Kill All 'Cons

	; Free them
	The Scavengers in:; "Kill All 'Cons"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	February 28, 2018
Cover date	February 2018
Written by	James Roberts
Art by	Brendan Cahill (pg. 1-18), Sara Pitre-Durocher (pg. 19-20)
Colors by	Joana Lafuente
Letters by	Tom B. Long
Editor	David Mariotte
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Current era

The full extent of his plans revealed, Scorponok offers the Scavengers the easiest choice they've ever made.

Synopsis

Himself once more, Grimlock is shackled and brought before Scorponok and Flame, seemingly unrepentant over having killed the Scavengers, thinking they were Decepticon guards. Grimlock's gaze falls upon the Magnificence in Scorponok's hands, and Scorponok takes the opportunity to villainously monologue; he explains that the mysterious artifact has developed a "moral code" and begun refusing to answer certain questions, but that it cannot refuse him because it is unable to read his brain patterns—a side-effect of his past Headmaster binary bond with the human Abraham Dante. Unfortunately for Scorponok, it turns out that a villainous monologue was exactly what Grimlock wanted out of him, distracting him just long enough... for the still-very-much-alive Scavengers to make their dramatic entrance! Caught by surprise, Scorponok is held at gunpoint and forced to hand over the Magnificence, as Krok reveals how they "returned" from the dead...

Left in their cell with the rampaging Grimlock, it looks like curtains for the Scavengers until Nickel strikes Grimlock in the back of his head, triggering an involuntary transformation into dinosaur mode, in which form she has noticed he is more communicative and receptive. This allows Misfire to successfully talk to Grimlock, calming him down before anyone is badly hurt. Nickel diagnoses Grimlock with "non-fluent aphasia", explaining that when he is in alternate mode, the reconfiguration of his body subjects his damaged brain module to different pressures than when he is in robot mode, which partially relieves his condition. At Grimlock's own urging, Spinister uses his surgical skills to adjust Grimlock's body so that the pressures are increased and replicated when he is in robot mode, thereby returning the Dinobot to his old self at last. Krok then has an idea; he has Nickel and Spinister carefully disassemble the Scavengers' bodies so they look like Grimlock has torn them apart. When Grimlock is then taken to meet with Scorponok, the cell is left unlocked, and the Scavengers are able to pull themselves together and escape.

Scorponok initially refuses to divulge his plans, but when Fulcrum just asks the Magnificence instead, the ever-dramatic Scorponok refuses to let his thunder be stolen, and launches into another lengthy explanation, which begins with the opening of his chest compartment... to reveal an organic, purple human baby gestating within him! As the Decepticon insignia tattooed across its face suggests, the child—referred to as "the Firstborn" by Scorponok—is the first of a new race of "organic Decepticons" created with the help of the Magnificence's knowledge, a genetically engineered body containing the spark of a Decepticon named Rat-a-Tat-Tat. With only around ten thousand Decepticons left in the whole of existence, it is Scorponok's plan to place all their sparks into such bodies, in order for them to procreate—"the one evolutionary advantage that organic life has over machine life"—after which their sparks, and the newly sired sparks of their offspring, will be extracted and returned to mechanical bodies, thereby replenishing their depleted race and giving them the might to conquer the Autobots once and for all. To make this happen without resistance, he has also learned how manipulate Decepticon sparks via their insignia, which are made from a portion of their spark casing—this is how he was able to earlier subdue Grimlock, who was once a Decepticon millions of years ago.

Explanations done, Scorponok offers the Scavengers a choice: kill Grimlock and he will exempt them from the process, allowing them to serve as his generals. As it turns out, this is the easiest choice the Scavengers have ever made. As one, they reject his offer, glad the war is over and having no desire to go back to the way things were. Their refusal comes as a bit of a surprise to Scorponok, but it is no impediment—with a wave of his hand, he simply begins to extract their sparks. As the group collapses, the convulsing Nickel manages to grab the fallen Magnificence, and asks it how they can win. Following its direction, she tosses her communicator at Scorponok, telling him someone is calling for him—but the "call" is a pre-recorded message left by Tarn, whose weaponized voice paralyzes Scorponok, freeing the Scavengers from his thrall. As Flame calls for reinforcements, Grimlock moves to run the immobilized Scorponok through with his sword, but Misfire stops him, not wanting to see the innocent Firstborn die. Instead, he removes the child from Scorponok, and, following the Magnificence's handy directions, the team make a run for the ship's transmat suite, intending to teleport to Garrus-9 so they can use its spark extraction technology to remove Rat-a-Tat-Tat's spark from its new organic home and put it back in a Cybertronian body. They slice and blast their way through all opposition—with Misfire even managing to shoot straight for once—but when they reach the transmat, the Magnificence informs them that the teleportation will be fatal to the Firstborn. Grimlock takes the child from Misfire and places it in his own chest cavity for protection, announcing his intent to stay behind and destroy the transmat once they Scavengers have gone through, to prevent Scorponok's men from following. Misfire refuses, and calls for the Scavengers to huddle so they can discuss what to do next... but as they do so, Grimlock simply pushes the entire clustered group through the transmat portal together, destroys the machine, and prepares to face the approaching horde alone.

The Scavengers materialize inside Grimlock's old cell on Garrus-9, only to find that the door is locked, the Magnificence is no longer responding, and they have no communicators to call for help. Looks like another fine mess they've gotten themselves into...!

Years ago, after he, Scorponok, and Flame jettisoned themselves into space to escape the Decepticon Justice Division, Flywheels is found floating in the void by Krok and Spinister. As a last request to a departed 'Con named Thundersaur, the pair have just hijacked a prisoner escort ship in order to rescue its captive, Flyhigh—aka "Misfire"—having locked up the ship's pilot, Crankcase, in his place. Bringing Flywheels aboard, Krok welcomes him to their group, the "Foragers", but Misfire insists they come up with a better name...

Not far away, Scorponok and Flame are also drifting in space, when suddenly, from out of the darkness, a beam of light emerges to play across them, projecting the image of a familiar gear-like hieroglyph. Space explodes with white light, and from within the light, a voice emanates: the voice of the Grand Architect, to whom Scorponok and Flame now belong.

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Decepticons

Others

Grimlock (1)

Scorponok (2)
Krok (5)
Fulcrum (6)
Nickel (7)
Spinister (8)
Misfire (9)

Crankcase (10)
Firstborn (11)
Tarn (recording, 12)
Flywheels (13)

Quotes

"They were Decepticons. They deserved what they got."
"You were a Decepticon once."
"They deserved what they got."

—Grimlock and Scorponok discuss the Scavengers' seeming deaths

"You may have seen [Rat-a-Tat-Tat's body] in your cell."
"Yeah—it looked like he'd gone ten rounds with a sparkeater. Well, one round."

—Scorponok and Crankcase

Misfire: "Scorponok, mate. It's like this..."
Fulcrum: "If there's one thing we've learnt over the last few years, it's that—"
Crankcase: "We're glad the war's over."
Spinister: "Yeah. The war sucked."
Krok: "Don't get us wrong, being a Decepticon's great... so long as you don't have to fight anyone."
Fulcrum: "At the end of the day, when all's said and done... I think everyone just wants to live their lives."
Scorponok: "Hm. If I'm honest, I thought I'd crafted more of a dilemma."

"If you're listening to this, my commiserations... you're about to die. I don't know who you are, and I don't need to. What's important—what matters—is that you tried to hurt my friend."

—Tarn's recorded message

"Nickel? Get over here."
"Me?"
"Yeah, bad news: you're a Scavenger now. Don't worry—as far as ranks go, it's demotion-proof."

—Krok invites Nickel into the huddle

"Don't worry, kid. Someone looked after me for a while. Did a good job, too. Now it's my turn."

—Grimlock pats his chest and soothes the Firstborn

"You're not a prisoner anymore, Flyhigh."
"Call me Misfire—everyone else does. I blame the trial."

—Krok and Misfire

Notes

Continuity notes

Flame compares the Magnificence's new ability to refuse to give answers based on its moral code to something called the "Morality Lock", which he claims nobody "believes in" anymore. We previously heard this term in issue #2, when Drift told Ratchet that it was one of several phrases he'd seen written in ancient dialect in his vision from issue #1.
As a footnote reminds us, Scorponok's bond with Abraham Dante took place in Maximum Dinobots. The implication ("a trace of human still remains") is that they're not bonded anymore.
Somewhat remarkably, the idea that a Headmaster's hybrid nature acts as a "cheat code" for Cybertronian technology is not a new one. Bombshell previously used the hybrid patterns of Hunter O'Nion (Sunstreaker's Headmaster partner) to backdoor into the Autobot network and shut it down during the Surge.
It was first established that a blow to the back of the head (where the "neural cluster" is located) could trigger an involuntary transformation back in More than Meets the Eye #22, when Swerve tried to do it to Rung.
Nickel deduces that, in alternate mode, Grimlock's brain module is located in his chest (which is roughly where the robot head goes on your average Grimlock toy). The idea that a Dinobot's brain module is not necessarily located in their dino-mode head was previously seen in Robots in Disguise #9, when it allowed Sludge to survive the destruction of his dino-head.
Fulcrum reacts with repeated disgust to the sight of the Firstborn; his revulsion toward organics was previously established in the More than Meets the Eye: Revolution one-shot.
As Crankcase notes, Rat-a-Tat-Tat's body could indeed be spotted lying in the Scavenger's cell last issue. The 'con is referred to as a male, but Scorponok makes a point of noting that the Firstborn's body, into which his spark has been transferred, is female, since... well, you need girls and boys for procreation, y'know?
The fact that Decepticons' insignia are made from a portion of their spark casing was originally established in More than Meets the Eye #4.
Flywheels fears he would have drifted "all the way to the Dark Nebula" if the "Foragers" hadn't found him. The Dark Nebula is home to the Dire Wraiths, and was also previously mentioned in the Revolution one-shot.
Okay, so we jumped the gun on this—turns out Scorponok isn't the Grand Architect! It's not clear how much of an overlap there is between what Scorponok's been up to with the Firstborn and the Grand Architect's own objectives, but given that—per issues #8-9—the Architect has been employing blacksmiths and gathering sentio metallico for centuries, it seems that the creation of the multi-forming Infinites is his project, especially since Scorponok refers to them in this issue as a "distraction". It's not clear to what extent the activities we've seen the Architect's other envoys involved in are connected: both the organic wooden robots that turn into trees seen in the previous issue and in More than Meets the Eye #7, and the organic hand with embedded technological components glimpsed in More than Meets the Eye #46 are vague enough that they could be read as stepping stones on the path to either the Firstborn or the Infinite.
Crankcase was previously established to be the Weak Anthropic Principle's pilot in More Than Meets The Eye #45.

Transformers references

You have many questions and although the process has altered your consciousness you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand and some you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize that it is also the most irrelevant.

Grimlock being more communicative and easier to reason with in dinosaur mode may be a reference to how he spent most of his time and was smarter on one occasion in T. rex mode in the third season of the original cartoon.
The final scene of the issue, with the Grand Architect finding Scorponok and Flame floating in space, evokes the classic scene of Unicron finding Megatron in the same circumstances in The Transformers: The Movie. The Architect's dialogue is a direct lift of Unicron's own: "You belong to me, now."

Real-life references

Grimlock's aphasia is a real-life condition.
After arriving in Grimlock's cell, Fulcrum asks "Is this Garrus-9?" and Misfire responds "All signs point to yes." "Signs point to yes" is one of the standard answers found within a Magic 8-Ball, the real world fortune-telling toy that the Magnificence has been jokingly compared to by fans.

Other trivia

Released only three weeks after issue #14, and only five weeks after issue #13, this issue sees Lost Light ship on time (that is, within the same calendar month as it was originally solicited for) for the first time since issue #8.
Rat-a-Tat-Tat was originally going to be named "Volver", until James Roberts realized that sounds a bit rude if you've got a British accent like he does.^[1]
When Misfire asks if organic life can safely travel through transmat portals, the Magnificence, normally prompt with its answers, is quiet for a bit before saying "No."

Soundtrack

(To be confirmed)

Covers (3)

Cover A: The Scavengers huddle, by Jack Lawrence and Joana Lafuente
Cover B: Scorponok crushes Misfire and Fulcrum in his claws, by Nick Roche and Josh Burcham
Retailer incentive cover: An unimpressed Scorponok watches as Nickel puts up her dukes, by Brendan Cahill and Joana Lafuente

Group hug!
Scorps is just enjoying this too much.
You have got to be kidding me.

Reprints

Transformers: Lost Light Volume 3 (August 15, 2018) ISBN 1684053315 / ISBN 978-1684053315
- Collects Lost Light issues #13–18.
- Bonus material includes a cover gallery.
- Trade paperback format.

Transformers: The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 86: The Everlasting Voices (July 1, 2020)
- Collects Lost Light issues #13–18.
- Bonus material includes the first half of Transformers: Historia (up to Last Stand of the Wreckers), including the Windblade profile, a cover gallery and an intro by Simon Furman.
- Hardcover format.

Transformers: Best of Grimlock (October 19, 2022)
- Collects Secrets & Lies #4, Transformers Annual 1986: "Victory!", Generation 2 #4: "Devices and Desires!", King Grimlock #1: "Grimlock the Rebel!", and Lost Light #15: "Kill All 'Cons!".
- Bonus material includes an art gallery.
- One-shot format.

Lost Light Volume 3 – cover art by Jack Lawrence and Joana Lafuente
The Definitive G1 Collection Volume 86: The Everlasting Voices – cover art by Dreamwave and Jack Lawrence
Best of Grimlock – cover art by James Biggie