A monster is unleashed.
Last time on Beast Wars, the
aliens interfered again. The transformers were all knocked out by the arrival
of what turned out to be an alien vessel, though the Transmetals recovered
quickly. Megs and Tarantulas postulate the quantum surge made them similar enough
to the alien technology to make them resistant to the Alien’s technology.
Megatron and his transmetals boarded the ship and he used the Alien Golden Disk
to take control of the vessel. Optimus and Rattrap were able to break into through
the Predacons portable shield and tried to stop them, but Megatron unleashed a
quantum wave that knocked them out. The Predacons were pulled into the ship and
Optimus was kidnapped. Tarantulas was also fired, as Megatron deemed their
alliance finished. Rattrap takes Tarantulas back to the Axalon, and he
helped them track the ship to the mountain it had moved to. Megatron revealed
his plan to take the ship back to Cybertron and use it to prove to the Predacon
leaders that war is their only way forward and made a cryptic remark of showing
the Maximals and Autobots. The Maximals distract the Predacons long enough for
Rattrap and Tarantulas to sneak aboard. Rattrap freed Optimus and they held
Megatron off long enough for Tarantulas to sneak in and detonate the transwarp
cells Megatron had been brought in. Everyone flees just in time to avoid the
explosion. After the dust settled, Cheetor asked what about Tigertron and
Airazor, and Optimus promised that they’ll keep looking for them. Enough
recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open on a swampy forest area, and
we find a Stasis Pod laying on a bunch of Energon crystals. Cheetor flies in
and reports his finding, noting that the Stasis Pod is extremely big and has an
X written across it. Back at the Axalon, Optimus shares a look with
Rhinox before telling Cheetor to wait as he’s on his way with Silverbolt. As
they walk off, Rhinox mutters to himself “Primus help us if that thing
survived.” And we see that Megatron is monitoring the situation and the idea of
the big soldier that was housed in that big Stasis Pod intrigues him. His side
had been down a man since the alien attack after all. He orders Blackarachnia and
Waspinator to the pod and to recruit the occupant. We see that he slipped a
tracer of some kind onto Blackarachnia’s back, which camouflages itself after a
moment. He says to himself that the spider’s spin their webs, but he spins
larger ones… totally missing that Tarantulas has a probe monitoring him under
his chair’s arm rest. He’s clearly still butt hurt that Blackarachnia freed
herself from his control and remarks how dangerous field work is… especially if
he catches her.
Optimus and Silverbolt arrive just
as Cheetor starts to surge a little from Energon buildup. Optimus examines the pod,
and we see giant insect legs hanging out of it. He hopes that the creature is dead.
Cheetor asks what it is, and Optimus lets him in on the quote ‘dark secret’ of
their journey. He explains that this creature, Protoform X as it’s dubbed, was
an attempt by the Maximals to replicate the mutation that made Starscream’s
spark immortal in a Maximal. While the experiment worked in the sense it made a
Maximal that was seemingly impossible to kill, Protoform X was extremely
violent despite also being intelligent. They couldn’t do anything to stop it
aside from sticking it in a Stasis Pod and having a decorated captain find a
desolate, dead world to drop it off on. Optimus goes in to take a closer look,
but then the Predacons attack. They have a firefight, Waspinator getting shot
down in the scuffle. Optimus tries to tell Blackarachnia that this is pointless
as Protoform X is dead, but she doesn’t believe him. She makes a couple good
shots, burying Optimus under some rubble and knocking Cheetor into a pile of Energon,
the Energon surging and hitting Protoform X. She starts beating on Silverbolt,
demanding that the wolf-eagle give up his stupid chivalry act and fight her. Before
they can get more into it, Tarantulas rolls up and tackles her. He puts her in
a headlock and demands he give her the information he wants. Megatron, who is
watching, also wants to hear what she knows. She calls Megatron a slag spouting
saurian, which disappoints them both. Tarantulas plans to torture the information
out of her, but Silverbolt gets up and decks him for using a comrade as a Transformer
shield. Knocking Tarantulas into the pod proves to be a monumentally stupid
idea, as it caused the pod to overload, and that causes the Energon to blow up
and make a storm that scatters everyone to the wind.
Silverbolt and Blackarachnia crash
land some distance away. They’re both badly scuffed from the fall. They pull weapons
on each other, but Silverbolt asks if she’s damaged, she answers ‘Just enough
to make me interesting.” He remarks that Tarantulas might show up again to
attack her and offers to protect her, which she takes given the situation. She
suggests he make like a bird and get them out of there, but his wings were
damaged in the crash, so he can’t fly. He suggests traveling to the top of a
nearby peak so they can get above the Energon storm and contact their teams.
Tarantulas crash lands with the
pod. He goes to check it out, only to find the pod empty. He looks around, and
but misses the giant Transformer sneaking up on him. He screams in terror when
he locks eyes on it.
Optimus tries to get in contact
with Silverbolt, but the storm is causing too much interference. Cheetor hates
to admit it, but says they need to fall back to base, get some cycles in the CR
Chamber and then come back. Optimus begrudgingly agrees that it’s the best plan
and they fall back, Optimus telling his newest soldier to stay safe.
Silverbolt and Blackarachnia trudge
through the swamp, the spider remarking that even though she considers herself
a creature of darkness, she still finds this dark swamp creepy. They find
Tarantulas’ arm hanging from a tree, and Silverbolt makes a crack about him being
disarmed, which causes them to both let out their tension with laughter.
Inferno, who is monitoring Blackarachnia with Megatron, thinks it’s weird they’re
laughing together, but Optimus says not to underestimate her, and assumes she’ll
betray him soon now that Tarantulas has been seemingly removed as a threat.
They walk a while longer and find a
fallen tree that gives them a bridge across ravine. Silverbolt goes first. He’s
unsteady on his feet given his injuries but makes it a few feet before
slipping. He turns to see Blackarachnia pointing her gun at him. He warns her
that something is behind her. She thinks he’s trying to distract her… but Silverbolt
is incapable of even thinking of doing that. She’s jumped by a sabretooth cat a
moment later. Silverbolt transforms into beast mode and fights the big cat, knocking
them both into the ravine. He transforms as he falls and grabs a vine. The vine
stars to tear under his weight and Blackarachnia points her gun at him. He says
he understands, as she is a Predacon. The vine snaps and he falls.
Blackarachnia shoots her web crossbow bolt at him, catches him and pulls him up.
She asks if he’s damaged and he parrots back the “just enough to make me
interesting,” line. The Predacons watching their exchange are all visibly
disgusted, Megatron actually saying Yuck. She spins an excuse about maybe
needing him to fight off more predators for her.
Back at the Axalon, Dinobot
monitors the Energon storm. As Optimus leaves the CR chamber, Dinobot insists
they give up on the rescue plan for now and instead go on the offensive. He
says with the Predacons being down two to their one, they have the numerical advantage.
Optimus says that he’ll remember this the next time Dinobot is lost in an Energon
storm and heads out with Cheetor. Dinobot says that “Victors do not spurn an opportunity.”
When alone, he plugs himself into the ship’s computer and mutters that it might
still come down to him. Cheetor and Optimus fly off to find Silverbolt.
As they trudge, Silverbolt feels
the need to point out to Blackarachnia that she WAS a MAXIMAL protoform at one
point. She tells him to back up, but he insists saving him is a sign that she
has a better nature within her. She says, again, shut up, but Silverbolt asks
she just admit there’s a spark of goodness deep inside her. She shoots at him
with her leg guns and then asks him if she should elaborate. He lets her walk off
and then hears her scream. He rushes over and they find Tarantulas’ body. He’s
been ripped limb from limb, and, according to Blackarachnia, already in stasis
lock. She says the storm couldn’t have done this, and Silverbolt is sure this
is the work of Protoform X. She’s shocked by this info as she was sure it was
dead like everyone else. Silverbolt mentions it’s supposed immortality… which
intrigues the eavesdropping Megatron. He as the computer manufacture an Energon
Scalpel for him. They try to flee and run into Protoform X, who has taken the
form of a giant Transmetal coconut crab. He transforms and attacks them,
knocking Silverbolt aside and shooting at Blackarachnia. Silverbolt throws a
javelin at him but X shoots it down, cackling as he does. Optimus and Cheetor
spot them and rush in to save them. They call for backup, but Megatron intercepts
the coordinates, saying that it’s time for his surgical strike.
In coconut crab form, X holds Silverbolt
in his massive claws, taunting him and asking the Maximal if he’s feeling fear.
X claims that his spark feeds on fear, and he should feel it so he might enjoy
his pain. He crushes Silverbolt between his claws and Blackarachnia cries out to
him. Optimus and Cheetor fly in and they and Blackarachnia start firing on it.
They knock X from the side of the cliff down to his pod. Unfortunately, he then
shows off his secondary form, a crab tank. He starts climbing up the side of
the cliff on his treads, horrifying the onlookers at his seemingly invincibility.
He claims that he raises again, and Silverbolt counters by saying, “In that case,
let us give you further to fall.” He hurls a javalin at X’s tread, causing him
to crash and fall from the cliff and down through the bigger ravine below. He
lets off a shot, though, knocking Blackarachnia down after him. Silverbolt
leaps after her, begging his blasted wing to work. It does and he’s able to catch
her, flying her princess style back up. Blackarachnia thanks him but tells him
to not expect gushing gratitude. He agrees with that, saying she is a Predacon after
all. She leaps from his arms and runs off. Silverbolt tries to go after her,
but Optimus tells him to leave her. Cheetor asks about X, ol Crab Legs as he
calls him. Optimus says that they need to fall back and get Rhinox’s assessment
of the situation. Besides, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. They fly off.
Silverbolt lingers for a minute and says toward the direction of Blackarachnia
that he thinks she’s more than a Predacon and hopes she’ll realize that someday.
Blackarachnia takes a moment to watch him fly off, sighing in a “damn he’s
hunky” sort of way, before shaking her head and muttering that she didn’t need
him to save her anyway.
In the ravine, X lays in a crumpled
heap, body sparking with an Energon surge when Megatron finds him. He pulls out
his Energon scalpel as he looms over the berserker. He wakes up in the Predacon
CR pit. Megatron muses that using an Energon blade on any other spark would have
destroyed it, but X’s survived it. He calls it an advantage. X pulls his
blaster on Megatron, but Megatron is able to stop him. How? He placed X’s spark
in a vice of Energon crystals. He squeezes it, and it effectively gives X a
heart attack, causing him to drop to his knees in pain. Megatron welcomes X to
the Predacons, redubbing him Rampage. Because even Megatron recognizes naming an
intelligent lifeform after a letter is stupid… (cough). He says that Rampage will
be an honored member of their team, so long as he remembers he belongs to Megatron.
He welcomes his new servant to the Beast Wars as he cackled madly.
Well, that was a hell of an info
dump and entrance. While I’m sure that Rampage as a character didn’t exist in
the first season, his introduction does give us a nice explanation as to why
the Axalon was in a position to intercept the Predacons at the start of
the series. Of course they were in the back end of nowhere space, because that’s
the best place to dump an invincible homicidal maniac. We only get a little
about Rampage’s backstory here, but I can assure you the sentence of being
dumped on a dead world for his crimes is not exactly unwarranted. His design is
great too, being bigger than Rhinox or Transmetal Optimus, with those enormous
claws and his gun that’s bigger than Rattrap in rat mode. He’s a juggernaut.
And the fact he’s eloquent is… unsettling. Like, Optimus said he was smart, but
there’s a difference between being told that and hearing him wax philosophically
on fear and how it feeds his very spark. I remember hearing once that while he
acts psychotic a good chunk of the time, he’s something more akin to a Hannibal
Lecter than a Jason Vorhees. Deranged? Yes. But smart. Dangerously smart.
Megatron’s Spark in a vice strategy might be the only way to keep him in line.
As to the other part of the story… well, they’ve been teasing this development
of a Silverbolt/Blackarachnia attraction for a while now. He seems dead set on
proving to Blackarachnia that she isn’t as bad as she thinks, and while I wholeheartedly
believe that’s mostly because he believes in the good of everyone… I mean, come
on. Inferno and Quickstrike are also former Maximal Protoforms and he NEVER
tries to convert them even a little. On her part, while she acts disgusted by
his chivalrous attitude and heroic speeches… she’s clearly into it. Like, even
before they really spoke, she called him hunky. The attraction is palpable and
it’ll only increase going forward. And I like Tarantulas’ continued vendetta against
the other spider. She clearly wounded his pride when she outsmarted him and it’s
a festering wound to him. He won’t be happy until he’s got what she’s hidden
and exacted his revenge. It’s like his whole thing now, after killing the
aliens and being a pest to Megatron. So… ya, good episode. Next time, Dinobot proves
his mettle.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-beast-140056036
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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