Issue: #5
Released: May 23rd, 2012
Continuing on from last issue, the freshly-revived Fortress Maximus sets about killing the two Decepticon thugs with more violence than is strictly necessary (though he feels better for it). Across the room, Pharma refuses to let First Aid treat his injuries, while Ratchet tends to Drift. The situation reminds Drift of when he and Ratchet first met, only he thinks this time he's not going to live. As Ambulon removes some bits of Decepticon from Fortress, Pharma points a gun at him. He claims Ambulon was the one who released them, and that's he's responsible for the virus. After all, he's a former Decepticon, having lied for the last ten years about his change of heart. And the fact that he's not showing any symptoms is pretty suspicious, right? Ambulon retorts that he's not a Decepticon anymore, and he probably is infected, he's just not showing signs of infection.
First Aid pipes up with his opinion, that Pharma's lying. First Aid's examined the 'con corpses, and found something: Transformation cogs, despite their supposedly being monoformers. And Pharma's wounds are self-inflicted with a laser scalpel. Pharma asks Ratchet if he believes any of this. Ratchet draws a gun and demands Pharma transform. When he doesn't, Ratchet points it at him. After all, the disease is triggered by transforming. That's the reason Ambulon and First Aid aren't showing any symptoms, since neither of them can transform; First Aid has a broken cog (which Ratchet's spotted), and Ambulon won't, on account of turning into a leg, since he got "volunteered" as part of a prototype combining scheme back when he was a Decepticon. That's why Pharma won't transform.
Pharma admits it's true. Then he shoots the ward's life support machine, and runs away in the carnage. First Aid quickly takes command of the situation, while Ratchet sends Fortress after the mad doctor. As Ratchet drags Drift to a circuit slab, the warrior admits that if what's happening is the D.J.D.'s doing, he wants Ratchet to kill him before they get there. Ratchet angrily refuses. Ambulon's patient starts flat-lining. Ratchet has the necessary reboot coils that could save him, the problem being he needs to transform to access them. And as Ambulon starts telling him not to do that, Ratchet's already done it. Fortress returns, exclaiming that Pharma managed to escape via a secret tunnel, one the larger bot can't access. With the patient saved, Ratchet goes after Pharma.
Back on board the Lost Light, Ultra Magnus and Tailgate talk. The Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord is wary of Tailgate, given not even a few hours ago, he was proclaiming his desire to be a Decepticon, though Tailgate claims this came from bad advice. And while Magnus has studied Tailgate's record, which contains a surprising amount of impressive details, he believes that in order for Tailgate to be an Autobot, he'll have to work for it. The first step is studying the Autobot Code. All ten thousand pages of it. Word by word. Line by line. Tailgate, despite his long list of credentials, is put out by the idea of weeks of cripplingly intense study. Magnus reassures him it might even be fun. Or he would if he could say "fun".
Elsewhere, Rung goes over his notes on Red Alert, and the long history they have, going back millions of years, and how over those years he slowly acquired Red Alert's trust and helped him overcome his paranoia, all apparently now for naught, given Red is falling back into old habits. Including describing a noise he heard in the Sparkeater's old cell. He admits it sounds odd, but since even at that moment he can hear what others are doing elsewhere (including Skids asking Chromedome about music, and Rewind looking for some missing data disks), he thinks he's got a point. Rung points out that there can't be anything coming from beneath the cell, since it's right at the bottom of the ship. But Red's got proof: a recording. Rung recognizes it as a voice, just severely slowed down. It's someone going "Kill... me..." over and over.
Back with Magnus, and he's become convinced Tailgate isn't paying attention. He isn't. Tailgate claims to have found very tiny graffiti, deriding Ultra Magnus and his OCD tendacies, but it was just dirt (which gets an extreme reaction from Ultra Magnus). Tailgate asks where they were, which is Section 19 of the Tyrest Accord, subsection 80, paragraph five. Or nineteen eighty five, something that reminds Tailgate of the strange robots from when Skids appeared. He asks about paragraph four, a redundant sub-clause from years ago, for a threat never utilized, thought warfare...
Delphi, and Pharma is relieved Ratchet's caught up to him. Can't escape without witnesses after all. Ratchet, unarmed, tries to talk some sense into his friend. Pharma, while acknowledging the gesture, taunts Ratchet about his "crying". The disease is starting to show. Now with a captive audience, Pharma starts explain why he did what he's done. He's the only one keeping Delphi from being rolled over by the Decepticon Justice Division. Ratchet isn't really listening, he's too busy thinking of a way to cure the virus, then remove Pharma's grin with a blunt instrument. As it turns out, Pharma is supplying the D.J.D. with transformation cogs. Their leader has an addiction to transforming, which could be cured, except he just wants the next hit.
Pharma continues. For a while, he'd only harvested patients who'd actually died, but then demand increased, and he started allowing more and more to pass on, only occasionally giving a few a "nudge". But demand kept increasing, and more workers kept getting injured defending the mines. Asking for a transfer would've been too suspicious, so Pharma had to force High Command to shut Delphi down. Ergo, the plague. He paid the two Decepticons (named "Sonic" and "Boom", who were combiners) to play possum, and detonate a bomb once inside Delphi, one laced with the virus. Rather than being remotely impressed, as Pharma'd hoped, Ratchet is just appalled. He asks why Pharma didn't get the cons to try this near the D.J.D.. Apparently they refused to risk their lives for that. And when Ratchet showed up, Pharma panicked, and saw that he had no choice but to get the two cons to murder everyone. He thinks Ratchet should take that as a compliment.
Ratchet remains utterly unimpressed by Pharma's scheme, and his method of explaining it. But on the plus side, since it took him so long to do so, he's given Ratchet a chance to fight back. As they've been talking, Ratchet's been leaking rust, and Pharma's now standing in it. Seizing the distraction, Ratchet belts Pharma and grabs his gun, though Pharma points out he wasn't mad enough to create a virus without a vaccine. So Ratchet demands he hand it over, or he'll shoot. The length pause is enough for Pharma to think he won't, though Ratchet insists it's because his hands have stopped working. So Pharma brings out his guns, shoots Ratchet, and flees to the roof.
He finds Ratchet waiting for him. Well, Ratchet's holomatter avatar. Ratchet notes they're long out of fashion, and the only thing they're good for anymore is keeping people distracted, as he proves when he appears from behind to tackle Pharma, sending the vaccine plummeting into the valley below. Pharma screams that Ratchet's killed them both, though Ratchet retorts that Pharma died years ago, and with Ratchet miles from his friends, breaking down, and utterly disappointed with post-war life, he's got nothing left to lose.
Except his arms, that is, as one pops free, causing Pharma to fall off the edge of the roof. With Ratchet unwilling to help him up, he's got to choices. Fall, and hope he survives, or transform and activate the virus. Ratchet turns away, giving Pharma the chance to bring his cannons back up. Then Drift appears, slicing Pharma's hands off, and sending him plummeting.
Afterward, the Delphi crew manage to come up with a cure, thanks to Ratchet's avatar snagging the vaccine as it fell. Drift, Ratchet and Pipes all manage to make full recoveries. And on the way back to the Lost Light, Ratchet offers First Aid the job of Chief Medical Officer, impressed by his skills, not to mention the fact that he figured out what Pharma was up to. First Aid admits he didn't know what was doing it, he just knew he needed a way to send a message without being noticed, and the Wreckers Datalog was the only secure method. The two share a brief moment when they state they probably could've saved Ironfist's life, if they'd had the chance. Conversation turns to Pharma, and how before everything he was at least a great doctor. On the plus side, Ratchet will always carry the best part of him.On account of having taken Pharma's hands for himself.
This issue contains examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Boom's last words, despite have seconds before having expressed a desire to kill the sick and dying, is to beg Fortress not to kill him. It doesn't work.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Ratchet loses his hands.
- Drift slices off Pharma's, and Ratchet decides to take them to replace his own.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Ratchet's complaints about the holomatter avatars include being energy-intensive, attention-consuming, and they never got the hair right.
- The Bore: Ultra Magnus explains the Autobot Code to Tailgate, in excruciatingly painful depth. It takes him a while to realise Tailgate isn't paying attention. He doesn't notice Tailgate's fallen asleep.
- Call-Back:
- When Fortress kills Sonic, the page is drawn to deliberately resemble the opening of The Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers issue #5, as a parallel to Overlord.
- The missing moon gets a mention again, Tailgate claiming he tried searching for it once.
- Disney Death: Pharma's arms are sliced off, and he's sent plummeting down a deep chasm. Of course, he could've turned into his jet mode and flown away, but if he was infected by the virus...
- Faux Affably Evil: Once his plan has been uncovered, this aspect of Pharma's personality comes into play throughout the rest of the comic:Ratchet: I've come here as your friend to talk some sense into you.
Pharma: Oh Ratchet — it's been a while since anyone tried to do that. And for what it's worth, you're my friend too. Aw, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry." note - Foreshadowing: While going over Red Alert's history, Rung notes he believes in the existence of The Institute.
- Freak Out: Ultra Magnus, when Tailgate says he thought he saw some graffiti on his desk that turned out to be dirt.Ultra Magnus: DIRT?!
- Functional Addict: The leader of the D.J.D. is addicted to transforming, which is itself curable. He doesn't give a damn, he just wants the next hit, and he doesn't care how many cogs he burns through until then.
- Kick the Dog: Pharma was forced to do this by the D.J.D., though by now he's clearly doing it because he's gone mad.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: How Pharma... "acquired" the cogs he needed, at first. Then the demand got too high.
- Meaningful Echo: Ratchet throws Pharma's claims about who he killed back at him when he's dangling from the roof.
- Meaningful Name: Ambulon, though not because he's a medic. It's because he's a leg. His name is from "ambulate", as in to walk about. All the best names were taken.
- Motive Rant: Pharma explains why he's been killing people. Ratchet just doesn't care.Ratchet: I've never known anyone to take so long to explain their grand plan.
- The Paranoiac: To put it mildly, Red Alert has serious problems, going back eons.
- Properly Paranoid: And yet, he's found proof there's something beneath the ship.
- Seen It All: Having been held hostage by experts, Ratchet isn't impressed at being held at gun-point by Pharma.
- Sherlock Scan: Ratchet and First Aid get duelling ones. Ratchet works out First Aid's unable to transform from the way he's walking, and First Aid is able to work out Pharma's wounds were self inflicted after only a few seconds.
- Slasher Smile: Pharma sports a good few of these once he's revealed to be the 'bot behind the plague on Delphi.
- The Bus Came Back: Ratchet's holomatter avatar returns.
- Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Ratchet suggests that Pharma should have had Sonic and Boom detonate their sound bomb within earshot of the D.J.D, infecting them. Pharma, however, explains that Sonic and Boom weren't willing to try.
