A/N: Here's the next chapter. And I'm going to make a few more chapters from "Transformers: Prime", then make some more chapters from "Wolverine and the X-Men", sometime after the Transformers episode "Metal Attraction", I swear. And rest assured, there'll be more plot twists revolving around Calvin Rankin, I just haven't figured out how to work it out yet. And I'll be making it that June finally tells Jack most of the truth during the episode "Crisscross", and he'll finally be meeting his dad, (Wolverine) during the episode "Stolen Lives." In which case; she'll tell him the rest of the truth, including his upbringing and family dynamics.
Anyway; as some of you may recollect, I once said that this story would hopefully, rival my brother, Heroman95's story, "Prime Evolution", and I meant that with everything I've got. Don't get me wrong; when it comes to Wolverine's children, we both love Laura Kinny, A.K.A. X-23, but we also love Jimmy Hudson and Raze. And I love the last two a lot, but my brother is more into Jimmy Hudson than Raze, that's where we differ, even though Raze is a major dick in the comics, I still like him, to a degree. Especially since he's the kid of two of my favorite X-Men characters, Wolverine and Mystique.
It's a shame that Wolverine and Mystique are only romantically linked in a handful of comics, because despite the fact they're always trying to kill each other, in a weird cosmic sort of way, they seem to be made for each other. Speaking of which; I plan on making it near the end of my story, that they get back together. Then she, him and Jack will become a family.
LET'S ZOOM THE COSMOS!
Somewhere within the solar system
A spaceship appeared; going past the Moon and heading straight for Earth, fast. It arrived somewhere in a forest in the middle of night. It crash landed; dragging itself against the ground, until finally, it's skidded to a stop. Meanwhile; sometime later, somewhere in that same forest, Jack & Arcee were investigating the anomaly, with Arcee carrying a scanner in her hand to search for any readings. Jack was walking not too far behind her, trying to fight off a small number of mosquitoes. "Really wish I had packed some insect repellent. The mosquitoes out here on this routine recon are the size of vampire bats. And they drink just about as much blood." Jack complained, squatting a mosquito that landed on his arm.
"Quite the outdoorsman, aren't you, Jack?" Arcee said with a sarcastic voice and smile.
"You wouldn't be making fun of my survival kit?" Jack questioned, referring to the survival kit strapped to his belt.
"Maybe." She commented with humor.
"I may not have stinger-proof metal skin, Arcee... Even though I've got handy bone claws, and healed from some pretty gnarly stuff with my powers. But in a pinch, I can use my multi-function pocket knife and magnesium fire starter to cook up some freeze-dried mac and cheese." Jack said while patting the kit on his belt and giving the A-OK hand gesture.
"You have your tools, I have mine." Arcee responded. Her attention was then alerted to the beeping emanating from the scanner in her hand. "That's odd. Ratchet's satellite scans were accurate. But subterranean Energon deposits don't cause this kind of surge." Arcee said, then started walking further into the forest with Jack following behind. She continued walking, until her scanner resumed beeping, causing her to stop in her tracks. She looked up to see the giant trail the ship made, during its crash landing.
"What happened here?" Jack questioned.
"Crash landing." She answered. Stay behind me, low and close." She then instructed. She then instructed. Arcee continue to follow the ditch made by the ship; as Jack followed and stood beside her in a crouching position on a hilltop after they came to a stop, so they could observe from a distance.
"Autobot or Decepticon?" Jack wondered aloud, regarding the ship.
"Can't tell. Wait here." Arcee instructed while unholstering her blaster, going in for a closer look. She maneuvered around the outside of the ship with caution. She reached the entrance and pointed her blaster inside at the ready, walking inside after that. In the meantime, on the hilltop outside of the ship, Jack waited patiently for her return, but he had a strange feeling, something was up. He saw her exit the ship a moment later.
"Arcee?" He said with concern, making his way to her. Arcee seemed unnerved, having flashbacks about being tortured by some sadistic Decepticon with multiple legs. She was snapped back to reality, shortly after. "Arcee, what's wrong?" Jack asked as he approached her.
"I know who this ship belongs to." She responded. She then put her finger to her comm, trying to reach headquarters. "Arcee to base. I need a Ground Bridge, ASAP."
"W-Wait, why? Whose ship is this?" Jack questioned, showing concern for his friend.
"Base, do you read?" She repeated, only to hear static on her end. "Scrap. Com link's dead. The ship's got to be transmitting a high-frequency transmitter pulse." She speculated, and gave it a rest with her comm.
Jack trailed behind her with worry. "A-Arcee? Okay, you're kinda freaking me out here."
"Wait here." She told him again. She walked into the woods some more, stopping and crouching down at what she believed to be fresh tracks of some sort. This caused her to have another terrible flashback.
"Arcee?" She was snapped back to reality at the sound of Jack's voice.
She transformed to motorcycle mode right next to him. "Climb on." She ordered. Jack did as instructed and put his helmet on, with her speeding them down further into the woods afterwards.
Jack was freaking out and holding on for dear life, since the only other time he experienced her driving like this was when they first met. He saw they were approaching a ravine up ahead. This caused some concern from him, obviously. "WHOA, WHOA! ARCEE! WHOA!" He said as they jumped the gap, skidding to a stop. "Okay, was that really necessary?" He said while taking his helmet off and dismounting her.
"Arcee to base. Scrap!" She said while slightly drifting away from Jack.
"Look, I've seen danger before. What's the big...?" Jack said, only to be interrupted.
"Wait here. I mean it this time." She firmly ordered.
Jack couldn't believe the way she was acting right now. "Okay, first you shut me out. And now you're ditching me?" He said while she transformed. "I thought I was your partner." He's said with a finish.
"No, Jack, you're a kid. You're only here because this was supposed to be no-risk. Got it?" She replied while kneeling down slightly to his level. She transformed and jumped the gap, driving away, leaving him with his thoughts. Jack had an annoyed look on his face.
He then walked over to the gap and looked down. "Huh." He said while seeing how far down the ravine went. He started climbing down, attempting to follow her.
Meanwhile
Arcee continued driving, until she came to a stop and transformed. She activated her blaster and aimed it in all directions, preparing for the worst. Not long after that; she stopped dead in her tracks at the mere sight of a tree, nearly melted to its stump by acid. This caused her to have another flashback.
(Flashback)
It was during the war for Cybertron, and Arcee was sprinting somewhere on a mission, during a battle. "Arcee to Delta Team. Requesting rendezvous coordinates. Do you copy?"
"Arcee, you lost again? Your sense of direction could use some improvement." Another voice said through the other end of her comm.
"So could your aim, Tailgate. If you'd tagged that sniper back at the artillery depot, I wouldn't have had to break rank and engage the enemy hand-to-hand." She responded while still sprinting. Tailgate was her partner back on Cybertron, before she teamed up with Cliffjumper. But that was a long time ago.
"From the sound of things, I'm guessing you came out ahead." He replied.
"Try waiting up for me this time, and I'll give you the blow-by-blow. What's your position?" She said while she ceased sprinting, and started walking with her blaster at the ready.
"About half a click from the depot, due north. Think you can find it, partner?" He answered with humor in his voice.
"Trust me, Tailgate, my navigation abilities are - UHH!" She said before getting interrupted mid-sentence because of getting stuck to a wall, by an oversized stream of spider web. She began struggling and grunting, trying to break free. Suddenly; that same Decepticon she's been having flashbacks about, stood right in front of her. She had purple optics, black armor, talon styled fingernails and what looked like to be a set of metal spider legs on her back. She then completely covered the rest of Arcee in web. Sometime later; Arcee awoke in what one could assume to be that Decepticon's lair, with her legs binded together by that same web, while also hanging from her arms by restraints. She; again, continue to grunt and struggle, trying to get free.
"Piece of advice... Make yourself comfortable." The Decepticon said. She then extended her right index finger, and walked towards Arcee. "You're going to be here awhile." She said as a follow-up. She brought her finger closer to Arcee's face, with Arcee trying to avoid it, only for it to prove in vain. The Decepticons scratched her talon across Arcee's left cheek, leaving a scratch that was now secreting a small amount of acid. The same kind of acid found on the tree.
(Back to Present)
Arcee brought her mind back to the present, and looked at the melted tree one more time, before moving on.
Elsewhere in the forest
That same Decepticon was spying on a small campsite with only one occupant. "My first local. Time for humankind to feel my sting." She said with a sadistic tone and smile. Her regular legs folded up as she began walking with her spider legs. She started stalking her prey and jumped in the air at them, only to be ambushed in mid-air by Arcee. They continue to fight and roll down on the ground; until they fell down a hill, with Arcee slamming her back against a mountain, bringing her to her knees, and throwing the Decepticon off of her. The Decepticon rose to her feet, setting her sights on her attacker. "Arcee. Small universe." She said.
"Too small, Airachnid." Arcee commented, revealing that to be the Decepticon's name.
"You're still holding a grudge? The war's been over for megacycles." Airachnid replied.
"Tell that to the Decepticons." Arcee said while taking up a fighting stance.
"These days I travel solo in pursuit of my new hobby." Airachnid said.
This caused Arcee to develop a sour expression on her face. She thought back to a few moments ago when she inspected the crashed ship. She was filled with shock at the time, due to seeing all the dead species on both sides of the wall. Her mind was immediately brought back to the present after that. "I got a look at your souvenir case." Arcee stated.
"You mean my trophies? I collect endangered species. Of course, they aren't really endangered... Until they meet me. And I have a slot reserved for "Human." Responded Airachnid.
"Not gonna happen." Arcee exclaimed. She ran towards Airachnid and tackled her to the ground on her back. Arcee was about to deliver a punch, but Airachnid used her spider legs to push her off and slam her back against the mountain again. Airachnid sat up, recovering from The tackle. Arcee got to her feet and shot at Airachnid with her blasters, but she dodged the shots and jumped in a tree, shooting a web at Arcee and binding her arms. Arcee started yanking on the web till she pulled Airachnid out of the tree, like a fish on a hook being pulled out of the water. Arcee used the blades in her arms to cut the web. She started shooting again, with Airachnid dodging the shots again, but while shooting some of her own lasers this time. Now, Arcee was the one dodging her shots. She jumped in the air and swung on a tree branch a few times like a monkey bar, until she swung forward and jumped off a tree, then delivered a powerful kick to Airachnid's chest, sending her to the ground on her back, with Arcee pointing her blasters at her face. It looked like it was over, until they were both alerted to the sound of falling rocks. They both looked up to see Jack standing atop the hill. This was just the distraction Airachnid needed, as she pushed Arcee off of her, and stuck her to the wall with her webbing while she was still recovering.
"Arcee!" Jack shouted with concern for his friend while still running towards her. Arcee directed her attention to Jack, and Airachnid turned towards him releasing a hiss. Arcee released one of her arms with her blade and shot her back down with her blaster. Jack made it to Arcee, trying to get the webs off. "I told you to wait for me!" She reminded Jack.
"Well, partners don't ditch partners." Jack commented as he continued trying to free her from the web. When that wasn't working, he then shapeshifted to his mutant form with his blue skin, red wavy hair and amber eyes, and unholstered his bone claws, trying to cut away at the webs while releasing feral growls in frustration, since it didn't seem to be working. This didn't go unnoticed by Airachnid, as she developed a look of surprise to the sight of it.
"Get this through your head... You're not my partner. You're a liability." Arcee firmly stated.
"I don't believe you. I can see it in your eyes. You're afraid, Arcee, and you're never afraid." Replied Jack. Everything Jack just said caused her to really think about things, while also causing her to have another flashback at the same time.
(Flashback)
Arcee was still being interrogated by Airachnid, back at her layer on Cybertron. "You know, for an Autobot, your resilience is quite impressive. In fact, I'm guessing that no matter what I do to you, you'll never crack. Am I right?" Airachnid said while circling the still restrained Arcee. Arcee gave her an angry look as a response. "That's what I thought." Airachnid said as a follow-up. Then the cell doors opened; revealing a bruised and beaten Tailgate being dragged in by some cons.
"Tailgate?" Arcee spoke with shock. The other Decepticons hoisted him up with the same kind of restraints Arcee was wearing. "What have you done to him?"
"Not much... Yet. Just tell me what I want to know, or... Well... You're a smart bot. I think you can imagine what happens to Tailgate next." Said Airachnid
"I don't know the attack coordinates." Arcee told her. But Airachnid seemed unsatisfied with her answer, as she developed a less than pleased look on her face and started walking towards Tailgate. "I swear upon the AllSpark it's the truth!" Arcee pleaded.
"We shall see." Commented Airachnid. She bared her sharp spider legs to deliver the killing blow.
"No... Please!" Arcee continue to beg, but to no avail. Airachnid released a growl and swiped her spider leg across Tailgate, spilling his Energon, killing him. "TAILGATE!" Arcee shouted, watching helplessly as he was killed right in front of her.
(Present)
Arcee looked at Jack and said. "You're right, Jack. I am afraid... Of losing you." This caused Jack to look back at her with surprise.
Airachnid decided to chime in on their little conversation. "You sure have trouble hanging on to your partners, don't you? 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?" And you know something else, Arcee? I heard that usually, humans can't do what he just did. So what exactly is he?" Airachnid took a pause and a good look at Jack, as he directed a hostile look and feral growl her way, before she resumed speaking. "Well, whatever he is, I'm sure he'll make a fine and rare addition among my collection."
Arcee directed her attention back to Jack while speaking. "Do you get it now, Jack? She's not interested in me. She hunts indigenous species, and she's on Earth. That means humans. You!" Her words brought a look of fear to his face. "RUN!" She shouted. Jack did as she told, and started running. Airachnid shot more webbing onto her immediately after that.
Airachnid started laughing and came closer to Arcee. "And that's why I now prefer to work alone. It's so sad when bad things happen to those close to you. But don't get me wrong... I fully intend to snuff out your spark. And believe me, I will make it hurt." Airachnid said while now facing Arcee upside down. "But that won't compare to the pain you'll feel knowing I'm adding your human to my collection." She finished, now directing her attention to Jack, who continued running up the hill. "Or, whatever he is. Oh, this will be interesting." She said before giving chase.
"JACK!" Arcee echoed his name through the forest with concern.
Jack was running away from Airachnid, as he also decided to shapeshift back to his normal form, since he was both calmer, and kept a more level head in that form. As he was running, he looked behind to see Airachnid hot on his trail. "That's the spirit, Jack. Play hard to get." She commented. Meanwhile; Arcee continued struggling and grunting, trying to break free of the webs. This was causing her to have one last flashback.
(Flashback)
Airachnid approached Arcee after killing Tailgate, pointing one of her spider legs in her face, most likely with the intention of killing her too. Until the door to her layer was blown down. Airachnid turned around, and made a strategical retreat. Bumblebee and Cliffjumper stormed in, with Bumblebee shooting at her Decepticon minions, terminating them. Cliffjumper approached Arcee and got her down from the restraints, he and Bumblebee started carrying her out of there by the arms. "I couldn't save him. I couldn't save my partner." She said while making their way out.
(End of flashback)
"Jack, I'm sorry. I never should have looked back. I should have... Kept driving." Arcee said, with a new idea popping in her head. She struggled to move forward, just enough. Then transformed into motorcycle mode, and started accelerating forward in an attempt to get the webs off.
Elsewhere; Jack continued to evade Airachnid, jumping over a log suspended two or three feet in the air by connecting to both sides of the ground and fell to his knees, taking a breather. He started looking around, hearing noises, thinking she could be anywhere. So he hid under the log. Airachnid came in his direction; releasing a hiss as she was looking around for him, while also coincidentally leaning over the same log he was hiding under. She stepped over the log. Jack was trying to remain as quiet as possible, hoping she wouldn't find him as he saw her spider legs step in front of the other side of the log. "Hello, Jack." Airachnid said while leaning her head upside down right in front of him. Jack screamed in terror, getting away from her. She made an attempt at grabbing him, but to no avail. Jack jumped over the log again, and resumed running in the opposite direction. Airachnid tried snaring him with a web she shot, only for him to dodge and have it hit a tree instead.
Back in the other neck of the woods; Arcee continue to burn rubber, until all the webs restraining her finally snapped off, releasing her. She then drove to stop Airachnid and save Jack. Meanwhile; Jack was still running, with Airachnid releasing another hiss, still hot on his trail. Soon; Jack stopped just short of that same ravine that he crossed. "Whoa!" He said, stopping in his tracks. He climbed down one side, and climbed up out of the other side, running again. Airachnid, on the other hand, just jumped on the other side, while still chasing him. Jack ran for a bit longer, then began hiding behind a tree for a moment. He reached into his survival kit and pulled out his swiss army knife and released the bone claws in one of his hands, looking at them both while trying to explore any and all options. "Oh, who am I kidding?" He commented to himself. He continued running after that.
"You're making this too easy, Jack. And I do not enjoy being bored." Airachnid spoke. She went a little further, seeing Jack running inside her ship. "Huh." She said, giving off another hiss. She then approached the ship herself. "Now, where did you scamper off to?" She wondered. Jack was hiding behind a wall of the ship, remaining quiet, then moved somewhere else to hide. Airachnid crawled on the outside of her ship, then jumped off and deployed her regular legs while retracting her spider ones. "If you wanted a tour, Jack, all you had to do was ask. Did you spot the empty space? I hope you like it. It's where you'll soon hang your head." She said while heading inside, thinking that's where he was.
Jack moved to the back of the outside of the ship; he then heard a slushing sound, and looked down to see a puddle of blue liquid he just stepped in, that was leaking from the ship. "Energon." He said as he recognized it. He looked up to see that it was leaking from the ship's thrusters. A certain look appeared on his face, as an idea came to mind. So he started rubbing his magnesium fire starter against a stick on the ground, lighting a spark, remembering that Energon was highly flammable.
"Jack?" Airachnid said while turning around, hearing something outside. She ran outside across the roof of her ship, trying to track the noise. Jack continued to stroke his fire starter against the stick until it started emanating smoke. He picked it up and blew on it, causing it to catch fire in his hand. At the last minute; he threw the stick in the thruster and started running. Airachnid finally reached the other end of the ship, only to see the Energon in the thrusters catch fire. "JACK!" She shouted, knowing that was his doing.
As Jack continued to run, the explosion from the ship blew him away, causing him to land on the ground hard. But he didn't come out unscathed. As he laid on the ground, he noticed his shirt had a few scorch marks on it. He lifted up what was left of his shirt, to see both his arm and torso covered in third degree burns. "Oh, not again!" He said as the burn started healing instantly. "Well, so far it looks like the healing's become my favorite power." Jack sat up, seeing what was left of the exploded ship. He released a sigh of relief, then started walking away. But suddenly; his leg was stuck to the ground with a stray shot of webbing. He looked up to see a still alive and very scorched Airachnid standing on the branch of a tree, and she did not look happy. She shot another web line at him, sticking him completely to a tree. Airachnid jumped from the tree, releasing a growl while approaching Jack. She got uncomfortably close to him and stroked one of her talons down the side of his cheek. Jack changed to his mutant form, releasing feral growls, telling her to stay away from him with his motions. Suddenly; the rev of an engine could be heard and a bright light was seen. Airachnid looked to her left to see Arcee drive up a hill, launch herself in the air, transform and punch her in the face, sending her away from Jack.
Arcee ran at Airachnid and delivered a strong kick to her chest, knocking her a bit off balance. They both then got into a fist fight, with Arcee coming out on top as she landed blow for blow, while Airachnid didn't even lay a hand on her. After Arcee was done throwing punches, she delivered one more powerful kick to Airachnid, sending her a few yards away, while also clearing out a straight row of trees in the process. Airachnid laid on the ground, not getting up because of the pain. Once that was done; Arcee brought her attention to Jack. "Jack? Are you okay?" She said while approaching him and tearing the webs off. He changed back to his regular form before speaking.
"Yeah, of course. Survival kit." He said with humor while displaying his pocket knife in his hand.
This brought a smile to Arcee. But then she turned her head to the sound of drilling. Airachnid regained consciousness and began drilling into the ground, making her escape. Arcee tried shooting her, but she missed every shot as Airachnid got away through the tunnel she dug. "AIRACHNID!" Arcee shouted with frustration. She and Jack looked into the now empty humongous hole, as Airachnid was long gone by now. Arcee released a sigh of defeat before speaking. "So much for closure."
"Now Airachnid's stuck here on Earth. I'm not sure that's such a good thing." Spoke Jack.
"I'm sorry you had to face My demons today. You were pretty fearless there, Jack." Arcee said to him with an impressed smile.
Jack gave a smile of his own before speaking. "Actually, I was terrified. Mostly for you."
Arcee put her hand to her comm, contacting the base, since the jammer along with the ship was destroyed. "Ratchet, requesting Ground Bridge." She then looked down at Jack, seeing him swat a mosquito that just landed on his chest, before continuing. "Need to get my partner far away from any oversized insects."
"Partner, huh?" Jack remarked with a sly look and tone while looking at her.
"Junior partner. I can still pull rank." She corrected.
A/N: As I said above; I'm going to make a few more chapters from "Transformers: Prime" before I decide to write more chapters pertaining to "Wolverine and The X-Men." But sometime after "Metal Attraction", I'll make more chapters including both those shows, because the point of making a crossover fanfiction is caring about the balance between the two, and I take that very seriously to heart. But Jack won't meet his dad, and learn the rest of the truth his mom's been keeping from him until the episode "Stolen Lives."
And at some point; I'm going to make it that Jack meets Laura, and tries to help her since he'll consider her his sister. I just haven't figured out all the details yet. But I tell ya, I got a good feeling about future chapters, a real good feeling. So much so, that not even I know what's going to happen yet, and in my opinion, that makes it all the more exciting. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about, right? Like reading a book, you don't know what's going to happen until you turn the page. I'm sure a lot of authors feel that way in real life, not knowing what happens next, even though they're holding the pen.
But enough about that; let's talk about something else, like Raze, for example. I am completely in love with the concept of that character. I mean, even though he's a villain, and a major jerk, he's still the product of two of my favorite X-Men characters. The son of Wolverine, my all-time favorite X-Man, and Mystique, my absolute favorite villain in all of Marvel. Jimmy Hudson from the Ultimate Universe was good too; it makes me wonder how It would go down if the two ever met. Anyway; I hope all of you liked this chapter. I'll probably need to do some editing to buff out any sloppy bits anyway, so just a heads up.
This is Cloud Prince J'onzz, signing off.
STAY COSMIC!