The Darkest Hour

Prologue

It was going to be one of those days for Betty Director.

Just a few hours ago, the head of the Global Justice Network was awakened at three in the morning by Agent Du, who had a most startling development he needed to inform her of. Normally, Director would have shouted irritably at someone for awakening her so early in the morning, but upon hearing Du's report, she knew that she needed to head over to the GJN headquarters ASAP.

What he had told her was that the half-ghost supervillain known as Vlad Plasmius has suddenly returned to Earth.

Dr. Director still vividly remembered the stunt he pulled a year ago that nearly destroyed the entire world. Plasmius, then known to the people of Amity Park as Vlad Masters, attempted to gain total dominion over the entire world by revealing his half-ghost powers and forcing the United Nations to surrender control over the planet to him in exchange for destroying a meteor that was on a collision course with Earth. However, everything backfired when he learned that the meteor was made of the element known as ectoranium, rendering his abilities useless towards it. Had it not been for the efforts of the teenage hero of Amity Park, Danny Phantom, millions would have died and the planet would have likely been plunged into a second Ice Age.

As a result, Vlad was abandoned in space, seemingly never to be heard from again, likely in an effort to evade being tried and imprisioned for the rest of his life...until now.

Five hours ago, Vlad had seemingly fallen from the sky and crashed into the town of Tremorton. Naturally, the protector of that city, the teenage robot known as Jenny Wakeman, was the first to respond. Once she arrived, however, Plasmius, out of nowhere, suddenly lunged at her and attacked her, the ensuing fight destroying about five blocks of the forest he had landed in. Finally, it ended with Jenny defeating Vlad and surrendering him to the GJD when they arrived.

As Dr. Director continued her way down the halls of the GJN headquarters, her mind obviously raced with the question how exactly she was going to let that bastard have it for nearly damning all of humanity to oblivion, but also of another question: Why come back? Surely there had to have been a reason for Vlad to return to a world that now saw him as a monster, and before he gets tossed into a maximum security cell to rot, she was going to find the answer to that question.

Finally, she reached the door to the interrogation room, and once she opened the door, a look of surprise could be seen from her sole functioning eye. Knowing who Vlad is and what he was capable of, she expected to see a calm, reserved man before her with a smug look on his face that showcases his major superiority complex, but instead, Vlad simply glared right into Director's eye with a slight hint of deranged fear on his own pupils. His hair was a complete mess and there were cuts and bruises all over his face and arms. Also on his arms was a pair of ecto-handcuffs courtesy of Jack Fenton (though with tweaks made by his wife to ensure it didn't blow up in one's face) to make sure he didn't turn into his ghost form and escape.

Despite this sudden turn of events, though, Betty still know exactly who this man was and what he has done and proceeded to return the glare as she sat down in front of him.

"I'm just going to cut the bullshit, Masters," she sneered. "You have a lot of nerve coming back here after what you've done. The UN's already demanding you be taken into custody and be put on trial for crimes against humanity, so I suggest you think long and hard about what you have to say. Got it?"

It took Vlad a few seconds before responding.

"Of course, Director."

"Then answer this: why?" Dr. Director asked. "Why would you even consider coming back here? Cause I highly doubt you're the type that suddenly decides to accept the consequences of what you've done."

Again, Vlad took his time with his reply.

"Because this world is in grave danger."

"And you came here to warn us?"

"I came here because the only one that can stop him is here, and I have to speak with him, immediately."

Director had a pretty good idea who exactly he wanted to talk to and proceeded to activate her comm-device.

"Someone get the ghost kid from Amity Park over here. We-"

"NO, YOU IMBECILE, NOT DANNY!" Vlad suddenly shouted as he stood from his chair, causing Dr. Director to instantly pull her gun out and aim it right at his head in case he tried anything. It was then that she noticed something about his eyes. They now appeared to give off this look of fear and paranoia, most likely having to do with this threat he had mentioned.

"Sit your ass back down," Director ordered.

Masters responded by doing just that, but the look on his eyes didn't fade for even a second, now breathing heavily in anger and frustration.

"If it isn't Danny you want to speak to, then who is it?" the head of the GJN asked.

The supervillain let out a few more breaths before finally answering.

"I need...to speak...with Optimus Prime."

Meanwhile, at the Hikawa Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, Rei Hino continued to be seated in front of the roaring flame that was before her, a feeling of pure dread on her mind. This feeling had plagued her head since the very moment she woke up in the morning, almost as if her psychic abilities were trying to tell her something, and given what this feeling usually meant ever since she assumed the alias of Sailor Mars, it must mean that a malevolent force is about to make its move.

It was imperative that she needed to find out who or what said force was.

"Cleansing flame, provide me with your guidance," she requested. "Reveal to me this evil that approaches us."

"Rin! Pyo! To! Sha! Kai! Jin! Retsu! Zai! Zen!"

With each word she positioned her hands into a different gesture, and once the final word was uttered, the flame before her intensified before glowing a dark shade of violet, much to the miko's bewilderment. The flames then began to display an image before Rei. A field of stars, and to the distance, a planet orbiting peacefully around its own star.

Unaware to the Sailor Guardian, what she saw before her was the planet Lithone. A world inhabited by peaceful, sentient machines as the flames faded to. Its inhabitants went about their daily lives as usual, only further confusing Rei. Naturally she could believe that the evil force could be one that came from the stars, but surely these robotic beings couldn't possibly be capable of any malicious intentions.

Little did she and the people of Lithone know though that they were about to suffer a most horrific fate.

The flames faded once again, this time to the laboratory of a Lithonian scientist named Kranix, continuing his work as his assistant delivered to him a pair of vials filled with various chemicals.

"Here are the chemicals you requested, Kranix," he stated.

"Thank you, Arblus," Kranix replied.

As the scientist placed the chemicals onto a table, however, the ground bellow them started to shake violently, the vials shattering onto the ground as the robotic beings lost their balance.

"What's happening?!" Arblus shouted.

The two of them looked up into the window above them, and what they saw approaching their peaceful world caused their as well as Rei's jaws to drop in shock, a gasp coming out of the Sailor Guardian's mouth.

It was a mechanical, orange and grey planet that dwarfed Lithone itself with a ring surrounding it, two massive, curved spikes and a large hole in the center of it, and it was heading straight for the planet. A tractor beam then activated, pulling various civilians and buildings towards it and into the hole. This was nothing, however, compared to the devastation brought when the two spikes pierced Lithone's surface, dragging themselves through the ground, annihilating all in their paths.

"The ships! Get to the ships! It's our only chance!" Kranix shouted as he directed more and more of his people towards the nearest landing pad in an effort to leave their now dying world. However, a massive surge of energy came down from above, completely destroying the landing pad and all the vessels that were docked onto it. The petrified Lithonians looked upward to see, surrounded by fire, were the silhouettes of five beings floating above them.

The first was a reptilian, male humanoid given the shape of his head and the visible tail that carried a sword that glowed a dark shade of purple. The second was a female figure donned in a suit of armor and with fire surrounding her right arm and ice surrounding her left. The third was another female, this time one that had an cybernetic insectoid appearance with six mechanical insect-like legs positioned on her back. The fourth, a third female, seemed to be the most human out of the bunch, had it not been for what appeared to be liquid metal wings on her back as well as the faintest hint of her blue skin amidst the raging inferno. The final figure was a large, robotic figure with a head shaped like that of an Egyptian priest, a staff in his left hand while his right arm held a massive cannon that surged with the same destructive energy that destroyed the landing pad and doomed Kranix and the rest of Lithone to oblivion.

And all Rei could do was watch helplessly in horror.

The planet started to break apart as the spikes continued to pull it towards the hole of the planet, bringing it to a blistering, brutal end with savagery unequaled in the entire known universe. Suddenly, the ring around the massive orb glowed the same dark violet the flames initially were before it continued on its trek through the stars. And that's when Rei finally got the answer she sought.

This monster planet was the evil she was warned about.

And so, as the flames extinguished before her, the miko instantly got on her feet and ran out of the temple as fast as she could. Whatever this creature was was unlike anything she had ever seen. Even the foes she and the others have fought couldn't even compare to what this monster was capable of, nor to its sheer brutality. And she knew that Usagi and her fellow Sailor Guardians needed to know about this.

For if her premonition was correct, Earth is about to face its darkest hour.

DISCLAIMER: Transformers is owned by Hasbro, Kim Possible is owned by Disney, Danny Phantom and My life as a Teenage Robot are owned by Nickelodeon and Sailor Moon is owned by Toei Animation.