Skids (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
Outlier. Theoretician. Special Operative. Amnesiac. Skids
- First appearance: More than Meets the Eye #1 (mentioned); #2 (depicted)
Fiction
IDW 2005 continuity
Outlier
Before the war, Skids of Nova Cronum trained as a theoretician at Senator Shockwave's Academy of Advanced Technology, Patternism secretly recruited to the school because of his status as an "outlier" with special powers—in Skids's case, a "super-learning" ability that allowed him to master many skills. An Intimate Beheading He was present at the academy on the day that Roller and Ratchet arrived to take Shockwave into protective custody, and his attempt to stop them was quickly quashed when the towering Roller intimidated him into silence. Patternism It was not long, however, before Skids's teacher returned and recruited him and classmates "Glitch" and Windcharger for a plan formulated by Orion Pax to steal a bomb disguised as the Matrix from Nominus Prime's body as it lay in the Primal Basilica. Skids was somewhat disappointed that his sole contribution to the plan was not one of his many skills, but merely the fact he had a grappling hook in his arm that they could use to lower Pax into the Basilica. Despite a minor snag when the technology-disrupting Glitch accidentally jammed his hook's winch, the mission was a success. An Intimate Beheading
Unfortunately, the aftermath of the mission meant the outliers and Pax had to go on the run. Out in the Alyon region, they discovered a new "hot spot" for infant sparks which looked like the Hand of Primus (or, for Skids, was definitely the Hand of Primus). Zeta, their man in Iacon, warned them the Senate wanted to destroy the spot to stop the Functionist Council exploiting it and so the fugitives had to fight off the Elite Guard repeatedly. Time-travellers under Rodimus popped up and, when Skids mistook them for reinforcements from Zeta, rapidly claimed that. They saved the day but the time travellers wiped everyone's memories after... unfortunately including memories that Roller was missing in action. All Our Parlous Yesterdays
Negotiator
After graduating to full-fledged theoretician status, Skids went on to join the Autobot army. Shortly after the Simanzi Massacre, when the planet still was cooling, he became a bomb negotiator: disabling the anti-personal mines made out of Autobot prisoners so they could die without going off. This ended when he made the mistake of mentioning Primus to the unfortunate Heavy Tread, who detonated himself in a rage that anyone could believe in a god that did this to him. When Skids came to, he was a Decepticon prisoner and off to the notorious Grindcore gulag with a "mouth flower" inside his mouth that would destroy his brain if he dared transform.
Skids used his outlier learning skills to disable the "flower", having seen how the guards put it in, and began pumping his cellmate Quark for info. This brought him to the attention of the camp commandant, Speak, Memory: Part 1 who turned out to be his old friend Glitch in an upgraded body. Do Not Go Gentle Glitch, in an act of basic sadism, decided to make a project out of the religious 'bot. He asked Skids to repair Grindcore's teleporter, promising it would mean fifty prisoners would be sent to Decepticon colony world Ambervalia to work as slaves. Skids told Quark that this was collaboration that would help and the fifty would be better as slave workers than at the prison; and while he didn't say outright, Skids was relaxed around the Commandant and felt he could try and make demands for more prisoners sent to the colonies, assuming he could half-trust his old friend even if he had switched side. What he did not realise until it was too late was that Glitch had been making him rebuild the camp smelting chamber... something he learned only after demanding Quark get to be 'teleported'. Skids' faith died as he was forced to watch fifty Autobots die horrific deaths because of him. The memory was so traumatic that he overwrote it Speak, Memory! (Part 2) and the only thing he remembered of it in his missing months was "The Empyrean Suite", unable to remember the name or that this was the Decepticon Justice Division leader's favourite music to play during a massacre. Who's Afraid of the DJD? That leader, of course, was Glitch under the nomme de guerre of Tarn.
Skids used to have an Amica Endura called Chopper. They broke up because Chopper was "an absolute arse". The Frail Gaze
Special Operative
Long into the war he joined the Diplomatic Corps, working to persuade other races to support the Autobot cause. Who's Afraid of the DJD? At some point, he disappeared and was believed dead, Hangers On but had, in fact, become part of Prowl's covert Special Operations. Partnered with Getaway, he was sent to attempt an "assassination" on Tyrest, using a nudge gun to implant the impulse to resign in the Chief Justice's mind. The plan failed, and Skids was only able to escape using a shuttle made from mode locked Legislators. Using the nudge gun's other charge, Skids erased his own memory after setting the shuttle to home in on the nearest of his handlers, the Duobots. Arm the Lonely
Amnesiac
It was in this amnesiac state that he arrived on the planet where the Lost Light had crashed. Abruptly, the mode lock deactivated and the ship began transforming, so Skids made an impulsive decision: he reactivated the lock, sent the ship crashing into the surface, and bailed out. Making it to the ground safely, Skids found himself under attack from the Legislators that had made up his ship — though one of them had been killed in the crash, the other two were coming after him with giant swords and fire breath. Skids came upon the deceased bodies of two Autobots who had failed to survive the Lost Light crash—Hyperion and Polaris—and used their weapons and abilities to eliminate another of the pursuing robots. Running from the lone survivor, Skids came upon a small party of Autobots from the Lost Light, who deactivated the inhibitor claw for him, allowing him to access his weapons and destroy the last Legislator. Skids was invited to join the crew of the Lost Light, though he was less than enthusiastic about Swerve's proposition that the pair of them should team up. Hangers On
When a Sparkeater got loose aboard the Lost Light, requiring the crew to be sealed in their quarters, Skids, decided to exploit his missing memories to entirely reinvent himself. Deciding he disliked confinement, he left through the ventilation system. Drawn by Rung's cries, he saved the psychiatrist from a close call with the Sparkeater, and at Rodimus's request, led the creature through the vents to the engine room where Rodimus disposed of it. The Chaos of Warm Things As a celebration of the death of the Sparkeater, Swerve opened a bar where Skids got drunk together with Chromedome. He failed to notice that Chromedome stole his gun while he was messing around with his grappling hook and a server-robot. Life After the Big Bang Rules of Disengagement After attending a ceremony to commend Chromedome, Brainstorm and Highbrow on recent heroics, The Reluctant Specialist Skids was next spotted still hanging out at the bar with some other Autobots as Trailbreaker put Chromedome's ability to identify an Autobot based on their transformation sound to the test. Interiors He later tried to comfort Swerve following his accidental shooting of Rung. Rules of Disengagement
When a swarm of Nanocons that had lain dormant inside Ultra Magnus's body were mysteriously reactivated, Skids and a few others were shrunk by Brainstorm's mass-displacement gun and sent inside Magnus to eliminate them. Once that was dealt with, Skids attended Tailgate's Autobot Initiation Ceremony, during which he relayed Swerve's report from the engine room that dead crewmember Ore had come back to life. The chaos only continued when Skids and a team of Autobots were abruptly teleported by Galactic Council to the planet Theophany, there to investigate the razing of Crystal City. Beneath the city, they found a slumbering Titan, leading to discussions on the Transformers' creation myths and the meaning of life; Skids and Chromedome shared a belief that life was shaped not by destiny or gods, but by interactions with others. Skids theorized that both the Nanocons and Ore had come back to life thanks to the psychic emanations of the Metrotitan, then helped Whirl fend off the Galactic Council's forces until the Autobots could free the Metrotitan, which teleported them all back to the Lost Light and quantum-jumped the ship to safety. You, Me, and Other Revelations
Inspired by their talk, Skids requested that Chromedome use his mnemosurgery to unlock his lost memories; Chromedome discovered that only Skids's last year of memories had been erased, while the others had been repressed by a trauma so horrific he did not dare restore them. Chromedome was, however, able to identify the music in his head as the "The Empyrean Suite", and hoped Skids would never learn its significance. Who's Afraid of the DJD?
Skids was among the group of Autobots gathered by Rewind in Swerve's bar to help tell a story to aid in Rung's mental recovery. Post Hoc When his old altercation with Roller came up, Whirl called him a wuss, and he countered that his skills as a theoretician wouldn't have been useful in a fight. Patternism At the culmination of the story Rung still showed no signs of recovery...until Skids deliberately mispronounced his name a couple of times, prompting the psychiatrist to speak and correct him. An Intimate Beheading The storytelling session was brought to an end by the sounding of alarm to ready the crew for a battle with Decepticons on the planet Temptoria; during the fight, Skids, Chromedome and Steeljaw battled Overkill. Before & After Later, to unwind, Skids joined the crew of the Lost Light on some "shore leave" on the planet Hedonia, where he tried out his new personality-generated holomatter avatar, only to find his amnesia kept it from creating a fake identity for him. As the group played the "Nemesis Game", Skids identified Misfire as his worst enemy, and then wound up getting into a drunken brawl with Cyclonus. Cybertronian Homesick Blues Skids bought Rodimus a Galactic Council captain's hat as a souvenir of the trip. Signal to Noise
When the mass-murdering Decepticon Overlord ran wild on the ship, Skids joined in the futile effort to hold back his rampage. Under Cold Blue Stars Overlord was ejected from the ship thanks to the sacrifice of Rewind, and Skids tried to console Chromedome over the loss of his lover, only to find that the mnemosurgeon was eerily calm about the whole thing. The Gloaming
Past catches up (1)
When the Lost Light encountered the long lost satellite Luna 1, Skids got Chromedome to accompany the band of Autobots heading to the surface to see if the satellite had a way to return Skids's memories. He went to the ship's oil reservoir for some alone time, where he was attacked by a number of Legislators. The Fecund Moon While he managed to hold them off long enough for Swerve to arrive to help, a mysterious and enigmatic robot appeared behind him, and impaled him with a large sword. House of Ambus
Fortunately for Skids, he survived this, and was later teleported by Star Saber into a cell which contained Rodimus' crew. Perceptor examined his wound, while Swerve explained what happened to them. After Skids said that he would apologize for whatever he had done to Tyrest, Star Saber returned to the cell, carrying his "Partner in crime" with him. Chromedome then explained that when he read Skids' mind, he had done it wrong, and misinterpreted the remnant memory as an "Imperative to escape". In actuality though, it was a name, Getaway. The Divided Self Getaway was able to fill Skids in on his lost memories of their ill-fated mission to change Tyrest's mind, and explained Tyrest's mad plan to reach Cyberutopia. With the newcomer's help, Skids and the others were freed from the cell and confronted Tyrest, only to be incapacitated by the lawmaker's suggestion weapon. Arm the Lonely
Thanks to Tailgate, the suggestion weapon was disabled, and Skids cuffed Pharma, only for the medic to promptly escape when his back was turned. The Autobots caught up with him at Tyrest's gate to Cyberutopia, but only Skids, finally at peace with himself, was able to step through the guilt-detecting force field. He found himself standing on a strange landscape being talked to by a multi-colored spark. On hearing cries for help from Rung, he dashed back through the portal to help fight the Legislators until Tailgate was able to shut them down with some amendments to the law. This Calamitous Life
Once everything was over, he tried telling Rodimus what he saw, but he couldn't make sense of all it. The Sound of Breaking Glass Not helping was the fact that whatever he saw proved difficult to remember for any length of time. How Bright Their Frail Deeds
Before the Lost Light left Luna 1, Skids played a film compiled by Rewind to detail the ship's voyage. Unfortunately the film failed to impress the members of the Circle of Light who rejected any notion of joining the crew. Little Victories
Dark Cybertron
Skids was among the Autobots who welcomed Orion Pax and his team aboard the Lost Light. Swerve remarked to him how weird some of Pax's crew were. Dark Dawn Skids was later seen having a drink at Swerve's Black Metal When the Lost Light was assaulted by Ammonites, Skids met up with Getaway and Ultra Magnus to help organize a counterattack. Skids hesitantly suggested that they use the Rodpod to fight back. Despite the other's and his own concerns about damaging it and making Rodimus angry, they ended up boarding and using the vessel. Skids piloted the craft, and used it to defend the ship's fuel quills, while blasting Ammonites that attempted to combine. Skids was forced to pilot the Rodpod away from the battle when a group of Ammonites combined and gave chase to them. In an attempt to lose them, he piloted the vessel into what appeared to be an abyss, but was really the optical cavity of Metroplex Into the Abyss
As everyone else tried to figure out where Metroplex's eye had gotten to, Getaway had a minor breakdown over the fact that A: they were inside someone's eye canal, and B: they were in a spaceship shaped like someone's head. Skids consoled him and said it was best to just roll with it. The group took Ratchet's suggestion to find Metroplex's brain, only on arrival in his brain chamber found it was surprisingly absent. In light of that, they decided to go find his spark instead. As they approached, Whirl noticed the flooding had been sealed off, which surprised Skids.
On setting down, Getaway quickly found an arrow pointing toward the spark chamber, which everyone decided to follow. Skids was the one to ask whether they would lock the Rodpod, which no-one else was concerned about. The arrows took everyone on a strange course through Metroplex's interior, until they came upon... the Rodpod again. Before Whirl could properly blame the ship, an Ammonite appeared, and blew it up. No Exit Fortunately, they were saved by a wall appearing to block the explosion, at which point Skids realized the purpose of the arrows: Metroplex was moving his interior about, and the odd journey the arrows had taken them on was because the direction they were meant to be pointed had change too. Then, they received a call from Swerve informing them to avoid the water, or they'd contract an alchemical virus and die horribly, and worse than that, two thousand Ammonites were heading their way. As Magnus gave orders to barricade the room, Whirl turned out an Ammonite, having beaten an explanation out of him. However, when the little guy told them who he was working for, he promptly self-destructed. Before everyone present could dwell on that, two newcomers appeared and told them to surrender. The Dead Are Not Enough
Before Getaway could charm the two fellow Autobots, several Ammonites burst through the walls. While Ultra Magnus,Ratchet and Brainstorm went off with their new friends, Skids stayed behind to fight off the attackers (that he was being mobbed by several of them anyway probably helped). As Skids fought, Metroplex was recharged by the Lost Light's engines, and transported himself back to Cybertron. Burning Bright This didn't get rid of the Ammonites, though. That took Megatron giving the titan his missing thumb, containing the Regenesis Ore-7, which healed him and reactivated his immune system, killing the Ammonites dead. Finis Temporis
In the apparent aftermath of Shockwave's scheme, Skids and Getaway relaxed in Swerve's, and were witness to Swerve suffering a bad bout of hero worship when Blurr walked in. The celebrations were rudely interrupted when Shockwave made his move, summoning all the Ammonites to attack Cybertron. The Becoming Fortunately, Bumblebee had a plan of taking the fight to Shockwave. Skids was included in the team to be sent, thanks to his secret-agent-know-how. Getting to Shockwave's base of operations in the Crystal City seemed impossible, until Starscream showed up with Skywarp, who managed to get them there. On arrival, the group was attacked by Bludgeon. Ultra Magnus offered to hold him off, and Skids decided to volunteer his skills as well, along with a suddenly poorly Brainstorm. However, Skids's outlier abilities weren't able to match Bludgeon's mastery of metallikato, and he quickly wound up stabbed. Fortunately, Brainstorm's unease turned out to be Optimus Prime, Rodimus, Cyclonus, Kup, and Nightbeat using the Dead Universe portal in his chest to escape that dying realm.Black Planet They quickly mopped up Bludgeon, but Cyclonus' injuries meant someone had to help Brainstorm haul him back to his lab. While this meant Skids had to miss the climactic showdown, he did get to see time itself falling to pieces in the sky above Cybertron. That, and Rodimus managing to play on Brainstorm's insecurities. ...And the Damage Done
Lights, Lost
Once the crisis was truly over, Skids decamped to Luna 2 to watch Megatron's trial. Evidently, he was not dissuaded from rejoining the Lost Light on its quest once the former Decepticon Leader was added to the ranks, and he set off again, this time coming along of his own volition. Six months into the quest, he was sufficiently worried to pay a visit to the widowed Chromedome with Nightbeat, though their friend remained secluded in his hab suite and Nightbeat's interest was quickly derailed, to Skids' dismay. Towards Peace Shortly thereafter, he, Nautica, and Riptide all shot the bull about the ship's new gossip mag, the Lost Light Insider. Though Nautica decided to exit before any rules were broken, she and Skids exchanged a bit of friendly banter before he and Riptide convinced the massively intoxicated Trailcutter to steal Megatron's "superfuel" out of the medibay. Words Hang in the Air.
When a pod containing the corpse of another Rodimus showed up, 'our' Rodimus called in Skids as part of his investigation team. Using all the facts, Skids and Chromedome worked out (wrongly as they'd soon learn!) that this was a near-future Roddy who'd die and be sent back in time, and Skids was left aghast by his leader's desperate attempts to 'change history' like lopping an arm off. Everything was then interrupted when the ship started to vanish around them Predestination: A Beginner's Guide and he was left stuck on a spaceship with Megatron (and Skids, who kept making snide asides when he was trying to listen). Soon, the Autobots on board began to disappear one by one and everyone had to reveal personal secrets in an attempt to figure out what was the common denominator. (In the process, Skids helped fill in Nautica on M.T.O.s and expressed his distaste for High Command's lack of interest in educating the "warborn".)
After realising only the launch crew were disappearing, the newbies like Skids found the Lost Light returned but in ruins! Twenty Plus One He agreed with Riptide that this must be the future Light that dead-Rodimus had come from and worried that the evidence they found meant they bring back the crew, only for the ship to be ripped apart. In an investigation, they came across a dead Ultra Magnus, one killed by a fusion cannon, and Skids turned on Megatron, believing this showed he was going to inevitably turn on them! To his disquiet, when Megatron immediately requested to be locked up until all the facts were gone, he felt bad' about doing it. As he admitted to Getaway during their search, he worried he was going to stop hating the killer.
The search found yet more corpses and to Skids horror, they had all been executed and their transformation cogs removed: acts that revealed the ship had been butchered by the Decepticon Justice Division. Luckily for all concerned, the discovery of a still-alive Rewind slaughterhouse proved this wasn't the future Lost Light but a duplicate of the 'real' one. Skids rushed to Rewind as he came through, making sure the guy was okay and filled in on things like Megatron-the-Autobot, and was pissed when Nightbeat pushed Rewind too soon to explain what had happened to the ship. That was how they learned the copy was created when the ship launched, thanks to an issue with the quantum engines, and exactly what hell Rewind had gone through. Said quantum engines were also leaking, endangering a nearby organic planet, and Skids knew they ahd to act. When Megatron refused to, bothered at the idea of risking his life for a handful of fleshy strangers, Skids tore into him for violating what the Autobrand stood for and that if being an Autobot didn't force him to modify his behaviour instead of getting what he wanted, then none of his 'rehab' meant a damn.
A brief aside from Getaway gave Skids an idea of how to save the planet: using a mass displacement gun he knew Brainstorm had been making to shrink down someone to help already-tiny Rewind fix the engines. That was a bust. Nothing was found except proof that Brainstorm was secretly a Decepticon spy but no time for that now, Skids! To Skids' amazement and joy though, his bollocking had worked and a guilty Megatron admitted he could be rigged to downsize and thus he could help Rewind. Skids thanked him. Once the damage was fixed, the duplicate Lost Light vanished and the 'real' one started to come back, and a happy Skids told a returning Chromedome to head up to the roof where Rewind was waiting. The Road Not Taken
Oh yeah, that Brainstorm thing. Turned out he was going back in time to change history, which was going to result in a hideous dystopia, and the time travellers sent to bring him back ended up running into an early Skids.All Our Parlous Yesterdays Things turned out fine in the end! While time-travelling, Rodimus tried to warn the past "don't let them [the Legislators] take Skids" but nobody heard it, which was good as Cyclonus pointed out that Skids being captured turned out to be necessary for saving half the Cybertronian race. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It Predestination: An Expert's Guide
Skids' friendly nature struck a chord with Ten, the former Legislator turned into a bartender. In a mural of Ten's favourite crewmembers, Skids was in the front. A further friendship was struck up when Ratchet asked Skids to chat with Rung some time, as the guy would truly appreciate being visited by someone who didn't want help from him; when Skids bought Rung a drink, the therapist was surprised and delighted. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme
Being's believing
Skids, Getaway, and Brainstorm all hung out at Nautica's, showing off their cool skillz and generally hanging. When Rung came up, Skids was bothered by Getaway dissing the guy, but they didn't have time to discuss Getaway's passive aggressive whiny defence of it as news came in that Thunderclash was dying and everyone was invited to the pre-wake on the Vis Vitalis. The Sensuous Frame During the party, Getaway asked him if he wanted to mutiny against Megatron. Skids declined... and had his mind wiped with the nudge gun. How Bright Their Frail Deeds Believing his splitting headache to be too much partying, he decided to flump out at the Vitalis and get picked up tomorrow. The Sensuous Frame That made him a target for the parasitical personality ticks, secretly feeding off his energy! Not knowing why he was so tired The Frail Gaze he reached out to Nautica, sensing something was up with her, and she asked him The Sensuous Frame to teach her to dance. While busting a move, he coaxed out her issues with her old college friend Firestar before the ticks begun a public rampage. After they were repulsed, Skids got better and everyone went back to the Light for a biiiig party at Sweeerve's!!!
Until Swerve suddenly vanished The Frail Gaze and a horrified Skids checked his room to find the bartender facedown, rusted, and half-dead from an infected wound. He rushed him to the medical bay for aid (inadvertently making him worse) and learned from First Aid that Swerve had been holed up in his room for months, neglecting himself, and using a holomatter avatar to seem 'fine'. To Skids' great shame, he'd never visited Swerve—hadn't even known his room number until he remembered it was Red Alert's old one—and completely missed any chance to see one of his best friends needed help. He joined a rescue team sent to "Swearth", a vast hologram Earth operating on sitcom rules that Swerve was projecting, to find the guy's consciousness and fix him. In his new, brooding holomatter avatar, Skids and his friends did track down Swerve and tried to convince him to focus on the physical pain he was feeling, so they could realise where he was hurting. Skids, an expert in suppression, knew Swerve was pushing it down. Once they identified that Swerve was cripplingly lonely and depressed, they were able to convince him that he truly was loved and valued by them. The One Where They Go to Earth
Soon after, Skids went with a crew to check out the legendary Necrobot. He needled Nightbeat for having the 'debunking' itch and said that, while he no longer believed, he understood why other people were attracted to the idea that there was something after death. The Not Knowing
Past catches up (2)
Under incremental recollection sessions with Rung, where he also helped fix model ships as a focusing tool, Skids had finally managed to remember entering Grindcore if nothing else; while frustrated with the slow process, Rung admonished him that learning all of it in one go would re-traumatise him. While chatting, Skids was surprised to see the long-lost Froid appear. An old friend of yours, Rung? Well, I'll leave you to get caught up! (Off he went to brood at the oil pools, trying to remember more.) Within minutes Rung sent him a coded radio message to meet him at Froid's ship as something dodgy was going on but by the time Skids arrived, Rung had learned Froid had the infamous Tetrahax Ripper, Sunder, on board and that guy fed on bad memories. The very first sight of Skids woke Sunder up and caused him to attack, starting to rip up Skids' traumatic memories to the surface Speak, Memory: Part 1 before Rung could get him to safety. During the running battle against the serial killer, Rung kept trying to get Skids to Chromedome for memory suppression and Sunder duly followed them, constantly bringing up memories. Luckily Sunder was killed by the point Skids remembered repairing Grindcore's teleport chambers for Tarn and not by the point he'd remember how he'd killed five hundred souls.Speak, Memory! (Part 2)
When a small time window opened up in Swerve's, Skids used it to look back at the day the new crew members joined the Light, a day that Trailcutter was still alive and openly happy. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases
The End
Skids had been part of Megatron's classes on the Knights of Cybertron and in one, to his surprise, Megatron showed the symbol that the strange spark being had 'said' to him back at possibly-Cyberutopia. Nautica advised him to write it out phoenetically to try and retain the knowledge of what it was, but everything was interrupted when Megatron and several others received bizarre messages coming from a distant planet. Rodimus assembled Skids with the rest of 'Team Rodimus' and they headed out to discover it was coming from the Necrobot's planet...
...where the Decepticon Justice Division and Deathsaurus were waiting. The Necrobot had been killed and the Autobots were forced to take refuge in his temple, now their makeshift fortress. And a message came in from Getaway, telling them that the crew had mutinied against Megatron and all those considered loyal to him, so sick they were of having the killer around. Skids was enraged to discover his former friend had actually mindwiped him, an act he knew was a violation, to keep this a secret. When the message ended and the sheer horror sunk in, Skids embraced Nautica to console her. How Bright Their Frail Deeds
The DJD made their presence known by attacking the Necrobot's fortress before retreating... promising to return at sunset as part of their intimidation tactics. Skids weighed up their options with the other stranded crew members, suggesting that they dig in and devise an escape route. The Necrobot's body had revealed a key that unlocked a room filled with at least sixty organic creatures inside strange pods. Discussion arose whether to flee, or stay and defend the people inside the pods, but the Autobots ultimately decided to stand their ground. The Sun in Flight Their forces were bolstered by the returning Drift and Ratchet, who had caught wind of their predicament through Velocity. Skids had the awkward task of introducing Ratchet to his replacement. Your Fierce Tears
With death staring them in the face, Skids was one of the Autobots who Nautica assembled for the rite of Amica Endura. She opened her spark to them, recited the ritual, and told them all how they were valued. When Rung departed with Nightbeat to investigate the mystery of the Necroworld, Skids bade him a terse and awkward farewell. At Close of Day
Shortly afterwards, Velocity hit on a potential way out: Tailgate's spark 'explosion', triggered by extreme trauma, had supercharged two security guards ala Ore-13 and that could be done now! All it required was, er, someone willing to be traumatised. Skids offered himself up and pleaded with Chromedome to finally let him know about his deep, hidden trauma. His sad friend brought back all the memories of Grindcore and Skids' spark erupted. As his supercharged friends fought through the Decepticons, Ratchet worked to keep him stable as his spark shrank.
Unfortunately, Skids came to and crawled off his slab, desperate to find Brainstorm and apologise for Quark's death, feebly crying that he was "scum" for what he'd done. Ratchet was desperate to get him back on the slab before he died but Megatron, the only other person in the fort, had left to join the battle and there was nobody to help. Skids died in Ratchet's arms, only Brainstorm noticing as his friend's 'statue' winked out. After the Autobots retreated back to the Necrobot's fortress, a distraught Nautica embraced the corpse. Rage, Rage She stayed with it until at least the morning as events unfolded outside, Do Not Go Gentle and at some point removed its brain module for safe-keeping. An Axe to Break the Ice
In honor of Skids, the crew of the Lost Light painted their Autobot Insignias grey. Some Other Cybertron
During a visit to Troja Major, Nautica revealed that she was seeking the Resus Cradle, a device that was said to be capable of reviving dead Cybertronians provided there were some form of remains for it to work with - the reason she had removed Skids' brain module from his corpse. An Axe to Break the Ice
