Voyagers Saga: Justice, Bolts, and Gears

by Cydra

The Earthbound Autobots are going to be in for a big challenge when a team of mercenaries from another multiverse. Among them is a certain little girl and her alien dog. If that weren't enough, there'll be many new robots coming out of the metalwork.

10. Web of Deception

Voyagers Saga:

Justice, Bolts, and Gears

Chapter 10: Web of Deception

The deepest part of the Congo is an ideal place if you wanted to get away from crowded civilization and embrace raw nature. Of course, being in the company of giant robots from another planet spoils the effect a bit. But as always, the spirit of the outdoorsman prevails...sometimes.

Chloe woke up from a doze as a blast of plasma shot over her head and a singed Insect flew away with a 'bleh' noice. Matt was clearly the culprit. "HAHAHAHA...TRY AND BITE ME NOW!" he yelled, laughing evilly.

"You know, there is something called 'bug spray'," said Chloe.

"Morph ate it," said Matt, his eye twitching violently.

"Not surprising," said Chloe, "Just try to deal with it the best that you can."

"Oh yeah. That's easy for the magnificent living bug zapper," said Matt, sarcastically.

"Well, go for a swim or something," said Chloe before a large amount of electrical sparks went off near her leg, "Whoa, that was a big one."

Matt got a twitch. "I'll give you a swim..." he said grinning, manically.

Jumba was getting some fresh water when he heard a buzzing noise and footsteps approaching. "Don't you dare, you bug-addled nutbaAAAARGH!" The 'ARGH' coincided with Chloe being thrown into the river by a badly-electrocuted Matt who then fell over as his electrocution caught up with him.

"Hmm, that reminds Jumba, must set up bug zapper to prevent specimens from becoming contaminated," said Jumba.

Pleakley ran by, screaming. Jumba was confused for a minute before a cloud of mosquitoes flew by in close pursuit. "Ah...I told Pleakley to hide Earth canned bug repellant from 6-3-0," he said. "It is good thing that Jumba has remembered economy-sized flypaper," said Jumba, pulling a piece of flypaper large enough to catch a person out of his bag.

The screaming Pleakley ran back the other way and hit the fly paper, causing it to spin around both him and Jumba. "Oh...hi, Jumba...sleep well?" he asked.

"Pleakley, you have spoiled perfectly good flypaper," said Jumba.

Just then the swarm caught up with them. "Ah! Why am I so tasty to mosquitoes?" cried Pleakley.

"Jumba would like to study that, but now is time for running and screaming." The two of them ran off as the mosquitoes pursued them.

Meanwhile, Waspinator was having his first 'good' lesson with Lilo and Stitch. Chris and Techo were also present with EMP arc rifles.

"Ok, let's start with something easy: emotional expression," said Lilo, "How do you feel?"

"WAZPINATOR WILL DESTROY YOU...ow," yelled Waspinator before Techo zapped him. "No...bad organic robo-mutant," he said, zapping him again

"Ok, hostile right now," said Lilo, "Uh, I know, let's try dream analysis. Can you tell me what your dreams have been like lately?"

"Dreamed of crushing Wazpinator's enemiez," said Waspinator before Techo zapped him again.

"No...destruction bad," he said.

"Ok, how about word association?" said Lilo, "I'll say a word, you tell the word that comes to your mind. Rock?"

"CRUSH!" yelled Waspinator.

"Er, ball?"

"SMASH!" yelled Waspinator before Chris made a tree branch fall on Waspinator's head with a shot.

"Ok, what else?" said Lilo.

Stitch had started to lose interest at this point and was paying more attention to the insects flying around. He then noticed a particular insect and said, "Bumblebee."

"CRUSH BUMBLEBOT!" yelled Waspinator. Waspinator struggled again to break his bonds, causing Chris and Techo to blast him at the same time. "Beah...beee's," gibbered Waspinator as the two arc blasts scrambled his memory circuits.

"This may take a while," said Lilo.

Meanwhile, Scorponok had improved slightly from his poisoning and was no longer immobilized.

However, Ratchet kept him indoors (well, in the caves) to prevent his wound from getting infected by microscopic organisms on this planet that humans refer to as 'germs'.

Scorponok was not too happy about this. "For Allspark's sake, I'm fine," he said.

"No doing," said Ratchet, "I don't know how susceptible technorganics like you are to organic diseases, but I'm not allowing my patients to become test subjects that could endanger their sparks. Now you can stay in the caves consciously or you can sleep in there." His EMP generator popped out of his arm to prove his point.

Scorponok rolled his optics in boredom then sat down.

"Don't be so grumpy," said Blackarachnia, "You'll be out and about in no time."

"Well," said Scorponok, "It's not all that comfortable in this cave."

"Hey, you're not alone here," said Blackarachnia, "I'd like to get outside too, if that annoying female merc would let me out. I don't know how these humans could be attracted to such things."

Ratchet, without looking up, said absently, "You and that merc could almost be twin protoforms from how you both act."

Blackarachnia glared at Ratchet and said, "Those are fighting words among Decepticons."

"In case you didn't notice, you're not exactly on the Decepticon team," said Ratchet smugly.

"Hey! Just because I haven't been with Megatron's team since I've come to Earth, and most bots consider me a freak, and the only Decepticon around wants to squash me..." Blackarachina's voice petered off in a sulky tone.

There was a screaming noise followed by a thunderclap. "THROW ME IN THE RIVER, WILL YOU?" yelled Chloe's voice. A minute later, a badly-charred Matt flew into the cave and hit the wall hard enough to be stuck to the wall.

A dripping-wet Chloe walked in afterwards. "Ugh, why am I always surrounded by morons?" said Chloe, "If it isn't their innuendos, it's their childish pranks." She paused in confusion when Ratchet and Scorponok suddenly cracked up.

She and Blackarachnia both sighed and said, "Males..." before looking at each other before ignoring the other.

Scorponok stopped laughing for a moment and said, "You're right, Ratchet. They could be twins."

Chloe and Blackarachnia both snarled at Scorponok. "Just an observation," he squeaked.

Matt finally came off the wall and landed with a 'plop' noise. "Someones...got a temperrrr…" he rasped.

"I do not!" snapped Chloe and Blackarachnia at the same time. They turned towards each other and said, "Quit copying me! Quit copying you? You're copying me!"

Matt got up unsteadily. "Why do I hear two Chloes?" he said before a webbing blast and a lightning bolt hit him at the same time.

"Flibble worm mongoose," he gibbered before falling backwards.

"I need some air," said Blackarachnia, walking towards the entrance of the cave.

Chloe grabbed Matt's foot and said "...And I have to drag Matt to Lao and Jumba for some healing." before dragging Matt along the bumpy ground.

"Perhaps Cybertronians and humans aren't that different," observed Scorponok.

Ratchet winced as Matt's head bounced off several rocks on the way out, his 'ow's' being heard disappearing into the distance. "You might be right there," he said.

Meanwhile, Jumba and Pleakley had come back in from their 'morning exercise', covered in mosquito bites. Chloe dropped her brother at Jumba's feet. Jumba sighed "I vas wondering ven you vould catch him."

"He just need a little treatment for electrical burns," said Chloe sweetly.

Jumba looked at Matt. "Ah...and apparently major concussion to head."

Chloe said dismissively, "Oh, that too."

"Spider-womaaaaan..." said Matt in a dazed voice.

Chloe 'accidentally' stepped on her brother as she walked by.

"Owie..." moaned Matt.

Jumba left Lynch in the care of Lt Lao and went to check in on Lilo and Stitch. Waspinator's therapy had apparently not gone well. Several scorch marks were on the walls and ceilings. "What happened in here?" asked Jumba.

"He got his little arms loose," said Chris, "The ones that can zap."

Techo nodded. "First time I was glad the spiderbots hitched a ride..." he said, pointing to where the spiderbots had tied the zapper arms together.

"You know, ve could alvays do rehabilitating Jumba's vay," said Jumba.

Waspinator glared under the gag of riot glue that the spiderbots had shot over his mouth. Chris had been hit by one of the zaps. "Fine...go for it," he said evilly.

"Jumba, you know your 'evil-iminator' doesn't work that well," said Lilo.

"Jumba could alvays test it on giant robot," said Jumba.

Techo peered up from his cover with Stitch. "Wasn't that the machine that exploded when it was last tested?" he asked.

"Eh, 2-1-4 only got singed," said Jumba.

"Fine...go for it," said Techo. He had been hit twice.

"Jumba, no," said Lilo.

"You're outvoted," said Techo and yelped as Lilo fired a laser at him.

"Lilo has a point," said Pleakley, walking in, "There's no need to resort to hazardous equipment, not when simple reasoning will work."

Chris said, "Does Pleakley's vote count?"

"Of course I count as a vote, and my vote is-" Pleakley stopped when he heard a familiar buzzing sound. "Oh, not again," said Pleakley before he started running away from the mosquito swarm.

The others watched him run off and Jumba said, "I think Pleakley should be counting as abstaining."

Chris nodded, "Ok...so what would you do to wasp boy over there?"

"Some minor rearrangement of processor circuits should restore most of cognitive senses," said Jumba.

"Brain surgery?" said Techo. Suddenly they understood Lilo's objection. I mean, would you want Jumba messing with your brain?

"Would technically be considered such, yes," said Jumba as he put on some white rubber gloves.

"Ok...changing my vote," said Techo in a nervous voice.

"Too late, Jumba already starting," said Jumba.

Chris gulped. "Does anyone get the feeling we're gonna really regret this?"

After Matt's brain was put back in order, as close or it'll ever get, he and Chloe decided to go for a short walk through the jungle. Matt was sticking close to Chloe in hopes that her presence will keep the insects away.

"Look...I'm sorry about throwing you in the river," Matt was saying as they walked along.

"It was totally unwarranted," huffed Chloe.

"I had one of my little moments...smegging bugs," said Matt

"Can't you fry them with your powers?" said Chloe.

"Not without burning down the jungle," said Matt

Chloe sighed and then said, "By the way, where are Megan, Gary, and Sari?"

Matt shrugged. "Probably having a better time dealing with those insects than I am," he said.

Chloe suddenly stopped. "Hey...listen," she said. Matt went silent to hear several voices near some bushes further along the path they were on.

Chloe began to walk towards them when Matt said "Hey...I don't think we should..." Chloe just shook him off and barged into the bushes.

Chloe parted the bushes and looked through. She did not find the kids. What she did find was a tribe of mandrills who had been chattering away at each other. However, they had now stopped and were now staring at Chloe. There was a long silence before Chloe said, "Uh oh." The mandrills stared at her a little longer before one of them muttered something and they all charged her. (basically 'lets eat her')

Chloe immediately started running in the opposite direction while yelling, "RUN AWAY!"

Matt stepped aside as his sister and her pursuers charged by. "Wildlife gets weirder every year," he muttered before turning to see more mandrills. "Oh bugger," he said

It should be noted that mandrills are very persistent when they chase something. Once they start, they won't stop until either they've got their quarry or they've ran too far.

Matt and Chloe were finding this out quite well as the mandrills had not given up after 15 minutes. "I hate the jungle!" yelled Matt, after the 16th minute

Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn not long after that and found themselves against a rock wall on three sides.

"So this is how we die...eaten by mandrills," said Matt in an overly dramatic voice.

"Oh come on," said Chloe, "We've fought evil dragons before. I think we can handle a couple of monkeys."

"So? That just means they're harder to hit." said Matt. The mandrills however had settled down to watch the argument.

"Just because you're too chicken to fight primates doesn't mean I'm going to lie down and die," said Chloe.

"Hah...coming from the dragoness who went mental cause we compared you to Blackarachnia," retorted Matt. The mandrills were now moving their heads back and forth between the siblings like tennis spectators

"I am nothing like that overgrown arachnid," said Chloe.

"Yeah, of course not," said Matt sarcastically, "You obviously have nothing in common with an overbearing and manipulative hybrid."

"Why you little..." began Chloe and began to strange Matt.

The mandrills decided to retreat to a safer distance to watch. There are animals that could be hunt down for food, there are invaders to territory, and there are some whom would be better be watched fighting another than to actually fight them.

That and it was quite entertaining.

Meanwhile, Megan, Gary, and Sari had found a watering hole that didn't have any crocodiles or hippos in it at the moment. Fortunately, Sari had the foresight to pack some swimming suits for the three of them and they were enjoying the cool waters.

Matt and Chloe wandered into the clearing, looking like they'd gone a few rounds with OmegaMorph and glaring darkly

"Whoa, what happened to you guys?" asked Sari.

"Family argument." said Matt.

"Not to mention a few mandrills took some pot shots," said Chloe.

"Big deal," said another voice. The group turned to see NegaMorph, who had clawmarks all over his body and several parts that look like they've been bitten off.

"Ok...what happened?" sighed Matt

"Well, it started when I took a bad turn when I went for a morning walk..." said NegaMorph.

NegaMorph glared down as his legs were slowly being sucked into the ground. "Argh, quicksand, why'd it have to be quicksand?" A few seconds later, he stopped sinking. "Huh, not that deep."

Suddenly there was a snarling noise behind him. NegaMorph slowly turned to be nose to nose with a angry looking Leopard. "Oh, hell no..." he said dully.

The leopard bared its fangs and growled at NegaMorph. NegaMorph glared back and yelled "BRING IT ON!"

"...and that was that," said NegaMorph.

"Ok...are we gonna get into trouble? I'm sure leopards are endangered," Chloe muttered, "More endangered."

"Don't worry, I didn't kill him. In fact, that's him over there," said NegaMorph pointing. The group turned to see a bald leopard glaring at them. It growled before slinking off into the bushes. "Yeah, I'm up for round 2 any time you get your spine back!" yelled NegaMorph.

"Ok...where's the fur, NegaMorph?" said Matt, in a annoyed voice.

"I made it into this," said NegaMorph, holding up a leopardskin tote bag, "And look what else I made." He reached into the bag and pulled a leopardskin bikini set. "Which one of you girls wants this?"

Matt later said he had been happy he was so near the water and that Megan was only capable of low level fireball spells.

NegaMorph coughed and said, "I thought every girl wanted one of these."

Matt added later that maybe he should have just legged it as water conducted electricity...

NegaMorph fell backwards and muttered, "Smegging lying comic books."

Matt staggered about. "Does 'friendly fire' mean anything to you guys?" he rasped

"C'mon girls, let's find somewhere else to cool off," said Chloe. As the three girls left, Gary looked confused.

"I didn't even do anything!" he said.

"I suffer..." Matt said, twitching

Since Blackarachnia was 'taking a powder' as Fanzone would say, the experiments decided to pay Scorponok a visit to see how he's doing.

"I don't see why I cannot move around..." complained Scorponok

"Well, there isn't really much going on, anyways," said Draco, "Optimus has been putting together a report to give Ultra Magnus, Bumblebee spends most of his time whining about being away from civilization, and Prowl's trying to teach Bulkhead and Dune Runner how to meditate."

There was a distant explosion that shook dust down followed by a distant "Die, bugs, die."

Draco added, "And Matt's gone stir crazy."

"And what about the Dinobots?" asked Scorponok.

"Uh, they kinda need to be kept penned in one area or else they'll take over the jungle," said Chip.

Lilo added, "All in all...it's pretty dull." There was another explosion and Matt's voice laughing insanely.

"Yeah, we would have brought you something to entertain yourself, but Morph ate it...again," said Contrinus.

At that, there was a hiccup that was cut off mid noise by an explosion.

Lilo added, "Jumba made it."

"That's alright," said Scorponok, "As long as I have company, I'm satisfied."

"I bet you'd Miss Black Widow's company more," said Draco grinning.

Scorponok could not blush but if he could, he would have. "I don't know what you mean..." he said.

"Oh come on, you fell heads over landing gears the moment you laid optics on her," said Draco.

"To very sickening effects," added Chip.

"That's rubbish," said Scorponok, coughing.

"C'mon, even Morph can see it, if he didn't get his head stuck in a hole half the time,' said Contrinus.

"Or blown up..." said Draco as there was a hiccup explosion.

"Well, even if it were true, which it's not, it's no concern of yours," said Scorponok with as much dignity as he could muster.

The experiments just grinned. Scorponok changed the subject as best he could "Ok...how his Waspinator's training coming?"

"Well...it's going good and not so good," said Lilo.

Scorponok stared at Lilo. "What do you mean?" he said suspiciously.

"Well, talking to him isn't going too far right now," said Lilo, "So Jumba's going to try to fix his brain."

Scorponok said slowly, "This is the same Jumba who is a self proclaimed 'evil genius'."

"Yes, that's what we thought," said Chip.

"So...not good?" said Scorponok.

"Nope," said Lilo as a large zapping sound was heard.

Meanwhile, Matt was investigating the aforementioned zapping noises, following them to the clearing where Waspinator was. "Ok...what's...oh good lord," he said, seeing the scene in front of him

Jumba and Pleakley were both in their 'evil genius' outfits and Pleakley was detaching the wires that were attached to Waspinator's head. "Ah, mercenary boy, you are in time to see Jumba cure vasp robot of criminal madness."

"Okaay...did Lilo approve this?" Matt asked.

"She vas outvoted," said Jumba.

"Ok...as long as that's good...I'll just...just stand over there behind the boulder," said Matt, backing up.

Jumba looked at his computers readings and said, "Hmm... ve have good news and bad news. Good news is that vasp robot is no longer homicidal maniac. Bad news is that he now believes he is barnyard vaterfowl."

Waspinator immediately started making quacking noises and trying to flap his arms.

Matt stared for a minute before laughing his head off and, to add insult, took a holo-image on his wrist-comp.

Just then, Lilo and Contrinus came into the clearing. "Hey guys," said Lilo, "We came to see how you were doing with-" She noticed Waspinator pecking at the ground.

"Did you make him think he's a chicken?" demanded Contrinus.

"No, we made him think he's a duck," said Pleakley.

"This is classic. I'm recording this...try and make him think he's Elvis," said Matt, gasping from too much laughter.

"Guys, we're supposed to be helping him, not make him look ridiculous," said Lilo.

"So? He tried to kill us." said Matt.

"How would you feel if you were made to think you're a bird?" said Lilo, "No offense, Contrinus."

"None taken," said Contrinus.

"So? I was a bird for half an hour once," said Matt.

"But you kept your mind," said Contrinus.

"He's an asswipe, I wanna see what happens next," said Matt. However, Waspinator spotted Matt and apparently saw him as a worm. Waspinator burst his bonds and started waddling towards Matt. "FIX IT. FIX IT!" yelled Matt, backing up.

"Jumba needs to rig up processor again," said Jumba.

"JUST DO IT, YOU NUTBALL!" yelled Matt, running for it.

Lilo and Contrinus started laughing as Matt ran from a quacking Waspinator.

Five minutes later...

Matt was not in a good mood and had several bandages on. The spiderbots had managed to restrain Waspinator and the processor was recharged.

"Ok, it's agreed, no brainwashing Wasp into thinking he's an animal," said Matt.

Jumba nodded. "I have worked the bugs out of processor...no more earth animal brains."

"Good, last thing we need is a giant robot acting like a wild animal," said Chloe.

"Especially the ones that have stomachs," said Matt.

Jumba nodded. "Wasp robot...Zis may tingle," he said to Waspinator and activated the processor.

Waspinator's eyes flash a little as he came back online. "Bumblebot, Wazpinator must destroy Bumblebot," said Waspinator.

"And it's back to square vun," said Jumba.

Matt glared at Waspinator. "Can't we at leash shut him up?" he said snapping.

"Certainly," said Jumba, "Is simple matter to disable speech synthesizer." He tapped on his computer's keyboard and Waspinator's voice clicked off, though he kept ranting.

"Eerie," said Contrinus, "Like someone's put him on mute."

Matt said, "Right...let me try. Oi, wasp boy...do you know what spiderbots are?" he called up.

That seemed to set something off as Waspinator started yelling silently. "Didn't know they scared him that much," said Matt.

"Actually, if I'm lip-reading him correctly, I think he's talking about Blackarachnia," said Pleakley, "And not to pleasantly if I might add."

At the same time, Blackarachnia walked by, looking in a foul mood. "Not her, let's see. I have the Cybertronian name here somewhere..." said Matt

"Out of my way," snapped Blackarachnia, punting Matt aside before stomping out.

"Hmm, Jumba is seeing bigger resemblance between spider robot and mercenary girl," said Jumba.

Matt got up unsteadily. "I see the resemblance," he said, dizzily.

"Gee, I wonder what got her so grumpy," said Lilo.

Contrinus paused and said, "Wait, where's Draco, Chip, and Morph?"

"I think they've gone to see Scorponok," said Lilo.

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "Oh lord." The group quickly went towards Scorponok's chamber.

When they got there, they found the three experiments in question, looking rather sheepish. Scorponok had a rather bewildered look on his face as well as a hand-shaped dent on his cheek.

"Ok...who wants to be first to tell me a huge whopper of a lie?" said Matt.

"Well, these three offered me advice for how to get more of Blackarachnia's attention," said Scorponok, pointing at the experiments, "First, I tried to 'dazzle her with my intelligence' like Chip said, but I think I just bored her. Then I tried the 'pickup lines' Draco suggested, but they seemed to offend her. And then I used the giant seltzer bottle Morph provided to squirt her, but that just made her slap me and storm off."

"That'll do it..." said Matt after a minute's though.

"You took romantic advice from those three?" said Chloe incredulously, "Draco only hooked up with Contrinus due to love at first sight, Chip has no romantic side, and Morph's a smegging idiot."

Draco and Contrinus glared saying, "Hey!" Chip glared and Morph was about to glare before realizing he had no reason to disagree.

"Honestly, you'd get better advice from Matt," said Chloe.

Matt nodded "Yes you wou...OI!"

Scorponok looked confused and said, "This 'romance' concept is a lot more complicated that it looks."

Meanwhile, in another area of the Congo jungle, a small helicopter was hovering over the area. The weird part was the lack of any pilot.

What was even stranger was the alien-looking walker in the cargo hold. "I don't see why we have to go out into the middle of nowhere," complained Spittor.

"Because Strika said we had too. You could always go back and explain you don't want to though," said Blackout.

"No way. I'm not getting blasted by her cannons. But I still think this is a waste of time," said Spittor.

Blackout replied "This is the last area where we had the signal," he said, ignoring Spittor's moaning.

"You honestly think he would come here? No robot would go to a place so, so...organic," said Spittor.

Blackout said, "That is true, but Strika will tear us to bits if we don't check the signal anyway."

"Fine, then we better land and start searching through this mess," said Spittor.

"The sooner we find the signal, the sooner we can get out of here," agreed Blackout.

Back at the caves, Chloe decided she needed to set Scorponok straight on 'courting behavior' while she had Contrinus straighten out Draco, Chip, and Morph.

Matt was also there. "Chloe...he's a robot the size of a small three story building..." he said

"True, but this is too pathetic even for me," said Chloe, "You think you could do better?"

Matt thought about this and decided on honesty. "No," he said

"Right," said Chloe, "Now Scorponok, I want you to forget about what Draco and Morph told you. Chip's advice is fine, if you can keep it within her interests."

"Yes, always try to keep your love happy," said Matt, before wilting under Chloe's glare that said 'Shut up'.

"But I'm not sure what to talk to her about," said Scorponok, "It's like we're from different planets."

"Well...you are," said Matt, lamely.

"Well, try to find something you have in common, like...how you became techno-organic in the first place," said Chloe.

"Yes...establish common ground," said Matt

Scorponok thought for a minute and said, "It's...not a comforting story to tell."

"Well, neither is her's." The three of them turned to see Optimus walk in.

"Hi...we're trying to make sure Blackarachnia doesn't kill Scorponok by accident," said Matt.

"So I've heard," said Optimus, "I've also heard that Draco, Chip, and Morph gave him wrong advice."

"Chip's was partially ok...but yeah, the others were dumb. But if you listen carefully you can hear Contrinus 'explaining' what they did wrong," said Matt

The five of them paused for a moment before hearing a 'smack' and Morph whine, "Ow, why do you hit so hard?"

"Contrinus has taken lessons on explanations from Chloe," said Matt cheerfully

"I see," said Optimus, "Well, if you really need to know, I can tell you how she came to be the way she is now. I doubt you'll be able to get her to tell it herself."

The trio listened as Optimus told Blackarachnia's story. "Damn...no wonder she's screwed up," said Matt.

"And you can see why she's so distrustful of others," said Optimus.

Chloe nodded. "I'd probably be the same in her place," she said and kicked Matt who grinned,

Scorponok thought for a long time before he said, "Come to think of it, her story is not too different from mine. Yes, I believe I can relate to that, if I could find an opportunity to talk with her."

"So what's your story?" said Matt to Scorponok.

"You'll have to wait until after I tell it to Blackarachnia," said Scorponok as he got up, "I intend for her to be the first being I've ever told this story to."

"Ok...where is she, come to think of that?" said Matt.

"She's outside at the moment," said Optimus, "I had finished with my report to Ultra Magnus when she stormed out of the cave. I assume your friends' 'inadequate' advice was the cause for that."

"That's probably an accurate estimation," said Matt distantly.

Jumba came into the cave. "I am pleased to be saying that the wasp robot has calmed down after arachnid robots hit him on processor repeatedly though he is still giving threats against Bumblebee," he said.

"Well, maybe some fresh air would make him a little less stir crazy," said Optimus, "Scorponok, you take Bumblebee and Blackarachnia for a short hike with Waspinator. It could do some good for building friendships."

Matt looked shocked. "Ok...have the spiderbots hit you too? I don't usually have psychic flashes but I foresee a small battle if you cause that pairing," he said.

"Then perhaps you'd like to volunteer one of your men to join them," said Optimus.

Matt began thinking. Which crewmember had upset him the most recently? After a minute he remembered that NegaMorph had sold his weapons while he had been on Avalar. "NegaMorph will be happy to go," he said, elbowing Chloe when she began to object and mouthed, "You helped sell my guns...wanna join him?" to her

Chloe was about to object anyways when she remembered the incident with the leopardskin bikini that morning. "I'll go get him," she said in her false-sweet voice.

Later, NegaMorph was walking the quartet of Cybertronians through the jungle. "Stupid Lynch...I made him a profit on that deal..." he was muttering.

"Ah man," moaned Bumblebee, "Why do I have to walk around in the middle of nowhere, especially with the one bot that wants to slag me most?"

Waspinator glared at Bumblebee. A spiderbot was perched on his head, keeping the Cybertronian in check. "Wazpinator not like company of Bumblebot either," he said.

"Frankly, I'd be better off without the lot of you," grumbled Blackarachnia.

NegaMorph sighed. "Break it up. I want to get through this hike without being torn to bits. I always misplace a bit," he said

"Well, if we keep up a lively conversation, the walk won't seem that long," said Scorponok.

"Ok...let's try a safe topic. What do you guys wanna do once all this is over? Bumblebee, you first," said NegaMorph, in desperate cheerfulness. He had no doubt that the spiderbot would shoot everyone if a fight started, including NegaMorph.

"Well, I don't mind being on Earth," said Bumblebee, "But I wouldn't mind getting some things on Cybertron to make our base feel more like home."

NegaMorph sighed inwardly. Nothing there could cause offence to the spiderbot. "Ok...Scorponok...what about you?" he said. He was sure that some of the spiderbots had followed their fellow bot and were hiding in the bushes next to the track.

"Well, that's a bit harder to say," said Scorponok, "At first, I wanted to stay here until the anti-Decepticon and anti-organic propaganda has simmered down on Cybertron, but I don't know if that's going to happen any time soon. Then again, the natural parts of this planet make me grateful for being part organic."

Blackarachnia made a scoffing noise. "Hah...organic," she muttered.

"You do not find your uniqueness interesting?" asked Scorponok.

Blackarachnia spun on Scorponok. "Interesting? I was considered a freak even by the Decepticons. It ruined my life ever since I 'earned' it," she snarled

Scorponok stared calmly back and asked, "Did you consider yourself a freak or is it because others consider you so?"

"Wazpinator knowz what he wantz," said Waspinator, "Wazpinator will slag Bumblebot, then Spiderbot, then every other Autobot that turned against Wazpinator."

NegaMorph froze. "You didn't mean it...not about the spiderbots...right?" he said nervously, looking around to see the shadows lighting up with red dots all looking at Waspinator.

"Wazpinator will slag Spiderbot. Spiderbot betrayed Wazpinator, tried to use Wazpinator as guinea pig. Spiderbot nearly slag Wazpinator with tranzwarp field," snapped Waspinator, glaring at Blackarachnia.

"Oh no...you know...that thing on your head is also a spiderbot," said NegaMorph.

Waspinator looked upwards to notice the angry-looking spiderbot on his head. "Slag," he muttered.

Scorponok and Bumblebee had gone after Blackarachnia when they heard the screams.

They turned around to see the spiderbots dismembering Waspinator. "Good thing he can heal from that kind of thing," said Bumblebee.

They were actually impressed when Waspinator got free and ran for it with what looked like 80 spiderbots with plasma cutter mods chasing him.

The creepy part was the last one that was wearing a fox hunting hat.

"He'll be fine, I think," said NegaMorph.

There was an explosion and a scream. "Like I said...I think," said NegaMorph, "They'll get him back to camp...probably in pieces but back."

"Oh sure, that'll help him get his sanity back," said Blackarachnia sarcastically, "This whole stupid hike's just been a waste of time."

NegaMorph seemed to snap at this. "That's IT!" he roared, making the three Cybertronians stop. NegaMorph rounded on Blackarachnia. "YOU...shut up with you 'oh, I'm a mutant, woe is me.' You think you have it hard? Try having your DNA forcibly extracted for use in a super mutant and then you can moan, you whiny giant SPIDER!" he yelled. He stopped as his brain replayed.

NegaMorph noticed Blackarachnia's glare and said, "Erm, maybe I went a bit too far with-" He didn't get the chance to finish before Blackarachnia punted him.

Bumblebee whistled. "That's a good shot," he said.

Scorponok watched NegaMorph go. "Hmm, I wonder where he'll land," he said.

Matt had finally managed to get a wash and slapped a bug on his arm. "Urgh...I hate bugs. It might as well be raining blobs..." he said and stopped as he heard a steady scream getting louder...

Bumblebee watched as a distant explosion launched NegaMorph up into the sky. "Wonder where he'll land next?" he asked.

Chloe had also heard the explosion. She shrugged. "Matt...I wonder what he blew up?" she said to herself before looking up as a shadow appeared...

The three Cybertronians watched as NegaMorph was sent upwards by a flare of electricity. "That must be Chloe," said Blackarachnia.

NegaMorph crashed somewhere else and a blue blast of energy sent him up again. "That's Sari's blast," said Bumblebee.

The next time NegaMorph crashed, he was sent flying by a burst of flame. "And that would be Grimlock," said Scorponok.

Finally NegaMorph landed in a smoking heap in front of the trio again. "Round and round the mulberry bush..." he sang in a dazed voice.

"Ooh, he'll be feeling that for a while," said Bumblebee.

At that point, Waspinator burst back into view in time to be tripped and mobbed by the spiderbots. Luckily they just piled on top of him to freak him out.

"I am so glad I'm not related to those things," said Blackarachnia.

One of the spiderbots turned to look at them with a 'go away' look in its optic.

"I suppose we'll have to take them back so they can be treated," said Scorponok.

Just then, the wind started to pick up. The spiderbots suddenly lost interest, chittering to each other before shooting off into the bushes or up the trees. "What's with those guys?" asked Bumblebee before looking up to see a large green military helicopter above them. "Uh oh," he said.

The side of the chopper opened and a blue Cybertronian walker jumped out. Both of them fell down to the ground where they assumed the forms of Blackout and Spittor. The spiderbots couldn't believe their luck. Two Decepticons all to themselves.

Blackout looked at Bumblebee, Scorponok, and Blackarachnia for a few nanocliks before saying, "Hey, I know those guys. That one right there used to be Sandstorm." He pointed at Scorponok and said, "He attacked us at that island."

Spittor looked at Blackarachnia. "What are you doing with these Autobots?" he said accusingly. Neither of the Decepticons could see or hear the spiderbots slowly coming out of the foliage behind them.

"Uh, I was going to take these two as prisoners," said Blackarachnia, "Uh, Strika would probably want them, right?"

Bumblebee gulped before suddenly seeing the spiderbots advancing with obvious mayhem on their CPU's. "You two better be careful," said Bumblebee, "Spiderbots are known to be very treacherous and they love to strip robots apart for the heck of it."

Blackarachnia glared at Bumblebee and growled, "Why you little..."

Bumblebee said, "I meant SPIDERbots," urgently.

Blackarachnia looked to see the aforementioned robots advancing on her ex-associates. "Oooh," she said before smirking.

"What are you two-" started Spittor before remembering the creatures that threatened him before. He quickly turned around and started blasting out explosive globs of jelly.

The spiderbots were sadly faster, most of them deciding to jump on Blackout. The rest scittered around Spittor and swarmed onto him, one shoving a coconut it had found into Spittor's mouth. Spittor, however, merely ate it before processing it into more explosive gel and continue firing at them. This apparently was not a good thing as the spiderbots decided to deal with this, several jumping on Spittor's head and starting using arc welders on Spittor's mouth hinge.

Blackout was not doing much better. "Get off of me!" yelled Blackout as ripped off handfuls of the spiderbots and flung them away. He tried to stomp on several of them before he used his EMP stomp. Unfortunately, this just made the spiderbots even more intent on mayhem, one skittering up and into a join in Blackout's armor. Blackout didn't noticed at first until he felt an uncomfortable tingling in his leg. Said tingling turned to pain when something started messing with his circuits.

The other spiderbots took advantage of this to literally bury Blackout in numbers. They finally moved away to show that they had welded Blackout's movement joints solid, one spiderbot gluing a flag to Blackout's head before jumping off.

However, during their assault on the Team Charr members, the spiderbots forgot about Waspinator. Which gave Waspinator plenty of time to heal up his injuries. Just as the spiderbots seemed to be gaining victory, Waspinator stood up and shouted, "WAZPINATOR WILL HAVE REVENGE!" He then turned and stared firing blasts from his bug arms at the spiderbots.

This was probably what saved the Team Charr members as every spiderbot jumped on Waspinator. To them, Waspinator had been amusing and something to tease...until he thought he could shoot at them and actually stay out of stasis lock after.

Spittor managed to get back up and spotted the spiderbots on Waspinator. He didn't know the green bot, but he certainly wanted the mechanical parasites gone. Fortunately for him, Team Charr researched spiderbots after the last encounter with them and found that there was a certain sound frequency that acted as a repellent, for a limited time. Spittor reached into a compartment pulled out a small device that Oil Slick had designed for such an occasion. He clicked it on, causing a high-pitched sound to emanate from it.

Blackout got up very stiffly, primarily because his repair systems were still trying to free up his joints. "Who's this guy?" asked Blackout, looking at Waspinator.

Bumblebee, Scorponok, and Blackarachnia had been content enough to let the spiderbots handle the Decepticons, but when Waspinator attacked and the spiderbots were driven off, they started to get worried. "Wasp, keep away from those guys," said Bumblebee.

"Wazpinator not trust what Bumblebot say," said Waspinator.

"Too right you shouldn't," said Blackout, "You should be on our side."

Spittor glared at Blackout and muttered, "Hurry up...I think they're adapting." There was already rustling from the bushes, several red optics glaring.

"Wasp, you don't want to go to their side, believe me," said Scorponok.

"Why not?" demanded Waspinator, "They treat Wazpinator better than Autobotz. Fleshiez never do anything but hurt Wazpinator. Spiderbotz hurt Wazpinator for no good reason. Autobotz never been nice Wazpinator." Waspinator turned to Blackout and Spittor and said, "Wazpinator want in with Decepticonz."

Spittor ducked a laser beam that caused a good 4 inches to vanish from the tree trunk it hit. "Fine...welcome aboard," he said in a rush.

"Wasp, please, don't-" started Bumblebee before the ground started shaking. "Uh, are earthquakes common here?" he asked. Just then, the ground opened up beneath them. Not just cracking apart, but sliding down and open.

The Autobots and Blackarachnia went head of heels into the pit. The spiderbots all apparently vanished at this. They had been tempted to push the Decepticons in too and saturate the hole with enough laser fire to K.O a planet cracker but Matt would be annoyed if they shot his friends. However, they did settle for causing Blackout's leg joints to act up again. This caused the colossal bruiser to lose his balance. Before Waspinator and Spittor could get out of the way, Blackout fell forward, knocking them all into the pit.

The spiderbots all appeared at the rim to look down. While they were not going to shoot, they did lever a small boulder to fall down and land on Spittor's head.

After that, the cover of the trap slid back into place. NegaMorph groaned and got back up. He would have tried to do something, but the multiple blastings he got took a lot out of him. "This probably isn't good," said NegaMorph before he started hobbling back to camp. The spiderbots, needing to vent, decided to help him get back to camp faster, grabbing NegaMorph and throwing him in the direction of camp.

Meanwhile, Meltdown was in one part of his secret lab. He was currently examing a sample of organic tissue from a local tarantula underneath a microscope. "Hmm... very interesting," said Meltdown, "Spiders can be such interesting creatures, so long as they're not spitting webs on you."

The door into his lab opened and Colossus Rhodes walked in. "The trap's just been opened up. I think we got something," he said

"Strange, I haven't set it today," said Meltdown, "Cyrus, have you noticed how the machines here are acting different than usual lately?"

Rhodes shrugged. "Not really."

"Well, maybe it's just me," said Meltdown before standing up, "We may as well see what we've caught."

As the two of them left the room, the microscope Meltdown was using started to move. A couple of clicks, twists, and flips, and the microscope assumed the form of Scalpel. "No," said the Decepticon, "Soon you'll be seeink vat I caught."

Back at camp, Matt was looking around. "Hey...how long is this walk Blackarachnia was taking?" he said when he saw Ratchet.

"Don't know, they should have come back by now," said Ratchet. He turned on his comlink and said, "Bumblebee, come in," but got nothing but static. "Bumblebee, do you read me?"

"Hey...could be just bad reception...this is a jungle, not renounded for their comm. reception," said Matt.

"Maybe," said Ratchet, "But my gut says otherwise."

Matt said, "I didn't know robots had guts."

"I'm just using one of your planet's expressions," said Ratchet, "Cybertronians don't have the same kind of digestive systems as humans. At least most Cybertronians."

"It's probably nothing. My spiderbots won't let anything happen. It's more likely for one of them to land on me..." said Matt.

Just then, Ratchet looked upwards and shouted, "Incoming!" Matt looked up a second too late to see NegaMorph land on him.

NegaMorph groaned from where he had landed. "At least I landed on something soft," he moaned before Matt's voice said, "Get off me...NOW!" NegaMorph groaned and said, "Oh, not again," before being blasted off by Matt's plasma control.

After NegaMorph had been brought back round, Chloe asked the big question. "Where are the others...more importantly, Where did you leave the spiderbots?"

"Two Decepticons got the drop on us," said NegaMorph.

"What did they look like?" asked Optimus.

"One of them was the big helicopter guy. And the other kinda looked like a frog."

"Blackout and Spittor. What are those two doing here?" said Ratchet.

"I don't know," said NegaMorph, "But the spiderbots set themselves upon them. They probably would have won too if Waspinator didn't interfere."

Matt spoke this time. "I told you we shoulda let Jumba try again."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he was lucid enough when he switched to the Decepticons' side," said NegaMorph.

"Oh hell...I hate wasps," muttered Matt.

"I can't believe Wasp would betray us like that," said Optimus.

"Oh, I don't think it's so hard to believe," said NegaMorph, his voice taking a sour tone, "What with you mercs zapping him for every little offense, the spiderbots mangling for no offense at all, and you Autobots haven't been very welcome to him either."

"The spiderbots mangle everyone though," said Matt to himself.

"Well, they ought to at least know better than to mess with someone who's been traumatized and made partially deranged," said NegaMorph, "Present company excluded."

Optimus glanced over his shoulder and said, "Uh, NegaMorph, you might not want to say that about the spiderbots."

"And why shouldn't I?" snapped NegaMorph, "Those little creeps are nothing more than nuisances. They've got no conscience, no self-control, not even any courtesy. No wonder the little psychos are considered vermin on your planet." There was a whirring noise...rather like a very small chainsaw revving up. "...aaand they're behind me, aren't they?" said NegaMorph glumly. The group nodded slowly and NegaMorph turned in time for the newly returned spiderbots to jump at him to...explain their grievances.

"I suppose we'll have to wait until they're done before we can hear the rest of that story," said Ratchet.

"Yeah..." said Matt in a small voice.

After the spiderbots had been prized away, NegaMorph was able to continue. "Anyways, after Wasp switched sides, the ground opened up and they all fell into a trap," said NegaMorph, "Then my...other travel companions gave me a 'lift' back to camp."

The spiderbots all chittered in their creepy laugh from where they were watching. Matt looked confused at this though. "Someone dug a robot trap...I know I'm gonna regret this but do you guys know anyone who would do that?" he said.

"Well, I don't think there are any Decepticons based out here," said Optimus, "But I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of Meltdown's traps."

"Mr. Acid Bath? What's he doing here?" said Matt, sighing.

"Probably still in his lab," said Ratchet, "We never did manage to cover all of that base."

"I vote that this time we make sure," said Techo.

"Ok, but we better be careful," said Optimus, "Meltdown's probably has defense up again by now. And who knows what else he could have added?"

"Good...it means we can drive up his insurance even more," said Matt cockily.

"I'd be more worried about Bumblebee and the others," said Chloe, "You know how much Meltdown likes to melt bots."

Back in the pit, the occupants were not pleased, mostly cause there was not much space.

"Blackout, get your arm out of my face," growled Spittor.

"Can't move, deal with it," said Blackout.

"I already have to deal with this rock those robo-ticks dropped on me," said Spittor.

"Hey, I'm buried under all of you," whined Bumblebee, "How do you think I feel?"

Scorponok tried to get loose. "I think...I almost...got loose..." he said before moving a bit...right onto Blackarachnia. "Ah...this isn't what it seems like..." he began.

"Keep your servos to yourself!" snapped Blackarachnia.

"Ooh, does the spiderbot have a boyfriend?" teased Blackout.

Spittor looked around "What spiderbot?" he said a bit desperately. The last thing he needed was for a couple of spiderbots to have ended up in the pit as well.

Blackarachnia glared in Blackout's direction. "You better shut down your voice synthesizer," she hissed.

"Blackarachnia's got a crush..." sang Blackout in an annoying tone.

Blackarachnia snapped at this and attempted what would have been a very painful punch. However, Chloe could have told her that doing this in suck an enclosed space was not really a good idea.

"Ow, stop hitting me!" said Scorponok.

"Move your overgrown chassis so I can get as his overgrown chassis!" snapped Blackarachnia.

"Allow me," said Scorponok before trying to use his tail to sting Blackout.

Wasp yelped as Scorponok scored a hit on him instead. "Gah...why you hit Wazpinator? Wazpinator not say anything."

"Excuse me, I thought you were the helicopter," said Scorponok.

"Wazpinator not heli-bot," retorted Waspinator, adding quietly, "Scorpobot need new optics."

Blackarachnia glared and tried to elbow Wasp, but got Bumblebee instead. "Ow, what was that?" asked Bumblebee.

"Sorry, thought you were the wasp," said Blackarachnia.

Meanwhile, Meltdown and Colossus were looking at the feed from a camera in the pit. "Well, I never expected the Autobots to pay another visit so soon," said Meltdown.

"And a whole lot of them too," said Collosus.

"Well, we shouldn't leave our guests waiting," said Meltdown, making some acid flow over his glove.

"Yeah," said Colossus before saying, "Uh, which way is it to the trap?" Meltdown sighed. Sometimes he wished he had selected a more intelligent volunteer for his experiment. Xenobyte was hardly any better as he kept forgetting the subject of the conversation or what he was supposed to be doing.

Meltdown sighed, "Follow me," and the duo walked out into the corridor. A second later, Scalpel sneaked in via a vent and landed on the wall controls.

"Ooh, zis shall be fun," said Scalpel as he started adjusting the controls, "Scurry avay into the maze, my little mice."

Scalpel proceeded to press various buttons, soundlessly moving the bases's layout and quickly trapping Colossus and Meltdown without their knowledge. He noticed Xenobyte on the monitors but decided he would not be a problem. "Soon, I vill have my moment of triumph," gloated Scalpel.

The spiderbot watching from the vent considered this. It had been left behind when the gang had invaded the base. It scuttled down, and landed with precision on one of the trap buttons that connected to Xenobyte's room.

Meanwhile, Xenobyte was trying to get his priorities straight. "Ok, now that I've stabilized my body and mind, it's time for me to..." He trailed off and paused for a moment. "Do what? Chop down a redwood? Eat 1 ton of marshmallows? What was it again?"

Unnoticed, a small green gas began to seep into the room behind him.

Xenobyte thought for a moment and said, "I've got it! I'll, I'll, I'lllllll..." The gas was supposed to be a knockout gas, but due to Xenobyte being a completely different species from human, it had another effect. Xenobyte's various eyes started spinning as he starting singing, "I'll be working on the railroad, all the live long day..."

Scalpel was watching on the screen. He had not even noticed the spiderbot behind him, given how sneaky the spiderbot was. "Vitch button caused zat?" he said before hearing a whirring and looking to see the spiderbot who proceeded to jump on him and crawl back into the air duct. Scalpel stared after the spiderbot and muttered, "I can believe I'm related to zose creatures." An optic appeared at the vent for a second and Scalpel added quickly, "Not zat zere is anythink wrong vith zat." It never paid off to upset someone crazier then you.

It turned that Meltdown had been able to fix his security systems since last time. Because now the gang was hiding behind rocks to avoid the blasts from the laser and acid turrets.

"It'll be easy, you said," taunted Chloe as a blast took a chunk out of the rock they were behind.

"Ok, so he amped up the turrets a little, give me a break," said Matt. A beam sliced neatly through the rock, going between then and cutting the rock into two halves. "Ok...he amped them up a lot," said Matt.

"We're going to need more firepower to get through," said Chloe before pausing and asking, "Where are the Dinobots?"

Matt said, "We want people to survive," and winced as a beam hit his plasma shields.

"We'll just need them as battering rams. Unless you think you can hit those turrets from here," said Chloe.

Matt peered round his half of the boulder and nearly got a third nostril. "Ok, call them," he said, ducking back.

Chloe set her comlink to the Autobot frequency and managed to get Grimlock. It turned out that their upgrade that made them Transformers also given them comlinks. "Grimlock, we need some help over here," said Chloe.

"Grimlock not work for puny humans," replied the Dinobot.

Chloe glared at her comm. and said, "If you don't come here right now, I'll have the spiderbots remove your legs when you're asleep." It was worth noting that being shot at tended to make Chloe not very charitable in her thinking.

"Let me try," said Matt before using his own comlink, "Hey Grimlock, if you help us here, not only will you get the chance to get back at Meltdown, but you'll be helping spider-lady too."

Matt winced and moved his comm.. away as Grimlock roared "GRIMLOCK HELP SPIDER LADY!"

Matt turned to smirk at Chloe and said, "You just gotta know where the guy's mental levers are."

"Yeah, you would know," said Chloe.

Matt was about to reply before the ground started to rumble. "Oh hell, I think we should move. I don;t think Grimlock and co have a concept of moving round objects," said Matt.

This seemed mostly true as the three robotic dinosaurs came charging out of the jungle roaring, crashing through anything that was in their way. By sheer luck, the Lynch siblings avoided being squashed. They turned to look at what was left of the door. The turrets had been reduced to melted lumps of metal and the door was now in the shape of Grimlock's silhouette.

"Ok...I think we can say 'all clear'," said Matt.

"Yes, I think we can confirm that," said Optimus, "Autobots, transform and roll in!" He and the other Autobots transformed and rolled forwards towards the tunnel, stopping long enough for the mercs to climb in.

Matt and the mercs headed down the tunnels and corridors too small for the Cybertronians and were quick to hear singing coming from a room nearby. Matt blew the door open to see Xenobyte, acting like he had just drunk his way out a tankerful of vodka.

"Uh, wasn't his insanity fixed by his reformatting?" asked Matt.

Xenobyte looked blearily over at them. "Mummy? Izzat you?" he slurred.

"He's definitely out of it," said Chloe.

Matt held up a hand and walked over to Xenobyte before gently pushing him over. The technorganic symbiote fell over like a domino. "Ooooh... that was fuuuun..." said Xenobyte.

"Hey, wait a second," said Matt, "He's not drunk, he's drugged out."

"How would you know?" asked Chris.

"Erm...never mind," said Matt, trying to sound innocent.

"Why would Meltdown drug his own partner?" asked Chloe.

"I don't think he would. Meltdown doesn't seem like the type to randomly drug his partner," said Matt, poking Xenobyte who laughed.

"Maybe Rhodes did it," said Techo, "He might have gotten jealous of his boss's new partner."

"I doubt that guy would know what would be happy gas for Xenobyte over here," said Chloe.

"You are my sunshine, my golden sunshine..." sang Xenobyte. Chloe signed and stamped on Xenobyte, cutting him off mid-song.

"Something weird's going on here, and I'm not saying that because we're in the secret lab of a mad scientist with acid for skin," said Matt.

The others nodded, including Xenobyte. "I saw a German metal spider," he said blearily.

"Well, Eye Guy here asides, we need to find our guys before they get dumped into a smelting pool or something," said Matt.

Back at the pit, a minor ceasefire had been called, if only cause nobody could move enough to hurt anyone else. "This is demeaning," said Blackout sulkily.

"Hey, at least you're up on the top," said Bumblebee, "I'm getting compacted down here."

"Wazpinator wishes Bumblebot would shut up," grumbled Waspinator.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound. "What was that?" asked Blackarachnia.

"Sorry, I don't think that fruit is settling too well," said Spittor.

Blackout glared. "Don't even think about it," he said threateningly.

"What? What's he talking about?" asked Scorponok.

Spittor started to shake as he spoke, "Well, sometimes, I eat something that's not completely energy-efficient and... uh oh." The next instant, a large amount of gas exited Spittor's exhaust port accompanied by a very rude sound and pungent odor.

"Oh boy...you need your filters changing," gagged Scorponok

That seemed to the breaking point for Blackarachnia and she screamed loudly before banging on the wall closest to her, yelling, "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!"

Just then, there was an even louder rumble. "That one wasn't me," said Spittor.

At that, the floor swung down like a trapdoor, dumping the entire group into a new room below the pit.

Thankfully, there was enough room to stand up in as well not having to be confined to a single space. "Thank the Allspark I'm out of there," said Blackarachnia before stretching, "Now I've to take care of one last thing." She turned around and stabbed both Blackout and Spittor with her stings, giving them a nonlethal dose of cyber-venom.

Waspinator watched in horrified fascination as his new allies keeled over. "Wazpinator sorry about spiderbot comments," he said in a terrified voice.

"Oh, I'm not angry about that," said Blackarachnia, "I just couldn't stand them talking for one more nanoklik."

Waspinator sighed with relief.

As Bumblebee stretched to get the kink out of his joints, he looked around. This place looked a lot like Blackarachnia's old lab. Only someone had outfitted it with more tech. He also noticed there were four large pods standing against a wall. "What kind of creepy place is this?" he asked.

Scorponok looked around and said, "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were in a Cybertronian lab."

"Oh, you're not that far off," said a voice. The six of them turned to see a panel in the wall open up and a small spider-like robot came out of it. "Velcome to my laboratory," said Scalpel.

Blackarachnia immediately recognized the Cybertronian. "Scalpel. That was you?" she said angrily.

"Guilty, my dear," said Scalpel, "Such a delight to see you again. And for you to bring other techno-organic beings vith you."

Blackarachnia glared. "And why have you 'invited' us?" she said, saying the 'invited' word sarcastically

"I'm glad you asked," said Scalpel, "You see, being ze top scientist among ze Decepticons is a great privilege, but I cannot stand how everyvun towers over me. And ze rub it in all ze time. 'Keep up ze good vurk, shorty', 'Vat's takink so long, pipsqueak', 'Fix me up, shrimp', it drove me nuts!"

Bumblebee looked at Scalpel and in classic Bumblebee tact said, "But you are short."

"DON'T CALL ME SHORT!" screeched Scalpel, hopping up and down with anger. Then he managed to compose himself and said, "So zat is vhy I found you so very interestink, Blackarachnia. Your techno-organic reformatink has given you so much more power. I wanted some of zat for myself."

"Well it doesn't work. Wasp over there nearly exploded," said Blackarachnia in an annoyed voice.

"Yes, vhat you did vith Vaspinator vas very interesting," said Scalpel, "Rather haphazard, but I admire ze results. I have been trying for hundreds of solar cycles to figure how to convert technological matter to part organic. It had me stumped until I read about your attempt vith Vaspinator."

Bumblebee said, "So what? You're gonna test your theories on us?"

"And have you for my minions? I zink not," said Scalpel, "After I picked up zis lab vas located here, I managed to sneak avay to here. After a veek here, studying both Blackarachnia and Meltdown's notes, I believe I've discovered a safer way of technorganic reformatink, vhich I shall use to clone my own minions."

"So why kidnap us?" said Scorponok, his hand behind him, readying its blaster.

"Vell, I needed templates to base my minions off of," said Scalpel before pausing and said, "You look familiar, have we met?"

Scorponok glared. "Briefly," he said coldly.

"Ah vell, I'm sure we'll become real familiar soon," said Scalpel before throwing a switch. Several panels opened up in the ceiling and clamps descended from them before grabbing the six Transformers.

Meanwhile, the mercs went back to the Autobots to discuss their discovery. Xenobyte, who apparently still thinks the Lynches were his parents, followed them.

The Autobots turned as they heard Matt snapped, yelling ,"FOR THE 15TH TIME...I AM NOT CALLED DADDY, DAD, DADDUMS OR FATHER. NOW SOD OFF!"

"Ah, cracking under parental stress?" teased Chloe.

"Chloe? Not helping," growled Matt.

Chloe smirked and said, "No arguing in front of junior, dear."

Matt gave Chloe an odd look and said, "Uh, we're brother and sister, so the thought of being the parents of this guy is wrong on several levels."

Chloe shrugged. "It's worth it to tease you," she said with a smirk.

"Besides, it'll be good practice for you and Kala," teased NegaMorph. The Autobots winced as a lightning bolt and plasma bolt hit NegaMorph.

"Why is that guy following you?" said Ratchet, looking at Xenobyte, whose eyes were slowly spinning.

"Because someone's drugged him enough to lose his sense of reality," said Techo.

Ratchet said, "Hmm...I thought you said his race was immune. By the way...is this yours?" he said adding the last bit in an annoyed tone and holding up a spiderbot who waved at Matt.

"Erm...maybe?" said Matt before being smacked by Chloe.

"Where'd you find him?" asked Chloe in an exasperated voice.

"This little thing dropped on top of Sari's head. Gave her a big shock," said Ratchet.

The spiderbot sniggered at that, before scuttling up Ratchet's arm and jumping onto Xenobyte's head. Unfortunately, Xenobyte mistook it for something edible, grabbed it, and shoved it into his mouth. Matt counted under his breath, getting to 3 before Xenobyte hiccupped, went cross-eyed and exploded as the spiderbot blasted its way to freedom.

"Well...least we don't have to worry till he pulls himself together," said Sari weakly.

The spiderbot however had gone over to a tunnel and was hopping up and down at them. "I think it wants us to follow it," said Prowl.

"Then it's probably leading us into a prank trap," said Chris.

The spiderbot glared at Chris, tore up a piece of rock, and threw it at him, hitting Chris between the eyes before continuing to jump up and down.

"I think it's serious," said Chloe.

"Maybe," said Matt, "But it looks like the only one of you Autobots that can fit through would be Prowl."

"I'm coming too," said Sari.

Matt shrugged, "The more the merrier. When we get there, we'll probably just have to watch anyway. Spiderbots really do enjoy their work," he said.

Prowl turned to the others and said, "You better stay here anyways in case someone tries to leave. We don't want Meltdown to get away this time."

Optimus nodded. "Be careful. We all know how dangerous Meltdown is."

The spiderbot led the way through the tunnels, lighting the way with a eerie red light from its optic. However it stopped in apparent confusion at a dead end.

"I thought these guys couldn't get lost," said Sari.

The spiderbot looked at the wall like it had offended it before shooting at it full tilt and going through, leaving an almost comical mouse hole-sized hole.

"Gee, that's convenient," said Matt sarcastically, "If we remembered to bring our shrink ray." The spiderbot came back out the hole and wandered up the wall, looking around. "Great...it's a wall. It's not like a tap'll knock it...down," said Matt, stopping as the spiderbot stabbed an area in the wall, making it crack like a mirror and fall apart. "Ok, that'll work," said Matt nervously.

The rest of the corridor was beyond the hole. "Ok...I think we know how he got away last time then." said Chloe, looking at the exposed servo's that had allowed the wall to slide back and forth.

"So this whole place is one big puzzle?" asked Sari.

"Yeah. Sneaky," said Chris. The tunnel however was sloping downwards, deeper into the depths of the base. As they got deeper, the walls began to look newer, some Cybertronian letters visible sometimes, obviously signs of some kind.

"How long did Blackarachnia live here?" asked Matt.

Prowl looked at one of the walls. "This is too new. It was built recently." Matt and the mercs instantly drew blasters at this. A new Decepticon was all they needed.

Not further in, Scalpel was preparing the systems for his cloning systems, humming some Cybertronian tune to himself as he worked. "This is like that horror movie me and Sari saw last month," said Bumblebee.

"Really? What was it?" asked Scorponok.

"Rise of the Mecha-Clones, where this quack doctor makes robot duplicates of people and tries to use them to take over the world," said Bumblebee.

"Vill you please shut up? Zis iz very delicate," said Scalpel from below.

There was a pause for a second "VAT DO YOU MEAN 'QUACK'?" yelled Scalpel.

"Well, for one thing, in order to make clones, you'll need protoforms to make them," said Blackarachnia, "And I don't see any of those lying around."

Scalpel seemed smug. "I do have your proto-nanites, my dear. Zey have proved quite useful," he said.

Blackarachnia looked embarrassed for a second before saying, "I created those nanites. You have no right to use them."

"I believe zere is an expression the Earthlinks use for zis situation," said Scalpel, "Finders keepers, losers veepers."

Blackarachnia glared and looked like she was ready to squash Scalpel.

"Now zen," said Scalpel, "Let us start ze clonink vith somethink simple, like a technorganic version of Spittor."

Spittor, who had come round by now, glared, "Don't you dare, you little spiderbot."

Scalpel glared at him and said, "I varned you about callink me 'little'." He pressed a button on the computer console, which sent a shock of electricity through Spittor as his body was scanned.

"Gnnngh...I'll rip...you apart," gibbered Spittor.

Scalpel turned to the others and said, "Ze scannink doesn't have to be as painful as his. Any other quips to make?"

Bumblebee looked and said, "Spiderbot." Unknown to Scalpel, this was not a quip as the gang's spiderbot guide had walked around the corner before Matt pulled it back out of sight.

Scalpel glared at Bumblebee and said, "Anyvay, ze nanites vill still need an organism to base off of. Und Spittor has alvays reminded me of a big fat frog."

Out in the corridor, the mercs were trying a desperate new tactics...stealth. Prowl was trying to keep the spiderbot still. "It's that little maniac from when Lockdown grabbed me," whispered Matt.

"So Xenobyte wasn't completely bonkers about the German spider robot," said Chloe.

Matt peered round again. "Guess not..." he muttered before looking up, "And there's our buds."

"Hmm... getting them free will not be easy, but I think I have a plan," said Prowl. The spiderbot which had been struggling in Prowl's grip decided to sink its fangs into his wrist and scittered towards the door. Prowl rubbed his wrist and said, "This may be trickier than I thought." The gang all went to the door and watched with minor horror as the spiderbot slowly sneaked up on Scalpel.

Just then, one of the pods opened. "Ah, my first technorganic minion is ready," said Scalpel. There was a bit of shuffling before an enormous purple frog jumped. It looked around for a minute before croaking loudly.

The spiderbot looked confused for a second before deciding to head for that instead. The frog spotted the spiderbot before lashing out with its tongue and knocking it into a utility closet.

Scalpel turned around from making the next scan ready at that. "Vat vas zat?" he said.

The frog shrugged and croaked out, "Spiderbot."

Scalpel glared and slapped the frog bot, "Don't you be startink." Then Scalpel turned to his captives and said, "Since ze first one seems to be a success, let's do something more complex, such as a rearrangement of ze template DNA." The clamps holding Scorponok lit up as they scanned his body.

Back in the corridor, Matt was looking at the large frog. He and Chloe had turned pale when the spiderbot had been sent into the closet. "We've got to get in there before they get hurt," he said.

"They don't seem to be harmed," said Prowl, "Though those clamps don't seem to be comfortable."

"You kidding? Spiderbots can make more of themselves with anything metal...and that bot's in a damn spare parts closet," whispered Matt.

"That would be a problem," said Sari, "But whatever's in that pod seems to be scarier." Matt and Chloe looked at each other before noticing the others were looking past them.

Whatever was finishing in the second pod looked very active as there was some banging going on inside it. Eventually, the pod hissed open. The instant it did that, a large yellow and green monster came out that had the head of a cobra and the body of a scorpion. It hissed loudly at everything in the room. Unfortunately, it spotted the Lynches first and hissed angrily.

"Ok, I didn't expect that to happen," said Matt as he got a plasma orb ready in his hand.

Matt and Chloe sent their own blasts at it. Unfortunately, scorpions and cobras regularly live in hot places so a few plasma and electrical burns barely scratched or slowed it down.

Scalpel noticed the blasts and said, "It looks like ve have uninvited guests. Wartoad, Quickstrike, take care of zem while I create your final teammate, with ze templates from zese three." He started up then started up the scanners for Bumblebee, Waspinator, and Blackout.

Prowl and Sari jumped back as the scorpion/cobra technorganic and the frog bot burst into the corridor. "Get em!" yelled Matt. The blasts deflected off their technorganic hides as they continued forward. The cobra-scorpion was particularly vicious as it started spitting out venom at them. "Dammit," said Matt, barely getting back in time and having to pull his armored glove off when some venom on it started eating through it.

"Why did he have to end up like a Krylock?" complained Matt.

"What would you expect?" asked Chloe, "The cobra head being on his tail?"

Wartoad however shot his tongue out and aimed a whip at Sari and Prowl.

Sari and Prowl flipped backwards, barely avoiding being tongue-lashed. "I'm so glad I stuck with those ninja lessons," said Sari.

A hail of lasers hit Wartoad in the back and the bot spun to see Techo and Chris switching their ammo to EMP rounds. Wartoad shot out his tongue and wrapping it around the two of them before hauling back into his mouth. Matt and Chloe were horrified before their teammates were spat at them, knocking them down.

Techo turned to Chris and said, "See, I told you that you need to take a shower."

"I definitely need to now," said Chris, as he looked at the frog saliva all over him.

Another tongue whip came and knocked them down, knocking Matt and Sari into the room. "Ow...Oh...hi, shorty...not working for Lockdown anymore?" said Matt, looking up to see Scalpel in front of him.

"Laugh vhile you can, ghost pilot," said Scalpel, "Ze fun has just barely begun." He pushed a button, causing the third pod to open. Matt and Sari looked to see a gigantic yellow jacket crawl out of it.

"Oh doiuble...does anyone hear creaking?" said Matt. The closet looked like it was starting to bend. The humans and robots turned to look before the door burst open and a small cascade of spiderbots poured out of the supply closet, which was much emptier now.

The spiderbots proceeded to leap on the trio of techno-organics...and anyone else in range. Wartoad was doing quite well till a much larger spiderbot about the size of a dog jumped on his back and started slamming him into the floor by jumping up and down.

"I don't have time for zis," said Scalpel before pushing a button. Suddenly, the air vents were sent to maximum circulation, creating a strong wind that started blowing the spiderbots away. Scalpel was only spared because he had plugged himself into his seat.

The larger one sadly plugged the vent when it pulled Wartoad up with it, plugging the vent.

However, that did scatter the gang enough to make them less of a concentrated threat. And Scalpel's new minions were not looking very friendly at the moment.

Scalpel jumped off the controls. "So...just in time to see my new minions," he said.

"You shouldn't have blown of the spiderbots like that," said Matt.

"Bah, vat could zose throwbacks ever hope to accomplish against my genius?" scoffed Scalpel.

"Well...they're about 100 times harder to kill than these guys," said Matt, in a casual tone. Scalpel just smirked, not believing a word, though he did jump when one of the overhead vents rattled.

"Vell, I have all ze protection I need," said Scalpel, "Und speakink of vich..." He snapped his fingers and commanded, "Buzzsaw, how about you show our audience to an outdoor theater so you can show your real potential?"

Matt looked to see the wasp techno-organic grab him and pick him up, slam him on a wall till he stopped twitching then pointed out the door, making hissing noises. He was obviously telling them to get moving. Wartoad managed to get himself free from the vent while Quickstrike started herding the other towards the door, discouraging their attempts to run with hissing and feints.

Scalpel turned to the bots he had in clamps. "Your presence is no longer required here. Have comfort in knowink your contribution helped pushed Cybertronian technology. Of course, you'll still make one last assistance: that my technorganic soldiers are as deadly as zey were designed to be." He hit another button that pulled the six Transformers up through the ceiling.

The gang were led down what was clearly a new tunnel. At one point, Matt heard what sounded like Meltdown yelling from behind a very thick containment door. "Guess Meltdown's not the master of this place anymore," said Matt smugly. Buzzsaw snarled and pushed him along. "Fine, fine. I'm moving, bug bot," he said.

The group was led outside to an area of the jungle that had been cleared away, probably originally to be a landing pad. Chloe nudged Matt and pointed to a vent that looked like something had torn it aside. Matt looked back at his captors and said, "So are you dumb animals gonna attack us or are you just waiting for the starting whistle."

"Hold yer horses, ya little varment," said Quickstrike in an unmistakably Texan accent, "The fun's gonna be startin' real soon."

"Gah...its talks!" said Chris, jumping back.

"Oh, we do much more than that," said Buzzsaw in a creepy voice.

Wartoad pushed himself up into what looked like a handstand at first until thumbs unfolded from his backfeet and heels popped out of his front feet. His head split in half at the jaw and swung back as the torso's top and bottom also split. The lower jaw ended up on Wartoad's new back while the upper jaw, his beast mode back, and beast mode underside ended up on his shoulders. Then a gruesome head with warts all over his face popped out of his chest.

"Eugh...not much of an improvement." said Chloe.

Quickstrike cackled madly as his back popped out and pivoted around to form an arm, with the scorpion tail mounted on the shoulder. His scorpion legs detached from the bottom as section along his stomach pivoted out to form an arm, with the scorpion legs forming long fingers. Then his cobra's hood split apart from his neck and head as extended down to form his new legs. Then the cobra's head and neck swung back to fill the empty space that the first arm left. Then a head that slightly resembled a gas mask popped out over the cobra's head that now formed his robot mode chest. "Howdy partners," said Quickstrike, "You ready to rip?"

Matt said, "That accent sucks."

Then Buzzsaw began to transform. His abdomen split along his sides until they detached, unfolded, and extended to form legs. Four of his wasp mode legs detached on another appendage to form the fingers on the right arm. His tail swung around to his left side and bent to form the long left arm. His wasp's head formed the chest as the antenna popped up on his insectoid robot mode head. "How sweet," crooned Buzzsaw as his left hand/pincer snapped, "Fresh meat."

Chloe glared, her own hand turning into its dragon form and crackling with electricity. "You can try," she said, dangerously.

"Oh believe me, I will, my dear," said Buzzsaw. He then showed how he got his particular name when he opened up his left pincer to extend out a pair of circular saws that started spinning.

Chloe glared and readied a blast. Scalpel sighed and said through the loud speakers, "Good grief...Just be gettink on vith it."

"Might as well start on the appetizers while we wait for the main course to arrive," said Buzzsaw before making a sweeping slice at the gang. Chloe and Matt, the targets, jumped back and threw their own energy blasts back at Buzzsaw, knocking him off his feet but otherwise not harming him.

"I like it when they fight back," said Quickstrike. The scorpion tail on his right shoulder pointed at the gang before firing small missiles before exploding that releasing highly combustible poisonous gas. The mercs barely got their masks down. Prowl and Sari meanwhile were trying to deal with Wartoad who was naturally a bit miffed over his usage as a vent plug.

Wartoad opened his mouth and snapped his tongue out at the two of them. "Ugh, he has a long tongue in robot mode too?" said Sari with disgust.

"It's the same tongue," said Wartoad, "All 40 feet and 3 inches of it."

Wartoad was about to tongue whip a rock at the two when said 'rock' grabbed his tongue. It was the large spiderbot. "ot oo ogai." managed Wartoad, his tongue stuck, before several dozen more spiderbots leapt out from various places. They had not enjoyed their flight through the air con system and now needed to vent their displeasure.

Meanwhile, Techo and Chris had gotten their blasters fixed on Quickstrike. "Back off, cowboy!" snapped Chris.

Quickstrike looked down at them and said, "So it's a shootout yer wantin'. Ok, I'm game." He grabbed his scorpion claws, which were handing off his waist, and detached them. He held them towards the two mercs as they adjusted to become handguns. "Let's see you dance!" said Quickstrike before firing poison blasts at them.

Chris and Techo managed to duck behind a rock and went pale as a piece of armor that Wartoad's attackers had removed, embedded between them. They turned slowly to see Wartoad trying to swat the laughing spiderbots that were tormenting him.

Quickstrike turned when he heard someone say, "I'd prefer to see you fly," and a plasma orb exploded in front of him, thrown by Matt who looked a bit annoyed.

The Krylock Transformer was thrown backwards by the blast. He shook his head and said, "What in tarnation was that?"

Matt strolled through the smoke. His NASA cap's brim was missing a significant slice. "Just little ol' me," he said in a sarcastic cowboy accent.

Quickstrike looked at Matt and asked, "How'd you shoot that? I don't see a gun in yer hand."

Matt smirked and Quickstrike noted that his teeth looked a bit sharper then the last time. "Who said I used a gun?" said Matt, bringing a taloned hand into view, holding a plasma orb.

"What the slag are ya?" asked Quickstrike. He wasn't scared, but he was certainly curious.

"Oh...someone who can open you up like a can of motor oil," said Matt, throwing a double blast of plasma from both hands.

Meanwhile, Buzzsaw was still focusing on Chloe. "Hold still, my pretty," said Buzzsaw, "I don't want to ruin that lovely skin before I take it off."

Chloe dodged another slash before the ground behind her opened up. Chloe quickly shifted to dragon mode and flew out of the way before Scalpel's former captives were ejected. Buzzsaw buzzed his wasp's wings and flew backwards a few feet to avoid being hit by the flying Cybertronians.

Buzzsaw then looked around, expecting to see Chloe on the ground, she having shifted so fast that he had not seen it properly. "Where are you, my dear?" he said before a mass slammed into his back, claws digging in.

"Here I am," hissed Chloe.

Buzzsaw looked at Chloe and said, "Ah, what pretty scales, what delicate wings. I don't think I shall skin you after all. I'll stick a pin through you and keep you in a glass case."

Chloe glared and opened her mouth, sending a lightning bolt at Buzzsaw which chose the techno-organic's blade as the path of least resistance. It was worth noting that not even a bio-machine can ignore 300,000 volts down the spine...not many things can. Buzzsaw jittered and shook as his body tried to deal with the massive overdose of electricity, but it eventually overloaded his processor and stunned him, at least temporarily.

Chloe landed and pushed Buzzsaw down the pit. "I hate wasps," she said, turning back to human.

However, she soon heard a buzzing sound coming from the pit and she looked to see Buzzsaw flying up in wasp mode. "Oh dear," he said, "I'm afraid you've gone and made me angry." His wings stopped beating for a second before they started spinning around. His tail's end split open to let out the buzz saws, but they went to the sides instead of forward. Then he folded his legs together, making him look like a wasp copter. "However, I see a bigger meal approaching," he said before flying towards Scalpel's former prisoners. Chloe rolled her eyes and turned back to dragon form, taking off after the wasp.

Blackarachnia broke the now deactivated clamps on her wrists off. "When I get that little tin..." she muttered before hearing a buzzing.

She looked up to see a wasp copter flying towards before it swooped down and changed to robot mode. Buzzsaw held the stinger on his left servo near Blackarachnia's neck. "Hello, what have we here?" he said. Buzzsaw looked at Blackarachia before saying, "I must say, you do look...delicious."

Blackarachnia would have attacked him, but she didn't dare move with Buzzsaw's stinger so close to her neck. Just then, a voice called, "Get away from her!" Buzzsaw turned in surprise in time to see Scorponok charge at him, knocking him flying and the pair rolling across the ground.

Buzzsaw growled as he got back up. "I don't like having my meals interrupted," he snarled.

"You're not preying on anyone today," said Scorponok as he got up and advanced towards Buzzsaw.

Just then, a vine lasso flew out and wrapped around Scorponok. He turned back to see Quickstrike holding the other end. "Hold on, partner," said Quickstrike, "Your dance is with me."

Quickstrike was about to start reeling his victim in when a sky blue dragon landed on his back and bit Quickstrike's shoulder. "Ptooi...bleh...you taste like meatloaf," said the dragon in Matt's voice.

"What in tarhoodies?" cried Quickstrike before saying, "Get off of me, you overgrown horsefly." His scorpion's tail started to stab at Matt.

Matt managed to dodge the tail before biting that one too out of draconic instinct. "Eaugh...that's worse," he said.

Quickstrike growled before changing back to his scorpion/cobra mode, which had the added bonus of throwing off Matt. "Now yer in trouble," growled Quickstrike, "Nobody bites my tail and gets away with it!"

Matt however ended up with a face full of dirt from his landing. This turned out to be a mixed blessing as he turned to Quickstrike on the threat...and sneezed and when a dragon sneezes, things in front of said dragon tend to know about it...the reactions more interesting for a start.

Quickstrike barely dodged the unintentional plasma orb. "You ain't the only one with nasty spit around here," said Quickstrike before spitting venom at Matt's eyes. Matt yowled as the venom went in his eyes and he staggered back blindly. Quickstrike smirked and said, "I wonder if you'll make some good boots?"

Before he could advance further, Scorponok stood in his path. "That was not very sportsbotlike," said Scorponok.

"Nobody got rich from playin' fair, partner." said Quickstrike, the two circling.

"I always thought that form couldn't be transformed," said Scorponok.

"Shows how much you know about Krylocks," said Quickstrike.

"What? Where?" said Matt, looking around blearily with his bloodshot eyes, still in dragon form.

"How do you know about what they're called?" asked Scorponok.

"Maybe if you didn't dump it when ya had it, you'd know a lot more about what yer up against," said Quickstrike.

"I faced Krylocks...they tend to go nuts at the drop of a hat..." said Matt, vaguely dizzily as the venom made him a bit drunk

"I've also fought Krylocks," said Scorponok, "I'm not afraid of them."

"Then you wouldn't be too scared to fight me, beast to beast," challenged Quickstrike.

"Cool," said Matt. The two Techo-organics turned and watched with interest as Matt's eyes crossed and he fell on his face, snoring in his dragon form.

"His sister will be less than pleased about what you did to him," said Scorponok.

"Ah, I ain't afraid of a little girl," said Quickstrike cockily.

Quickstrike was then sent into the air an inch as something...a growling something landed behind him. "What did you call me?" said a growling voice.

Quickstrike turned and looked at Chloe, who was in her dragon form. "Hoppin' horny toads, she's a horsefly too?" said Quickstrike.

Chloe's eyes glowed yellow and she bared her fangs. "HORSEFLY?" she roared and pounced on Quickstrike.

Scorponok winced as the technorganic Krylock got mauled by Chloe. "Er, I better go check on Blackarachnia," he said.

Meanwhile, Spittor and Blackout had been trying to sneak off while everyone else was busy. Unfortunately they were stuck in the robotic equivalent of a Mexican standoff as several dozen of the spiderbots were in front of them, staring. A couple of the spiderbots were behind them on a small ridge, trying to lever an extremely large section of rock onto the Decepticons and was the only reason the others had not yet attacked. However it was giving them some trouble.

Spittor thought slowly for a minute before saying, "Say, you remember what our original orders were, right?"

"Find Scalpel and drag him back to base?" said Blackout out of the corner of his mouth. Neither Decepticon was going to take their eyes off the bots.

"That's right. So why are we wasting our time up here when we should be heading back down and collecting him, all his pieces that is," said Spittor.

"Because if we move, they will too," said Blackout. He remembered how much trouble the original bots had caused on Cybertron to anyone dumb enough to go into an area they infested...and why was gravel landing on his head?

"Would you rather stand here and let them hurt us worse?" asked Spittor.

"What's that grinding noise?" said Blackout and the two looked up to see the spiderbots above them finally get the slab of rock move. "Oh no," said Blackout.

Luckily the slab of rock missed...but unluckily it caused the ground they were on to collapse, sending the rock and the Decepticons back into the lab, express style.

Scalpel watched the battle from his outside cameras. He felt very great pride that his warriors were proving themselves to be very powerful. However, he did notice when Blackout and Spittor fell back underground. "Hmm, I think it's time I changed," he said.

He clicked in a program into the computers, causing a fourth pod to light up. There was a crash not far down the corridor and Scalpel heard Blackout complaining about the 'slagging spiderbots' before a clang was heard...obviously the rock had caught up.

"Oh, I've vaited a long time for zis," said Scalpel. He hadn't bothered to scan Blackarachnia as he already compiled a program based on her stellar cycles ago but had been unable to find a way to use it on himself, until now. Scalpel looked as the pod opened up and the miniature decepticon looked at it for a second. For a second, he hesitated...after all, Blackarachnia might hate her form for a reason but he pushed such thoughts aside and climbed into the pod. "Now, I shall ze power of technorganics and my revenge," he said before the pod closed shut. It started to light up as it filled up with mist.

A minute later, Spittor and Blackout, the latter sporting yet another dent, came into the lab. "Scalpel? Where are you, you little pain in the servo?" yelled Blackout, now in a very bad mood.

"Look around," snapped Spittor, "That tiny pest can hide in a lot of places."

"Scalpel? I've been mauled, poisoned and had a 2 ton slab of granite land on my chest...GET OUT HERE!" yelled Blackout.

Then Spittor noticed the functioning pod. "Looks like he's trying to cook another flunky," he said.

"Let's put it out of its misery," said Blackout as he approached the pod with destruction on his mind.

There was a beep and about 20 plasma turrets folded out at snake-like speed to aim at them.

The two of them paused and back away. "Scalpel must have something special planned for this one," said Spittor.

The computer beeped and a female voice said, "Bio-organic nanites implanted. Program 'Scalpel' complete. Beginning revival."

"Scalpel's in there?" said Blackout with surprise.

"No way," said Spittor, "No sane bot would do that to themselves."

"Did Scalpel seem like he was firing on all motherboards when we last saw him?" pointed out Blackout as lock clamps on the pod disengaged.

The pod opened with an eerie creak as the mist rolled out. The two Team Charr members watched with anticipation for Scalpel to come out. But what came out instead was an enormous purple spider, which hissed loudly.

"Ooooh slag," said Spittor slowly.

Blackout added quietly, "Maybe it ate Scalpel?"

The spider turned to them and spoke in a familiar yet deeper voice. "Scalpel? Bah, zat vas ze name of a smaller, veaker bot. I am big, I am strong, I AM TARANTULAS!" Blackout wisely did not voice his thought that Scalpel was also now apparently crazy.

"Uh, you're coming back with us," said Spittor.

"I zink not," said 'Tarantulas', before spitting blasts of webbing at them.

The two Decepticons managed to dodge the webbing blasts before hiding round the corner in the corridor. "This is too weird. I say we report that Scalpel's offline," said Spittor.

"As far as you should be concerned, he is," said Tarantulas before slashing at him with his legs.

The two Decepticons were about to turn before Blackout spotted something else. "Erm...Scalpel?" he said.

"Zat's Tarantulas to you," snapped Tarantulas.

"Fine...don't say I didn't try to warn you." said Blackout, annoyed.

Tarantulas looked confused before hearing a whirring. "You have got to be kiddink me..." he said just before the spiderbots behind him attacked.

About this time, Bumblebee and Waspinator were waking up. Their ejection out of Scalpel's lab was not pleasant and they were both knocked out when they hit the walls of the pit.

"Wazpinator's head hurtz," moaned Waspinator before Chloe, in dragon form, landed in front of him with a crash, struggling with Quickstrike.

"What the slag is that?" asked Bumblebee.

Chloe managed to say, "Shoot him," while just managing to hold a claw away from her throat. Bumblebee noticed that Chloe was in danger so he activated his stingers and blasted the two of them. Chloe, being virtually an electricity elemental, was unharmed. The same could not be said for Quickstrike.

"Yow. You little..." began Quickstrike before juddering in place. He had made the mistake of taking his attention from Chloe who had just sent a bolt of electricity into his back.

Just then, Buzzsaw reappeared. "I've been looking for you," he said as he reached his right hand towards Chloe. He paused when he saw Bumblebee and Waspinator. "Well, well, what have we here?" he said, "Are these two of my three templates?"

Waspinator glared. "You steal from Wazpinator?" he said angrily.

Chloe, seeing a chance to help their team said innocently "Yes...I heard him confess."

Waspinator growled, "Wazpinator not like copycats. Wazpinator destroy hornetbot!"

Buzzsaw began to say, "What are you blabbering abou..." before Waspinator pounced on him.

Chloe looked at Bumblebee and said, "Sometimes...I love my job," as the two insectoid Techo-organics attempted to beat the hell out of each other.

Then Bumblebee paused and said, "Do you hear something banging?"

Chloe, who was watching Buzzsaw and Waspinator fight, said vaguely "Nope..."

"No, really, it sounds like it's coming from-" started Bumblebee before his sentence finished itself and Blackout and Spittor were re-ejected from the pit, followed by a giant purple spider.

The aforementioned purple spider was covered in spiderbots hitting him with, "Are those newspapers?" said Chloe, confused.

The purple spider shook itself as it tried to remove the spiderbots. "Get off me, you little pests!" it snapped.

One spiderbot began to ram his weapon into the spider equivalent of a nostril. "THIS IS DEAMINK...STOP IT!" snapped the new bot which just egged the spiderbots on.

"Wait a nanoklik," said Bumblebee, "Is that Scalpel?"

The spider glared at Bumblebee and said, "It's Tarantulas now, Autobot!"

Chloe was trying not to smirk. "You'd be more impressive without the spiderbots spraypaint art," she said.

"Vat?" asked Taratulas as he tried to crane his head back to see, but he couldn't quite see all of the spiderbots' spraypaint doodles, which mostly of his former self in humiliating positions, such being sat on by a hippo. It also included the spiderbots traditional message 'Da botz were ere'...and a bull's eye.

Taratulas growled and said, "I refused to be mocked any longer." His abdomen split apart as the lower part of it separated and unfolded to form legs. His mandibles and a large section of his underside also separated and unfolded to form arms with three fingered hands on the end, each with two blades on the wrists. His head and the back of his abdomen folded together to form a torso that had his eight spider legs on the back. Then his robot mode head popped out, which resembled his old head, only a bit larger and with more spider-like mandibles.

Tarantulas yelled out, "NOW, MY MINIONS, DESTROY...zem…" he said, his voice petering off when he saw that Wartoad was being beat up by the spiderbots and his other minions were out for the count. "Vell, I shall not be packed off so easily," he said before pointing his wrist blades at Techo and Chris. He proved they were more than melee weapons when a small part in the center of them shot out silk which covered them and soon proved itself to like elastic riot foam.

Chloe and Bumblebee charged Tarantulas and also got the same treatment. "When I get out of this..." she began before Tarantulas covered her muzzle.

Prowl and Sari noticed this and started to charge Tarantulas. "Leave them alone, you big bully," said Sari before throwing an energy orb at him.

Tarantulas narrowly dodged it and said, "Big, and don't you forget it," before punting her aside. When Prowl moved in to strike, Tarantulas surprised him by reaching out with his spider legs and stabbing him.

Buzzsaw finally managed to knock Waspinator down with a well aimed slash and pushed him off. "What a weird person," he commented before looking at Blackarachnia, "Sir? Do you mind if I deal with her myself? It's been so long since I last ate."

"No, I have other ideas for her. But keep ze Triple Changer avay from her for a few minutes," said Tarantulas.

Buzzsaw turned to see Scorponok. "As you wish, sir," said Buzzsaw and advanced on Scorponok

Scorponok had been busy tending to Blackarachnia. "Are you sure you're not injured?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," said Blackarachnia in an annoyed voice, "He didn't get a chance to do anything before you attacked him. You should be more worried about yourself."

Buzzsaw however interrupted by stabbing his buzzsaw into Scorponok's back. "You really should learn to stay alert," he taunted.

"Scorponok!" cried Blackarachnia.

"I'll be fine," said Scorponok, "Once I attend to this blackguard."

Buzzsaw smirked and brought both hands down on the sides of Scorponok's head, a stunning shot in any case. "Not that much of a fighter, are you?" taunted Buzzsaw.

"Perhaps, perhaps not," said Scorponok, "But I know I'm a better flyer." Scorponok shifted into his cobra jet mode and took off, taking along Buzzsaw who was too surprised to let go.

"What are you doing? You'll kill us both!" said Buzzsaw. He couldn't transform without letting go...and at this height, he would not change back in time. A fall like this would result in fatal system damage.

"Taking our battle to a safer place," said Scorponok before accelerating.

"You're clearly mad," said Buzzsaw, increasing his grip.

"Look who's calling the kettle black?" retorted Scorponok.

Blackarachnia watched as Scorponok took off with Buzzsaw. Then she heard a noise behind her and turned to see another spider-like robot. "I alvays vanted to command my own troops," said the bot, "Zey be down for now, but zey show excellent progress."

"They'll turn on you. Waspinator nearly killed me shortly after I created him...then he exploded," said Blackarachnia.

"I zink not," said Tarantulas, "Unlike you, I did not trick zem into becoming vat zey are for the purpose of using zem as guinea pigs. I created zem to be my minions and partners and zey get to do vat zey vant. As for ze transvarp overload, I fixed zat little problem. Othervise, I vouldn't use it on myself."

"You're mad. It's unpredictable," said Blackarachnia.

"So zey say..." said Tarantulas before spinning his head around, producing a blubbering sound. As soon as he stopped, he said, "By ze vay, vat do you zink of my new body?"

"It suits you. Now you look as twisted as your mind was," said Blackarachnia.

"Oh, I thought you vould approve of zis," said the bot, lifting Blackarachnia's chin with one of his claws, "I vould have thought you'd be so lonely as beink ze only technorganic spiderbot."

"You are sick if you think I would even think of you like that...or think of you at all," said Blackarachnia nastily.

"But who else vould have you? From what I heard, your old boyfriend vasn't zat pleased ven he saw you again." Tarantulas laughed nastily at that.

Blackarachnia's eyes narrowed. "Back off, you pervert," she said with a hiss.

Tarantulas sighed and said, "Oh vell, I'm sure you'll see reason in time. However, I suggest you take ze first step now. Soon, I and my troops vill be leavink zis planet. You vould be vise to join us. Zere's alvays room among ze Predacons for more."

Blackarachnia glared. "Not a chance," she said.

There was a whirring noise from the large mass of silk that contained the spiderbots, before a laser cut it open and the spiderbots swarmed out, looking for blood...or motor oil before looking at Tarantulas and charging.

Tarantulas shot another blast of silk at the spiderbots before saying, "Please reconsider. You don't really vant to be stuck on zis planet, do you? Ze Autobots von't allow you back and few Decepticons are as understandink as I. Who else vould vant you as a sparkmate?"

"Anyone's better than a conniving shrimp like you, Scalpel," snapped Blackarachnia.

Tarantulas' eyes blazed before he plunged his claws into Blackarachnia and hissed, "My name is Tarantulas." A laser blast hit the claw he had used and he turned to see the rest of the spiderbots...at least 150 of them, heading for him.

Tarantulas glared at them and turned to Blackarachnia, "You vill regret zis decision. Even if you decide to change sides, you reception shall not be pleasant." He then called out, "Predacons, fall back!" Then he apparently disintegrated and warped away. The same happened to Wartoad and Quickstrike. Buzzsaw however was having trouble with his. It's not easy to activate a teleporter when you're going at close to MACH 3.

"Let me help," said Scorponok before barrel-rolling until Buzzsaw was thrown off.

Buzzsaw yelped. "You pay for thaaaaat!" he called back, luckily activating his teleporter before he had an intimate meeting with the ground.

Scorponok flew down to the ground and transformed to robot mode before landing. "Well, he wasn't that hard to-" he started before he noticed Blackarachnia clutching her side. "Blackarachnia, are you alright?" he asked, running over to her.

"I'm ok...just got blindsided," winced Blackarachnia.

"You're hurt," said Scorponok, "We need to get you to safety."

Blackarachnia said, "Your pals are in need of help more than me," pointing to the others.

Scorponok looked at the others and said, "You're right. But after them, you get treated next. No arguing."

Blackarachnia sighed, "Ok...now go be a hero."

Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake. "Please tell me that's a real earthquake this time," said Blackarachnia.

Scorponok said, "I don't think so...that sounds like an ion engine powering up," as the rumble became a whine.

Sari turned to look as the ground started to lift up. "I think he made more improvements to Meltdown's lab than we thought," she said.

Matt looked around weakly. "Why is the ground shaking?" he said, his vision still not fully returned.

Just then, the ground broke open as hunks of metal sprouted out as the sound of engines warming up filled the air.

A large ship slowly hovered up out of the hole, the engines glowing as they readied a jump.

Waspinator heard the sound of the engines warming up and knew it meant trouble. However, Buzzsaw had damaged him to the point that he couldn't move his limbs. Then he saw Spittor and Blackout running. "Friends, Wazpinator needs help!" called Waspinator.

"Sorry, bud," said Spittor.

Blackout said, "Every Decepticon for himself." Blackout transformed and took off, while Spittor transformed and hung onto Blackout with his tongues.

"Helibot! Hopperbot! Come back!" yelled Waspinator. Waspinator yelled wordless anger at the fleeing Decepticons before someone grabbed his legs and started dragging him along. "Who dragging Wazpinator?" he said before going 'Ow' as his head bounced off a rock on the floor.

"Hey, you don't want to be left here to get slagged by those engines, do you?" said Bumblebee's voice.

"Wazpinator not want Bumblebot's help..." said Waspinator before the idiocy of that comment penetrated even his paranoia. "Wazpinator willing to let Bumblebot help once," he said loftily.

"Glad I have your approval," said Bumblebee.

"Everyone hold still!" yelled Scorponok before concentrating. The air around him began to fluxuate and turn red. The area spread around him until it encompassed the others. Then with a flash of red light, they all disappeared.

Matt gibbered shortly after he re-appeared. "Uuuugh." he said weakly.

"Scorponok, how did you-" started Blackarachnia before Scorponok groaned and fell over.

Blackarachnia ran over to him. "Scorponok," she said, worriedly before a rumble got everyone's attention. The ship opened up a jump portal and vanished into it.

"Well, they're gone," said Chloe, once she got out of the web.

"But I have a feeling we'll see them again," said Sari before pausing and said, "You know, I think we're forgetting something that's related to this."

The gang were forgetting something. Meltdown and Colossus were still wandering around the sealed-off sector of their base. "I'm telling you, boss. We've been past that extinguisher 6 times already," said Rhodes.

"Don't be foolish," said Meltdown, "It's not like the walls have been moving around us."

"Are you sure about that? I thought a wall was singing earlier," said Rhodes.

"Cyrus, I've spent months in this place. I know it like the back of my glove," said Meltdown, "Besides, only we have access to the wall-moving mechanism."

"You sure about that?" said Rhodes, looking around.

"I'm positive. No one else is in the base but us and those robots in the trap," said Meltdown. Just then, the room started shaking. "What was that?" asked Meltdown. The walls appeared to shift before a new hatch opened. "But how? I locked the system myself," said Meltdown.

Rhodes looked out the new porthole and said, "Uh, boss? I think you'll wanna take a look at this."

Meltdown walked to the window and looked out. Outside, he saw a massive swirl of flying color. The color soon disappeared, revealing what appeared to be a starry night sky, only there was no ground at all in sight, or anything else for that matter. "What happened to my lab?" said Meltdown in horror.

"I don't think it's just a lab anymore," said Rhodes.

Sometime later, Techo and Chris headed back to where the entrance to Meltdown's former lab was. They were pretty surprised to see the Autobots all beaten up. "What happened?" asked Techo.

"That little creep got us, that's what happened," said Ratchet, "The cycle you were all gone, he turned and attacked us."

"What little creep? Xenobyte?" said Matt.

Ratchet looked confused. "We're over here!" he yelled.

"Don't mind him," said Chloe, "He got a little blinded with cobra venom earlier. So...where did he go?"

"Don't know," said Bulkhead, "He just said 'I've got what I've came for' and ran off."

"Ah great...he probably got the magical pink elephant. He was totally stoned," said Chris.

"I don't think so," said Optimus, "He didn't seem addled when he attacked us. I think he was pretending when he followed you guys and waited until you were gone before he attacked us."

Matt glared, sadly at a wall. "When I see him again..." he said.

Just then, WARDEN's voice came through his comm. "Sir, I picked up on that large spacecraft exiting Earth's atmosphere. It apparently used transwarp drives to go through hyperspace. Apparently, it's on the other side of the galaxy now."

"Great...WONDERFUL...can this day get any worse?" said Matt, annoyed before walking into a wall.

"Should I mention that the Imperial cruiser has also left Earth?" asked WARDEN.

Matt moaned from the floor and Chloe said, "Let's leave that for another day, WARDEN."

Since Meltdown's lab was no longer a present concern, the gang decided to pack up and head back to Detroit. Matt had called ahead and half his crew was waiting to 'greet' Waspinator upon arrival. "Not that we don't trust you but you switch sides so fast your symbol should be on a revolving panel," said Matt.

"Fleshies poor hosts," retorted Waspinator, "Fleshies treat Wazpinator badly, so Wazpinator wanted to leave fleshies."

"Fleshies treat Wazpie bad cause Wazpie wanna squish fleshies," said Matt, sarcastically before Chloe slapped the back of his head.

"He does have a point," said NegaMorph, "You've been zapping him for even the slightest offenses."

"From what I hear, he's had it coming," said Matt, before Chloe slapped him again.

"Just give the guy a break, he's been through a lot," said Bumblebee.

"Well...what should we do with Mr. Paranoia?" said Matt.

"I think we should go on with Lilo's NON-disciplinary treatment program," said NegaMorph.

"Only if we disable his weapons," said Matt.

"Agreed," said NegaMorph.

"Ok, then get him loaded for... Ew..." Matt paused when he spotted Jumba and Pleakley. Pleakley looked incredibly bloated and Matt could hear him squishing with each step.

Chris said weakly, "What the hell?"

"It would appear local species of mosquito have substance in their saliva which Pleakley has severe allergic reactions to in large doses," said Jumba.

"I itch all over," moaned Pleakley.

"Oh...just go..." said Matt, turning a funny color as his visual mind rebelled.

Meanwhile, Ratchet was less than pleased about the condition that Scorponok and Blackarachnia came back in. "I don't believe you two. You were meant to be going for a walk. Not into a damn firefight," ranted Ratchet as he checked their various scratches and damage, adding, "Especially with your damage…" looking at Scorponok.

"Well, I didn't really ask to become Scalpel's guest," said Scorponok, wincing as Ratchet fingered the wounds he got from Buzzsaw.

"Decepticons don't call ahead," said Ratchet, annoyed.

"Don't I know it, ah, ah, easy," said Scorponok as Ratchet sprayed disinfectant on him.

"If you wanted to avoid this, you should have stayed away from that maniac," grumbled Ratchet.

Blackarachnia glared. "Watch it, old bot. There's no way we could have known Scalpel was there."

Ratchet looked at her and said, "You're not in much of a position to talk, young lady. You're not unscathed either." He examined the wound in her side with one of his probes. "If that had been an inch higher we wouldn't be talking." he said annoyed.

"Tarantulas didn't want me dead yet," said Blackarachnia before hissing with pain and biting back a swear.

"Well, it looks like the two of you will get plenty of time getting to know each other now," said Ratchet, "Cause neither of you are leaving my infirmary, cabin fever or not."

Ratchet actually smirked when Scorponok said, "I don't think you could stop us."

Ratchet said, "I can't...but they can," pointing to several spiderbots in the doorway.

The really disturbing part was that some of them were wearing nurse's cap and were holding tools such as hypodermic needles, defribulators, and rather invasive-looking probes. "Nurses on call!" said one and the rest giggled in the disturbing way of their kind. One, who had chosen the wrong kind of nurse was holding what looked like a hybrid of a jackhammer and a dentist's drill.

"Who authorized those guys?" asked Scorponok weakly.

"Oh, I did," said Matt, walking around the corner, "I've got plenty to spare and I owe Ratchet for him fixing up Serina."

Matt looked down at the spiderbots who parted to let him by. "If they try to escape...cut their legs off," he said and the spiderbots all looked as one to look at them.

"This is cruel and unusual punishment," said Scorponok.

"That's what Gary said," said Matt absently. Blackarachnia started to move and stopped as there was a cluster of whirrings as the spiderbots moved forward at the same time. "Yeah, I'd just stay here until the good doctor here says you're ready to go," said Matt.

Blackarachnia narrowed her eyes and said, "Chloe came up with this, didn't she?"

"Mmm... maybe," said Matt as he walked towards the door, "I've got some other things to do now. Have fun here with your boyfriend." The two Techo-Organics started making various denials as Matt walked round the corner.

As Matt walked out of sight, Scorponok made the mistake off swinging his legs of the bed he was on. Matt heard several spiderbots lunge and one yell 'CLEAR!' followed by a buzzing. Matt grinned and said, "I love messing with minds."

---

There's another chapter up. This one took quite a bit of editing to get done. As you can see, there's been quite a bit of character development here, not to mention character introduction. We know Scalpel from before, but now he's become this universe's Tarantulas. His new henchmen are based off of Beast Wars characters as well. Quickstrike's obviously based off his namesake, only with a slightly different beast mode. Wartoad's pretty much like Transmetal 2 Spittor, but without the potential vulgarity in his name. Buzzsaw's a bit more complex. He's more largely based off of his Beast Machines toy, which is presumably the same character as his Beast Wars toy. The helicopter additions a reference to the Buzzsaw from Transformers: Cybertron, who was a helicopter on Velocitron. And yes, Meltdown and Colossus Rhodes have been abducted by aliens. Bet you never saw that coming. Anyways, more chapters will be coming up as soon as finals are over. So keep an eye out and please review.