Comics Bon-Bon Manga Summary for June, 1999 - Beast Wars Neo As usual, the manga seems to be in a parallel universe from the anime, much like the US comic wasn't in the same world as the cartoon. Part two of the sand planet mission, a little something I like to call... "The Crisis of Infinite Clones!" Thanks to Drew Dederer for some translation help on the Destron scenes. Page 1: Cover page. I'm including this because it is in fact numbered, and last time I kept losing track of page numbers because I was calling the first page of story page 1. }-> Page 2: Longrack slides further into the sinkhole, screaming for help. But the sand is whipping around too much for Break to do anything. Page 3: Big Convoy leaps into the pit after Longrack, and the two sink into the sands. Break is dismayed that both seem to be lost now. But then, Big Convoy propels the two of them out of the hole using the kick from his big cannon. Page 4: The sinkhole is still growing! Big Convoy runs off towards a city in the distance, leaving the others to carry the Angolmois Capsule. Break isn't too happy about the whole situation. But is he ever? Page 5: The sinkhole catches up with Break, and he falls in, screaming for help. Big Convoy does a slightly balletic back-kick and launches one of his leg missiles at Break, catching the penguin and carrying him to safety. Break is all beaten up by the ride, and now is even more torqued off, if such a thing is possible. Break needs to take some anger management classes. Page 6: Inside the city, all is ruins and the inhabitants are dead, reduced to skeletons. But their clothing hasn't deteriorated yet, which is suspicious. Even worse, the sands outside the city seem to be alive, twisting and undulating where the sinkhole was stopped at the stone foundations of the city. Aboard the Gung Ho, the little comic relief robot is busy making repairs. Page 7: Cut to the Dynasoar. Dead End and Guiledart argue about Dead End's failure last issue, but Magmatron cuts them off with a smug pronouncement. The Cybertrons will surely die in the sands.... Page 8: Longrack is suffering from dehydration, and Heinrad gives him something to drink (it's probably not water, through). Then Big Convoy stands to do something, and his knee gives way. He wonders if maybe he got some sand in the joints while he was saving Longrack. Page 9: Big Convoy consults a schematic of Longrack while the others go have a look around. Stampy has had enough of all the sand around the place, so he goes and kicks the sand in frustration, then makes a face at the desert. A pair of eyes rise from the sands and see his rude gestures. After Stampy turns to go back inside, a second Stampy rises from the sands.... Page 10: And another, and another.... Back inside, the droid on Gung Ho has analyzed Longrack's condition and identified the problem. There's a microscopic robotic sand chigger infesting him and draining his energy. Page 11: If not given treatment soon, Longrack will be totally drained. This is bad. And it gets worse. The sand chiggers might be after the Angolmois Capsule. Better move it to a safer place. Page 12: Stampy's helping Break move the capsule. And so is Stampy. Ummmm. Break asks Stampy if these are relatives or something. Meanwhile, the extra Stampy faction is making off with the capsule. Page 13: Break busts some heads, a little fluffy engine of destruction as he beats on the sand-rabbits. The real Stampy then points out that they do in fact seem to be made of sand. And the mysterious eyes decide that Break's a better mold to copy.... Page 14: They are now surrounded by penguins. Heinrad says something that might have been useful if said at the right time, and Break yells at him before transforming to better deal with the threat. Page 15: Ha! So now he's ready to take on...an army of transformed Breaks. Oops. They learn fast. The critters leap to the attack, so Stampy and Heinrad transform as well. Heinrad's a lot chubbier in manga form than the toy. Page 16: Much kicking of sand. Heinrad uses his wine jug as a ball and chain. All the critters are taken out. Yatta! Whoops...they're reforming. Page 17: Now it's a veritable army of copies of all three. Break asks Big Convoy if he could be motivated to lend a hand. BC begs off, for various reasons. Not only is he injured and protecting the really injured members of the party... Page 18: ...but if he joins the fray, the critters may imitate him. And that would be intensely bad. Fine, he'll do it himself! He pulls out his Break Anchor and swings it around, beheading several. But one proves he doesn't need a head, and fires a Break Anchor right back. Page 19: Aboard the Dynasoar, Magmatron muses that the Sand Drones are quite nasty, and that Big Convoy will no doubt be annoyed when he gets through with them. Guiledart suggests that so long as Big Convoy comes alone, Magmatron's combined form (kyotai - big body, another word for gestalt for those looking for a new term) sould make short work of Big Convoy. Magmatron berates Guiledart, pointing out that Big Convoy would probably not come alone. In the background, Sabreback is performing a tarot reading, and he interrupts the conversation. He holds up the card "Death," and claims that it is a bad omen.... Page 20: The somewhat heroic trio goes back to work on the Sand Drones. But they just keep coming. Page 21: Stampy panics...there must be 100,000,000,000,000,000 (literally) of them! Break once again asks for help, and he says no. At this point, even Big's own beast head is berating him for staying on the sidelines! Page 22: Wait for it...Big Convoy sits there, his confidence slipping as the armies of sand chiggers advance and make their final rush.... Page 23: Gung Ho is here! The backblast of the jets scatters the sand drones to the four winds. Page 24: Big splash page of Gung Ho descending to pick everyone up. Page 25: "It's about time!" Everyone moves to evac, and Big Convoy stays to the last, attaching the tow cables to the Angolmois capsule. But the sand drones are rallying.... Page 26: Big Convoy backfists a Stampy-clone and leaps onto the capsule, safe at last. While they can now duplicate him, he notes with relief that he didn't have to use his gun on them, so they won't be able to copy that. Or...he could be wrong. Page 27: As an army of Big Convoys stand up and point their massive guns at Gung Ho, BC realizes that they must have learned to duplicate his gun when he used to to save himself and Longrack from the sink hole. Page 28-29: As they open fire, Big Convoy takes a desperate act. He hangs from a tow cable and spins around, shooting all the duplicates as fast as he can. Page 30: But he slips from the cable as Break tries to reel him in. Nooo! And they can't go back down for him, because the duplicates will reform any second! Page 31: One ominous duplicate rises up and points its big gun at the ship. Page 32: The gun energizes. Stampy insists they save Big Convoy, but Break knows he has to save the ship and everyone else. He leaps in the control chair. Page 33: At the last second, Break jerks the controls and the beam just barely misses the Gung Ho. Its energy depleted, the sand drone collapses back into the sand. Page 34: The immediate danger passed, Break runs out of the ship to go after Big Convoy himself, and he leaps out of the ship's door. There he finds Big Convoy hanging onto the ship by one of his leg missile grappling hooks. He yells at Big Convoy for letting them think he was lost. Then Big Convoy points out that Break can't fly. So Break falls. Page 35: Back at the Dynasoar, Magmatron makes various statements about what he plans to do next, and how the Cybertrons will be helpless to stop him, etc. In an inset panel, we see that Big Convoy caught Break with his other leg graplon. Dave Van Domelen, had the power go out when he was in the office last night, which is part of why he didn't post this last night....