The Razor's Edge

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There's fighting on the left And marching on the right Don't look up in the sky You're gonna die of fright!
"The Razor's Edge"
Publisher	Transformers Collectors' Club
First published	July 6, 2007
Writers	Benson Yee from a story by Pete Sinclair and Benson Yee
Pencils	Jake Isenberg
Inks	Jake Isenberg
Colors	Thomas Deer
Continuity	Beast Wars continuity
Page count	45pp + 1 page prologue

Climb this high she looks beautiful
Like a child I feel tears.
And I want to scream.
You know what I mean cause this is hurting no one.
An erazor of love.

Synopsis

Prologue

Airazor and Optimus Primal fly to the scene of Megatron's latest scheme: an orbital weapons satellite that, when launched, will be able to fire on any location on the planet. Airazor, having only come online a few weeks prior, has doubts about herself, but leaves them aside, focusing on the mission. Cheetor and Rhinox have already arrived, trading fire with the ground based Predacons. Scorponok attempts to sneak up on the Maximals, but Airazor manages to take him out of the fight. Primal commends her work, but is blasted out of the sky by Terrorsaur and Waspinator, the former wanting revenge for his humiliating defeat at Airazor's hands. Airazor performs a swift divebomb, turning parallel to the ground just fast enough, causing Waspinator to crash. Terrorsaur, however, also manages to turn, so Airazor leads him into some nearby rocks, turning 90 degrees at the last second, and causing the reptilian Predacon to crash.

Airazor heads over to Megatron, the Predacon leader standing at the control panel to launch the satellite. Airazor begins to fire on him, but Megatron absorbs most of the blasts. When Airazor is distracted by Cheetor and Rhinox setting off landmines set up by Tarantulas, Megatron blasts her out of the sky. Falling to the ground, and with Dinobot and Tigatron still racing from the Axalon, Airazor feels her confidence slip away. Megatron grabs her with his dinosaur jaws; as she begins to slip into stasis lock, Airazor remembers something Dinobot told her: for a warrior to find true strength, they must first know themselves. Trouble is, all Airazor knows for sure is her name...

Chapter One

Wing Saber wakes up in a small dark room. A Maximal spy, she had been sent to observe a Predacon operation, and nearly completed her task before being found and attacked. With blaster marks all over her, her optics on the fritz, and her weaponry removed, she finds herself at the mercy of a Predacon named Steelgrave. Steelgrave is impressed by her stealth, and attempts to question the Maximal. When the initial questioning reveals nothing, Steelgrave unleashes his torture weapons. Wing Saber, thinking fast, distracts her torturer by asking him if he knows that one can alter their transformation subroutine. Before the annoyed Predacon can stop her, she rotates her wings to vehicle mode position, cutting her energon bonds, and flips herself backwards. Steelgrave is knocked back by the chair, allowing Wing Saber time to activate an old welding drone, which rushes at the Predacon. Wing Saber rips the wires out of a door's control panel and runs as quickly as she can.

Stopping at a corner, she listens as two Predacons, Bolar and Sawtooth, talk about how annoying they think Steelgrave is. With the Predacon torturer not far behind, she takes her chances and jumps in front of the other two Predacons. Pretending to be Steelgrave's subordinate, she announces to him that Bolar and Sawtooth were mocking him. Momentarily distracted, and with tensions raised, the three Predacons begin to fight one another. Wing Saber takes her chance, grabbing Bolar's dropped gun, and blasts a hole through a wall. Unfortunately, the room on other side of the wall is filled with Predacons. Wing Saber quickly rips out the spare power pack on the weapon, tosses it, and shoots it. The ensuing explosion create enough chaos for Wing Saber to turn into vehicle mode and fly out of the base through a window. She deactivates the Chromia 10's cloaking device and activates the ship's preprogrammed flight path to Cybertron, whisking the Maximal to safety.

Chapter Two

On the planet Roliak, Crossblades, a Maximal, faces up against a group of twenty-three rogue Predacons. Using her arsenal of replicated Great War-era weapons, she manages to cut the group down to four. One of the Predacons runs away while the other three are cut down by Crossblades' partner, Stiletto. After the battle, Crossblades reflects on the current affairs; with the Maximal Elders and Tripredacus Council preparing to ratify a peace treaty known as the Pax Cybertronia, all that remains are various rebel groups of Predacons, like the ones in the J'kozian sector that the two Maximals are currently in.

Crossblades receives a transmission from the Maximal starship Defiant, telling her that she and Stiletto are to rendezvous with the Chromia 10 and its captain. Collecting her weaponry that litters the battlefield from the fighting of the past few days, Crossblades reflects that while Stiletto is only four stellar cycles old, distant and aloof as a result of her training, she herself is far older, having been brought online during the last days of the Great War as part of the first run of Maximals. This has caused her to have a great respect for her predecessors, and has influenced her collection of weaponry. Before long, the Chromia 10 arrives, and the two depart, ready to meet their new commander.

Chapter Three

The Tripredacus Council gathers to discuss the rogue Predacon sect's actions in the J'Kozian sector of space. Based off plans made in the final stages of the last Great War before the Predacons' defeat, the rogue Predacons have stopped on the planet Nibari. X-ray scans show that the Nibarians have advanced to the point of creating primitive robots. With the Pax Cybertronia still in the process of being written, and the Decepticons having all but abandoned them to their fate, the Tripredacus Council agree that this operation must be stopped, lest the Maximals retaliate. Cicadacon has leaked the images onto the Cybertron undernet, and the three, cautiously optimistic, make plans to ensure that the resources end up under their control...

Chapter Four

Wing Saber, still reeling from her injuries twenty Mega-Cycles prior, finds her new charges somewhat odd, unnerved by Stiletto's quiet nature and Crossblades' strange accent. Still, deciding that their performance should outweigh any presumptions on her part, Wing Saber greets the two, and has them prepare for an incoming transmission from Maximal Command. An unknown voice, standard to Maximal operations, comes through, and sends images that Maximal Command have suppressed from the general public. The images show the planet Nibari, and the subjugation of the native species by the Predacons to build factories and plants. Maximal Command believes that the factories are being used by the Predacons to build non-sparked drones. Wing Saber spots Steelgrave among the Predacons, and feels a wave of revulsion at the site of her tormentor. The voice explains that Steelgrave seems to be in command of the Predacon forces. The Chromia 10 is given a mission to gather intelligence at Nibari and to report back to command for further instructions. The signal terminating, Wing Saber informs her crew of her doubts at Steelgrave's abilities, and her suspicions that something more sinister is happening here...

Chapter Five

On the Nibari continent Sileth, Ritash reflects on his race's cruel fate. With most of the Nibari military and resistance destroyed, all that remained were small pockets of resistance. Indeed, until a short time ago, Ritash was a mere soldier, and now is in charge of a group of twenty-three, many of whom are civilians. Ritash is roused from his thoughts when he hears galloping, but is pleased when the sound is identified as Avish, a scout who was sent out several weeks prior. Avish reports that the Predacons had set up their headquarters in the city of Ro'kar, converting the robotics and computer plants into their own, and taking over the businesses and repurposing buildings for entertainment. Ritash is furious, the robotics plant having originally being designed to create explorer robots, but Avish's report does give him an idea...

At the Predacons' headquarters, an inebriated Steelgrave relishes barely coherent tales of his greatness. The robot secretly in charge, known as "The Leader", watches them on the security system, exasperated with the fools it must work with. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the city, Ritash and his comrades stealthily observe the Predacons' defenses. An older Nibarian, Arex, has informed them that the robotics factory was built on top of a church that had secret tunnels below it. Two of those tunnels remain, and Ritash plans to use them to ambush the drunken Predacons. Ritash, observing the buildings, regrets that he couldn't have saved more, including his family, but resolves to end the Predacon's invasion.

Back inside the bar, Steelgrave admires the female bartenders and servers, and demands his special. When another Predacon falls unconscious on him, he kicks him back, and turns back around to find an unknown concoction in front of him. His drunkenness overriding his better judgement, Steelgrave downs the drink. Soon, hen begins to notice many of the other Predacons have entered stasis lock, and when his computer attempts to initiate Stasis Lock for himself, he overrides it. Facing the barmaids, he watches their holographic disguises disengage and recognizes Wing Saber, whose fists knock the weakened Steelgrave unconscious. Knowing that the alert guards at the factory won't be as easily fooled by Crossblades' holograms, Wing Saber cautions Stiletto against killing them, not wanting to alert the remaining Predacons. When her two subordinates ask her what her plan is, she doesn't answer, instead observing a flock of birds above and the dirty rooftops, which give her an idea...

Chapter Six

Deadeye, one of the Predacon guards at the factory, has no qualms with his current duty, preferring it over the front lines. Originally having reservations about Steelgrave and "The Leader's" plans, but eventually turns his position around, ready to guard any acquisitions the Predacons would make. Having been to many planets on his career, Deadeye regards Nibari as entirely unremarkable, covered with disgusting organic life...one of which decides to defecate on him at that moment. He radios Cutter, his partner, to take over his position for a bit. With the organic waste dripping down to his shoulders and legs, Deadeye resist the urge to fire off randomly, and radios Cutter to hurry up. Deadeye runs inside as Cutter takes his place, eager to get rid of the sludge. High up in the sky, Wing Saber is pleased, her plan to distract the guards by gathering the defecation of the local birds into Crossblades' liquid nitrogen gun and firing it having worked. Landing right in front of "Cutter," another guard radios in, questioning what the noise was. "Cutter" dismisses it, claiming to have tripped, and the hologram around "Cutter" disengages to reveal Stiletto underneath, the real Cutter having been taken out by her when he was coming to replace Deadeye.

Stiletto hacks into a nearby maintenance panel and, in fifteen cycles, confirms Maximal Command's suspicions. Unsure of what to do, Wing Saber peers down at the drones; nearing completion, she believes there won't be enough time to call for reinforcements before they're finished. Wing Saber requests to have access to the panel, but just as she connects, a deep rumble shakes every other Cybertronian in the building to the ground. Ritash and his fellow soldiers initiate their attack, but the battle goes poorly for them; half of them are already dead by the time Wing Saber finishes with the panel. Ritash and the others set up bombs around the factory, taking out much of the factory's machinery. Gathering up some weapons, the Nibarians retreat, and Wing Saber and the other Maximals jump into the fight, distracting the Predacons so the Nibarians can escape. Crossblades and Stiletto use their blades to cut down the Predacons, while Wing Saber strafes them in vehicle mode. More Predacons rush in from the outside and Wing Saber uses her missile launcher to take out most of them, with Stiletto cutting down the rest. The largest Predacon, Thrasher, attempts to use his bigger size and six arms to take down Crossblades, but her speed and weapons send him into stasis lock.

By this point, most of the Nibarians have escaped. But as Ritash covers the last of them, a large blast takes out the ceiling, knocking the Nibarian unconscious. The Maximals stand in shock, the source of the blast having come from "The Leader", revealed to be original leader of the Decepticons: Megatron! Declaring himself the true mastermind behind this operation, Megatron prepares to blast the already fleeing Maximals, but a bomb from inside the underground tunnels goes off, distracting the Decepticon long enough for the Maximals to grab Ritash. Wing Saber blasts part of the ceiling for good measure, letting the debris fall on Megatron. Retreating, the only thing Wing Saber can think to do now was to regroup and find safety...

Chapter Seven

The next morning, Ritash awakens in the wilderness. When he sees the Maximals, he instinctively backs away, believing them to be Predacons. Wing Saber calms the Nibarian and assures him that most of his people escaped, and that she and the others are here to help. Ritash, exhausted, takes a moment to grieve; both Avish and Arex were killed in the fight. Feeling he has failed as a leader, Ritash is reassured by Crossblades and wing Saber promises to stop the Predacons. The Maximals take Ritash back to his people at their regrouping point, and then return themselves to the Chromia 10 for repairs and to plan for their next attack. Knowing that they couldn't take Megatron head on, Wing Saber decides to appeal to his one weakness: arrogance.

Chapter Eight

Four days later, Megatron watches as the factory, now fully repaired, produces hundreds of drones. Steelgrave, reduced in rank because of his incompetence, reports that the operation is ready for phase two: the construction of warships. Megatron authorizes the advancement, but the Chromia 10 blasts a hole through the building Megatron is in. The three Maximals challenge Megatron to a trial by combat, the loser of which has to leave the planet for good, as in accordance with ancient Cybertronian law. Megatron challenges this, the law stating that the combat is one on one only, but the Maximals note that due to their smaller and weaker bodies, the couldn't possibly fight Megatron on their own, and suggest him to be a coward. Taking the bait, Megatron agrees to meet the three in a crater seventy kilometers east. The Maximal ship cloaks and takes off, leaving the angry Megatron to thrash one of his troops and skulk off.

Chapter Nine

The next day, Ritash and the Nibarians watch from afar as the combatants enter the crater. The combatants greet each other, and immediately begin to fight. Concentrating his efforts on Crossblades, the largest of the Maximals, Megatron does not even notice the superfast Stiletto, who grabs a gun thrown at her by Crossblades. Megatron avoids Crossblades' shots, but his gyroscopic circuits are taken out by Stiletto. Narrowly avoiding extensive damage from Wing Saber's plasma missile, Megatron grabs his energy sword and lunges at the Maximals. His larger size proves disadvantageous, and Crossblades uses her own blades to slash at the Decepticon. Unleashing his morning star, he shatters Crossblades' sword but is briefly blinded. The Maximals go all in, and when they briefly disengage, Crossblades realizes that the real Megatron would have never taken this much damage.

Before Crossblades can elaborate, Megatron knocks her and Stiletto into stasis and rips off one of Wing Saber's legs. As Megatron walks over, Wing Saber maxes out her payload and strikes Megatron in the shoulder. Strangling her, Megatron tells her she should be proud, having lasted longer than even some Primes. But Wing Saber simply smiles, pointing out the area she blasted at, revealing a different shoulder underneath! Blasting away more of the exo-suit, Wing Saber proclaims that this is not the genuine Megatron. As "Megatron" threatens the Maximal, the ground rumbles, and the drones arrive at the edge of the crater. "Megatron" believes the drones have arrived to witness him, but Ritash and the others gather alongside the drones, which have been reprogrammed to serve the Nibarians. The drones overwhelm the Predacons and "Megatron", destroying the latter's exo-suit enough to reveal the true identity within: the ancient Decepticon Flamewar!

Wing Saber explains to the fallen Decepticon that when she had originally infiltrated the factory, she had set up a sub-routine that would allow for the Nibarians to take the control of the drones. Flamewar demands to know what they plan to do to her, and Wing Saber obliges, delightfully telling her that she will be taken back to Cybertron for trial. Crossblades and Stiletto return online, and Wing Saber informs them that she plans to remain partners with the two. Ritash thanks to the Maximals for their help and tell them they plan to use the drones to help rebuild their broken world.

Epilogue

Back on prehistoric Earth, determination builds up in Airazor, and she fires off three arrows, two of them striking Megatron, and another bouncing off the rock and hitting a button on the control panel, starting a shut down sequence. In pain, Megatron lets go of Airazor to remove the arrow from his knee, and Airazor rushes to the control panel. Quickly typing in control commands, she is soon fired upon by the Predacons, but Dinobot and Tigatron arrive just in time to distract them while Airazor finishes. She then flies off and yells at her comrades to get down as the weapons satellite explodes, unleashing a shockwave that knocks the remaining Predacons unconscious. Airazor, Dinobot, and Tigatron gather up their fallen comrades. Airazor does not know what compelled her, but for now, she's content that she's managed to stop another of Megatron's schemes.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• Mentioned characters include: Primus, a legendary Autobot, and the Maximal Elders.

Continuity notes

• The epilogue to the story makes no sense without the prologue which was published separately in Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club #14. Both take place during the Beast Wars cartoon, two weeks after "The Spark". Several events from the episode are mentioned, including Cheetor giving up one of his parts for Airazor, and Terrorsaur being defeated by her.
• The exact continuity of "The Razor's Edge" in relation to other stories is...confusing, to say the least. With the appearance of Flamewar, who previously appeared in "Descent into Evil", and with Airazor/Wing Saber having the same pre-Earth design she had in "Dawn of Future's Past", this story was initially presumed to be a sequel to and/or a prequel to those comics. Pete Sinclair, however, would state that "Descent into Evil" wasn't in the same universe as "Dawn of Future's Past" (despite no reason for it not to be), leading many to simply consider this story a "Dawn of Future's Past" prequel, set before "Theft of the Golden Disk". This perspective remained in effect for several years until, in early 2018, Jesse Wittenrich confirmed that "The Razor's Edge" was, in fact, written to be not just a "Descent into Evil" sequel, but also a potential bridging story between that and "Dawn of Future's Past" all along.^[1][2] He further explained that the original reason for separating "Descent into Evil" from "Dawn of Future's Past" was a desire by the latter story's authors to make it be the definitive Beast Wars prequel, a fresh start not bogged down by any related stories that could have potentially interfered with the Beast Wars backstory conceived by the cartoon's original creators.^[3] With that split, the official stance simply became to not talk about this story at all.^[4] In any case, "The Razor's Edge" is set near the very end of the Great War, with the Pax Cybertronia still being written.
• Assuming that this is in continuity with "Descent into Evil", Flamewar was last seen being recovered by Predacons in "Intimidation Game", offering her a job under Megatron. No mention is made of the Predacon Megatron in the flashback portions, and with Flamewar's desire for a Decepticon to be in charge, it seems unlikely she is working for him.

Transformers references

• Wing Saber mentally refers to Steelgrave as a "spawn of a scraplet," a metal-eating parasite first seen in the Marvel The Transformers comics. Crossblades calls Thrasher a scraplet later in the story.
• Crossblades' weapon collection includes replicas of:
  • Starscream's null-ray.
  • Motormaster's cyclone gun.
  • Cliffjumper's glass gas gun.
  • Hound's hologram gun.
  • Skids' liquid nitrogen rifle (cannon, here).
  • Soundwave's shoulder gun.
  • Possibly Air Raid's torque rifle (although it's described as red, and not black).
  • A plasma cannon with a large, tubular base.
  • The alt-mode of Quake's Targetmaster partner Tiptop.
• This story canonizes the Matrix and Pit facilities, mentioned by Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward in posts on alt.toys.transformers and the Japanese reference book Beast Wars Universe. The existence of both facilities would be reiterated shortly after this story's publication in IDW's Beast Wars Sourcebook, which was also (co-)written by Ben Yee. Additionally, the idea of Protoforms being a recent development also comes from Beast Wars Universe.
• The mass-produced drones made in the factory are based on the design of Beast Machines Scavenger.
• "Megatron" is drawn to the specifications of his Masterpiece toy.
• "Megatron" notes that the ships being built will rival the Nemesis, the original Decepticon flagship.
• Cybertronian trial by combat was originally seen in The Transformers cartoon episode "Heavy Metal War", where Megatron challenged Optimus Prime.
• "Megatron" wields the "lightsaber" used by the real Megatron in The Transformers: The Movie and the mace he used in "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2".
• Flamewar's body is a virtual retool of Alternators Windcharger with her own head.

Real world references

• Featuring three female spies adept at disguise and combat, this story is an obvious riff on the television series Charlie's Angels.
• Many of the Predacons in-story are based on characters from the Tomy Starriors toyline. In particular, there is:
  • Steelgrave, who has his Starriors counterpart's chest weapon.
  • Bolar, who has his Starriors counterpart's bola.
  • Sawtooth (Who is not named in-story).
  • Deadeye [1].
  • Cutter shares his silver and blue coloration with the similarly named Cut-Up [2]

Errors

• There are a lot of errors with comma placement throughout the story.
• Near the bottom of Page 2, "shall" is misspelled as "shell".
• The illustration of Steelgrave depicts him as a humanoid purple robot compared to the text's depiction of him as being based on the Starriors Steelgrave toy's design and colors.
• On Page 8, in paragraph 1, "Predacons" is misspelled as "Predcons".
• On Page 11, Cicadacon reports that several planets have been attacked by Predacon insurgents "in the last thirty Stellar Cycles." This means the attacks have been going on for thirty years and the Council is only just now hearing about it. Cicadacon also states that one of the targeted planets, Nibari, has undergone a rapid technological revolution "in the last fifty Stellar Cycles or so," meaning half a century has gone by without the Council noticing this. Either the "Stellar Cycles" ought to have been "Solar Cycles" (days instead of years), or the Council is really slow on the uptake.
• Ritash is described as having purple colored fur, but is colored as green in the illustration he features in.
• On Page 19, one of the sentences in the second paragraph ("From what Ritash‟s troops had gathered, even the mechanical Predacons could become inebriated") begins with a ">" symbol.
• On Page 24, "build into her arm" should be "built into her arm."
• Also on Page 24, twice is the word "subroutine" parsed as two words: "sub routine".
• On Page 25, in paragraph 1, "Crossblade's" should be "Crossblades'".
• At the bottom of Page 26, "They knew their jobs and would do it without question," should be "They knew their jobs and would do them without question."
• On Page 33, in paragraph 1, the sentence "Megatron did not - does not only have military cunning or strength on his side, he also has charisma" should read "not only does he have military cunning or strength on his side."
• On Page 36, "shifting" should be "shifted".
• On Page 37, "Wing Saber aimed his arm mounted lasers and fired." Wing Saber is female, so "his" should be "her".
• When first released, one of the paragraphs on Page 41 was repeated. This was subsequently corrected at some point.
• On Page 42, "Nibarian" is misspelled as "Nibrian".

Other trivia

• "The Razor's Edge", along with "The Dark Heart of Sandokan", was not re-released when the Collectors' Club launched a new free-to-all prose fiction section on their website in 2015. Though, its original link (found at the bottom of this article) was always open for anyone to read (and still remains so to this day), so anyone who wanted to read it still could/can.

References

External links

• "The Razor's Edge" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club