CHAPTER 40
Tensions

Jeff felt tense as Prowl and Tarantulas wrestled violently on the ground. He fell on his butt, crawling back a bit to get out of the way of the giant robots. He'd never seen Prowl so animalistic and downright angry, but seeing as it was a terrifying sight, he couldn't help but be glad. Pulling himself to his feet slowly, he found the courage to run, fast and hard. "No you don't!" Tarantulas snarled, swiping his claws for Jeff as Prowl went down onto the ground following a hard punch "Get over here you little vermin!"

Attempting to barrel roll to the side, he felt the claws latch onto his leg tightly. Jeff cried out, feeling as he was dragged back, and held down to the ground. "If you make so much as a sound Prowl I will smash your child's head in." Tarantulas teased as he pressed against Jeff's head.

Jeff thought quickly, looking over the exoskeleton, something quickly hit him. The mech was half-organic, and the hand was made of fur. Taking a deep breath, Jeff quickly bit down onto one of Tarantulas's fingers as hard as he could. The Predacon reared back in pain, shrieking as Jeff let go, got to his feet, and ran again. "You pit spawned little bastard!" Tarantulas shrieked "Wait until I get my hands on-!"

Prowl pulled his arm around the distracted Predacon violently, attempting to choke-hold him. Quickly, he flipped him onto his back, grabbing his poisoned blade from the ground and swinging it downward violently. Tarantulas grinned, catching it and kicking Prowl off before moving to his feet and webbing him violently to the wall. Prowl turned his head towards where Jeff was running quickly. "Jeff, run!"

"Yes, run along little Jeff." Tarantulas grinned, subspacing his blade "Chasing you just makes this even more fun!"

He quickly transformed, his slender and dark body moving into the darkness. Jeff himself was terrified, having quickly realized he had gone the wrong way, and gone deeper into the caverns rather than to the exit. He blindly felt around, trying to find the way back, the only light was the red optics of Tarantulas as he came closer and closer. "Can't see? Ohhhh too bad..." Tarantulas leapt in front of Jeff "I can." He noted.

The mech lept forward, digging his jaws into Jeff's leg violently. Jeff screamed, holding his now bleeding leg as Tarantulas released. "Be happy I'm not venomous. But now we're even, and you're not running anywhere." Tarantulas taunted, transforming slowly "Be glad I'm not making a meal of you now... You're very tasty." He hissed "Perhaps after we no longer have use for you... You'd make a good final meal in my half-organic state." He crouched in the darkness, chuckling coldly.

The rock that Jeff slammed into the Predacon's optic nearly blinded him. Pulling himself to his feet, Jeff limply attempted to climb up a rock formation at the side of the cave, his bum and bleeding leg dangling. "Sorry creeper." Jeff shouted "I'm not gonna be any giant eight legged-freak's meal!" He added with a level of snark.

Tarantulas attempted to grab his leg, but Jeff moved just enough out of reach to avoid it. Not a moment too soon as Prowl came colliding into Tarantulas's form. He punched the Predacon violently, ripping the already blinded eye out violently. "You want something to eat?" Prowl questioned with a snarl "Eat this you sick fragger!" He stated shoving a grenade into the Predacon's jaw.

Bam!

Not a second after Prowl had backed off, a huge chunk of the Predacon's head was blown off. Whereas Jeff expected him to drop, it only seemed to anger Tarantulas more, as he turned, half his face a sight of gore and chunks, and snarled deeply. It seemed that his jaw had been blown off, leaving Tarantulas without the ability to speak as he launched himself at Prowl, trying to claw his way into him. Prowl punched him hard, knocking him against the wall as the cavern shook from the force. "Come on Tarantulas." Prowl growled "Now that you're facing someone your own size you're not so tough?" He questioned.

Another screech sounded out as Tarantulas attempted to dig his claws into Prowl's chest plates. Prowl could feel himself thrown against the cavern wall, and this time, the cavern did violently shake. Jeff felt his footing slip as he fell, Prowl's eyes shot up to see the downward spiral as he leapt for him. "JEFF!" He screamed, forgetting Tarantulas for a moment as he caught his son between his hands, and hunched over.

As the rocks tumbled into his body, severely hurting him, Prowl groaned. He knew that Jeff would be safe, however, and that was what mattered. When the shaking stopped, Prowl shot up again, knocking several rocks away. He set Jeff down on the ground, groaning and rubbing the back of his helm. "Dad, you're hurt." Jeff looked up.

"Forget me." Prowl crouched a bit "How deep did he get your leg?"

He scanned over Jeff's leg, finding that the bite was not deep enough that he would lose blood fast. But it would still keep him most immobile for a fair amount of time, Jeff groaned, but Prowl gently shook his head, ripping a bit of his clothing off and wrapping it around the child's damaged leg. "Is he dead?" Prowl shook his head "How do you know he wasn't buried alive?" He questioned, a screech answering him from a distance "Dad..." He muttered.

"Don't worry, I know there is a second exit to the cave." Prowl gently picked Jeff up "I won't let anything happen to you."

Jeff glanced back at the caved in way they'd gone, and grimaced a bit. This day just seemed to get worse, and worse. Yet as he looked up at Prowl, he saw a weak, but sincere smile on the mech's face. "What's got you smiling?" He asked.

"You've been calling me dad for the past twenty minutes."

Jeff returned the smile weakly, feeling his face going bright red. He leaned into the mech's chestplate, his eyes looking down. "Yeah, well... That's what you are, right?" He questioned "You call me son after all." He paused "I missed you." He stated.

"And I, you." Prowl paused "But we have to keep moving, we can have time for a reunion later."

As Prowl began to move deeper into the cave, Jeff's only comfort was knowing when Tarantulas attacked again, he was safe in Prowl's hold.

...

Sideswipe sighed as he stood within the cave, his optics darting back and forth. They had managed to defeat Blackarachnia and her few but powerful followers, that problem was dealt with. But now they had another problem. They had seen the cave in, and were aware of the fact that their group was now split up from, and in their case, stuck with Jeff's mother. "Prowl isn't responding to his com." Sunstreaker spoke up "I believe that it is very likely that the distance is interfering." He added.

Sideswipe grunted, but nodded his head in agreement. It worried him that another option was possible, that they had been buried alive within a pile of rocks and that Jeff was dead right now. "So we're just going to what? Sit around and wait?" Speak of the devil, May spoke up, looking up between them "My son is with him, and Tarantulas is not going to be the pushover that Blackarachnia was." She shook her head "We pumped a lot of super chemicals into him." She admitted.

"You didn't seem to care too much about Jeff's well-being when you abandoned him." Sunstreaker grunted.

May nearly wanted to shoot the mech for that comment, pushing the bangs of her brown hair from her eyes. She knew that everyone there hated her guts, and most likely they were all close to her son. Arcee had been glaring at her as she kicked away a couple of Predacon corpses. "I'm not proud of leaving him, you know." She shook her head "Don't even PRETEND you know what it felt like." She added.

"I know what it's like from the other end, m'am." Sunstreaker grunted "My brother and I were abandoned by our creators long before this slagging war began. You know where they left us? The equivalent of YOUR dumpster." He pointed at her with a leer that nearly chilled her to the bone "You may have given him to your government. But it doesn't change that you abandoned your duties. And for all these years, you have done nothing while he suffered on the streets." He paused "And I highly doubt that you were in their custody all that time." He noted.

May was dead silent, Sunstreaker's optics and outright hatred of her piercing through her soul. Sunstreaker knew he was right, some parents gave up their kids because they simply couldn't take care of him. But that hadn't been her reason, her reason had been angering a group of Decepticons and not giving a single thought to seeking out their help, which they would have provided. Her reasons had been selfish. "You weren't even concerned about the Decepticons. If you had been you would have sought us out. We knew your leader at Sector 7." He then added "You used this as an excuse to abandon the child you did not want." He then added "Do not tell me otherwise."

By this point, May Devlin turned around, and walked off as far from the Autobots as she could get. Sunstreaker snorted, looking to Sideswipe who frowned a little bit. "That was cold, Sunny." Sideswipe commented.

"Someone had to stand up about it." Sunstreaker muttered "Y'think the kid and Prowl are okay?"

Sideswipe frowned at that, uncertain of how to answer it. Rather it was in a way that gave him hope, or in a way that told the truth of how they all felt. Prowl could have unintentionally killed himself, Jeff, and Tarantulas. "I don't know Sunny, but I'm not sitting around to wait and find out either." Sideswipe spoke up "Come on." He added.

"Where are we going?"

"To start digging."

Sideswipe could only hope they wouldn't be too late.

...

A/N: Initially, I was going to show the fight with the other Predacons. But frankly, Tarantulas became the main villain of the story. And I felt that extending Prowl and Tarantulas's showdown and having the scene with Sunny and May would be cooler. Hope I made it enjoyable either way! Reviews make my day!