Scavengers (G1)
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| The name or term "Scavenger" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Scavenger (disambiguation). |
- The Scavengers are a ragtag bunch from the 2005 IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Imagine if you will, the cream of the Decepticon crop. The Scavengers are not those Decepticons—according to Tarn's analysis of Banzai-Tron's files, they are in fact the six worst Decepticons in history.
Still, they've survived when countless others have died. That's got to count for something.
The individual members of the team are:
- Krok, the leader and obsessive-compulsive 'con searching for his squad;
- Crankcase, who's missing a big chunk of his head;
- Flywheels, who's found Primus and can't tell a lie without transforming;
- Misfire, who got his name from an incident involving a "misunderstanding and a dozen dead Decepticons";
- Spinister, an idiot savant with an itchy trigger finger;
- and Fulcrum, a convicted coward.
After a series of wacky adventures, Nickel, former medic for the Decepticon Justice Division, winds up taking the deceased Flywheels' spot (being assured by Krok that it's "demotion-proof").
They travel the galaxy in the Weak Anthropic Principle and have currently taken the mentally damaged Autobot powerhouse Grimlock into their care... for totally altruistic and not even remotely self-serving reasons. Really.
Contents |
Fiction
2005 IDW continuity
The group that would become the Scavengers initially consisted of Krok, who had been lost by his old squad following a run-in with the Wreckers some years prior, Animals and his friend Spinister, who had joined up after Krok left Cybertron. Rules of Disengagement
The two of them had been friends with another Decepticon named Thundersaur, and when Thundersaur died, sometime around 2008, the two of them made it their mission to complete his last request: to rescue his old friend Flyhigh from a prison ship. Just after the Surge, the duo, operating as the "Foragers", intercepted the lightly crewed vessel as it approached Garrus-9, locked the ship's pilot Crankcase in one of its cells, and rescued Flyhigh, who was now calling himself "Misfire" following the incident that got him incarcerated. Soon afterwards, the Foragers discovered Flywheels, who had thrown himself into space to escape the depredations of the Decepticon Justice Division. Kill All 'Cons Krok, eager to lead a new squad following the loss of his old unit, Rules of Disengagement invited the newcomers to join, though Flywheels was of the opinion that the group would require a snappier name. Kill All 'Cons
Over the next four years, the Foragers would eventually change their name to the Scavengers, taking on their former prisoner Crankcase as a full-fledged Scavenger and adopting the Weak Anthropic Principle as their new ship. The ragtag team didn't amount to much, having largely fallen under the Decepticon command's radar, and spent most of their time hopping from one old battlefield to the next, scrounging energon and spare parts off fallen combatants. When the Great War ended in early 2012, the Scavengers glumly assumed that the Autobots had won and chose not to return to Cybertron, instead stopping over on the barren planet Clemency to loot yet another abandoned battlefield. There, they found Fulcrum, a faulty K-Class Decepticon who had miraculously survived what should have been his fatal suicide bombing; Rules of Disengagement after Spinister disabled his explosive charge, Who's Afraid of the DJD? the group (after deciding that he wasn't a zombie) opted to make him a member of the team, bringing him up to speed on recent events such as the war's end.
The next morning, the group discovered an abandoned P-6 Worldsweeper vessel, an archaic warship that had at one point belonged to the mysterious Grand Architect and his associates. The Ties That Bind Unaware of its history or its previous owners, the six Decepticons were disturbed by some of the many unsettling genetic experiments that the Grand Architect's associates had carried out, discovering deformed protoforms, a ceiling covered with brain modules, and organic flesh that had bled into the ship's fuel supply.
Before they could investigate further, they received a call from the Decepticon Justice Division, warning them that one of their number was on their infamous "List" and that they were to hand him over for their own good. Confused by Tarn's mention of seven individuals, the group found the seventh suspect, a stasis-locked, brain-damaged Grimlock, Rules of Disengagement who had been abandoned in a stasis tube following his brutal torture at the hands of Scorponok and Flame, the Grand Architect's affiliates. The Ties That Bind
The group weighed up their options; Krok being of the opinion that it didn't really matter, since any of them might be in the crosshairs of the DJD, so the group decided to make their stand by using some of their salvaged energon, laced with circuit speeders, to shock Grimlock back to consciousness so that the Autobot powerhouse could give them an edge. Luring the DJD members into an ambush, the Scavengers waited until the DJD had landed their ship and moved towards Grimlock's stasis pod, at which point Krok sprang the trap and sicced the Dinobot on their attackers. The gambit quicky went south when Grimlock ran out of steam, and after overpowering him the DJD turned their attentions to the rest of the Scavengers—a brief, one-sided fight that saw Flywheels get shoved face-first into Tesarus's deadly chest cavity. Fulcrum unsuccessfully attempted to use his kamikaze alternate mode to annihilate the Decepticon Justice Division, and when he didn't detonate the DJD assumed that he was dead. Announcing that Grimlock and the other Scavengers were now on the list for abetting him, they left to take care of a higher-profile target after receiving an anonymous tip.
Though Fulcrum revealed the reason why he had been put on The List in the first place, the group was more preoccupied with Grimlock, whose brain-damaged condition was now evident. The group gathered up a damaged Krok so that their leader could be repaired; the Decepticons decided to strike out for Cybertron, and, at Misfire's insistence, brought Grimlock along with them so that they could use him as a bargaining chip against the Autobots. Before leaving Clemency, they scavenged what they could from Flywheels, whose passing was recorded some eighteen months later by the supernatural Necrobot. Who's Afraid of the DJD?
The Scavengers never made it back to Cybertron: learning that Starscream had seized control of the planet in their absence, and knowing that he would be much less pleased to see Grimlock than the hypothetical Autobot regime, the Scavengers abandoned their plan to return home. Some Of My Best Friends Are Autobots Shortly after their adventure on Clemency, the group had to rescue Misfire from a Galactic Council prison on Constancy, though Krok, Spinister, and Crankcase fell victim to Tyrest's universal killswitch partway through. Arm the Lonely
News that Megatron had defected to the Autobots and publicly rejected the Decepticon cause eventually reached them, and the dejected Scavengers aimlessly bummed around the outer rim of the galaxy for months. In between sessions of playing "Shoot Shoot Bang Bang" and vandalizing Autopedia, they had several madcap misadventures: among other things, they dealt with various supernatural phenomena, saved the universe with a game of Jenga, and were even turned into toys. Some Of My Best Friends Are Autobots In between all this, Crankcase struck up a romantic relationship with "CONS4EVA" on the social networking site The Big Conversation, unaware that "CONS4EVA" was, in reality, a Dire Wraith, Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again! while Misfire's continued attempts to try and rehabilitate Grimlock proved fruitless. Some Of My Best Friends Are Autobots
After some careless navigation steered the Weak Anthropic Principle into a crash-landing on Tebris VII, the Scavengers received an offer from Demus, an ex-Decepticon tradesman who had set up a lucrative scrap metal dealership on the planet. Believing that he wanted to give them jobs, the Scavengers decided to pay a visit... only to learn that he wasn't interested in their employment. What Demus wanted was Grimlock, and the merchant was willing to pay half a billion Shanix to each of them to have him.
The Scavengers were divided on Demus's offer: Krok, Crankcase, and Spinister were in favor of taking it, while Fulcrum and Misfire refused to sell off the Dinobot for a quick buck. Their deliberations were interrupted by the sudden arrival of Fortress Maximus, the new Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord, who shot Demus dead in front of them and placed them all under arrest. Some Of My Best Friends Are Autobots
The Scavengers were able to evade Fortress Maximus and took shelter in Demus's warehouse of Roboid dolls, where Crankcase managed to lure the enforcer away with a mention of Grimlock (who was still aboard their ship). In the following lull, the Scavengers reconciled their differences regarding the brain-damaged Dinobot and rode out on Equinoids to rescue him from Maximus.
The group confronted Fortress Maximus aboard the Weak Anthropic Principle, where, working together, they bluffed him into retreating and leaving Grimlock in their care. Before leaving, however, Spinister was able to come up with a way to repair the Roboids, who had been forcibly "domesticated" by the unscrupulous Demus. Once their ship was repaired, Krok declared a new plan: rather than always looking out for themselves, the Scavengers would now dedicate themselves to helping out other Decepticons, providing them with the same support and companionship that the Scavengers had always given to each other.
But first, they played one last game of Shoot Shoot Bang Bang. Animals
Some time later, the Weak Anthropic Principle received the transmissions of supposedly soon-to-die crewmembers of the Lost Light; the Scavengers dismissed the dark news. How Bright Their Frail Deeds
During Earth's Ore-13 crisis, the group touched down in Texas so that that Crankcase could meet CONS4EVA in person. Returning to Earth triggered some of Grimlock's memories, and the Dinobot swiftly rampaged out of the ship, forcing Misfire and Spinister to follow him. The other three Decepticons met CONS4EVA, who, after a brief misunderstanding, revealed himself as a Wraith, asking for Crankcase's aid in completing an a Temptorian religious ceremony known as the "Crossover". Eventually managing to rein in Grimlock with the help of G.I. Joe washout MP3, the Scavengers managed to complete the ceremony and open a portal to a higher plane of existence...a portal too small for anyone to enter. Crankcase offered both the human and the Wraith a spot on the Scavengers; the former accepted while the latter only asked for a lift to the nearest starhub. Before MP3 could board the ship, however, Fulcrum took off, citing his disgust for humans. Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again!
The Scavengers made another stopover on the planet Frayus to root around in the ruins of Camp Conclave in the hopes of recovering some rare ununtrium,but on emerging they discovered that the planet had become a three-way battleground between the Galactic Council, the Black Block Consortia, and Deathsaurus' Decepticons. They attempted to escape, but found that the portal leading to their ship had closed. At that moment, an unknown 'benefactor' of the Scavengers opened another portal, beckoning them to come through. They complied... just as Nickel got thrown in behind them by a stray explosion. Journey's End
Said benefactor, The Curator, offered them a job to retrieve the Magnificence. They agreed (with Nickel joining for a part of the profits) and were taken to the planet Confluence, at which point they were set upon by Treecons. Grimlock decimated the wooden robots, but he was felled when Scorponok attacked and relieved him from his consciousness with a claw-wave. The whole group was taken to a Worldsweeper, in which they were put in a cell. There Spinister opened up Grimlock's chest to discover that he was the (ex-) container for the item they were searching for. Unfortunately, Scorponok dropped by and, after some evil monologuing and exposition, reawakened Grimlock with another claw-wave; Grimlock, enraged to see someone footling around in his chest, tore Spinister's arm off and went berserk. The Ties That Bind
Salvation for the group came at the hands of Nickel who forced Grimlock back to beast mode, correctly hypothesizing that he suffered from a non-fluent aphasia that was partially relieved by the pressure exerted on his brain module while transformed. As Spinister used this knowledge to restore Grimlock's faculties, Krok had an idea and ordered Nickel and Spinister to disassemble everyone to simulate the appearance of Grimlock have murdered them. Kill All 'Cons After the guards had taken Grimlock away to meet Scorponok, The Ties That Bind the Scavengers pulled themselves back together and caught Scorponok and Flame off-guard.
With the odds against him (and absolutely refusing to allow the Magnificence to steal his thunder), Scorponok revealed the Firstborn to the Scavengers, a spark powered organic that would mark the rebirth of the Decepticons, a new order Scorponok offered the Scavengers a place in... if they killed Grimlock. As one however, the Scavengers rejected the offer. They loved being Decepticons but were glad the war was over and had no desire to see it return. Though taken aback by their refusal, Scorponok began to extract their sparks before Nickel managed to grab the Magnificence who told her to use a pre-recorded voicemail Tarn had given her to allow them all to escape.
Leaving Scorponok paralyzed by Tarn's voice, the Scavengers swiped the Firstborn and, guided by the Magnificence, fought their way to a transmat suite. Once there, the Scavengers resolved to escape to Garrus-9, use the prison's spark extraction tech to restore the Firstborn to normal, and then return to the Curator to receive their reward. Using coordinates supplied by the Magnificence, the Scavengers opened the portal, but when Misfire double-checked to make sure organics could use transmat safely, the Magnificence said otherwise. In response, Grimlock took the creature and offered to stay behind while the others escaped. As the rest of the group (now including Nickel) debated what to do, Grimlock shoved them all through the portal and destroyed it, preparing to face Scorponok's troops alone. Kill All 'Cons
Unbeknownst to the Scavengers at the time, the Magnificence, a mouthpiece for the Omega Guardians had supplied them to the coordinates of Mederi. The Unremembering As the group had expected to materialize on Garrus-9, the room presented itself to them as Grimlock's old cell, locked from the outside, and with the Magnificence having shut down, leaving them seemingly trapped on a dead planet. Kill All 'Cons
Salvation came at the hands of an unwitting Nautica who opened their cell door. The God War As the Decepticons tried to rush to freedom, the Camien revealed that she believed herself to be in the Afterspark, causing the illusion to collapse and revealing Mederi's true nature to them. With Nautica, the group travelled deeper into the facility where they found several Cybertronian corpses, bringing Axe's to Rodimus where the Autobot deduced that Mederi was the fabled Cyberutopia of legend. As everyone made ready to leave Mederi, the crew of the Lost Light appeared in the sky, now mutated into ravenous sparkeaters. You Are Here
As everyone fled, Grimlock reunited with the Scavengers, having delivered the Firstborn to Agonizer in Howling Town and allied with former Lost Lighters. While Krok and Crankcase boarded Wipe-Out's ship to reclaim the Lost Light, the rest boarded themselves up in Ward Zero to aid in trying to cure the infected Autobots. A Dance Before Dying No sooner had both goals been accomplished did a massive tear in the Warren open above the moon. Lūstrāre While Misfire aided in loading everyone aboard, Crankcase assumed the helm but found the ship's engines were unable to match the rift's gravity, dragging them all to the Benzene Cluster where the Grand Architect took them all prisoner. After Froid and Sunder joined the group, everyone bore witness to the God Gun drilling a hole between universes, allowing the Last Light to enter their universe. Farsickness
The ship was followed soon afterwards by the Functionist Universe's Cybertron cast in the image of Primus, the avatar soon turning its focus on the God Gun while the Functionaries attacked the Architect's fleet. When the Last Light freed the prisoners, the Scavengers were pulled out through the hull breach and brought aboard the ship where they found that, not only was Megatron the captain, but that he knew their names and their nicknames. The Return of the King When the rest of the group escaped captivity, they brought with them the news that Rung was the real Primus. A group brainstorming session eventually struck on the idea to have Rung create twelve duplicates of the Matrix of Leadership so they could overload Vector Sigma via its connection to the hot spots. The Unremembering All the Scavengers took part in the subsequent battle against the Functionaries, Misfire even aiding Swerve in opening his Matrix, freeing Cybertron from the Functionist Council. A Spark Among Embers
When the Lost Light was due to be decommissioned, the Scavengers signed aboard for one last "victory lap" around the galaxy. As the crew prepared to quantum jump home, the science team proposed the risky gamble of recreating the malfunctioning launch, thereby quantum duplicating themselves before then shunting the duplicates into a parallel universe to ensure that the Lost Light's adventures would never truly end. When the time to jump came, the crew simply wound up back on Cybertron. After a last drink at Swerve's, the Scavengers took a hovercar back to Troja Major where Crankcase had requested CONS4EVA meet him.
And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, the duplicate Lost Light materialized, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2
Note
Foreign names
- Japanese: Scavenger (スカベンジャー Sukabenjā)
