“A rather disturbing development,” muttered Topaz. “If and when Nemesis decides to attack, we’ll respond in force.”
“Probably the best option we have,” agreed Optimus. “We’ll keep you posted. Prime out.” The call ended. Optimus started planning. If Nemesis Prime used the Nemesis to attack G.U.N, the Ark would have a harder time fighting it. The ship wasn’t designed for combat in a planet’s atmosphere.
“Prime, you may want to come here,” called Jazz, snapping Optimus out of his thoughts.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Something’s up with Blackarachnia,” replied Jazz. “She’s gone cutesy, yet psychotic.”
“…I’ll be right there,” answered Optimus as he terminated the call. He left his office and found Blackarachnia in a holding cell. Something was…off. She still had black paint, but her trim was pink instead of gold and her joints were white instead of purple. “What the?!” spluttered Optimus.
“NEMMY!” cheered Blackarachnia. “Oh, I am SO relieved to see you! Talk some sense into these bullies! They do nothing but ask me questions that I don’t know the answer to!”
“We were testing out the new Ground Bridge range,” explained Jazz. “Blackarachnia had altered the range equations a bit and increased the Energon efficiency so we could reach farther, at least half way to the moon. Just as we turned it on, that solar storm hit us, messing up the Ground Bridge. She was caught in the after-effects and turned out like this. Ratchet had detected a particle trace similar to the one that Nemesis left when he went through the barrier separating our universes. So, either Blackarachnia’s been affected by those particles or…”
“This isn’t OUR Blackarachnia,” finished Optimus. “Well, a simple test will help.” He turned to the cell and drew out a card. “Do you know what this is?” he asked Blackarachnia.
“…Looks like a cute princess!” she said.
“…It’s Dark Magician Girl,” corrected Optimus. “You were the one who introduced me to YuGiOh.”
“No, I didn’t!” protested Blackarachnia. “That sounds WAY too human! Icky!”
“That ain’t our Blackarachnia,” guessed Jazz.
“No, it ain’t,” confirmed Optimus.
Where was Mobian Blackarachnia? She was being picked up by a darker looking Jazz. She looked around to see that she was in a castle with purple Autobot symbols all over the walls. The Autobots were in a darker color palette, almost similar to hers. “Report,” demanded the darker Jazz.
“Well, I feel…fine,” ventured Blackarachnia.
“Not you!” hissed Jazz. “The Globe Tunnel!”
“It functions as predicted,” called Nemesis Prime’s voice. Nemesis then stepped forward. “However,” he continued, “my presence here confirms something went wrong. What happened?”
“Well,” gulped a darker Perceptor, “there was a solar storm here…”
“Thus, someone failed to properly compensate during said storm,” interrupted Nemesis. “It altered the Globe Tunnel so it briefly functioned like Globe Posts. Prowl, you were instructed to take care of the equipment until I returned voluntarily.” Perceptor sighed and grinned at a darker Prowl.
“Noble Nemesis, please, I tried to…” begged Prowl.
“Carelessness will NOT be tolerated, nor will interrupting me!” snarled Nemesis.
“A thousand pardons, oh Grand Nemesis!” apologized Prowl. “But I…!”
“Teletraan X, Prowl’s agony code,” ordered Optimus.
“But, Nemesis…” answered a Speakonia voice.
“Prowl’s agony code, please!” demanded Nemesis.
“I was just about to say,” replied the Speakonia voice of Teletraan X, “that my remote link to Prowl is malfunctioning, thus I cannot find his agony code.”
“Fine, I’ll do it myself!” snarled Nemesis. He drew out a small cylinder and keyed in a code, then pressed it hard onto Prowl’s chest. Prowl arched an eyebrow.
“My Lord,” interjected Teletraan X, “I do not think the manual Agony Inducer is working correctly.”
“No s*@t, Sherlock!” snapped Nemesis.
“Red button on top,” remarked Perceptor. Nemesis looked at the top of the cylinder, remembered the steps, then pressed the button before slamming the Agony Inducer over Prowl’s Spark Chamber. Prowl was sent into agony as he clutched his chest until the Inducer turned off, letting him slump to the floor as smoke drifted from his armor. He was unconscious.
“Ratchet, you have a patient,” commented Nemesis. A darker Ratchet grinned.
“Time for some upgrades!” he cheered as he dragged Prowl off to the med-bay. “Maybe a buzz saw for a hand! Ooh! Or a head-cannon! That would be so cool!” When they were out of sight, Nemesis indulged in a dark laugh. The other Moebian Autobots joined in.
“WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!” roared Nemesis. “BACK TO WORK!” He turned to Blackarachnia. “You! Report to Perceptor for a full examination!”
“Yes, Sir!” gulped Blackarachnia as she followed Perceptor. Nemesis arched an eyebrow.
“That’s not like her,” muttered Strongarm’s dark counterpart as her optic probe extended.
“I know,” agreed Nemesis. “She should have been spending well over an hour, begging me in that annoyingly cutesy voice to not send her to ‘Creepy Old Perceptor’.”
“Monitor her closely?” guessed Strongarm.
“You, Teletraan, and I will be keeping a close eye on her,” confirmed Nemesis. “Tell me of any new developments.”
“Yes, Sir!” replied Strongarm. She saluted by throwing her arm across her chest in a knife-hand fashion.
“Now THIS is puzzling!” cheered Perceptor a few days later. “Your genetic make-up is totally unlike the one you usually have!”
“Just, er, a little change,” muttered Blackarachnia. “I AM a growing femme.”
“Nein, nein, nein, not what I meant!” snapped Perceptor. “Your CNA is totally different! Pit, your atomic structure has evidence of alterations! It looks like your atoms were totally different to our own! You once had a core made of protons and neutrons with electron clouds!”
“These bots have a totally different atomic structure?” thought Blackarachnia. “Can neutrons hold electrons? It WOULD explain a proton cloud around the atoms instead of electrons. I need to ask MY Perceptor when I get home.”
“So you ARE from another universe!” cheered Perceptor. Blackarachnia gasped.
“How did…?” she thought.
“You’re thinking out loud!” explained Perceptor.
“Of course, I am,” sighed Blackarachnia.
“That is all the information Strongarm and Nemesis needed,” droned Teletraan X. Nemesis and Strongarm entered the lab.
“So you’re NOT our Blackarachnia,” chuckled Strongarm darkly.
“I had a suspicion in my head,” grinned Nemesis, “when you didn’t act as our Blackarachnia did. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“I was happier NOT seeing your mug!” hissed Blackarachnia.
“OOH! A bit of sarcastic wit!” chuckled Nemesis. “I like that! MY Blackarachnia couldn’t even SPELL ‘sarcasm’!”
“Look, I don’t want to be here,” offered Blackarachnia. “You don’t want me here. Why not recreate what happened and let me go home?”
“And risk the return of that empty-headed glitch?” questioned Nemesis as he drew his gun. “Your precious Optimus can have her! Killing you will be much more sweeter! Somehow, my Blackarachnia could never take the hint when I tried to kill her! She blissfully avoids it and insists on hanging on my arm! No, I’ll just leave her there and kill you. So you die, and we all move up in rank!”
“Aren’t you already in command?” asked Blackarachnia. Nemesis realized his quote didn’t fit the situation.
“…SHUT UP! PREPARE TO…!” he barked.
“Alert! Alert!” droned Teletraan X. “Multiple Decepticon signatures inbound! Seeker Embers verified!”
“The Seekers?!” yelped Nemesis. “They’ve never been bold enough to attack us!” The fortress rocked from missile fire. “DON’T JUST STAND THERE, YOU IDIOTS!” Nemesis broadcasted throughout the base. “AUTOBOTS, ATTACK!” The Autobots barreled outside to engage with the Decepticons, the enemy sporting a much brighter color palette. Blackarachnia managed to hide somewhere as Nemesis confronted the Megatron of Moebius. This one was blue-white and had a red Decepticon symbol and blue optics. “You were never bold enough to attack head-on!” snarled Nemesis. “What’s your game here?!”
“Besides stopping you as usual?” snarked Megatron. “Getting the other Blackarachnia home.”
“Wait, how did YOU find…Soundwave AGAIN!” roared Nemesis.
“You never seem to close off the vents for long,” mused Megatron. He then kicked Nemesis in the gut. Nemesis steadied himself and drew the Dark Saber.
“NO YOU DON’T!” shouted Blackarachnia as she webbed his hand to the wall. Nemesis tried to peel it off but lost a bit of dental plating from Blackarachnia’s punch to his face.
“YOU GLITCH-SPAWNED…!” snarled Nemesis as he broke free.
“No more words, villain!” called a voice. An armored human then flew in, his face revealing a skinny version of Eggman.
“Dr. Robotnik!” snarled Nemesis.
“Yes, it is I!” declared Eggman’s counterpart. “Dr. Robotnik! Champion of Medicine! Hero of the people! And, if I may be egotistical, downright sexy in an Iron Man style suit. You, on the other hand, would take someone’s corpse and pilot it as if it were never alive to begin with!”
“These machines are under my command!” snarled Nemesis.
“They’re more than machines!” shouted Dr. Robotnik.
“THEY DON’T HAVE A PROPER EXISTENCE!” screamed Nemesis. “You’re seriously telling me that Megatronus is alive?!”
“STOP CALLING ME THAT!” roared Megatron as he activated his mace. “MY NAME IS MEGATRON! I CAST ASIDE MEGATRONUS WHEN I TOOK COMMAND OF THE DECEPTICONS!” He swung the mace into Nemesis’ head. Nemesis tried to steady himself. A red Shockwave with two eyes and a Sailor Moon tiara then gathered energy near the tiara.
“MOON TIARA ACTION!” she announced as she flung an energy discus into Nemesis’ side. Blackarachnia was amazed.
“A Shockwave that uses magic?” she pondered. “MY Shockwave would go berserk!” She grinned. Nemesis snarled and turned to Shockwave who grinned and pointed at his feet. Nemesis looked down to see a box with a blinking red light. Blackarachnia’s self-preservation instinct told her it would probably be bad if she DIDN’T go to the Anti-Decepticons’ side, so she leapt out of the way into Megatron’s arms. Nemesis picked the device up as Shockwave cast a shield, protecting the Decepticons and their Autobot and human allies. The Moebian Autobots were then caught in an electric field that shorted them out as well as Teletraan X. The electric field died down and Shockwave, cautiously, lowered the barrier. The bots and person still standing were unaffected, so Shockwave finished the job. “Are they…?” quizzed Blackarachnia.
“No,” assured Shockwave, guessing Blackarachnia’s query. “Dark though they are, they don’t deserve death. My Stun box isn’t high enough to disrupt the Ember’s cohesion.”
“So, you’re Blackarachnia from another universe,” guessed the Moebian Knock-out. He held out his hand. “Knock-out, CMO of the Decepticons.”
“Blackarachnia, intel officer for the Mobian Autobots,” replied Blackarachnia as she shook his hand.
“I must say, sensible color choices must be a natural for you,” complimented Knock-out.
“We can flirt later,” interjected Megatron.
“I’m just saying hello!” protested Knock-out.
“For you, that’s flirting!” hissed the Moebian Starscream. “There’s a time and a place.”
“Well, no point in chin-wagging!” called Shockwave. “Much as it’s nice to see her, we gotta get the good Blackarachnia home. She must miss her bots.”
“As a matter of fact,” replied Blackarachnia, “I do.”
“Then let’s get this show on the road!” affirmed Shockwave. “Alchemax, have you obtained records of what happened?”
“I have, indeed!” cheered a girly voice as a female Mobian cat in a pink, stereotypical magical girl outfit and pink hair appeared on screen.
“PRIMUS! MY OPTICS!” wailed Blackarachnia.
“Why is that the reaction I ALWAYS get?” sighed Alchemax. “In any case, I can simulate what happened and get our Mobian visitor home! We have three minutes.”
“All right!” cheered Blackarachnia. A thought then struck her. “How long before Nemesis takes over this world?”
“A matter of days, with the firepower of the Ark and Metarex under his command,” explained Dr. Robotnik.
“And the inevitable outcome?” continued Blackarachnia.
“The Autobots will replace what’s good and green on this planet,” continued Starscream, “with dark magic and technological terrors. We may overpower them eventually, but it will take hundreds of years with the power at their command.”
“Thousands of people will die!” protested Blackarachnia. “Millions more in slavery! I submit that you must wrest control of that power from the Autobots and I also submit that you use it to help this planet!”
“We lack the resources needed to complete such an endeavor,” replied Megatron. “That would require magic of an untold magnitude.”
“Then find the mages of this planet!” insisted Blackarachnia. “They’ll get you the power needed to stop Nemesis’ plans from coming to fruition! You MUST be the leader both of your homes need!” A beep from the console stopped her.
“It’s time,” clarified Shockwave as she activated the altered Globe Tunnel. Blackarachnia turned to Megatron.
“In…EVERY…revolution,” she said, imitating Kirk, “there is…ONE mech…with vision!”
“…Blackarachnia, I shall consider it,” replied Megatron. Blackarachnia waved goodbye to the Moebian Decepticons and stepped through the Globe tunnel, feeling a buzz as she journeyed through the vortex. She guessed it was the energies rewriting her atoms to their original state. She noticed the vortex was blue. She then stepped out of the vortex and out of her home’s Ground Bridge apparatus. HER Autobots were there, having arrived at the same conclusion Moebian Shockwave did. Optimus stepped forward and held out a YuGiOh card.
“…That’s Dark Sage, one of the hardest cards to summon onto the field. So what?” she explained. Optimus then hugged her. “Okay, we’re doing this now!” she yelped. “I take it my Moebian counterpart didn’t know what YuGiOh was?”
“She was neither a sarcastic nerd nor a genius chemist!” replied Optimus. “Welcome home, Blackarachnia!”
“I guess my counterpart’s gonna be in the waiting arms of her Decepticons,” figured Blackarachnia.
“I’m afraid not,” replied Teletraan 1. “When she heard that Nemesis was in this universe, she fled from us.”
“Nemesis ISN’T in our universe,” reported Blackarachnia. The Autobots gave her quizzical looks. “Here’s what happened,” she began.
Blackarachnia told everyone about her adventures on Moebius. Perceptor seemed to be all excited. “Something you want to share with the class?” asked Blackarachnia.
“I think I can help give some insights on Moebius’ usual atomic structure!” answered Perceptor. “You see, when I studied your counterpart’s atoms, I found evidence that the particles that made up her atoms did NOT exchange places, merely charge! Her electrons were, in her universe, positrons and her protons were anti-protons!”
“The anti-particles of antimatter!” breathed Blackarachnia.
“Do you have any idea how refreshing it is,” cheered Perceptor, “to hear you understand that?!”
“I’m basing this off of Star Trek,” interjected Optimus, “but shouldn’t she have exploded the instant she set foot in that universe?”
“This is where Moebian Perceptor, creepy though he was,” answered Blackarachnia, “could explain how I could exist there. As I traveled through the dimensional vortex, I felt a buzz around my atoms. Moebian Perceptor identified the buzz as my atoms’ polarity being reversed in some way. It turns out the subatomic particles were exchanging charge, not places as I originally thought.” Perceptor winced when he heard his counterpart was creepy.
“Well, I don’t know about you bots,” remarked Prowl, “but I’m glad we have OUR Blackarachnia back.”
“I don’t know, I kind of liked the pink and white,” teased Optimus.
“I always figured you were a princess at Spark,” chuckled Jazz.
“Maybe a tea party is in order?” joked Strongarm.
“I think a bow on her helmet would tie it together nicely,” giggled Chromia.
“Or a nice, frilly dress,” supplied Ironhide.
“Perhaps her own castle,” mused Prowl with a grin.
“Indeed,” replied Blackarachnia. “May I say, I’ve had a tremendous opportunity to observe your counterparts in that universe. They were brutal,” Strongarm arched an eyebrow, “savage,” Ironhide gulped, “unprincipled,” Jazz gasped, “uncivilized,” Optimus protested with a “HEY!”, “treacherous,” Chromia scoffed, “and groveling.” Prowl’s grin vanished. “In every way,” continued Blackarachnia, “splendid examples of The Beginning Days, the very flower of the Autobot Cause. I found them quite refreshing.”
“…I’m not sure,” remarked Optimus, “but I think we’ve just been insulted.”
“I’M sure!” hissed Chromia.