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“Are we going to talk about it?”

“About what?”

“Don't play coy, Arcee. You know what I'm talking about”. She did. He knew she did. And she knew she did. But there was a certain trepidation and caution when either mentioned the events that unfolded in the days prior. The fight with arachnid had put both of them on edge, and to be portaled aboard the nemesis so easily, directly into the awaiting clutches of Lord Megatron's third in command, a situation that should have landed them as pawns in a cell, instead ended with them going free.

And the most confusing part, was the inclusion of Soundwave, deception, third in command, and one of the first to ever join Megatron's side. In all manner of speaking, he should have taken them prisoner. He should have stood by his lord's side.

If it were any other Decepticon; Knockout, Breakdown, even Starscream, they could have had a chance at escape. But it had been Soundwave, the only con aside from Megatron himself, that they could never have seen ending in a successful escape.

And yet…

Something churned in Arcee’s tank. A horrible, consuming, alluring curiosity. A curiosity that had her running events and intel over and over in her mind like a rock tumbler, picking and cleaning and ironing out any wrinkles, any curious behaviours that any of the cons showed, anything that, in the heat of battle, would have gone unnoticed, but under the scrutiny of her perceptive mind, where brought to light. Little quirks, a hint of knowledge past the surface, a slip of the young, the wrong word said.

And her results were…Disappointing. Not one con nor Vehicon let slip any inkling of a plan crafted past Megatrons base need for power. Not one slip up that could have eluded to a plan that would allow them to escape so easily…No. They didn’t escape. Why had she been looking at it like that? There was no daring escapade, no adrenaline fuelled dash to the portal. No.

Soundwave had let them go.

Soundwave had let them go.

Soundwave had let them go.

No fuss, no fight. No anxious edging, no dancing around each other in a deadly ballet. Soundwave, the most loyal of Megatrons soldiers, had let them go. Not even that. He had thrown them through the portal himself. After some unseen disturbance had passed.

And…And Ratchet had never fired up the bridge. He had confirmed it himself after they returned. But if the portal had been Decepticon in origin, even from Soundwave himself, why had it closed before Arachnid had had a chance to get through. Why had Soundwave not looked confused, better yet, concerned, that there was an Autobot aboard the Nemesis? Why had he freed them?

There were so many ‘why's' and ‘what’s’ swirling around in her mind, too many, far too many. She needed answers, and if there was one thing she hated more than Decepticons, it was not having answers.

“Arcee?”

“I’m fine”

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“Ok, ok ok. So let me get this straight. Your LanternLady?”

“Yep”

“And you're what? 14-“

“18”

“18. Ok. Don't believe that but let's continue”, For the past…however long it had been since Lantern-Indiana, her name was Indiana, had led them into her apartment, as she modestly called it; the whole thing was more like a mansion sitting a hundred-thousand-million miles in the air; Lauren had been diligently questioning the young woman. “So after Mangoo-“

“Camille”

“Right. Camille and Tim-“

“Alex”

“After Camille and Alex were taken, and Jayda and-“

“The Science Team!”

“Fuck yeah!”

“Please, please stop interrupting me”, much like the frustration that came with hoarding cats, Lauren was looking close to quitting, rubbing at the bridge of her nose with one hand, and her temples with the other. “So after the Science Team found the footage of Man-Camille! Camille being taken by that metal robot, monster, thing-“

“We’re just calling it a Kaiju, until we know what it is”

“Ok, Fine. The Kaiju. After the Kaiju took Camille and Alex, We all decided to meet up here, Right?”

“Yep”

“Pretty much”

“Ok. So we all came here, to Las-Fucking-Vegas. Why Vegas again?”

“I don’t have property in Ireland”

“Yeah, ok, sure. So Camille gets kidnapped, The science team finds footage of the Kaiju that took them, We all decided to come here, and somewhere in this all, a government agent came to tell you to tell us to stop looking?”

“Pretty much”. Indiana had retreated to the bar, sitting atop its marble surface as she poured a glass of vodka, handed it to Nova, and then drank straight from the bottle. “But I’ve found that almost every problem in life can be solved pretty easily if you throw enough money at it. So let's go Scooby-Do this bitch and hit the road”

“I call Fred”

“Lara, why do you want to be Fred?”

“Because. Shaggy has ‘Zoinks’, Velma’s is ‘Jinkies’, Daphne says ‘Creepers’, Scooby’s got ‘Scooby dooby doo!’, and Freds got ‘FUCK’.”

“Lara no!”

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The Nevada desert stretched on forever, mirages painting the endless roads with liquid heat, while tall mountains surrounding them, a natural defence. But the rising sun spilling over the never-ending rocks and sand wasn’t what they were there for, and white any evidence of the metal Kaiju that had been there only a few days prior was gone, what they were met with was a lone man dressed in a sharp suit, and a black SUV.

“Are we going to get MIB’d again?”

“Not today, Jayda. Can I call you Jayda? Or would you prefer miss Sullivan?”

“Jayda is fine, Mr?…”

“Ah, How rude. My name is agent Fowler”

“First name Agent, Last name Fowler?”

“Funny. Nikk Voust, was it?”

“Yes”, Nikk raised an eyebrow, he and Lauren, as the two eldest, had placed themselves in front of the rest of the group, a small sense of responsibility lies in them. Sarah, who was younger by three minutes and forty-five seconds, was standing a little behind Lauren, already reaching for the pepper spray kept in her pocket. “What can we help you with?”

“You're looking for your friends, Camille Everest and Alex Noeton. I also know that the agent who met with you told you to stop looking and that it was nothing but CGI and all that fancy Photo-shot thing you kids do nowadays.”

“Your point being?”

“I want to show you the truth behind what happened to your friends”

“And this is how people get MIB’d”

“I promise you, I'm not here for any of that”. All eight rated an eyebrow, none believing the man's words. “Here, I’ll prove it”. Out of his pockets came a bundle of pens, a calculator, a ruler, more pens, a few crumpled post-it notes, even more pens, a blackberry, an old scouts badge, Jesus that’s a lot of pens.

“Ok, I think we get it. Now what do you want to show us?”, Daiyu, finally done with the ever-growing pile of pens, interrupted, squeezing from the back of the group, to the front. “Come on, we need to find out friends. So the more information we have, the better our starting point”

“Well, if you would follow me, I would like you to meet some…interesting characters. Now, whatever you do when you meet them, don't scream”

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