The Wrath of Sliphead
A strange robot appears out of nowhere in New York City and cause chaos for the Zapbots and the Earth.
Synopsis
We join Anthony in front of a press core getting very frustrated with humans.
Flashback to a week before this incent, Anthony and his friend Mike Quartz head off for a day in New York City for entertainment. Before he leaves he reads a story about a stolen device from a Gearatron research laboratory. Anthony leaves the investigation up to Botimus Prime and team while he enjoys his 'day off' with his friend. During dinner a robot of unknown origin flies over and disrupts city. Anthony grabs Mike Quartz and transforms into his X-O suit aerial mode in pursuit, but unfortunately the robot evades Anthony and disappears.
Back on Fortress Misslemax the team discovers a renegade Nonocon named Sliphead is the cause for both the disappearance of the device from the laboratory and the strange energy surge in New York City. Slipstream the Air Guardian had prior battles with Sliphead during Anthony's short death. The Zapbots head down to New York City to investigate with help from the Protectors team. They attempt to track the location of the energy surge which leads them to a warehouse. Anthony enters slowly in X-O suit form only to find a bomb that explodes causing the warehouse to collapse on top of him.
Meanwhile Anthony's friend Mike Quartz upset that Anthony did not take him on this mission jumps into an escape pod on Fortress Misslemax and heads back to Earth. Unfortunately his pod is commandeered in the process.
Back in New York City, the Zapbots unbury Anthony and continue their search for Sliphead. Across town Double Shot and Burn Rubber encounter Sliphead as he explodes into the city streets. Shortly they joined by Phiston and Copter arriving on the scene. Sliphead escapes the crew but accidentally drops a computer chip. Botimus Prime and Shortstop head back to Fortress Misslemax to decode the chip.
Back on Fortress Misslemax they find the chip is a warning messaging to the Zapbots. Sliphead has captured Anthony's friend Mike Quartz and challenges Shortstop to a dual alone. At the same time Hightone picks up news reports that do not paint the incident in favor of the Zapbots.
Shortstop follows the coordinates to Sliphead's secret base. He find himself in a huge arena and fighting a large robot he reveals his secret warriors Scan and Hightone who proceed to battle the robot while Shortstop goes after Sliphead. Sliphead confronts Shortstop with Mike Quartz and orders him to surrender. Suddenly Flapbat grabs Mike from his hands. Alas Sliphead fires and Flapbat drops Mike Quartz who Sliphead re-captures, transforms and escapes with through a teleportation device. Botimus Prime calls in to indicate that using transporter technology Sliphead escaped to the North Pole, with Mike Quartz and the Gearatron device.
Several hours later, Shortstop with the Snow Team proceed to track down and investigate the energy surge now at the North Pole. They battle their way through a large fortress to find themselves in a large open chamber. Shortstop sees Mike Quartz not moving up on a ledge and goes to rescue him but is attacked by Sliphead. Slipstream comes into the arena and confronts his arch nemesis [[Sliphead. During the battle we find that Sliphead is Slipstream's brother. Slipstream takes the Gearatron devices and combines it into his power supply slowing transforming and multiplying in size.
The Snow Team combines into Defender to combat the enlarged Sliphead. The device is knocked from his compartment and he reverts in size crying 'he can not fail.' Suddenly we find that he still contains Mike Quartz and the body that was rescued was a dummy. Holding Mike Quartz again Slipstream tries to encourage his brother to surrender. Suddenly Sliphead keeps holding his head and it is discovered he has a nuero-device inside of his brain, controlling him. Secretish and the Nonocons appear as they elaborate on how Amphotron used the device to control Sliphead. Out of desperation Sliphead rips the device from his head and Slipstream grabs Mike just before he falls to certain death. The Zapbot look to engage the Nonocons but they are gone.
We return to present day where Anthony in front of the press indicates that they have discovered massive corruption in all the world governments. As such, they are withdrawing from Earth and will not longer support any Earth space programs or efforts unless it involves the Nonocons (or other offworld enemies) attacking. Sliphead has been repaired and joins the Zapbots to help defend the Universe from the Nonocons.
Anthony sends Mike Quartz back to University as the Zapbots go into true disguise mode for Earth. They are no longer allowed to use their alternative aerial modes and must remain in secrecy. Sliphead now fully repaired as a Zapbot helps his brother fly some banners during a German football game where Mike and Anthony trade glances from afar.
Epilogue: Meanwhile in another reality/timeline Anthony watches the world trade center attacked on 9-11. Feeling helpless he feels that 'this isn't right.'
Featured characters
| Zapbots | Humans | Nonocons | Planets |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Quotes
“Stuffed Octopus,” I replied. “I don’t recommend it.”
- Anthony to Mike at a fancy restaurant
Notes
Versions
- First Version: 1990?
- Second Version: 2020
- Third Version: 2021
Production notes
- First appearance of Sliphead duh...
- The idea of expanding upon this came up with this rewrite in 2020. As I have become more aware of how the world works and the inner workings of politics and governments, various friends and family would label me a conspiracy theorist as I try to explain things. As such it was time to start to introduce some of this logic into the Zapbot stories, especially considering the joke that is the Corona Virus scam. It helped the story immensely in that, we now are forcing the Zapbots to remain ground bound (no flying boats) and they really are robots in disguise. We are also establishing the humans as faulty. When I watched the Michael Bay movies I never thought it was reasonable for the Autobots to be helping the U.S. Military. They would quickly realize how corrupted the U.S. was with their war machine and stay the hell out of the effort. By adding this context to the Zapbot this will all made sense in the upcoming stories.
- Third pass to provide extra details and upgrades happened in 2021.
Continuity notes
- We start to get more into Anthony and Mike's relationship here. Yes this will all stay PG-13.
Real-life references
Continuity and plotting errors
Other trivia
- Original version also had the Waterbots in it, but it was just too many characters and not enough time to get their proper development, so they were cut. I'm sure I'll include them in a future story at some point.
- Realize some of the plot points require some stretch of imagination, but remember this is a TV show for kids :P
