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What Lies Beneath, Part Two

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Light our darkest... you know the rest
"What Lies Beneath, Part Two"
Publisher Dreamwave Productions
First published March 31, 2004
Cover date March, 2004
Writer Simon Furman
Pencils Joe Ng
Inks Elaine To
Colors David Cheung, Jong-Im Lee
Letters Ben Lee
Continuity Dreamwave Armada continuity

On the brink of defeat, Optimus Prime utilizes the power of the Spark of Combination to drive back the Four Horsemen.

Contents

Synopsis

The Autobots desperately try to fight back against Unicron's Four Horsemen, but with little effect. Hot Shot asks who they are, and Optimus Prime says that he knows who they were, and how hopelessly optimistic he was to think they had been killed in the battle with Unicron. Though they fight bravely, they are ultimately defeated, as War tells Optimus he is ignorant as to how powerful he could be, and that they will all die screaming, and with the, the Earth.

On Earth, the Terrorcons have set up their energon collection rig. A bored Scorponok asks Divebomb to hurry up, but the flier tells him if the energon rate flucuates even the tiniest bit then... "boom". Scorponok tells him to be as fast as possible, before musing about what their new forms would do with an infusion of pure energon, much to Tidal Wave's confusion, since he thought they were supposed to deliver all of Earth's energon to Unicron. Scorponok tells him he's revised the terms: They're taking the energon, the chaos bringer gets what's left. He asks where Battle Ravage is, and Tidal Wave says that he's not answering his recall signal, which means he must be hunting something. That something is Alexis and Kicker, who are trying to outrun the catbot on motorbike, but the terrain works against them. A stray rock knocks them over, and Battle Ravage pounces...

Back on Cybertron, the Autobots are falling to the Horsemen, one by one. War prepares to finish Optimus himself, only to be interrupted by the arrival of the Omnicons, whose energon-based weaponry turns out to be highly effective against the Horsemen. Strongarm tells Optimus Prime that Cybertron has something for him, but Optimus protests. The last time he did that was at a pre-arranged site in the south pole, and there isn't enough time now. Strongarm sets him straight: That was an arrangement, to get him to open his eyes. He's a Prime - anywhere will do. And sure enough, he summons Alpha Trion again. The ancient mechanoid declares that Cybertron is under extreme threat, and tells him to prepare for an upgrade. Before Optimus can protest, he and his fallen troops are imbued with the Spark of Combination. Understanding, Optimus powerlinks with his new drones, while his troops combine to fight the Horsemen off.

As reinforcements arrive, the Horsemen are recalled, with War declaring they'll be ready next time. Optimus just vows that so will they. Hot Shot takes stock of the casaulties, and remarks that at least everything's over, but Optimus says it's not. The Horsemen were just a distraction. They need to get to Earth now. Fortunately, Levitacus arrives at that very instant to tell him they have one ready and waiting. It seems Cybertron has declared war, and Earth is the battlefield.

Back at the ruins of the Alterenergy site, Battle Ravage returns with a captive Alexis and Kicker. Scorponok takes a look at the human teenager, and sees that the boy is the key to unlimited power...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots Decepticons Humans Others

Omnicons

Terrorcons

Quotes

"WE ARE HARBINGERS OF THE DARKNESS THAT WILL CONSUME YOU ALL, THE FIRE AND FURY OF CHAOS UNBOUND. HIS WILL IS OURS, AND THIS FUTILE BID TO THWART HIS NINTH EMERGENCE...MUST DIE WITH YOU."

—War/Rhinox lays it on thick


"Planetary stability is under extreme threat. Prepare for system-wide upgrade..."
"But--"
"Prepare to receive the Spark of Combination..."
"HH!"
"The fate of many worlds depends on you, Optimus Prime...do not falter!"

—Alpha Trion invokes the power of Hasbro on Optimus Prime


"Guess it's you and me, Ironhide. A wise head...on young shoulders!"

—Jetfire and Ironhide's first link-up

Notes

Continuity notes

  • Up until now in the comics continuity, Optimus being called Prime has just been his name (or rank), with no implication there was anything particularly special about this. War and Strongarm's comment that as a Prime, Optimus should have all sorts of powers beyond those of ordinary 'bots brings Primehood more in line with previous continuities, where being a Prime is a big deal. Where was Furman going with this? Good question, since the idea doesn't come up again for the rest of the series.
  • Optimus had his encounter with "Sig-Omega" back in issue #19
  • Powers and abilities:
    • Famine has the ability to drain energy/life force from others.
    • Pestilence fires off spikes from his beast mode back.
    • War is strong enough to backhand Optimus in his vehicle mode hard enough to put a dent in Optimus' grill. A newly upgraded Optimus is strong enough to crack his crown... thingie with one punch.
    • Arcee can fire a homing arrow from her vehicle mode's exhaust pipe.
  • Powerlinx forms:
    • Hot Shot and Inferno.
    • Jetfire and Ironhide.

Transformers references

Real-world references

  • War paraphrases Shakespeare, Julius Caesar specifically, when he yells out "cry havoc and let slip the beasts of the apocalypse".

Furminated

  • Several generics die at the hands of the Horsemen.

Errors

  • Optimus refers to Inferno as "Nferno" on page 5.
  • When Optimus Prime receives his drones, "Op 3" is penciled on to the drill, likely done while penciling the issue and mistakenly not erased. "Op 2" is also penciled on the helicopter drone, but is trickier to see because the rotors are in the way.

Other trivia

  • Readers' mail is answered by Roger Lee and includes fan art.
  • The Wavelengths page advertises "Megatron Month" and contains an article from the desk of Joe Ng.

Covers (1)

  • Optimus Prime and Unicron's Horsemen, art by Guido Guidi.

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