Schism

 

Writer: Simon Furman 

Publication date: June 1999

 

We're introduced to Cataclysm's little brother, known only as "the Cub." He has been assigned to hunt down one of the leaders of the rebellion against Shokaract, an ancient survivor of the original Great War whose name has been lost to history and is known only as "the Veteran" (it's actually the Dinobot Swoop but that name is never said in the story. I guess he forgot, what with having a brain the size of a walnut and all). 

The Cub gets his ass thrashed but Swoop "the Veteran" is tired of killing and refuses to strike the fatal blow. This turns out not to have been so merciful, as the Cub must now report his failure to Cataclysm and his brother publicly executes him for his trouble. 

Now on the brink of death, broken and abandoned by his fellow agents of Shokaract, the Cub is approached by the Veteran and Sandstorm, the leader of the Predacon rebels on Cybertron and a repaint of Scorponok. Sandstorm wants to merge the Cub's spark with the Veteran's, something that has never been done before in all of Transformers history. His theory is that this will give the Veteran access to all of the Cub's memories and knowledge, but the Cub's personality will be subsumed.

The process begins, but the Cub fights back mentally, not wanting to be "possessed," as he calls it, but I'm not sure how or why that word would be applicable here. "Do you know me? Do you?" the Cub asks the Veteran psychically as their wills battle on the astral plane. "I'm the wild child, the enfant terrible, the tiger by the tail. Think you can handle me, old man? Think you can call the shots? Turn your back on me for an instant, this big bad wolf will eat you alive." 

Ah, n-now eventually you do plan to have Beast Wars in your, in your Beast Wars tie-in, right?

The Veteran protests that this is the only way the Cub can save part of himself, and eventually both parties consent to the merging of their consciousnesses. There is a bright burst of energy that absorbs the bodies of both Swoop and the Cub and when it passes they have been reborn as Windrazor, a white repaint of  Silverbolt (the Fuzor one). Pteranodon + jungle cat thing = wolf/eagle fusion. Uh, sure.

Meanwhile, Cataclysm is opening a transwarp portal so he can follow Antagony into the past and find out why she hasn't returned yet, when all of a sudden Windrazor bursts into the room! I guess he's here now. They fight and Windrazor knocks them both into the portal. Cataclysm shoots at his resurrected brother but misses and ruptures the time portal, which splits him into his constituent atoms and he is now dead.

Windrazor emerges on the other side of the portal and finds himself on prehistoric Earth, in the middle of the Beast Wars! So maybe something cool will finally happen in the next chapter!

Least interesting Omega Point installment so far, I'm afraid to say. I don't care about "the Cub" at all unless he has a Lone Wolf with him, and while the G1 cartoon Dinobots are classic Transformers characters, this Swoop seems to be the Simon Furman Marvel comics version that wasn't built on Earth and isn't stupid, and then he's essentially killed and turned into a different character anyway, so there's nothing here for me to care about.

 

Wait what schism?