Prowl pulled up to the dock on the far edge of town and transformed. He pointed to an island a ways out in the lake.
"There's where we're going, hold on." Prowl said before picking me up and activating his boosters. He set me down once we reached the island and looked up a slope covered in trees.
"Do you think you can make it to the top?" he said. I nodded.
"I said I feel fine." I said. Prowl gave me a look, then motioned me to go forward.
"If you start to get tired I can take you the rest of the way." Prowl said. I shook my head, and picked my way carefully up the slope. I'll admit I was a bit winded when I got to the top, but the view was amazing.
I stared down into a huge crater that looked like it was filled to the brim with trees packed so close together I couldn't see the ground. Prowl stepped up onto the rim beside me, and he bent down to something. I looked down, and saw a projector resting on the ground that looked similar to the one in Prowl's chest. Prowl deactivated the projector and the mass of trees shimmered and disappeared, revealing a sort of valley that was green and very pretty.
Prowl started to make his way down the slope into the valley and I followed. It was steep, and in some places I just had to brace my legs and slide. I grudgingly told myself that Prowl would probably have to help me back up. I met Prowl on level ground and he led me into the trees.
"They should be around here somewhere; usually it's not hard for me to find them..." Prowl said quietly. I watched my footing, being as silent as Prowl, and we came to a clearing. Prowl stepped out, me behind him, when what looked like a metal T-Rex crashed out of the trees and headed right for us.
"Me Grimlock! Grimlock destroy intruders!" the dinosaur-looking thing said as it charged. Prowl stepped in front of me, holding up his hands.
"Grimlock, stop, it's me Prowl? Remember?" Prowl said in a tone I hadn't heard him use before. It sounded almost like he was talking to a five year old or something. Grimlock stopped, looking confused.
"Prowl is friend?" Grimlock said.
"Yes, I'm a friend." Prowl soothed. Grimlock then noticed me behind Prowl and lost it again.
"Intruder! Me Grimlock destroy!" he said. I backed away and Prowl stopped Grimlock from charging.
"No, no, that's Hayli. Hayli's a friend too." Prowl said. Grimlock tilted his head.
"Hayli friend?" he said. I stepped up by Prowl nervously.
"Yeah, uh, I'm a friend." I said. Grimlock seemed to calm down, then he turned to the trees and roared. Quickly a metal Triceratops and a Pterodactyl appeared and stood beside Grimlock. Prowl turned to me with a faint smile.
"These are the Dinobots." Prowl said. Then quieter, so only I could hear, he said, "We should probably go, the Dinobots are very territorial and sometimes they even snap at me." I nodded, tentatively waving goodbye, and Prowl led me back into the trees. I noticed that I kept running into patches of spider webs, and I was shaking a particularly sticky piece off of my hand when I heard Prowl call out.
"Hayli! Run!" I heard him say and snapped my gaze to where I heard his voice coming from. I took a step back, my eyes widening.
A femme bot that looked like she was half Cybertronian, half spider, was standing a short distance from Prowl. I also saw the Decepticon insignia emblazoned on her. Backing away, I called Prowl.
"Prowl, come on!" I said. He didn't look back at me, and as I watched, the spider bot stabbed him in the chest with what must have been the equivalent of fangs. A jolt of electricity shocked him and he fell to the ground. I saw his optics flicker out and stepped towards him.
"Prowl!" I glared at the spider lady. "Who are you? What did you do to him?!" I demanded. She gave a faint smile, crossing her arms and stepping around Prowl's unconscious body towards me.
"The name's Black Arachnia. And as for your friend there...well, unless you get him the antidote within 72 megacycles he'll go offline." she said, looking at me and grinning evilly. "Oh and by the way, that little key the girl runs around with won't work; my venom derives from organic sources, so that thing won't react to it." She stepped slowly towards me. "I've always wanted to see how a techno-organic would react to my venom."
I backed up and tripped over a tree root, falling on my butt.
Oh come on! What kind of a cyber ninja am I? Erg... I scrambled to my feet as Black Arachnia charged. She attempted to sting me as well, but I drew my sword and blocked her. She attacked me again and again, and in my weakened state I was starting to falter. She smirked, drawing back to strike. With a cry, I slashed my sword just as she did, slicing off about half of one of her stingers.
Energon seeped out of her wound and she hissed loudly. Glaring at me, she backed into the trees and disappeared, not breaking eye contact until she was swallowed by the shadows.
"You win this round, but I'll be back. Good luck with your friend though..." she hissed again and was gone. Shaking from the fight, I sheathed my sword and stumbled to Prowl, dropping on the ground next to him. I shook his arm, gently first but then harder.
"Prowl? Come on, you have to get up..." I said, tugging on him. His optics flickered but then went off again. I was freaking out. I didn't even know if I would be able to get to the top of the slope again by myself, let alone dragging Prowl. I got an idea and stood. Sprinting back to the clearing where we left the Dinobots, I was elated to see them still milling about. Grimlock raised his head and saw me.
"Oh, hi friend." he said. I panted and sputtered out my request.
"I need your help, Black Arachnia hurt Prowl and I need to get him back to the base, but I can't drag him up the slope of the crater, do you think your friend there could help?" I said, pointing at the pterodactyl. Grimlock seemed to process this for a second, then it seemed to click.
"Friend Prowl got hurt by spider lady? Me Grimlock help!" Grimlock said, motioning his prehistoric bird friend to follow me. I led him to Prowl, and the pterodactyl picked him up carefully in his claws before taking off. I made my way up the slope, sliding back more than I thought I was climbing, but I finally made it to the rim. I saw the Dinobot had laid Prowl on the rim of the crater. I nodded my thanks to the bird and it screeched and took off.
"Sorry Prowl..." I said, taking one of his arms and starting to drag him across the rim to the slope. I stayed in front of him on the descent so I didn't lose my hold and jarringly dragged him onto the small beach that marked the edge of the island.
Now, how do I get him back to the base...? I thought, then facepalmed myself when I remembered my commlink. Activating it quickly, I contacted the rest of the Autobots.
"Ratchet, Optimus, Prowl's down. Some Decepticon named Black Arachnia showed up, he's been poisoned." I explained quickly.
"Where are you?" Optimus asked.
"I'm with Prowl near the lake. We're on Dinobot island." I said.
"Stay at your position, we'll be there shortly. Prime out." Optimus said, disconnecting his commlink. I faintly heard sirens start blaring and I dropped to my knees in the wet sand, panting from having to drag him. Hey, if I were strong like Bulkhead, I would have carried him, but it's not my fault I only come up to Prowl's waist. I shook Prowl again, trying to get him to stay awake. He groaned and his optics flickered for a few seconds before coming fully on. He tried to sit up but I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Stay still, Ratchet and Optimus are on their way." I said, squinting across the lake, I saw an ambulance and a fire truck drive down a boat ramp into the water. About a minute later, Ratchet and Optimus emerged from the water onto the bank and Ratchet transformed. I moved out of the way and Ratchet examined Prowl quickly.
"We need to get you back to the base, stat." Ratchet said to Prowl. Helping him up, Ratchet loaded Prowl carefully onto the back of Optimus' vehicle mode and sent him back to the base. Ratchet transformed and opened the passenger door on his vehicle mode, asking me a question as I walked up.
"How did you get him all the way down here?" Ratchet asked.
"The bird-looking Dinobot brought him to the rim of the crater and I dragged him to the beach." I said. Ratchet smacked me with the door of his vehicle mode.
"Ow! What was that for?" I complained, hopping into the passenger seat.
"I told you not to do anything strenuous!" Ratchet said, driving into the lake.
"I wasn't necessarily planning on it you know. Prowl said he'd show me the Dinobots and then we were going to come home, but then that crazy spider lady showed up and stung him or something. She said we have to get the antidote from her or Prowl's gonna die in three days." I said. Ratchet sighed.
"I know. He and Bumblebee were stung before... Optimus managed to convince Black Arachnia to hand over her antidote; maybe he can do it again. I'm actually amazed that you were able to drag Prowl that distance at all, setting aside the fact your Spark isn't back to full strength yet." Ratchet said. I shrugged, noticing I was having a bit of trouble catching my breath, but ignored it because I was too worried about Prowl.
Ratchet made his way quickly back to the plant, transformed, and kept me in his hand. He set me on a table, telling me to wait, and went over to another table where Prowl was lying. I could see Prowl was conscious, but he wasn't talking much, and if he did it sounded as if it were with great effort. Ratchet called Optimus to the medi-lab.
"Prime, you need to go back to Dinobot island and convince Black Arachnia to give you that antidote. There's nothing I can do for Prowl until you do." Ratchet said. Optimus looked torn, then nodded and transformed, taking Sari with him. Ratchet walked over to me and gave me a quick scan.
"I just need to see if exerting yourself damaged your Spark further." he said, looking at the results and getting a relived face. "It looks like you're fine; your Spark is just beating a bit faster to keep up. I'm gonna have you stay here though, so I can keep an optic on you." Ratchet said. I nodded, looking concernedly at Prowl. Ratchet followed my gaze.
"Don't worry kid, he's a tough one. I just hope Optimus comes back with the antidote..." he said. I looked up at Ratchet. Optimus seemed upset about talking to Black Arachnia... is there something I should know about? Ratchet sighed.
"Yeah, you deserve to know. Black Arachnia wasn't always a techno-organic, and she wasn't always on the bad side either. Her name used to be Elita One, and...How do I put it...? Optimus kind of liked her. The problem was, so did Sentinel." Ratchet said.
I interrupted, giving a sympathetic face.
"Ooh, love triangles never work..." I said. Ratchet looked at me funny then went on.
"They were on a mission, Sentinel, Optimus, and Elita One. Something went wrong, and Elita fell. Optimus tried to save her but fell just short; to this day he still blames himself for what happened to her." Ratchet said. I frowned.
"I'm sorry...that sounds awful...Maybe I should go apologize." I said.
"Why would you be the one to apologize?" Ratchet asked. I grinned sheepishly.
"She tried to poison me too, so I kinda sliced off one of her stingers..." I said. Ratchet shook his head.
"It doesn't matter, you were protecting yourself. Besides, you are staying right here until I say so." Ratchet said, turning and going back to Prowl.
"Yes, mother..." I mumbled. Ratchet glared at me.
"I heard that." he said. I shut up and scooted back away from the edge of the table. Crossing my legs, I looked at Prowl again. Ratchet had hooked him up to a Spark monitor, and at the moment it was steady. He was still conscious, as far as I could tell. I closed my eyes and sighed, unsheathing my sword and setting it in front of me so I could practice my processor over matter techniques.
I tried to zone out the small noises around me and hummed, lifting my sword up in the air and holding it there while I meditated. Ratchet left after a while, telling me just to stay put, I didn't even look at him and continued to meditate. Spinning my sword lightly in the air, my concentration was broken when Bulkhead and Bumblebee started arguing over something. My sword fell, but I shot out my hand and caught the hilt before it could hit the table where I was sitting. I sighed, fingering the glowing edge of the blade when Prowl's voice startled me.
"You're getting better at that every time you try. Work on blocking out your surroundings though." he said. I looked up, he had propped himself up on one arm and was grinning at me. I sheathed my sword and gave him a look.
"You aren't exactly in the greatest shape to be giving me lessons right now. Shut up and relax before you hurt yourself." I said.
"I'm fine..." he replied. I facepalmed myself.
"No, you're not. If Optimus doesn't get that antidote in three days you're going to die..." I said. He rolled his eyes, but I saw his Sparkbeat falter on the monitor. "See, told you so."
"Hayli, you're overreacting. Three days is a long time, if Optimus can't reason with Black Arachnia, it won't take long to get it from her by force. She is too concerned with saving herself to do otherwise. Besides..." he glanced up at his Spark monitor to see it falter for a beat again. "At the moment my Spark is going even stronger than yours, so you shouldn't worry about me."
"Whatever, we might as well just rest like Ratchet told us to do..." I said.