Beast Wars Metals issue 4

« Beast Wars Metals #4 »
Published in	Comic BomBom
First published	January 2000
Cover date	February 2000
Story by	Shōji Imaki
Art by	Shōji Imaki

When the conniving Tarantulas hijacks the mind of Tigatron, he forces him to try and kill Airazor. Will true love prevail?

Synopsis

Airazor at last reunites with Tigatron in the snowy regions of Energoa, but the mind-controlled Maximal attacks her with his sword. Dodging his attacks, Airazor scans his body and sees the Predacon control unit in his head, realizing what's going on. Tarantulas, speaking through Tigatron, sees that Airazor is catching on and determines she must die before she can reveal his ploy. Airazor stuns Tigatron with her jets and then embeds her claw-chain into him, creating a mind-link through the wire. She then sends her consciousness into Tigatron's mind.

Meanwhile, Blackarachnia observes Tarantulas's machinations and disapproves of the invasion. Tarantulas brushes her off and continues fighting Airazor's intrusion.

In Tigatron's mind, Tarantulas's avatar webs Airazor's. In the real world, Airazor's body continues to fight Tigatron's, but she can't split her focus on two fronts and the fight doesn't go well. She coils the chain around his neck, subduing him. In Tigatron's mind, Airazor frees herself and fights off a horde of Tarantulas' virtual minions, killing them all before continuing her search. The destruction of his minions causes Tarantulas to feel physical pain and become distracted. Blackarachnia uses this opening to clamp Tarantulas's head between her legs until it pops off. She then leaves to stop this awful scheme.

At the Maximal Scientific Research Laboratory, Rattrap and Rhinox watch the fight on their monitor and wonder what the heck has gotten into their comrades.

Tigatron's body gets the better of Airazor's and is about to stab her when Blackarachnia snags him with her webbing. Virtual Airazor uses the distraction to find virtual Tigatron and free him from his webbing cocoon. It turns out to be a trick, Tarantulas disguised as Tigatron, and he blasts a hole through Airazor's avatar. Tigatron's body then regains control and slashes Airazor across the torso with his sword.

Before Blackarachnia can do anything else, Tarantulas's headless body arrives and blasts her in the back with his gun before screwing his head back on. He thinks he's won, but in virtual space, Airazor's avatar rises with a heavenly glow. She slices Tarantulas's avatar in two with her wings, freeing Tigatron's body and mind.

Tigatron's memories are restored and the first thing he sees is his mortally wounded love falling into his arms. He holds her and weeps while Tarantulas, now recovered, attempts to shoot Tigatron in the back. Optimus Primal arrives in time, though, and stomps the spider to death before shredding his body into a million pieces with his mace.

The injured Blackarachnia is elsewhere, having found a large figure...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Others
Tigatron (1) Airazor (2) Rattrap (6) Rhinox (7) Optimus Primal (8)	Blackarachnia (3) Tarantulas (4) Tarantulas' virtual minions (5)	Optimus Prime (9)