Spark (Transformers) - Transformers Animated

Transformers Animated

In this new series, the AllSpark plays a similar role to its 2007 film counterpart (although Starscream mentions "The Well of All Sparks" in one episode, implying that the afterlife from Beast Machines still exists in this continuity). It is the source of all Transformers' life (In the episode "Blast From the Past", Ratchet states that the Cybertronian race is over 10 billion solar cycles (years) old). Megatron states he shall use its power as an ultimate weapon to crush the Autobots. In order to end the Great War (shown in the series debut as 'historical' clips from the 1984 G1 series), the Autobots cast the AllSpark into a space bridge network gate to a random destination somewhere in the galaxy, thereby preventing the Decepticons from getting it. This ends the war, and finally allows the Autobots to drive the Decepticons off of Cybertron and into exile. Unlike the live-action film, it is in the shape of a round sphere, rather than a square cube.

In the series pilot "Transform and Roll Out!", four million years have passed since the AllSpark was intentionally lost. A young Optimus Prime, now featured as an ambitious washout from the Autobot Academy, and his maintenance crew accidentally come across it while clearing asteroids away from another space bridge gate. At that same moment, the Decepticon warship Nemesis appears, carrying Megatron and his crew aboard as they search for the AllSpark. A battle ensues, and the damaged Autobot ship eventually crashes on Earth. 50 years later, a young human girl named Sari Sumdac manages to convince Bumblebee to take her aboard the repair ship so that she can secretly see more of the Autobots. When Bumblebee tries to hide Sari to avoid suspicion, she comes across the dormant AllSpark in the ship's cargo hold. Opening itself up, the AllSpark bestows some of its own powers onto Sari Sumdac's security key, one of which allows the card to recognize when an Autobot is injured, and initiate seemingly-impossible repairs (according to field-medic Ratchet), which reformats it into a Cybertronian key. However, it cannot repair damage inflicted by organic substances, such as Blackarachnia's poison. The card also demonstrates the ability to bring a Cybertronian - specifically Optimus Prime - instantly back to life, with no signs of trauma or the passage of time. The re-formatted key card acts as a super-advanced multi-tool, which can deal with many types of technology and situations by instantly reconfiguring itself for whatever and whenever Sari or another Autobot needs it. Sari's key card also shows an ability to detect Cybertronians, Cybertronian technology, and later, fragments of the AllSpark by emitting a glow. Later on, Starscream manages to take the AllSpark - according to the new series, the first Decepticon ever to do so - and he uses it to create powerful blasts which can destroy entire city blocks. However, within an hour, the Autobots manage to recover it, and the power of the AllSpark itself drives Starscream away. The AllSpark Key demonstrates the ability to bestow a Spark onto Earth technology, much as it did in the "Transformers" film. This is seen in the Dinobot incident when, by accident, Sari Sumdac's key card boosts the effect Bumblebee's electric shocks as he and Ratchet attempt to shut down the rampaging Dinobots, giving them true life as a result. A similar, and direct, result was seen in the creation of Soundwave.

In "Along Came A Spider", Blackarachnia attempted to use the key card after taking it from Sari, in order to purge the organic elements from her techno-organic body. The key sent out energy waves into the surrounding city, sucking the life out of everything within range and causing them to age at a highly rapid rate. But this proved nearly fatal to Blackarachnia, due to her organic elements being a vital part of herself. When the key card was removed, the organic life in the area was restored. After realizing the potential of Sari's key card and her carelessness in using it, in "Lost and Found", Megatron instructed Lugnut (and thus Blitzwing) to capture Sari's Key. However, they, too, were disabled by the Autobots before they could complete their task.

In the two-part season finale, Blitzwing manages to steal the key from Ratchet who, in turn, was ordered to take it from Sari and used it to complete Megatron's body. Megatron then uses the key card's power to punch Starscream for his betrayal at the beginning of the series; an act which put the Decepticon backstabber immediately out of action for the remainder of the episode. Then, with the key card integrated into himself, he uses it to find the real AllSpark. During the battle, Optimus Prime and Megatron fall into the Autobot's maintenance ship, and the same cargo bay where the hexagonal artifact is resting. Megatron then uses the key card to open the AllSpark containment vessel, and extract the round, glowing sphere so he can merge it with his own spark, an action which, by contrast, had devastating consequences for the alternate character Megatron in the live-action film. Intending to use his new-found power to begin his conquest, Sari found that her key card had been released from the Decepticon's body, and she threw it to Optimus Prime, who used it to create a super-charged punch, which threw Megatron out of the ship, and made the AllSpark explode in a shower of blue light. (Prime's super punch is shown as mirroring the one that Megatron used on Starscream earlier). Sari later confronts the AllSpark in the Autobot's ship, asking it in frustration why it is that it chose her to wield the key card since she was not a Cybertronian. A moment later, in response, the AllSpark opens itself up, and displays a holographic projection of a human DNA strand mixed with a Cybertronian spark, which is later hinted to be Sari's physical makeup. While the AllSpark itself was dispersed by Optimus Prime's actions later on, the geometrically-shaped container vessel that carried it is assumed to still be in the cargo bay, deprived of its powers.

Optimus later speculated that the explosion had not outright destroyed the AllSpark but rather dispersed its power for what may be a limited time; which meant that Sari's key card was now the most important and valuable Cybertronian artifact. What is also known is that Megatron's new body survived the explosion intact with moderate damage, but he managed to kidnap Prof. Sumdac in the final moments of the episode. In the episodes to follow, shards of the AllSpark appear in various locations, either bringing new Transformers to life or being used by the newly immortal Starscream, as well as elements of Detroit's criminal underworld.

The first fragment was in one of Isaac Sumdac's robots while he was working on Megatron's Space Bridge. It went haywire and the Decepticons thought it was Sumdac, so Megatron blasted it and found a fragment in what was left of the arm. It was later used to power Megatron's Space Bridge. The second fragment was in the police drone assembly line at a Sumdac System warehouse. The third fragment was inside Starscream's head. It not only brought him back to life since his Spark was extinguished at the end of Season One by Megatron, but endowed him with a form of rapid healing abilities and immortality. Starscream later used chips of this fragment to give life to his clone legions. The fourth fragment was in a truck that Starscream later planted on a train to lure out Megatron. The fifth fragment gave life to Wreck-Gar. The sixth fragment was in Master Disaster's remote. The seventh and eighth fragments gave life to the Constructicons Scrapper and Mixmaster at the same time. The ninth fragment was in Slo-Mo's timepiece. The tenth fragment fused a Headmaster unit and a forklift together creating Dirt Boss. The eleventh fragment had been dispersed and was reassembled by Prowl's processor-over-matter technique. The AllSpark fragments recovered by the Autobots were used in the season two finale "A Bridge Too Close" to restore Omega Supreme to life.

In the season three opening special, Sari, discovering that she was a techno-organic being, used the key to upgrade herself into a teenage, combat-equipped form. The act drained all the key's energies, placing them into Sari, causing her to overload, requiring Ratchet's EMP generator to temporarily shut her down. In later episodes, Sari demonstrates abilities similar to that of her deactivated AllSpark Key, such as calibrating a Space Bridge's control panel, which may indicate that it was no longer needed. In "Endgame" season finale, when the Lugnut Supremes are reprogramed by Starscream to activate their self-destruct protocols, Prowl and Jazz used Processor Over Matter to reassemble the AllSpark, hoping to use its power to contain the explosion. However, they would only be able to make it half way, as Prowl decides to use his own spark to complete it, sacrificing himself and dying in the process. The completed AllSpark is later seen around Optimus' neck, in a container resembling that of the Matrix of Leadership.