Brainstorm (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
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Brainstorm is smarter than you. Yeah, you. He doesn't utterly require you to know this and acknowledge him! It's just important for your sake that you acknowledge his vast intellect and big words! Also, look at this stuff he just built, phwoar, aren't those weapons he made so shocking and edgy?
Also, he's better than Perceptor, honest.
Underneath this braggado, Brainstorm is... still boastful and a truly dodgy geezer, and a bit of a coward. His weapons have indeed killed an untold number in horrifying ways and he used to work at Zeta Prime's brainwashing Institute with few qualms. Despite that, he does hold his (very few) friends dear to him and tries his hardest to hold onto them, and despite his job, somehow he's gone four million years without ever actually taking a life himself.
And deep down, he really just wishes someone who barely knew him had loved him.
- First appearance: All Hail Megatron #1
Contents |
Fiction
There is conflicting information about the origins of the 'bot who would become Brainstorm, who was a Constructed cold Cybertronian originally known as Genitus. One report placed him among the earliest troops assembled by Kup to serve under Orion Pax when the Autobots were first formed, Old Ways but by his own account he was an M.T.O. created for Operation: Solar Storm. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme Whatever his precise origins, he kept the fact he was a cold-constructed "knockoff" a secret from most, and instead pretended to be forged, even going so far as to claim that he participated in the anti-apartheid marches that called for "equal rights for knockoffs!" which took place before he was even created. The Fecund Moon
Genitus was among the young scientists recruited for the New Institute, and was soon nicknamed "Brainstorm" by his peers. Two of his co-workers received similar nicknames as "Chromedome" and "Highbrow". The Reluctant Specialist Overly eager and far more likely to ask "Can it be done?" rather than "Should it be done?", Brainstorm fit in well with the vaguely (and sometimes, not so vaguely) amoral experiments and research performed by Zeta's staff. Remembrance Day Despite the destructive scope of his work, Brainstorm had reservations about directly killing others, and never slew anyone by his own hand. Predestination: An Expert's Guide
On one occasion, Brainstorm and Chromedome survived a raid on the New Institute by Overlord and Starscream to rescue Soundwave. Remembrance Day Although Chromedome left the New Institute after that near-death experience, he and Brainstorm remained close friends. In fact, Chromedome once remarked that he was Brainstorm's only friend, and Brainstorm didn't correct him. Rules of Disengagement For all his flaws, Brainstorm stood by the quick-to-love Chromedome as the war went on and he lost three Conjunx Endurae, even though he felt disappointed in Chromedome for using his mnemosurgery skills to wipe his own painful memories after each loss rather than remember his fallen partners. The Gloaming
Brainstorm briefly appeared among the Autobot troops fighting Megatron and the Decepticons on Cybertron in the distant past. All Hail Megatron #1
Brainstorm himself was no stranger to loss. He was deeply infatuated with his fellow scientist and co-worker Quark, to the point that he would later describe him as a "one-way" Conjunx Endura; to what extent Quark may have reciprocated Brainstorm's feelings is unknown, and indeed, would go tragically forever unknown, as he was captured during the fall of K'th Kinsere and imprisoned at Grindcore, where he later died. Brainstorm was devastated but not broken, and eventually decided to put his vast intellect to work secretly beginning construction of a paradox trap-exempt time machine with which he planned to save his love. This project took centuries. Predestination: An Expert's Guide Over time, his goal evolved from simply saving Quark to preventing the war in the first place by killing baby Hitler destroying Megatron before he was even activated. Brainstorm did this knowing that with no war, there would be no Operation: Solar Storm, and therefore no Brainstorm at all, sacrificing himself to prevent the catastrophe. Our Steps Will Always Rhyme
Once he'd sorted the theory out, he realised the Decepticons would have more of the materials he'd need to build the thing and he became a double-agent in order to get access to them. He kept the Decepticons sweet by spinning old, already known information in different ways to make it seem as if it was new advances (though many didn't quite fall for it and he was a self-proclaimed "worst double agent ever"). The Road Not Taken Our Steps Will Always Rhyme Over time, however, his time machine took shape. The components of the machine were hidden in his network of briefcases, the control case of which almost never left his arm. The Custom-Made Now
During his time as a double agent, Brainstorm would occasionally exchange spare parts with the Scavengers. Animals
Working at Kimia
He was later stationed at the Kimia Facility, working on lots of experimental technology and weaponry for the Autobot cause, where his designs were often considered the insane standard that all other weapon designers in Kimia held themselves to. More than any other Autobot, he had beaten a path to Room 113 where his creations were time and time again rejected by the Ethics Committee as violations of the Non-Conventional Weapons Act. Undaunted by the rejections, Brainstorm continued to dream up more outlandish and dangerous weapons in his time at Kimia. His most daring inventions were referred to as the "Unmentionables". Bullets
On Prowl's orders, he (alongside Perceptor) used Pretender technology to rebuild Kup into a sane, rejuvenated 'bot. Everything in Its Right Place
At Ironfist's request, Brainstorm agreed to go over the gun that misfired the cerebro-sensitive bullet into Ironfist's skull, looking for what went wrong with the firing mechanism. Brainstorm let the review fall into his backlog for several months, probably because Ironfist neglected to mention the accident had left a bullet in his skull, slowly killing him. Brainstorm finally reported back just as Ironfist was leaving for the Wreckers, revealing his findings that showed the gun had been rigged to go off at a certain angle. The saboteur, Skyfall, wasn't apprehended until nine months later, so Brainstorm apparently did nothing to follow up on his findings after alerting Ironfist. Bullets
At some point, Brainstorm worked with Kaput. A World Misplaced
Brainstorm and the other scientists were caught by surprise when Cyclonus and the Sweeps invaded Kimia. Lamentations He survived and managed to escape before the facility's destruction, leaving in an escape pod together with Chromedome and a number of other Autobots. They were soon rescued by "a psychopath in pink armor". Kings From her, they learned that they had to save the universe by stopping Galvatron from letting the Dead Universe into it. Brainstorm had a hard time grasping all this, and together with Chromedome wondered if any species other than Cybertronians ever had to deal with this kind of problem. Genesis
As part of his interest in the Dead Universe, Brainstorm examined Hardhead, and during the procedure was struck by an energy discharge from Nova Prime's corpse, which he'd been keeping in his lab. Black Planet
Joining the Lost Light
Brainstorm was one of the Autobots who chose to accompany Rodimus on his quest to find the Knights of Cybertron. After some convincing, Red Alert allowed Brainstorm to board the Lost Light without checking his briefcase. But as soon as the ship lifted off, an explosion had sent it into quantum jump and had to land on a far, desolate planet. How to Say Goodbye and Mean ItLast Light Brainstorm and Perceptor investigated what had caused the accident. Although they didn't find the exact cause, they did find something interesting. After Rodimus had insulted his intelligence, Brainstorm informed him that they found a Duobot had stood right next to the quantum generator when it failed, and was "totally mashed into the generator itself". He then made a joke about their deceased comrade, leaving Rodimus a bit taken aback at Brainstorm's callousness. In turn, this left Brainstorm panicking over the idea Ultra Magnus might have heard the joke, but Rodimus just ordered him into the air to join the search for survivors. Hangers On
When a Sparkeater was loose aboard the Lost Light, Brainstorm found himself trapped in an elevator with the creature, which had been hunting Rung. Brainstorm cried out that he was too smart to die and held up his briefcase in an attempt to ward the Sparkeater off. Fortunately for him, the Sparkeater decided to continue chasing Rung, leaving Brainstorm flustered, but unharmed. The Chaos of Warm Things
What nobody knew was that the damaged quantum engines had created a second ship: an exact duplicate (or was ours the duplicate???), unaware of the other. That ship carried on for quite some time before Drift came clean that Overlord was locked up in the basement. When Brainstorm's Decepticon handler got in contact with 'Brainstorm 2', demanding he prove he was still properly loyal to the cause, he panicked and contacted the Decepticon Justice Division to come kill Overlord as long as they promised not to kill anyone else, half-lying that he was soooo close to "the jackpot". To his horror, the Division decided on a whim to start killing anyway and this Brainstorm was left dead in his lab, a look of misery on his face. The Road Not Taken The Permanent RevolutionOur Steps Will Always Rhyme
Soon after receiving a Rodimus Star (along with his ex-colleagues Highbrow and Chromedome) for helping to save the Lost Light after it was hit by a piece of Metroplex debris, an experiment of Brainstorm's went wrong and froze everyone on the ship, except for the forcefield-enclosed Trailcutter. Despite the near-disaster this caused when the ship was invaded during this time by a group of Titan-hunting Decepticons led by Lockdown (not to mention the near-death of an away team who had crashed on a planet protected by a phobia shield and were unable to raise help from the disabled crew The Waiting Game), he still received a huge plaque engraved with a stylised Rodimus figure "for exceptional endurance in the face of adversity" along with the rest of the frozen crew, which P.O.ed Trailguy - who had driven the Decepticons off singlehandedly and only received a "normal" Rodimus Star for his effort - no end. The Reluctant Specialist
Later, new arrival Fortress Maximus went loopy and shot down Dogfight near Brainstorm, who... protected his briefcase. Of course, he later claimed he had tried to stop Maximus. Interiors Following this incident, Rodimus tasked Brainstorm with developing an evasive bullet that would avoid hitting innocent bystanders. Chromedome had Brainstorm to look into the handgun that Skids had been constantly (and unknowingly) carrying with him, but when Brainstorm tried to examine it, the gun exploded in his face. He determined that it only held two cartridges and thus dubbed it a "binary gun", much to Chromedome's annoyance. Brainstorm also offered the opinion that the gun was possibly from the Institute. Rules of Disengagement
When a bunch of Nanocons mysteriously reactivated inside Ultra Magnus, Brainstorm used his mass-displacement gun to shrink Rodimus and some of the crew members to eliminate them. After the situation was handled, Brainstorm attended Tailgate's Autobot Initiation Ceremony where Jackpot placed bets on how long it was going to take for Rodimus to say his famous line, 'Til all are one. Brainstorm bet on eight seconds to the gambling bot's surprise. Despite being three seconds ahead, he still won the bet. Upon reaching Theophany, an encounter with the Galactic Council led to Rodimus and others being teleported to the planet's surface, Brainstorm among them. When they arrived, they found the Circle of Light missing and Crystal City in ruins. As they explored the ruins underground, they came across a Titan. The group discovered the Titan had found Cybertron's "come home" signal but was too low on energy to free himself and return, causing it to scream and try to kill itself by willing its spark to leave its body, which caused the revival of the Nanocons and various deactivated crew members of the Lost Light. With the Galactic Council's troops coming downwards to get them and the Lost Light under attack, Rodimus decided to set the Titan free to help them out of their situation. Brainstorm used his mass displacement cannon to shrink the Titan and gave the large robot more energy. Now able to move, the Titan was able to teleport the Autobots back to their ship, quantum-jump the Lost Light to safety and teleport itself to Cybertron. You, Me, and Other Revelations
After previously wondering why the forcef- magnawheels guy would feel the need for a handheld gun The Reluctant Specialist, Brainstorm would ultimately build guns into Trailbreaker's legs, presumably relating to the latter's envy at Fortress Maximus's leg-guns. Soon afterward, he gave a new gun to Whirl to field test, which the mad helicopter dubbed the "Shoomer" after the noise it made. As soon as Swerve got his hands on it, he proceeded to accidentally shoot himself in the face. Before & After Surprisingly, he survived. As did the luckless Pipes when shot by Brainstorm's existential gun, despite a near-fatal dose of ennui. Cybertronian Homesick Blues
Throughout the early months of the voyage of the Lost Light, Brainstorm and several others were interviewed by Rewind for his documentary. Also caught on film was Brainstorm participating in Tailgate's "alt-mode party," which was just a ruse to figure out what Rung transforms into. Little Victories He later collaborated with the psychiatrist to update the Autobots' holomatter avatars to be more energy-efficient and psychologically intuitive. Signal to Noise
When Rewind suffered a near-death experience in battle, Brainstorm and Drift brought Chromedome in on Project: Total Insanity, Brainstorm's helpful nickname for the fact that Overlord was secretly on board the Lost Light. He provided Chromedome with the security codes necessary to access the slow cell attached to the underside of the ship (nicknamed Project: End In Tears). Remembrance Day Perhaps because of the prophetic project name, Overlord soon escaped from the slow cell during one of Chromedome's visits to pilfer his memories. Brainstorm was in the middle of chiding Swerve for fooling around with his metafictional bomb when the alarms sounded, indicating a scene change. Under Cold Blue Stars
After Overlord's rampage cost the lives of Rewind and many other crew members, Brainstorm was sincerely worried about Chromedome. When the funeral was over, Brainstorm confronted him in his habitation suite about the shadowplay Chromedome performed on himself after the deaths of his last three Conjunx Endurae. Brainstorm begged him not to extract his memories of Rewind too, because that would mean Rewind was truly gone. Drawing on his experience with Quark, Brainstorm promised his friend that the pain would one day evolve into something bearable. The Gloaming Predestination: An Expert's Guide
At some point, Brainstorm fitted Swerve's bar with an elaborate defense system and built My First Blaster™ for the bartender himself, as he was a notoriously poor shot. House of Ambus
When the Lost Light travelled through a portal and rediscovered the lost Luna 1, Rodimus selected Brainstorm to be part of the landing party. On the surface they discovered a reignited "hot spot" of sparks, including a Point One Percenter which Brainstorm immediately set about harvesting before they were attacked by Lockdown's Titan Hunters. The Fecund Moon Though they fled into a field of deactivated Titans, Brainstorm and the Lost Lighters were captured and imprisoned by the insane Tyrest where they found themselves sharing a cell with the mysterious Minimus Ambus, later revealed to be none other than Ultra Magnus. House of Ambus After Ambus departed to get answers from Tyrest, they were joined in the cell by Skids, Swerve, and Getaway The Divided Self who used the spring-loaded clasps from Brainstorm's briefcase to help them escape. Confronting Tyrest, Brainstorm was shot by the traitorous medic Pharma which separated him from his briefcase. To compound matters, Tyrest activated a "weapon of mass suggestion" based on Getaway's thought bullet that incapacitated the rest of the Lost Light crew, leaving them unable to prevent him from activating a universal killswitch that would kill every Transformer that was constructed cold. Arm the Lonely That included Brainstorm, who fell victim to its effects but recovered after Rodimus and Perceptor used half the Matrix to reverse the killswitch. This Calamitous Life Upon returning to the Lost Light he visited Swerve's to try and find out if anyone had opened his briefcase while he was incapacitated The Sound of Breaking Glass before secreting himself away in his workshop with the Point One Percenter he had recovered from the Seething Moon. This Calamitous Life He took to carrying the Superspark around in his chest compartment. Predestination: An Expert's Guide
Brainstorm was on hand to greet Orion Pax and his crew after the Lost Light snatched their ship from certain doom. Dark Dawn Intending to venture into the Dead Universe, Pax consulted Brainstorm, who was able to use a cyberwraith to manufacture personal force fields to protect Pax and his party from the hostile nature of that reality. Black Metal When the Lost Light was later pulled off course, Brainstorm found the source of the problem—Metroplex's thumb pushing against the roof of shuttle bay 3. He talked Ultra Magnus into investigating where it was pointing them to. Winners & Losers That took them to a water world, where they soon discovered they were surrounded by Ammonites. Brainstorm joined Magnus and the others in commandeering the Rodpod to take the fight to the enemy, and they stumbled on the dormant Metroplex. Into the Abyss
Acting on a hunch, Brainstorm took a sample of the water and found it was full of admium. They left the Rodpod in a drydock, but swiftly got lost in the city-bot's interior and ended back at the dry dock, where they were ambushed by an Ammonite who destroyed the Rodpod. No Exit They survived the explosion when Metroplex's interior rearranged itself on them, and a short time later encountered Nautica and Chromia. The Dead Are Not Enough As the Ammonites subsequently flooded in, Brainstorm was among those who opted to retreat to Metroplex's brain, where they met Windblade. Brainstorm helped hook Metroplex up to the Lost Light remotely, allowing the titan to quantum jump both himself and the ship to Cybertron. Burning Bright When Metroplex appeared to be losing the fight with the Necrotitan, Ultra Magnus suggested Brainstorm open the briefcase. It turned to be unnecessary as an eleventh hour save by Megatron resulted in a victory, and Brainstorm high-fived Nautica as he cracked a situationally relevant joke. Finis Temporis
Brainstorm later relaxed in Swerve's bar, though he was exceedingly cranky, which he put down to sparkache. The Becoming As billions of Ammonites descended on Cybertron as the finale to Shockwave's plan, Brainstorm was recruited by Bumblebee as part of a team to attack the scientist's lab. After they were teleported there by Skywarp, Brainstorm suddenly found he didn't feel well and had to watch as the other tackled Bludgeon. Just as they were losing the fight, the team who had ventured into the Dead Universe popped out of a portal in Brainstorm's chest and lent a hand. Black Planet With several members of said team unable to survive outside the Dead Universe, Brainstorm invited them back to his lab for treatment and Nightbeat suggested he might need to treat himself, as the portal was likely due to his exposure to the Dead Universe. With some encouragement from Rodimus, Brainstorm succeeded in making up a treatment for the injured parties. ...And the Damage Done
Brainstorm opted to rejoin the quest for the Knights after Shockwave's defeat and on the first day, listened in as Perceptor talked to Highbrow about this Quark guy he kinda sorta remembered. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases
On the voyage he spent a large amount of time with Nautica, even loading her wrench with extra features. slaughterhouse Less enjoyable for the scientist was watching Chromedome's complete emotional collapse and eventual isolation as the impact of Rewind's death set in. From his friend's misery came an epiphany: Why save only Quark when steering Megatron away from his supposed destiny as a mass-murdering tyrant could prevent the war altogether and save billions? Predestination: An Expert's Guide
When Nautica returned from investigating the disappearance of several fuel rods, Brainstorm saw fit to punctuate her belated return by leaning gently on the fourth wall. The topic of conversation soon shifted to Rung's therapy session with the new co-captain, Megatron. Towards Peace Unbeknownst to anyone else, Brainstorm had a vested interest in the meeting, having slipped a sparkprint capture into one the psychiatrist's model ships with which he hoped to track the Decepticon leader through time and space. As luck would have it, the capture latched onto Rung's energy instead. Predestination: An Expert's Guide
When Rodimus found what appeared to be his own corpse in a mysterious coffin, Brainstorm was called in, along with Chromedome, First Aid, Nautica, Nightbeat, and Skids, to help find out what was going on. Brainstorm's biggest contribution involved using his preemptively preemptive Early Early Warning System to determine that they were all in trouble, though not quite at the "Run for your life!" threshold yet. Then the Lost Light, destabilized by proximity to an accidental quantum duplicate created during its failed first launch, started winking out of existence and they were. Though Brainstorm managed to evacuate, Predestination: A Beginner's Guide he disappeared along with the rest of the original crew as the second Lost Light forced them into a sort of cosmic abeyance. Twenty Plus One
The remaining crew eventually discovered the remains of this Lost Light, which had been savagely attacked by the Decepticon Justice Division. Its Brainstorm's briefcase was found in a lift by Nautica and Nightbeat, slaughterhouse and Brainstorm's body was later found in his workshop during a search for his mass-displacement gun. As Nautica mourned, she revealed Brainstorm's face. In a surprise to everyone, Brainstorm had a mouth...and a Decepticon emblem painted on the interior of his detached faceplate. As Nautica attempted to deny it and Megatron stated Brainstorm was unlike the usual double agents the Decepticons recruited, Riptide assumed that this alternate evil Brainstorm drew the D.J.D. to the ship by deactivating Overlord's slow cell, making him detectable. It took Ravage to point out that if this Brainstorm was a traitor, so was the one on their Lost Light. After Megatron and the quantum duplicated Rewind deactivated the second ship's engines and returned the vanished Autobots to normal, Brainstorm chose that time to begin his centuries-long plan in earnest, and began by calmly walking into the crowded Swerve's. Joining Atomizer, he placed his briefcase on the table, only to be reminded of Swerve's "No Briefcases" rule. Brainstorm calmly stated that he could do anything he liked as he opened the briefcase, activating an electro-sensitive poison he had spiked the bar's Engex supply with, causing almost everyone on board to collapse. The Road Not Taken The Custom-Made Now
On the Run
After disabling teetotaler Ultra Magnus with a disaggregator gun, Brainstorm enacted his master plan, using his briefcase network and a link to the ship's quantum generator to travel back through time and space and prevent Megatron from ever forming the Decepticons... Stet with Megatron believing that Brainstorm was going back to kill Optimus so the Decepticons wouldn't lose the Great War. The Lost Lighters took action under this false assumption. Though both his and the crew's actions were in fact essential to the timeline, a future misstep by Perceptor as he attempted to shut down the time machine inadvertently caused the birth of a new timeline in which the Functionist Council had never been overthrown slowly began erasing the old one. The result was a blood-soaked nightmarish present-day version of Cybertron dominated by the totalitarian Council. The Custom-Made Now
As the briefcase was most accurate when aiming for socio-temporal hotspots, his first stop was prewar Messatine, home to Megatron in his dissident miner days. Though he hoped to prevent Megatron's reassignment to Mining Outpost C-12 and thus the taking of his first life, his high-energy arrival instead prompted the evacuation of the outpost. Births, Deaths, and Interventions With that a bust, he tried to intervene before Megatron took his first life, but, due to being fixed on Rung's spark signature, ended up thousands of miles off course at a psychopathology conference. All Our Parlous Yesterdays Predestination: An Expert's Guide Following that, he detoured to the day of Senator Sherma's murder, hoping to catch a glimpse of Quark outside Maccadam's New Oil House. This wistful episode was interrupted when Brainstorm saw Rung fiddling with a model of the Lost Light and realized he had been followed. Though Cyclonus and Tailgate gave chase, Brainstorm traveled back a year, hoping to stop the fateful bar brawl that resulted in a certain miner's arrest. Knowing that Rung played some role, he ambushed and incapacitaed past Rung, but was unaware that time-traveling Rung, part of the team after him, had always been the Rung that accidentally got Megatron arrested.
Finally, desperate and exhausted of all other options, he went back to Megatron's creation with intent to kill. Stet However, Brainstorm still could not bring himself to directly end a life, and the newly arrived Rodimus and co. took advantage of his indecision and lobbed a Grenado at him. Though damaged, he was able to regain a bead on his target, but he paused yet again in response to Rodimus' pleas. As Brainstorm attempted to explain his motivations, Rung took note of his apparent dilemma and the millennia of work which must have gone into his plan. Appealing to his better nature, Rung ultimately convinced the scientist to stand down. Brainstorm filled them in on his progress up to that point as Whirl cuffed him, but Rewind deciding to murder Megatron's nascent spark himself brought an end to the session. Knowing Megatron's death meant eventual victory for the Functionist Council, Whirl nicked Brainstorm's Point One Percenter and placed it in Megatron's spark chamber, restoring the original timeline and granting Megatron the strength he would become infamous for. While Rodimus and Cyclonus headed out to recharge the Briefcase, Brainstorm explained his motivations to Rewind and admitted that his goals were perhaps a little lofty. Though he admitted wrongdoing, he professed his desire to stay in the past, a plea which was ignored by the rest of the crew. Brainstorm was then incarcerated upon their return to the present-day Lost Light. Predestination: An Expert's Guide
Retribution
Brainstorm was put on trial by the closed-room Lost Light Internal Legal Affairs Committee, with Chromedome as an advocate and moral support. Though he started the proceedings by joking and deflecting, he adamantly pointed out that he was not the Brainstorm who had betrayed the ship to the DJD, and that in fact, he had never supplied his handler with any useful information, to the point that his dedication was in doubt. The Committee ruled in his favour in this regard, concluding that his Decepticon days were no longer relevant as the war was over, but that for the poisoning and the attempt to alter time, his time machine would be destroyed and he would placed under strict supervision. Brainstorm was surprised to hear that he would not be kicked off the ship; when asked if he wanted to be, he replied in the negative, dubbing the ship his home.
At the end of his trial, he realized Nautica had left and abandoned the wrench he'd made her. Behind his back, Ratchet talked to her and had her realise that Brainstorm's actions, while they could not be condoned, were selfless and would have erased him from the timeline. As an attempted apology, Brainstorm programmed the wrench to say "BRAINSTORM IS AN ASS!". Our Steps Will Always Rhyme Their relationship repaired, Brainstorm went on to hang out in her quarters with Getaway and Skids, where he upgraded her wrench with a light that could penetrate attention deflectors. He subsequently visited the Vis Vitalis to strut his funky stuff on the dancefloor at Thunderclash's "pre-wake," The Sensuous Frame then did the same at a disco in Swerve's bar. The Frail Gaze
Brainstorm was the head of logistics in the Lost Lighters' mission to find Swerve's holomatter avatar on Swerve's life-sized holomatter Earth. He assured everyone that projecting their own avatars that distance would hurt and that there was a slight chance of everyone dying. Fun! The One Where They Go to Earth He participated in the Lost Lighters' brief trip to various points in the past No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases and a movie night about the fall of Sentinel Prime, which Brainstorm converted the ship exhibition hall to host. The Last Autobot
Brainstorm attended Megatron's classes on the Knights of Cybertron, during which Megatron and several others were attacked by a psychic weapon. Brainstorm joined "Team Rodimus" as they followed the weapon's signal back to the Necrobot's "Necroworld," where they immediately came under attack by the Decepticon Justice Division and took shelter inside the Necrobot's fortress. How Bright Their Frail Deeds The discovery of a quantum teleport chamber within the fortress offered an easy means of escape, but a room full of stasis pods containing living lifeforms that would be left defenseless against the DJD if they fled gave everyone pause. Brainstorm advocated leaving the pods' occupants to be destroyed, believing their heroic actions in the past and possible future to be justification enough, but Megatron passionate speech in favour of staying changed his mind. The Sun in Flight
Thinking they were doomed, Nautica held a ceremony that form an Amica Endura bond with Brainstorm, Nightbeat, Skids, Rung, and Velocity, singling Brainstorm out for his intellect. Afterward, Brainstorm set to work constructing weapons that would enable them to make the best last stand possible, building gargantuan "Maximus Ambus" armor for Ultra Magnus, and re-building the teleport chamber into a new fusion cannon for Megatron. At Close of Day Skids gave up his life to super-charge the sparks of his comrades with the energies release by his death, and Brainstorm gleefully put his new super-strength to use in the battle that followed. Unfortunately, their powers all gave out mid-fight, but Megatron used his new cannon to come to their rescue. Rage, Rage He provided scientific observations for the duration of Megatron's final bout with the DJD, analyzing his use of Trailbreaker's forcefield generator and his own antimatter powers. During this, he got a sick burn from a dying Ravage, who claimed he wasn't even the smartest person in their conversation. Do Not Go Gentle
Necroworld
After the battle with the DJD, Brainstorm converted Megatron's cannon back into a teleporter, though now it was more of a "den" than a chamber. After testing it by bringing Nightbeat and Rung back to the planet's surface from their mission into its depths, Brainstorm programmed in the co-ordinates for Cybertron, triple-checked them, and sent Rodimus and his team on their way home. Some Other Cybertron He grew concerned when he was unable to make contact with Rodimus, but when his captain finally radioed in, the revelation he shared sent Brainstorm into fits of squealing excitement: the team had wound up on the Cybertron of an alternate timeline. Though giddy at the prospect, Brainstorm was quick to deduce that this was not the work of his teleporter, but rather that a geobomb the Galactic Council had used on the Necroworld had sent the planet itself into the parallel universe. A World Misplaced
Later on, he was fiddling around with Killmaster's death wand and managed to rescue Ten and Swerve from their pocket prison. After announcing his success in the most annoying way possible, Brainstorm revealed that he'd been keeping tabs on Killmaster for years. He found the Decepticon's innovations in the field of bi-locational weaponry fascinating. When informational readings from the wand finally came in, Brainstorm became clearly excited with what he saw. He contacted Rodimus in the Functionist Universe to let him know that he could take them home—because Killmaster's pocket dimension was located in the mainstream universe, he could supercharge the wand with temporal energy and teleport all of Necroworld back. Modes of Production He told Minimus that they only had twenty minutes to teleport back to Necroworld if they wanted to go home. Unfortunately, doing so seemed impossible, until Roller suggested teleporting all of Luna 2 into the hollow interior of Necroworld—an idea that Brainstorm commended. Once the others teleported back, Brainstorm asked Rodimus where Megatron went, but got no response. This Machine Kills Fascists
Back in the main universe, Nightbeat questioned Brainstorm about how exactly he managed to teleport an entire planet into another universe. Brainstorm shrugged him off, saying that it wasn't even the third most farfetched thing he'd done that day. Nightbeat asked if maybe he had somehow broken science itself, but he wasn't interested. After Megatron (A Dissolution Epilogue)
Brainstorm, along with the rest of "Team Rodimus", boarded Skip's corpse on the chase after Getaway. During the ride, he redesigned the Early Early Warning System to include famous personages, such as Optimus Prime and Megatron. As the journey progress, things got increasingly heated. Then Ten spoke up, telling everyone to listen to him. Sardines According to Ten Ratchet was dying, and they needed to do what he said. At Ten's suggestion, the ship was flown through compressed space, until Skip's corpse started shrinking further. Brainstorm bailed out along with everyone else, exposing him to the ravages of compressed space, where he died.
Arrival in Cyberutopia
Then he woke up in what was apparently the Afterspark, Early Early Warning System still in hand and refusing to shut up, forcing Brainstorm to reset it to factory settings. As everyone else tried to figure out what had happened and what was going on, Brainstorm talked with Drift, in particular about why Drift could recall everything while he couldn't. When Drift wondered what Ratchet's reaction to being in the afterlife would be, Brainstorm posited he'd probably be skeptical (which proved hard to express with a faceplate). Then he witnessed Roller show up with the incredibly dead Springarm, before disappearing again. As Nautica called after Roller, Brainstorm's EEWS overheated, which Brainstorm cautiously decided was a good sign. Yeah... Metastasis Led into a temple by the Early Warning System, Nautica and Brainstorm encountered Quark, who claimed to always have loved him. Brainstorm, overcome with emotion, instantly forgot about what he was supposed to be doing. He told Nautica to be careful and headed off to the Matrix with Quark. The God War
When Nautica continued down the corridor, she came face-to-face with the Scavengers, and bluffed her way out of the situation by saying that Brainstorm had built a gun into her arm. Unsurprisingly, it worked. Brainstorm was next seen saying farewell to the visage of Quark as it faded away after the secret of Cyberutopia was revealed. He was with the rest of Team Rodimus when the skies above Mederi clouded and an army of Sparkeaters descended from the sky: the mutinous crew of the Lost Light, led by Perceptor! You Are Here Despite the danger, Brainstorm attempted to reason with his friend, only to be scalded by acid. He was taken to safety by Nautica, and was later among the team barricaded inside the primary medical facility. A Dance Before Dying He was fascinated when First Aid proposed using a kinetic generator to cure the afflicted Lost Lighters. Lūstrāre
The Final Battle
Brainstorm escaped Mederi with the rest of the survivors, and accompanied them to the Grand Architect's ship, Farsickness but was launched into open space when a Functionist ship destroyed the airlock hatch. He was safely retrieved by the Megatron-piloted alternate "Last Light". The Return of the King Now back in the original Lost Light, Brainstorm—together with the rest of the crew—was briefed by Megatron and Rodimus on the current situation. He commented on Megatron's ability to make even the word "innocents" sound sinister, and helped come up with a plan on how to defeat the planet-sized effigy of Primus. The Unremembering
Brainstorm was dispatched to Vauvaire with Nautica, holding hands with her in the face of the Functionist onslaught. He did his best to protect her as she attempted to open up her Matrix copy, but was hit in the back by a barrage of rockets from the attackers. Injured but still alive, Brainstorm watched as his partner finally succeeded—the Matrix opened, and the false Primus was finally shut down. A Spark Among Embers
On the Lost Light's final "victory lap", Brainstorm got to read Ultra Magnus's fan fiction about a guy named Sprinklor. Before the Lost Lighters returned to Cybertron, Brainstorm helped Nautica and Perceptor put into motion a gambit that would duplicate the Lost Light—together with its crew—into an alternate universe, where they would be able to continue their quest indefinitely. The experiment worked, and Brainstorm was elated when Perceptor credited him with some duly-deserved praise. The Lost Light began its new, uncharted quest into the unknown.
Years later, the version of Brainstorm that returned to Cybertron miscalculated a blast radius, resulting in a laboratory accident that critically damaged his spark. To keep himself alive, he built a recharge chamber in his lab and converted his control case into a life-support system that would house his spark externally. He kept in contact with Chromedome and Rewind, as well as with Whirl during the latter's time in the Garrus-10 penitentiary. Whirl even made him a clock to augment the briefcase with.
Far in the future, this Brainstorm attended Ratchet's funeral in Rivets Field. He talked with Cyclonus and Tailgate about Chromedome and Rewind's relationship before showing them his life-support unit. He left the funeral together with Nautica and Velocity. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2
INSIRT continuity
Recordicons
After Rewind died, Brainstorm set Chromedome up on a blind date with Eject. Recordicons #27
Notes
- Brainstorm's role in More than Meets the Eye was originally intended for Wheeljack, but was given to Brainstorm when Barber scooped up Wheeljack for Robots In Disguise.[1]
- Bear in mind that most of the stories on this page come from the pen of James Roberts, who wrote Brainstorm with an English accent. This can notably be seen in More than Meets the Eye #17 wherein Brainstorm considers "M.A.A.B.s" and "M.A.R.B.s" to be homophones.
- Ahead of "Elegant Chaos", Roberts tweeted a theme song for Brainstorm—"Left to My Own Devices" by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys.[2]
- Brainstorm's birth name, "Genitus", is a Latin word for "engendered" or "produced".
- According to James Roberts's MTMTE Notebooks, an unexplored subplot would have involved Brainstorm being 'technically dead' due to exposure to Nova Prime's irradiated corpse. The plotline was scrapped when Roberts couldn't figure out where it could lead.
References
- ↑ James Roberts at TFcon 2023
- ↑ Tweet by James Roberts (@jroberts332), 23 November 2014
