Following the disappearance of the Lost Light and the evacuation of the crew, twenty 'bots cram themselves into the Rodpod: Megatron, Crosscut, Skids, Gears, Blaster, Getaway, Nautica, Ammo, Huffer, Chromedome, Swerve, Hoist, Nightbeat, Riptide, Tailgate, Dipstick, Cyclonus, Hound, Ratchet, and Highbrow. When Nautica inquires as to the origins of the now-vanished ship, Riptide recounts how he, Pipes, and Drift purchased the vessel from a pair of chirolingual NAILs in Iacon's religious quarter, naming it after the Festival of Lost Light, which was taking place there at the time. Though Megatron tries to make the group focus on their present predicament, Nautica persists with her train of thought and highlights the abnormality of the ship and the power of its quantum generators. At Ammo's request, she tries to explain to the befuddled crew how quantum engines are essentially powered by the improbability of their own function, concluding with the theory that the ship was so advanced that it "proved itself impossible." Megatron is less concerned with the how of the ship's disappearance, but rather with what to do next; at that moment, Blaster receives a transmission from Rodimus on a neighboring shuttle, informing them that they will be making for the nearby lectureworld of Ofsted XVII in Sector 113.

After a crew headcount, Crosscut is telling Cyclonus about his latest play when the lights suddenly go out. When power returns a second later, Crosscut has vanished mid-sentence, and Tailgate, full of false bravado after all the praise he has received lately, draws a gun on Megatron, blaming him for Crosscut's apparent death. Cyclonus and Ratchet try to talk the tiny 'bot down, but Megatron's reaction goes from bemusement to anger when Tailgate proposes locking him up, and he draws a weapon of his own. This prompts Riptide to add his weapon to the growing standoff, and when Cyclonus tries to calm everyone down, Huffer and Gears, never having trusted the ancient Cybertronian, both draw on him. Hound then appears to level his own weapon at Nautica, but it quickly becomes apparent that he is actually aiming at the lurking Ravage, who pounces from the shadows just as the lights go out once more. Megatron fires into the darkness and subdues the feline; as the lights flick back on, he claims not to know why Ravage is there, but whether that is true or not is called into question as he secretly communicates chirolinguistically with the cat-bot, telling him to play dead.

The discovery of Ravage defuses the standoff, but Nautica soon observes that more disappearances have taken place in the darkness: Gears, Blaster, Huffer, Chromedome, Hound, and Highbrow have now also vanished. Nightbeat dedicates himself to determining the pattern by which 'bots are being taken, and, reminded of Tyrest and his plan by Cyclonus, decides to begin by figuring out which of those present are constructed cold, like himself, and which are forged. Megatron refuses to divulge that information, but a pattern seems to be emerging as Getaway, Dipstick, and Ammo reveal that they are "Made To Order soldiers"—second-generation constructed cold, created during wartime from the spark stockpile—until Ratchet points out that he and several others present are forged, and several of the disappeared were constructed cold. As Nightbeat withdraws into detective mode, the others begin talking amongst themselves; after Ammo, Riptide, and Getaway tell Nautica about the "Ten-Step Program" that MTOs had to pass in order to be declared "world-ready" (which Riptide hated), Ratchet chimes in about the high percentage of MTOs who claim to have had mystical experiences, which he professes are neurological hallucinations that are a product of their virtually-newborn senses. Swerve takes offense, pointing out that faith isn't a new idea, but Skids counters that with a brief lecture on a condition known to affect robotic lifeforms known as "information creep"—the corruption of brain data that

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