"No...NO!!! NO!!!" Tarantulas stubbornly refused. Screaming when the mental turmoil overwhelms him.

"Then we go... off-line...together...!" Blackarachnia spat out.

"Can't let...you win...! Can't..." Until Tarantulas gave in. "...ENOUGH! The link is broken! Get out of my mind! Get OUTTTT!!!"

Blackarachnia then tossed the Energon squeezing knife away. She panted "I told you... I'd be free..."

"But you won't survive to gloat about it!" Tarantulas approached the relieved Blackarachnia threateningly. "I'm going to take you apart, piece by treacherous piece!" he hissed.

"Do it. Spare me the painful reminder." Arcee dared.

"Better save it for later, Big T." Quickstrike interrupted. "We got trouble brewin' outside. Trouble wit' a capital 'M'."

Outside, the Predacons witnessed their enemies approaching.

"Maximals!" Tarantulas cursed.

"Finally, somethin' I can sink my teeth inta!" Quickstrike gleefully chortled. "Quickstrike... TERRORIZE!" he transformed then departed to meet his enemies head-on "Come on, Lowers!" he fired at Rattrap and Silverbolt who had recently arrived as Tarantulas charged in Vehicle Mode.

"HA! BLOW THOSE BUGS A NEW AFTS MAXIES!" shouted Warpath.

"BREAK THEIR BACKS! SEND THEM LIMPING BACK HOME!" Grimlock cheered.

"Yeah!" agreed Wheeljack.

"Here comes!" Quickstrike then dodged Silverbolt's retaliatory missile strike.

"Be cautious, my friend!" Silverbolt shouted to Rattrap. "We don't know what we're getting into here."

"Have we ever?" Rattrap boosted to dodge Quickstrike's next blast.

Quickstrike fired thrice, the third shot knocking Silverbolt out of flight. He chortled "Well, look at that! Let's take these tinhorns down!" Blackarachnia then unfurled her appendages and fired, prompting Rattrap to transform and fire back, pushing her into cover.

"Oh man! What're those misfires up to this time?" Rattrap asked.

"I have no idea." Silverbolt replied. "I also have no intention of letting them succeed!" He heard Tarantulas speeding towards him and threw an explosive feather at him, disorenting his sight so that Silverbolt jumped out of the way as Tarantulas crashed into his cover.

"HA! YOU GOT THAT BUG, MAXIE-BOLT!"

Rattrap shot Quickstrike down "Gotcha boy!" then ordered Silverbolt "Flybot, you take out the spider, I'll handle the Fuzor!" 

Tarantulas transformed to get his head out and unleashed missiles at Silverbolt. The Maximal Fuzor dodged them rather tepidly, inadvertently avoiding Blackarachnia's attempt to jump on him. He prepared his swords intimidatingly at her, right when she's at his mercy, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to perform the deed to finish her off.

"Uh oh, somebody's getting the heat sinks for the spider." Jazz teased.

Silverbolt gritted his teeth in anger and smashed his fists in his armrests in objection. "NO DESCENDANT OF MINE IS FALLING FOR AN ENEMY IN THE FUTURE!"

"Calm down, Silverbolt, calm down." Air Raid soothed his older comrade.

"Whadda you waiting for, Bolt?! Blast her!" Rattrap demanded. But his Fuzor comrade looked at Blackarachnia with mercy and pity.

"No, my friend." Silverbolt refused. "It is not right to strike a female, even a female Predacon."

"You idiot! She'll use that honor of yours to get the edge over you!" Arcee shouted.

"Either that or Maxie-Bolt's starting to feel an interest towards that widow." Jazz pointed out.

"Never! I will not allow it!" objected Silverbolt.

"It's pretty strange. Blackarachnia would have shot him in the back if the opportunity presented it. But she didn't." Ratchet pointed out.

"That widow's 'bout as female as a piston!" Rattrap argued, but he was shot down by Quickstrike.

"That's my Sugar-Bot!" Quickstrike praised.

"But I have no such compunctions about dealing with this lowlife scum." Silverbolt then turned to Quickstrike and charged at him. "You claim to be the toughest of us all, snake, but you've done little to prove it!"

"Jest keep jawin'', wolfie, while ya still got yerself a head." His prosthetic snapped at Silverbolt's leg, dealing him quite the pain, but he resisted the poison injected into him by slicing Quickstrike's hand off.

"NOW GO FOR HIS HEAD, MAXIE-BOLT!" Grimlock shouted.

"Look out, now!" Quickstrike held his stump that was his hand and reattached it.

"Keep fighting! We've got to keep the Maximals away from the cavern at all costs." Tarantulas ordered.

"We're holdin' our own, ace. How 'bout you?" Quickstrike questioned.

"The cavern, huh? Wonder what's in there?" Rattrap stood up before Silverbolt.

"Perhaps we should find out." Silverbolt agreed suggestively, as they used the infighting amongst the Predacons to fly towards the cave.

"Where've you been?" Quickstrike asked dangerously.

"Fools. The three of you are." Megatron commented with a facepalm.

"What kind of Predacons are you?!" Tarantulas argued, but their bout has been cut short when their enemies were flying into their cave. "No, you don't, tinhorns." Quickstrike prepared to fire "Ain't nobody gettin' inside there 'cept-" there was an explosion that knocked the Maximals clear.

"What happened?" Blackarachnia asked.

"They've destroyed the cavern. Back to the base!" Tarantulas ordered, leaving the battle.

"Nice shot..." Rattrap praised.

"It was not I..." Silverbolt denied.

"Then who...?"

"Hey, ya lucked out this time, tinhorn, but one day, you an' me gonna have it out for real." Quickstrike cuts Rattrap off, seeing the loss of the construction site. "Sugar-bot..." then walked back to the Darksyde with Blackarachnia.

"I suppose you want to chase them?" Rattrap suggested.

"What for? You've won already!" Sideswipe asked.

"Kinda... they didn't find out what the Preds were doing, Sideswipe." Ironhide corrected.

"I got the feeling Tarantulas set the whole thing up..." whispered Cl

"Why bother, little mouse? The day is won. The battle is done." Silverbolt replied then asked "What say we just leave it at that?"

"Y'know, bird-dog, that's about the first thing you said today that makes sense." Rattrap agreed then departed with Silverbolt back to Maximal Base.

Back at the Darksyde, Megatron impatiently asked from Tarantulas, Quickstrike and Blackarachnia "What took you so long? Inferno and Waspinator completed their task two megacycles ago!"

"We had a mite'a trouble, boss-bot, wit' them miserable Maximals." Quickstrike reported. "Ya know... They just 'bout ruined everythin'."

"Everything? The energon station...?" Megatron inquired.

"A total loss. The energon cubes, as well. I'm afraid we'll just have to start over again... somewhere else." Tarantulas reported.

This infuriated the Predacon lord greatly. Now he will not have the power he wants because his future recharge station is gone.

"Of all the incompetent, imbecilic... get out! Get out, get out, all of you!" Quickstrike and Blackarachnia slowly waddled back in fear and shame. "Get out before I turn you all to slag!" Megatron angrily ordered with a threat that has him slam his fists against the arm rests for emphasis.

"As you command Megatron." Tarantulas said, suddenly left his company to avoid his wrath.

"Tarantulas doesn't seem ashamed by the news... cunning spider." Megatron surmised.

Meanwhile, Tarantulas mulls in his new lair, preparing and booting his new computer.

"Amazing. What one well-placed charge can do, isn't it? Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home..." then laughs manically as a mad genius would ever do.

"That's gonna be in my nightmares..." Wheeljack said rubbing his temples.

"Clever spider." Knockout praised.

"What do you mean?" was asked by Bumblebee.

"If you recall his words, he may have placed a well-placed charge before the battle. Throughout, Tarantulas intended to make that cave his new lair, but considering that Blackarachnia and Quickstrike would likely interfere with his personal agenda in regards to what he plans with that cave, he had set up their failure to construct the Energon recharge station so that he may have that cave all to himself. Quite the clever spider, I say." Knockout said.

"Now that I thought about it... hmm, yes, that is INDEED clever and cunning of Tarantulas." Shockwave agreed.