Chapter 5 Mind Games

The next day the Autobots were trying to figure out how to stop the Counsel and Quintessons. And think of what to do about the fact that Tarantulaus knew the location of their base and could attack at anytime.

After they had used the antidote Arcee, Rattrap and Dinobot got from Tarantulaus's lab in the Counsel building to save Knock Out there had been enuff left for Ratchet to make more so if the spider poisoned another member of the team they could cure them. But Tarantulaus was still a huge threat as long as he knew where they were he could try anything and no one was safe.

Knock Out was currently on bed rest still recovering from his ordeal the day before. Ratchet had told him to take it easy and get plenty of recharge after his near death experience at the hands of Tarantulaus. And Knock Out had agreed that rest sounded good and was now in deep recharge in the med bay. While the others were in the main room.

But suddenly he woke up with a start and realized he'd been webbed to the berth and there were also webs over his mouth that served as a gag.

Knock Out was panic stricken and trying desperately to scream for help. Specially when he saw Tarantulaus was standing next to his berth. But because of the webs that covered his mouth the only sounds he could make were muffled and no one could hear him.

Then to his horror the spider bot grabbed something off the table one of the medical tools. What was Tarantulaus going to do to him?

"Don't worry I'm not going to try to offline you again yet." Said Tarantulaus noticing Knock Out's terror. "You were lucky to survive the cyber venom and I'm kind of glad you did because now I can play with you a little longer and make you suffer."

"Mmmmuu!" Knock Out let out some more muffled screams.

Then Tarantulaus used the tool he was holding a needle for injecting energon and filled it with a sedative. Knock Out saw Tarantulaus fill the needle and struggled against the webs that held him.

Then they heard footsteps outside the door Knock Out hoped who ever was walking by would come in and stop Tarantulaus. But as if reading his thoughts Tarantulaus told him.

"You know I'll have to kill them if they come in here and see me." Tarantulaus told Knock Out with an evil smile that made the red mech wince.

Knock Out hoped that who ever was walking would keep going now terrified that Tarantulaus was going to kill one of his friends.

"No." He thought. "That could be Ratchet or Arcee or Bumblebee." Now one of his friends might be killed and there was nothing he could do. But luckily and much to his relief whoever it was kept going.

"A shame I was looking forward to scrapping one of the Autobots like my sister did Breakdown." Said Tarantulaus.

That made Knock Out mad and he almost managed to break free from the webs but Tarantulaus injected him with the sedative and everything became dark.

Knock Out woke up a few hours later and noticed he was still in the med bay but the webs were gone and there was no sign Tarantulaus had ever been there.

"I guess it was a nightmare." He told himself. "Thank goodness."

Then he decided to get up for a bit to try to clear his processor and get his mind off that horrible dream.

He had just stood up when he saw a reflection in a mirror that was on the wall opposite to the window and yelled in horror and fell to the floor because he still wasn't fully recovered and shouldn't really have been out of bed yet.

Ratchet and Arcee came in after hearing him scream. And found him on the floor curled up into a ball.

"What happened?" Asked a concerned Ratchet.

"I thought I saw Tarantulaus he was in here and had me webbed down on the berth and someone walked passed the door and he said he'd kill them if they came in but luckily they didn't then he injected me with a sedative and I thought it was a dream but then I saw him out the window through the mirror." Knock Out explained almost in tears. "Then I look again and he was gone." "Oh guys I think I'm going crazy."

"It OK Knock Out you went through a lot yesterday." Said Arcee "and I walked passed your room earlier you may have heard me and it ended up in your dream." then she and Knock Out noticed something had caught Ratchet's attention.

"I don't think your suffering from post traumatic stress Knock Out." Said Ratchet "because you didn't just dream Tarantulaus was here." He told them then held up a piece of webbing for them both to see.

"Oh you mean that really happened." Said a now terrified Knock Out.

Ratchet and Arcee both got their arm cannons ready as they looked around to see if Tarantulaus was still there. But he was gone.

Then Ratchet gave Knock Out a quick check over to make sure Tarantulaus hadn't hurt the cherry colored medic. And fortunately no more damage had been inflected on him.

But they could tell it had taken a emotional toll on Knock Out and could both see the fear in his optics and knew they had to do something to help their friend.

A couple of hours later everyone gathered in the main room. They had remembered that Ultra Magnus had insisted on putting cameras in all the important rooms in the base including the med bay awhile back which they had done.

Now they were all going to watch the footage to see exactly what went down with Knock Out and Tarantulaus in the med bay.

Knock Out was in the room going to watch as well because he was afraid to be left alone after what had happened to him. And his friends were all worried about him because they could tell how scared he was. Specially when Bulkhead accidentally bumped into him and he said it was fine.

Knock Out any other time would have jumped on to the wrecker about what that did to his paint job. Anytime Knock Out didn't care about what happened to his finish they knew it was serious. They all knew he was acting out of character because Tarantulaus had terrified the poor red mech.

They all watched the video and saw how close Scorpinoc had come to killing Knock Out in the med bay before Starscream had stopped him. Which bothered Ratchet because Knock Out could have been killed because he'd left the base unattended when he started to go after Arcee to help her get the antidote.

"It's OK Ratchet you were worried about Arcee." Knock Out told him upon seeing the upset look on his face.

Then they saw the footage of Tarantulaus who had gotten in through the window web Knock Out to the berth while he had been in recharge and then they saw how Knock Out had woke up only for Tarantulaus to torture him by playing mind games and then sedated him. And took the webs off him and left as if nothing had happened.

"Why did he do that?" Asked Knock Out. "He could have just offlined me right there but he wants me to suffer."

"He wants revenge for Arachnid." Ratchet told him. "That's what he said in the letter when he tried to make that deal with us."

"Now just killing me isn't enough he's trying to drive me insane." Knock Out whimpered. "And he's working with the Quintessons and Counsel who probably know I'm still alive and told all of you about their plan." "I may have indirectly put the whole team at risk."

"Knock Out you helped us a lot by finding out what their plan was." Said Bumblebee. "And don't worry we can all handle Tarantulaus and we won't let him hurt you again or anyone else on this team."

"You still need to rest to heal properly." Ratchet told him.

"We will all take turns guarding you in the med bay so Tarantulaus will not be able to harm you." Optimus said to him.

"Thank you guys." Said Knock Out who was almost in tear because he was moved that his friends cared and wanted to protect him.

"Anytime." Bumblebee replied. "We need to figure out how to stop the Quintessons and Counsel but first we need to stop Tarantulaus he's the biggest threat at the moment."

They all agreed Tarantulaus had to be stopped and the sooner the better.

To Be Continued.

"Well that's all for this chapter." "I'll try to have the next one up soon after character two of my other story Unlikely Heroes and speaking of which the poll for who the final member of the team will be is still up so feel free to vote while you can." "sorry this took so long been busy in RL." "Please let me know if there are any spelling errors I missed."