Dust Devil


 * This page is for the heroic, if annoying, Autobot diversionary tactician, sometimes called Stormfront. For his Shattered Glass field commander counterpart, see Stormfront (SG).

"What good is living if you can't have some fun in life?"

Dust Devil has probably caused more Autobots to go get showers than he would care to admit. Kicking up dust has been a blast for him since he reached Earth. His usefulness was discovered when one of his accidental dust storms saved some of his teammates. Before this incident Tracks and Sunstreaker were all for reprogramming him. Dust Devil's hover car mode is jet propelled with small rockets allowing for high-speed bursts to get him out of danger. His twin side guns, available in both forms, allow him to fire while his fans kick up cover for his teammates. In his role of creating diversions, he has a force field that allows him some protection from both the debris that he kicks up and any crossfire in which he gets caught. If the crossfire is too heavy or he is somehow wounded before he can escape, his ability to hide lets him lie low until help arrives. Dust Devil's rotors are what keep him aloft with two main fans for lift, a set of smaller fans in the front and back for propulsion, and side fans for stability. Maneuverability is not a problem for this Autobot. Between the rockets and all the dust, it can be a challenge for some of the best sharpshooters to hit him. In robot mode he is able to exchange his hands for fans to allow him to create cover in other situations.

Canonical/Pre-MUX/Theme History:
Dust Devil was built by Alpha Trion. When Trion died to create the Aerialbots, Dust Devil was left alone to fend for himself. Dust Devil resented the Aerialbots for a lot of years, blaming them for Trion's sacrifice. "Not paranoid....educated by experience."

MUX History:
"I am not a troublemaker. I'm just exceedingly creative in the use of my time....causing slight disturbances in the affairs of those around me."

In 2007, Dust Devil was for a time successful in diverting Luminous's attention away from destructive activity.

During the Timewarp TP, Dust Devil was replaced by an alternate future version of himself called Stormfront. Stormfront was a wise Autobot leader, and sometimes the Dust Devil of the present has flashes of his memories and images from the time he spent in Stormfront's future.

In October of 2009, Dust Devil finally made peace with the Aerialbots, after decades of holding them responsible for the death of Alpha Trion.

In 2011 Dust Devil travelled to Shattered Glass Cybertron, to protect Alpha Trion as he attempted to track down and defeat his nemesis, the Old One.

When Mal used the V'Ger's space-folding drive to teleport past the Plait Expanse into orbit around Cybertron and attack the Weatherbots outside the Temple of Knowledge, Dust Devil joined Alpha Trion, Professor Razorclaw, and the Weatherbots in fighting them off. Mal's crew was defeated, and Mal was forced to retreat into the mountains, leaving his ship in the hands of the Autobots.

Dust Devil boarded the ship with the other Autobots and quickly took command of it, assisted by his intimate knowledge of the TFUniverse V'ger. After assisting Alpha Trion in the rescue of Starscream from Darkmount, Dust Devil prepared to travel with his mentor to find Trion's nemesis, the Old One. While prepping the V'ger to leave, Shattered Glass Fireflight discovered Typhoon and a Junkion cruiser in the Manganese Mountains.

Flying down to investigate, Fireflight was tricked by Typhoon into believing the Autobots there were of the local evil type. Stormfront emerged from the V'Ger and ordered Fireflight to fly escort for them until they left the Manganese Mountains. Unsuspecting that Stormfront was really Dust Devil in disguise, Fireflight agreed.

When the Remote Patrol Six encountered the Junkion pirate ship V'ger in orbit around Cybertron in 2012, it fired on the V'ger, disabling it, and then sent in a boarding party. Met with heavy resistance by the Autobots and Decepticon aboard, however, the RP6 was forced to retreat.

Using information from Doctor Razorclaw, Trion directed the V'ger towards the Old One's last known whereabouts. However, the semi-sentient V'ger fought the Autobots' controls and crashed in Kaon. Undaunted, Alpha Trion and Dust Devil left the ship, setting off after the Old One on foot. Tracking his path, they found the Old One at last, who claimed to be waiting for them.

After the Old One critically injured Dust Devil and escaped, Krunix interrogated Dust Devil while Alpha Trion went for help. Returning with Typhoon, Alpha Trion got Dust Devil back to the V'ger and saved his life, repairing him with what parts Blizzard could fashion aboard the Junkion ship. Trion ordered Dust Devil to remain in sickbay until he was fully recovered, which meant of course Dust Devil tried to escape as soon as possible.

Longsight, who was in the V'ger's brig when it crashed in Kaon, had escaped into the walls of the ship. Longsight lay low until Dust Devil also tried to escape into the ship's infrastructure, at which time Longsight pounced, attempting to capture and eat Dust Devil. It took the combined efforts of Alpha Trion, Dust Devil, and Typhoon to drive Longsight from the ship; Longsight and Typhoon both had half their faces melted off in the process.

Alpha Trion repaired Dust Devil AGAIN and resumed plans to capture the Old One.

In March of 2012, Alpha Trion successfully tracked the Old One to his back, where the evil sage was waiting. Backed up by his henchman Blitzkrieg, the Old One attacked Alpha Trion with his Terminus Blade, critically injuring him before being driven back by Dust Devil and Firestar. Face shattered by Dust Devil's Ebon Dagger, the Old One retreated with Blitzkrieg's aid, leaving the Terminus Blade behind.

At first, Alpha Trion himself wielded the Terminus Blade, but quickly fell to its evil sway. Dust Devil fought Trion and won, taking the sword away from him. In return Trion built a special scabbard for the sword, entrusting it in Dust Devil's care for the time being.

Together Alpha Trion and Dust Devil ventured to the Chamber of Omega Terminus to seek aid against the Old One. They were attacked by the re-animated corpses of Cliffjumper, Drench, and Hyperdrive, and were almost overwhelmed before Dust Devil drew the Terminus Blade, at which Omega Terminus called off his minions. Terminus told Trion what he needed to do to repair the rifts, and then sent the two Autobots back, erasing their memories of where they'd been or where they'd learned their critical information.

Alpha Trion and Dust Devil successfully lured the Old One away from Iacon so Chromia and Firestar could make an attempt to scan the Old One’s Stellar Spanner. Using the information brought back by the Autobot femmes, Alpha Trion recused himself to work on a device to close the rifts, while Dust Devil worked with Trailbreaker to set up defensive installations in the temple.

However, before Trion could complete his device, the Temple of Knowledge was attacked by Ultra Magnus, who teleported into the temple with the use of one of Wheeljack's Stellar spanners. Magnus attempted to use a doomsday device to destroy Cybertron, but before Wheeljack was able to complete the device Dust Devil preemptively activated it with the Terminus Blade. Magnus attempted to escape before the doomsday device detonated, but Trailbreaker tossed it through the Wheeljack's portal before it closed. It is unknown if Magnus and his troops survived the deontation.

Dust Devil survived his near-fatal attempt to destroy the doomsday device, but lost the sword to Magnus. Alpha Trion, Benin-Jeri, and Firestar repaired Dust Devil's wounds enough to keep him alive, but Trion's assessment is that Dust Devil will need to be completely rebuilt as soon as they get back to Iacon, as his injures are so deep that he may not survive another armed conflict.

In 2013, Alpha Trion sent Dust Devil to Earth, to receive the better that could be provided by the advanced medical facilities at Autobot City. Once Dust Devil was stabilitied, he was flown back to Cybertron, to be rebuilt by Alpha Trion with the help of Spike and the Junkions.

In 2015, when Starscream attempted to use Alpha Trion to bring back Megatron, Dust Devil tried to stop him. However, Dust Devil was prevented from getting into the Vector Sigma chamber by the legions of Centurion droids. However, Dust Devil tricked Starscream's Seekers into provoking the droids, and then went to belatedly retrieve Alpha Trion's body after Starscream seemingly succeeded in his task.

Later in 2015 the Decepticons re-activated Internment Camp Pi and started kidnapping Praxus citizens, Autobot and neutral alike, to work in the mines. One of those captured was Dust Devil, and Springer allowed himself to be captured in order to gather intelligence on the camp.

In 2016, Dust Devil once again got past the droids and spoke to the ghost of Alpha Trion, who allowed Dust Devil to bypass the droids peacefully on his way out and back to the surface. Later in the year, Seawing attacked Altihex to draw out the Autobots. When Dust Devil arrived to stop him, Snaptrap halted the attack, and approached Dust Devil to ask him to help gain access to the Chamber of Vector Sigma. Dust Devil was cagey, and offered to pass along a message and let Vector Sigma decide if Snaptrap could approach it. Snaptrap agreed for now, and let the young Autobot go to seek Vector Sigma out alone.

In 2017, Counterpunch, Dust Devil, Seaspray, and Shockwave travelled down to the Cybertron Underworld to seek out the knowledge of Vector Sigma. In spite of clever diversionary efforts by Counterpunch, the Decepticons were almost overwhelmed by Centurion Droids... until they were suddenly called off by Dust Devil. Dust Devil received a prophesy from Vector Sigma and the ghost of Alpha Trion: that a new Key might restore Cybertron, but it had been hidden where no mech could find it, and it unlocked a room into which no mech could enter. Vector Sigma was then buried in a cave-n. Dust Devil later went back with Zetar to check on Vector Sigma's status. Later he helped defend Iacon against an assault by Trypticon. In May of that year he took part in a successful strike against the Decepticon planetary engines under the ruins of Kalis.

1997

 * October 9 - "A long long time ago..." - Dust Devil's first meetup with Typhoon.

1999

 * September 21 - "Pounced!" Typhoon gets pounced by Razorclaw

2000

 * March 14 - "I've got plans..." Benin-Jeri and Dust Devil plot to save Longsight
 * August 27 - "Flashback 2000" - Spike asks Trailbreaker to maybe CONSIDER taking Dust Devil under his wing.
 * September 11 - "Forcefield Practice" - Trailbreaker offers to help Dust Devil further develop his forcefield skills.

2001
Outrider doesn't.
 * August 28 - Outrider's Death - Harbinger and Outrider kill each other. Harbinger eventually gets better.

2007

 * July 22 - Alpha Trion Runs into Dust Devil
 * July 23 - An Illuminating Examination: Alpha Trion examines Dust Devil, and finds out more about Luminous and her activities on Earth.
 * October 15 - Blaster Returns to Autobot City
 * October 16 - The Key Returned
 * November 05 - Autobots Exiled
 * December 14 - Sometimes The Bear Gets You - IMORTAL try to drive the Decepticons out of Russia.

2009

 * July 08 - Benin-Jeri and Dust Devil


 * September 07 - Big Water - Blaster takes Snoop to Florida to see Big Water... in the form of an incoming tsunami!


 * October 15 - Repairs: Benin-Jeri repairs Dust Devil's remaining injuries.
 * October 15 - Origins: Alpha Trion calls Dust Devil a tool.
 * October 21 - The Offer - Alpha Trion and Dust Devil discuss Cuffs' offer to teach Dust Devil how to gain the respect of his fellow Autobots

2012
draw off the Old One so the Femmes can attempt an infiltration.
 * October 01 - "Planning the diversion" - Alpha Trion and Dust Devil prepare to
 * October 08 - "Travel to Tarn" - Alpha Trion and Dust Devil Travel to Tarn to lay a trap for the Old One.
 * October 29 - "Battle of Tarn" - Alpha Trion and Dust Devil lure the Old One to Tarn, to keep him distracted while Chromia and Firestar infiltrate Iacon.
 * October 29 - "Sandstorm to the rescue!" - Sandstorm travels to the Shattered Glass universe.
 * November 01 - "A Mission, and Mercy" - Chromia and Firestar infiltrate Iacon, and encounter a dying Decepticon.
 * November 26 - "(Mis)Communication" - Alpha Trion has a little difficulty communicating with Windshear.
 * December 02 - "Unwelcome Guest" - Alpha Trion decides to invite Red Alert to join him at the Temple of Knowledge.
 * December 02 - "Autobot Invasion" - Ultra Magnus attacks the Temple of Knowledge in an attempt to destroy all of Cybertron.
 * December 02 - "Autobot Invasion - Magnus POV" - Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus launches an attack on the Temple of Knowledge.
 * December 18 - "New Designs" - Benin-Jeri ponders new designs for Dust Devil

2013

 * January 28 - "Pump-Felt Farewells" - Alpha Trion says good-bye to the Shattered Glass Decepticons and gathers the remaining Autobots to return to the main-universe Temple of Knowledge


 * February 18 - "It's All Fun and Games" - Alpha Trion Trusts His Life to a Human, and Benin-Jeri loses an optic


 * February 18 - "Dust Devil adjusts to his new body" - The above log, from Benin-Jeri's POV
 * February 25 - "Use the Force, Dust Devil!" - Benin-Jeri continues to help Dust Devil adjust to his new body.
 * March 11 - "Dust Devil Modifications" - Dust Devil tests out his new body modifications
 * October 10 - Shattered Glass Finale - Emperor Prime and his band of Shattered Glass Autobots make an assault through the last remaining portal linking their world and the main one.

2015

 * August 05 - "Guard Brawl" - Brawl torments Decepticon prisoner Dust Devil.
 * August 10 - "Autobots to the Rescue!" - Autobots, as well as neutrals from all over Praxus, have been captured and put to work in Internment Camp Pi. Springer has allowed himself to get captured to work from the inside, and before his inhibiter claw was affixed he was able to leak out information about the camp.
 * September 15 - "Trial of Jetfire, Day I" - First day of Jetfire’s trial for treason.

2016

 * March 17 - "Keeping Dust Devil Company" - Typhoon hangs out with Dust Devil while he repairs one of his fanblades.
 * March 25 - "Party in the medbay!" - Autobots and humans gather in the medbay.
 * April 27 - "Trion Square Memorial" - Dust Devil creates a memorial for his mentor.
 * July 12 - "Repair Bay Discussion" - Dust Devil comes in with yet another injury.
 * July 13 - "Deathknell: One in a Billion" - The Autobots have their prize, the Decepticons know what's going on. And Silent Grill looms. But to rid the world of the Dead Energon Sea, Dal Matia must be either slain or apprehended. Hope upon hope that a Decepticon can save the planet from its poisoning... THE FINALE OF DEATHKNELL, Part 1.
 * August 29 - "Against the Centurions" - Benin-Jeri and Dust Devil travel to the center of Cybertron.
 * August 30 - "Seeking Answers" - Dust Devil seeks out the wisdom of Vector Sigma.

Sep 01 - For those it may concern....
 I Dust Devil, most awesome ruler of....err wrong datapad. Ummm yeah Well me and Benin decided ta do a little road trip and go where no bot has gone before 10am this mornin. I went ta see a guy about what's been rockin and rollin with Cybers. Well disembodied voices aside, Alpha Trion and Vector Sigma say that yer plan actually worked. But that the planet is gonna do some more wigglin around before the reformattin is complete. We're ta stay the course and not bug out on the planet. So ummm if you have any questions and want verbatim what the old bot and the disco ball said, I'll see about writin it down. In the meantime, I need ta find some JB weld and duct tape fer Benin. Seems the Centurion bots still get annoyed with visitors when they don't call first.

October 30 - "Another Path"
While Spike attempts to help Quickswitch, Benin-Jeri and Dust Devil discuss going back to Cybertron.

2017

 * January 17 - "Visit to Vector Sigma" - Seaspray encounters the legendary super-computer Vector Sigma!
 * January 17 - "A Sign from Primus" - Bumblebee and Spike discuss what to do about the hidden Key to the Plasma Energy Chamber.
 * February 13 - "Do As I Say and Not As I Do" - Dust Devil and Zetar search for Vector Sigma.

Feb 14 - Dust Devil being Dust Devil
Dust Devil looks a bit more dusty than usual. There are newer scratches here and there, probably a couple small dents but on his face is a big smile. "Okay so I know that I should have actually spoken ta others and gotten better permission and all but I did talk with Red about it. And he did help me find someone ta do some diggin. Of course he was probably wantin me ta give him an actual time frame and all that but well...hey there's no time like the present right? So me and Zetar," Dust Devil moves so that you can see a digger class mech behind him looking around in the medical bay. "That's Zetar there...."

He moves back close to the camera and talks lower, "uh yeah he was just followin my orders so uhhh if you guys decide ta pull rank, just make sure it falls on me okay? Well Either way we went ta check out Vector Sigma. Apparently going THROUGH the rubble can be pretty darn handy when yer not able to slink around the back ways. Oh and we did try ta find some others ta help. But fer some reason they were all busy. So we went it alone. And well it is VERY much not safe down there. I don't suggest extra missions down there unless it's like life or death. His diggin skills and my forcefield kept us from becomin one with Cybertron in a very messy way. So well we're headin down and we can hear someone else diggin. After some listenin we figure out its Megatron. So I took the executive decision and decided that I didn't want ta see Megsy's ruby red optics if I could help it. That and I didn't want ta endanger Zetar so we modified our route ta take us away from them. Well...That was all well and good but then I can hear some transorganics. Oh yeah if you haven't had a tour of our planet, there's some rather powerful and grumpy critters that kinda like chewin on our kind. I really don't suggest further study unless you want an interior anatomy lesson the hard way. So here we are with that whole Rock and hard place or Fryin pan fire scenario that the humans talk about and I came up with a great idea. Zetar totally helped but we pretty much made ourselves a side route so that Megatron and the Things from beneath the surface could have a dinner date. We closed the route behind us and continued on. So finally we get near the chamber. There's no action from the Centurions. That was rather disconcerting...which after all the times I've been chased, you'd think I'd be happy. But no answer from Vector or Alpha or movement. Zetar starts diggin in closer and we find Vector. Vector has been damaged. Zetar got zapped and ummmmm someone a tad more qualified than me might want ta discuss his new look..." He points toward his optics and moves so that the camera can see that Zetar's optics are a rather nice shade of gold instead of blue. Dust Devil's visage reappears, "So I help Zetar up and we manage ta put a patch over Vector ta help protect Vector. Zetar said some things that well...changed my ideas of comin straight home. So I carefully had me and Zetar rebury Vector. Did my best ta cover our tracks..." He wipes some of the dust off his shoulder and looks at it with a grin before going back to his monologue. "And we went on our next adventure."

Feb 14 - Message to spike and higher-ups
Okay Next adventure this message is for Spike and any higher important type Autobots....well all of them except Red Alert. And yes I know Red Alert will end up readin this anyway. HAH! Hey Spike, when Zetar got zapped by Vector Sigma, he started actin a little bit off. But due to all the other weird stuff I've been around, I decided ta go with it and see where it went. Zetar said he thought he knew where the place was! And so without tellin anyone we were goin, we went! And it is there! But yer gonna have ta go. It isn't designed fer bot comfort! The cons were tryin ta get ta vector in case ya haven't read my last post. So I'm gonna just assume that they're pretty much on our heels. So get tagether with the others you think ya need. Oh...and ya might want ta see if there's like some bubblewrap we can put on ya ta make the trip a bit safer. And maybe some MRE's in case we're buried for month or so....I'll send ya a message fer any other useless stuff I think you might need.

February 20 - "Spidey-Sense Tingling"
Dust Devil opens up to Spike Witwicky.

February 24 - "A Surprise Pest"
Dust Devil stumbles upon Megatron's plans beneath Kalis.

Mar 02 - Reporting In
Dust Devil reporting in. Ummmm well I'm reporting on why I stopped us from bombing the engines. They are very touchy it seems. When the cons captured ze and asked me to surrender.. Well I threatened ta shoot the engines and the cons freaked out. So I'm pretty sure they were honest in that regard. I got them ta release z and also got them ta allow z ta confirm that we are indeed in a stable orbit. Or mostly stable. They only fire now ta minutely adjust and stabilize our orbit. I had a number of reasons ta not blow up the engines and ta not push the cons from them. Feel free to send hatemail to my inbox. Dust devil out.

March 21 - "Assault on Iacon"
Trypticon launches an assault on Iacon.

March 21 - "Epilogue: The Death of Zetar"
Bishop makes friends.

April 29 - "How A Resurrection Really Feels"
Dust Devil recruits Typhoon and Spike to give Zetar a final resting place. But given Dust Devil's close connections to a few friends, Zetar's demise may be short lived.

April 30 - "Goodbye, Spike Witwicky"
Dust Devil and Typhoon say goodbye to Spike Witwicky as he heads home from Cybertron.

May 3 - "The Return of Zetar"
Zetar returns, to Bishop's surprise and disbelief.

August 06 - "Planning"
The Autobots meet in Encore's Distillery to discuss their plans to disrupt the completion of the Decepticons' mega-refinery in Toraxxis.

December 18 - "Attack on Autobot City"
The Decepticons launch an attack on Autobot City.

2018

 * January 27 - "Dust Devil Defends Spike" - Dust Devil calls Crosscut out for not better supporting Spike Witwicky in Spike's duties as junior ambassador.
 * January 27 - "Ahoy Dust Devil!" - Dust Devil meets a pirate on Nebulos!
 * April 17 - "Attack on the Metal Plains" - The Decepticons are at it again, launching a massive campaign in an attempt of take over the manufacturing base of the newly-revitalized Cybertron. Only Elita's squad of plucky Autobots can stop Shockwave's relentless march to the west from Helex.
 * May 16 - "Forgemates" - Elita One finally gets something off her processor.
 * May 17 - "Invasion of Valvolux" - The Decepticons launch an assault on Valvolux.
 * May 21 - "Raid on Valvolux" - Overlord launches a surprise attack on Valvolux.
 * July 17 - "Poisoned!" - Dust Devil is poisoned! Scales and Backblast start looking for antidotes. Bulwark decides to go to the source.
 * July 30 - "Time to Call in Some Help" - Backblast and Scales are stumped, so they ask an expert to help.
 * November 10 - "Careful Conversation" - While repairing structures in Harmonex, its defenders trade some information without giving away too much.
 * November 15 - "Valvolux Briefing" - Elita One gets briefed on certain aspects of Bulwark.

Players
Dust Devil is played by his creator, fyrestorm8.

Tracker
Dust Devil has a non-sentient robot dog he called Tracker. No relation to the G.I. Joe SEAL of the same name. Tracker is Dust Devil/Stormfront's pet robotic canine.

Tracker Desc
Fleet, affectionate and cunning, this canine is truly man's best friend or in this case the Autobot Commander's best friend. Always with an affectionate glance to those who see him, Tracker is always good for a smile. He likes to play with his tail wagging wildly while barking. Silver grey and blue metal combine to form this creature who stands with his back at Stormfront's knee level. Don't you want to pet Tracker too?

Tracker is owned by Dust Devil

Timewarp TP
During the Timewarp TP, Dust Devil was replaced by an alternate future version of himself called Stormfront. Stormfront was a wise Autobot leader, and sometimes the Dust Devil of the present has flashes of his memories and images from the time he spent in Stormfront's future.

Shattered Glass
In the Shattered Glass universe, Dust Devil is called Stormfront. Stormfront was built by Alpha Trion to serve Optimus Prime, and remains a member of Prime's inner circle even after Trion himself was exiled.

Links

 * Dust Devil