Having long before discovered and taken in the strange surroundings, Tarantulas was well ahead of the two young Maximals in his search. As he traipsed through the thickness of the green vegetation, the spider was starting to feel something was off about the place. It just...felt different from other ecosystems they had encountered on the planet.

He lost track of how long he had been there. Fortunately he was rid of the meddlesome Maximals and his interfering comrades. He was alone.

Or so he thought.

"Well, well, well, Tarantulas. I see your treachery knows no bounds, nooo."

Chills ran down his spine, and panicked thoughts raced around his mind. Impossible, how could he have found me? It didn't make sense. The spider whipped around, his eyes widening when his sights landed on the owner of the voice.

Standing before him was the Predacon leader. Megatron stared straight at Tarantulas with a malicious and knowing grin on his face. He approached the spider and leaned down to eye level.

Tarantulas took a few steps back, "M-Megatron, how did you..."

The Predacon leader interrupted him by tutting in mock disappointment. "You should know by now. Every secret and every deception is eventually unearthed, yeees. Did you honestly believe I would not discover your little plan?"

The spider's expression turned to one of shock and dread. How could he possibly know? "Megatron, I can explain," he stammered imploringly, but he was once again interrupted.

"I grow weary of your blatant insubordination. I shall rain down my vengeance upon you, treacherous arachnid." Megatron advanced slowly and menacingly upon the spider, looming over him like the monolithic tyrant he was.

Tarantulas was about to scurry away, but his escape route was blocked by a number of his comrades, who stepped ominously out of the shadows. They surrounded the spider, staring at him with menacing glares; even Waspinator managed to look threatening. Tarantulas paused, confused: how were Waspinator and Inferno there? Last he saw they were engaged in a battle with the Maximals, and yet they appeared to have sustained no damage. Something was fishy about all this.

However, he did not intend to stay and find out what that might be. Tarantulas quickly transformed into beast mode and used his webs to swing himself out of his predicament. He could hear Megatron's voice ordering his capture or destruction. Soon, all of the Pedacons were pursuing him.

The spider swang through the trees, dodging their fire. Some of the attacks came close to hitting him. How was he this lucky that none of them landed a hit? He needed to find a way to lose them.

The Predacon fliers were particularly persistent in taking down Tarantulas.

"Wasspinator will desstroy spider bot! Then Megatron be pleasssed with Wassspinator."

"I shall be the one who will fulfill the Royalty's command! And make him burn!"

"Rawk! Leave him to me!" squawked Terrorsaur. "I will be the one to be praised by Megatron!"

All three began to blast at Tarantulas more aggressively. One of the missiles appeared to strike the branch Tarantulas was attached to; or it must have done, because he suddenly heard a loud crack and was sent hurtling towards the ground. Fortunately, he managed to land somewhat gracefully, continuing his escape on foot.

As the spider fled, he noticed the fliers were having trouble pursuing him thanks to the dense vegetation. For the moment, it seemed that he had succeeded in losing the other Predacons. But he was in for a surprise. A mountain lion leapt out of the bushes, landing in his path growling lightly, as his tail flicked. "Where do you think you're going, 'friend'?" He gave him an unsettling grin.

"Get out of the way you stupid cat!" Tarantulas barked, alarmed and breathless. It was bad enough to have to deal with the Maximal felines.

Lionus tutted. "Such rudeness, but that will be taken care of in a moment." The lion lowered his body to the ground, ready to pounce.

The spider backed up, about to flee, when he heard a low hiss from behind. Tarantulas spun around, coming face to face with a vicious king cobra femme. He instantly put some space between them, while also keeping a wary distance from the lion.

Serpentia, in robot mode, raised herself onto her strong tail and opened her hood flaps, which vibrated with her sinewy intonation, "You shall not essscape, traitor."

"Don't even think about it, you coiling clod," Blackarachnia warned from above, before joining them on the ground. "He's mine, so keep your scales - and paws - off," she added to Lionus. Tarantulas paused, puzzled. Blackarachnia was usually trying to cosy up to him; so why was she so eager to prove herself to Megatron?

"I don't take ordersss from a sssspider!" The snake hissed.

"Pardon me ladies, but I saw him first, so he's mine," Lionus said casually. He jumped at Tarantulas but not quick enough. He managed to avoid the cat, making a break for it once more.

As he desperately searched for a place to hide, his sights landed on a crack at the bottom of a basalt column cliff. It looked small enough to squeeze in unnoticed. He ran towards it, but did not count on the number of roots from these accursed trees. He tripped and landed face first in the dirt.

He turned over and saw Megatron looming over him. How had he caught up so fast?

"There is no escaping my wrath, Tarantulas. No matter how hard you try. Nooo." Megatron smirked wickedly.

"I think not!" The spider picked up a handful of soil and threw it at his leader's face. WIthout waiting to see if it had worked, he scrambled to his feet and ran for the crack. Alas, the same wretched roots tripped him up again, and he slammed his head against the rock.

After what might have only been mere seconds, he awoke and immediately got up, arming his weapons. There was no one to be seen. He looked at where Megatron had been. Where was he? Was he hiding? No...there were no tracks. No Predacons signals here, or anywhere for that matter. Tarantulas rubbed his head where he had made contact with the wall and winced from the pain.

The Predacon started to recall the previous encounter with the rest of his team. Many details made him question a few things: such as the undamaged appearance of the fliers, Megatron's sudden awareness of his plan, the fact that almost the entire Predacon team had descended upon him. "Something is not sitting right here..." he muttered to himself.

He tapped his chin with his claw thoughtfully. He transformed into beast mode and climbed up to the top of the cliff. From there he could see no evidence of being chased through the forest: no scorched tree barks...nothing.

"I must have hallucinated...but how? I sustained no head injury. Well, apart from that last one." He paused, rubbing his sore head. "But that is when the visions stopped. Hmmm." He looked above the tree lines and there in the distance, he spotted something that did not belong in a natural ecosystem. A large monolithic structure that appeared to be made of carved stone, or possibly metal. "Could it be our dear friends again? Hmmm."

He searched for a way down, but when he looked back up, the structure was no longer where he saw it! "What!" But then, strangely, he spotted it slightly to the right of where he'd seen it previously. "Curious. This merits investigation."

He ascertained the vague whereabouts of the monolith, and descended the cliff. He moved forward with a renewed sense of purpose. He would find this thing...and claim it.