The Speedway of Central Consciousness

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"The Speedway of Central Consciousness"
Publisher	IDW Publishing
First published	March 2, 2022
Cover date	February 2022
Written by	Erik Burnham
Art by	Winston Chan
Colors by	Sid Ven Blu
Letters by	Jake M. Wood
Editor	David Mariotte, Jazmine Joyner and Riley Farmer
Continuity	Transformers: Beast Wars

Cheetor awakens on Cybertron, convinced that the Beast Wars were all a dream...

Synopsis

Cheetor's vaunted speed and agility—skills honed during his time as one of Cybertron's top athletes—have served him well in the Beast Wars, but his lucky streak came to an end during the most recent skirmish against the Predacons when a stray blaster shot hit an energon crystal outcrop. Before he can remember what happened next, however Cheetor wakes with a start: not only is he still in one piece, he's on Cybertron! CatSCAN informs his patient that he's cleared the last battery of diagnostics required to serve in the Science Ministry's off-world division, aboard the Axalon; when the bewildered Cheetor stammers that he's already left Cybertron, however, the medic abruptly pivots the conversation to his unfinished report and asks what Cheetor knows about the "Tiwaz maneuver". Still confused, Cheetor brushes him off and leaves; after stepping out into the streets of Iacon to clear his head, he drifts into Maccadam's Old Oil House for a drink and stumbles into two of his fans, who can't believe that Cheetor's giving up his athletic career for a life of science. When one accuses him of not even knowing how to modify protoforms within their stasis pods, and the other asks if Nyx knows anything about the Tiwaz maneuver, a nervous Cheetor makes an hasty excuse and slips away...

On a rooftop, Cheetor tries to piece together his disjointed thoughts; he didn't meet Nyx until the day he boarded the Axalon, and there's no way that anyone else on the planet could've known or made that connection. Something's wrong here—when he tries to get his onboard computer to run a full diagnostic, nothing happens... nothing, that is, except a sudden recollection of a fiery blast. Cheetor quickly realizes what's happened: he must be dreaming after the explosion knocked him temporarily offline. Before he can reconnect his processor back to his external sensors and "awaken", however, an unfamiliar voice cuts in... a voice that belongs to a purple version of himself! The other Cheetor introduces himself as Pakak, a member of the Vok collective, and informs him that this isn't just a random dream: for too long, the Vok have allowed the Cybertronians to run amok on their carefully curated planet, and their endless turf wars have threatened the stability of their long-term experiments to the point where the aliens have turned proactive. Cheetor writes off the spectre as another part of his dream, an electronic bug in need of purging... but Pakak's digital avatar proves him otherwise when it telekinetically hurls Cheetor off the roof and threatens to extinguish his spark if he doesn't give Pakak the information he requires. Cheetor just laughs; if he doesn't talk, and Pakak kills him, then the Vok still won't get what they want. Pakak considers his options, and decides on a different course of action. Cheetor understands racing, so they'll have a race, on a track created from Cheetor's memories: if Cheetor wins, he'll leave, but if he loses, then Pakak will receive full access to all of Cheetor's memories. Cheetor accepts the wager, confident that he's the fastest Cybertronian alive... but is taken aback when Pakak, tapping Cheetor's memories, changes his avatar into an idealized version of the fastest Cybertronian ever: Blurr! Pakak dashes off, and Cheetor gives chase, unaware that the "city" they're racing through increasingly resembles Cheetor's own neural circuitry...

In the Axalon's medbay, Rhinox reports that something's wrong: although they've restored Cheetor's body to full functionality, he won't reactivate—despite that, however, his internal processors have kicked into overdrive. Optimus Primal tries to rouse Cheetor... in the dream world, the faint voice of Cheetor's captain causes the racer to momentarily lose concentration and allow Pakak to retake the lead. At the last moment, however, Cheetor picks up a second wind—as he slowly sheds his Cybertronian body in favor of his beast mode configuration, he pushes past Pakak and crosses the finish line first! Despite his momentary jubilation, Pakak smugly informs Cheetor that he's lost after all: in a virtual reality where both of them can move at the speed of thought, the entire race was a sham, merely a way for Pakak to easily scan Cheetor's neural architecture. As it turns out, the Tiwaz maneuver was a dead end, but Pakak's intrigued by the information he's gleaned about the protoform pods scattered across the planet. A furious Cheetor can do nothing to stop Pakak as he vanishes, but not before the Vok upholds his end of the bargain and frees Cheetor from the dream.

Cheetor abruptly jerks upright as he reawakens: although he tries to warn Optimus Primal about the Vok, he doesn't get far before he abruptly collapses—Rhinox reports that someone's hacked his systems and tripped a hard reboot. When Cheetor reactivates, Primal tries to get Cheetor to continue, but Cheetor's just confused: who are the Vok? Pakak, unseen by all, cackles as he retreats back into unspace...

Featured characters

(Characters in italic text appear only in Cheetor's dream.)
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"I knew this was a dream. And hey, look at me. I look great in purple."
"Incorrect."
"I don't think so. I'm a great judge of style."

—Cheetor meets Pakak

"So, you'd like us to stop fighting, huh? Hey, this being a dream and all, does it make it more or less weird if I tell you to dream on?"

—Cheetor

"I don't just look like Blurr. For all intents and purposes, I am Blurr. Every statistic, every record, everything you've seen or read. The stories that now live on in your mind. I am now the fastest being Cybertron has ever seen—and I am going to win this race!"

—Pakak

Notes

Continuity notes

• While this issue provides the first in-universe glimpse of Cheetor's history as an accomplished athlete, it's not the first time this bit of backstory's come up: during the leadup to issue #1, author Erik Burnham established this bit of characterization in an interview.
• Of the Vok trio who've appeared sporadically since issue #2, Pakak's consistently been portrayed as the more liberal of the three, curious to observe the actions of the Cybertronians and, on occasion, test the limits of their factionalism. Clearly, the Cybertronians must've done something to upset all three of the Vok between their last appearance in #10 and now, as he's changed his position to align with his usual rival Tonrar and taken steps to expunge any further contamination of their enigmatic experiments.

Transformers references

• It's probably no coincidence that Cheetor's been chosen to lead this story: in the original Beast Wars cartoon, Cheetor experienced a number of strange, quasi-prophetic visions while unconscious. Most notably for the purposes of this article, he dreamed about an encounter with the Vok in the season three episode "Other Victories".
• Cheetor's physician CatSCAN originated as a convention-exclusive redeco of one of Cheetor's own Beast Machines toys. In this comic, however, artist Winston Chan has physically differentiated him from Cheetor's Cybertronian form by giving him a wholly original body (at right); his shoulder wheels and forearm blades appear to take inspiration from the original concept art for Cheetor's unproduced Transtech toy.
• Having recently made the big time over in Cyberverse, you'll probably recognize Maccadam's Old Oil House as Cybertron's definitive watering hole. Inside, a pair of barflies remind Cheetor of his recent race against a 'bot named "Rev" at the Afterburner Memorial Speedway: while the racetrack is assuredly named for the hot-headed Technobot, it's not clear whether "Rev" refers to Getaway's Powermaster partner, some version of the Robots in Disguise Spychanger, or an entirely new character. We've opted for the last option.
• To bait Cheetor into racing, Pakak uses Cheetor's memories to turn his avatar into a copy of Blurr, the "fastest being Cybertron's ever seen". Beginning with Spotlight: Blurr, many recent works of fiction have cast the character as an athlete of some kind during peacetime; most recently, he cameo'd as a Velocitronian athlete in IDW's Tread & Circuits miniseries.

Real-world references

• The "Tiwaz maneuver" takes its name from the Norse rune of the same name.

Other trivia

• Originally solicited for February 23rd, this issue arrives one week late.
• In addition to the usual "Maximal Mailbag" feature, backmatter for this issue also includes Winston Chan's concept art for CatSCAN.

Covers (3)

• Cover A: Cheetor vs. Pakak, by Sid Ven Blu
• Cover B: Rhinox maximizes, by Phillip Kennedy Johnson
• Retailer incentive cover: Optimus Primal, by Colm Griffin

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Reprints

• The Transformers: Beast Wars Volume 3 (October 5, 2022) ISBN 1684059380 / ISBN 978-1684059386
  • Collects Beast Wars issues #13–17, and Beast Wars Annual 2022.
  • Bonus material includes alternate covers, and an one-page sketch by Burcham.

• 

  Beast Wars, Vol 3; cover art by Colm Griffin

External links

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