This had been the most turbulent day in blackarachnias life since she was transmetalized and freed from her predacon sheel program. After weeks of attempts to free her lovers spark from the vehicon Thrust, she found he instead had the spark of the repulsive waspinator, who began hitting on her. Then to find that the far more aggressive vehicon general Jetstorm was the holder of Silverbolts spark. Her happy reunion with her love, and having to keep him and waspinator from fighting over her, was interrupted by the sudden attack of the other vehicon drones.
"you have to control your drones!" she orders them
"drones?" they asked, confused
She suddenly dropped to the floor and pulled them down as well to avoid the volley of cybermatter blasts. She generated one of her energy beams along the ground, rapidly blasting and overloading many of the cycle drones along the floor. She then generated a giant web across the room in from of them as a shield from the advancing cycle and aero drones. She had finally found silverbolt again and she would not let him go, at any cost. The 3 bots backed away as the drones struggled to break through web. Blackarachnia realized to late that by bringing up the web, she had also cut them off from and escape route.
"the drones ar eat your command, cant you stop them?" she shouted
"wwwwwazzzpinator is trying" the vehicon grunted as he pressed his arms against his head and tried to focus
Silverbolt did the same.
"alas my love, as am I but it is not so easy" he added
As the drones began to force their way through the brittle webbing, the ground and building began to suddenly shake.
"ooooh, wazzzpinator thinkzzz hezzzz doing it" he smiled
Suddenly a massive organic vine came crashing through the window, carrying the other maximals atop it. It snaked its way about the room before it passed by and cheetor reached out and snared blackarachnia.
"need a lift he smirked?"
"silverbolt!" she called out
There was a moment of hesitation in the silverbolt before he wordless followed, flying alongside the others as the vine burst out of another window.
"hey, no tag alongs jet boy!" rattrap shouted
Before he could attack jetstorm he was seized by blackarachnia
"don't, its silverbolt!"
Rattrap and cheetor looked at the vehicon with shock. He merely nodded at them. Blackarchnia was confused about the change in him; he seemed so stiff and silent now. She worried that perhaps the jetstorm personality was reemerging. They suddenly all noticed that just behind them was waspinator, heaving gragged the vine and clung to it as the zoomed away. Rattrap looked to blackarachnia and gestured towards the vehicon with a confused look.
"wazzzpinator not getting left alone wizzzz an angy megatron. Never againzzz!" he buzzed
"oh you have got to be kidding me" rattrap whined
"now who's he?" nightscream asked
"trust me, you don't want to know" rattrap replied
"so, who has the green thumb?" arachnia asked
The massive vine finished wriggling around the warehouse before moving out through the sky line. Unknown to them, a maidenly furious megatron was watching the events play out over a display screen. At his mental command, the vehicons drones regrouped and collectively fired on the bulk of the vines with their vector sigma keys. In a massive blast the organic matter was instantly converted to cybermatter. Seeing the approaching corruption affecting their vine, they all leapt off onto a rooftop to escape. They could barely breathe in relief when they saw the cybermatter follow the vines source beneath the ground.
"oh man, we gotta sever those vines before the technomatter reaches home base!" rattrap announced
"home base nothing, it'll contaminate cybertrons entire organic core!" cheetor counters
The group immediately head for ground level. Nightscream returns to beast mode and snatches the maximal rat. Waspinator, without invitation, clung to cheetors back as he jumped to glide with his blades.
"this is a beet weird for me" he whined
"for wazzpinator too. He uzzed to being the one flyingzzz"
Blackarachnia turned to silvebrolt, expecting suave line an dfor him to sweep her off her feet, bur he rmerely looked distant, contemplative.
"silverbolt, whats wrong?"
"it's just, I feels so…different now…"
"get a move on love birds" rattrap called back
Unable to talk more, silverbolt silently transformed to his jet mode and hovered for her to get on. Soon the whole group hover together under ground, just barely keeping pace with the infection. They followed it for some time until they finally reached the orchard again. To their horror, optimus was there, and despite the risk, began ripping the vines apart with his bare hands.
"big bot, give it up before the technomatter touches you!"
Optimus was struggling to rip the last vine as the cybermatter infection closed in.
"I will not give up!" he shouted out
Optimus finally ripped it, yet still had the vines as the infection came within inches of him.
"optimus, no!" cheetor shouted in desperation
They were all blinded by a flash of light and returned to beast modes as they dropped to the ground. They all sighed in relief as they saw optimus untouched and the vines leading to the core safe. There were long seconds of silent tension before anyone spoke.
"woah, nice hedge clipping" rattrap spoke up
"you disobeyed a direct order" optimus pointed at cheetor
"I made a command decision to rescue black arachnia" he shot back
"and why were…"
Optimus cut himself off as he took notice of the two vehicon generals present.
"what have you done, why have you brought them here?"
"because here is where they belong. They are with us"
Optimus looked skeptically at the bots, both of which seemed strained under his gase. He did sense something different about them. He then took notice of their changed eyes and approached hopefully.
"silverbolt?" he asked
"yes, it is I, optimus primal"
Silverbolts response sounded as if his answer was regretful. He was suddenly seized in the apes arms and hugged tightly.
"it is good to have you back my friend" optimus smiled
"good to…be back" he said distantly
Optimus then looked to the other vehicon who waved happily
"and you?"
"optimus not remember hizzz old favorite tragetzz" he buzzed
"Waspinator? What are you…well, I don't know how you got mixed up in this but if you're against megatron, then you are welcome" optimus smiled
Waspinator seemed taken aback and a little shocked.
"is something wrong?"
"wazzpinator never been welcome beforezzz"
The pathetic sounding comment left a linger in the air for e second and rattrap of all bots was the first to swallow his pride and speak up.
"yeah well, you are bug boy, whether you like it or not. And same to you bird dog, old buddy"
Silverbolt silently floated away from the group to survey the orchard and a concerned blackarachnia followed.
"what's wrong with him?" cheetor asked
Optimus thought about and looked to waspinator.
"doggy bot needzzz timezzz, wazzpinator knowzzz"
"I still done get it" cheetor adds
Optimus, finally understanding the problem, sighed.
"like rhinox, a part of silverbolt knew of what he was doing as jetstorm. A prisoner of a false identity unable to control his actions. Much like rhinox, I doubt that didn't leave some…damage. He'll need time"
"weeeell, in the meantime, why don't you two follow me. I need to make sure megatron can't track or trace you down here; or get inside your heads like he did with tankor"
The two vehicons silently followed behind the rat and away from the others. Silverbolt took a last longing look towards blackarachnia before turning away again.
"somethings wrong with him" black arachnia whispered
"im sure he'll be fine once optimus pops the two of them into a couple of banging new technorganic bodies, right big bot?"
"I don't think I can, not now anyway. I've developed a grave concern; I believe the oracle has been tamper with" he explains to the shocked maximals
Above ground, megatron angrily watches the building and converted vines around it being demolished. He now sees the organic power the maximals wielded, despite his ignorance to it.
"it would seem the organics are more powerful than I realised…" he admitted to his diagnostic drone
Not only that, but he had also lost his last two vehicon generals to the enemy. He was now back to square one, focusing on maintaining the coordination of all his drones himself. He would need to now look into establishing new generals to aid him. He did now see the errors in his method of shell programs on unwilling spark though. His next generals would need to be properly selected to contend with the growing maximal force, and more than that, be willing servants.
"they must be contained" he added aloud after finishing his thoughts
His mind briefly drifted back to the deceased tankor and his postmortem discovery. A scheme then began to form in his mind, one that will lead to his ultimate victory over the filthy organic maximals.