Convergence chapter 2

Synopsis

It is the summer of 1965. Within the Soviet Research Station Oktober, Bill Simmons is held captive by the Soviets. They torture him by playing the same episode of Felix the Cat at full volume in his cell every day. This has been going on for three and a half years. Simmons's captors hope to pry from him some of the secrets of Sector Seven, but Simmons has not yet yielded. Joe Danco, Simmons's greatest tormentor, turns down the volume of the cartoon to taunt him. Danco inform him of the Russians’ plans to probe the lunar surface, as they know that NASA suspects that there is something up there. The subject then moves to Simmon’s mechanical hand, which has since been forcefully removed from his arm, before it segues into discussing Simmons’s wife and son. Danco presents a photo of the boy, and threatens to kill Simmons's family if does not cooperate. The threat only prompts Simmons to assault Danco through his cell bars.

A woman then enters the room; Alisa Morozov. She has overheard Danco mention the Cube in his interrogation, and is eager to know if he has learned anything on the subject. Quickly losing her patience with Danco when he suspects something is amiss, Morozov reveals herself to be a Pretender spy and plunges one of her tentacles into his mouth to read his mind. Despite their ideological differences, Danco and Simmons recognize that neither of them want alien robots running the show. Simmons asks for Danco’s gun, and the later complies without hesitation. Simmons first attempts to shoot the Pretender, but the firearm does not affect her. In order to stop the secrets in Danco’s mind from being stolen, Simmons kills his former ally. Using the gun to bust out of his cell, Simmons then makes a run for it, grabbing the bag containing his hand and the photo of his son on his way out. Entering the next room, he finds it filled with the bodies of dead and dying Russian scientists. Igniting nearby propane canisters to cover his escape, Simmons exits the building into the streets of Moscow, and disappears into a crowd.

Choosing to maintain her cover instead of pursuing the escaped prisoner, the Pretender reports the situation to Soundwave. She informs him that she has learned that both the Russians and the Americans hold Transformers captive, and that the AllSpark is on-planet. Soundwave decides that the AllSpark takes greater precedence. He then decides that it could be advantageous to form alliances with some of the humans, and addresses one of the wounded scientists. The Decepticon Empire wishes to make a deal with Doctor Voskhod.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Errors

• The Ark is noted to have crash-landed on the moon in 1962, after which President Kennedy made a speech announcing America's intent to send a man to the moon. Danco must have his dates wrong by a year, because Kennedy actually made this speech in 1961.

Continuity notes

• Both Bill and Danco appeared to perish in "Frozen"; Danco's survival was revealed in Rising Storm #2, while this story confirms that Bill also made it out alive.
• In writing Sector 7, Barber wound up contradicting the Revenge of the Fallen novels on the names of Seymour Simmons's parents: where the novels had dubbed them "Felix" and "Tova", the comics went for "Bill" and "Anne". With this chapter, Barber returns to that goof, offering explanations without actually addressing the subject directly. On the subject of Anne, it is revealed that she simply changed her name. Bill's explanation is more obtuse, and relies on the reader being able to identify the cartoon used to torment him (referred to only as one about "a cat with a magic bag of tricks") as Felix the Cat. Further explanation would be given in the following chapter.
• During the Pretender's attack, a television is noted to be playing an advert for an amusement park in California. This is Disneyland, which had only just opened at the time this story is set. Further, the implication is that this image would stick with the Pretender, influencing her choice of disguise later in life: per the Revenge of the Fallen novelization and comic book adaptation, the human disguise she sports in 2009 is based on an Alice in Wonderland animatronic strongly implied to have been scanned from a Disney resort.
• On the subject of the Pretender, this story also revisits the idea briefly touched upon by Soundwave in Nefarious that she is an inherently unstable creature whose unique makeup leaves her prone to developing human traits, sympathies and eccentricities.
• Soviet Research Station Oktober was previously glimpsed in passing in Rising Storm #2, in a single panel depicting a scene of Soundwave and a scientist set in 1973. Presumably, that scientist was Voskhod.
• Overcast is mentioned; another of the warriors sent to Earth by Soundwave in Alliance retroactively confirmed as a Nemesis crew member.