Journey's Eve
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| "Journey's Eve" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive) | ||||||||||||
| First published | November 23, 2016 | ||||||||||||
| By | Andrew Hall | ||||||||||||
| Illustrations by | Jim Sorenson and Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Shattered Glass | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | 2015 | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 11pp | ||||||||||||
The fate of the GoBots rests in YOUR hands!
Synopsis
Deep within the Earth, a massive, powerful computer system rests, simultaneously watching over multiple worlds. Its attention is drawn to a team of GoBots attempting to find a way to save their homeworld, and while its incredibly advanced processors have had their abilities clouded by the recent dimensional instability, it sees the paths that lie before these brave adventurers, and the sacrifices they will need to make...
Outside the Autobot Ironworks Base in Oregon, Cliffjumper confronts the unfamiliar GoBots, interrupting their fight with Stepper. Treds, still shaken by the battle with Stepper, tries to explain that they've come to ask for the Autobots help, but the ever-suspicious Cliffjumper doesn't believe them, and BuggyMan's attempts to "help" do nothing but make Cliffjumper even more paranoid. Small Foot steps in and explains that her people are in great danger, and Cliffjumper is prepared to brush her off, but suddenly receives a transmission from Metalhawk, who requests for Cliffjumper to bring the GoBots and Stepper in, much to the small Autobot's surprise.
Cliffjumper leads the GoBots through Ironworks, currently undergoing repairs, to the conference room in the base's core. Inside, Autobot commander Metalhawk, a strange, human-like Pretender, greets the five, apologizing for the danger they encountered while approaching the base, explaining that the past few months have been quite tumultuous. Treds, finally shaken from his stupor, thanks Metalhawk for the welcome, but quickly demands to know where the rest of their team is, believing that Metalhawk might of had them imprisoned. Thankfully, this turns out to not be the case; Metalhawk has Wheeljack escort Path Finder, Man-O-War, and Bad Boy in. The GoBots are relieved to see that the others are alright; Man-O-War once again tries to dig at Treds, chastising him for letting the others get injured, but Treds brushes him off, and asks why they didn't call for them. Metalhawk apologizes once more, explaining that he suggested that Path Finder maintain radio silence in case of danger. Small Foot thanks him for his help, and Metalhawk promises that he will do all he can to help with their mission...but first, he would like to talk to their other, hidden guest. Small Foot watches as the entity she encountered earlier once again enters the room, making a form for itself: the diminutive yet powerful Solarbot, ever so slightly drained by the fight from earlier. Metalhawk greets Solarbot, having familiarized himself with the information provided on the strange being by Soundwave. Solarbot explains that he, too, has come here to save his world; still receiving information from his homeworld thanks to his light-based communication, Solarbot has become aware of the entity draining the energy of his home star. Interfacing with Soundwave, he used the Decepticon's communications network to find the GoBots, and upon interfacing with Small Foot, found through her nightmares that the same entity was draining GoBotron. Treds realizes that whatever is affecting their homeworlds, both of them are looking for something that can stop it. Wheeljack, having listened to the conversation, chimes in; he explains that his homeworld, the "Classicsverse", was almost entirely destroyed by the Ultra Magnus of this universe by causing a chain reaction in the Rarified Energon, destabilizing their whole reality. Wheeljack theorizes that the universes from which the GoBots and the Solarbot come from "orbited" the Classicsverse, and with the Classicsverse destroyed, their worlds have been destabilized as a result, allowing the unknown entity to drain their energy. Path Finder asks about the Rarified Energon, and Wheeljack explains that they know very little about it; as far as they can tell, it helps stabilize their universe, and possibly more, and they've had to keep the small amount they have out of both evil Decepticon and Autobot hands, as they cannot make it themselves. Solarbot, undeterred, suggests that the Autobots could use their technology to stabilize the Rarified Energon across the world and their universes; Wheeljack, fascinating, believes it would be possibly, but they would need a supercomputer far beyond what they have here at Ironworks to affect it across space and time. Reminded of an earlier adventure, Cliffjumper speaks up, explaining that he knows where they could find one...
Elsewhere in the Ironworks Base,
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Guardians | Renegades | Evil Autobots | Good Autobots | Others |
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Quotes
“Mr. Jumper, allow the Buggy Man to reassure you. We most certainly are alien spies, and I am uniquely qualified to assist with the parasites you require.”
- —The Buggy Man giving WAY too much information.
Notes
- The members appearing in "Last Sunset" would be determined by fan-vote via hashtags on Facebook From November 23 until November 31 of 2016.
- Characters mentioned but not seen include Soundwave, Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus, Classics Ultra Magnus, Stepper's partner, Nebulon, Ricochet, the Seekers, Skids, and Skyklik.
- Included are tech spec bios for Path Finder, Small Foot, Treds, Buggy Man, Rest-Q, Man-O-War, Road Ranger, and Bad Boy.
- The last page is based on the S.T.A.R.S. Tech Spec Manual
Continuity notes
- Stepper would next appear in the lead in stories to "Cybertron's Most Wanted".
- This story explains why the Cataclysm restarted in "Sunrise" in spite of the destruction of the Classicsverse, which was stated in "Withered Hope" to be the source of the Cataclysm: the GoBots' home reality is a universe linked to the Classicsverse, and thus when SG Ultra Magnus destroyed it in "Invasion", any linked realities were destabilized as well. Guess it really sucks to live in Gargent 984.08 Alpha, eh?
- Cliffjumper's many adventures throughout the multiverse and especially in the Shattered Glass universe are referenced.
Transformers references
- Metalhawk is shown to be very good at pretending to be a human and copying their mannerisms.
- S.T.A.R.S. is referenced numerous times.
GoBots references
Real-world references
- Path Finder’s “hat” is called a Robotofez. Robotofezes are cool.
Errors
- Stepper refers to Ricochet as his brother, but that doesn't feel right. Ricochet has previously been established to be Jazz's brother, specifically created in an ember-splitting experiment by Optimus Prime, and throwing Stepper into that equation would be a rather sudden, weird, unexplained addition, plus Stepper's bio, published over a year prior to this story, identified him only as Ricochet's "former teammate."
- There is no November 31. But reality itself is breaking down, so we can forgive them, I guess.
- The name "Buggy Man" is spelled as such in this story despite being spelled "Buggyman" in the previous two chapters. Which of the two is the "correct" spelling is unknown.
External links
- Spatiotemporal Challengers Part 3: "Journey's Eve" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club
