Promotional artwork: tigressa101/art/Arcee-and-the-Isle-of-the-Allspark-Cover-931607333
Returning to the lavalands during the afternoon, Mt. Blastburn stood less than a mile away as promised by Bolt. To their right, a massive lavafall poured from a break in the volcano wall and fell into a crater beside them. The smoke seemed denser than what they had seen prior fighting Scorchwing and Fireheart.
Arcee peered around with a shiver running down her spine. Megatron noticed this immediately and asked, "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm just...paranoid." As if she had anything better to describe it as.
The warlord then said, "Don't be afraid. Paranoia is good, keeps you sharp and mindful. You're experience with Megatronus was unique, fitting for a magnificent queen and amazing leader."
The words were touching. Before the Isle, Arcee could have never believed he said that or believe it to be true. It was amazing how far they had come to know that his words were truer than ever, and she believed him.
"Thank you."
They suddenly heard clicking, like a bug-based creature communicating. It echoed low enough to miss but they had strong hearing enough to pinpoint it against the roar of the lava. It wasn't Insecticon, or at least the ones they were familiar with. Moonhunter sniffed around and gave an uncertain grunt upon hearing it again.
"Whatever it is, it better keep its distance," she frowned.
"With our luck, it's just getting started," Megatron sneered in response.
As they continued to scout around the volcano, looking for any caves or signs of a possible hideaway for the gem, they heard the noises still, but they didn't seem to be drawing any closer nor farther away. Arcee was beginning to think that the creature responsible for the sound was observing them.
Arcee gasped when they turned a corner. Megatron trailed what she saw, and he too was surprised. Embedded in the rock and heavily torn apart, there was one of the ships Arcee had sent to the isle. It looked scorched but that didn't explain the rips in the hull. It was too buried to enter safely so like the other ship they found in Nemesis Forest, it was safe to presume everyone onboard was deceased.
"What in the Pits of Kaon is that?" Megatron asked disgusted, pointing at a cluster of brownish, dark purple orbs on the ship's exterior.
They approached with caution. Moonhunter went ahead to the orbs, carefully sensing them but in a stance that was ready to flee if any danger struck. Abruptly, the cat backed away and shuffled behind Arcee with a whimper to the femme's concern. When Moonhunter refused to budge, she went in his place and knelt next to the orbs, ghosting a servo over them. Then it stunned her when she saw a similarity she was reminded of.
Insecticons under Megatron's former command were put in isolation stasis pods in the shape of a crude imitation of an egg. These weren't stasis pods...but they were eggs.
"Megatron, these are insect young! Whatever laid them here is still around!"
Megatron kept alert with his makeshift fusion cannon activated and ready to fire as Arcee backed away to his side. They immediately heard shifting legs above them and looked up. To their surprise and horror, eight pink optics stared back down at them. Arcee froze up upon witnessing a giant black spider crawling on the side of the volcano, larger than her without a doubt. She was reminded quickly of Airachnid seeing the eight limbs of the creature clicking on the rock. The ex-tyrant aimed his weapon but didn't fire as the spider simply stopped moving and watched them. Its pedipalp stroked the side of its face, cleaning itself.
"Why did it have to spiders?" Arcee moaned. "Airachnid was scary enough, this is just a nightmare!"
They heard another set of clicking and saw two more spiders over a solidified magma ridge. Another appeared just behind them and slowly, the spiders crawled towards them.
"B-Bolt, we have a situation here!"
"Hello? What do you need tonight, my dear?" The ever-so-confident Vehicon seemed oblivious to the fear in her voice.
"Spiders! We are surrounded by spiders!" She cried out.
"Spiders?! Here?! There's no spider fauna on any cybernetic planet I know of. There are bots who can turn into spiders but no actual spiders except–Arcee, do these spiders have pink optics and purple undertones?!"
Arcee was afraid to even look at the spiders much less describe them but she did it to help Bolt deduce what they were so they could figure out what they could use to fend off the creatures before they were eaten. "Uh, uh, y-yes! Purple underbellies on some of them!"
She heard him shuffling around presumably for a data pad, then in all seriousness, he replied, "Blackarachnia."
Megatron tensed at the name which Arcee grew confused at. "Who is that?"
"Listen to me and listen carefully. There is a planet in a forbidden section of this galaxy that has the spire spiders, Archa Seven. They are an ancient nasty breed of organic arachnids. They were reported by a lost Decepticon vessel before they lost transmission. One of the Decepticons, Blackarachnia, the older sister of Airachnid, was on that vessel! She was the leader of the Insecticons prior, and she was said to have used her powers of copying abilities on them to defend herself and it mutated her into something horrid! I saw her once to confirm this is true! Megatron took control of the Insecticons when she went insane! If those spiders are here, Blackarachnia is too! You must get out of there now! I'm sending a ground bridge."
"Wait! If you just tell us how to defeat these things, we can stop her!"
"There is no stopping her. Blackarachnia was Megatron's second lieutenant, and they were good friends, but she memorized all his battle strategies, all his moves. Even with the both of you working together, she can get the jump on you easy."
Megatron interjected immediately, "Arcee, I agree with Bolt. If there's one bot I fear, Blackarachnia is that bot. She is, as you described these spiders as, a nightmare. I had no choice but to leave her on that planet when I went to find my vessel and the crew. She's become unreasonable. No longer is she the bot who fought by my side."
As the spiders circled, testing their ability to keep calm and keep watching each other's back, Arcee scowled, "So what? We've come all this way! You're scared! I'm scared! We're all scared but if we don't get this gem now, we lose the only chance we may have!"
The mech pushed back a spider as it raised its fangs, keeping it far away from him.
Arcee shook her head, "You're Megatron, the fearless Decepticon warlord and the proud gladiator of Kaon. You never gave up, even when you were afraid...of dying, never seeing the sun again working in those mines, and watching your friends be lost to war. I'm Arcee, a dancer, a warrior, and a queen. I was afraid I would never leave the slave industry, that I wouldn't amount to anything other than a femme no one would care about in the end. We were always afraid, but we kept going, right, because it was the only direction we had left to go."
Megatron looked down at her with saddened optics while she looked up at him with fearful ones. Slowly, he nodded, "Then I'll be right by you...to the end."
Bolt seemed to huff at her defiance but understood. "As you wish, Queen Arcee."
Arcee lifted her arm back to reach for him and he returned the gesture. Their servos met and they clasped them together like warriors in their last stand. Both nodding, they prepared their guns for the immediate offense. Moonhunter was unsure of the situation, but seeing his owner take up a combative stance, he did too.
The spiders grew agitated, and one tried to strike at them. Arcee opened fire with her gatling gun, and they all went into a frenzy. She was quick to shoot two that ran at her. Thankfully, their organic structure made them vulnerable to blaster fire, a relief compared to the cybernetic creatures they had to deal with so far. The two attacking her had deep holes burnt into them by her weapon which she smiled at.
Moonhunter evaded one spider's attempt to grab him and jumped onto its cephalothroax. It panicked and turned in a circle trying to get him off. He aggressively bit down right in the nodes on the legs. The spider hissed and stumbled around as it began losing its legs. First one, then three, and finally only three remained. It tumbled uselessly and Moonhunter was quick to depart from it onto the next target.
However, spiders seemed to emerge from hidden caves inside the volcano as more appeared over the ridges of rock nearby. Megatron shot each one directly in the face until one came too close and he did a spin kick, launching it over a crater into the lava where it squealed as it was roasted alive.
"We must have alerted the whole nest!" Megatron growled.
Just then a loud, baritone clacking insectoid snarl was heard and the spiders still on the ridge scattered to the side of the volcano and the ground as a larger one replaced them. It had a red spine from its head to its backside abdomen and red eyes instead of the normal pink.
Arcee gulped, "Blackarachnia?"
"No," Megatron denied, "wrong color. Blackarachnia shares the same colors as her sister. This must be the nest leader."
"Megatron's right. Blackarachnia isn't red aside from the horrifying shade of her optics. Trust me, you are going to know which one she is if she appears," Bolt said. "Have fun with Arachnophere here. I would explain the pun, but you have far worse problems to deal with than my terrible naming."
Arachnophere, the red-crested spire spider, climbed down the drop off as the other smaller spiders backed away. It growled at them, snapping its fangs and pedipalps together maliciously in warning. It watched Megatron most of all between the two as he was a larger target therefore it assumed he was the most powerful.
Arcee caught onto this as well and said, "It thinks you're the bigger threat than me. Distract it and I'll try to kill it."
"Alright then," Megatron smirked. "Let's dance, you freak of nature."
The large spider lunged at him, and he unsheathed his falchion sword swiping at it. In one go, one of its pedipalps was severed and fell to the ground. Upon reeling at the pain, Arachnophere jumped him again before he could use its brief stun to hurt it. The creature pinned him and attempted to bite him with its huge fangs. He grabbed both and tried to push them away.
As he did that, Arcee sprinted past the spider and saw an unstable rockface on the side of the volcano. If Megatron could lure the spider to her, she could topple the rocks onto it. Of course, it couldn't be easy. Several spiders patrolling the outskirts of the battle quickly followed her, snapping their fangs trying to impale her to feed. One got too close, but Moonhunter ran between them and sank his teeth into the flesh above the fang before ripping the whole appendage out.
"Good boy! Megatron, bring it towards me!"
The warlord, still trapped, barely saw her but heard her as clearly as day. Seeing his position under the creature, he diverted most of his strength to his pedes and lifted the spider off himself to kick it over his head onto its back. He flipped over as Arachnophere hit the ground, struggling to maneuver itself back upright. The other spiders hissed in warning as he ran to Arcee who began shooting the approaching beasts with Moonhunter roaring at them fearlessly.
Megatron heard Arachnophere roll over and shake the soot from its back angrily. It grunted then bellowed at him before charging. All eight of its legs were working overtime trying to catch up to him.
"Eight legs moving fast here!"
Arcee stuttered, "I-I know! I know, give me a second!"
As Moonhunter kept the spiders back as best he could while dodging them, Arcee pushed on the rocks with all her might. She heard a few pebbles shake loose but not the big boulders she needed to crush Arachnophere.
A chirp was suddenly heard, then a growl. Arcee paused when she noticed none of the spiders were coming near her anymore or Moonhunter. To her right near the volcano wall, there were cracks and one opening that she could barely squeeze through if she tried. The sound grew louder, and she stopped her attempts at moving the rock to peer inside the crevices. Breathing was the first noticeable thing. The second concerning pointer that she wasn't dealing with another spire spider was the suddenly red light past the small opening and she found herself seeing her reflection in two red optics, one under the other which narrowed after a second upon spotting her blocking its view. When the optics became smaller, she realized it wasn't because it was retreating. It was about to ram through the rock protecting it.
"Oh sh-!"
Arcee had to jump as the rocky wall was shattered. She jumped right onto Megatron, and both went tumbling beneath the cliffside of the volcano. In response to the commotion, said volcano seemed to spew more lava and more smoke.
Arachnophere, who was still pursuing Megatron, paused at the chaos only for it to look up and see in its last moments the boulders crashing down on top of it from being pushed off the volcano. As the rest of the rock scattered the other spiders, that just left Megatron and Arcee.
Arcee sat up on Megatron's chest awkwardly, amused at Megatron's uncertainty of her position. When she saw the boulders that had left a considerable pile on the remains of Arachnophere, she smiled, "Well, poor spider won't be making a meal out of us today."
Megatron frowned, looking past her up to the volcano. "Yes, but now we have to deal with her."
Arcee peered back and was stone cold upon seeing who truly was the Insecticon leader, Blackarachnia. Purple waist, faceplates, and thighs merged into black armor with gold accents. Four black thin legs with gold tips were perched on her back the same as Airachnid but separated, twitching as she made insect-like clicking. Four red optics stared down at them as she crouched on the volcano rock. It was then seen that she had an insect abdomen tail in her form, very different from Airachnid's which were just panels to hide her legs in when she transformed into a more spider-like appearance. Blackarachnia was the real deal.
"You know, I just found something odd," Bolt said. "Blackarachnia is apparently dead. She was found dead on Archa Seven by an expedition team before the war ended."
"I think I know what happened-" Megatron muttered as he shared a glance with Arcee.
"The report wasn't made by Decepticons. It was made by an Autobot crew who claimed to have found her body. They said she had deep lacerations and a ripped open spark chamber, not something the spiders on Archa Seven were able to do which meant she was killed by something even more powerful than any Cybertronian. And it says Airachnid was in mourning, claiming it was a bot called Waspinator who took over a hive of Insecticons."
"Wait, Waspinator?" Arcee suddenly had an epiphany. "Bumblebee's brother, Wasp? I remember now! He was said to have gone insane and was able to turn into a monstrous Insecticon...and became the Insecticon leader! Bumblebee had to destroy him once his pettiness got the best of him. I remember he mentioned Wasp telling him he killed Blackarachnia to officially take over the Insecticons! But if the Allspark resurrected Blackarachnia..."
The warlord winced as the spider femme came down in front of them, shaking the ground they stood on. The volcano behind her was starting to rumble from all the movement and the dispositioning of the rock. The lava was running thicker, heavier to the point of overflowing. If they continued to disturb the balance of the area, Mt. Blastburn would erupt.
Blackarachnia wasn't larger than Megatron, but they could tell she was just as strong, and they both were stunned by her presence. It was Megatron though who tried to reason with her. "Blackarachnia, it is Lord Megatron. I ask you to stand down. I don't want to hurt you!"
"Lord...Megatron," her deep voice spoke. She then grew wide eyed. "Ah, Megatron the oppressor. I hardly recognized you...with an Autobot."
"Yes, well, Arcee is, uh, a Decepticon now. She just hasn't changed her insignia yet," he said, giving a faux smile. Then slightly tilted towards Arcee but didn't lose eye contact with Blackarachnia. "Play along. She doesn't know the war is over and if we tell her, she'll think I'm lying and go berserk. Being revived abruptly can be a little disorienting."
"You would know, I take it?" Arcee frowned.
"As much as I hate to admit, waking up after using Bumblebee to revive me was...an experience after we parted ways and I beat Starscream. I was a bit too rough, to be honest, because of it."
Blackarachnia gave a fanged smile. "It has been quite some time. My arachnids were about to devour you."
Megatron smirked, "Yes, well, not to brag, but I think even if you didn't stop them, I could have beaten them down. It is me after all, you know."
She laughed as the bots noticed the spiders gathering from a distance around them, communicating with one another and waiting. Arcee had a growing suspicion Blackarachnia wasn't buying the good-natured reunion. Moonhunter began to growl low, keeping close between them.
The ex-Decepticon leader then snapped his digits. "While I remember, I was wondering if you have seen a gem? It's a shield marker for the Allspark, light blue and glowing? We need them to get up to the citadel, high on the mountain."
Blackarachnia peered up to the Black Mountains with the Allspark's Citadel sitting up top. She grew a neutral expression before glaring at him. "Why is it important you go up to the tower?"
"W...well, to claim the Allspark for the Decepticons, of course. With the Allspark's power at my command, we will finally win this war and Optimus Prime will fall."
Hearing Megatron talk like he used to was throwing Arcee off a bit but Blackarachnia not happy about his monologue made her even more unnerved. "Megatron?"
He hushed her trying to keep the illusion going.
The techno-organic suddenly growled, "You talk a lot about beating Optimus, but I have yet to see you go through with it."
"Excuse me?" He snarled, "How dare you talk to your superior like that."
When the femme started approaching them, Megatron was forced to back away as she made a cruel smirk at him. "You see, my liege, there's just one small problem with that. I sent a distress signal, yet you never responded and left me with these creatures. I commanded the Insecticons yet you took them from me! I suffered through every order you gave only for you to turn your back on me to die on that organic planet! So, remind me again why you are my superior because I'm just dying to know!"
"Megatron," Arcee whispered harshly, tagging at his arm. Megatron only ignored it because he was becoming apprehensive of Blackarachnia's growing anger.
"You always claimed you would destroy Optimus. You always boasted with your ego that you would take Cybertron and yet, here you are! A lone warlord returning from the war with no one left to turn to! You came running back to me, didn't you? Running like the pathetic miner you are! Well, I'm done taking orders from you! I am the Queen of the Insecticons! You are not going to get rid of me that easily, not again!"
Megatron shook his head and replied, "You're delusional. I never sent you to that planet; the Autobots shot you down! I never wanted this to happen to you! You were my trusted second lieutenant, my friend! I tried to make it over to Archa Seven to rescue you and the crew, but it was too late. You lost yourself on that planet! The only one responsible for what you are now is you!"
Blackarachnia appeared stunned by the callout but bore her fangs and roared before sprinting at Megatron to tackle him. She managed to topple the warlord into a roll and clawed at his chest attempting to tear out his spark. He rolled them over to be on top then threw her from him.
"Don't make me have to kill you, Blackarachnia! I don't want to do this!"
The spider cackled and reached into her subspace, pulling out a familiar item. "Oh, but I do! You want this gem? You're going to have to take it-"
Suddenly, the gem was snatched from her servo by Arcee who did a backflip over her and landed before twirling around on the tip of her pedes, saluting mockingly. "As you wish."
Blackarachnia narrowed his optics displeased. Since she was larger than Airachnid, Arcee used her smaller size to outmaneuver her flurry of fists trying to hurt her. Each hit to the poor rocky surface made the ground crack. The motorcycle then whistled and threw the gem to the side where Moonhunter caught it in his mouth.
"You vile, little-" growled Blackarachnia as she tried to catch Arcee.
When she was about to corner Arcee, the barbs on her arm clashed with Megatron's falchion sword. "I won't let you hurt her!"
"Nobility doesn't suit you, Megatron."
"And selfishness never looked good on you," he bit back.
"At least I act like a Decepticon," she sneered.
Blackarachnia pushed his sword to the side and her spider-like legs perched on her back glowed yellow. Megatron winced when he felt a jolt run through his system. He was forced to kneel as warnings of decreased energy and a system breach cluttered his neuro-net. Then he heard the sound of his fusion cannon but looked down at his arm to see the black one he had wasn't at all charged up. Instead, he saw Blackarachnia's arm shift to produce a form fitting copy of his original purple cannon.
"Thank you for your gift. I love it," she said, running a servo over the cannon. "It seems you're a bit protective of the two-wheeler, the same relationship we had when we were partners. Maybe taking her out will get rid of this unnatural personality you developed."
"No!" He yelled but his knees buckled at the energy drain. Her power wasn't dangerous itself but he forgot that it crippled the host for a few minutes which was why she only used it on a bot who was already down when she worked for him. Now, she could kill him without him being able to defend himself...or stop her from going after Arcee.
Blackarachnia smirked, "Don't worry, you and I are going to have one last spark to spark afterwards before I fight the real warlord I know and kill him where he stands."
Megatron hardly heard her over the blaring noise his systems were producing in shock of the attack. All he could do was grip the ground, claws breaking through the rock with each painful tension of his cabling.
Arcee had watched the whole thing and grew tense herself when Blackarachnia aimed a replica of Megatron's cannon at her. She was immediately tripped by Moonhunter when she was fired upon and barely escaped getting her head blown off. The cat grabbed her wrist and tugged, urging her to leave with him.
Knowing Blackarachnia would only give chase, she decided that if that was what she wanted, she would get exactly that. Moonhunter urged her to the top of the volcano, and she followed. Climbing up the rockface, Blackarachnia wasn't far behind before the latter transformed into her spider mode. Arcee gasped seeing a giant purple, black, and gold arachnid bypassing the struggle of climbing with eight red eyes trained on her.
"Oh, that's definitely the stuff of nightmares."
Another blast from the cannon now perched on Blackarachnia's backside almost made her slip but Moonhunter encouraged her to continue, yowling and pressing on to the top. At the peak of the volcano, Arcee almost slipped again when she found the ledge platform thinner than she thought it would be.
Hearing crawling and then suddenly being shoved by a giant spider head made her lose her balance and she had only the ledge to grab onto. With boiling lava below her in the vast mouth of the volcano, she cried out when her servos slowly began to lose their grip.
The spider appeared in front of her pedipalps clicking like laughter before she heard Blackarachnia cackle madly. "Megatron replaced me with you? A cowardly, weak, and tiny Autobot? I must say I'm a bit insulted."
One of the golden tips of her sharp legs tried to pierce Arcee's servo but she moved it, only for the blue femme to slide a bit further closer to her demise. Then Blackarachnia transformed back and aimed the cannon again.
"Since you are so determined to see the Allspark, give it a kiss from me, won't you?"
Blackarachnia then tried to fire but a beeping sound was heard instead. The cannon faded to her annoyance, and she clutched her servo into a fist before sneering down at the hanging bot. She didn't waste any time trying to dispose of Arcee by lifting a pede to stomp at her remaining servo when she was pushed away.
"I hope I'm not interrupting something," said Megatron with his sword out and ready to strike.
The spider slid but got up quickly to run back at Megatron who stood in her way. She jumped at him, and he got wise, this time turning to let her fly by before swinging his blade. The edge caught her back arachnid leg and cut it off, a piece falling to the surface below and the sharp point stopping when it was lodged into the ground. She clutched the broken end with a bellow.
Once again, they were locked in battle. Sword against the barbs on the sides of her arms just as powerful as any blade. Sparks ignited with each clash. Noticing her style, Megatron was quick to determine she was fast with her arms but slower in foot speed. Keeping her trained on his high offensive, he tricked her into leaving her lower half unguarded before faking her out and striking her knee. She let out a blood-curdling cry as all the wiring and joints were severed. Her leg collapsed and she lost her balance to tip over the side towards the mouth of the volcano.
But like Arcee, she refused to give up and clung to the ledge. Side by side, both femmes hung between life and death. His first instinct was to grab Arcee as her grip finally gave out. He caught her while stumbling forward to lie on his chest but paused when he saw Blackarachnia struggling as well. Her claws were on unstable rock slowly cracking under her weight.
"Megatron, please!" Arcee called as he felt the heat of the atmosphere making the armor start to burn. If he didn't pull her up soon, he would be forced to let go from the eventual burning risk. Moonhunter whimpering at his side didn't help matters.
"Megatron!" Blackarachnia then called. It shocked him hearing his name no longer with malice but with real concern. "Help me!"
It came out in such a pitiful tone that he was about to reach out to her too, but he stopped when she suddenly said, "We can be partners again. Please, let her go."
Megatron was torn on what to do. His dearest friend that he had lost seemed to be still inside buried. But Arcee, the Autobot he had formed a strong bond with during their stay on the isle was his current friend and had always been true to him. He peered down to see Arcee closing her optics, no longer begging to be saved. She was leaving her fate in his servos.
"Megatron," Blackarachnia spoke again with soft optics and a smile, "you wouldn't let your own friend die. We both know that."
When she held out her servo, he had already extended his own. Their fingers were almost touching, but he saw in her optics the same deceit Airachnid always had. The real Blackarachnia was never like her sister which was why he trusted her to begin with. It pained him to draw back to her surprise.
"No, I wouldn't. But my friend is dead. She died on Archa Seven a long time ago."
The ledge Blackarachnia was holding onto gave out and she fell into the lava below calling out his name. He closed his optics not wanting to look as both servos clasped Arcee's and pulled her to safety. When she was on stable ground, they both heard the lava boiling before a small blue burst of light popped out of the volcano. The gem slowly flew to the edge of the volcano with its signature whispers.
While Arcee scraped the remains of soot from her armor, blowing on her servos to cool them down and grabbed the gem off the ground, she saw Megatron staring into the volcano mouth. She appeared beside him and gave him a soft expression as he then spoke.
"I never wanted it to come to this. You should have seen her in his prime as a Decepticon. She was one of my best warriors, one of my trusted allies and greatest friends. She had the ability to copy one's powers and weaponry by placing a servo on you, only temporary as long as the charge held." He chuckled, "She used to bug me about Starscream, always getting in good insults which made even me laugh. She was special and had Starscream proven who he was far before we left Cybertron, I would have made her my second-in-command. Airachnid was a whole different personality; it was her I never trusted."
Arcee furrowed her brows with remorse. "What happened on Archa Seven?"
He grimaced slightly and peered up into the late evening sky. "I sent a vessel containing Energon to one of our bases in the Archa System. It was only supposed to be a routine drop with extra support, one of which had Blackarachnia at the helm. The Autobots got wind of a transmission about it and intercepted it. They shot down the transport and all on board presumably died, but I did get an emergency broadcast from it before it lost signal, pinpointing where it was. I went to Archa Seven and found the ship, no one there though...except Blackarachnia but..."
The sadness in his voice broke her spark. "...she wasn't the femme I knew before. Her isolation and using her powers on the life there altered her into what you saw today. That wasn't the bot I knew. She was so lost that I had no choice but to leave her and take the Insecticon command into my power because I knew she would do something terrible...like what Airachnid tried to do. She wasn't in her right mind. I almost thought about putting her out of her misery, but I wasn't the nicest mech at the time. Never knew what I had until now."
Arcee sighed, "She sounds like the total opposite of Airachnid, wish I did meet her under different circumstances."
"As do I."
Suddenly, the volcano shifted, bubbling hard and Arcee, at first, thought somehow Blackarachnia survived the same as Megatronus.
"Arcee! Megatron! You need to get away from that volcano! It's going to blow! Your fight with Blackarachnia drew too much pressure!"
Both bots sprinted down the mountain as the lava began to rise in the pit. Cracks and crevices in the volcano wall started to leak with magma. Smoke was growing denser by the second and as they hit the ground running, the rocks began to crumble and move around them. Steam busted through the shifting plates which they continued to dodge. One plate held the gold tip of Blackarachnia's castrated spider leg which Arcee was quick to grab before the rock was slowly sinking into the uprooted lava. Geysers spewed out more with each second, threatening to flood the area.
They heard squealing behind them and looked back at a safe distance to see the eggs they had found on the side of the lost ship and a few unlucky spiders being burned to death. The ship itself was slowly consumed by a wave of magma. Arcee felt a little bad for the eggs, not so much for the actual spiders. The lava bulls and Megastrikes they had seen prior were fleeing in the distance to safer, stable areas in the lavalands.
"This whole place is going to fall apart!"
Megatron shrugged, "It's what the Allspark gets for terraforming a volcano on a self-built island where it had no right to be at."
Suddenly, the sky bloomed a blaring light blue from behind them and they both turned to see the Black Mountain's citadel with a beam of light shooting straight into the heavens with the clouds vaporized in seconds. The beam then stalled before it shot towards them. They both gave a cry of fear and ducked, only for the beam to go over them and hit the volcano.
As blue bio lights outshined the typical orange, the lava changed color and the broken and falling rocks of the area were pushed back together. The bubbling peak of the volcano simmered down while excess lava was cooled like it wasn't even there to begin with. By the time the blue light faded, the earthquake of the volcano's fury and the fuming lava geysers were at peace again, but the magma remained blue.
Peering up at the citadel, Arcee hummed low, "For something trying to get us killed, the Allspark just saved our sorry afts."
"Are you guys okay? I could see that from here though the ship's windows! The place just lit up like Cybertron reborn!"
"Yes, we're fine, Bolt," Megatron assured. "What I want to know is how the Allspark managed to stop an earthquake? A volcano is one thing but internal shaking?"
"Well, the Allspark doesn't technically work along the limitations of the world nor its physics. It was designed specifically to do anything it saw fit being a direct offspring of Primus and Unicron themselves."
"Offspring?!" Arcee gagged, "You-you know they are siblings, right?!"
"I may have worded that wrong. No, no, no, they didn't make it like that...uh...the Allspark is the creation of Primus and Unicron's powers combined though Unicron didn't help until Primus persuaded him. The Allspark was born, uh, housed in Primus' core...you know what, this story isn't getting any better. Simplified, Primus created the Allspark with all their powers to change, shift, create, or destroy! Let's just leave it at that."
After Arcee shook her helm, she then heard Bolt yawn.
"I don't know about you guys but I'm getting a little tired of today. Let me bring you back and get some Energon for you two-"
Moonhunter yowled next to Arcee which she laughed at when Bolt heard him too. "-and the cat, I suppose."
AN: I decided to do more than monsters. People can be monsters too. Blackarachnia wasn't initially my first choice; I actually thought to bring in a new creature from Archa Seven and give Blackarachnia a brief mention. Arachnophere was going to be something else as well. But then I thought "why not bring Blackarachnia?" I gave her most of her Animated counterpart's backstory and powers except instead of being Elita One mutated, she was a more-sane, less techno-organic version of herself with her sister being Airachnid.
Featured monsters:
Arachnophere the Red-Crested Spire Spider (Archa Seven)
Blackarachnia