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"Maximals Strike Back, Part 2"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	December 22, 2021
Cover date	December 2021
Written by	Erik Burnham
Art by	Josh Burcham
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Jazmine Joyner and Riley Farmer
Continuity	Transformers: Beast Wars

Casualties on both sides mount as the battle for the Golden Disk rages on.

Synopsis

In his private chambers, Megatron's fruitless attempts to solve the mystery of the Golden Disk and its message are interrupted when the Darksyde's proximity alarms alert him to Optimus Primal's preemptive strike against the Predacons. Eager to vent his frustrations on a pack of helpless Maximals, Megatron immediately transforms into his beast mode, charges into battle... and is promptly knocked flat by a blast from Dinobot's optic lasers. Megatron is briefly astonished that his treacherous subordinate still lives after their last encounter, but still determined to make him pay for abandoning the Predacons, and prepares to finish the job. Amidst the confusion, Nyx and Rattrap sneak into the ship; although Blackarachnia briefly bars their way, Cheetor leaps to their rescue by distracting her just long enough for the two saboteurs to make their escape. The two eventually split up: Rattrap goes one way to retrieve the disk, while Nyx follows the map into the ship's engine room. As she prepares to sabotage the vessel's transwarp drive, however, Tarantulas gets the drop on her—this time, however, Nyx is ready, and her counterattack blasts his latest dastardly invention right out of his hands.

Meanwhile, inside Megatron's quarters, Rattrap stumbles across the Golden Disk; although his orders were to grab the artifact and run, Rattrap wants to take the time to verify that this really is the disk... and besides, he rationalizes, his commander is probably having the time of his life fighting Predacons outside. That is indeed the case—Primal first incapacitates Waspinator with a well-flung boulder, before Skold returns fire with a boulder of her own, then catches the Maximal leader in a flying tackle. Meanwhile, new Maximal Razorbeast trades blows with Terrorsaur, and even manages to get the upper hand... but when he sees Skold facing off against his commander, a moment of hesitation prevents him from landing the crucial final blow. As Razorbeast abandons the fight to intervene, Terrorsaur escapes. Without thinking, Razorbeast leaps in between the two and tries to tell Skold that they don't have to be enemies. The Maximals fight only to stun, not to kill; they're only here to retrieve that which was stolen from them. Before he can finish his sentence, however, Terrorsaur abruptly snatches Razorbeast in his talons!

As he drags the struggling Razorbeast into the sky, Terrorsaur gloats that Razorbeast really should've killed him when he had the chance; now it's his turn. Razorbeast is confident that he'll survive a fall, even from this height... but Terrorsaur has a different plan, and wings his way towards the nearest floating mountain. The energon crystals that comprise the mountain are notoriously volatile—with enough force, one impact can spark a cataclysmic chain reaction. With that, Terrorsaur releases his hold on Razorbeast; the helpless Maximal plummets straight into the center of the island... and Skold watches in horror as the ensuing explosion immolates the airborne landmass. In their respective dinosaur forms, Megatron and Dinobot face off—although Dinobot's determined to kill his former leader, his injuries have left him weakened. The larger Predacon easily dodges his telegraphed attacks; then, gloating that Dinobot's come to rely on his right side, uses his tyrannosaur jaws to bite clean into Dinobot's superstructure. As he transforms into robot mode and rips Dinobot's sword from his flank, Megatron prepares to finish off the critically wounded Dinobot with his own blade... only for Optimus to intervene at the last second by blasting the sword from Megatron's hand. Primal warns him to back off, and Megatron does—but not before reminding his treacherous lieutenant that this reprieve won't last...

As the battle rages on, Skold—traumatised by the loss of her only friend—has abandoned the fight and curled herself into a ball, and her emotional shutdown is only exacerbated when Terrorsaur returns, shrieking at her to get back into the fight. At first, Skold merely ignores him... but as Terrorsaur continues to heap on the verbal abuse, and finally threatens to do to her what he just did to the "stupid red Maximal", something finally snaps. In one swift motion, Skold reaches up, rips a hole in Terrorsaur's chest, and fatally rips his spark from his body! Amidst the chaos of battle, the murder of her tormentor goes unseen and unwitnessed; when she rouses a dazed Waspinator, she simply tells him that they have lost Terrorsaur. Furious, Waspinator vows vengeance...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"NO! Why must my babies continually suffer such fates?!"
"Maybe if I send you to the Pit—you'll find out."

—Tarantulas and Nyx

"You don't expect me to fall for that same trick, do you?"
KWHAMV
" Oh, scrap. I did. "

—Optimus Primal gets bodychecked by Skold

"You know much about the energon crystals on the floating mountains? They're potent, but volatile. If you hit one with enough force? Well—see for yourself."

—Terrorsaur

"Hrr—why couldn't you have just had the good sense to die from your injuries? It would've made things so much easier for everyone."
"Everyone but me."
"A small consequence in the grand scheme of things."
"Ha! I told Optimus Primal that Predacons had a sense of humor! And you believing that you can see the bigger picture is the funniest thing I've ever heard."

—Megatron and Dinobot

"I always hated you."

—Skold kills Terrorsaur

Notes

Continuity notes

• Megatron's Rubber Ducky returns, after last being seen back in issue #2. Despite being torn to shreds by an angry Megatron, he reappears when Rattrap's investigating, having apparently pieced himself back together (and gives Rattrap the ol' stink eye when he's thrown aside).
• Upon ambushing Nyx, Tarantulas appears to wield a rebuilt version of his transformation lock lens—this was the weapon he used against her in issue #3, before Dinobot had a crisis of conscience and destroyed it. When Nyx destroys this gadget, Tarantulas once again mourns "[his] baby", a term of endearment for his creation he'd previously used in issue #3.
• Terrorsaur and Waspinator visited one of the planet's many floating mountains in #7 to gather some raw energon crystals; while there, Terrorsaur warned Waspinator that the raw energon crystals were explosive.
• Megatron and Dinobot last crossed paths in issue #6, which ended with Megatron and the other Predacons badly injuring Dinobot. As Megatron points out here, the experience left Dinobot weakened and unable to fight the way he used to.

Transformers references

• The floating mountains have appeared in the background of almost every Beast Wars issue thus far. Issue #7 showed that some of them contained energon, but this one pushes them closer to the flying mountain that appeared in the Beast Wars episode "Power Surge" by explaining that the islands are formed around a massive energon crystal, and explode in much the same way.
• Terrorsaur's body is shown turning grey after he's killed, something that didn't happen in the original cartoon.

Real-world references

• Upon coming to a branching corridor, Nyx recites one of Rattrap's sayings: "when you come to a fork in the road, take it"-a real-life quote attributed to baseball player and absurdist koan aficionado Yogi Berra.
• Artist Josh Burcham's depiction of the Darksyde's engine room appears to take inspiration from the works of Jack Kirby, famous for his elaborate depictions of sci-fi machinery.
• A panel of Megatron and Dinobot fighting in beast mode has Megatron in the classic "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth" pose taken by the T. rex at the end of Jurassic Park.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Skold weathers a storm of energon crystals, by Sidvenblu
• Cover B: The Maximals, by John Yurcaba
• Cover RI: Rattrap hacks the Predacon base, by Brenda Chi

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• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #124

Reprints

• The Transformers: Beast Wars Volume 2 (June 29, 2022) ISBN 1684059038 / ISBN 978-1684059034
  • Collects Beast Wars issues #7–12.
  • Bonus material includes alternate covers, and an one-page sketch by Burcham.

• 

  Beast Wars, Vol 2; cover art by John Yurcaba

External links

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