NOTE: In this chapter, the viewpoint is switched constantly from Blackarachnia and Waspinator—I hope it's not too hard to follow!

CHAPTER 8

"Forward, Predacons! Destroy the Maximals!" Megatron bellowed, firing at the enemy force at the border.

Waspinator surveyed his opponents quickly—lots of small 'bots made up their force. This would be easy! And there was a familiar faceplate among them that stood out, suddenly becoming the center of the universe to the wasp-bot.

"Spider-bot!" he exclaimed furiously, zipping forward, prepared to offline her as soon as possible.

"Skirraww! Wait, Waspinator!" Terrorsaur called from behind.

Waspinator took no notice. He streaked ahead and lunged towards the spider-bot that had tricked him, betrayed him.

"Here they come!" Airazor shouted, raising her rifle to the skies and opening fire. Cheetor and Blackarachnia followed her example. The advancing aerial Predacons moved so quickly that they couldn't get a lock on him.

Blackarachnia squinted hard, trying to focus on her target. The 'bot was a greenish blur, darting about at an amazing speed. Suddenly he dove down, right at the new Maximal.

Recognition dawned and dread rose in her circuitry. The femmebot had seen this Predacon's visage before,

"Wasp," she gasped.

The techno-organic Blackarachnia had created in hopes of removing her own organic components towered over her, optics burning with hatred and the light of battle. Stunned to know that Wasp was still alive, Blackarachnia froze. Thankfully, shots from Airazor and Cheetor's guns thudded into the Predacon's chestplate.

The wasp-bot screamed, not in fear but frustration. He returned to the skies hastily.

"Kraaaaaaw! What are you doing?" Terrorsaur screeched as Waspinator joined him in the air. "We didn't come here to be target practice dummies for the training Maximals!"

Waspinator snarled nastily in response to his companion and shouted to Blackarachnia, "Waspinator offline you, spider-bot!" He tried to attack again but was yanked back by the pteranodon-bot.

"Waspinator!" Terrorsaur barked fiercely. "Get your head on straight! You can't go charging into a swarm of Maximals with rifles like that! Kirraw, we can't have you nonfunctioning just half a cycle into battle!"

"You… not… tell… Waspinator… what to do!" the techno-organic wasp shrieked indignantly.

"Karrak! You will listen or I will leave you to be shredded by the Maximals!" Terrorsaur roared, optics full of unbridled fury. "And not bring your sorry bits to the CR Tanks!" he added, remembering Waspinator's amazing durability.

Waspinator snorted impatiently, but didn't throw himself back into the fray. He'd prefer not to lay around, rusting in bits. He'd rather fight. Rip the spider-bot limb from limb. The wasp-bot looked for her, but she had disappeared into the Maximal force.

The initial shock of seeing Wasp faded, now replaced with regret and alarm. That 'bot wanted Blackarachnia dead.

Cheetor was fumbling with a new clip for the rifle. "That's that 'bot I thought was offline!" he called. "Why does he want to kill you?"

"Long story," Blackarachnia called back, firing at the flying red Predacon. The energon interference was taking a toll on her circuitry—Rhinox was right. She had been severely weakened. The femmebot felt her strength waning rapidly, despite that she'd been in 'bot form for a little over two cycles. She needed to take some energy from a Predacon and make herself useful.

The rest of the Maximals weren't faring too well; it wouldn't be long until Primal needed Blackarachnia and the two siblings to join the front line. Rattrap's words were right. They weren't all warriors unlike these Predacons.

What few fighters there were among the Maximals were holding their own, although just barely. Optimus was locked in one-on-one combat with the fearsome Megatron, the Predacon neatly dodging Primal's twin curved blades that moved like whirling dervishes. Rhinox's two chain guns' ammo store had run dry, and now he and the huge crab-bot were delivering astounding blows to the other, well-matched in size and strength. Dinobot was obviously winning his battle with the scorpion-bot, the velociraptor's twisting blade dancing neatly around the Predacon's chassis.

Unfortunately, the smaller Rattrap and Tigatron were overpowered by the Predacons not engaged with the Maximal warriors. The dreaded command was shouted.

"To the front lines, everyone, now!"

Waspinator and Terrorsaur were shooting at the Maximals from the air. They heard the command of the ape-bot and Terrorsaur grinned wickedly.

"Skirraw, you hear that, Waspy? We've got the upper servo now, those puny Maximals don't stand a chance in the front lines! Kraaaw, they should be defeated easily," he cawed triumphantly.

But all Waspinator cared about was taking Blackarachnia's spark and crushing it to bits. He looked around, frustrated, but was unable to find her.

The Predacons were ruthless, Blackarachnia learned quickly, giving her little to no chance to dodge blows from their fists or shells from their weapons. She felt on the verge of collapse. I need more power now, the femmebot thought desperately, optics darting from Pred to Pred.

She finally decided to entice over a teal-and-yellow 'bot with arms that darted back and forth in lightning speed punches. He howled with glee over the whole ordeal. And just her luck, he had noticed her.

The mech came at her, a wicked glint in his optics. "Hey, what's a pretty li'l femmebot like you doin' in the middle of a battle, huh?"

"Why don't you come over here and find out?" Blackarachnia responded, quite disgusted with herself that she had to return to her old, seducing tactics.

The Predacon laughed and advanced. Before he got even a few steps from his place, Blackarachnia launched herself on to him, ramming her pincers hard into his chassis. The 'bot's power flooded into here circuitry along with his combat abilities. The Maximal instantly started pummeling the poisoned Predacons with his own strength.

Waspinator had seen the spider-bot's energy-siphoning move before and he knew she was definitely stronger than before. Nonetheless, the urge to kill her took over and he swooped in with a howl of rage. Terrorsaur shot after with an angry squawk.

The Predacon crashed into Blackarachnia at an incredible speed, knocking them both hard against the ground. Waspinator tried to trap her against the ground but she kicked up—hard—into his lower torso, flinging him backwards.

"Skirraw! Get back up here, Waspinator!" Terrorsaur wailed.

"No!" Waspinator shrieked back, charging at the femmebot a second time. "This personal! Not involve you!" The wasp-bot was about to drive his larger, clawed hands into her chassis, but the Maximal neatly sidestepped.

Meanwhile, Terrorsaur had figured out where Blackarachnia had gotten these reflexes and power. "Waspinator—she's taken Quickstrike's power somehow… you've practiced against him enough, remember?"

The recognition of the moves dawned on the techno-organic. This would be much easier then he anticipated. He had defeated the scorpion-cobra on his first practice bout.

But Blackarachnia didn't attempt to attack Waspinator. She looked at him pleadingly, dodging every single blow he tried to land on her chassis.

"Wasp, please—I don't want to hurt you. I already did enough wrong to you! I'm so sorry!" she tried to apologize rapidly.

The Predacon finally caught her off-guard, snarling and flinging her back onto the ground. He dug his claws hard into her shoulders so she had no means of escape. Blackarachnia desperately pummeled Waspinator's chest with Quickstrike's furious punches, but the strength and speed began to decline. The wasp-bot took no notice.

"Too late for apologies. You lie to Waspinator. You try to kill Waspinator," he hissed angrily. "You give Waspinator powerful body though. Allow Waspinator to show you what he can do."

He ripped his left claw out of the femmebot's circuitry and prepared to plunge it into her spark.

Blackarachnia was certain these were her last kliks before going offline, but strangely, her lifecycle didn't flash before her optics like many 'bots said happened. That's odd, the Maximal thought quickly. The crazed techno-organic Predacon's claws were just about to deliver the final blow when suddenly, a blur of fur and machinery knocked Waspinator clean off of her with a mighty snarl.

A trio of techno-organic beasts that seemed to have materialized from the foliage had thrown themselves into the fray. They plowed through the Predacons like a well-sharpened blade through weak armor.

Blackarachnia's personal savior was a wolf-like creature, though strangely enough, he had a pair of feathered wings and the taloned feet of an eagle instead of forepaws. The techno-organic creature was pushing Waspinator's faceplate into the ground.

"Excuse me, good Maximal," he said courteously, "But you looked like you needed some assistance."

"Um, yeah," the femmebot replied, a bit dumbfounded by the whole near-death experience. "Thanks."

"My pleasure," the wolf responded, bowing his head. "Ah—hold on a cycle."

Waspinator had jerked back up, raging at the Maximal while the flying red Predacon started laying down wild clips of ammo. The wolf-bird quickly changed to his robot form which was obviously designed for combat. Wielding twin serrated blades, he took to the air after the red 'bot. Waspinator followed hot on his heels.

The Maximal warrior nearly lopped of the red Predacon's two shoulder cannons, causing him to shriek angrily but back off. He wanted to survive this encounter; it was the same as the traditional Decepticon way of fighting.

Waspinator flew like a berserker at the strange winged Maximal, emptying his gun at the mech. He easily dodged the blitzing attack. The Maximal advanced rapidly with his two swords prepped to slice Waspinator into scrap-metal if he didn't back off.

Reluctantly, the wasp-bot pulled back, snarling all the way. Terrorsaur winged up alongside him. "Kraaaaaw!" he screeched heatedly, "Three new Maximals have appeared! They tricked us!" The pteranodon-bot snarled angrily. "The battle is lost!"

Waspinator looked down at the mêlée. Indeed, the tiring Predacons were really taking a beating from the fresh Maximals. A huge, strong mech was tearing at Rampage with vicious claws while a smaller, stockier one was forcing Iguanus, Tarantulas, and Inferno back with huge bursts of firepower. The winged one he and Terrorsaur had just been defeated by joined the smaller Maximal in pushing the Predacons back to their side of the border.

Megatron was distracted by this commotion, unaccustomed to seeing his troops losing. The enemy commander's blue blades were slamming into the tyrannosaurus-bot's arms, distracting him from his weapons.

"No—NO!" Megatron snarled in a rage. The Maximal commander was pushing him further and further back. This warded off the remaining Predacon force into cowering behind him. "Do NOT retreat! I'll personally de-spark you before you even reach the Darksyde! Worthless scrap-metal, destroy these Maximals!" Megatron bellowed.

Nonetheless, the troops continued backing off. The purple Predacon barked more threats hoarsely, now faced with the three new arrivals as well as their leader. With a yowl of pure fury, Megatron finally shouted the order of retreat.

The Maximals let out a ragged, yet triumphant, cheer as their enemies retreated back into their own territory. Optimus Primal looked as exhausted as any one of the Axalon's crew but managed to keep the commander air around him.

"Maximals, gather. Is there anyone offline?"

The winged 'bot offered his servo to Blackarachnia to help her to her feet.

"Are you alright?" he inquired, realizing that she needed more than the assistance of one servo to get back up.

"I've lived through worse," Blackarachnia responded, allowing the Maximal to help her to her stabilizing servos. She winced in pain, risking a glance at her shoulder. Wasp had done quite a number on them. The circuitry was exposed and most likely badly damaged, plus the strain of being in 'bot mode with the energon interference made the femmebot feel on the verge of collapse.

The Maximal warrior supported Blackarachnia firmly as they went over to Primal, aware of the severe damage. "I'm afraid I didn't catch your name," he said, almost apologetically. "My name is Silverbolt."

"Blackarachnia," she responded. All the spider-bot wanted to do at the moment was go into a nice, long recharge cycle.

"Well then, Blackarachnia," Silverbolt said, "I'll see that you get back to the Axalon safely."

Primal looked over his troops, injured and exhausted. "Thank the Allspark we didn't lose anyone," the commander said gratefully. "Beast modes, let's get back to the base."

The crew transformed into their variety of beats and limped away from the scene of the battle. Two other techno-organic beasts besides Silverbolt had joined the crew—a burly grizzly bear and a bulky warthog. They, along with the wolf-eagle, appeared to be in peak condition while the other Maximals were in horrible shape.

Cheetor had luckily escaped major damaged but was numb with battle shock. He leaned on the ever-sturdy Rhinox for support. Airazor had gone into semi-stasis, her entire energy store near-depleted. Tigatron carried the falcon on his broad back, looking equally tired. Dinobot was sullenly stooped over with Rattrap blindly trailing after him. Every now and again the raptor had to nose the rat into the right path when he started drifting towards a tree or boulder.

Primal was walking between the bear and warthog. "Thank you, Grizzly-1, Razorbeast…" he glanced at the wolf trotting alongside Blackarachnia. "Silverbolt. Without you, we definitely would've been slaughtered by the Predacons."

"Not a problem, Primal," Grizzly-1 responded. "We were sent here to make sure somethin' like that wouldn't happen to your crew. Looks like we showed up in the knick of time."

"Your aid is appreciated," Optimus replied thankfully. "We'll need all the help we can while we recover from this battle."

The eleven beasts slowly made their way to the Axalon. Although the Maximals had been victorious, it would take a long time to repair their wounds before all of them could be able to take on another skirmish like that. Hopefully that wouldn't happen for a good time…