DW - Energon #19-24

Plot

Ten years have passed since the battle with Unicron and Cybertron has been rebuilt as a peaceful world, however Optimus has a bad feeling about something and asks the High Council to develop an army again, just in case of war returning, however they refuse as they believe that since Megatron and Unicron are gone there are no more threats to the Transformers out there.

Elsewhere at an Energon Processing plant some Decepticons are working, but also seem to be agitated with the peace as well. Scorponok arrives and as his first point of business shoots Starscream into a processor, Tidal Wave, seeing the Decepticon is still alive goes to finish him off, but Starscream pulls him in with him, badly damaging him. Scorponok takes the remaining Decepticons with him through a Space Bridge whilst Starscream's body to crushed and processed.

Elsewhere Optimus goes to see Over-Run at one of the Mini-Con villages but is stopped by the Omnicons, who don't recognize him. Over-Run however agrees to see him, and tells Optimus about how he's been tapping into the planet itself, and Optimus can do so as well to find out the answers he needs about his concerns.

Scorponok and his Decepticons arrive inside Unicron's husk of a body where they meet with Alpha Quintesson who conscripts them into helping him collect Energon to help revive Unicron's body, in exchange he'll give them new "hyper modes", which gives them greater power and strength, which they agree to.

Optimus, Hot Shot and Ironhide arrive at one of the hub nodules Over-Run told Optimus about and he manages to connect with the planet and he witnesses the Decepticons on Unicron's body leaving through a Space Bridge to Earth, but also hears Megatron's voice warning him about what's happening. Optimus disconnects just before Alpha Quintesson sends out the Horsemen of Unicron into space.

In Australia, Earth, the Decepticons (Terrorcons) under Scorponok's command are attacking facilities and people, looking for Energon, and Kicker is caught in the middle of it. Carlos, in a satellite above the planet monitors the situation and tells Rad and Dr Jones at Alterenergy Mobile Command and they realize that the animal Transformers must be Decepticons. The Military are called in to attack the robots and pass over a protest group led by Alexis. Suddenly Kicker rides into the protestors on his bike, being chased by Battle Ravage.

Elsewhere, Dr Jones sends Rad out to look for Kicker, who he knows was in the area of the attack. The Terrorcons easily beat the Military, whilst Battle Ravage is blinded by Alexis' flare gun, whilst she and Kicker ride away.

On Cybertron Optimus talks to the Council again to tell them about what he saw about Earth, but they don't want to start a war again, but they permit him to go to Earth alone to check it out. Just as he's telling his team about it though, explosions start occuring outside as the Horsemen have arrived and are causing chaos.

During the battle with the Horsemen, Optimus recognizes them as some of the Transformers captured during the battle with Unicron, and evidently they have been brainwashed by Unicron into following him, and are now slaughtering the Cybertronians, and badly injure most of Optimus' team.

The Terrorcons continue their search for Energon and wonder where Battle Ravage is (he's still chasing Kicker and Alexis). On Cybertron the Autobots are saved from death by the Omnicons, who tell Optimus to uplink to Cybertron again, upon doing so he is upgraded into a new body and spreads the upgrade to his team, giving them the Spark of Combination, allowing them to combine in pairs and fight off the Horsemen.

The Horsemen receive word from Alpha Quintesson to return to Unicron, so they leave, after the battle Councillor Levitacus arrives and gives Optimus and his whole team permission to investigate Earth, given the recent attack here.

Battle Ravage returns to Scorponok and delivers Kicker and Alexis to him, where Scorponok scans them, and sees why the Terrorcon chased them for so long, Kicker has a strange Energon-like signature around him.

Scorponok explains that Kicker seems to be able to detect Energon, from the looks of his body signatures and tries to find out how he does it. Rad arrives nearby and notices Alexis is with Kicker. The Autobots Space Bridge over to Earth, and on the way Optimus hears Megatron again.

The Terrorcons start to tap into an Energon seam and power themselves up, and realize that Earth is teeming with Energon. The Autobots start to approach the site and are attacked by the Terrorcons, Rad meanwhile runs to save Alexis and Kicker, but is blocked by Battle Ravage, Rad contacts Carlos on the satellite and has him take remote control of his vehicle and ram it into the Energon siphon, causing it to explode.

Scorponok sees the explosion and has his team stop the attack and return to the site to try and scavenge any that's left.

The weakened Optimus lays there and hears Megatron calling for him to come to him.

The Terrorcons attack the Alterenergy Command to make Kicker work with them to locate another Energon seam. Rad and Alexis are running back towards the Command when they run into the Autobots, reuniting with their old friends.

The Terrorcons have been taken to another seam and start to siphon it off when the Autobots arrive again and a full-out battle ensues, during the battle Tidal Wave is guarding Kicker in his cage when Hot Shot and Strongarm arrive, attack Tidal Wave and free Kicker, who then warns the Autobots to leave the area now, as it's going to get hot around here soon. They leave and Tidal Wave starts to attack them, when suddenly the Energon, which turns out to be impure explodes.

The battle between the Terrorcons and Autobots ends abruptly when the Horsemen pull them out of the battle through Space Bridges, as Alpha Quintesson is displeased with their failure at securing the Energon. Everyone reunites and the Autobots announce that they plan on staying on Earth for the meanwhile.

Later, on Cybertron, Ironhide is overseeing the construction of some base units for transport to Earth, but is being stalked by Tidal Wave, who attacks him and Cliffjumper, threatening to kill his friend if he doesn't do something for him.

Jetfire wonders where Ironhide has gone and goes to look for him, finding Cliffjumper injured and off the road, but alive still. Tidal Wave has Ironhide get him some Seismic Shock Warheads that were stockpiled by Megatron in the past, to use on Earth now, but Ironhide reneges on him and turns on the warhead now, threatening to kill them both. Tidal Wave gets pummeled by Ironhide, but runs away in a Space Bridge to safety before Jetfire arrives, and Ironhide reveals that it was a dud warhead, impressing Jetfire with his quick thinking.

Characters

Autobot

Optimus Prime - Vehicle Transport (Formerly Truck)

Hot Shot - Sports Car

Inferno - Fire Engine

Ironhide - Van

Jetfire - Space Shuttle
Arcee - Motorcycle
Strongarm - Jeep
Signal Flare - Satellite Truck
Skyblast - Jet

Rodimus - Truck Cab

Landmine - Armoured Tow-Plough

Cliffjumper - Buggy
Prowl - F1 Police Car
Red Alert - Emergency SUV
Hoist - Excavator
Scavenger - Bulldozer
Alpha Trion
Councillor Levitacus
Councillor Avalon
High Council

Decepticon
Megatron - Tank Body Destroyed, trapped inside Unicron
Scorponok - Scorpion Tank/Jet
Tidal Wave - Battleship
Battle Ravage - Jaguar
Divebomb - Falcon
Cruellock - Raptor
Insecticon - Beetle
Thrust - Fighter Jet
Demolishor - Battle Tank
Cyclonus - Helicopter
Starscream - Fighter Jet Killed by Scorponok

Horsemen of Unicron

Rhinox/War - Rhino

Airazor/Death - Eagle

Cheetor/Pestilence - Cheetah

Terrorsaur/Famine - Pteranodon

Mini-Con

Over-Run - Jet

Human

Chad "Kicker" Jones

Rad

Alexis

Carlos

Dr Jones
Other Humans

Other

Alpha Quintesson

Unicron - Ringed Planet Body Dead

Other Cybertronians

Notes

• One of the civilians on Cybertron looks like Cybertron series Shortround's alternate mode
• Optimus is still in his Armada body at the start of this story, as well as the Decepticons, but none of the other characters who return are (if they have new bodies that is, like Hot Shot or Jetfire)
• The Omnicons were created by Over-Run, who has been tapping into Cybertron itself to manipulate the Cybertronian evolutionary process
• This story shows that after Megatron was blasted into the depths of Unicron he was torn apart by Unicron's internal systems and had his consciousness split from his now useless body, but when Unicron was killed, Megatron started building himself a new body, but is unable to enter it alone...