Micro-Aggressions

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Me Grimlock now Maximal!
"Micro-Aggressions"
Publisher	Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published	April 2, 2016
By	Jim Sorenson
Illustrations by	Christopher "IKY" Colgin
Continuity	Beast Wars: Uprising
Chronology	circa 2384
Page count	15pp

Old heroes of the Great War now find each other on opposing sides in the Grand Uprising.

Synopsis

Under the Neurospan bridge, two other-wordly cyborgs sit out the acid rain. One of them, Bladez, grumbles about the condition of Cybertron, while his companion Pincher assures him their buyer will be along soon. This turns out to be wrong, as their buyer, Grimlock is already there, and not in the best of moods. He demands the G-Virus they've acquired for him, now. At Pincher's emphatic insistence, Bladez hands the virus over, in exchange for all the information the Resistance has on humanity, though before he departs the former Autobot warns them humans are bad news.

Elsewhere on Cybertron, Hot Rod enjoys the sensation of being fully fuelled, something he hasn't experienced in well over a century, what with being a Micromaster and all. After a brief chat with Greasepit, he makes his way to the Star Convoy, the heart of the Micromaster scaled city dubbed "Micropolis", where his command crew are already waiting for him. They hesitantly explain what the situation is: The night before, the Forever Vaults were breached by a "monstrous" combiner, with only one guard being spared because his attackers had him confused with someone they knew. The orders of the Builder Assembly are clear: Recapture the G-Virus, not destroy it. And the bad news just keeps on coming when Hot Rod is informed as to just which Resistance cell wanted the virus, which is Grimlock's.

In their headquarters, tensions between Grimlock's cell are running high, the mixed Maximal and Predacon crew getting into a brawl, until they're interrupted by the return of their leader, who dubs them all morons. But while morons they be, he tells them they're also his morons. Grimlock tells them to return to their posts and keep their tempers in check until he tells them it's time to fight. When asked by Mach Kick when that will be, Grimlock informs him it's tomorrow.

Back at the Star Convoy, Hot Rod fumes that it had to be Grimlock. Not content with illegally transferring his Spark into a proto-former body, his former comrade had then tried committing outright treason by trying to bomb the Builder Assembly. While Hot Rod understands having grievances against the Builders and their heavy-handed rule, he thinks Grimlock's approach makes it harder for others to make legitimate, beneficial changes from within. As he muses, Hot Rod realizes where Grimlock will strike. Despite the current "unpleasantness" that is the Grand Uprising, Ratbat insists everything continue as normal, the Games included, and is going as far as to make POWs fight in them, something that will naturally draw Grimlock's attention.

In Tesarus Arena, on the day the Games are scheduled, Snapper is nervous as he makes his way through the Builder-scaled sewers. Grimlock may have a reputation as a living legend, but Tesarus is at the heart of Builder territory. Snapper is more confused by their target, which isn't the arena's control room, but the crowd itself, with cell's leader only commenting reaching the crowd is all they need. Snapper isn't actually sure what the virus even does, but he figures it has to be too good for any Builder. Just as they reach the exit, Grimlock smells something amiss. His warning comes too late for Mach Kick, who inadvertently steps on a land-mine. They've walked right into an ambush. Snapper immediately wants to flee, but Grimlock warns him against it. Going back will be worse, but going forward might give them a chance for success.

In the arena's control center, Hot Rod watches for any sign of Grimlock. While he's confident about the security complement, bolstered by as many Micromasters as he could call in, and some Maximal Security Command Force officers to boot, all the information is being fed through Blitz, a Builder, who he doesn't know. Blackout calls in a security alarm. Checking the map, Hot Rod notes it's dangerously close to the crowd, and since that crowd is made of Builders, it's a logistical impossibility to evacuate them. Not wanting to risk it being a diversion, Hot Rod decides to go in himself.

Back at the tunnels, Snapper helps Grimlock and the Man Terror finish off the Micromaster guards they're brawling with, when Hot Rod, Blackout and Spaceshot arrive. In the sudden confusion, Grimlock disappears as he picks a fight with Hot Rod. The two former Autobots brawl, exchanging points of view along with injuries. Grimlock scorns the former "chosen one" for supporting the Builders, asking what he's actually accomplished in all the time he's had since he downsized, while Hot Rod lambasts the Dinobot for trying to change things the way Megatron once did, asking what kind of society he thinks the violence will create. Grimlock retorts that it'll be better than what the Builders have made. Then, to his horror, Hot Rod realizes their fight has taken them out into the arena. Grimlock is now in a prime position to unleash the virus. And then Snapper grabs him.

A few moments prior, down in the tunnels, the Man Terror gloats over dismembering Blackout, but his triumph allows Spaceshot to blast him to pieces. Snapper manages to take her out of the fight, then proceeds to the arena himself, finding Grimlock fighting with the Micromaster commander. His leader tells Snapper to unleash the G-Virus, but Hot Rod asks if the Predacon even knows what the virus will do. As Grimlock tells him not to listen, Snapper finds himself fascinated, as Hot Rod reveals the truth. The G-Virus is made from the remains of Galvatron, the worst of the Builders, the one responsible for Cybertron's sorry state. It replicates the means by which Unicron made Galvatron from Megatron. If Snapper fires the virus at the Builders in the arena crowd, it will them all into carbon-copies of the mad Decepticon. Grimlock considers this an acceptable price to pay for crippling the Builders forever, but Hot Rod points out there are Micromasters and Maximals in the crowd as well, and the virus would alter them too. This isn't enough to deter Grimlock, who lunges for the virus, but Snapper destroys it before he can fire. The battered and beaten Maximal snarls that the Resistance will get Snapper for this, but the Predacon considers his life a fair trade. Turning to Hot Rod, he surrenders, asking only for fair treatment and not to be sent to the Games. Hot Rod gives his word, but notes the Builders are going to be very angry about the loss of the virus. Snapper just says maybe it's a good thing they didn't get what they wanted, something Hot Rod can only laugh at.

Later, in the Micropolis infirmary, Cop-Tur lies in bed, having been left so his repair systems will kick in, as he curses his luck, figuring the Administrator checking out the G-Virus is how the Resistance learned of it in the first place. However, as he dwells on the odd combiner that laid siege to the Vaults, he's intrigued by the idea and starts jotting down notes. Suddenly, as he works, the G-Virus kicks in, and Cop-Tur is reformatted into a new Galvatron. Immediately dismissing the schematics in front of him, the reborn tyrant kills the medic who enters the room, and escapes into the night...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"You've always gone too far, Grimlock!"
"And you never go too far enough, 'Chosen One'!"
—Hot Rod vs Grimlock

Notes

• Characters mentioned but who do not appear include: the Master, Hornet, Scorp, Lio Convoy, Primus, Crumplezone, Fortress Maximus, Dai Atlas, Road Police, Monsterous' Cop-Tur, Black Out, Search, Ratbat, K-9, the Aerialbots, the Protectobots, the Constructicons, Megatron, Galvatron, Unicron, and the Administrator of the Games.
• As in previous stories, several characters who appear have their bodies based on existing toys: Grimlock is based on Generations Thrilling 30 Springer (much like Dynobot, who Beast Wars Grimlock's toy was a redeco of); Hot Rod is, of course, in his Micromaster form; and Galvatron is based on Beast Hunters Optimus Prime.
• When asked why Rodimus gets so little respect if he used to be leader, Sorenson said it came down to prejudice against Micromasters and anyone who downsizes, and that Rodimus's short term was seen as a disappointment where "high expectations... were not met."^[1]
• What was going on with Cop-Tur's plan for a gestalt? Jim Sorenson forgot! It was probably a way to bring in Micro-scale combiners.^[2]

Continuity notes

• Greasepit and Hot Rod remember the events of "Head Games", wherein their friends and comrades got massacred. This is attributed to the poor suckers being on quarter-ration fuel as security guards weren't considered important enough. Greasepit specifically mentions the death of Crumplezone.
• Related to that, Grimlock was mentioned as being one of the prisoners inside Fortress Maximus.
• Road Police previously appeared in his police function in the Cybertronix of "Broken Windshields".
• Exactly how Galvatron almost doomed the race is established in cybertronix text sneakily placed in the story, detailed below in "Human Confederation trivia".
• Eject is mentioned as having visited the Forever Vaults, checking out the G-Virus. Eject mentioned back in "Broken Windshields" that he had hidden away his copy of Lio Convoy's CNA; evidently, he placed it in the Forever Vaults, and seems to be planning something sinister with it and the G-Virus...

Transformers references

• Grimlock was made into a Beast Wars character by the toyline, and The Gathering and Beast Wars Sourcebook portrayed his IDW Beast Wars incarnation as indeed transferring his spark into a protoform. Appropriately for the mixed cartoon/comic background of Beast Wars, he's portrayed with his idiosyncratic speech patterns from the cartoon and his anti-heroic leader personality from the comics.
• A Micromaster Hot Rod toy came with the Star Convoy toy, and thus his base is called the Star Convoy.
• Another facility in Micropolis is the Dai Atlas Exchange. It is unspecified if the Exchange was named for an individual Cybertronian or, as with the Star Convoy, it is just a building name in this continuity.
• Black Out is a Beast Wars: Uprising version of Armada Blackout, based on Blackout's "Powerlinx" deco. Meanwhile, Black Out's partner Search shares the name of Armada Blackout's Japanese counterpart.
• Hot Rod refers to convincing the Protectobots, Aerialbots, and Constructicons to downsize, all of whom had Micromaster combiner sets in the 2003 Universe toyline. Fittingly, the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime had previously established those toys as representative of Micromaster characters in one Primax-influenced Aurex universe.
• The Builder audience member who Snapper takes aim at is not named but appears to be a Beast Wars: Uprising version of Revenge of the Fallen Fearswoop, having only 1 optic, empurata-style. This is further solidified by Generation 1 Fearswoop having the name "Black Omen" in this continuity, as the author has taken care to avoid name reuses among simultaneously alive characters.
• Snapper refers to Galvatron as "Spawn of Unicron".
• Aside from the obvious name reuse, the Beast Wars Sourcebook established that the IDW version of Beast Wars II Galvatron named himself after Generation 1 Galvatron. This time around, Galvatron is literally born out of Galvatron!

GoBots references

• It's already been established that a number of GoBots fled Gargent 984.08 Alpha for refuge in Primax 209.0 Gamma, integrating themselves in with the local Predacons, in a 14 May 2015 entry of Ask Vector Prime. Both Bladez and Pincher were Monster GoBots in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon series.
• Cop-Tur survived as the GoBots weren't sure if that was their Cop-Tur.
• Bladez swears by the Master Renegade, his creator.
• There isn't a Monster GoBot combiner but there is a monster GoBot combiner named Monsterous, which the "Renegade Rhetoric" incarnation of Ask Vector Prime portrayed as comprising Prime Predacons! This version of Monsterous, however, is composed of regular cyborg GoBots, as they were not affected by the G-Virus.

Real world references

• The title references microaggression theory: "brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership." Of course, it also plays off Hot Rod and Grimlock's literal downsizing.
• The G-Virus's name is coincidentally similar to that of the Resident Evil virus.

Human Confederation trivia

Each scene break contains cybertronix and when translated, it turns out to be the data Grimlock handed to the PredaGoBots! Roughly translated, it tells us:

• Humans (or at least Transformers talking about them) stopped using BC/BCE and AD/CE, instead using BA (Before Ark, pre-1984) and SCA (Stellar Cycle of the Ark, 1984 and onwards).
• Humans developed the first AI in 1 SCA (referring to TORQ III, from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Day of the Machines"), landed on Mars in 8 SCA, constructed the first Warp Gate with the Autobots in 13 SCA (referring to the creation of the Trigger from the Battle of the Star Gate manga), and AI became ubiquitous by 30 SCA with neural interfaces by 33 SCA—or in 1985, 1992, 1997, 2014, and 2017 to you and me!
• Earth Defense Command (founded 19 SCA/2003) was formed out of G.I. Joe Star Brigade (2003 referring to the EDC founding date given in Kiss Players).
• In 33 SCA, the EDC declared all of human space off-limits to Transformers due to an attack on New Earth and in 39 SCA, the "Human Singularity" happened: Earth tech was surpassing Cybertronian. After the Decepticons attacked human colony Xin Shanghai in 39 SCA using a captured Autobot shuttle, the humans blew up a real Autobot shuttle, the Star Arrow, which was approaching Tamil Duniya for aid in 42 SCA.
• Humanity formed the Human Confederacy in 45 SCA and the EDC became the Confederated Terran Colonial Fleet. The Scouring of Nebulos two years later caused the nascent Confederacy to impose an armistice on the Transformers and forcibly limit them to Cybertron and nine existing colony worlds. Galvatron responded by launching a massive invasion fleet in 49 SCA... and the humans vaped it, told the Transformers they could only have four colonies now, and sterilized the disbarred five worlds after a ten-day "piss off" grace period.
• Humans somehow conquered death in 70 SCA; split into the three branches of biologicals, circuitry-enhanced, and psychals by 80-90 SCA (unaugmented humans were second-class citizens); and in 130 SCA, started bringing back every dead human from history with the Eutychus Project.

Jim Sorenson clarified that a bit of the final sentence was cut off in the final story: that the Eutychus Project excluded those considered "heinous criminals", such as the Witwicky family.^[3]

Errors

• On page 2, Grimlock refers to the Human "Confederation," whereas "Head Games" referred to the Human "Confederacy". It is uncertain which is the more correct name.
• On page 3, when Hot Rod asks "What's the downside?", the narration states that "the five faces staring back at him looked bleak." However, there are only four others in the room.
• On page 9, Snapper is referred to as fellow Beast Wars toyline Predacon "Spittor".

See also

• "Micro-Aggressions" Cybertronix translation

References

External links

• "Micro-Aggressions" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club website
• "Micro-Aggressions" annotations by Jennifer Alexis Carlo