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I have a bad feeling about this.
"Omni-Potent"
Publisher	Dreamwave Productions
First published	July 8, 2004
Cover date	July, 2004
Writer	Simon Furman
Pencils	Joe Ng
Inks	Elaine To
Colors	Jong-Im Lee, Josh Perez
Letters	Ben Lee
Continuity	Dreamwave Armada continuity

The Omnicons have a big Yukon adventure.

Synopsis

At the Ocean City Command Hub, Optimus Prime watches human news about the Omnicons attempt to harvest energon from downtown Chicago. This, Optimus puts it, they could do without. Mankind already doesn't trust them, and embarassments like this aren't helping. All it would take is one major incident to scupper negotiations completely. Hot Shot tries defending them, but Optimus isn't having it. The Omnicons are clearly having problems adjusting to Earth, so he has them reassigned to Base Site One. It should be perfect. Miles of wildernesss with no humans around. Even they can't do any damage there, right?

In the Yukon, Kicker and Ironhide await the arrival of Base Unit 1. Ironhide exposits on the system's security measures, but Kicker mysteriously isn't enthused. He's done his part, and wants to go back to civilisation. On cue, Hot Shot and the Omnicons arrive, but the younger bots aren't accustomed to snow, and Strongarm slips, making a mess of Ironhide's delicate machinery. This is the last straw for Hot Shot, who yells at them to get lost.

Roughly fifty seven minutes later, Hot Shot and Kicker wander the Yukon wastes, lamenting that his charges seem to have finally decided to take him at his word, having gotten well and truly lost. Fortunately, they give off discharged energon particles, allowing Kicker to track them wherever they've gone.

Thirty eight minutes ago, in the town of Abyss, the Omnicons bicker. Skyblast has traced an unusual energy reading to the town, but there's nobody home. Quite suddenly, several dishes pop up out of the ground. Skyblast decides to smash them before they do anything, before Signal Flare can stop him. His concern proves to be warranted, when all four 'bots are knocked unconcious, much to the bemusement of Snow Cat.

Ten minutes later, Arcee awakens to overhear Scorponok and Snow Cat discussing plans to leech from the Autobots' energon grid, Scorponok deciding to forego his usual strategy of brute force. After the conversation ends, Snow Cat, who has no love for the Terrorcon, monologues to himself about how Megatron will be back, and the Omnicons are going to help him... once the Spark Rewriter has done its work.

As Arcee's vision fades into a dark void, she and the other Omnicons find themselves in the same headspace, wondering how to get out. A vision of Over-Run appears to berate them for buying into their own hype. For all they're powerful, they're also dumb as posts. He reminds them of their training back on Cybertron, how he'd throw them for a loop, to teach them to be more than they were. The Omnicons ask him what they should do, and he responds, "You think I'm actually here? This is your collective consciousness... You figure it out!" and disappears. This inspires the Omnicons to break free of Snow Cat's harnesses and escape, but as they attempt to engage Snow Cat, he retreats into the snowy Yukon wilderness, warning them not to try any energon-enhanced tricks lest they want zapped again. Signal Flare has to stop Skyblast from doing just that, telling him they either act as a team or not at all. Taking their weapons offline, they roll out into the wilderness.

Two minutes later, and visibility has gotten worse. The Omnicons can barely see, until Snow Cat makes his presence known by shooting Skyblast out of the air, taunting them about how his echo zone means while they can't use their energon weapons, he can. Strongarm asks if they're going to wait for the Decepticon to come back and pick them off, and Signal Flare states that's exactly what they're going to do.

Five minutes later, Snow Cat returns to find the Omnicons just standing there, much to his immense confusion, but Signal Flare informs him there's different ways of fighting. For example, they've been getting to know planet Earth a bit better. Like the seam of energon they've just found, sixty meters below where they're standing, and the pocket of natural gas right above it. Snow Cat can barely register this before the explosion happens. A stunned Snow Cat is then picked up by Skyblast, and deposited right in front of Hot Shot, who muses that whatever adventure they've been having, they've still got a lot to learn.

Eight days later, at Ocean City, Optimus Prime talks with Hot Shot about their base sites, and how vulnerable they are. So to protect them, they'll need reinforcements, so he plans to go to Cybertron to ask the High Council. Hot Shot is dubious, but Optimus quotes the old aphorism: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." A sentiment that it turns out Megatron agrees with, as Optimus finds himself inside Unicron, face-to-face with the ghost of his nemesis.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Typical. Sixteen orders, nineteen requests, four polite suggestions... and this is when they finally choose to take me at my word!"
"'Get lost', right? And boy, did they ever!"

—Hot Shot laments on his job as Omnicon coach while Kicker mocks him.

"Well...look what the cat dragged in."

—Snow Cat on the captured Omnicons

"Well...that's certainly put the cat among the pigeons!"

—Snow Cat on the escaped Omnicons

Notes

Continuity notes

• Snow Cat is working for Alpha Quintesson and Scorponok, who are apparently still working together despite Scorp's little stab at independence a few issues prior.

Transformers references

• On the final page, when Optimus meets Megatron, a purple version of Scourge is visible in the background.

Other trivia

• Op 4, Optimus Prime's submarine drone, is visible outside of Ocean City.
• Abyss has (or had) a population of forty-seven. Given there doesn't seem to be anyone around, it sure looks like Snow Cat killed them all.
• It is never revealed whether or not Snow Cat is a reformatted Cyclonus or if he's a new character entirely. Certainly, his personality of a subtle, sarcastic tech-guy is a definite far cry from the loud and thuggish Cyclonus.
• Retailers also had the opportunity to buy one incentive cover version of this issue for every 25 regular-cover copies they ordered. There was also a Dynamic Forces exclusive foil cover variant, limited to 100 pieces.
• The Wavelengths page contains an article from the desk of David Cheung.
• Instead of reader mail, the issue contains a page of reader-submitted artwork.

Covers (2)

• Regular cover: The Omnicons vs Snow Cat by Joe Ng
• Incentive cover: Prime and Megatron vs Unicron by Pat Lee

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  Unicron collects Transformers, too.

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