We see the beautiful stars of space shining like like little flashlights in the dark abyss. All of a sudden, a ball of fire a slipstream comes flying through space and seems to enter the Solar System. It enters Earth's atmosphere and crashes in a forest (A/N: Or woods. I can't tell the difference between the two.) But as it's crashing and damaging everything in it's path, we can see that the ball of fire isn't a space rock of any kind, but a space ship. Who the space ship belongs to, we don't know yet. But five of our cast is about to find out who it is, and a certain cybertronian is not gonna like it one bit.

We now see Arcee and Nakala with an energon scanner in his hand walking through the forest with Jack, Wingblade and Silverwolf. The mosquitoes were just all over Jack cuz he didn't use bug spray, but Nakala did. Jack: "Ah! Really wish I'd packed some insect repellent. The mosquitoes out here on this routine recon are the size of vampire bats. And they drink just about as much blood. Ah!" Arcee: "Quite the outdoorsman, aren't you, Jack?" "You wouldn't be making fun of my survival kit." "Maybe." "I may not have stinger-proof skin, Arcee, but in a pinch, I can use my multi-function pocketknife and magnesium fire starter to cook up some freeze-dried mac and cheese." "You have your tools, and I have mine." After she said that, the scanner went off and Arcee looked at it confused as she took it from Nakala. "That's odd. Ratchet's satellite scans were accurate, but subterranean energon deposits don't cause this kind of surge." she said before walking down the hill to follow the scanner and see what was causing the weird surge. The device beeped again and she looked ahead of her to see something that wasn't natural at all. Jack: "What happened here?" Arcee: "Crash landing. Stay behind us, low and close." Nakala: "Be our rearguard." he said to his creations, which they obliged. They moved forward until they came across what seemed to be a cybertronian space ship.

Jack: "Autobot or Decepticon?" Arcee: "Can't tell. Wait here. Nakala, with me." she said activating her blaster. Nakala nodded in response as he followed Arcee to the ship with staff ready. Jack, Wingblade, and Silverfang watched as the duo slowly and carefully made their way to the crashed ship while also keeping an eye out for anything suspicious wanting to sneak up on them. Arcee got to one side of the door and Nakala dived to the other side quickly and leaned against it as well. They nod at each other and quickly moved from the side and aimed inside the ship in case anyone or anything was waiting. They saw no one so they made their way inside to see if anyone really was in the ship, or to see if they can find clues of who it belongs too. Nakala ofc wouldn't have a clue, but Arcee might. Little did he know that she did, especially when the two saw what was inside.

Jack and the two symbiotes stood idly by in the same spot they were left at waiting for their friends to come out the ship. Moments after they entered, they came back out and saw that something was wrong with Arcee. She was looking down with her right hand on her head and was walking with her knees staying bent. She didn't look so good as she held on to a part of the ship to keep herself standing. It was kidna pointless though because Nakala was there with her, trying to figure out what's wrong with her but she wouldn't speak. Jack: "A-Arcee?" he questioned as he ran over to the two with Wingblade and Silverfang. Nakala: "Arcee, what's wrong?" he asked quietly. Nakala already knew had an idea of what wrong with her, but he just wanted to hear the full thing from her. He saw the fear in her eyes the moment they saw what was in the ship. The heads of different alien species were in glass cases, which he knows shouldn't really be a problem for Arcee cuz of the millennia long war she's been in. Actually, he doesn't really know when Arcee was born so he doesn't know how long she's really been in the war, but he believes it wasn't solely the heads that frightened her. The moment she saw those heads, she instantly knew who the owner of the ship was and fear immediately filled her eyes.

Nakala looked into Arcee's eyes and saw them shaking in fear and could tell she was having a Vietnam War like flashback. She sees the cybertronian with spider like legs and light purple eyes walking toward someone and striking them. Energon splatters on the wall and Arcee snaps back into reality as Jack, Silverfang, and Wingblade stand in front of her. Jack: "Arcee? What's wrong?" Arcee: "I know who this ships belongs to." she says trying to hide the fear, but it's still noticeable. "Arcee to base. I need a ground bridge ASAP." Jack: "W-Wait. Why? Whose ship is this?" Arcee completely ignored Jack as she walked forward trying to get in contact with the other Autobots agian. "Base, do you read?" she asks only to get no response again. "Scrap. Com link's dead. The ship's got to be transmitting a high-frequency scrambler pulse." Jack: "A-Arcee? Okay, you're kinda freaking me out here." Arcee: "Wait here." she said before moving toward what she ahead. Trees had lots of scratch marks that were too high to reach for any animal that would live in a forest, even for a bear. Arcee noticed something on the ground and knelt down to get a closer look. It seemed like a thing cylinder object was placed in the ground, or multiple of them, but the distance they had said something else. These were clearly footsteps of whoever owned that ship with their head trophies.

Arcee looked ahead as her eyes began to show that same fear, indicating that she was having another flashback. She sees herself hung in the air by shackles of electricity and what looks to be webs around her legs. She tries to break free to attack her captor that's standing in front of her, but to no avail. We see her captor in her bipedal form with her spider legs attached to her back, which is what caused the holes in the ground outside the flashback. Her captor shows her claws and reaches toward Arcee's face with one of them. The vision goes black and all we hear is metal scratching metal and Arcee screaming. "Nnnoooooo!"

The flashback ends there and Arcee is somewhat back in reality with the same fear still in her eyes. The sound of Jack's voice snapped her back in full reality and turned to see the two humans standing there in concern of her. She said nothing about what was going on and transformed into her motorcycle form. "Climb on!" she ordered, which they both obliged immediately. Jack puts on his helmet and Nakala holds on to Jack's stomach from behind before Arcee took off so suddenly. The speed she was going and the way she was moving was unexpected to the two. Jack: "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" The two then see they were heading for a cliff and thought they were going to crash, but Arcee jumps over the and lands safely then stops. The two get off her wondering what has seriously gotten into her. Jack: "Okay, was that really necessary?!" Arcee: "Arcee to base." she says completely ignoring their concerns. Arcee was hoping to get enough distance from the ship so she can contact base, but she still got no response. "Scrap!" Jack: "Look, I've seen danger before. What's the-" "Wait here. I mean it this time." "[scoffs]Okay, first you shut me out. Now you're ditching me? I thought I was your partner." Jack says as Arcee transforms to her bipedal form. "No, Jack. You're a kid. You're only here because this was supposed to be no risk. Got it?" she said getting into his face before transforming again and taking off. The brothers look at each other before following Arcee. They both want to know what's eating her worse than a scraplet can.

Arcee is speeding through the misty forest hoping to find cybertronian responsible for her trauma. She stops and transforms into her bipedal form again and looks around before readying her blaster. After walking and looking around for several seconds, she spots something that further confirms who it is that owns the ship. Most of a tree is down and the reason for it is fresh acid. The moment she saw it, she gets another flashback of how she got captured. The sounds of blaster fire and explosions fill the air on Cybertron, and we see Arcee trying to cover some distance between her and the enemy she left in the dust. Arcee: "Arcee to Delta team. Requesting rendezvous coordinates. Do you copy?" Tailgate: "Arcee, you lost again? You're sense of direction could use some improvement." "So could your aim, Tailgate. If you had tagged that sniper back at the artillery depot, I wouldn't have had to break the rank and engage the enemy hand-to-hand." "From the sound of things, I'm guessing you came out ahead?" "Try waiting up for me this time, and I'll give you the blow-by-blow. What's your position?" "About half a click from the depot, due north. Think you can find it, partner?" "Trust me, Tailgate, my navigation abilities are-" Before she could finish, Arcee gets shot webs shot at her and pins her to the wall. She sees the spider bot blast her with more webs to cover her vision before she's knocked out.

She wakes up to see herself in a cell, being hung by the same shackles of electricity and webs around her legs. She tries to break free to escape, but to no avail. She hears her captor walk behind her and speak. "Piece of advice: Make yourself comfortable." Now she's standing in front of Arcee and shows her claws as she walks up to the two-wheeler. "You're going to be here awhile." she says before letting one of her claws that had a bit of acid at the end leave a slow scratch on Arcee's face. The flashback ends there and Arcee gets back to finding the spider-con. Time passes and we see the same spider-con observing a tent. She is able to see inside the tent and sees a camper minding his own business inside. "My first local. Time for humankind to feel my sting." she said turning into her spider form and made her way to the tent. As soon as she was close enough, she tried to leap onto the tent and catch the human by surprise. Luckily, Arcee came out of no where tackled her, causing them both to go tumbling down a hill and crash into a cliff. The two recollected themselves and stared at each other before the spider-con spoke up. Airachnid: "Arcee. Small universe." Arcee: "Too small, Airachnid." "You're still holding a grudge? The war has been over for megacycles." "Tell that to the Decepticons." "These days I travel solo in pursuit of my new hobby." she said in her sing-song voice.

Arcee gets a flashback of when she entered the ship with Nakala and all those heads of different alien species. "Sweet mother of Jesus Christ himself on Christmas Day." he said so softly in shock of what he was seeing. Arcee went back to reality immediately and said to Airachnid, "I got a look at your souvenir case." "You mean my trophies. I collect endangered species. Of course, they aren't really endangered... until they meet me. And I have a slot reserved for "human." "Not gonna happen." Arcee says before sprinting toward Airachnid and tackling her once again. Once she has the spider-con pinned, she tries to punch her in the face, but she used her spider legs to grab the two-wheeler by the back and throw her against the rock wall. Airachnid grabs her throat cuz of the sudden pain of her being pinned that way. Arcee gets up immediately and starts blasting at her rival. Airachnid however was quick enough to dodge by jumping in the air and using her spider legs to grab onto two of the trees near her. She shoots her webs at Arcee's blaster hands and tries to pull her towards her, but Arcee resists and pulls back. After a short struggle, Airachnid is pulled off the tree she was hooked onto. This gives Arcee enough time to unsheathe her wrist blades while her blasters were still out and break the web. She gets back to shooting at Airachnid and she decides to shoot back in response.

At this point, Arcee didn't want to be dealing with her demon anymore and sprinted towards Airachnid while dodging the blaster fire. She jumps up and grabs onto a tree branch and does one loop on it before flinging herself forward and landing on another tree closer to Airachnid. She jumps down with her right foot out and pins her down again and aims her blasters at her. Just as she was about to fire and finish her off, the sounds of small rocks falling was heard. The two look toward the sound and see Jack and Nakala making their way down the hill. Arcee is too distracted by the two surprisingly here that it allows Airachnid to strike her with her spider leg and knocked her back. This leaves Arcee staggered enough for Airachnid to pin her to the wall with her webs. Jack: "Arcee!" he yelled as he and Nakala ran to her. Airachnid turns her attention to the two humans and Arcee notices this. Out of fear, she used her wrist blade to break the web enough for her arm to be free so she can aim her blaster at the spider-con, knocking her back and leaving her knocked out for a bit. Arcee: "I told you two to wait for me!" she yelled as Jack ran up to her and started pulling the webs off her while Nakala got his weapon ready to use against the spider-con in case she gets up. Jack: "Well, partners don't ditch partners." "Get this through your heads: "You're not my partners. You're liabilities." Nakala: "Quit lying, Arcee. We both saw the fear in your eyes. Your body language said it all as well." Jack: "Yeah. And you're never afraid, Arcee."

Arcee looks away from the two and stares at the ground as she gets another flashback. Airachnid: "You know, for an Autobot, your resilience is quite impressive. In fact, I'm guessing that no matter what I do to you, you'll never crack. Am I right?" Arcee looks up at her and gives her that look that says, "That's right." "That's what I thought." Before anything else happens, the door opens up and two vehicon soldiers walk in with an injured Autobot. Once Arcee saw who it was, she was immediately in shock and fear. "Tailgate?" she said quietly before he was hung by in the air by the same cuffs Arcee was in. Tailgate was too injured to respond at all and all he could do was quite groans of pain. Arcee: "What have you done to him?" she asked with clear anger in her voice despite not much of it being shown. Airachnid: "Not much...yet. Just tell me what I want to know, or... well... You're a smart 'bot. I think you can imagine what happens to Tailgate next." "I don't know the attack coordinates." she said quickly with no hesitation. Not pleased with the answer at all, Airachnid gives a look before slowly walking to Tailgate. Arcee: "I swear upon the AllSpark, it's the truth." Airachnid: "We shall see." Arcee tries to break free again to save her partner, but still to no avail. Airachnid lets one of her spider legs show and is ready to kill Tailgate. Arcee: "No... Please!" she begs in fear, clearly not wanting to lose her partner. Airachnid hisses as she decides to make it suspenseful for Arcee, waiting to see if she'll give up the information she thinks she knows or let her partner die to protect the team. Loss of patience, she striked Tailgate and killed him, much to Arcee's horror. "TAILGATE!!!"

Flashback ends after the name of her partner echoes in her mind. "Your right, Jack. I am afraid... of losing you... and Nakala." The two look up at her with a surprised look, especially Nakala. From the tone, pitch, and volume, it seemed like she was a bit more concerned about him than Jack. She was concerned about him that much? Airachnid: "You sure do have trouble hanging on to your partners, don't you? We both know what happened to Tailgate. But I've recently picked up some Decepticon radio chatter regarding the passing of Cliffjumper." Arcee says nothing as she looks at Airachnid while breathing heavily. "At some point you really need to ask yourself, Arcee, "Is it them, or is it me?" Arcee: "Do you get it now, Jack and Nakala? She's not interested in me. She hunts indigenous species, and she's on Earth. That means humans. You! RUN!!" she yells before Airachnid traps her arm again, which caused Jack to start running. Nakala, however, didn't want to leave Arcee alone with the spider-con. He looks up at her showing small hints of concern and fear for her safety in his eyes. Arcee: "Nakala, please go!" With no other option, Nakala runs after Jack, hoping Arcee's words were true about Airachnid not being interested in her.

Airachnid looks at the brothers running as she chuckles in Arcee's face. "And that's why I now prefer to work alone." she says before hitting the rock wall with her spider leg right next to Arcee. "It's so sad when bad things happen to those close to you." Nakala picked up on this and wondered if that had more meaning behind it. "But don't worry, I fully intend to snuff out your spark. And, believe me, I will make it hurt. But that won't compare to the pain you'll feel knowing I'm adding your humans to my collection." she says looking back at the two running up the hill. She then spots a wrist device on Nakala and gets a better look at what he's holding. "Hm? What's that I see? Cybertronian relics? I will definitely make those mine after I take his head." she says jumping off the rock wall Arcee's stuck on and follows the two brothers. Arcee: "JAAAAAAACK!! NAKALAAAAAAAA!!"

A very short time later, Jack and Nakala are running from the spider-con named Airachnid. They look behind them and see her coming up the small hill they came from and decided to pick up the pace. Nakala is faster than Jack, but slows down to stay close to his brother. Airachnid: "That's the spirit, Jack and Nakala. Play hard to get." Meanwhile, Arcee is desperately trying to get free from the webs, but is having no luck. Not only is her 3rd partner in danger, but Nakala, the one who isn't willing to give up on helping her with her loss of Cliffjumper, is also in danger. Arcee screams as she's taken back to the end of her flashback. Tailgate was murdered right in front of her and all she could do was stare in shock, disbelief, and fear at the sight. Airachnid slowly reaches for Arcee with the same spider leg she used to kill Tailgate and was gonna kill her too. Before she could, though, the doors exploded and Airachnid retreats in her spider mode with angry grunt. Bumblebee is seen sliding in shooting at the vehicons still in the room while Cliffjumper and Elita run in to free Arcee. Elita: "Oh, Arcee." Arcee: "I couldn't save him! I couldn't save my partner!" she said as she was being carried to out of her prison.

The flashback finally ends there as we see Arcee looking rather emotionally defeated. Arcee: "Jack, Nakala, I'm sorry. I never should have looked back. I should have... kept driving." she said getting an idea of how to get free from the webs. She then uses all of her might to push herself forward enough to have room to transform. If her bipedal strength isn't enough, then maybe her motorcycle speed will be. Back with Jack and Nakala, the are still running from Airachnid and have managed to put some distance from her. They jump over a fallen hallow tree and Jack loses his balance and falls to his knees and palms. Nakala stops and kneels down to his brother to see if he was okay as the two look around to see if they somehow recognized where they are. The sound of an animal howling was heard before Jack decided to stay hidden behind the tree, which Nakala does the same. After waiting for a bit, they start hearing Airachnid's footsteps getting louder. Nakala knew that she was heading straight for them because of how much louder the footsteps were getting. Airachnid stops in front of the fallen tree and gets her head closer to it while placing her hands on it with a hissing sound.

It was at this moment that Nakala knew that Airachnid knew that he and Jack were right below her. Airachnid slowly makes her way over the tree and Jack is starting to think they're safe, but Nakala knew better. He knew that the spider-con was trying to give them false hope and was ready to zap her when she showed her face to them. But before any other move could be made, another howl was heard rather close to the three. Airachnid turns around to see a big, metal, gray wolf tackle her and keep her pinned. It was Silverfang, and he was ready to protect his creator and Jack. He readied the blaster in his mouth and was about to fire, but Airachnid swiped him off her and into a tree. Airachnid was about to make a counter attack at the unknown cybertronian, but a call from the sky was heard as she looked up to see a white, dark brown, and bright yellow bird. It was Wingblade, and she too was ready to protect her creator and Jack as she used her mouth blaster on the spider-con and knocked her down. The two move to Jack and Nakala to make sure they were okay. Nakala: "Well done." he said rubbing their heads, which they liked.

The four then notice Airachnid getting back and Nakala already had a plan in mind. He got in contact with his creations through their bond that they needed help the moment he saw Airachnid. And as he was running from Airachnid with Jack, he came up with an idea of how to kill two birds with one stone, and is only now revealing it. "You two get Jack back to the ship and find a way to blow it up so we can have comm link signal again. I'll hold her off." he said quietly enough for them to hear but not Airachnid. He activates his mass shifter and is back to his sire's size, ready to fight the spider-con. Airachnid: "The mass-shifter? How did a human get their hands on that!" Nakala: "Get out of here!" he ordered the three. They didn't want to leave him alone to fight her, but they knew they had to get communications back up for Arcee to call base. Wingblade allowed Jack on his back and they went to the ship, praying that Nakala would be okay. Nakala got in a fighting stance with his staff in both hands. He wasn't really much of a fighter because he relied on his abilities to deal with other humans. But now he's dealing with a cybertronian, so he really needs to stay on his toes and be completely focused on her. Airachnid: "Alight then, Nakala. I guess I can play with you for a bit. But I won't go easy on you." Nakala does a smirk with and eyebrow raised that says, "Neither will I."

Back at the rock wall, Arcee is still trying to get free from the webs to save Jack and Nakala. She can't let another partner or her best human friend die. Nakala said he would be there for her whenever she wanted or needed someone to talk to, and she didn't want to let him down either. After a few more struggles, she broke off the webs and was finally free. She started driving to where she saw them heading and was hoping she could at least find them in this confusing forest. We now see Jack and Silverfang jumping over cliff with Wingblade close behind. Jack: "How exactly are we gonna blow up the ship?! Find a self destruct button and get out of dodge?!" Wingblade: "Remember, Jack, energon isn't just our lifeblood. It's fuel for our technology too." Silverfang: "That includes the ship." Jack: "And energon is flammable." he said already knowing where they're getting at.

The three make it to the ship and Jack gets off Silverfang, which allowed him to go to his bipedal form, and they start looking around. Jack: "Alright, where can we find the energon?" Silverfang: "Most likely the engine, my dude." Wingblade: "Or back here!" she said heading to the back of the ship where the thrusters are and going bipedal as well. When Silverfang and Jack got there, they see energon leaking from the thrusters. Silverfang: "Yes, that's a perfect place to light it up." Jack: "Agreed. I better hurry and get a fire started. I don't know how long Nakala can hold off Airachnid." he said getting out his fire started from his fanny pack and finding a stick to use.

Back with Nakala and Airachnid, the fight between them is still going. Nakala is a bit surprised that he's holding his own, despite not having much fighting experience. But eventually, Airachnid gets the upper hand, and fate is sealed. Nakala tries to swing at her head, but she ducks and makes a quick counter attack to his gut, knocking the wind out of him. After that, she slashes his face with her left claws, staggering him back. But what he didn't notice was that during the slash, Airachnid took his staff with her right hand and brought out the blade. After enduring the pain and feeling the claw marks on his face, he saw it was too late to dodge what came next. Airachnid lunged forward and stabbed him in the chest, but not enough of the blade went through to be more fatal. Nakala, in the nick of time, grabbed on to the staff and used all the strength he could muster to prevent Airachnid from the pushing the blade in more. The two then get distracted by an explosion that happens just some distance away from them, and Nakala already knew what it was. He used the distraction to his advantage and get Airachnid away from him, taking back his staff in the process.

Nakala: "Ship destroyed." he said clenching the stab wound. Hearing this immediately made Airachnid angry. Airachnid: "So this was your plan? To distract me so they can destroy my ship?!" Nakala gives a slight smirk to confirm it, which results in Airachnid using her webs to pin him to a tree. Airachnid: "I was gonna give you a quick a death, but I guess I'll make it slow and painful for this." she said as she walked up to the taller human. "Any last words?" Nakala looked at her with little emotion, as usual, and closed his eyes before speaking. With a slight smile, he said, "If I'm being completely honest here, Airachnid, both you and Arcee are the most beautiful beings I've ever seen." he said the last half looking directly at her. This hit Airachnid hard out of now where. She took a step back and let her spider two spider legs she had ready down. She stared at him with wide eyes, trying to process what she just heard come out of this human's mouth. But before anything else could happen, the sound of a motorcycle was heard as the two look over to see Arcee appear. She transforms to her bipedal form and punches Airachnid away from Nakala and begins fighting her. It didn't last long because Airachnid was eventually kicked far away, crashing through multiple trees and being knocked out for a bit.

Arcee looks back at Nakala with concern as she goes up to free him from the webs. Arcee: "Nakala! Are you okay?!" she asks as she's pulling the webs off him. As she did, she saw the stab wound in his chest and put a hand over her mouth. Nakala: "Yeah. Mostly. I can get this healed." The sound of an eagle and wolf was heard as the two look over to see Jack, Wingblade, and Silverfang making their way towards the two. Jack: "Nakala. Arcee." Arcee kneels down closer to Jack and asks, "Are you okay, Jack?" "Yeah, of course. Survival kit. And these two." Nakala gets down on knee clenching his chest harder. Again, the wound wasn't too deep to be seriously fatal, but enough that he needs medical attention now. "Nakala!" the four exclaimed checking on him. The sound of machinery whirring was heard and the group look over to see Airachnid drilling into the ground with her spider legs. Arcee knew she was escaping and tried to stop her, but failed. "AIRACHNID!" she yelled down the hole in anger. She looked back at Nakala who went back to his normal human size and was held up by his brother. He opens a ground bridge to the hospital their mom works at, and the two make their way through. Jack: "We'll see you back at base, Arcee." The duo disappear in the vortex as it disappears, leaving Arcee alone with Wingblade and Silverfang. With nothing else to do, Arcee gets in contact with base for pickup. "Ratchet... we need a ground bridge." she said with a slight bit of defeat in her voice and concern in her voice that she tried to hide. "The recon turned into something worse."

TO BE CONTINUED...