Journey to the Future
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| "Journey to the Future" 未来への旅路
(Mirai e no Tabiji) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | e-HOBBY | ||||||||||||
| First published | March 11, 2011 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | CrankShaft'S | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity | ||||||||||||
Hot Rod discovers that while he may not feel like the hero the Autobots deserve, he is the hero they need.
Synopsis
[edit]After watching the Decepticon ship depart peacefully, Hot Rod reassures Scrapheap that they did the right thing, having learned from the Seeker the importance of placing the future over the past. Things aren't all good news, though: Kup's body is still breaking down from the Seeker's attack, and the old Autobot doesn't have much time left. Hot Rod looks down at the shining blue light of the Matrix that still surrounds his body and curses the fact that even with its power, there seems to be nothing he can do. Just then, Scrapheap suddenly has a flash of inspiration: using an energy-irradiation device he recovered from the capsules on the Seeker's ship, he can drain off the space-time energy the Seeker infused Hot Rod with, and use it to revert Kup's body to an earlier, healthy state.
As the energy is drawn from his body, Hot Rod finds his consciousness drifting to the edge of life and death, and into the Matrix once more. There, visions of Optimus Prime and the leaders of the past appear before him, and Hot Rod finds the courage to ask the question that has long haunted him: why was he chosen to be the next leader? Ultra Magnus had been Prime's first choice, a soldier on an intellectual and physical par with Prime, so why was the role instead passed to an inexperienced youth? The leaders answer as one that while it is true that Magnus could well have been a leader of Optimus Prime's caliber, Optimus Prime had never succeeded in ending the war. It was only through innovation, through Hot Rod and the choices he could make, the actions he could perform, the things Optimus or Magnus could not do, that change could be brought about. With this realization, Hot Rod feels himself returning to consciousness, lamenting that it is time to say farewell to Optimus once more. To this, Optimus Prime's voice alone responds that he will always be with Hot Rod, whatever the future holds.
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots |
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Notes
[edit]- Yeah, it's all peaches and cream in 2010, but let's not forget that the "change" in leadership style that Rodimus embodies gets Cybertron blown up in 2011. Hmmn.
