Chapter 18

A/N: I just own this story, Emerald Lantern is not mine, she is a friend's, and I don't own YJ or TFP. If I did would I be here?

/comm-link/

Telepathy

Bumblebee/Soundwave's speech

A ship flew through the solar system, flying past the moon, barely missing it, to crash-land on the blue planet.

August 31, Rocky Mountains

Arcee walked through the woods in her vehicle armor. Behind her Emerald and M'gann floated along as Artemis walked on the ground beside them swatting at mosquites.

"These things are the size of vampire bats!" Artemis growled smacking another one. "And they drink just about as much blood!"

"Didn't you pack any insect repellant?" Erica asked.

"Didn't think these monsters would be here!"

"You're all quite the outdoors women, aren't you?" Arcee chuckled.

"You're just making fun of the face we brought our weapons," Artemis said holding out her bow.

"Maybe."

"Well, when it comes to you Autobots and Emerald, you never know what could happen," Megan pointed out.

"Yea—HEY! I am not as bad of a trouble magnet as they are!"

"Yea, you're worse," Artemis retorted as Emerald huffed.

Arcee rolled her eyes. looking at the energon scanner she frowned. "That's odd."

"What is it?" M'gaan asked.

"Ratchet's readings were accurate, but subterranean energron deposits don't cause this kind of surge," she explained.

They continued to fallow the reading till the scanner beeped and they were standing in a clearing that was obviously not made naturally—if the giant trench resulting from a crash-landing was anything to go by.

"This was a crash-landing," Emerald said.

"Get ready for anything," Arcee warned as the girls got ready for a fight.

Sneaking through the forest, they arrived at the ship. "It's Cybertronian."

"Good guys or bad guys?" Artemis asked notching an arrow.

"Can't tell," Arcee said. "Wait here." Pulling out her blaster, they watched as she snuck up along the side, before cautiously going in. A few minutes later, she stumbled out, leaning against the side as old memories she tried to forget flashed in her head.

Flashback

A woman with tri-colored hair and spidery legs crept towards a dark-haired man hanging from stasis cuffs.

There was a fanged smile.

Cruel, solid, violet eyes.

A deadly claw raised for a strike.

The splatter of freshly spilt energon-blood on the walls.

"Arcee? Are you ok?" Megan asked as they rushed over.

"I know who this ship belongs to," she said going for her comm. "Arcee to Base, I need a bridge ASAP!"

"Why? Who's ship is this?" Artemis asked noticing the woman's anxious posture.

"Base do you read?!" she asked again. "Scrap! Comm-link's dead! Ship's probably transmitting a high-frequency scrambler pulse!"

"Uh, Arcee, what's going on?" Emerald asked.

"Wait here," she ordered walking ahead. Looking around she saw slashes on the trees and small divots in the ground.

Flashback

Arcee hung from a pair of stasis cuffs, struggling against them and the webbing binding her feet. Looking up she saw the woman with waist-length tri-colored hair, piercing violet eyes, matching armor, and four long spider legs emerging from her back.

Her tormentor smiled sinisterly as she coated a substance on her long, dark claws and reached out towards her face.

"Arcee?" the girls questioned, seeing her zone out.

Transforming Arcee motioned to Artemis. "Climb on, you two, keep up," she said. Starting her engine she sped through the forest, forcing the archer to hold on for dear life as the other two had to keep up and avoid trees. Artemis screamed as they jumped over a deep ravine and landed on the other side.

"Arcee to Base," she tried again. "Scrap! Stay here, I mean it this time."

"We've dealt with Cons before!" Emerald protested. "We're teammates!"

"No, your kids!" she reminded. "You're only here because this was a low-risk mission. Now the stakes are too high for you to be here. Got it?"

Before they could answer the Autobot sped away, leaving the three girls of the Young Justice League alone in the forest.

"We're following right?" Artemis asked.

"Oh, we so are," Erica said making a construct for her to get on.

Arcee drove further away before transforming and pulling out her blaster. Treading carefully, she froze when she saw a tree, eaten away by green acid.

Flashback

"Arcee to Delta Team, requesting rendezvous coordinates, do you copy?" Arcee asked racing through the war-torn city, making sure to avoid the main battlefront and the occossional bomb dropped from the air.

/Arcee are you lost again? Your sense of direction could use some improvement/

"So could your aim Tailgate," she replied. "If you got that sniper back at the artillery unit, I wouldn't have had to break rank and engage the enemy hand to hand."

/From the sound of things you came out ahead/

"Wait for me this time and I'll give you the blow-by-blow. What's your position?"

/A click from the depot, due north/ Tailgate informed. /Think you can find it partner?/

"Trust me Tailgate my navigation abilities are—AH!" A blast of thick webbing bound her to the crumbling remains of a building. She saw the spidery woman casually approach her before firing another shot of webbing, blinding her.

She woke up hanging up in the air in stasis cuffs, with her feet bound with the very webbing used to trap her.

"Piece of advice," the woman's dark, silky voice said. "Make yourself comfortable." She held out a claw, which had a green substance on the tip. "You're going to be here a while."

Acid covered claw drew a line on her face, Arcee grunted, refusing to show pain as the acid ate away at her cheek.

-.-

A black, silver, gold, and violet Decepticon in vehicle armor silently approached a campsite on long spider-like legs.

"My first local," she smiled. "Time for human-kind to feel the spider's bite."

Pouncing, Arcee slammed the Decepticon out of the air before she killed the human. The pair rolled down the hillside, before slamming painfully into a cliff along one of the mountains. Both women got up and glared at each other.

"Arcee, small universe."

"Too small Arachnid."

"You're still holding a grudge? The war's been over for megacycles," Arachnid said.

"Tell that to the Decepticons!" Arcee snarled, getting into a fighting stance.

"These days I travel solo, in pursuit of my new hobby."

Arcee growled as she remembered what she saw on that ship; the severed, and preserved heads of various alien species. "I got a look at all your souvenirs."

"You mean my trophies," Arachnid corrected. "I collect endangered species, of course they aren't really in endangered till they meet me. And I have a slot reserved for human!"

"Not gonna happen!" Arcee snapped, charging her.

She knocked the other woman over and was about to punched her lights out, when Arachnid used her extra limbs to hurl the Autobot away. Arcee pulled out her guns and fired as Arachnid leapt into the trees. She webbed her nemesis' arms together, when she used them to yank her out of the trees and onto the ground. Pulling out her arm-blades, Arcee cut the ropes away, doding the shots Arachnid fired at her by using the trees. Running up onto an old, bent one, she leapt off and gave a roundhouse kick in the air, slamming the other woman down onto the ground. Arcee placed her gun on Arachnid's spark, ready for the kill-shot.

The sound of a twig snapping caught their attention, looking up they saw the girls staring at them. Arachnid used the opportunity to knock the other woman off of her, before webbing her to the cliff-face.

"Arcee!"

Arachnid turned and smiled at the three girls rushing towards them. Pulling out her arm-blade, Arcee cut some of the webs away before shooting Arachnid into a tree.

"I told you to stay put!"

"You did, we didn't listen," Artemis stated as they all started to remove the webbing. "Teammates don't leave teammates behind."

"You aren't my teammates, you're liabilities!"

"You don't believe that Arcee," Miss M said as she telekinetically removed some more of the webbing. "I can feel your emotions: you're scared. And you're never afraid of anything."

Flashback

"You know, for an Autobot, your resilience is quite impressive," Arachnid purred as she circled her captive. "In fact, I'm guessing, that no matter what I do to you, you'll never crack. Am I right?"

Arcee looked up and sent her a venomous glare.

"That's what I thought," she smiled.

The doors opened and two soldiers dragged in an unconscious, beaten man with dark hair. Upon seeing him Arcee's eyes widened in horror. "Tailgate," she whispered. He groaned in pain as the hung him by stasis cuffs, making the other captive shake with rage. "What have you done to him!?"

"Not much," Arachnid chuckled. "Yet." The Decepticon woman walked up and held her chin. "Just tell me what I want to know, or, well, you're a smart Bot. I think you can imagine what happens to Tailgate next."

"I don't know the attack coordinates!"

Arachnid's face morphed into an angered sneer and she strutted towards the male captive.

"I swear upon the All-Spark it's the truth!"

"We shall see," the other woman replied raising a deadly spider leg.

"No! Please!"

Arachnid hissed and blood-energon splattered across the walls.

"TAILGATE!"

"You're right, I am afraid, of losing any one of you!" Arcee confessed making the girls freeze in place.

"You sure have trouble hanging onto your partners don't you," Arachnid chuckled as she crept towards them. "We both know what happened to Tailgate, but I recently picked up some Decepticon radio chatter regarding the passing of Cliffjumper. At some point you really have to ask yourself Arcee: is it them? Or is it me?"

"You get it girls! She doesn't want me! She hunts indigenous species, and she's on Earth! That means you! RUN!" Arachnid fired more webbing, restraining her to the wall as the three girls flew off.

"And that's why I prefer to work alone," Arachnid laughed, crawling on the wall upside-down over Arcee. "I hate it when bad things happen to those close to you. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to kill snuff your spark, and trust me, I will make it hurt; but that won't compare to the pain you'll feel when I slaughter one of the humans and the Martian to add them to my collection." Arachnid crawled off and chased after the girls, whose flight allowed them the advantage of not leaving her a trail to fallow.

"GIRLS!"

The three quickly flew through the forest, Artemis was safely inside a bubble Emerald made as she and Megan flew along.

"That's the spirit ladies! Play hard to get!" they heard Arachnid cheer.

"M'gann! Go into camouflage mode and help Arcee!" Emerald said.

"Got it!" she said pulling up her hood and disappearing. She went above the tree-line before circling back.

Arcee continued struggling against the webbing, screaming in frustration and pain.

Flashback

Arcee screamed in anguish as Tailgate was murdered. She hardly even registered that Arachnid's deadly claws were moving towards her when the door imploded. A woman with golden hair just as long as Arachnid's, bright yellow and red armor, pale skin, and fierce blue eyes slid in with a twelve-year-old Bumblebee.

The child pulled out a gun and killed the vehicons as the Autobot woman retracted her battle mask and gave Arachnid a blood-chilling smile, pulled out a sword and lunged at the spider. Cliffjumper raced in once Arachnid was chased off.

"Get her outta here!" the blonde woman commanded as Cliffjumper picked her up bridal style. "Bumblebee! With me!"

"I couldn't save him! I couldn't save my partner!" Arcee cried as she was rushed out.

"Need help?" Miss Martian asked appearing in front of Arcee.

"Sure thing partner," she smiled as they began to work together to get her out. After a few minutes they broke free.

"We need to find the others!" Megan said.

"Lead the way," Arcee nodded.

Emerald and Artemis dove down under a fallen tree, hoping Arachnid would be more interested on looking up in the sky for them rather than down on the ground. They heard the quiet taps of the spider legs walking and an eager hiss as she slowly passed over them.

"Hello girls," Arachnid said coming face-to-face with them.

The pair screamed as Emerald got Artemis on a small platform and the archer got ready to shoot the spider-woman chasing after them.

Artemis fired an arrow at her, which she caught with a smirk before it exploded and tossed her back. they flew towards the ship and the archer grabbed another explosive arrow and smiled once she saw something near the back. "Drop me off where I have a clear view of the engines. I have a plan."

Arachnid jumped the ravine once she regained her bearings after the explosion. "I'll admit, you girls are making this game very entertaining. Did you know I hate being bored?" Arachnid asked. Getting through the woods she saw her ship and the green, glowing form with a green bubble flying towards the entrance. She walked down with a smile. "Just where did you two scamper off to?" Tapping her cheek, she smiled as she saw a green glow coming from inside the ship. "If you two wanted a tour, all you had to do was ask. Did you find the empty slots? Hope you like it, it's where you'll soon hang your heads!"

Emerald made sure to keep the glowing orb she sent in small and mobile before having it disappear, making her think she took her ring off to hide. Running over to Artemis she grinned. "All set," she informed grabbing a twig and snapping it.

"Girls?" Arachnid questioned.

Emerald snapped a few more and they saw Arachnid racing over the top of the ship. "Now?"

"Now," Artemis grinned firing the arrow. A moment later the ship exploded with Arachnid on it. Fist bumping, Emerald put the ring back on and made another platform and they flew back towards where Arcee was stuck, and if not, was heading towards them.

Emerald was caught off guard by the webbing suddenly shooting out and sticking her to a tree.

"Em!" Artemis gasped as she fell to the ground and was caught in webbing herself.

Looking up, in the tree was a semi-on-fire Arachind, who looked downright livid. She cried out as she was lifted up into the middle of the air, flailing wildly. The sound of a motorcycle came and Arcee came over the ridge slamming Arachind out of the air.

M'gann appeared in front of them and yanked off the webbing. "Nice light show."

"We figured you needed to find us somehow," Artemis smiled.

"Think we should help?" Emerald asked as they watched Arcee beating the scrap out of Arachnid.

Arcee kicked her through multiple trees for at least half a mile.

"Nah, I think she got it," Artemis said.

"You girls ok?" Arcee asked getting out of her vehicle armor and fussing over them.

"We're fine!" Emerald said.

"Yea, it was actually fun," Artemis agreed.

"That's cause you got to make the ship explode," Megan pointed out.

"True, it was an amazing shot."

"You sound like Wally."

"NO! FIX ME!" Artemis said grabbing Emerald's shoulders.

"You're fine."

The banter was about to continue when the sound of drilling came to them looking over they saw Arachnid drilling down into the ground, disappearing.

"ARACHNID!" Arcee screamed in fury as they rushed over, glaring down into the hole. "So much for closure."

"No Arachnid's stuck here on Earth…I'm not sure that's a good thing," M'gann sighed.

"I'm sorry you three had to face my demons today, you were all pretty brave," Arcee complemented.

"I was terrified," M'gann said. "Mostly for you."

"Yea."

"You said it."

Arcee smiled at them with a small laugh. "Ratchet requesting groundbridge. Need to get my partners away from any over-sized insects."

"Partners?" they all grinned.

"Junior partners, I can still pull rank," she warned.

"Guys, I have our souvenir for the display!" M'gann said levitating some of the webbing. "Though…we could use it to mess with the guys?"

"This is gonna be fun," Artemis and Emerald chuckled.