The New Battle Begins!

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	"The New Battle Begins!" {{#if: 新たなる戦いが始まる!\| 新たなる戦いが始まる! {{#if: Aratanaru Tatakai ga Hajimaru!\|; (Aratanaru Tatakai ga Hajimaru!)}} {{#if:\|; ""}}}}
Publisher	Takara}}
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First published	July 15, 2004}}
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Illustrated by	Hidetsugu Yoshioka}}
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{{#switch:{{#sub:|2|14}}|dark cybertron=}}

A new war across time begins!

Synopsis

It is the year 2004. With the permission of the Earth's governments, the Autobots have begun work on their Scramble City construction project in a remote mountainous area. Their work is interrupted by a sudden attack from the Decepticons. Optimus Prime rushes out of the city's command center to engage the attackers, but is surprised to see something new among the typical military-themed Decepticons: Dinosaurs!

With a cry of "Terrorize!", one dinosaur changes form and reveals its true identity: "Beast Megatron"! He and others of a new generation have come to present-day Earth via a spacetime portal called the Blastizone, and now seek to possess the new Cybertronian mineral called Solitarium. The Autobots had planned to use this mineral to activate the great fortress at the core of their Scramble City Plan, but what nefarious use the Decepticons have in store for Solitarium remains a mystery.

Later, during a confrontation between Optimus Prime and Beast Megatron, a rush of memories suddenly flows into Prime's mind—memories of Transformers the likes of which he has never seen before. This is immediately followed by the equally-sudden appearance of an energy vortex that swirls around and encircles Prime's body. The vortex soon dissipates, revealing the miraculous appearance of Optimus Primal!

Beast Megatron is taken aback by the unexpected arrival of his arch-nemesis, while the two Optimuses shake hands and form a united front against Megatron. The battle for the new century has begun!

Featured characters

{{#if:*R-Blade (1)

Optimus Prime (2)
Mirage (4)
Optimus Primal (10)|| style="background:#ffdddd;" valign="top" |
R-Blade (1)
Optimus Prime (2)
Mirage (4)
Optimus Primal (10) }}{{#if:*Beast Megatron (3)
Wrecker Hook (5)
Wingstun (6)
Air Hunter (7)
Psycho-Orb (8)
Starscream (9)|

Autobots }}{{#if:*Beast Megatron (3) Wrecker Hook (5) Wingstun (6) Air Hunter (7) Psycho-Orb (8) Starscream (9)\|	Decepticons }}{{#if:\|	Humans }}{{#if:\|	Others }}{{#if:\|	Misc }}{{#if:\|	Misc }}
Beast Megatron (3) Wrecker Hook (5) Wingstun (6) Air Hunter (7) Psycho-Orb (8) Starscream (9) }}{{#if:\|	}}{{#if:\|	}}{{#if:\|	}}{{#if:\|	}}

Notes

Continuity notes

The first half of this story is a retelling of events from Chapter 1 of the online comic, in which the Decepticons (led by Beast Megatron) launched an attack on Autobot City, and during which Optimus Prime met Beast Megatron for the first time.
The "Scramble City" project referenced here is the construction of Autobot City on Earth, first seen 1986's The Transformers: The Movie, which this story is set a year before in 2004. The name "Scramble City" is often the name of the Autobot Metroplex's City Mode in Japanese media, but here it is instead used as alternate name for Autobot City itself (as was occasionally the case in 1980s Japanese media).
The "great fortress" alluded to in this story is actually Brave Maximus from the Car Robots series, whose toy was rereleased in the Robotmasters toyline as a contest prize.
The second half of the story is a later event set chronologically between Chapters #3 and #4 of the online comic. The events of #3 end with a foreshadowing of the formal meeting between Optimus Prime and Optimus Primal, which finally happens here. However, see "Errors" below.
The memories that flow into Optimus Prime's mind are those of the Beast Wars series, in which Prime was seemingly reactivated for a few seconds in the episode "Optimal Situation".
Elements this story were adapted into the Robotmasters cartoon episode, "Fight! The Group of the Strongest Commanders!". Much of its artwork and narrative text were also used for the opening of the second episode, "Lio Convoy Storms In".

Errors

This may be due to a bit of ambiguous phrasing, but the text describing Beast Megatron and his "new generation" of troops originating from "Energoa" kind of implies that all of his Decepticon underlings were originally Predacons who came to 2004 Earth from the Beast Wars, when the larger Robotmasters storyline would confirm this to only be true for Beast Megatron and Psycho-Orb. The text is also certain that there were multiple "dinosaurs" among the Decpeticon forces, when Beast Megatron is the only dinosaur on the team. This could be the remnant of a discarded early concept for the line, with more Beast Wars/Beast Era characters intended to cross over with the Generation 1 cast before plans changed, or simply a confusing choice of words.
While it is not explicit, the text seems to strongly imply that the energy vortex that appeared right before Optimus Primal entered the scene was meant to be the very means through which Primal had arrived on Earth in the year 2004, when Chapter 3 of the online comics instead depicts him as having arrived in 2004 via a Blastizone portal, before Primal and Prime had their first meeting. But since this story was first released over two weeks before Chapter 3, and was made by a different creator from the main author of the RobotMasters comics, it isn't surprising that a few small differences were made between the two. If nothing else, the description of the energy vortex is vague enough that it could be read as merely a dramatic effect for Optimus Primal's entrance.

References

Scans of "The New Battle Begins!" at FantoFan (archived)
Translation of "The New Battle Begins!" at Ben's World of Transformers (archived)
Complete archive of "The New Battle Begins!"

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