The Gathering issue 3

	; A spark in the hands is worth... something... probably.
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	April 5, 2006
Cover date	April 2006
Written by	Simon Furman
Art by	Don Figueroa
Colors by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Edits by	Chris Ryall & Dan Taylor
Continuity	Beast Wars cartoon continuity

Magmatron seeks to complete his assigned mission, while Ravage hunts the Maximals. Razorbeast's gang tries to fix the signal amplifier.

Synopsis

What're you doing here?!! This is my show!!!

Razorbeast, Optimus Minor, Bonecrusher, and Snarl sneak into the Ark for parts to fix the signal amplifier.

A group of Predacons enter a swampy area, tracking any stray Maximals. There are Transformers in this swamp, but they are neither Maximal nor Predacon. They are Mutants! Poison Bite stings Retrax; Soundwave takes a bite out of Powerpinch; Icebird takes down Transquito. Scourge and Insecticon retreat.

Magmatron, Iguanus, and Drill Bit insert Ravage's spark into a stasis pod, transforming the blank protoform within into Transmetal 2 Ravage. Their plan is overruning and they need to keep the Tripredacus Council from growing suspicious by carrying out their official mission, capturing Megatron!

A short time later, Snarl, still salvaging parts, detects Magmatron nearing Megatron's base. Megatron, returning from a successful mission, sends his troops Rampage and Inferno on ahead. While Megatron is left alone, Magmatron slips out of chronal displacement. Megatron suspects that Magmatron has come to complete Ravage's previous task, and he promptly kicks Magmatron's sorry ass. Distracted, Drill Bit and Iguanus easily knock Megatron out.

Razorbeast realizes that, with Megatron now his prisoner, Magmatron will return to Cybertron to continue his plans for takeover and the Maximals will be forever on the back foot. Razorbeast and Optimus Minor rush to stop him (repeating his gathering signal), while the others return to base with the parts.

Ravage dispatches Lazorbeak, Buzz Saw, Injector, Sky Shadow, and Jetstorm to locate the Maximal base.

Magmatron prepares to send Megatron back to Cybertron as an offering to gain favor with the Tripredacus Council. Razorbeast and Optimus Minor, watching from cover, discuss how to take down Magmatron. As if on cue, a distraction arrives in the form of Grimlock!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Mutants
Cheetor (1) Optimus Primal (2) Rhinox (3) Bonecrusher (4) Optimus Minor (5) Razorbeast (6) Snarl (7) Ramulus (29) Wolfang (30) B'Boom (31) Grimlock (32)	Insecticon (8) Powerpinch (9) Retrax (10) Scourge (11) Transquito (12) Drill Bit (16) Iguanus (17) Magmatron (18) Ravage (19) Inferno (20) Megatron (21) Rampage (22) Quickstrike (23) Buzz Saw (24) Injector (25) Jetstorm (26) Lazorbeak (27) Sky Shadow (28)	Poison Bite (13) Soundwave (14) Icebird (15)

Quotes

"Leave... us... alone! This region is ours! No Predacons, no Maximals... only mutants!"
"EUUK--"
"This sector... all clear."
"Y-yeah. Nothing to report."

—Icebird says hello to Transquito (he gets better), Scourge, and Insecticon

"So! The Council sends another lackey to wash its dirty armor. I am suitably unimpressed!"

—Megatron

"It means he's going back to Cybertron, Snarl. Megatron's his burnt offering. Once there, he can lay the groundwork for his grand coup, divert our signal, anything! And his ground forces here can pick us off at their leisure."

—Razorbeast

Notes

Production notes

There are four Beast Wars Mutants, but only three appear in this story. Razor Claw is mysteriously absent.
The "Maxi-Mail" section featured mail answered by Chris Ryall and short ads for next month's issues: Infiltration #5, The Gathering #4, and Generations #3.
"All the dirty jobs!" says Rampage.

Continuity notes

The reason for why everyone is chronally displaced is stated to be so that Magmatron's scheme wouldn't affect space/time.
The Mutants were described by their packaging blurb as having originally been Fuzors who were experimented on by Megatron in his attempt to create the Transformation virus in Beast Machines. In this series, however, they are instead presented in the Beast Wars setting as malformed protoforms, leaning into the fact that their original toyline was named "Mutant Beast Wars".
Though his original toy bio presented him as wise and sage-like, Icebird is depicted here with a much more violent personality, as if in reference to his lashing out in rage when first meeting Optimus Primal in Issue #1 of the BotCon-original series Transformers: The Wreckers.
Megatron's scene confirms this story to take place shortly before the last ten seconds of the episode "Changing of the Guard". Though, with Megatron still captured by Magmatron for most of next issue, both that issue and this one retcon the final scene of the episode to instead take place a whole day after the rest of the episode, instead of on the same day as originally presented.
Since this story takes place during "Changing of the Guard", it makes sense that neither Rattrap, Silverbolt, nor Depth Charge are seen at the Maximal base with Optimus, Cheetor, and Rhinox, since the former three were all out in the field for most of that episode. Though, the doors to the Maximal base appear undamaged in this story, when they had a bunch of holes and burn marks all over them at the episode's beginning. Looks like they were cleaned up and patched up while Rattrap, Silverbolt, and Depth Charge were away.
Megatron expresses disappointment that "decorated general" Magmatron is carrying out (as he sees it) a Council mop-up. This may not just be due to Magmatron's record, as Maggy says "long time no see" when he makes his appearance: they may have met before. The Beast Wars Sourcebook would later reveal that Megatron himself is a former general who had previously fought in the Great War between the Maximals and Predacons, a war in which Magmatron had also served as general.
Since this series is written by Simon Furman, Grimlock was bound to show up eventually.