The Red Chaos Emerald was on the continent of Chun-nan, specifically, outside a temple in China. Because of time-zones, it was nighttime. A massive bird stood by the temple, along with an elderly human man and several G.U.N. soldiers. The man adjusted his glasses as the Ground Bridge portal opened, depositing Snarl, Slash, Blackarachnia, Rust Dust, Shadow, Vector, and Natalie. “Welcome to Chun-nan,” greeted the old man. “I’m Zonshen, the guardian of the Gaia Temple, along with this here phoenix.” The giant bird squawked a greeting.
“I’m Blackarachnia,” returned the spider-femme. “I understand you found a Chaos Emerald a while ago?”
“Actually, my granddaughter, Yilin, found it while she was playing hide-and-seek one day. When she broke herself out of hiding before anyone could find here, it struck me as odd. Her record’s 12 days without being found.”
“Must have been too important to stay hidden.”
“My guess exactly when she showed me the Emerald. Look, the Decepticons never personally attacked Chun-nan, but I can’t run the risk of having a potential power source for them. Please, get it out of here!”
“Don’t worry, Sir,” promised Shadow, “the Emerald’s in good hands.”
“What, yours?” scoffed a voice. Everyone turned to see Crystal Widow sauntering towards them.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” remarked Blackarachnia as Shadow pocketed the Emerald.
“I’m you, but better,” replied Crystal Widow. “Better body, better skills, and a better name.”
“So, you’re me from Moebius.”
“Yep.”
“I was told that you’re a bimbo.”
“An act that I dropped when Nemesis and I reunited.”
“And you DO realize he’s working for Unicron?”
“We usually pick winners.”
“…You SURE the whole bimbo thing is an act?”
“Says the glitch opposing Lord Unicron! The Chaos Emerald! I won’t ask twice!”
“It’s seven against one! Even Lugnut could see that the odds are against you!”
“Seven versus one versus three, actually!” laughed another voice. Purple flashes appeared in the sky before Skywarp fully manifested and fired between the Autobots and Terrorcon. Shockwave then rumbled from behind the trees in tank mode before transforming and leveling her gun arm. Blast off arrived from behind the mountain and landed while transforming to robot mode. “Nanny nanny boo boo!” laughed Skywarp.
“Enough with the puerile humor,” ordered Shockwave. Skywarp pouted as Shockwave directed her attention to the Autobots. “The Emerald. Now.”
“Not happening!” retorted Blackarachnia.
“It’s the only logical path. All units, attack.” The laser fire then erupted from all sides. Zonshen took cover as the Phoenix took to the air. He then launched fiery feathers at the two flying Decepticons.
“He’s gonna need help,” muttered Blackarachnia. “Someone!”
“On it!” replied Natalie as she drew her duster. “Volant!” She flew into the air. “Sphaera Venti!” A ball of air hit Skywarp while he wasn’t looking.
“HEY! THAT’S FIGHTING DIR…!” Skywarp’s protest didn’t get far as the feathers tailing him finally hit. “ARGH! Okay, fine! We’ll do it YOUR way!” Skywarp then began teleporting all over the sky, appearing only to fire his weapons behind the allied fliers.
Snarl, Slash, and Rust Dust circled Shockwave and fired on her, keeping her on her toes. She kept trying to find an opening, but the two Dyno-bots kept stamping their feet as they fired. Rust Dust used the tremors to her advantage, taking a leap into the air and firing her own gun. “Stability’s required,” grunted Shockwave. She transformed and prepared her gun.
“NOW!” called Slash. “SLASH, TRANSFORM!” Slash’s hands went to the ground as her legs folded to her chest and became her beast mode’s belly. Taloned feet then folded down from her wrists and the tail and head unfolded from the back, completing her transformation into her velociraptor mode. She sped towards Shockwave and bit her gun. Shockwave involuntarily cried out in pain.
“SNARL, TRANSFORM!” Snarl folded his arms to his front as his beast mode shell engulfed him, folding the head down and uniting the tail at the back to complete his stegosaurus mode. He then charged at Shockwave and dug his head under her treads before flipping her over.
“RUST DUST, TRANSFORM!” Rust Dust’s legs united and folded towards her front as her upper torso bent to have her arms unite with the legs. A wheel assembly came down and her transformation into motorcycle form completed itself as she activated her rhino holo-form. She then circled Shockwave, kicking up dust.
“Can’t…vision…help!” called Shockwave.
Blackarachnia, Shadow, and Vector dealt with Crystal Widow. “CHAOS SPEAR!” shouted Shadow as he flung an energy spear. Crystal Widow danced out of the way but hadn’t counted on Vector’s fists slamming into her foot. As she hopped around on one foot, grasping the other, Snarl then left Shockwave, transformed, and pulled out something before flicking it into the air.
“CYBER KEY POWER!” The Cyber Key then inserted itself into his club and the melee weapon split before combining with his gun. It became a bigger gun and he fired a massive blast into Crystal Widow’s chest, forcing her to retreat. She climbed the mountain side like the animal she evoked.
“Come and get me!” she taunted. Blackarachnia rolled her optics before she leapt to a spot on the mountain side near her double. “…Oh, right,” gulped Crystal Widow.
“Not doing your supposed ‘real’ intelligence any favors!” snarled Blackarachnia. The two spider-femmes then fought as non-Mobian spiders, a lot of lunging, silk-throwing, and dodging.
High in the sky, a lone fighter jet held position over the battle. The pilot looked down; their face shrouded by the helmet. “Well,” mused the pilot, “not that this hasn’t been entertaining, but I need to help my new allies.” He then keyed in a command on his console. A microphone in his helmet then activated. “TRANSFORM!” The pilot’s seat then leaned back until he could see the entire canopy. The seat then activated restraints and plugged an interface into the back of the pilot’s skull. Once done, the rear of the jet swung forward towards the nose cone, split apart, and unfolded so the thrusters became feet. Behind the canopy, that entire section then swung to the back and rotated so it revealed a set of arms with the left forearm possessing a large rifle. The wings and arms then folded down as the head popped up. The new robot then landed and scattered the fighters, even knocking the two spider-femmes off the mountainside. The Emerald rolled out of Shadow’s pocket, near the newcomer’s feet. Skywarp landed near the newcomer, an expression of recognition glowing on his face.
“Thunderstorm! Buddy! I thought you were…!” Skywarp then noticed that the coloring was all wrong. “…Thunderstorm? What happened to you?”
“Therein lies a tale,” replied the newcomer as he picked up the Chaos Emerald while the heroes regained consciousness, “but not nearly as interesting as what’s going on. So, take me to your leader.”
“Who are you?” asked Shockwave.
“An old associate of your enemies.”
“You sound familiar,” rasped Shadow as he stood up. “Who are you?!”
“Be patient, Agent Shadow,” urged the newcomer. “You’ll find out in due course.”
“You don’t sound like a Transformer.”
“No, but you’re still the same Black Arms reject! And this will be the last time I tolerate your interference in MY operations!”
“…TOWER?!”
“In the flesh, in a manner of speaking!”
“YOU GHOUL! THAT’S MY BEST FRIEND…!” shouted Skywarp.
“We have what we came for,” interrupted Shockwave. “We must withdraw.”
“Capital idea,” agreed Tower as he handed the Emerald to Shockwave. “You lot get going, I’ll cover the rear.” Shockwave pulled out her remote Bridge generator and opened a Bridge portal back to the Moon Base. As promised, Tower covered the rear by firing on the Autobots, their allies, and Crystal Widow. Once he followed the Decepticons, the portal closed. Crystal Widow groaned as she tried to pick herself up. Snarl stood over her in robot mode, his gun leveled at her. She backed up, fear gripping her Ember.
“Sweet Snarl,” she gulped, “my cute friend, we’ve been hasty! Surely, we can work something out!” She then looked behind Snarl to speak to her double, desperate to save her chassis. “Blackarachnia! Destroy them and we can rule as sisters!”
“Are all your dreams in technicolor?” asked Blackarachnia as she leveled her gun. Crystal Widow noticed that the gun wasn’t pointed directly at her. She followed the line of sight to see the gun’s target sprouting from the ground.
“Energon!” she whispered. It was then that she remembered that she didn’t transform as often as she should! She started shorting out, she couldn’t respond in time! “YOU UPENDED EVERYTHING!”
“I studied from the masters while living with the Decepticons.” Blackarachnia tightened her finger on the trigger. “Hasta la vista, Crystal Widow.” She fired. Snarl got out of the way and made his way to the group while Shadow called for a Ground Bridge. The shot hit the Energon crystal as the Autobots and their allies retreated into the portal. The explosion engulfed the place just as the Bridge closed. Unfortunately, neither the Autobots nor Unicron were successful in retrieving the Red Chaos Emerald.