Transformers Future Episode #88
Written by Susan K. Williams
"Maybe this Victor Drath is tough, but he's still only human."
Rodimus Prime and Ultra Magnus stop the theft of a volatile substance called newtronium by some humans. The humans work for a cunning man named Victor Drath, who is determined to stop the Autobots from interfering with his operations. He seeks out a mysterious masked figure called "Snake," asking for his help in finding a way to eliminate the Autobots. Drath hires a crew and buys from Snake the means to reconstruct a synthoid chamber at Drath's estate. Based on technology Snake's organization once used, the chamber is designed to extract the minds of hosts and place them in synthetic human bodies.
Drath phones in an anonymous tip to the Autobots; four of them arrive at his estate and are captured with large mechanical claws. Snake activates the device, removing the life essences of Rodimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Springer, and Arcee, turning them into gelatinous blobs. Drath orders the blobs destroyed, but as they are about to be crushed in a trash compactor, they assume human form and escape. After the Autobots-as-humans realize what has happened, Rodimus and Springer search for Drath's house while Magnus and Arcee try to contact the other Autobots.
Meanwhile, Drath plans to have the Autobots' bodies destroyed, but Snake has a more creative use for them. After demonstrating that Drath's men can board the Autobots and control them manually, Drath's cronies take the Autobots out for a test run.
Ultra Magnus and Arcee are unsuccessful in contacting the Autobots--the chief of police refuses to even talk to them. They discover one of Drath's warehouses filled with explosives, but just then Drath's men appear, operating Magnus and Arcee's bodies. Magnus orders Arcee to make her way to Metroplex, while Magnus grabs one of the explosives and threatens to use it on Drath's men. Magnus is then shot in the back by one of Drath's cronies.
Rodimus is hunted by Drath's men, but finds sanctuary in the home of Michelle, an acquaintance of Drath's who agrees to help Rodimus get to Drath's house. It turns out to be a trap, and Drath reveals that he plans to use the Autobots' bodies to enter Metroplex, then blow it up with the explosives. Meanwhile, Arcee has made it to Autobot City, but no one believes that she's telling the truth. (They do offer her the chance to visit with a doctor, though.) Springer, meanwhile, discovers Drath's men robbing a jewelry store, using Rodimus and Springer's bodies. He offers to help Drath's men operate the Autobot bodies, but after they return to the warehouse, Springer and Ultra Magnus escape in Springer's body.
With the other Autobots' bodies loaded with explosives, Springer attacks Autobot City to make it transform to battle station mode. Metroplex quickly takes out the Autobots. With Drath in prison, the Autobots are returned to their bodies by Perceptor. Snake, meanwhile, has eluded capture. He walks the streets of the city, noting that they don't make terrorists like they used to...
First Appearances: The first and last appearance of "Snake," better known to G.I. Joe fans as COBRA Commander.
Transfacts:
This episode seems to suggest that COBRA no longer exists by 2006, since Drath refers to Snake's old organization in the past tense.
This episode answers a question posed by Bumblebee, way back in "Autobot Spike." In that episode, Spike Witwicky's mind is transferred to a Frankenstein-type Autobot. After the experience, Bumblebee wonders off-handedly, "I wonder what it would be like for a robot mind to be transferred to... a human?"
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