Airachnid's Revenge

At first, there was nothing but darkness. A black abyss of nothingness that seemed to spread on forever. The only sounds that could be heard were the soft buzzing of the electricity flowing through the stasis cuffs that held a blue and silver femme suspended ten feet from the ground and a soft groan that escaped a young teenager's lips from the blackened corner.



Suddenly, the room burst into a blinding white light as the snap of a switch illuminated the room.

"Wakey wakey darlings~ It's not healthy to sleep in so late~"

The teenage boy, chiefly known as Jackson 'Jack' Darby, squinted his eyes open, looking down from the brightness of the lights and the looming, insect-like figure that stood in the center of the room. On the other side, the blue and silver femme, Optimus Prime's Second-in-Command, Arcee, groaned and flickered her optics open, only to have them lay onto Jack's disabled form in the corner. Disabled, as in, he was bound by the wrists and ankles by a strong, sticky material that resembled a spider web. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. No, this could /not/ be happening. Not again. Except this time, neither one of them could get out of it.

"Jack.."

His name came out as barely a whisper, though their predator smirked as the two recognized each other. What had gone wrong?

It was only a regular day of driving around Nevada when they got the call from Optimus that the hospital was being attacked. Jack was already with Arcee and they were only blocks away from the hospital so, she decided to take him with her. He stood out in the parking lot as she went in to investigate. Nothing seemed to be wrong at all and when she emerged from the hospital, Jack was no where to be found. She frantically searched for him, too consumed in her worry and fear that she hadn't noticed the figure behind her. And then, there was darkness. Now they were both trapped like flies on a spider's web, almost literally, for they were being held captive by none other than Arcee's demon from the past, Airachnid.

Airachnid, by now, was over by Jack's side, kneeling low as she caressed his cheek with the back of her finger.

"Such a handsome face for a handsome creature~" she cooed in that seductive voice of hers, glancing over at the distraught blue and silver femme.

"Leave him alone!" Arcee cried out, growling viciously at her.

"Oh, you know I can't do that Arcee~ It's just /so/ much fun messing with you~"

She struggled violently against the chains that held her, desperately trying to find a way to get out of this mess and get Jack out of it too, alive. She couldn't lose another partner again... She just couldn't... Especially not Jack...

Jack looked absolutely terrified, not completely over the whole ordeal from about a month ago. If only he had destroyed her in that explosion... The purple and black femme merely picked him right off of the ground, a malicious grin on her face as her fangs sparkled in the light.

"Maybe after I hang that precious head here in my new quarters I'll use your body as a delectible treat~" she said with a laugh as sinister as her smile. She continued to run her claw along his face as Jack tried to jerk away from her, but the bonds were too strong.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Arcee cried louder. "I'll do anything! Just don't hurt him!" This was like Tailgate all over again.. She couldn't take it...

"It's far too late for those battle coordinates now, Arcee~ See, the only problem is that I don't want anything /but/ this kid's head~ You're out of luck either way~"

Tears were beginning to form in the helpless femme's optics, watching her partner, her best friend, her Jack, being groped by that hideous creature and knowing what was just around the corner. Airachnid was just about to slash through the fragile flesh and bones through his neck when she got a better idea. This was too easy and /boring/ to her. She wanted to hear the kid scream. She wanted to hear them both scream. And what better way than to torture the kid?

"You know,  I've got a better idea for you~" she proposed as she cut the webs from around his ankles and held him up by a leg. "You're such a fragile creature~ I mean, your skeletal structure is as easy to break as twigs~"

A loud snap rang throughout the small room, bones grinding against each other and displacing as Jack's leg was broken clean into two. He scream in pain and writhed around in her grasp, clenching his teeth to keep from crying, but most of all to act stronger for Arcee.

"JACK!! NO!!!" Arcee screeched, flailing around violently though it was no use.

Airachnid was clearly enjoying this, tossing the poor boy up into the air and catching him by the wrists. She cut the bonds off from around them and smirked, watching him dangle by the arm she now held in her fingers.

"You sad, weak little fleshling. Oh how sad it is to see you in pain!" she exclaimed with a laugh, the cracking sound of another broken limb echoing throughout the room. This time the bone broke clean through the skin, a trickle of blood making its way down his arm and onto his pants. Both his and Arcee's screams were simultaneous, filled with a sense of pain and that this was the end... for both of them. Airachnid laughed and turned her helm over to look at Arcee.

"Tsk tsk~ It's a shame that you don't know how to hang onto /any/ of your partners~ Perhaps I'll just leave you hanging there and bring in all of your teammates, beheading them one by one until you have absolutely /no one/ left~"

Arcee glared at her, her face stained with tears and her body trembling with fury from seeing Jack being treated this way. And she was forced to watch... Or she forced herself to watch.. Airachnid laughed and turned her helm back to Jack before suddenly, she couldn't see out of her left eye and a searing pain was felt through it. She screamed in horror and dropped the teenage boy in her servo, clutching the injured eye and hissing violently. Jack fell to the ground, catching himself with his good arm and leg, his knife held firmly in his hand with a little bit of energon dripping off of it. He gave one triumphant glance over to Arcee before he started limping towards an opening to the ventilation system, despite the surge of piercing pain that flowed through him from his leg and arm. Airachnid regained stability and growled ferociously, lunging at Jack, but he made it into the air duct before she could grab him. She punched the wall in anger as Jack crawled through that vent as fast as he could. She shot chains of webs from her servo, never stopping in the hopes that she would catch the boy as she started ripping the ventilation system open. Arcee cried and struggled violently, never once being able to get free. It looked like Jack was on his own with this one and she prayed to Primus that he would make it out alive...

For a kid who had never broken any bones in his body throughout his entire short existence, he was taking it well. The adrenaline rush from trying to stay alive kept him moving through the vents until he emerged into one of the hallways of the ... hospital? Airachnid's new base was below the hospital? Huh, no wonder it smelled of blood and surgical tools.. He shoved away his mind babble as he limped through the hallway. He couldn't turn off the power because of the patients that needed it to survive, so the only thing left to do, in order to save everyone, was get everyone out of the hospital. He rushed into an empty room and grabbed a phone, dialing 9-1-1 immediately and claiming that there was a bomb in the hospital. Sirens could be heard from not that far away and the alarm systems in the hospital started blaring as everyone was trying to get the patients, and themselves, out of there before the "bomb" went off. After that was set, Jack started limping towards the main power controls in the hospital, following signs and remembering the tour his mother gave him once to get him there.

From below, as Airachnid was trying to pry the vents open, she heard the alarms and cursed. That boy was planning something and she didn't know what it was, but she didn't like it. Not one bit. She gave up on tearing up the vents and zipped out of her base as fast as she could, starting to crawl up the elevator shaft in search of her prey. Arcee cried obscenities and taunted the femme, trying to get her to come back, but when Airachnid was set on a target, she wouldn't stop until it was dead.

Jack was already one step ahead of the game. He knew that Airachnid would come into the hospital in search of him and though he would be able to free Arcee from the bonds that held her when he cut the power off, the hospital was a big place and she wouldn't be able to find him before Airachnid did, especially with the trail of blood he had already left. Airachnid was already probably using that to track him down.

The other Autobots were already arriving at the hospital scene to monitor what was going on. They couldn't reveal themselves to the public, but they kept an optic out for anything suspicious. That was, until they noticed the shadow of a giant spider-femme through a window. That's when they had to reveal themselves. Bumblebee was sent inside as the others tried to contact Arcee, with no luck.

Jack had made it into the room with the main power console, but not before he had come up with his own plan to get rid of Airachnid. It wasn't the smartest of plans and it would cost both his life and a lot of money to get the hospital fixed, but he was pretty good at blowing things up and if he was going out, he would go out with a bang. He had noticed the Autobots outside and knew that when Arcee broke out of the prison underneath the hospital, they would sense her energy signature and help her out. Besides, she wouldn't be in the same section of the hospital as him and Airachnid anyway. None of the controls made sense, so he grabbed an axe from one of the emergency glass boxes and started slashing at anything and everything. The lights started dimming and as soon as they did, Airachnid knew what he was trying. She crawled towards the main hallway, following the blood trail as she tried to get to the control room before he was able to destroy the console completely. However, within a matter of moments, the entire hospital was covered in darkness.

"Smart boy, Jack," Airachnid growled, disappointed at his persistence and mock bravery. She continued to crawl after him, able to use her advanced vision in the darkness to follow his trail.

Arcee, meanwhile, broke through the stasis cuffs that had deactivated with the power failure and started furiously making her way up the elevator shaft. Airachnid was as good as dead when she got her servos on her.....

"Oh /Jack/~" Airachnid called out into the darkness. "I know you're around here somewhere~" The trail of blood had stopped. "Come out, come out wherever you are~"

She stepped into a liquid, not like blood, not like water, not even like energon. It had a horrible smell to it, making her want to plug up her nose. She heard footsteps, peering at the end of the hallway to see who it was. She didn't need to squint her eyes for long, however. At the end of the hallway stood Jack, a flare lit in his hand and a determined, grave look on his face. The pain from his broken limbs had him breathing heavily, though he looked unafraid.

"This. Ends. Here!" he cried out. He didn't even leave room for her to talk or anything before he punched one of the fire alarms next to him, the sprinklers raining everywhere before he threw the flare towards her. The glow from the fire illumined the line of small, petroleum gas tanks that ran down the hallway. Hey, you could do a lot in an hour if you put your mind to it.

"JACK!" Airachnid cried out as she lunged towards him, but not before the flare hit the petroleum-covered floor and lit the entire hallway on fire. Windows were busted with the explosion and the floor and structure of the hospital started crumbling beneath the roar of the flames. Arcee was running through the hallways, following the blood trail when she heard it.

"NO! JACK! NO!"  That couldn't be him... It couldn't... It just couldn't... She was fully ready to head that way and give up her life if he was gone.. There was no way she would be able to survive without him.. It would be too much to lose a third partner... a third person she loved so much and just couldn't protect... However, a pair of strong arms wrapped themselves around her, right before the building started giving way and she was being dragged back towards the main exit.

"NO!" she cried out, struggling violently in Bumblebee's arms. "LET ME GO! JACK'S STILL IN HERE!" Bumblebee beeped and clicked, barely able to hear her through the rumbling of the hospital as it started to collapse. He dragged her, kicking and screaming, outside and over to Bulkhead as the hospital finally gave in to its fiery demise....'

-One week later....-

It seemed like everyone in the entire town had gathered for this event. People who used to hate him, never knew him, loved him... Everyone... The Autobots' secret was out and even the charismatic Agent Fowler was unable to cover this one up. Every one of the patients and staff made it out alive... everyone, but one.

The urn stood at the top of a marble stand that was created in memory of a boy that gave his life to save his town. Little did anyone but Arcee know that he not only saved his town, but the rest of the human race and the Autobots themselves from a menace who knew no bounds...He gave up his future, the most precious thing anyone could have all for nothing...Airachnid was still alive, and Arcee knew it...

Only June Darby, Jack's mother, stood by the urn, not letting anyone near her as she mourned the loss of her son. There were no remains, despite a giant, spider leg within the remaining rubble of the hospital. There were no ashes that were assumed to be his, but they made an urn with his picture and name engraved into it to comemorate him as a town hero. A badge of honor was placed beside it along with roses and flowers of all sorts and some notes here and there.

The funeral lasted all day and well into the evening before the town departed, leaving the urn and a lone, feminine figure in the darkness. The only light came from the moon and the soft glow of the fires from the everlasting candles, casting dancing shadows about her small frame. Her body shook with silent sobs for a boy she had only known for a short time and who grew up from just some kid, to one of the bravest men she had ever known...  Her cerulean blue optics, overflowing with tears, opened slowly as she looked up at his picture, only one word escaping her mouth as she looked at his face with a determined and furious expression.

"Revenge...."

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Energon was splayed across the floor as the limping and deformed figure paced back and forth from the confined space beneath the earth she was in. Her body was scorched and some of her limbs broken, but she was still truly alive. She paused and glanced down at a crumpled figure at her feet. He was scorched, broken, and beaten, a gash across his cheek from an acidic claw that made the blood run down his face. The floor around him was covered in blood from new wounds he had acquired through the explosion and he was sweating, having a hard time staying conscious as he fought to stay alive.

"You think you can get rid of me that easy, huh? You're a brave kid. Brave, but stupid. I've found a better way of taking care of you. For your insubordinance, I'll just let you waste away in that pathetic body of yours. You don't have much longer to live. Not in /that/ condition~ You'll be my most prized possession... and nobody can save you because everybody thinks you're dead! You're /mine/ Jackson Darby. All mine."

[To be continued....]