The War Within issue 4

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Writer: Simon Furman Pencils: Don Figueroa Inks: Elaine To Lettering: Dreamer Design Colors: Rob Ruffolo Colors: Alan Wang


 * Preceded by: The War Within, Part 3
 * Followed by: The War Within, Part 5
 * Release date: January 8, 2003
 * Characters (in order of appearance): Optimus, Starscream, Shockwave, Motormaster, Megatron, Grimlock,  Kup
 * Chronology: Early War

Synopsis
After falling several (thousand?) feet down the chasm, Prime lies unconscious. When he's awakened by a magical disembodied voice telling him about Cybertron, he wonders whatever happened to Megatron. Prime makes another attempt at looking within himself again, when Megatron arrives onto the scene. Megatron attacks, hoping to get Prime to surrender his Matrix.

Over the remains of the Forum Of Enlightenment, Grimlock meets up with his running crew and begins to explain how the idea is to let the Decepticons conquer Iacon while the Autobot army scatters, taking out Decepticons who expect the Autobots to be too busy defending their capital. Meanwhile, Grimlock's crew use lines to go downwards, where Optimus was last seen.

In Megatron's absence, Starscream takes his throne at Kaon. The takeover doesn't sit right with Shockwave who is too busy leading the Decepticon army against several Gaurdian robots to object to the change in leadership. Taking information from Laserbeak, Starscream verifies Megatron's belief about Cybertron having a deeper geography. However Starscream plans to use this hidden aspect of Cybertron in a radically different manner than Megatron intended.

Megatron beats around Optimus, explaining how he needs The Matrix as a component to his "Make Cybertron into mobile dreadnought" plan. Prime isn't such a fan of the idea. The two battle (in a familar manner), and Megatron gains the upper hand, reaching into Prime to seize The Matrix.

When the light fades, Optimus and Megatron fight themselves somewhere different.

Quotes
Megatron:
 * "Shee-ah!
 * Too much, I can't--
 * No! this is madness. where...."

Optimus Prime:
 * "...Are we?"

Items of note

 * Motormaster is brown instead of grey.
 * This issue contains advertisements for:
 * The War Within, Part 5
 * Titan Books collections.
 * Transformers posters
 * Generation 1: Volume 2