Gutcruncher recovers first, and the other soon after, but when he orders them to transform so they can drive back to the ship, no one is able to. They instead walk back to the ship, where Roadgrabber has Tap-Out tied up. The Decepticons board the ship, but the three following Autobots are able to stop the door from closing and force it open. Gutcruncher heads to the bridge to activate the ship's autodefences, leaving the other three Decepticons to fight the Autobots, but with four against three, and some strange additional strength bestowed on them by the crystal's power, the Autobots triumph. Powerflash confronts Gutcruncher on the bridge, however the Warlord reveals he's planted a bomb on the ship and attempts to detonate it. The ship isn't destroyed, much to his surprise, and Rumbler punches out Gutcruncher.

Back on Cybertron, Rest-Q checks over Powerflash and says he'll be able to transform again when the effects of the radiation wear off. Whenever that is. Sentinel Major congratulates the team on a job well done. Tap-Out reveals that he had relocated Gutcruncher's bomb from the ship and it had instead destroyed the crystal monolith. Sentinel tells them that the asteroid was actually a piece of Hydrus Four, and they're now on the lookout in case any of the pieces of the asteroid survived to plummet to Cybertron.

Elsewhere, Deathsaurus observes the latest Decepticon War Council meeting, now with less Warlords thanks to Gutcruncher's capture and several of the others joining Megatron's growing army. As Deathsaurus watches, his lieutenant, Falcon detonates a bomb, killing the remaining council members. This done, Deathsaurus meets with Starscream and promotes him to lieutenant.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Several details about the make-up of the Elite Guard are mentioned for the first time outside of the OTFCC panel at BotCon 2010. The Elite Guard is split up into several teams, including:
    • The story's main cast, the Stealth Team.
    • The Combaticons, also known as the Special Ops Team (their renaming explained as being the result of the name "Combaticon" receiving bad publicity.)
    • The Alpha Team, under Thunderclash; they are not mentioned in Sentinel Major's mobilization report, being currently stationed at the Centry Quadrant during the story, as mentioned in "The Coming Storm".
    • Metalhawk's team, dubbed the Strike Team.
    • The Artillery Team, seen at the beginning of the story but unnamed. Made up of Halonix Maximus, Padlock (who, being a sniper, most likely was the one who painted the Decepticon bunker at the beginning of the story), Windsail, and Clear Out.
    • The Recon Team, made up of Roadfire, Delta Seeker, Crosscut, and Rest-Q. Both it and the Artillery Team go unnamed in the story.
    • The Fast Attack Team, whose members are unnamed in-story; it is composed of Ranger, Blacker, Braver, and Laster.
  • Abacus makes reference to the Hall of Records, from The Transformers episode "Surprise Party".
  • Reflector commands an army called the Photons, all of whom are identical to himself/themselves; presumably, this explains the legions of identical "Reflectors" seen in the first season of the The Transformers cartoon.
  • Hook is among the Decepticon warlords in the first meeting. Of note, this takes place before his and the other Constructicons brainwashing by Megatron in "The Secret of Omega Supreme"; later fiction in the Wings universe would explain this seeming discrepancy. Hook is noted to take interest in technology found in the ruins of Gygax; Sprocket's comment's later in the story, along with Bruticus' profile in issue #36 of the Club magazine would make it clear that this is combiner technology.
  • Thunderwing and Blue Bacchus were noted to be captured by the Elite Guard in "The Coming Storm: Part 3".
  • The Combaticons were captured by Deathsaurus in "The Coming Storm: Part 3".
  • Pneuma-lions were previously mentioned in "Flames of Yesterday".
  • Roadgrabber was buried alive by the Elite Guard in "Flames of Yesterday"; Take-Off notes that he stumbled across him while in Median.
  • Powerflash names drops Crystal City, introduced in "The Secret of Omega Supreme".

Transformers references

  • Multiple new members of the Elite Guard are introduced in this story, including:
    • The members of the Stealth Team. Powerflash and Rumbler were European exclusive Action Masters, while Sprocket was an Action Master from the American toyline; he still has his Attack Cruiser, much like how Over-Run still has his Attack Copter. Tap-Out is the odd one out, being an exclusive from BotCon 2002.
    • Halonix Maximus (AKA Halo and Gigantron) is based off the holographic Autobot seen in The Transformers episode "Heavy Metal War". According to this story, he transforms into a bomber. Sentinel notes that Big Bang gave him the callsign "Gigantron"-Gigantron was an alternative named considered for Halo by Fun Publications.
    • The Stealth Team, whose disparate members include their commander, Roadfire, a Powered Master from the Zone toyline; Delta Seeker, an Autobot from the Robotmasters toyline; Crosscut, an e-Hobby exclusive based on the Diaclone version of Skids; and Rest-Q, named after the GoBot and based on a prototypical version of Hubcap seen in the Toy Fair 1986 catalogue.
  • Datamine hails from the Badlands, an area of Cybertron introduced in the BotCon "Reaching the Omega Point" storyline.
  • Datamine claims that Deathsaurus has "a stack of gold coins as tall as an Omega Guardian." The Omega Guardians were introduced in "Spotlight: Hot Rod".
  • The Decepticon Warlords, too, are composed of numerous Easter eggs, including:
    • The main warlord in this story, Gutcrucher, one of the Action Masters from the end of The Transformers toyline. His minions, Take-Off and Charger, were European-exclusive Action Masters.
    • Trannis, a Decepticon warlord mentioned in the one-page prose story "Cybertron: The Middle Years!" from the UK Marvel The Transformers comic.
    • His successor, Straxus, who showed up as the Decepticon leader on Cybertron in the early issues of the Marvel US The Transformers comic. His position as lord of Darkmount is referenced here.
    • Zardak, who, aside from being a reference to another toyline of transforming robots, (see "Real-world references"), is repurposed from the Henkei! Henkei! Dark Skyfire toy.
    • Cannonball, referencing the pirate of the same name from the Cybertron toyline. The Maraudicons were named for a design created by author Jesse Wittenrich for custom Transformers sticker website, Reprolabels.
    • Preditron is repurposed from the evil version of Beast-Bot from the Playskool Go-Bots toyline. His subfaction, the Destrongers, take their name for the name of the Predacons in the Car Robots series.
  • Gygax was introduced in "The New World".
  • Sprocket's imaginary friends include Councilor Halogen, Grandus, and Sensei Yoketron, characters from Exodus, Return of Convoy, and Animated respectively. All of them are indicated to be real, but Sprocket doesn't actually know them like he claims.
  • The asteroid featured in this story and Charger's obsession with it reference his original bio, which noted that in his free time, he researched how to harness energy from a burning meteor.
  • Charger's findings "spur excitement in Gutcruncher's rigid grill structure"; "rigid grill structure" was one of the early online Transformers fandom memes, based on a confused parsing of a post about Beast Wars Dinobot and a quote by Tom Servo that served as said poster's signature.
  • Among the patrons at the bar that Take-Off meets Axer at (likely Maccadam's Old Oil House, due to the cross-factional nature of the bar) are Constructicons, Protectobots, Recordicons, and Cassettrons (the Japanese name for Recordicons).
  • Radio AM Robot was among the South American-exclusive toy releases for the original The Transformers toyline from licensee Comando Toys.
  • Axer was another Action Master from the tail end of The Transformers toyline.
  • Take-Off claims Gutcruncher can take a stratotronic fighter jet and turn it into a mobile headquarters and a tank-the Statotronic Jet that Gutcruncher's toy with, of course, does just that.
  • Tap-Out is stated to have a 65356-9292-346 body, a designation introduced into the Animated continuity by The AllSpark Almanac II for Bumblebee's body-type. The numbers are taken from the barcode number for Bumblebee's Deluxe class toy.
  • Electronic paint originates from Animated episode "Where Is Thy Sting?".
  • Octus and Legonis were part of the Decepticon Triumvirate seen in the Marvel UK The Transformers comics.
  • Tap-Out's "Dealbreaker" paint-job is based on the Japanese-exclusive black variant of the Fun4All keychain re-release of the original Cliffjumper toy, the toy which Tap-Out was redecoed from. Powerflash's Bad Boy disguise, meanwhile, is based on the GoBots Renegade of the same name , using his original olive green and silver colors instead of the blue and white of Bad Boy's e-HOBBY release.
  • According to Wittenrich, Breakaway is G1 version of Revenge of the Fallen Breakaway. His design would be based on the original Decepticon Jet trio's toys, in the colors of unreleased "Conehead" Sandstorm from Generation 2. This was inspired by Revenge of the Fallen Breakaway sharing a mold with that incarnation of Thrust.
  • The lights of the Darklon's control board is noted to make Sprocket's face look like "Rosanna's retro dance floors"; Rosanna was an Autobot cassette introduced in the Kiss Players franchise.
  • Tap-Out enhances his disguise with a cy-garette, referencing the cy-gar, a piece of technlogy introduced in IDW Publishing's All Hail Megatron'.
  • Ballobots and basketrek were mentioned in issue #21 of the Marvel The Transformers comic.
  • Roadstorm is repurpsed from the Galaxy Force Roadstorm toy, sold in America as Cybertron Lugnutz.
  • Rigel III was mentioned in issue #44 of the Marvel The Transformers comic.
  • Roadgrabber claims that he was buried underground while fighting an army of GADEPs, the Japanese name for the Guardian robots.
  • Charger inquires Take-Off as to whether or not the Darklon has a number of items, all of which correspond to Action Master Slicer's Power Plans.
  • An alternative form of stasis cuffs (a technology introduced in Animated) are used by Powerflash and his team in this story; instead of freezing all motor functions, they dampen the aggressive sub-routines of whomever they're attached to, rendering them child-like.
  • While affixed with stasis cuffs, the pacified Take-Off claims that Charger has a "fire beast" inside him. Fire Beast is the name of Charger's Action Master partner.
  • Although it's never actually stated in-story, the energy crystal is Nucleon, as shown by its effects on those exposed to its energy; the asteroid it was on was a chunk from the planet of Hydrus Four, the origin of Nucleon in the Marvel The Transformers comics.

Real world references

  • The story (including its title) pays homage to The A-Team. Each of the characters homage a member of the titular team; Powerflash takes the place of John "Hannibal" Smith; Tap-Out's portrayal is based on Templeton Peck; Rumbler replaces B. A. Baracus; and Sprocket fills the role of Howling Mad Murdock.
  • Abacus' speech patterns and purple coloration homage Preacherbot from Futurama. Datamine mockingly calls him "Preacher-Bot" at one point.
  • Decepticon warlord Zardak and his Maladroids were inspired by the Convertors toyline. Zardak was a small version of the Macross VF-1S Super Valkyrie toy; the larger version, of course, was released in The Transformers toyline as Jetfire.
  • The city the Stealth Team is stationed in, Detrona, is named for Detroit and Daytona Beach.
  • The Transmorpher Freeway is named for The Asylum's knock-off film of the 2007 Transformers film.
  • Tap-Out quips that "sometimes missiles don't fall far from the sprue", paraphrasing the idiom "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" (plastic sprues, of course, are also known as plastic trees).
  • Take-Off indicates that Gutcruncher's headquarters are located near an Energon-Os ad; Energon-Os were part of a skit from some of the BotCon voice actor panels, where actors would perform a sales pitch for the fictional cereal as the characters they voice.
  • R-Third is named and based off of Arthur, partner of The Tick, whom Sentinel Major's inspiration, Animated Sentinel Prime, was visually based on.
  • The Darklon takes her name from Destro's distant cousin, from G.I. Joe.
  • Take-Off is noted to turn into a three-wheel Speedstar, named for an automotive shop in Ontario that author Jesse Wittenrich had felt was a good name for an 80's cartoon-related story.
  • Powerflash/"Bad Boy" claims that "every con and bot from here to Treskellon with a ship" is talking about Take-Off's need for a ship. Treskellon is named for the planet from Star Trek, Triskelion.
  • Rest-Q and Crosscut's pairing is inspired by the duo of Tocot and Grunchlk from Farscape.
  • Zardak notes he has a relative in the Centry Quadrant. Going off of the Convertors toy bios, this is a Transformers version of his brother, Zark.

Trivia

  • A poll was held on the Official Transformers Collectors Club' forums to choose which Elite Guard team would be the subject of the next prose story. The Stealth Team won with nearly half the overall votes, beating the Recon Team, Artillery Team, and the Fast Attack Team.
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