Fanfic / How Very Logical

How Very Logical is a Transformers: Prime Self-Insert fanfic by Tomb Spyder on Spacebattles.

What would one do if they woke up with a singular eye, a head full of terrible, mad ideas, and the desire to perform science? So begins this story of a random person reincarnating as Shockwave as they decide to use the Decepticon scientist's genius and power to end the Autobot-Decepticon war and bring prosperity to Cybertron once more, no matter the cost involved. With meta-knowledge from their past life, our self-insert will make waves with their actions, whether they know it or not, and the course of the story will be altered forever.

It can also be read here. It is currently complete, with the sequel A Shift in Logic currently ongoing.

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This fic provides examples of:

• Adaptational Badass: Shockwave, in addition to having otherworldly knowledge from being the SI, is also reformatted into a triple-changer with an extra jet mode via the Forge of Solus Prime.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Shockwave and Predaking (well, Indomina) show up far before their respective appearances in "Out of the Past" and "Prey", meeting the rest of the Decepticons during the events of Starscream's renegade period.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Shockwave here is a good deal more personable than the original bot thanks to having actual emotions and empathy from having his soul be fused with that of a human being from our world, though that doesn't mean he's unwilling to do horrible things if he thinks they're necessary for the greater good.
  • Shrapnel here is simply another loyal Decepticon soldier rather than the cackling psychopath he was in Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Silas is ripscanned by Shockwave for info on how he managed to fuse flesh and metal together, and judging by his screams, the process is quite painful (and possibly fatal for humans). That being said, Silas was a ruthless terrorist leader who wanted to take control of Cybertronian tech for his ends no matter the cost and fused himself with Breakdown's corpse, so his fate is well-deserved.
  • Airachnid gets her personality erased by Shockwave before she is rebuilt as Ser-Ket, though it's hard to feel bad for her given how she was a remorseless psychopath before her death.
• Benevolent Boss: Shockwave makes sure to provide the Vehicons under his command some much-needed repairs and rest after seeing just how poor of a state they're in, which he justifies as keeping the Decepticon troops in tip-top condition.
• Canon Immigrant:
  • Airazor from Beast Wars shows up as one of the Predacons created by Shockwave.
  • The Decepticon Justice Division from The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye first appear as a few of the Decepticons who received Soundwave's tightbeam signal from Cybertron, and they're not happy to learn that Megatron got deposed as the Decepticon leader.
• Cannon Fodder: Justified In-Universe for the Vehicons; as Shockwave notes, Vehicons have weak weapons and armor because the way they are manufactured has left the sparks powering them stunted and weak, preventing them from carrying heavier, more powerful, and more energy-intensive equipment.
• Composite Character: In addition to being a logic-driven Mad Scientist like his canon counterpart, Shockwave is also a former senator who was subject to empurata and shadowplay for standing against the Senate's corruption like his IDW counterpart.
• Crazy-Prepared: Given that Shockwave is all about logic, you bet that he has quite a few contingency plans.
  • When infiltrating Unicron's innards, Shockwave and his team make sure to destroy the evil god's already-damaged t-cog so that he won't be able to heal it and transform.
  • After Backbite's old personality as Starscream resurfaces in his new body and tries to confront Shockwave, Shockwave simply states that he implanted a lot of contingencies derived from the research he conducted on the Council's shadowplay techniques while reformatting him just in case Starscream tried anything funny with his new body.
• Cursed with Awesome: As much as Brawl misses being able to fly after his reformatting, he does appreciate the Super-Toughness and Super-Strength his new body packs in exchange for being flightless.
• Death of Personality: Airachnid has her personality erased by Shockwave after he captures her due to her psychopathy making her a liability to everyone, with Ser-Ket's psyche replacing Airachnid's.
• Demonic Possession: Unicron attempts to hijack Shockwave's body during the battle in the dark god's core, though Shockwave manages to repulse the Chaos Bringer's malefic influence with ridiculous ease thanks to Unicron already being weakened before by Optimus Prime.
• Doing In the Wizard: Shockwave manages to demystify the Forge of Solus Prime by revealing that it has an incredibly advanced IFF system that bars anyone who doesn't have the IFF's access codes from using it, later creating a device that replicates those codes down to the last byte.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: In his tightbeam message, Soundwave states that Megatron was temporarily disabled due to a 'compromised flaw found in his processor' (i. e. Dark Energon addiction and poisoning), with Shockwave taking command in his place for that very reason. Unfortunately, the DJD, being the mad fanatics they are, completely misinterpret it as Shockwave usurping power for himself, which isn't helped by Soundwave's obtuse phrasing.
• Elite Mooks: Compared to Vehicons, Zakus have tougher armor and stronger weapons due to Shockwave making sure to provide their sparks with enriched Energon that stimulates their growth so that they have enough energy to handle their equipment.
• Enemy Mine: Shockwave sets up a ceasefire between the Autobots and Decepticons after he and the other Decepticons take out Megatron in their coup so that everyone can dedicate their efforts into defeating Unicron and rebuilding Cybertron instead of fighting each other.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Shockwave persuades the rest of the Decepticons to turn on Megatron by revealing to them that the Decepticon warlord has been essentially mainlining the blood of the Cybertonian God of Evil on a constant basis, making him unfit for leadership due to the Dark Energon in his systems making him dangerously irrational and unstable. Most notably, Soundwave, who is known for his Undying Loyalty, comes to agree with the others that Megatron must be put down for the sake of all Cybertronians once he sees Megatron turn on the rest of the Decepticons in a mad rage after Shockwave reveals that cyberforming Earth with the Omega Lock would revive Unicron.
• Gender Flip: Indomina serves as the genderbent version of Predaking from canon, though her gender is not known for a good while thanks to her dragon form revealing little about it.
• Genki Girl: Airazor is a quick-talking Predacon with a love for Earth media, especially Anime & Manga.
• Heroic RRoD: Shockwave ends up getting hit with a blast of anti-spark energy from Unicron to his face, causing his emotions to go haywire and forcing him to put himself into stasis so he can purge himself of Unicron's influence.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Shockwave asks Ser-Ket to bring him some high-grade energon after he learns that Optimus Prime is telling everyone about the hijinks he got up to while he was still a senator.
• Not Quite Dead: As it turns out, parts of Skyquake's original personality are still alive despite the fact that he's currently an undead Terrorcon, though they still aren't enough for him to be considered alive in any sense of the word.
• Not So Above It All: As much as SI!Shockwave shares his canon counterpart's stoicism, he still likes to have some fun every now and then, as shown by the pranks he and Indomina pull while driving around in Jasper at night.
• Rage Breaking Point: Dreadwing and Ultra Magnus' almost starting an argument over who gets to return to Cybertron after Unicron's defeat sends Shockwave into a Tranquil Fury over their stubbornness, with the scientist chewing out both bots for not letting go of their old prejudices and stating that unless they cut it out with their grudges, they're gonna spend time in the brig while everyone else gets to go home.
  Shockwave: We are going to Cybertron. All of us. Allow me to be extremely clear, to all of you. We...are on the cusp of breathing life back into our home. Of reversing the effects of the idiotic war our species has trapped itself in for eons. I will not allow anyone to stop this from happening. Not Megatron. Not Optimus Prime. Not Unicron. And most certainly not you two. We are going to Cybertron. Autobots and Decepticons. Then we are going to activate the Omega Lock, and we are going to return the Allspark to its rightful place, within Primus' core. Then, we can figure out what to do with ourselves afterwards. If you all want to continue killing each other over goals and ideals that nearly all of us have forgotten, that's perfectly fine. I, on the other servo, am very, very tired of dealing with all of you, and would much rather retreat to a secluded laboratory to continue work on some of my other projects. Now, behave. Before I have you both thrown in the fragging brig.
• Reforged into a Minion:
  • Starscream is reformatted into a Predacon as Backbite, both as a way to avoid any possible treachery and give the former air commander a chance to be better than his previous self.
  • Airachnid is turned into Ser-Ket after her original personality is erased by Shockwave.
• Shout-Out:
  • Shockwave forges a new line of Mecha-Mooks dubbed Zakus, all of them modeled after the original (albeit with Cybertronian systems).
  • Brawl the Vehicon sports the Crusader battlemech and Von Luckner heavy tank from Battletech as his robot and tank modes.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Dreadwing doesn't get killed by Megatron since Shockwave persuades him into joining his secret anti-Megatron cabal and recruit the other Decepticons into the group rather than attack Megatron by himself like an idiot.
• Split Personality: Tiamat features three separate personalities a la Blitzwing from Transformers: Animated, with her beast mode featuring three heads that contain each of her personas.
• Token Good Teammate: Although Shockwave is loyal to the Decepticon cause, he doesn't relish in tormenting his foes, asking Bumblebee to surrender in exchange for fair treatment as a POW and apologizing to Optimus Prime on kidnapping Jack, Raf, and Miko.
• Worthy Opponent: Mandible and the Insecticons peg Brawl as fine warrior for his strength and manage to strike up a friendship of sorts from their fight at the Pit.
• Xanatos Gambit: Soundwave broadcasts a general tightbeam recall signal to all Decepticons scattered across the cosmos so he can see how Shockwave handles the influx of bots with differing opinions towards his leadership. If Shockwave manages to solidify his position in the Decepticon hierarchy by dealing with the warmongers in their ranks, then it means that Soundwave will cooperate with him since he proved himself capable of leading the Decepticons; if not, then Soundwave can simply bring Megatron back online for that.
• Wham Line: The 49th chapter features a line that will be very familiar to anyone who's read a Commander fic on Spacebattles.
  Somewhere, on some backwater planet, in a backwater system, in a backwater sector of a backwater galaxy, a Commander builds a metal extractor.