Transformers #22 (2011)

Continued from last issue.... Circuit Breaker and Walter Barnett go over the footage of RAAT's first mission wherein they captured Blaster, Perceptor, Seaspray, Warpath, Powerglide, Beachcomber, and Cosmos. Although Circuit Breaker revels in the ruthlessness of disrupting them with metal foil and ultimately short-circuiting them, Barnett notes that the robots weren't posing any sort of threat and were actually attempting to communicate with the police cars that first arrived on the scene. Circuit Breaker dismisses this and reminds Barnett that she doesn't trust ANY robot since she was crippled by them months before. Meanwhile, aboard the Ark, Ratchet checks on a wound that was inflicted on Optimus Prime, unaware that Bombshell has been spying on the Autobots. When nobody is looking Bombshell uses the wound to insert a Cerebro Shell into Prime in the hopes of taking control of the Autobot leader. However, the shell malfunctions and Bombshell can only read Prime's thoughts, not control them. Prime enters Wheeljack's lab where he is fitting Skids with a tracking device so that he can find the seven missing Autobots who recently arrived on Earth. Donny Finkleberg is becoming more and more uncooperative with the Autobots and refuses to go along with Skids to track down the Autobots, until Skids takes away Donny's cheque for 25 thousand dollars given to him by the government to pose as the Robot Master. With the check held as ransom, Donny begrudgingly agrees to go along with Skids to find his missing comrades. Optimus Prime and Wheeljack then attend to the Aerialbots, whom he has wiped out their personalities and is using the Creation Matrix to completely program them. Overhearing this, Megatron has Soundwave patch him into the Cerebro Shell so that he too can use the Creation Matrix to give life to his new warriors: The Stunticons. While Skids and Donny are on the road, they postpone their mission temporarily when a storm causes a woman to crash her car near some power lines. Skids blows his disguise in order to rescue her, his incident ending up in a news broadcast. This broadcast is picked up by Walter Barnett who sends Circuit Breaker and RAAT on a mission to track the robot and prompts Megatron to send the Stunticons to prevent the Autobots from getting any good publicity. That night, Donny grows tired and insists that Skids pulls into a motel for the night. There Skids asks Donny to manually shut him off so that he can conserve energy. The next morning when they leave, they are unaware that the Stunticons have caught up with them and are now tailing them along their route. Caught in a traffic jam, the Stunticons use the opportunity to go on a rampage to get close to Skids. Skids radios in to Optimus Prime to ask for help and Prime sends out the Aerialbots to rescue him. RAAT arrives on the scene first, attempting to use scrambling foil on the Stunticons, when this fails, Circuit Breaker attempts to attack them directly, however, she is knocked out of the sky by Motormaster. When Donny goes to check on her, he finds that she is okay and is then confronted by Walter Barnett who demands to know what Donny is doing here. When the Aerialbots arrive, Circuit Breaker orders her RAAT units to attack them as well despite Donny's explanations that they are not evil. Walter is almost convinced until the Stunticons suddenly turn to defend Skids, convincing Circuit Breaker that none of the robots can be trusted and storms off to attack. The Stunticons then merge into Menasor and the Aerialbots into Superion, and the two begin to clash in the middle of the highway. The two are evenly matched until Circuit Breaker intervenes and stuns Superion with a full power jolt, allowing Menasor to land a defeating shot that knocks Superion out. Circuit Breaker runs out of power and begins to fall out of the sky, prompting Walter Barnett to be airlifted by rope to catcher her, saving her from Menasor's clutches. With everyone distracted Skids pulls up and he and Donny make a break for it, having no choice but to leave Superion behind. They later hear in a radio report that the Stunticons escaped and that the Aerialbots were taken into RAAT custody. Returning for the night, Donny's greed gets the better of him, as after he shuts down Skids for the night he goes to the nearest payphone and calls Walter Barnett asking him how much he'll take for one functional Transformer, with no fuss. This story is continued next issue...