Double the Dinobot, double the fun.
Last time on Beast Wars,
Rhinox got an attitude adjustment. A bad one. After impressing Megatron by
taking out the entire Predacon force by causing a rockslide to bury them, he gets the attention of the king lizard. On
Megatron’s orders, Tarantulas kidnaps Rhinox and Megatron uses his new Transmuter
to forcibly change Rhinox into a Predacon. Rhinox then spends the rest of the
afternoon beating the crap out of the other Predacons to take over. He crushes
Scorponok, gives Waspinator a concussion, forces a traitorous Terrorsaur into
working for him, and captures both spiders in their own webs. He corners
Megatron and starts pontificating on how he was Megatron’s biggest mistake.
Megatron, injured and desperate, tells him he learned from Rhinox that
Predacons gloat too much, and uses the Transmuter again to revert Rhinox back
to normal. The other Maximals arrive, having waited around for a chance to save
Rhinox, and get him out of there. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We open with a thunderstorm just
out of the Predacon base. Megatron and Scorponok say a bunch off techno babble
as they work on an evil science project. When the process is finished, Megatron
reveals his latest work, a clone of Dinobot! The clone was created from a
sample of Dinobot’s DNA that Megatron must have grabbed during one of their
many battles. The clone has Dinobot’s mannerisms but is loyal to Megatron. He’s
being tasked with infiltrating the Maximal base and shutting down their defense
grid. He can’t transform, I guess copying the mechanical components of Dinobot
would have been too much, but Megatron doesn’t foresee that being an issue.
Megatron says that Terrorsaur’s job now is to eliminate the original Dinobot,
and he’ll send in the clone.
Later, Dinobot is just kind of
wandering around the perimeter of the Maximal base, lamenting his boredom.
Terrorsaur flies in, transforms and starts attacking him. Terrorsaur and
Dinobot exchange shots for a minute
before Terrorsaur reverts to Beast Mode and flies off. Dinobot reverts too and
chases after him. Terrorsaur leads him into a cave. Dinobot transforms and
tells Terrorsaur to come out so they can have a nice little chat. Terrorsaur
says he’s got nothing to say to him, except goodbye. He flies out of the cave,
shoots the entrance, and buries Dinobot inside. Terrorsaur reports in and
Megatron sends the Dinobot Clone out.
Dinobot’s clone is able to enter
the base without issue, finding Optimus working on some system repairs. He
limps in, acting hurt, and tells Optimus that the Predacons are preparing an
assault from Grid Omega. Optimus has Rattrap double check, Rattrap not seeing
anything. Clone Dinobot insists they’re there and that convinces Optimus that
they might be using cloaking tech. He proposes sending Cheetor and Rhinox to
scout, they’re nearby, and wants Dinobot and Rattrap to search the area he saw
them again. Dinobot insists that they need to head out a full counterstrike or
they’ll be overrun. Optimus has faith in Sentinel, the ship’s security system,
though, and doesn’t believe in fighting battles they don’t have to. Optimus
orders them to get moving. Clone Dinobot heads out in a huff.
Clone Dinobot leads Rattrap into
Grid Omega. Rattrap sarcastically asks where the Predacons are. Dinobot says
they’re over the next ridge. Rattrap maximizes and wonders why Dinobot isn’t following
suit. He says that Optimus said to find their position and that it’s easier to
do that in Beast Mode. They come across a tree bridge over a lava river. Clone
Dinobot tricks Rattrap into crossing first and then knocks the bridge over.
Rattrap drops, but the bridge catches on a narrow part of the canyon. It burns
a bit and drops the rest of the way, but Rattrap lands on a bit of lava rock
and starts going down river.
Back at the cave, Dinobot digs
himself out of the rubble and is thoroughly pissed off.
At the bases, Rhinox radios in that
they haven’t found anything. Optimus orders Cheetor to scout further. Clone
Dinobot drags himself into the base and tells him that he and Rattrap were
ambushed, and Rattrap captured. Clone Dinobot rushes Optimus out of the base,
saying he needs to hurry to save Rattrap. Optimus sets Sentinel to automatic
and orders Clone Dinobot to take over the comms once he’s finished repairs.
Once alone, Clone Dinobot prepares to deactivate Sentinel. He finds out that he
needs to input a deactivation code to do so. He tries to just guess the code
but is shocked when he tries. Sentinel scans him and confirms Dinobot’s DNA but
doesn’t detect a Maximal energy signature so again tells him to put in a
deactivation code. Clone Dinobot tries again and gets shocked harder.
Cheetor followed the scent trail to
the laval river as Optimus joins him. They are worried he went over the edge
but agree to keep searching. He’s a “pain in the circuits” but he’s one of
theirs. Meanwhile, Rattrap is lava rafting down the river. He hits a
particularly steep fall, Maximizes and leap frogs his way up and over to the
side of the canyon. He sets a demo charge on a boulder and uses that to launch
him into the sky. He meets up with Cheetor and Optimus, and he lets them know
what happened. Rattrap is amped up to
get revenge.
Back at the base, the real Dinobot arrives and
deactivates Sentinel to get inside. Clone Dinobot thinks he figured out how to
shut it down and tells Megatron that he’s shut down Sentinel and the Maximals
are gone. He says he’ll arrive shortly. Dinobot comes in and he and Clone
Dinobot do the mirror game until Clone Dinobot snaps at him. Dinobot Maximizes
and backs his clone into a corner. Dinobot gives his clone a chance to
transforms, so he can finish him off with honor. When Clone Dinobot reveals he
can’t, Dinobot reverts to Beast Mode so he won’t dishonor himself by fighting
an inferior foe. The two wreck the base as they brawl. Throwing and smashing
chair and the like. Dinobot is knocked to the ground by getting hit in the head
by a periscope and Clone Dinobot claims victory. But Dinobot opens his eyes and
glares.
Later, Megatron approaches the
base. Clone Dinobot comes out and sucks up to Megatron, learning that the rest
of the Predacons are waiting to ambush the Maximals. Clone Dinobot flatters him
some more and Megatron muses that he might clone the rest of his troops. Clone
Dinobot ushers Megatron to the base. Megatron transforms, and Dinobot
reactivates the perimeter defense, revealing that he is the real Dinobot. He
Maximizes and they have a beam struggle. Dinobot’s laser eyes seems to overcome
Megatron’s mouth laser, but his head starts smoking from the strain. Optimus
fires a missile to end the struggle and announces that the fighting is over.
Megatron flees, the Maximals firing at him the whole time.
Inside, Cheetor is impressed by how
much damage the Dinobots did to the base. Rattrap still isn’t buying the clone
story, asking Dinobot where the clone is. Dinobot says he’s gone for good,
lamenting that fact because he was so handsome, but he was also quite tasty. He
picks out a pit of Dinobot flesh from his teeth and flicks it at Optimus. I
should note, Optimus, Rattrap, and Rhinox look disgusted, but Cheetor, the only
predator in the group, gives him the thumbs up. Optimus says he’s disgusting
and the credits roll.
As far as one-off plots go, this
was one of Megatron’s better plans. Using a clone to sneak into the base and
shut down the defenses, simple enough but effective. That said, not realizing
that the Maximals would have a code to shut down Sentinel is kind of a dumb. Like, that’s a
pretty big oversight, Megs. And it’s good for the Predicons that Clone Dinobot was able
to get everyone to leave the base in a hurry, because he was kind of a terrible
actor. Like, had Optimus thought about it for even a few minutes he’d have seen
a few holes in the story. The Dinobot fight was fun too, using the base to try
to get the upper hand on each other was neat. I do wish they could have maybe
done a little less of Rattrap riding the lava and more of the fighting, as
while Dinobot tricking Megatron was neat, I’d still have liked to see how
Dinobot got the upper hand on his clone. The bit about him eating his clone is
ghoulish, but still fits with Dinobot’s attitude, I think. He’s a predator
through and through. Next time… we’ll see. Maybe we’ll do Guardians 3. Maybe
we’ll do Secret Invasion. Maybe more of My Adventures With Superman.
We’ll see. See you then.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero.
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