Clarity
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| "Clarity" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Fun Publications | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #60 | ||||||||||||
| Writers | S. Trent Troop & Greg Sepelak | ||||||||||||
| Pencils | Naoto Tsushima | ||||||||||||
| Inks | Naoto Tsushima | ||||||||||||
| Colors | Evan Gauntt | ||||||||||||
| Letters | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Managing editor | Pete Sinclair | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars: Uprising | ||||||||||||
| Chronology | Circa 2384 | ||||||||||||
Trans-Mutate and Rampage find themselves subjected to the Delirious Fire, and work together to overcome.
Synopsis
[edit]Having escaped his captivity, Protoform X holds one of his torturers up, demanding his confession. The scientist begins to apologize...for not being thorough enough. The scenes shift, and X finds himself on the operating table once more, in the strange dreamscape that is the Delirious Fire. Lord Imperious Delirious, in medical clad, tells the skeletal doctor they're on test 237, and the doctor proceeds to cut Protoform X right down the middle. Waking up on a couch, a small, childlike Delirious informs Protoform X—or rather, Rampage, as the alien calls him—that this is simply a resting point, and when he feels no longer on the edge, the torture will begin again. Delirious figures that while Rampage's spark and body are immortal, his mind isn't, and that once he's gone, Delirious will enter the vacancy. Rampage, however, is more concerned about Trans-Mutate; as vines turn to envelop him, Delirious informs him that she too is in a torturous dreamscape. Delirious has found that for such a non-threatening looking robot, she has great power, and plans to use her once she submits. He wonders what her own personal hell must look like...
...and in that world, Trans-Mutate finds herself as an abstract collection of shapes, in a world overloaded with sensory input. Unable to bear the constant shifting world, Trans-Mutate tries to run, and finds Rampage, the separations between their personal hells becoming hazy. Trans-Mutate admits her fear, unwilling to use her power after the last time. Rampage tells her that she's afraid of her power being abused, and promises her that he can help her control it, and that she can help him learn clarity. No longer separated by an imaginary boundary, Rampage comforts Trans-Mutate, as she unleashes her super-sonic scream.
In the real world, Delirious is knocked back and heavily injured. Afraid, he commands his Destructons to destroy Trans-Mutate. They quickly fall, however; Bruton's chest is vaporized by Rampage's cannon, now fully fueled, and Trans-Mutate, no longer afraid to use her blade either, bisects Medusa. Psychokhan asks for his leader's permission to avenge his fallen comrades, but Delirious rebuffs him. Considering them fools, Delirious tells him he's sent a distress signal to their homeworld, and commands them to take their energon condenser and get out. Sometime later, after bringing Medusa and Bruton to reconstruction, Psychokhan asks why they abandoned their original prize. Delirious tells him the same thing he told the two Cybertronians: he is nothing if not changeable. And at this, he finally cracks Trans-Mutate's navicomp's firewalls, and activates its reformatting protocols...
Featured characters
[edit](Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Maximals | Destructons | Others |
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Quotes
[edit]"Now, on a scale of one to ten, how much does this death hurt compared to the others? Please do not skimp on the details."
- —A scientist prepares to operate.
"You fear your own power... Fear it being abused! I know. We are kindred, you and I! We have much to learn from each other... I can teach you to channel your strength... And you... can teach me clarity."
- —Rampage to Trans-Mutate
"They are ingrates. Fools. They wish to return home? So be it. I have already sent a distress signal to their world. Unencrypted. Leave them the energon condenser, gather your comrades for reconstruction, and let us leave them to wonder who will respond to the signal first... Friends, or enemies."
- —Lord Imperious Delirious
