Nickel

Nickel is a Decepticon from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Nickel is a medic and maintenance 'bot, serving the Decepticon Justice Division, aboard the Peaceful Tyranny. The DJD may be a ruthless, merciless death squad, and Nickel may be the size of an energon cube, but she won't hesitate to put a single one of them in their places if they skip out on their upkeep and maintenance. Besides being an effective medic, she is also very skilled in the art of... ahem, hand gestures and nonverbal communication. They tilt toward the obscene.

Just because I'm the size of an energon cube doesn't mean I can't put you in your place.Nickle slapping down Tarn's backtalk, quickly establishing that she's the true terror on the DJD's ship

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

Plot details for The Permanent Revolution follow. Spoilers have expired, you may remove this tag

Nickel was born from a hotspot in Prion, one of the Titans who left Cybertron in its ancient past, searching for planets to colonize. Sometime eons later, the Black Block Consortia came to Prion and wiped out the entire population of mechanical beings... or so they thought. Nickel was the lone survivor of the genocide, and when the Decepticon Justice Division came across the scene and Nickel, she found the Decepticons' promise of a organic genocide appealing. Subsequently, she came to work for the DJD as a medic and something of a surrogate "mother", telling them off for neglecting their hygiene and maintenance, and endearing herself to the crew.

Following the DJD's punishment of Blip, they learned of Megatron's abandonment of the Decepticon cause and that he had joined the Autobots. At first, Tarn attempted to take his own life by overdosing on Nuke, but seeing Nickel's worried face as he neared death made him reconsider. She then accompanied the DJD when Tarn courted Deathsaurus and his troops for a single purpose—war against Megatron, the traitor. The Permanent Revolution

Notes

• With her introduction, Nickel became the first female Decepticon to appear in the IDW Generation 1 universe.
• Nickel's appearance as a female Transformer from a colony other than Caminus follows on from several hints in "ONoffON" and "The Sum and Its Parts" that gender was present on ancient Cybertron, explaining its continued existence in the colonies and suggesting modern Cybertron is the exception rather than the norm.