Sparkeater (creature)

It's not every day that Transformers fiction is inspired by the Snorks.

Sparkeaters are powerful and monstrous predators, so rarely seen that they are largely believed by Cybertronians to be mythical. As such, mere mention of them can invoke a sense of supernatural terror even among battle-hardened warriors. Little is firmly known of their habits or origin, but it is apparent that multiple denizens of Cybertron possess the capacity to become one of these unfortunate, cannibalistic creatures, from ordinary Transformers to lowly turbofoxes. Tracking the intensity of their prey's spark energy, they are able to immobilize and kill Transformers without making physical contact, through powers that seem to defy conventional explanation. Once consumed, the sparks linger in their abdomens and are slowly digested.

In keeping with the lack of general knowledge about them and the myths that have sprung up around them, they are sometimes also known as Cybervores, Soulsnatchers, and The Nightmare with a Thousand Names.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

Little is known about Sparkeaters by the Cybertronian populace at large. Rodimus believed that the only things capable of neutralizing them were extreme technologies like "industrial strength energy dampeners", "nullification booths", and "level-9 containment fields". The Chaos of Warm Things A self-deluded Decepticon named Blip deified Sparkeaters, and even professed to be one. He was slain for this heresy by the Decepticon Justice Division The Chaos of Warm ThingsThe Permanent Revolution who themselves also professed to have tamed a Sparkeater as their pet, Rules of Disengagement Who's Afraid of the DJD? but they were just lying to scare people. At Close of Day

FOX...DIE!

The existence of Sparkeaters is, in actuality, an ontological paradox. The legend of the monsters would inspire Autobot scientist Brainstorm to invent a gun that could transform those shot with it into Sparkeaters. Unaware of what the weapon was or what it did, Whirl took the gun with him when he and the crew of the Lost Light embarked on a time-travel adventure four million years into the past. While in the past, Whirl shot a Senate goon with the weapon; the robot subsequently mutated into the first Sparkeater to chronologically exist, and went on to inspire the legend in the first place. Stet

The Lost Light crew's adventure proceeded to take them a further million years back in time, where the gun changed hands from Whirl to Cyclonus. Locating and breaking into the newly constructed past incarnation of their own ship, the Lost Light, the crew ran into a security guard with a pack of turbofoxes. Cyclonus blasted the guard with the gun, and when he began to mutate, locked him and his pets in a nearby room. The ship was then accidentally shot across time and space Predestination: An Expert's Guide where it was found a ground of Cybertronian expatriates. Being worshipers of the death god Mortilus, they kept the Sparkeater alive by feeding it more turbofoxes. Twenty Plus One

Someone got a little excited watching their 3TP together.

The Lost Light would eventually return to Cybertron, where its owners sold it to Drift. Upon launch, the ship suffered an engine malfunction and premature quantum jump, which caused severe damage and allowed the Sparkeater to breach its cell. The beast made the Duobot Shock its first victim, disconnecting and extracting his brain module through his mouth in order to paralyze him, then consuming his spark. The Chaos of Warm Things Red Alert subsequently discovered Shock's body and telltale claw marks on the nearby walls, and deduced that a Sparkeater was responsible; Hangers On a diagnosis Ratchet later begrudgingly confirmed despite his skepticism and instinctual disregard for myths and legends. Seeking out the "brightest spark" on the ship, the Sparkeater was drawn to Rung, but on its way to the psychiatrist's quarters, encountered and killed Animus. Whirl attempted to kill the monster with a missile barrage—only for Trailbreaker to save it with his forcefield, as a weapon strike on the unstable, partially digested sparks inside the monster's belly would have caused a catastrophic explosion. The Sparkeater relentlessly and single-mindedly pursued Rung throughout the ship, even ignoring Brainstorm in favor of the tastier prey. Finally, Rodimus seized Rung and used him as live bait to lure the Sparkeater close to the ship's engine room. As the beast lunged, Rodimus ordered Perceptor to activate the quantum generators, then quickly grabbed the monster and pushed it up one of them. The generator's localized disruption of the laws of physics resulted in the Sparkeater being fused into the engine block, killing it. The Chaos of Warm Things

On a quantum duplicate of the Lost Light created by the launch accident, it was Animus who was used as bait to lure the Sparkeater to the engine room, as Rung had already been lost. This version of Rodimus used the same strategy to get rid of the monster, but mistimed the attempt and got part of his head stuck in the engine, killing him alongside the Sparkeater. The Road Not Taken

While on Necroworld, Drift had a vision of things to come, seeing Pharma leading an army of sparkeaters and Worldsweepers. Some Other Cybertron

When the Lost Light arrived at Cyberutopia, they found it to be nothing more than an elaborate illusion created by Mederi. Soon afterwards, they came under attack from the Phantom Fleet before Getaway managed to bargain with the Grand Architect. To prove his loyalty to the being, Getaway turned his crew over to Scorponok and allowed them to be turned into sparkeaters. Lūstrāre

When Team Rodimus finally caught up to the Lost Light, the mutated crew was set loose on them and the Scavengers. You Are Here By studying Mederi's files however, First Aid managed to devise a means to cure their friends using "concussive medicine", firing a powerful kinetic wave that returned the Autobots to normal. Lūstrāre

Notes

• James Roberts mentioned that there possibly is a method of inducing Sparkeaterism besides the gun,^[1] but little is known about that.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Sparkeater (スパークイーター Supākuītā)

• Swedish: Gnistslukare (Sparkeater)

References