Centurion

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The first one to make a Roman joke gets blasted full of hot energon.

If you looked up "lost" in the dictionary, there's a better than even chance you'd find a picture of Centurion next to the definition. Not only is he stranded on a primitive alien planet with no way home, his mind and memories were wiped away in the crash. For the majority of human history, Centurion has been known as Bumblebee and fully embraced that identity until the horrors of World War I allowed his true self to break free. The horrors of what Centurion has seen, done and had a hand in creating have chipped away at any optimism he had left, creating a weary warrior with a pronounced hatred for his fellow Transformers, believing his kind brings only destruction. This bleak, ruthless, and pragmatic attitude made Centurion ripe for Garrison Kreiger to prey on, turning the Maximal into the villain's pet enforcer.

Recently however, witnessing Autobot and humans working together have begun to reawaken some of the better aspects of Centurion's personality (that and being partially mentally merged with Mike Power). Free to make his own decisions for the first time in twenty thousand years, the future may be looking up for the unlikely bot.

Fiction[edit | edit source]

Ten million years ago, Centurion was a follower of Onyx Prime. Following the conclusion of the First Cybertronian Civil War, Centurion joined his master aboard the Nemesis in journeying to the planet Antilla where they uncovered the machine that had sterilized the planet with Onyx dubbing it as the Talisman. Our Finest TFWikiFavicon.png 20,000 years prior to 2017, Centurion was assigned to the starship Axalon, sent out on a deep space mission to retrieve the Enigma of Combination at Prime's command. Centurion profile Unbeknownst to the crew, they had been sent on a fool's errand as "Onyx Prime" was a time-travelling Shockwave who'd sent them into space so they could fulfill an ontological paradox his younger self had set in motion. The crew arrived at Earth, during its last Ice Age, to refill their dwindling energon supply. In orbit they intercepted a transmission from Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, bounced to their ship from a craft belonging to the younger Shockwave, who shot them down. The crash activated the Talisman, "entrusted" to the crew by Onyx, which scrambled the memories of all aboard. Centurion rebooted first and witnessed the looping Autobot transmission, wondering if he was Bumblebee. The nearby Shockwave decided he could be and used the amnesiac Maximals as a war game, overwriting their minds with data from the Great War to make them all believe they were the Autobots and Decepticons. Shockwave however soon fell into stasis lock and the Maximals followed soon after to conserve their energon. Strange Visitors TFWikiFavicon.png

In the late 19th century, the United States of America began a railroad expansion project. The railroad passed directly above the "Autobot" cave and awoke "Bumblebee" who investigated, disguised as a small steam locomotive. Meeting John Henry, "Bumblebee" soon discovered the "Decepticons" were making their way to New York City and awoke more "Autobots" to aid him. With the aid of Henry, Mark Twain, Tobias Muldoon, and Kitty Merriweather, the "Autobots" managed to thwart their foes and returned to stasis. Hearts of Steel TFWikiFavicon.png

Awakening years later (under undivulged circumstances), "Bumblebee" disguised himself as a streetcar and sought out Muldoon for aid in fighting off the threat of the Elder Gods. The "Autobots" conspired to awaken "Optimus Prime" who succeeded in driving off the eldritch horrors. Infestation 2 TFWikiFavicon.png

By World War I however, the Axalon crew was beginning to die from a lack of energon and starting to shake off Shockwave's conditioning. "Optimus" and "Bumblebee" found themselves on a European battlefield. "Optimus" perished that day but his death was enough to shake "Bumblebee" free of his false persona. Believing all his kind did was bring death and destruction, "Bumblebee" dedicated himself to hunting and killing his crewmates. By World War II, only the false Shockwave remained. "Bumblebee" tracked him down to Paris and bested him in combat, taking his gatling gun as a trophy. Sgt. Savage and his Screaming Eagles had observed the battle and, believing he was the last Cybertronian in existence, Centurion requested the aid of Savage in finding the Axalon. Kreiger convinced his commander to aid the alien and the trio set out to find the craft. The trek led them to Brasnya where they fought their way past IRON Troopers to enter the craft. Stepping onto the bridge allowed "Bumblebee" to remember his true identity. Just as Centurion began to tell the humans about the missing Talisman, the reanimated corpse of Domitius Major attacked. Centurion flew into a rage and dismembered the puppeteered corpse, the attack causing the Talisman energy within the craft to activate and teleport the Axalon (and Sgt. Savage) away. Centurion broke down in that moment but was soon comforted by Kreiger who offered to help him find the Talisman...

The two spent the next fifty years looking for the artifact, eventually finding it in Egypt. In 1994, Centurion witnessed Kreiger's experiments with Atomic Man and the Talisman recall the Axalon back to normal space/time before Power seemingly perished. Joe Colton's Adventure Force then broke into the lab but Kreiger ordered Centurion not to engage. Twelve years later, Centurion was part of Project: Hot House, an attempt by Skywatch to use the Talisman to develop anti-Cybertronian weapons. Luring Sgt. Savage to the base, Centurion chained up the rogue Decepticon Bugly to the Talisman and threw Savage at the device, activating it and atomizing the Decepticon.

A further decade later, Joe Colton took on the moniker of "Baron Ironblood" and formed the Iron Ring to try and destroy Cybertron once and for all. When the Revolutionaries stumbled onto the scheme and acquired the Talisman however, Centurion went with Ironblood and Mercy Gale to convince Tomax Paoli to retake the mantle of Cobra Commander. Centurion then drove Paoli to San Francisco to retrieve the date of Project: Ice Man. In the interim, the Revolutionaries had stormed the Iron Castle which prompted Iroblood to cut Centurion loose. When the Revolutionaries arrived in San Francisco however, Centurion revealed himself, believing Kup to be Eukarian straggler. The two quarrelled until Garrison Blackrock convinced Centurion to stand down by revealing there were planets' worth of Cybertronians out there. Feigning a change of spark, Centurion stood down and was sent to the Onyx tower in Buenos Aires.

Following the team's capture of Kreiger, Kup explained their heritage to Centurion only for the Eukarian to reveal he was still loyal to Kreiger, having hacked into the tower's systems to allow the Iron Ring to teleport in. Engaging Kup in battle once again, the two were interrupted by a horde of Dire Wraith mutates who managed to down Centurion before Blackrock engineered a pulse of Talisman energy that returned the mutates to normal. The energy wave somehow had the side-effect of releasing Mike Power's consciousness who found his way into Centurion's systems. The Iron Ring soon retreated but left Centurion behind. The composite being then threw himself in front of a Talisman energy wave to save the humans, seemingly perishing before he returned to life and explained his unusual rebirth. Now firmly a hero once again, he assured his new friends that their recent experiences counted as a victory. Revolutionaries

Having been exposed to so much Talisman energy over his two lifetimes, Centurion possessed a symbiotic link to the artifact, able to sense its movements and channel its power. On the day of Earth's induction into the Council of Worlds, Kreiger sent Colditz after Centurion to stop the Eukarian from interfering in his goal to restore magic to the galaxy. Feigning yet another change of spark, Centurion abducted Blackrock and followed Colditz, confessing to the Titan Master that he wanted to get close enough to Kreiger to kill the man. When the rest of the Revolutionaries (and Arcee) caught up to them however, Kreiger remotely activated the Talisman energy within Centurion trying to force the Revolutionaries into killing their friend. Blackrock refused however and managed to talk Centurion into controlling the energy, though at the cost of leaving the Eukarian in deep stasis lock. He awoke, however, when Kreiger, now revealed as Merklynn, activated the Talisman. First Strike

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