Editing Infiltrate the Mystery Island!

{{Comicstory|
|seriesissue =''[[Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers (manga)|Beast Wars II: Super Lifeform Transformers]]'' Mission-002
|prev    = Demolish the Superdreadnought Tank!
|next    = Free the Captured Matrix!
|title    = "Infiltrate the Mystery Island!"
|japanese  = 神秘島に潜入せよ!
|romaji   = Nazo-to ni Sennyū Seyo!
|image    = bwii-lioconovy-manga-02-nightmare.jpg
|caption   = It's [[Customizing|kitbashing]] time!
|publisher  = ''[[Comic BomBom]]''
|date    = July 1998
|coverdate = August 1998
|story    = [[Shōji Imaki]]
|art     = [[Shōji Imaki]]
|continuity = ''Beast Wars'' manga continuity
}}

'''Lio Convoy confronts Galvatron at an interesting island.'''

==Synopsis==
Skyscrapers crumble in a mysterious city as myriad [[Transformer|Cybertronians]], clad in suit jackets and ties, evacuate. One bot pauses, gazing skyward to see the shadow of a giant dragon approaching. Overhead hovers [[Galvatron (BW)|Galvatron]] in his draconic [[beast mode]]. Skeletal building frameworks and one [[Tokyo Tower|very familiar tower]] erupt into conflagration below.

The dragon places its claw on a nearby building, populated with terrified bots, crushing the skyscraper to pieces. Letting out a mighty screech, the dragon opens its jaws wider and wider to reveal the emerging face of...[[Lio Convoy]]?! A seeming combination of Lio Convoy and Galvatron, with the former's upper body and the latter's wings, shouts in apparent agony before the flames. 

Lio Convoy awakens at Maximal Headquarters from what he assures himself has been a terrible dream. Hearing a voice bid him to come to its presence, Lio Convoy embarks on a shuttle into the night. Meanwhile, the [[Predacon (BW)|Predacons]] are hard at work outside the parked [[Galvaburg II]] constructing a new base of frontline operations, which [[Megastorm]] insists on his brother Galvatron's behalf must be completed by morning! The [[Autoroller (BW)|Autorollers]] complain about the situation, but [[Starscream (BW)|Starscream]] insists they're almost done—if they would just stop grumbling.

Megastorm is delighted that construction looks to be completed ahead of schedule when Galvatron, in drill-tank form, crushes through the outer walls, continuing out over the ocean, bringing his troops' hard work to naught. Megastorm is perplexed by his brother's sudden voyage.

Lio Convoy arrives in beast mode at a small island where he finds the remains of a city, along with a scrap of paper on the ground bearing illegible ancient writing (Japanese ''hiragana'' characters). He feels a presence sneak up behind him, removing one robot-mode arm from his lion mode to aim a weapon at...[[Tasmania Kid]]? His subordinate, noting Lio Convoy's nighttime sojourn and feeling concern for his leader, has followed behind in secret.

Lio Convoy explains that he has been called to the island by a force he himself doesn't fully explain. However, he recognizes the city as the one from his dream. He and Tasmania Kid climb the ruins of the distinctive tower he saw in his vision to gain a better view. They spot a beam of light emerging from a crack in the ground in the distance. Deciding it must have something to do with the planet's [[Angolmois Energy|mysterious energy]], the two investigate.

Journeying into a subway tunnel bearing a sign for {{w|Gokoku-ji}} Station, the pair continue following stronger and stronger energy readings until they emerge in a clearing. The train tracks stop at a cliff's edge, giving way to a vast expanse of mechanical paneling with the pattern of an enormous dragon etched into its center.

Lio Convoy is unsure what the symbol represents but is positive they've come across an ancient energy plant once used to harvest the planet's Angolmois Energy. Just then they hear the rumbling of what they worry may be a subway train back to life after ages of disuse. However, it turns out to be the vehicular form of Galvatron, barreling down the tracks!

Tasmania Kid dodges out of the way in the nick of time, as Lio Convoy and Galvatron begin battle. Galvatron notes that their current location is one he has seen in his dreams! Lio Convoy is shocked that the two of them have shared the same vision, but meets the towering Predacon's incoming punch by sinking his teeth into Galvatron's elbow and transforming into robot mode with the limb still in his shoulder-mounted lion head's grip. The handling of multiple modes in combat impresses both Tasmania Kid and Galvatron, though the latter is determined to rise to the challenge. Whipping his dragon-mode tail over his robot-mode hand, achieving an intermediary mode known as as "[[creature mode]]"—current variation: Dragon Arm. He smacks Lio Convoy away.

Galvatron believes the two of them have been called by the city's sleeping "power," making them chosen ones. Held aloft between Galvatron's arm-mounted tails, Lio Convoy rotates his feet around to use his rear lion paws to kick his way free of his opponent's grasp.

Meanwhile, at Maximal Headquarters, [[Apache]] is perturbed to find their leader missing, as Lio Convoy left no report before heading out. [[Bighorn]] and [[Diver (BW)|Diver]] assure him Lio Convoy has simply gone out for some night air and will be back soon. They resolve to enjoy some fireworks since they're up. As the first bursts go off overhead, Apache admits that he may simply have been worrying too much on account of a dream he had about Lio Convoy battling Galvatron...

Swapping to his dragon-mode legs in another variation of creature mode—Dragon Leg—Galvatron lands a scarring blow across Lio Convoy's face and chest. A following blast from his knee guns sends the Maximal leader tumbling to the ground. As Galvatron moves in for the kill with his bladed tail weapon, Tasmania Kid intervenes, blocking the strike with an energy beam emitted from his wrist-mounted cannon.

Galvatron asks Tasmania Kid if the small Maximal intends to best him in a contest of strength, but Tasmania Kid has no intention of doing so, turning his cannon on Galvatron's face instead. The blow angers Galvatron but does not defeat him. As Tasmania Kid rushes to Lio Convoy's aid, he is met with a strike from behind by a third variation of Galvatron's creature mode—Galdrill—achieved by tucking his legs to his chest while his vehicle-mode drill activates from below his torso. Galvatron's drill bores through Tasmania Kid, scattering his the Maximal to the ground as a gnarled torso and four separate limbs. 

Lio Convoy, enveloped in an aura of visible anger, lets loose with both lion-mane- and wrist-mounted cannons at Galvatron in a "Lion Missile Typhoon Attack."

Galvatron is wounded by the blast, but just then multiple pillars of energy erupt from the floor. Lio Convoy surmises that the shockwaves from their battle have destabilized the Angolmois Energy below.

Galvatron, having been baptized by a beam of light, feels more ready to fight than ever, in spite of his injuries. Transforming to dragon mode, the Predacon leader, now brimming with energy, vows to begin their battle anew.

==Featured characters==
{{featuredcharacters
|h1=[[Maximal]]s|c1=
*[[Lio Convoy]] (1)
*[[Apache]] (2)
*[[Tasmania Kid]] (3)
*[[Diver (BW)|Diver]] (12)
*[[Bighorn]] (13)

|h2=[[Predacon (BW)|Predacon]]s|c2=
* [[Megastorm]] (4)
*[[Autocrusher]] (5)
*[[Autostinger]] (6)
*[[Autojetter]] (7)
*[[Autolauncher]] (8)
* [[Starscream (BW)|Starscream]] (9)
* [[BB (BW)|BB]] (10)
* [[Galvatron (BW)|Galvatron]] (11)
}}

==Notes==
* This chapter heavily promotes the ability of the toys to achieve intermediary modes via use of beast- and vehicle-mode components in robot mode or vice versa—from Lio Convoy drawing a gun on Tasmania Kid with his robot mode arm protruding from under his lion mane, to use of his lion-mode feet in combat, to Galvatron's various "creature mode" variations, each of the latter helpfully identified via disembodied narration. The introduction of Galvatron's first "creature mode" even explains that this is the term for these intermediary monstrosities, and that you, the reader, can recreate them with the [[toy]]s! Helpful!
* Whether or not Lio Convoy's use of beast-mode parts in robot-centric combat also counts as having "creature modes" is unclarified, though tellingly no narration identifying them as such accompanies their appearance. Galvatron is the only creature around here!
* This chapter heralds a shift from its many [[Generation 1]] [[TV Magazine#Manga|''TV Magazine'' predecessors]] in ending on a cliffhanger mid-battle, a move rarely employed by previous Transformers manga series—which function universally as episodic affairs even when employing gestures to inter-chapter continuity. As ''Beast Wars II'''s own [[Demolish the Superdreadnought Tank!|first chapter]] is a similarly self-contained outing, this is the first installment to suggest that the series will take a more tightly serialized approach. (A suggestion which will hold broadly true despite this being a...relative statement in the wacky world of Transformers tie-in manga.)

===Transformers references===
* The scenes of the new Predacon base construction offers the first of one of the manga's rare glimpses of the Galvaburg II, never named as such in the series—only ever referred to as the "Predacon base" (デストロン基地; ''Desutron kichi'').
* Though reference in Chapter 1 to its placement as the third planet in its solar system hinted at [[Gaia]]'s identity, the unmistakable presence of a ruined [[Tokyo]] in this chapter all but confirms the planet to be post-apocalyptic [[Earth]]. (See notes on Tokyo identification in [[#Real-world references|Real-world references]] below.) Given that all but a minute portion of Tokyo now appears to be below water, to the extent that Lio Convoy only registers the metropolis as a small island, many environmental and geographical shifts seem to have occurred since the days humans ruled.

===Real-word references===
* As mentioned above, judging by the destroyed Tokyo Tower and the Gokoku-ji subway station, the ruins are actually post-apocalyptic Tokyo.
* The paper displaying "ancient writing" that Lio Convoy discovers appears to be a poster advertising {{w|lang=ja|へろへろくん|Herohero-kun}}, a ''Comic BomBom'' character.
* Gokoku-ji Station is the nearest station to the headquarters of [[Kodansha]], the ''Comic BomBom'' publisher.
* In sound-effect choice and posture in its initial panel reveal, the aura-clad Lio Convoy is almost certainly intended to invoke the first "Super Saiyan" transformation from the manga ''{{w|Dragon Ball}}''.

[[Category:Beast Wars II issues]]