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The wooden waster clacked as it hit its partner, the two Jian bouncing apart along with their welders. The two returned to circling, their swords help on guard as they egged the other to strike first.

Nikk lunged, sword poised to strike as Daiyu smirked. The wooden blade came down hard, and for a heartbeat, Nikk worried if Daiyu would let it hit. But she moved so much faster than he could have seen, and his blade struck wood as she crouched, a bamboo Dao held to his throat.

“Too slow, old man”. Daiyu rose, taking a bow as Nikk mimicked the movement.

“I’m older by a month!”

“Says the guy who calls himself God online”. Daiyu took the blade from his outstretched hand, the two walking through the Kwoon to return their blades to the racks.

“You were there when I changed it!”. As fun as the Chinese woman was, she was equally infuriating, and she had a habit of knowing just what buttons to press. “You know, for someone named after a Black Jade, you don’t have any restraint, huh?”

“And for a guy whose name means winner, remind me how many rounds you’ve won?”

“Daiyu!”

“Just returning the compliment”. The doors to the Kwoon burst open, and standing in the shadow of the sun, Nikk’s father, Calum stood.

Under the dappled sun, a smatter of salt accented his pepper hair, slick back against his dark skin, the same colour he passed down to his son, his black hair and eyes however, Nikk inherited his mother's caramel locks and eyes instead.

At the sight of the man, both Nikk and Daiyu stopped dead in their tracks, and at the sight of the grim look on Callums face, they knew something was terribly, horribly wrong.

“Dad? What happened?”

“The online community you both are a part of, I know you have friends in it”

“This hasn’t been a problem before, Sir”, Daiyu inched closer to her friend, both wary and on edge. “Why is it now?”

“Because Miss Longwei. One of your friends, Mangoo, I believe, has gone missing”

“What!”, the two rushed after the man and his long strides, dodging pedestrians and the like as they rushed down the streets of Beijing, towards the black car parked a ways away. “You could have started with that!”

“When did she go missing!”

“And why are we being told like this?”

“Get in”. The three piled into the vehicle, Nikk's mother, Tia, driving shotgun. “As far as the Police and government know, you two were one of the last to speak with her before her disappearance”

“The military! Why is the military involved!”

“Maybe you should answer your phone?”, Tia gestured to the device buzzing like a thousand angry bees beside Nikk, who pulled the device away from his ear as soon as he answered.

“Don't you ever pick up! It's an emergency!”

“Hi BaseDrop”

“Hi 1000Mistaks”

“Do you know how worried we’ve been!”

“LanternLady?”, Hearing the usually calm voice scream through the distortion was…and experience, Daiyu decided quickly.

“Who else! The holy fucking spirit”

“Ok, can someone explain what’s going on? Mangoo’s missing and we’re, what? The last ones in contact with her?”, Nikk was quick to get the ball rolling and they zipped through the streets.

“Correct. Mangoo went missing thirty minutes away from Jasper Nevada and BaseDrop has something freaky to show everyone. Right?”

“Yeah, tell me you can see this-”

“Wait, where’s Tim-Tam? Shouldn’t he be here too?”

“See, God. That's problem A2”, they could hear Lantern take a breath, and attempted to brace themselves before the inevitable. “Nobody has been able to contact him since Mangoo went missing!”

“Ok, so Mangoo went missing…When?”

“Three days ago”

“Thanks, BaseDrop”, Daiyu began. “So Mangoo went missing three days ago, and now no one can get ahold of Tim-Tam. And we are the last ones in contact with both of them. Did I get that correct?”

“Pretty much. But I need to show you guys this”. They turned back to the phone, where BaseDrop was leading them through a throng of colourful hair and people, towards a clusterfuck of screens and diagrams. And in the centre of the madness, a video was playing, over and over again, of a dark monolith tearing a car apart and fishing a small shape out of it. “That's Mangoo! We don’t know what took her, but we know it took Tim-Tam too!”. The video switched, to now showing a lanky figure illuminated by a streetlamp, running madly from that same dark creation, before inevitably being swept up in its caging grasp. And then it turned to the camera, nodding almost menacingly. “Whatever it is, it seems to know just what it doing. And it can’t be a coincidence that it taken Mangoo and now Tim-Tam. Its targeting us”

“BaseDrop, What do you mean ‘It's targeting us’? Why would it target us?”

“I…I don’t know, but it's too deliberate to be a coincidence.”

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Arcee sneered as she steadily backed up, right against the cliff face. She knew she could take on the vehicles aiming at her, but they hadn’t attacked yet, and she was curious. For every step she took, they moved, closing in a tight ring around her, pinning her to the rock with no way out.

Part of her fought against the restraint, desperate to fire into the cluster and continue firing until she was back at base. But another, much more stubborn part of her held back, restraint unbreakable as she glanced from side to side. The ‘cons were waiting for something, maybe someone.

And then the indistinguishable sound of a groundbridge opened up and Arcee spun, blasters drawn as a familiar shape steeped out. At the sight of the Decepticon, Arcee bared her denta, blasters primed.

“Well, I certainly didn’t expect to find you here”, Arachnid sneered, “But regardless, Let's have some fun”. Arcee leapt to meet the Femme, aiming for her spark chamber as the spider laughed.

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The cliff crumbled under Arcee’s weight, Jack trying his hardest to not slip from her servo as she groaned. Desperate to find purchase, she tried to dig her peds into the rock face, but the dirt crumbled away too easily, leaving her in a precarious situation.

And then, to make matters worse, Arachnid lorded over her, heels digging into the fragile earth as she smiled down at the Autobot. “Maybe if your darling pet survives the fall, I’ll display his head next to Tailgates”, Arcee felt her energy run cold at the prospect as Jack brave as ever, glared at the spider. “Won't that be lovely, hmm? A sweet little reunion and a pet to keep you company”

“Jack”, Her grip was slipping, and Arachnid knew it. “You need to run”

“Arcee! No! I won’t leave you!”

“Please”

“How cute”, Arachnid cooed, “But I getting bored”. Arcee screamed as one of the Decepticons claws clamped down on her servo, ripping her digits out of the dirt.

And then the Autobot was falling, falling, falling faster than she could calculate, Jack clutched tight to her chassis. No doubt her living metal was painful, but they had bigger problems. Fighting the wind, Arcee desperately tried to reach her communicator, angling herself so that when they inevitably crashed to the ravine floor, Jack would be protected. “Arcee to base! Please! Does anyone read me!”

“Arcee! Where-“

“I need an emergency groundbridge! Now!”

“Hold on. We’re pinpointing your location”

“Arcee! We need to hurry!”

And then the swirling vortex opened bellow her, swallowing them whole as Arachnid roared above her, diving down after her prey. But the groundbridge had already claimed them.

And when they crashed through the exit, slamming into a wall from their speed, they found themselves aboard the Nemesis, Soundwave, third in command of the deception armada, staring down at them, ever silent and every frightening.

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