Nightbeat (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
Nightbeat's detective work is less of a profession than an irresistible compulsion. Deny him information, and he'll doggedly pursue every possible lead until he's obtained it. Over the course of his investigations, Nightbeat's wont to ignore rules, regulations, and any sort of social niceties. He's a difficult one to pin down, but his unrelenting curiosity is infectious and he's gained loyal friends in his time as a crewmember of the Lost Light.
Relying on nothing but his keen instincts and a preternatural sense of reasoning, Nightbeat's exposed unknowable conspiracies and shed light on ancient myths, often at the risk of his own life. In fact, his need to solve mysteries has even gotten him killed, somehow on more than one occasion! Figure THAT one out.
- First appearance: Transformers Spotlight: Nightbeat
Fiction
Joining the Autobots
Nightbeat of Yuss The Not Knowing was constructed cold. He was among the first of the first wave of constructed cold Cybertronian brought online. Twenty Plus One He desired to solve one of the "Big Three" mysteries, finding Luna 1, finding the Ark or determining the purpose of Rung's alternate mode. Metastasis
Four million years ago, Nightbeat was a hostage negotiator with an interest in political news. He disapproved of the Clampdown and watched the early Decepticon movement with interest. Nightbeat was sharing a drink outside of Maccadam's New Oil House with his friend Quark when they discovered the body of Senator Sherma hanging from the underside of the Interstate Bridge. Post Hoc
Years later, Nightbeat was assigned by Zeta Prime to work a hostage exchange with Orion Pax and Alpha Trion. The whole thing turned out to be a trap set by Bludgeon to capture Alpha Trion. Nightbeat and the others managed to get away while Orion Pax covered their escape. Omega's Conundrum
After the war officially began, Nightbeat was part of the 113th Battalion and took part in a massive battle against Black Shadow. Rules of Disengagement
Some time after Metroplex's departure from Cybertron, Nightbeat, Bumblebee, and Jetfire were in space pursuing Bludgeon's ship from a distance, trying to put a stop to them despite being outnumbered and outmatched. When Bludgeon found a remote asteroid with a small civilization of Urtuskians and his troops attacked the outpost, the Autobots intervened to save as many lives as they could. Nightbeat was left on the asteroid's surface while Jetfire took care of the Decepticons' shuttle, and Bumblebee pursued Thundercracker down a tunnel. Though tired after having been through a long day, Nightbeat warded off the Decepticons until they broke off their attack. With their ship destroyed, Nightbeat and the others found themselves stuck on the planetoid for an unspecified amount of time. Thankfully, this was another of those "Bumblebee makes a friend" stories, as Nightbeat put it, and so they had hospitable hosts until they were rescued. The Hunting Party
Decades ago, Flame was tried by Aequitas for several crimes as Prowl, Chief Justice Tyrest, Xaaron, Nightbeat, and others watched in disgust and/or intrigue. They decided that the records of the trials would be sealed until the final verdict would be reached, for fear of the damage the information about the trials would do to Autobot morale and potential for Decepticon propaganda usage. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5 Nightbeat also participated in the infamous Magnus Inquiry in Room 113 of the Kimia Facility, where High Command investigated allegations that "Gideon's Glue", the substance which brought such devastation on Flame's original troop on Babu Yar, had been created originally by an Autobot. The investigation was ultimately inconclusive, and no formal charges were filed. Bullets
At some point Nightbeat was talking with Rewind, who recorded what he said. The Gloaming
The Dead Universe
Nightbeat, passing the time by trying to answer the mystery of the first Ark, went to meet with a mechanoid trader named Krakon, only to find him dead by unknown means. Nightbeat followed the clues that the late Krakon (and his killers) left behind and was lured into an apparent trap on Gorlam Prime. He found a strange dimensional portal deep beneath the world, but got captured by an unknown villain before he could tell anyone. They put something in his head, erased his memory, and then sent him back out into space. Shortly thereafter he was contacted by Optimus Prime and ordered to head for Earth. Spotlight: Nightbeat
Nightbeat was one of the many bots surprised to hear of Blaster's miraculous return. Spotlight: Blaster
Aboard Ark-32, Nightbeat arrived in Earth orbit with Hot Rod and Hardhead in tow just as Optimus Prime and his troops were confronting Megatron head-on in the breakaway Soviet state of Brasnya. Escalation #3 While his two rather over-eager companions headed to the surface, Nightbeat remained aboard the ship and provided intel for the Autobots below. Escalation #4
Planetside, Hot Rod succeeded in carrying out his primary mission, the capture of the Decepticons' facsimile avatar. Anxious to re-join the battle, he requested Nightbeat to send him through a double orbital bounce—transporting him up to the ship just long enough to drop off his captive, then returning to the planet. Nightbeat was rather bemused at the thought of the thrill-seeking Hot Rod abandoning a combat zone, but complied. At that instant, though, Skywarp and Thundercracker arrived and attacked Hot Rod. Nightbeat reported back to Prowl that Hot Rod was in a CR chamber, and the facsimile—injured by flak—had expired. Escalation #6
After Sunstreaker's disappearance, Nightbeat began investigating the sequence of events that led to his capture. Examining the SM-40 Notepad stolen by Verity Carlo, he discovered a homing device that had allowed Sunstreaker's unknown assailants to discover the underwater location of Ark-19. Nightbeat ordered Bumblebee on a scouting mission along the shores of Lake Michigan, where Bumblebee discovered a great deal of advanced surveillance equipment. Deducing that Ark-19’s location was compromised, Nightbeat advised Optimus and Prowl to move the ship immediately. Nightbeat handled navigation chores as the ship lifted off. Unfortunately, the Decepticon Sixshot attacked shortly thereafter, sending Ark-19 plummeting to Earth. Devastation #1
Per Optimus Prime's order, Nightbeat transferred the damaged ship's data to Ark-32, then moved with the other Autobots to the ship's cargo bay shortly before it crashed into the Gulf of Mexico and self-destructed. Devastation #2
Nightbeat and the others survived, however Devastation #3 and while the other Autobots battled Sixshot, Nightbeat attempted to activate the orbital bounce abilities of the Ark-32. After a few Autobot injuries, Nightbeat was able to beam them up to the ship, along with Jimmy Pink and Verity Carlo, who nearly died during the bounce. Optimus Prime stayed behind to battle Sixshot alone, but once Sixshot left the battle, Nightbeat also evacuated Prime seconds before an air strike by the U.S. military. Devastation #4
Afterward, Nightbeat studied the telemetry Hound's unit sent on Leadfoot's death. Devastation #5 After examining the data, Nightbeat observed that it was as though a virus of unlife had attacked and destroyed every living cyber-cell in Leadfoot simultaneously, in a fraction of a nano-klik. While it was something he had never encountered before, he couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he had forgotten something important, as if his memory had been tampered with. Seeking inspiration to jog his memory, he went down to the hangar of Ark 32 where his personal ship was stored. Devastation #6
He soon found out that he logged a message about his trip to Gorlam Prime, which he had no recollection of. He asked Hardhead to help him with his investigation. Spotlight: Cyclonus
Discovering a large part of his memory missing, a worried Nightbeat realised someone may have tampered with him and asked Hardhead to accompany him to Gorlam Prime, with orders to terminate Nightbeat if he turned. Upon arrival, they found the entire planet frozen. Nightbeat theorised that the planet was evolving somehow, from organic to techno-organic... to something like Cybertronians. His musings were interrupted by a force of small Transformers. As Hardhead held them off, Nightbeat found some kind of tunnels leading down to a strange cavern. There, losing control of himself, he turned his gun on Hardhead and Jhiaxus revealed himself to be in control of the Autobot. After providing some background on their plans, Jhiaxus, as Nightbeat, shot Hardhead in the head. However, he had not counted on Hardhead's resilience, and the Autobot escaped to the strange pool that served as a portal between the living and Dead universes. Jhiaxus attempted to persuade Hardhead into accepting a quick death over pointless resistance, but as he did so, Hardhead suddenly shot Nightbeat. As the Autobot died, Jhiaxus screamed, revealing to Nemesis Prime that their agent was gone. Nemesis considered that he was now forced to take Nightbeat's mission as his own: Find and kill Optimus Prime. Spotlight: Hardhead
Back to life
However, thanks to the Dead Universe, Nightbeat wasn't as dead as he seemed. Kept alive by its properties, he was dragged into the other universe, unbeknownst to Hardhead or anyone else, including the fabled Necrobot. But his brush with death left Nightbeat feeling that there was no Afterspark, no life after death. The Not Knowing Metastasis
Nightbeat would eventually reappear 7 years later, following Orion Pax's group when they entered the Dead Universe. Black Metal He later appeared to the group after Cyclonus started to leak strange fluids from his face. Into the Abyss He then proceeded to convince them of his reliability by recounting the circumstances of his death. He then performed a cold-reading of Cyclonus and reassured him that his friend would recover, he finally started to lead the group to the contraction point of the Dead Universe.
All of this turned out to be a ruse on Nova Prime's part to lure the team into a trap with Nightbeat still being a sleeper agent. Finest Hour He was then left by Nova to protect the containment field that Pax's team were trapped in, he was briefly broken out of Nova's control by the contents of Rodimus' palm just before Nova Prime arrived. No Exit He was then ordered to take the group to a separate cell where he explained that Nova was planning to use their sparks to strengthen the space bridge at the center of the Dead Universe.
He was broken out of Nova's control by Rodimus asking him to ask him the solve the mystery of what was in his palm and then he set them free from the cell. The Dead Are Not Enough He then led the team through the Sweep horde to the chamber holding Kup and was there when Nova Prime arrived. Burning Bright He helped the others keep the Sweeps busy while Orion Pax fought Nova Prime and reclaimed the title of Optimus Prime. Finis Temporis
However, the team still had more problems as the Dead Universe was rapidly contracting around them and the Gorlam Prime portal was nowhere to be found. Nightbeat found a miniscule tear in the fabric of the universe which the group used to send a transmission through to Wheelie. The Becoming The group escaped the Dead Universe in time to save Ultra Magnus from Bludgeon, via Brainstorm's chest. Black Planet Unfortunately Nightbeat, Cyclonus and Kup started to collapse due to the destruction of the Dead Universe, but Brainstorm managed to stabilize them. He later explained to Rodimus how the group managed to escape the Dead Universe: by creating a Space Bridge from Nova Prime's corpse. He also explained to Brainstorm on why he had a space bridge in his chest, he was later interested in how Rodimus had gotten the Lost Light. ...And the Damage Done
The Lost Light
Nightbeat later joined the crew of the Lost Light. Before Megatron's trial took place Nightbeat exposed Swerve's "crew auditions" as fake due to the fact that Ultra Magnus would never allow them to be advertised as "Crewditions". He was also present at Megatron's trial on Luna-2. Toward Peace Six months later, Nightbeat was among the group given a tour of the ship by Crosscut. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases He later joined Skids in trying to get Chromedome to leave his hab suite (number 208) and was instead intrigued by the number 8 being missing from the door. Toward Peace Chromedome approached the detective to investigate a sudden change in the content of Rewind's message, Nightbeat was quick to blame the change on the mnemosurgeon's grief (as the message had returned to its normal content) but quickly changed his mind when he saw Rewind himself standing in the doorway to the room. On the way back to Nightbeat's quarters the detective explained that he had seen a data ghost of Rewind due to the little 'bot's function as an archivist but Nightbeat was shocked to find that the walls of his quarters had disappeared! Words Hang in the Air As part of "Team Rodimus" Nightbeat was called in to investigate the dead body of a duplicate Rodimus. When Rodimus came to the conclusion that hacking off his right arm was the best way to proceed, Nightbeat stopped him. He reasoned that the body was not Rodimus' future self due to the Crisis Vote missing from his right hand. However, Rodimus revealed he had removed the results from his hand due to a talk with Ratchet, only to be ignored as the wall in the room disappeared.
When the entire ship began disintegrating Nightbeat and twenty other bots crammed into the new Rodpod. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide Rodimus then put out an order that everyone was to regroup at Ofsted XVII. Crosscut then suddenly disappeared followed by Gears, Blaster, Huffer, Chromedome, Hound, and Highbrow. Ravage then made his presence known and was knocked out by Megatron. Nightbeat dedicated himself to finding a pattern linking those who had been taken. Inspired by Cyclonus, he put forward the theory that those who were taken were all Forged. The theory seemed to be accepted by the M.T.O.s (Made to Order Soldiers) present only for Ratchet to point out several in the room where Forged and a few taken were constructed cold. Ultra Magnus eventually made contact with the Rodpod via holomatter and informed them everyone else had disappeared on the Leading Light only for he himself to disappear mid-sentence. Nightbeat then requested all the information on the crew trying to find the common denominator. It was only when Riptide revealed that he was not on board the Lost Light when it first launched did Nightbeat make the connection. Everyone who disappeared was part of the original crew. Megatron was not amused and scolded him for failing to save anyone. Nightbeat, rattled, tried (badly) to suggest that it still counted that he'd worked it out.
Shortly after the Rodpod arrived at Ofsted XVII and found a bisected Lost Light Twenty Plus One Boarding the ship, the Autobots released Ravage to use his tracking ability. Ravage eventually found a dead Ultra Magnus or rather Minimus Ambus stripped of his armour. Skids identified that Magnus had been killed by a fusion cannon and Megatron and Ravage were locked up by the Autobots at Megatron's request. Nightbeat and Nautica made their way to the engines to try and stop the leakage of quantum foam. The two began to discuss the strangeness of recent events and began to bond in the process, Nautica eventually came across Brainstorm's briefcase. Opening it they found nothing-failing to notice local space-time warping around them. Eventually they came to stairs leading to a lower deck, despite them being on the lowest deck. There they found Overlord's headless corpse, Nightbeat realized who had attacked the ship and when he called his crew mates they all realized that the Decepticon Justice Division had attacked the ship. Nautica, however, refused to leave until they had searched the entire ship for survivors with Megatron arguing there would not be any. Ravage however soon detected Rewind hiding in the Magnus Armor. slaughterhouse
Nightbeat's being alive, combined with a female Nautica and an Autobot Megatron proved too much for the alternate Rewind who began whimpering and offered a data slug to Nightbeat to explain what happened. While he analyzed it Nautica realized that the Lost Light undergone a quantum duplication at launch creating an exact copy, just as valid as the original. Nightbeat confirmed this saying the Rodimus they found in the coffin was from this ship and died during the Sparkeater fiasco. Drift interred him and someone (according to Rewind deliberately) deactivated Overlord's cell luring the D.J.D. to the ship. Nautica proposed deactivating the engines as the foam would destroy Ofsted XVII and theoretically restore their ship. Rewind offered to deactivate one of the quantum drums but would need someone of equal size to deactivate the other. The Autobots went to find the mass-displacement gun that their Brainstorm invented hoping the alternate one had also built one, in order to shrink someone down to help Rewind. While there Nightbeat and Nautica theorized that the alternate Rewind and his altered message appeared on their ship due to cross-contamination. They concluded that their ship disappeared because of how close it got to the alternate one, the paradox being too massive to ignore. Nightbeat then made the startling discovery that Brainstorm had a Decepticon insignia painted in his faceplate and that made their Brianstorm a spy! When they could not find the gun, Megatron offered to shrink himself down and help Rewind. The drums were deactivated and the Autobots blasted off in Rodpod with the alternate Rewind in tow. Nightbeat and Nautica theorized over how Rewind survived the quantum erasure with Nightbeat joking it was the "Power of Love". Nautica then asked him to explain how he managed to hold onto the alternate Brainstorm's briefcase. The Road Not Taken
It turned out the briefcase was actually part of an intricate time-travel machine. Nightbeat immediately went to work studying it, until Perceptor borrowed it. The Custom-Made Now
A few days later, the Lost Light set down on Scarvix. While wandering the ship, Nightbeat nearly got hit by Tailgate joyriding about on a hoverboard. Shortly thereafter he was present at Brainstorm's hearing at the hands of the Lost Light Internal Legal Affairs Committee. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme
When Rodimus summoned the entire ship's crew to make the momentous announcement that they'd actually accomplished something, Nightbeat and Nautica were some of the last to actually arrive, something Nightbeat felt was cool. It turned out Thunderclash was dying, and the entire crew had been invited to his pre-wake on the Vis Vitalis. Once there, Nightbeat was one of the four people present who didn't dance at all. Eventually, feeling judged by everyone else, he decided to borrow Nautica's wrench and go off for a snoop, brushing off Nautica's attempt to introduce him to her Amica Endura Firestar. He soon stumbled upon Getaway having a lie-down, and tried to fake concern at him. This was interrupted by a manic Ravage running past, babbling about "them" being "everywhere". Following him into the morgue, Nightbeat wasn't interested in the bodies contained within, until he looked over Countdown's corpse and found it was covered in hundreds of throbbing pustules, which were also growing on Getaway. Almost immediately, the two found themselves surrounded by strange shambling creatures. The Sensuous Frame
The creatures did not appreciate Nightbeat trying to determine how they'd managed to remain hidden, and attacked him. Fortunately, Ravage appeared to drive them off, and at Getaway's suggestion they fled the morgue, though not before Nightbeat took a moment to study Photon's corpse. The three soon met up with everyone else who'd ran into the creatures at the same time. Nightbeat began examining everyone, and found the creatures had already gotten to Skids, though he was confused as to why they seemed drawn to some people and not others. It was thanks to Firestar pointing out those people all had charismatic traits that finally clued Nightbeat in on what they were: personality ticks. Nightbeat had always dismissed these as a myth, but he worked it out from Firestar was burning a black diamond, which only came from the planet the ticks originated on.
He had an idea to kill the creatures, summoning the most charismatic people he knew of to kill them, but before he could implement it, the ticks attacked again. As the motley crew fought the ticks, they suddenly perished at the arrival of Rodimus and Megatron, baffling Nightbeat, since he hadn't had a chance to summon them. Turned out some other bunch of people had already come up with the idea and done it themselves. Afterward, Nightbeat attended an Earth Dance party at Swerve's, where he contributed to the dancing by tapping his foot. The Frail Gaze
When Swerve disappeared suddenly and was found half-dead, it was Nightbeat that worked out how the bartender had been using a holomatter avatar to appear in public for him while he wasted away. Everyone went on a massive rescue effort on the hologram planet of "Swearth" in human avatars, with Nightbeat working with Rodimus, Nautica, and Megatron. While there, he rebuked Megatron for commenting that humans were fragile, believing the man was calling them weak. The One Where They Go to Earth It turned out the cause of Swerve's ailment was an old injury, inflicted during an encounter with the D.J.D. many years ago. When Velocity examined the wound, she found a message from Agent 113, which included the location of the Necrobot's homeworld. Naturally, the investigative Nightbeat leapt at the chance to "explain" that, and joined the expedition. When the ship landed, Nightbeat spotted the Necrobot at the front door of the vast structure he lived in, only to get the door slammed in his face. This did not deter Nightbeat, who made it clear he wouldn't leave until he got answers.
So the Necrobot opened the door and ushered him in. As they walked and talked, surprised to find the Necrobot (aka Censere) could talk, and was old. Old enough to remember the first war. Nightbeat expressed profound disappointment that the Necrobot wasn't in fact magic, that he was just a "phony" using technology to track death, rather than what Nightbeat wanted: proof of life after death, proof he hadn't gotten after his headshot back on Gorlam Prime, which was causing him a severe amount of distress. However, Censere countered that just because there wasn't proof of the Afterspark didn't mean there wasn't either. Then Nightbeat asked why the Necrobot had let him in. It turned out it was because Nightbeat's unusual manner of death had made him a mystery, one of the disappeared. Learning of the list of the disappeared, Nightbeat examined it, and found the name of Dominus Ambus, something he showed to a depressed Rewind. Later, as the crew prepared to leave, Nightbeat asked whether Censere would've saved him, had he been able to. When he was told he wouldn't, Nightbeat suggested that maybe the ancient 'bot should try saving those still living in the future. The Not Knowing
At some point, Nightbeat was approached by Getaway and/or Atomizer and asked whether or not he would stand with them in a mutiny against Megatron. Responding in the negative, Nightbeat's memories of the event were then erased via nudge gun. Nightbeat later attended one of Megatron's lectures on the Knights of Cybertron where the class theorized about the clan markings they'd seen in their travels before Megatron, the victim of a psychic attack, punched Minimus Ambus across the room and dismissed the class. As part of Team Rodimus, Nightbeat got volunteered to go on a mission to discover the cause of the attack. The group found themselves back on Necroworld with Censere having been brutally murdered. Accessing the logs, Nightbeat found the signal was beamed to the Lost Light but Censere deliberately corrupted it to try and scare off the crew. Eventually making contact with the ship, they found Getaway had led a mutiny against Rodimus and Megatron and the Decepticon Justice Division was knocking at the door. How Bright Their Frail Deeds
With the D.J.D. due to return at sunset, Rodimus gave orders to search the fortress for anything useful. Nightbeat found a teleport chamber that had just enough power to teleport them all to safety before Nautica and Velocity revealed the existence of organics in life-support pods. As the group began to debate their actions, Megatron announced he was staying behind and made a passioned speech that convinced the group to stand and fight. The Sun in Flight With death seemingly assured, Nightbeat recorded a will asking that his head be preserved but that the rest of his body be burned. How Bright Their Frail Deeds
As Brainstorm measured Minimus for a new suit of armor, Nightbeat literally begged him for a chance to investigate the mystery of Necroworld's hollow interior in the hopes that solving one last mystery could save them all and promising to return before sunset. Taking Rung with him, the two briefly stopped off to take part in Nautica's Amica Endura ritual, in which the Camien boat thanked Nightbeat for his curiosity. At Close of Day Despite his earlier promise, the internal gravity played havoc with their internal clocks and Nightbeat and Rung were gone long past sunrise. As they emerged onto the center of the hollow world, Nightbeat revealed to Rung how long they had really been gone before the psychiatrist pointed out the inverted pattern of the Vinvissius Canals. The two realized that Necroworld was the mould that Cybertron had been poured into before the moment was ruined by a geobomb suddenly teleporting in. Do Not Go Gentle
Solving a final mystery
After "very nearly" being teleported back to the surface, Nightbeat ran to Rodimus and explained his findings along with the geobomb's seemingly harmless detonation. With a group ready to return to Cybertron, Minimus ordered Nightbeat to keep an optic on Anode. Some Other Cybertron Nightbeat passed the time by analyzing a flower dedicated to people Starscream had killed before Rodimus called with news that caused Brainstorm to squee and do three laps. Taking over, Nightbeat was informed that they were in a parallel universe causing him to squee and do three laps. A World Misplaced
Seeking to break Rung out of his funk, Nightbeat invited the doctor to a sit-down. Rung soon revealed that information creep caused him to forget much of his past including his ability to produce photonic crystals. Modes of Production With all three mysteries now lost to him, Nightbeat devoted himself to finding out if there was life after death. Metastasis
After returning to their native reality, Nightbeat was part of the group welcoming back Rodimus's team. This Machine Kills Fascists He later talked with Brainstorm about the science of how they'd made it home. Nightbeat then boarded Skip to leave Necroworld. After Megatron Aboard the cramped ship, Nightbeat sequestered himself in a small corner and had drinks. Sardines
When the ship started to collapse as the mass displacement override wore off on Skip, Ten (of all people) guided the crew through the Warren in effort to reach a Mederi facility so as to seek aid for Ratchet. While they managed to access the quantum structure, the crew was forced to bail out mid-transit, their bodies being ravaged by super-compressed space. Nightbeat then found himself in the Afterspark, the realm turning him melancholic at his failure to solve any of life's great mysteries, even the one he had set himself. Metastasis As the group continued to explore the Afterspark, Nightbeat continued to mope until he spied a trail of photonic crystals and followed them back to the hovering Matrix. In doing so, he belatedly realized that Rung had not needed to transform to produce the crystals meaning their production could not have been his alternate mode's purpose. As he continued to gather them, he eventually worked out what Rung actually turned into but before he could share his discovery with anyone, his sheer joy at solving one of the Big Three mysteries caused him to "ascend" on the spot, The God War never learning that the "Afterspark" was nothing more than an elaborate hologram created by the telepaths on the original Mederi, a moon sized euthanasia clinic that the crew had accidentally wound up on. You Are Here
