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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 down in South America, Cliffjumper speaks up, explaining that he knows where they could find one...

Elsewhere in the Ironworks Base, Stepper sits alone and defeated in his cell. Stepper always felt alone whenever his partners were around, and created Nebulon as a means to give him company; now, for the first time in a long time, he is alone. Still, he shouldn't be for long; with the destruction of Nebulon, a beacon in his body has begun going off, alerting his real partner to his location...but his thoughts are distracted when his cell begins rumbling. An interdimensional portal sucks Stepper up, sending him across the multiverse, where he finds himself in a strange city inhabited by millions of different robots, organics, and more...

After listening to Cliffjumper's suggestion, Metalhawk considers it a viable one. However, due to the instability caused by their relocation in space-time, they cannot teleport there, and it would take too long to fly or drive to South America. Aside from that, the GoBots require more repairs than their regeneration systems can handle. Path Finder asks if the Autobots have any aerial transportation, and Metalhawk figures they could have a Micromaster Transport fueled up for them by tomorrow morning...but the craft can only fit five of them, plus the Autobot's pilot Skyklik. Solarbot explains that the can convert himself into light and have Small Foot carry him; with that in mind, Path Finder will have to choose who goes on the mission, and who stays behind. Wheeljack provides Path Finder with a transdimensional communicator prototype he invented after arriving in the "Shatteredverse"; it should theoretically allow them to contact their homeworld, and receive signals from other worlds. Metalhawk has Wheeljack take the GoBots to the medical bay, and tells them to get some rest for their journey ahead.

Three hours later, Path Finder lies in the medbay, contemplating the journey ahead of her, worrying about what might happen. Knowing that she'll have to go to lead the mission, she wonders who the other four should be...and the transdimensional communicator suddenly turns on, as a voice from beyond tells her who to bring...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

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

• Characters mentioned but not seen include Soundwave, Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus, Classics Ultra Magnus, Stepper's partner, Nebulon, Ricochet, the Seekers, Skids, and Skyklik.

Continuity notes

• The massive supercomputer sleeping underneath the Earth's surface goes unnamed this chapter, but it is very obvious that it is the Caretaker, a supercomputer created by Vector Sigma to assist Breakaway in guarding the Rarified Energon, seen way back in the "Crossing Over" storyline that introduced the "Classicsverse." Cliffjumper encountered it in that storyline, where it sent Breakaway to Axiom Nexus along with Skyfall and Landquake, while Cliffjumper was sent to the "Shatteredverse." It's location isn't specifically pointed out in this story either, only said to span a global distance, but it was shown to be somewhere in South America. Its abilities are limited thanks to the dimensional instability caused by Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus in "Invasion".
• Cliffjumper was last seen on Shattered Glass Cybertron in "Solar Requiem", having since been transferred to Ironworks Base. Wheeljack also previously appeared in "Solar Requiem", having created the mental spanner to transfer Soundwave's mind and ember to his new body.
• Treds "promised" to Man-O-War that he would hand in his Guardian badge if any of his teammates were killed back in "Sunrise".
• Solarbot encountered Soundwave back in "Solar Requiem", with "Sunrise" explaining how he interfaced with the heroic Decepticon as part of his mission.
• Wheeljack reveals the source of the newly renewed Cataclysm affecting both the GoBots and Solarbot's home universes; with the destruction of the "Classicsverse" in "Invasion", the two "satellite" universes were destabilized. Of course, it was previously established in "Withered Hope" that the "Classicsverse" was also responsible for the initial breakdown of the GoBots' home dimension, due to their overlapping frequencies.
• Wheeljack mentions Skids as being among the personnel at Ironworks; he was last seen in issue #75 of the Marvel The Transformers comic.
• Stepper is transported to the city of Axiom Nexus, setting up his appearances in the BotCon 2015 comic, "Cybertron's Most Wanted". It was established in his BotCon 2015 toy's tech specs that he built Nebulon out of jealousy for Ricochet and his Targetmaster inventions. However, see "Errors" below.

Transformers references

• The illustrations for this story were provided by Jim Sorenson and Jesse Wittenrich, who digitally altered the original boxart for the Autobot Mini Vehicles who became the G1 GoBots: Cosmos into Path Finder, Gears into Small Foot, Huffer into Road Ranger, Warpath into Treds, Powerglide into Bad Boy, Seaspray into Man-O-War, Beachcomber into Buggyman, and Hubcap into Rest-Q.
• The cover for the story homages the art on the back of the box for the original 1984 The Transformers toyline range, with the G1 GoBots floating in space with "motion blurs." The tagline on the cover ("It is a world gone chaotic, where things are not as they seem. It is the world of the GoBots...a world of Mighty Robots and Mighty Vehicles!") homages the text on the original 1984 pack-in catalog ("It is a world transformed, where things are not as they seem. It is the world of the Transformers...a world of Heroic Autobots and Evil Decepticons!") along with the main tagline for the original GoBots toyline: "Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles."
• Cliffjumper finds that the G1 GoBots look vaguely familiar for some reason; they're all based on the bodies of his former Mini Vehicle comrades.
• When Treds accidentally calls Cliffjumper "Cliffhanger," he claims that all Autobots look like red cars to him, but "not in a functionist way"; the idea of a caste system defined by alternative modes was first seen in the Transformers: Exodus novel as part of the "Aligned" continuity; the concept was given the name "functionism" in the writings of James Roberts for IDW Publishing's then-current comic continuity.
• The ship Metalhawk prepares for the GoBots is a Micromaster Transport, one of the toys in the 1989 Micromaster range of figures that transformed from truck trailers and the like into flying alternate modes.
• Wheeljack's transdimensional communicator is based on the Command Center, a cardboard playset sold via the S.T.A.R.S. Transformers fan club mail-away fliers packed in with toys in the original The Transformers toyline. In case it isn't obvious, it makes contact with our universe at the end of the story.
• Following the story is a little promotion for the vote in the style of several of the S.T.A.R.S. flyers:
  • The "cover" is based on the cover for the "Have the Decepticons defeated us once and for all?" flier, with an unidentified young child replicating the art of Johnny using his Command Center to contact the Autobots. It gives the hashtags for the votes: #PathFinderPosse, #SmallFootSquad, #DontTreadOnTreds (from the text on the Gadsden flag from the American Revolution), #RestQBots (from the Rescue Bots franchise), #NotAfraidOfTheBuggyMan (obviously from Buggyman's name inspiration, the Bogeyman of folklore), #ManOWarManOThePeople, #RoadRangerNotInDanger, and #BigBadBoyBand. The second page is based vaguely on the first page of the "Earthlings: THE S.T.A.R.S. need your help now!" flyer, with Metalhawk taking the place of Optimus Prime and asking you for reinforcements. The bios of the eight GoBots, meanwhile, are based on the bios for Megatron, Devastator, Kickback, Omega Supreme, Snarl, and Inferno from the "Tech-Spec Manual" included with the S.T.A.R.S. membership kit, with arrows pointing to parts of the anatomy (though unlike the...questionable at best technical descriptions from the original manual, these are used for comedy, riffing on those weird descriptions). Notably, its description of the GoBots seems (intentionally) wrong: it claims they hail from a distant galaxy, and traveled to Earth on board a ship, replicating the weirdness of the continuity depicted in the S.T.A.R.S. mail-away flyers.
  • Path Finder's tech spec call outs include: her head (labelled as a "robotofez" due to its vaguely fez-likeshape), her foot (an "energy repulsor"), and her hand (a "hand laser," which almost all GoBots are armed with).
  • Small Foot's point to her mouth (a "reverberator continuum"), her wheels (an "interaction manipulator"), and her strangely bent right leg (her "dynamic hyperextender"); these are the ones most similar to the Tech-Spec Manual's diagrams.
  • Treds' point to his tank barrel ("pulse beam reactor") his weird...waste area? ("bizarre assembly"), and his tank treads ("character's name").
  • Buggyman's point to both of his fists ("one mighty fist" and "another mighty fist," again referencing the "Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles" tagline of the GoBots toyline), his foot ("drone exister"), and one of his wheels ("locomotion cylinder").
  • Rest-Q's point to his mouth ("reluctant vocal translator"), his wheel on his right fist ("supererogatory weight balancer"), and his right foot ("totally on pointe").
  • Man-O-War's points to his hovercraft fans ("his two fans"), his right foot ("bouyant flotational device"), and his left fist ("annoyance evasion module").
  • Road Ranger's point to his truck mode's cab ("some kind of bucket," referencing a mock-up for a prototypical version of the Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime which labelled part of his truck mode as "some sort of bucket"), his left fist ("anatomical nightmare"), and his right leg ("kinky boots," in reference to their black coloration).
  • Bad Boy's point to his left fist ("unrefined anger management expresser") his right wing foot ("robotic foot?"), and his strangely drawn waste ("tight rear end assembly").
• Finally, the "catalog" warns the audience to vote soon before the GoBots leave for another dimension, referencing the "You Have Been Chosen." flyer, which warned S.T.A.R.S. members to order the Omnibots before they leave, as they are "destined to fight a war in another universe on March 31, 1987."

Errors

• After being spelt as "Buggyman" for the last two chapters (which, again, is supposed to be spelt as "BuggyMan"), BuggyMan's name is rendered as "Buggy Man" in this chapter, with a space. And, as normal, "GoBots" and "GoBotron" are rendered as "Gobots" and "Gobotron."
• 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 tech specs, published over a year prior to this story, identified him only as Ricochet's "former teammate." Additionally, his tech specs claimed that it was the explosion of Nebulon that sent him to Axiom Nexus; here, it's just a random portal that opens up in his cell.
• Somewhat strangely, Bad Boy refers to the Guardians as "ground crawling," despite the fact that all GoBots can fly, no matter the faction.

Other trivia

• One alien word from Rest-Q this time: "hdzurk," meaning hand.
• Metalhawk name drops Skyklik, who we'll learn more about next chapter...
• A day before this story was published, a cross-promotion on the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime was published, with a "cover" inspired by the "Earthlings: THE S.T.A.R.S. need your help now!" pack-in flyer, with Path Finder in place of Overdrive. The next day, the bios from this story were released, with some minor alterations to the diagrams.
• The members of the G1 GoBots who would go on their final mission in the next chapter would be determined by fan-vote via hashtags on Facebook from November 23 until November 31 of 2016—of course, there is no November 31 in the modern Gregorian calendar, something that the aforementioned cross-promotion with Ask Vector Prime slightly ribbed on.
• Included are tech spec bios for Path Finder, Small Foot, Treds, Buggy Man, Rest-Q, Man-O-War, Road Ranger, and Bad Boy.

External links

• Spatiotemporal Challengers Part 3: "Journey's Eve" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club