Prey (issue)

« The Transformers: Monstrosity #7 »
"Prey"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	May 22, 2013
Story by	Chris Metzen & Flint Dille
Art by	Livio Ramondelli
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	John Barber
Assistant editor	Mariel Romero
Continuity	2005 IDW continuity
Chronology	Early in the war

Megatron runs into the Terrorcons, who are looking to take him out of the picture.

Synopsis

Megatron finally reaches the Pillar of Rust, but there are no starships or travelers to be found, causing him to accuse Pentius of leading him on a fool's errand. The Quintesson tells him to be patient, and indeed, moments later a ship touches down in the vicinity—only to turn out to belong to the treacherous Terrorcons. They kindly offer their former leader a head start before they hunt him down and destroy him, but despite not having enough energon to even transform, Megatron takes them all on and manages to brutally dispatch everyone but Hun-Gar. He's thrown around like a ragdoll by the Terrorcon and repeatedly taunted by Pentius for it until he realizes there's a way he can have the Quintesson aid him in battle... by ripping out his spark and using it as fuel! As Pentius expires, he praises his "student" for finally becoming a true monster, thus overcoming him, and Megatron in turn promises the Quintesson's legacy shall live on within him. Now refueled, he's able to transform into his triple-barreled tank mode and blast a hole through Hun-Gar's torso, ending the battle. In exchange for being spared, the defeated Terrorcons pledge their loyalty to Megatron, who leads them back to their ship and blasts off to return to Cybertron... and to Scorponok.

Meanwhile on Cybertron, Jetfire reports the discovery of the energon lake and dragon monster underneath the Toraxxis crater to Optimus Prime. Seeing the lake as a resource that could save their planet, Prime orders him and his science team to find a way to contain or destroy the sleeping beast so that the Autobots can gather and refine the energon, but until then the crater is off-limits.

Kup searches for Grimlock in the irradiated wastelands near Toraxxis, eventually attracting his attention by mentioning Optimus Prime, a name which prompts the Dynobot leader to appear and go on a tangent about past Primes who have only served to betray him and his team or hunt them like animals. However, following the reappearance of the other missing Dynobots, who voice their belief that maybe this Optimus guy might actually be helpful, Grimlock calms down and agrees to meet with Prime.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"At last... the student... becomes the master. You are... truly... monstrous."
"Farewell, Pentius. Know that your legacy of hate... shall live on in me."

—Pentius and Megatron's last words to each other

"Still, if that monster did wake up—what do you guys think our odds of survival would be?"
"There are many unknown variables, Ratchet, but I'd estimate somewhere around one in 957,552."

—Ratchet and Perceptor discuss Trypticon

Notes

• This is the first time in fiction Quintessons are shown to have sparks.

Errors

• When the Terrorcons first arrive on Junkion, Rippersnapper and Blot have their lines switched.

Reprints

Other than collections of the full series.

• N/A