Aftermath (ES)

Aftermath is a Decepticon Terran from the EarthSpark continuity family.

Acquired by exposing Battletrap to Dark Energon.

Born from a corrupted shard of the Emberstone, Aftermath lives up to the "Chaos" part of "Chaos Terran". Seemingly incapable of staying still for more than point five seconds, he's always looking to relieve his boredom with his one and only pastime: random acts of violence. And it doesn't really matter who's the recipient of said violence —Autobot, Decepticon, Terran, human, inanimate object— as long as he's able to shoot, punch, kick, stomp, headbutt, bodyslam, and just generally beat whatever he can out of whatever he can, he's happy. And boy oh boy, has he got the sheer power to indulge in his destructive tendencies to an impressive degree.

While this theoretically makes him useful to the Decepticons he's ended up with, his microsecond-long attention span and reflexive rejection of any form of authority means he's an unreliable warrior at best. He basically needs to be tricked or even distracted into fighting the "right" people, mostly by making them look like more appealing _targets.

Fiction

EarthSpark cartoon

Voice actor: Flea (English), Jaime Collepardo (Latin American Spanish), Isaac Maioli (Brazilian Portuguese), Bernard Alane (French)

A year after Mandroid's defeat, the Decepticons and Terrans battled to find the pieces of the Emberstone. During one such conflict, Aftermath was accidentally created when Breakdown threw an Embershard into a puddle. The new Terran emerged out of the ground and reflexively scanned a tow truck, before the original crashed into him. He fought with the Maltos and nearly wrecked Hashtag with his hook. Breakdown managed to persuade Aftermath to join the Decepticons and the pair escaped back to Decepticon base. Later Starscream ordered Breakdown to take full responsibility for the new Terran. Left behind at the base, Aftermath and Breakdown began to fight over who would do the chores. When Robby, Nightshade, and Twitch attempted to infiltrate the base, Aftermath was persuaded to fight them instead. He pummeled Twitch and Nightshade with his fists and blaster. When Robby tried to reach an Embershard Aftermath spotted him and unleashed a volley of shots. Robby deflected a shot into a large missile rack, which caused a huge explosion. Breakdown took the brunt of the hit for Aftermath, but he didn't seem to care. The Maltos tried to retreat with the shard, but Aftermath snagged the container with his hook. The Maltos were unable to wrest it from his grasp and withdrew empty handed. Aftermath

Wandering exhausted, Aftermath found a discarded pile of energon barrels which was when Jawbreaker stumbled on him. Jawbreaker, anxious to befriend Aftermath, offered to guide him to the cave full of water able to be consumed by Terrans. During the journey, the two cyber-synced into one body which Jawbreaker dubbed "J'BAM" and which Aftermath was unhappy about. The contaminated energon resulted in the creation of huge mutated mushroom creatures, and after Aftermath and Jawbreaker cooperated to defeat them, Aftermath realized he could trust his "sibling" after all. This didn't prevent him from stealing the supply of cave water and taking it back to the Decepticon base. Togetherness Following Spitfire's battle with Twitch, Aftermath introduced himself to the new Chaos Terran, unaware that Twitch and Spitfire had swapped bodies. He took "Spitfire" back to the Decepticon base where they were assigned ammo stacking duties. He followed her to the Autobot base when she later departed and believed her to be a spy until Twitch told him about the body swap. Once Twitch and Spitfire were swapped back, Aftermath and the real Spitfire returned victorious to the Decepticon base to present Starscream with the Cyber Slayer. The Imposters

Spying Hashtag and Robby with Optimus Prime's trailer, Aftermath somehow stealthily pinched it from under their noses and stuck it on railway tracks so he could get whatever was inside. The pair eventually caught up and managed to knock him unconscious. He later caught up with the trailer along with a number of Decepticons, only for Robby to turn the trailers firepower on them. Dude, Where's My Trailer? Starscream assigned Aftermath and Spitfire the task of using the Cyber Slayer to break into Terratronus. They eventually succeeded, partly thanks to Spitfire using the Cyber Slayer on Aftermath to recharge it and then him drinking cave water. Witwicky, Part 1 Starscream, having reclaimed the Emberstone, joined the pair as they entered Terratronus's spark chamber and turned the Cyber Slayer on them, taking them offline so so he could use the shards that brought them to life to complete the Emberstone. Witwicky, Part 2

Their lifeless bodies remained in the spark chamber where Starscream was trapped. As time wore on, he started having mock tea parties with them. As part of a plan to deal with a storm of chaos energy unleashed by the Quintessons, a team led by Optimus retrieved the Cyber Slayer and the Chaos Terrans' bodies. Judgment Day, Part 1 The Chaos Terrans were placed in Optimus's trailer with the Cyber Slayer rigged to it, and dropped into the storm where the chaos energy was absorbed and channeled into the pair, bringing them back to life. Though they were tempted to just leave, the others talked them into stay and joining the battle against the Quintessons, during which Aftermath was pleased to find his reviving had left him with much more firepower. Following the destruction of the Quintessons, Aftermath grabbed Spitfire and split. Judgment Day, Part 2

Toys

EarthSpark

(Hasbro version pictured)

• Chaos Terran Aftermath (Deluxe Class, 2024)

• TakaraTomy name: DX Aftermath (DXアフターマス)
• TakaraTomy ID number: ESD-15
• TakaraTomy release date: 2024 July 27
• Accessories: Triple-barreled blaster, towing crane, hook

Released in the sixth wave of Hasbro's EarthSpark Deluxe Class figures, Aftermath transforms from a hulking robot mode into a battle-modified vintage tow truck of made-up model. His towing crane assembly and hook are removable, attached to his body via 5 mm posts, which lets you put his hook on his left forearm, just as in the show (or wherever you like). He comes with a blaster that can either be mounted on his forearm (preferably the right, also as seen in the show) or held in his hands. It also pegs into both of his feet in vehicle mode, to both help hold his back end together better and become a "turbo boost" thruster of sorts.

(Takara version pictured)

He was also released in the sixth wave of TakaraTomy's EarthSpark Deluxe Series toys (which includes both the Hasbro Warrior and Deluxe Class toys together). This version has different, darker base plastic colors, replacing the light gray and some of the purple parts with black plastic, and more extensive paint operations, though it's arguable as to how much more "show accurate" this makes the toy (the "X" decos on the headlamps are not on the show model, and the model's purple paneling appears to be a mottled mix of the two toys' tones).

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Aftermath (アフターマス Afutāmasu)