#tremendousbeardedbot

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime,

What happened to Superion and the other Combiners in the Aligned Continuity?

Dear Continued Combiner,

Tragically, Superion met his end during the final Decepticon attack on the Ark that immediately preceded Optimus Prime’s arrival on Earth; when Slingshot sacrificed himself so that Optimus and his innermost confidants could escape the doomed ship, Superion died with him. The remaining members of the combiner team had little time to process the loss of their teammate, as their flight-capable alternate modes made them some of the only Cybertronians aboard capable of carrying their teammates to safety.

As the remaining Ark survivors dispersed to a hundred remote worlds to dig in, regroup, and rebuild, so too did the Aerialbots attempt to find a way forward. Despite their best efforts to keep moving forward as a team, their shared loss and grief eventually drove them apart; with no way to replicate the advanced combination technology that had once allowed them to form Superion, the team slowly drifted apart into new lives, each trying to process the loss in their own way.

Skydive found some semblance of peace on the planet Lithone, where he exchanged soldiering for the quiet life of an academic; in exchange for safe harbor from the Cybertronian war, he lent his extensive knowledge of his species’ military history to the expansive Lithonian archives.

Air Raid and Fireflight became mercenaries for hire, plying their trade on the galactic rim—Fireflight maintained some sense of honor, but this code of ethics would lead to his end when he crossed paths with the notorious ex-Decepticon clan known only as the Ronin. Air Raid’s increasingly ferocious tactics led him straight into the employ of the notorious Lord Gyconi, where he brutalized his way up the ranks until he became the crime lord’s top enforcer.

Worst of all, however, would be Silverbolt, the only member of the team who returned to Cybertron, the bitter ex-Autobot willingly threw his lot in with Cyclonus and the other members of the High Council, promised that he would receive a new combiner team in exchange for his cooperation with the new regime. As a functionary in Cyclonus’s new government, Silverbolt abetted the Decepticons with many of their more ambitious social re-engineering programs until Bumblebee and his team brought down Cyclonus’s illegitimate government for good.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime,

Was there a Blaster that existed in the Aurex Cluster?

Dear Blaster Bountiful,

Indeed—multiple in fact! Famous examples include the Requiem Blaster, the Astro Blaster, the Umbral Blaster, the Transwarp Blaster, the- wait, now hold on, your picture's coming through now. Yes, whoever that is, he appears to be holding a blaster as well!

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime

what's the story behind the version of Spinister that turns into a Targetmaster?

Dear Helicopter Herald,

Spinister was native to a reality consumed by Unicron. Having not taken part in the doomed initial counterattack against the monster planet, Spinister was left wandering the ruined Cybertron, to await Unicron's return. As fate would have it, however, Spinister crossed paths with a dimensionally-displaced Optimus Prime. Unicron had sent the corpse of the Optimus Prime from Spinister's reality to another universe, as a calling card for his next target—and in doing so, had inadvertently summoned the Prime from that universe, their quantum entanglement causing the counterparts to trade places.

Driven mad with despair and loneliness, Spinister willingly offered himself up to the Prince of Nothingness, who briefly used his form as an avatar with which to commune with the unforeseen Prime. Tragically, had he held onto hope, he would likely have been able to escape with his life; shortly after, a space bridge between the dimensions was opened by Optimus Prime’s ally, Jetfire, and the power of the Mini-Con Matrix allowed them to combine into Jet Optimus and deal a blow to Unicron.

That same Matrix would prove to be Unicron's undoing in that reality, and his body was eventually destroyed utterly by a seismic-shock warhead—an explosion which resulted in the creation of a reality-warping black hole. In the time leading up to his final demise, though, as the World Eater came back online, he found his agents all dead, or working for the treacherous Alpha Quintesson. His attention split between threats within and without, Unicron began construction of two new Heralds—using the dead alternate-universe Optimus Prime and Spinister as raw materials. It seems likely that Unicron misinterpreted his own databanks, knowing Spinister to be a Targetmaster, but not that this term referred to both the wielder and the partner. I suppose it's also possible that he was mimicking the Mini-Cons of that reality—the Chaos Bringer is not known for his creativity. Optimus, certainly, was warped according to a tired cliché, becoming Nemesis Prime.

As it happened, Unicron was vanquished before Nemesis Prime and Spinister could play a part in the conflict, and thereafter the pair were abducted by Gaea to take part in the Thrilling 30 War.