The Quest!

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"The Quest!"
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First published	1st August 1989
Cover date	1990
Credits	uncredited
Continuity	Marvel Comics continuity

One way to get easy marks in history... or not!

Synopsis

Dicet Alpha-zero, an inhabitant of Theturis, has an assignment to write a dissertation "on a major inter-planetary war, from within the last six gluxins" during what is officially called his "rest period". After his last poor submission his teacher told him he needed "to get more actively involved in this subject." Dicet opts to do just that. Remembering "a small, but bitterly fought war" of the Transformers, he decides to make this his topic. But rather than spend hours with the history tapes he decides to instead make use of the Transtime Pod to observe nine key moments in the conflict. The device is a prototype entrusted to his father that has not yet had its final checks so Dicet puts it through them now.

First, Dicet arrives aboard the Ark as it flies out of control because the Decepticons have attacked the Autobots in the aftermath of blasting a path through an asteroid field. He observes Optimus Prime showing key leadership skills and Megatron demonstrating his power and ruthlessness as the battle continues. Dicet watches as the last surviving Autobots are pinned down in the control room and Prime declares his intent to prevent Megatron by winning by plotting a collision course with Earth. He sets the controls...

Next, Dicet arrives on Earth aboard the Ark in the year 1984. He sees Huffer and Ironhide arguing about Sparkplug Witwicky being forced to give the fuel conversion formula to the Decepticons. Sparkplug and his son Buster try to sneak away but are blocked by Jazz's flame-thrower. Sparkplug suffers a heart attack and is rushed to hospital by Ratchet. Huffer then tells Optimus Prime about a group of Autobots called the Dinobots, but Dicet isn't too interested. Then the Decepticons attack and defeat the Autobots. However, Sparkplug had tricked the Decepticons and poisoned the fuel. The Autobots rise in victory but are suddenly blasted down by the newly arrived Shockwave!

Dicet's third arrival is at the edge of a swamp a few months later. He recalls how Shockwave took control of the Decepticons and stole the head of Optimus Prime to use the Creation Matrix to create new Decepticons. However, Ratchet revived the Dinobots, defeated Megatron and freed the Autobots. Shockwave plans to destroy the Autobots with a fake Prime head controlling his body. But Prime had transferred the Creation Matrix to Buster Witwicky who used it to take control of Jetfire and return the original head. Prime defeats Shockwave.

The fourth moment is very brief. Dicet witnesses Galvatron arriving in the present day, on the start of a path of mayhem. Dicet hangs around long enough to see Galvatron destroy Centurion before moving on.

Dicet has now arrived to see the climax of Optimus Prime and Megatron's personal fight. After reaching deadlock in the real world, they had agreed to fight inside a computer game. Prime won but, as he had caused the deaths of inhabitants of the computer world in the process, he argues that he had compromised his principles and thus has lost. Ethan Zachary reluctantly follows Prime's order and destroys him. However, Dicet knows that Zachary has preserved Prime's personality on a computer floppy disc.

Dicet next travels to Mount Verona where Galvatron is trying to tap the volcano's energy and transform himself into a god. With the future Autobots Rodimus Prime, Kup, and Blurr, along with their ally Wreck-Gar and the bounty-hunter Death's Head having all been returned to the future and Ultra Magnus seemingly thrown into the lava, only Goldbug stands between Galvatron and victory. Dicet peers inside the volcano to see Ultra Magnus slowly climbing up. But the heat makes Dicet dizzy and he falls forward and lands on Ultra Magnus's head. Magnus peers upwards in surprise. Dicet panics and jumps out. He wonders if he's made Magnus let go in surprise and altered history as Magnus is supposed to sacrifice himself to destroy Galvatron's machines.

The seventh landing is on Nebulos. Dicet briefly recounts the creation of the Headmasters and Targetmasters, but has come to witness the creation of the Powermasters. Several Autobots have come to Nebulos to restore Optimus Prime to life. They succeed and Prime and his Nebulan companion HiQ go into action, taking down Dreadwind and Darkwing.

For his penultimate visit, Dicet arrives back on Earth to see the newly returned Optimus Prime confront Grimlock about the Autobot leadership. The Dinobots aren't happy but are soon sweet talked by Prime. Dicet also notes that things on Earth don't seem to have changed.

Finally, Dicet arrives in the middle of the Time Wars. He sees huge carnage and many casualties. Rodimus Prime is fighting Megatron whilst Optimus Prime takes on an insane Galvatron. Then the time rift appears and consumes Galvatron. The rift continues, although with a slight abatement as Prime throws in Scourge. But the surprise saviour of the day is Shockwave, who flies the remains of Cyclonus into the rift, nullifying it.

Dicet has arrived back in his own time but things have not gone to plan. His father is furious when he discovers what Dicet did, whilst the government read Dicet's dissertation and deemed the Transtime Pod project to be too dangerous. This enraged Dicet's father further and he destroys the dissertation. As Dicet wonders what he will say at school, he wonders if his father's never before seen rage is evidence that perhaps Dicet has slightly altered history, after all...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• The date of Dicet's report is given as "123/9/005".
• Dicet's first jump is to the Ark during the "1st Cycle 931 (Cybertronian dating)". This system of dating was previously seen in Optimus Prime and Megatron's profiles in "In the Beginning..." and would later be employed by James Roberts in his stories for the first IDW Generation 1 continuity, beginning with "Chaos Theory Part 1".
• Megatron swats the Autobots aside like Funari flies.
• Dicet calls Death's Head a bounty hunter. With the freelance peacekeeping agent having often travelled in time it's lucky that Dicet's dissertation was destroyed.
• Dicet's eighth visit recounts events not shown in the comic themselves. They take place at some point between "The Cosmic Carnival" and "Club Con!"
• Units of time used on Theturis include the ann (Dicet's tri-annual rest period was four anns long) and the gluxin (the Autobot-Decepticon war happened less than six gluxins before the story's date of 123/9/005, but was considered as history).

Real-world references

• Dicet compares Galvatron standing before the time rift to "King Canute of old Earth legends", who was said to have sat on the beach in defiance of the incoming tide.

Errors

• Many of these could be argued to be errors on Dicet's part rather than the real world author's. For example: the final confrontation between Prime and Megatron is described as taking place in "Ethan Zachary's software business". It actually took place at Energy Futures Industries, although Zachary subsequently founded a software business.
• Two errors stand out with the Time Wars recap: Rodimus did not fight Megatron while Optimus fought Galvatron, and Scourge threw himself into the rift rather than Optimus throwing Scourge's remains in. But this may not be an error, maybe Dicet's distraction of Magnus has altered time slightly!

Courtesy of my...

• During the battle on the Ark, Megatron shreds an Autobot with his fusion cannon; Dicet compares its blasts to a Hydrus bomb going off in a cramped life pod.
• Jazz blocks Buster and Sparkplug's path with his flame-thrower.