Brain Problem Situation

"Brain Problem Situation"
Publisher	Fun Publications
First published	September 30, 2015
Writer	Jim Sorenson
Illustrator	Christopher Colgin

Six mysterious travelers unexpectedly end up on Strata 22.

Synopsis

Twenty-one strata away from GoBotron, the peaceful Autobots of Cybertron begin experiencing planetary disasters. Their scientists identify it as a bizarre side effect of quantum harmonics, where a world called Moebius on another dimension is overwriting Cybertron's existence. A Sky Spy is sent through the Reality Bridge and observes the GoBots of GoBotron, very similar to the Autobots' own designs.

Optimus Prime chooses a team of "Spy Changers" to accompany him to Strata 22, with altered bodies designed to more easily blend in to the new surroundings. Once they arrive, however, their first encounter is with the overly-suspicious Guardian called Turbo, who believes them to be a new group of Renegades. A fight breaks out, and Turbo summons other Guardians to help him battle the Spy Changers. This catches the attention of Cy-Kill and his Renegades, who arrive to aid the Spy Changers. The Renegades and Spy Changers escape together, but Silverstreak is captured by the Guardians.

Cy-Kill attempts to manipulate the Autobots to his advantage, but Optimus Prime quickly recognizes his host's true nature. After learning about the Renegade bases on Moebius, he dispatches Prowl to contact Leader-1 and form an alliance against the Renegades. Silverstreak has already explained the Spy Changers mission to his captors, and Scooter and A.J. believe the Autobots' purpose is benevolent.

Wheeljack and Hoist discover the Renegade bases on Moebius are acting like a crude Dimensional Interfacer, draining Cybertron for power across the dimensional barriers. They destroy the bases, and the Spy Changers and Guardians join forces against the Renegades. Once Cy-Kill is driven off, Leader-1 and Optimus Prime shake hands respectfully and the Spy Changers depart back to their home reality.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• Information about this story comes from Ask Vector Prime on September 30, 2015. The title of the story and cover art comes from a subsequent post on December 21.
• According to Vector Prime, this story was virtually published in another reality where the Transformers franchise collapsed in the 1980s and GoBots became the decades-spanning media empire. Parallel to our own history, Fun Publications took over Go-Con in 2004, publishing exclusive GoBots magazines and fiction for Tonka as part of their collector's club. "Brain Problem Situation" is therefore that reality's inverted version of "Withered Hope", and shares many similarities. Notably, the story's "title page" by Christopher Colgin (see above) is a direct homage to one of the illustrations for "Withered Hope" by Matt Kuphaldt (specifically, the one seen at the top of TFWiki's article for "Withered Hope").

Continuity notes

• The TransTech universe numbering system indicates this reality is the same as the Challenge of the GoBots video game for the Commodore 64.
• Other GoBots and Transformers terminology is revisited or inverted for this story. The Dimensional Interfacer and Sky Spy are referenced, while the Spy Changers cross over on a Reality Bridge (instead of the traditional space bridge) to "Strata 22", based on the "Level" terminology used in GoBots fiction in the past for other dimensions.
• The Autobot Spy Changers briefly took over the Renegade Rhetoric broadcasts in July 2016. Fun Publications' final releases from December 31, 2016 indicated the Spy Changers would hop realities to the Renegade Rhetoric continuity for season 3 of that series, had it continued.

Real-world references

• The title of this story is taken from the They Might Be Giants song of the same name, in reference to the fact that "Withered Hope" was also named after a TMBG song.