I slip lowly behind my tent. Looking out for anyone that could be awake or duty patrolling. I keep my steps light and make sure to avoid using my flashlight. No matter how much I wish I could right now. I don't need anyone waking up because of me. I don't need anyone asking questions. I am an officer and I need to keep my reputation.

I get to the other side of the camp with little to no noise. I don't see Garret anywhere, so I decide to wait before going in. Part of me hopes he changed his mind and went to bed. I hear running of footsteps, so I know that isn't the case. I wait behind some brush until I'm sure its him. 

"Lieutenant?" He whispers in the dead of night. 

"In here." I whisper back, hoping not to scare him. 

He turns to my voice, but in the light of the moon, I can tell he is unsure of where. I reach out and grab his arm and pull him towards me. He doesn't yelp or scare. 

"Let's go." I order. 

He nods and follows me through the brush. I listen for the noises and voices I heard earlier and so far, the forest is as quiet as it should be.

I use a small flashlight to help guide us through. We make our own trail through the dense parts. We soon come to a small clearing, more like a path made in the woods. The bushes lessen and the trees become more spread apart. 

"I wonder if this is the way they came. I never go this far." I whisper to Garret behind me. 

We slow our walking and crouch to a stealthier position. 

"Stay close."

I hear him shuffle closer, his boots dragging through the dirt. Up ahead a few klicks I see something silvery, gleaming against the moonlight. The light breeze causing it to float along the tree branches. The closer we get, the closer it appears to look like spider webbing. Thick, sticky webbing. I walk around the other side of the tree, very carefully and I gasp. The webbing seems to have been torn, whoever was wrapped tightly around this tree got out, but only by tearing it apart. The length of the webbing from the middle of the tree has to be about six, seven feet long.

"What the hell kind of spider made this?" Garret wondered aloud. 

Then before I have a chance to stop him, he touches it. The sticky silvery webbing seems to pull him in, engulfing his whole hand. 

"Shit!" We both yell. 

I quickly get behind him and grip his arm, helping him to pull back. 

"It won't let go!" He shouts. 

"Don't panic, we can't panic." I grunt through clenched teeth. 

"Keep pulling back, I'm going to grab my knife." 

I wait for an okay from him, then I quickly reach into my pocket and grab my swiss army knife. Its not big, but I'm hoping it does the job. I grip it tightly in my left hand and put my right on Garrets arm. 

"Don't move." I warn. 

I get close as I can without touching the webbing. I can see the panic in his hazel eyes, they are wide with fright. 

"It will be alright. I will get you out." I assure him. 

I take my knife and slice up the webbing. Its strong and hard to cut through, but I push harder and soon it releases. Garrets hand comes out, covered in a sticky substance. His hand has a red tint to it but looks unharmed otherwise.

"Let's get you back to camp." I suggest. His eyes snap up at me from his hand. 

"But what about the thing you heard out here." 

"Your health is a little more important. Whatever it was, is gone anyway." I put my hand on his shoulder, starting to lead him back the way we came. 

"No, we came to find it, so we need to find it." 

"And as your commanding officer, I'm telling you no, we are going back." I order, using my authority voice.

He flinches back, clearly forgetting his place. 

"Yes, ma'am." Then he starts to move. 

I move to the front and keep looking over my shoulder at him. Making sure he's still there. We cut through the dense brush and back into the camp. I stop and turn to the young lance. Though he isn't much younger than me. 

"Go wash up your hand. If the swelling doesn't go down by morning, then we will take you to medical." 

"But what about you? You'll get caught." He says, worry bleeding through his tone. 

"I'll be alright. I'd rather you get the help you need. Than try and cover for a stupid little mission." I reply with a smile. 

"Goodnight, ma'am." He turns and heads towards his tent. 

"Goodnight, soldier." And I head towards mine.

I lay staring up at the green ceiling. My mind running a hundred mile per minute. I keep going back to the webbing we found. It was not normal spider webbing. The spider that must have spun it has to be huge. And whatever it had captured had to be just as big to get out of it. I want to find out what it was. I won't get that chance now. Morning comes in a few hours and I can't go alone. I'm not going to risk another soldier's life. I pray Garret is okay. My eyelids are beginning to feel heavy. So, I let them droop and eventually the room gets dark and I let sleep consume me.

"Wake up!" I hear being called out from duty.

I groan and roll over in my sleeping bag. I can hear the other girls getting up and start digging through their packs. The rustling of their bags annoys me. I'm so not ready to get up yet. 

"Chow should be around 7:30" Says one. 

"Good, I'm starving." 

Why do they have to talk so loud? 

"Lieutenant its time to get up." 

I groan in response and the others chuckle. 

"She never was a morning person." 

"Go away." I mumble out. T

heir laughter only grows. 

"Fine I'm up." 

I sit up, rubbing my eyes. My hair falling in front of my face. They are so lucky I'm a nice person and I don't use my rank against them. I unzip my sleeping bag and let my legs slide over the edge. I'm still in my skivvies from yesterday and my boot socks. It did get a little cold last night. I shed those garments and put on a new pair of skivvies, then I put my uniform on over them. The other girls are already dressed and heading to chow. I'm still getting my boots on.

I join the other officers at the chow tent, sitting on the end. 

"Good morning, Jane." Captain says to me, then taking a bite of his bread. 

"Morning, Sir." I reply. 

I take a forkful of my eggs, not really paying attention to the other officers. 

"Did you still want to go find your mystery metal giant?" 

I send him a glare as I swallow my food to answer. 

"No, just forget it. I must have been imagining things."

I don't look at him. 

"Okay, if you say so." 

He knows I'm lying. He can read me like a book, and I hate it. I look around for Garret, hoping he made it through the night. Though my question is answered when another Lance comes running up to the chow tent.

"Somethings wrong with Garret! I need a medic!" He calls out. 

My fork doesn't even hit the ground and I'm already up, sprinting with the Lance, the medics right behind me. I can feel my career draining from my body, but I try and push that back. Garret needs to be okay. I whip back the opening of the tent to see a few other E3 and below crowding around him. They part like the seas and I see Garret laying on his cot. His hand that was caught in the webbing is swollen to the size of a balloon and his face is red. It looks like he's having trouble breathing. His eyes lock on mine and I can see the fear and pain treading through those hazels. His veins seem to be popping out of his skin around his neck and up his arm.

The medic pushes past me and quickly injects him with something. I'm going to assume its an epi pen for allergic reactions. Though this is one I have never seen before. But it does the trick, for now. Garret takes in a deep breath, his chest rising erratically, lifting his back off the cot and he drops back down taking in air. The red tint to his face slowly goes down, but not enough. 

"Garret, can you hear me?" asks the medic. He nods yes. 

"Can you speak?" 

"I think so." His voice comes out rough, but he can talk. 

"Can you tell me what happened to cause this?" 

We make eye contact. His blood shot eyes wonder if he should say anything. I nod for him to go for it. I'll risk my career for soldier. He doesn't need to die. He looks back at the medic. 

"I brushed past some spider webs last night when I went on patrol." He pauses to take a breath, "I don't know what kind of spider made the web. It was to dark to see anything." 

He takes another breath. 

"Well there is no way for us to find it now. It could be anything. The ambulance is on the way. We have to get you to a hospital."

I look at Garret curiously. He lied about it. Well not fully, it was a spider web and I'm sure we could find it again. The stuff we found would take longer to degenerate than any other spiders. Now I am fighting with myself on if I should really say the truth or not.

We all stand back and watch as they hall Garret off to the hospital. I go back to my tent and begin to pace back and forth. I can only hope they are able to help him. We have no idea what kind of webbing that was or if its poisonous or not. I'm interrupted by my name being called from the other side of the tent. I jump in surprise but walk to open the tent up. The last person I want to see is standing there. 

"Yes, Sir?" I say adding a fake smile. 

"What happened?" His tone deep and serious. 

"Garret seemed to have an allergic reaction after touching a spiders web." 

It's the truth. 

"When did this happen?" 

"Last night when he was on patrol. He never saw the spider. Per what he said." I look to the ground and cross my arms. 

"You went after it didn't you?" 

I look up in shock. "How dare you?" 

"I think you found something and that's what got him sick." 

"I don't know what your talking about." 

"Don't lie to me Rebecca." He sneers. 

"Its Lieutenant Jane to you. You have no right to use my first name." I growl, poking at his chest. 

"Then tell me what happened?" 

"Nothing happened, we switched with the next duty and went to bed. That's it." I stake my claim. No one will know about what we found. 

"If he dies, because you were stupid and disobeyed orders. It will be on your conscious, not mine." With that he turned and stormed out of the tent.

I'm left standing there. My hands have fallen to my side and I stare at the spot my Captain was just standing. I really hope Garret pulls through now. What am I to do? I need to get a sample of that webbing. If I can get it to the hospital, maybe I can save him. Maybe they can find out what it is quick enough to save him. So that's what I do. I grab my gear and I rush back into the woods.

Everything looks different, now that the sun is up. I push branches and brush out of my way, moving quickly to get to the opening. I stumble into it, almost falling face first. I look left then right, trying to remember which way to go. I think I went in a different way last night. This time with the light, I see something I didn't see last night. Footprints. Very large footprints. They are two separate tracks and a third that is significantly smaller than the other two. They look like who made them were casually walking, not in a rush to get anywhere. I continue to follow them. A few steps away and one disappears and the other spreads out, meaning it might have taken off running. The smaller third pair disappear as well, and I notice small holes spread out. There are so many of them, I can't tell how many there actually are. I look up quick to see where I am and to my right, I find the tree with webbing stuck to it. I leap for joy and pull out a container I made sure to bring with me. Without touching it, I use tweezers and my knife to cut a chunk off and stick it in the container. My tweezers don't let go, or I should say the web doesn't let go of my tweezers. I don't feel like fighting with it and let it take them. I put the cap on and look at my prize. Now to get it to the hospital.

I pause for a moment before going back and I turn and look at the footprints again. I want to continue following, but I need to get this back. I grunt in a huff and take my eyes off and run back to the camp. I hold onto the container tightly as I sprint. I get through the woods and take off to the medical tent. I slow to a walk, trying to calm my rapid heartbeat before I go in. Once I feel my breathing is back to normal, I go to head in, but someone comes out, almost running into me. 

"I'm sorry, Soldier" 

I know that voice. 

"Agent Fowler? What are you doing here?" I look at the dark-skinned man with a curious look. 

"I just came to check on things. I heard about poor Lance Corporal Garret. What do you have there?" He quickly changes the subject and points to the object in my hand. 

"It's the webbing he ran into. I was able to get a piece of it. I'm hoping they can use to help cure him." I say looking down at it.

 "I thought they wouldn't be able too." He raises an eyebrow up to me, "And is a pretty think piece of webbing." 

He grabs it out of my hand before I can say anything. 

"I just retraced his steps." Beads of sweat begin to flow down my forehead. 

"I'll take it to the hospital. I'm heading that way anyway." 

"Um thanks." 

He's gone before I can stop him. How come I feel he knows something I don't? 

*With Autobots*

"Prime!" Agent fowler shouts over the com. 

"Yes, Agent Fowler." A mellow baritone voice answers. 

"I got something I need Ratchet to take a look at. I believe the Decepticons were walking through the woods near a field op that is in session and one of my soldiers might have run into Arachnid's spider web. He's currently at the hospital for a swollen hand and hives running up his arm to his face." 

"I'll have Ratchet ready for you." 

"Good, I'll be there in five."

The screen goes blank and Prime calls for Ratchet. "Ratchet, you are needed at base." 

"Open the ground bridge." 

The spectacle vortex opens with greens and blues. Ratchet and Bulkhead walk through the bridge. 

"What do you need Optimus?" 

"Fowler will be dropping off something he needs you to look at. He says it could be from Arachnid's webbing. One of his soldiers ran into it and is in serious danger." 

"Her webbing doesn't cause any damage besides feeling sticky for weeks. Jack and June have both been caught in it and have walked away." Ratchet retorts. 

"Then if this soldier got stuck in it, why is he injured badly enough to go to the hospital?" 

The doors to the elevator open before they can think of an answer. Agent Fowler walks in holding up a plastic container filled with a piece of the spider cons webbing.

Ratchet immediately takes the container and goes to his microscope. 

"I thought her webbing wasn't harmful to humans." Fowler commented. 

"It isn't." Ratchet says, not looking away from his specimen. 

"Then why is my soldier in the hospital?" 

"Are you sure he was in contact with this stuff?" Ratchet asked. 

"One of my lieutenants came walking up to the medical tent with it. And said that's the stuff he ran into." 

"Well this is definitely from Arachnid. He could be having an allergic reaction to it." 

"Will he be alright with human care?" 

"That I am unsure of. I have never seen an allergic reaction on a human. I'm going to assume he will be fine if he gets proper care. Like any human with an allergy." Ratchet looks up at the platform Fowler is standing on.

 "I'm going to go visit him and see if he's doing any better. If he isn't, I'll let you know." With that Fowler left back up the elevator.

Ratchet looks back over at Optimus.

"Now another question, what was Arachnid doing in those woods?" He asks. 

"That is a very good question, my old friend." Prime says with a finger on his chin. Thinking over the possibilities.