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Description
Keep your enemies close, but your twin even closer…

A blue motorcycle zoomed along a highway in Nevada, it’s rider was a black silhouette of a woman; she sat aboard the bike casually, barely moving against the resistance of the wind speeding past. The motorcycle slowed down briefly but only to make a turn taking it off the highway and into the sand dunes either side of the tarmac, up and over the first dune wasn’t enough, trying to keep up the pace she travelled further, up another dune that came down lower on the other side. Cautiously coming to a stop, the wing mirrors adjusted to see that the highway had been lost, the motorcycle and its rider now invisible to the traffic noisily going past on the other sides of the dunes.
“Where is he?” a frustrated voice, a foot dropped down from the bikes rear wheel, extending into the sand, eventually studying the rest of the bike. Leaning to one side, the rider vanished into thin air, and the blue motorcycle sat there, alone.
Arcee waited, watching the sand blow by from the tops of mountains in the distance, she wondered where the crash had taken place, but right now she was grateful it was somewhere out of sight, a strange convenience.
Screeching tyres interrupted her thoughts and she knew her waiting had finally come to an end.
The unpleasant screech became muffled by the sand below tyres, engine still roaring, the garish sports car struggled to climb over the dunes she had managed to easily, a wave of pride began to wash over her.
Arcee watched in her wing-mirrors until the white car pulled up beside her.
“What took you?” Arcee barked.
“I took a scenic route,” Smokescreen purred back, his voice strained from the aggravation from his battle with the sand dunes.
“There could be lives on the line and you ’took the scenic route’.” She didn’t give him a chance to speak, “never mind, come on,”
Arcee lifted the pedal from the sand and, with much effort, pushed forwards towards a flattened area ahead, completely surrounded by mountains and dunes.
A sight sigh of exasperation came from Smokescreen as he too pushed ahead over the dunes, his tyres barely gripping the soft sand.
“I can’t believe I’ve been put on re-con duty with you…” Arcee eventually said.
“You really think Jack is any help when you run into trouble? Besides, I’m a trained professional,”
“Okay, we’re good,” Arcee announced, taking a quick look around before transforming into her bipedal form.
“Finally,” Smokescreen transformed and took time to make sure all the sand was shaken off from the cracks of his armour, the feeling it made as it crunched within his joints made the feel of it below his tyres seem almost comfortable…
“Wait,” Arcee furrowed her optic ridge and darted her optics left and right repeatedly over the horizon.
“What?” Smokescreen was just tapping his shoulder free of more sand when Arcee raised a servo to silence him.
Arcee stopped her breathing to listen; the sounds of heavy trucks roaring along the highway, the occasional horn would carry the sound over a wide area creating a stereo around them. Then there was the wind, not nearly as loud as it had been when she had been on the road, but it sounded hollow through the dunes, coming from all directions, but the only sound it carried was that from the highway traffic.
“Something’s not right,” Arcee raised a hand to her helm and opened communication back to the Autobot base; “Ratchet, is the beacon still active?”
“What’s wrong?” Smokescreen approached Arcee, satisfied he had gotten all the sand out from his armour.
“Ratchet?” Arcee repeated, but she could only hear static. Her spark began to pulse, constricting her chest as fear took over.
“Arcee? Hello!” Smokescreen was waving a servo in front of Arcees optics; eventually she lowered her arm and acknowledged him.
“We need to leave,” Arcee broke into a run and headed straight back to the highway.
“What?” Smokescreen ran after her, “What’s happened? What did Ratchet say?”
“Nothing, my communication link is scrambled, yours will be too so don’t bother trying, this is an ambush.”
“How do you know?”
“I couldn’t hear the beacon, suggesting its offline or it’s a fake signal we picked up,”
“So what sent the signal?”
“Whatever did it is out there waiting for us,”
Arcee transformed, back to her motorcycle form and thundered over the dunes, Smokescreen did the same with reluctance.
Arcee was approaching the final dune before the highway, once she reached the highway it would be safe, she could contact base and let them know it was a trap. The hologram flickered onto her back, the blacked out woman with no noticeable characteristics.
Something was wrong, Arcee felt a weight on her back, but her hologram was merely an image, she shouldn’t be able to feel it. Her wheels sank into the sand almost instantly, her tyres digging a trench below. Cutting off her engine and adjusting her wing mirrors again, she could see a very different blackened silhouette above her, it wasn’t her hologram…
“Smokescreen!” Arcee called, but she didn’t get a response, she didn’t hear anything other than the comfort of the highway sounds in the distance.
A moments silence, the weight on her back ceased, she transformed to release herself from the sands clutches, but before she could dig herself out, a clawed servo grabbed her shoulder, pulling her from the sand and throwing her backwards, away from freedom.
Picking herself up, Arcee saw Smokescreen lying face down in the sand, groaning from the pain, why wasn’t he moving?
Arcee crawled over to try and lift him, but then she noticed it, a foot pressed into his upper-back, following the leg up she could see the bright sickly green highlights against the dusty black armour. This wasn’t the same one she had seen on her own back, which means there was another one somewhere. Arcee tried to push herself up but the same fate that had Smokescreen pinned to the sand hit her too in the lower back, the foot crunched into her armour and the agony set in immediately.
Arcee screamed from the pain but her screams were masked by a cackle looming over her helm, she looked up from the corner of her optic again, another laugh sounded from Smokescreens captor, just as sister as the other, sending shivers down her arms and legs, it was an ache on her audio receiver.
When her optics opened again she cringed from what she saw; the same vile green was on her captors lips, the lips were twisted into a grimace that showed sharp denta that didn’t quite match together. Burning red optics locked onto her features, studying her for a moment.
What was that? A skull upon the helm of her captor? Arcee could see the teeth protruding down, casting an eerie jagged shadow across the face that was only inches away from her own.
“Such a pretty thing,” Blacksaw breathed, followed by a light chuckle.
“Get your filthy servos off me!” Arcee spat back.
“Humph,” Blacksaw slowly placed a servo onto the back of Arcees helm, stroking her armour, “let’s play nice,” she hissed before shoving Arcees face into the sand, muffling her protest.

Smokescreen began to push and shove against his captor who had been watching her twin sister torment the blue femme.
“I gotta’ live one!” she smiled and punched her foot harder into Smokescreens shoulders, but he still wiggled beneath her.
“Get off! Stop it!” he finally shouted, able to turn his helm to the side and see Arcee being suffocated.
Blackskull frowned before bending her leg and ploughing her knee into the back of Smokescreens throat, he writhed beneath her before finally accepting that he was trapped.
“Ever been beaten by a femme before?” Blackskull smiled, putting her helm close to Smokescreens.
Smokescreen opened his optics, taking a minute to survey his opponent he smiled cockily, “not yet,”
Blackskull chuckled playfully, “how’s it feel?” she pushed more of her weight onto Smokescreens throat, hearing him groan, watching his denta grit together in pain, his optics shut and watered at the edges.
“Be gentle with me, I just said it’s my first time,” Smokescreens denta were still gritted as he forced a smile back at Blackskull.
Blackskull let out a bark of laughter, “oh I like this one, he’s fun torture,” her sentence trailed off into a cackle.
This rough-play seemed to go on for hours, Arcee and Smokescreen would each try to attempt to free themselves of their captors, but each time they were greeted with a joust in the back or a face in the sand. With each effort they made they became more and more exhausted while the twins didn’t seem to be wearing down, both of them were clearly experts in the handling of their enemies… But why all this roughness? Why don’t they just finish them off? Arcee tried not to think, she had to hope that this was all some sort of a game that would eventually put them in a situation to reason with the Decepticons, or a situation to call for help. Arcee discretely tried to communicate back to the base, but the signal was still scrambled…
“Yeah well I’m done playing, we’ve got a job to do,” Blacksaw reached to a set of stasis cuffs hanging from her waist and expertly cuffed them around Arcees wrist in one swift movement.
“Right,” Blackskull reached for her own set of cuffs and, as rough as she could manage, tightened them to Smokescreens wrists.
Smokescreen hissed as they pinched his armour.
Blackskull chuckled again, “sorry sweet-spark,” she said in a sickening voice.
Blacksaw caught Blackskulls optic and nodded at her twin, who in turn winked back.
Grabbing Arcee by the shoulders, Blacksaw propped the blue femme up into a sitting position.
Blackskull pulled Smokescreen along by his shoulders and sat him up against Arcees back.
Arcees helm fell forward, she had spent the last few moments fighting against the larger femme on her back and had used up all of her energon in doing what turned out to be a meagre attempt.
Blackskull walked off to the peak of a nearby dune while Blacksaw stoped and watched the two Autobots as they appeared to drift in and out of stasis from exhaustion.
“’Saw, come over ‘ere,” Blackskull beckoned her twin over.
Blacksaw came running up the dune, looking back at the Autobots when she got to her sister, “that wasn’t so hard.”
“It still took too long, he will be waiting,” Blackskull was frowning into the horizon.
“Right, I will lift the communication lock,” Blacksaw pulled another device from her waist and punched a code into the blue screen, a light blinked blue and then red “communication links are enabled,” she said, absently attaching the device to her waist again.
“Good, now we wait,” Blackskull lowered her optics to the ground at her feet.
“Shouldn’t we contact…”
“No!” Blackskull looked into her twins optics with a scowl, then she quickly softened her expression, “Sorry, but if we call now when we don’t have anything, it will be a waste of time…”
“How do we even know the target will come?”
“We don’t.”
“So if he doesn’t come?”
“We run and don’t ever come back.”
“But…”
“That’s why this job can’t go wrong. Not when Megatron is employing us to do it…”
Blacksaw nodded, subdued by the same fear of Megatron that consumed her twin. She looked back, the Autobots were silent, and they had to wait…

Arcee blinked lazily, jolting her helm up and looking around, once again hoping to be somewhere different, but she wasn’t. The drone from the highway was no longer comforting, instead it was tormenting her, how she had been close to running away from this…
A siren went by.
“Help,” she croaked quietly, dropping her helm again.
“’Cee?” Smokescreen whispered, “hey ‘Cee, you okay?”
“Never better,” Arcee whispered back, feeling woozy.
“We need to work together and get out of this…”
“I can’t move my legs,” Arcee whispered, trying to bend her knees but failing to find the energon to do it…
“I can still move pretty good, if we can get out of these cuffs, I could take us…”
“Take us where?” Arcees voice was strained with anger, “we wont last 10 nano clicks if we tried to run, didn’t you notice how quick they were to pin us down?”
Smokescreen was defeated.
“What about the communication link?” he sighed.
“It doesn’t work.”
“Let me see…”
“it won’t work,”
“Hey, Ratchet, you there?”
“Smokescreen, stop it,”
“Shh, I can hear something,”
“What?” Arcee tried to turn around and look at Smokescreen, but she felt the pinch of the cuffs and immediately stopped.
“Thank Primus you can hear me,” Smokescreen whispered into the communication link, “listen, Ratchet, we’ve been captured by two Decepticons, I didn’t catch their names but the beacon was false, it was a trap and…” Smokescreen paused as Ratchet spoke on the other end.
Arcee felt him nod occasionally before finally ending the conversation with; “great thanks, and have Arcee some energon ready.”
“Well?” Arcee had hope in her voice, but she was reserved at the same time,
“Bee and Bulk are out, but Ratchet said Optimus is nearby, he’s on his way.”
“Thank Primus…” Arcee breathed, then she looked at the two twins, they hadn’t looked back since they tied her up to Smokescreen.
“Have they been over at all?” Arcee asked Smokescreen.
“Nope, they’ve barely looked at us,”
“Don’t you find that suspicious, what are they waiting for?”
“No idea…” Smokescreens voice trembled…

“Did you hear that?” Blacksaw hissed at her twin who had also just been tapped into the Autobots communication.
“Loud and clear,” Blackskull grinned,
“So does this mean we can…”
“Do you want the honours?”
Blacksaw didn’t reply to her twin, she immediately opened a communication with Megatron and could tell that she was put through to his main computer, “Lord Megatron, target is on approach,” she didn’t wait for a response, she knew none would come, so she closed it again immediately.
“Ready?” Blackskull asked, swiping a sword out from her armour and bringing the blade-edge close to her optics, surveying it’s sleek deadly edge.
Blacksaw brought her tail up and over her shoulder, releasing a blade from it’s tip that looked equally as brutal as her twins. It shined and reflected her optics back at her, “ready,” she hissed, watching her features scowl back from her reflection. A cackle escaped her throat again and trailed off into a throaty chuckle.

Smokescreen and Arcee looked over at the twins, watching them as their deadly weapons were revealed, eerily being waved about in the air around them.
“That’s unexpected,” Smokescreen said.
Arcees optics widened, “it’s a trap, contact Optimus!”
“Too late,” Smokescreen said as he stared helplessly into the distance, watching as the bright red and blue truck approached from the horizon, stiring up the sand behind it and ploughing through the dunes, picking up its speed the closer it got, engine roaring…
“No… Optimus…” Arcee croaked…

“Show time,” Blacksaw rose her tail and used it to point in Optimus’ direction.
“Let’s go,” Blackskull rose to her feet and started running down the dune towards the red and blue truck, clumsily transforming into her mustang alt-mode, one of the skulls adorning her armour delicately placed on its hood against the garish green and black paint work. Meanwhile Blacksaw disappeared into the shadows cast off the dunes from the setting sun, waiting for her cue.
Optimus saw the approaching mustang, and came to a halt, transforming into his bipedal mode just before a collision. Grabbing hold of the front tyres, he sent the mustang into the air and revealed his ion blaster, taking aim on the skull.
Blackskull transformed mid-air and flailed her limbs in the air, avoiding each of Optimus’ shots before landing elegantly.
Optimus had his mask up, but his distaste was still evident by the scowl on his optics, casting a coarse shadow around his facial features.
Blackskull chuckled, her optics fixed to the red and blue Autobot before her.
Optimus looked over the Decepticons shoulder, he could see Smokescreen and Arcee restrained behind her, they were in no fit state to fight, he was on his own… Something was wrong, Ratchet had mentioned two Decepticons… Two! Where was the other?
“Fancy having the great Optimus Prime walk into one of our little traps?”
Optimus scowled again, he was untrusting of all Decepticons but the casual approach of this one made him feel uneasy. She was clearly no match for him, so why wasn’t she scared? What was so special about her partner? Where was her partner?
Optimus was spending too much time trying to answer questions when he could be disabling this Decepticon and saving his comrades, he needed to find himself again.
“Stand down or prepare to face the consequences of your actions, Decepticon…”
“Oh, sweet-spark, I’m scared,” Blackskull raised an optic ridge, pulling her sword out from within her armour, gripping it tightly and swaying it in front of her.
Optimus put his ion blaster away, this femme was too quick for his aim to be of any use, instead he revealed his own blade from his right servo.
Blackskull grinned, running towards Optimus, pulling her arm back and raising the sword above her shoulder.
Blacksaw fired up her engine, this was her cue, and in the distance she could see Laserbeak; Soundwaves spy drone, approaching. Perfect timing.
Optimus was too late by the time he noticed the metallic tail wraping around his helm, coving his optics and blinding him to Blackskulls attack.
Blackskull drove her sword into Optimus’ shoulder, dodging his arm as he flailed in an attempt to fight back, blinded by Blackskulls twin.
Blacksaw tightened her tail around the Autobot leader while Blackskull pried her sword from his shoulder, sparks danced out of the wound and energon trickled from Blackskulls blade.
Blacksaw loosened her tail and snapped it away from Optimus’ helm, grinding each joint against his face, eventually finishing it by slashing open his helm with the blade at the tip of her tail.
Optimus cried out from the pain, but stopped, her could feel himself being restrained by one of the twins, then he could hear the clicking of the others tail, she was about to strike him again but he wasn’t going to let it happen.
Blackskull looked up to find an Ion blaster charged at her helm, she didn’t have the time to scream or dodge it… First there came the punch, knocking the air out of her systems, then finally the burn as she felt her armour weaken. Once she was back on her feet she had to check it was still there and it hadn’t disintegrated. Tapping her spark chamber with her servo, she gave herself the all clear.
Blacksaw tried to restrain Optimus for longer, but she couldn’t, both his servos clutched hold of her tail as she tried to pull back, but the leader was too strong.
“Blackskull! Help!”
Blackskull heard her twins cry and panicked, looking up at the other Autobots she had tied up, gave her an idea.

“Laserbeak!” Arcee called, watching as the drone hovered above Optimus struggling with one of the Decepticons.
“Optimus…” Smokescreen whispered, defeated, he had watched on helplessly as Optimus was being torn apart by these two femmes, he tried to fight the restraints but it was no good…
“Smokescreen…”
“We need to help Optimus!” Smokescreen struggled harder.
“Smokescreen, stop it…”
“No!”
“Smokescreen!” Arcee shouted, finally grabbing it attention.
“What!?” then he saw it, one of the femmes, the one with the skulls decorating her frame, standing by them, a blade trained at Arcees throat. Smokescreens jaw dropped, still he was helpless to do anything…
“Hey! Optimus!” Blackskull called, grabbing the leaders attention as he pushed his ion cannon into the other twins throat.
Optimus looked over, watching as Blackskull put an arm around Arcees throat and brought the blade closer, he paused, silenced.
“If you harm a single layer of armour on that femmes frame, I swear to Primus I will slit your pretty little motorcycles throat!” a kind of emotion was in Blackskulls voice, a tear trickled down her cheek. She knew this job was dangerous, but she had almost watched her twin get scrapped.
Optimus paused, letting the charge drain from his ion blaster, he threw the black and green femme to the floor, raising his servos in the air, he took a step back.
Blackskull was panting, snatching her servos away from Arcee she took a moment to gather her thoughts.
“That’s more like it,” she called, somehow with less confidence, “go ahead ‘Saw,” she nodded at her twin who ran over to Optimus and fired stasis wire around his arms, once again she was too quick for him to react, then he felt the pulse. An EMP pulse was a powerful weapon when used correctly, at first it just knocks you back for a few moments, but then everything goes fuzzy and you can’t move. Finally, an electrifying throb sends you into an unwelcome stasis. This was what Optimus was now feeling…
“Optimus! Look out!” Smokescreen called as he saw Laserbeak swoop down.
“Shut it you,” Blackskull kicked Smokescreen in the helm.
“What’s going on?” Arcee now had her back to Optimus and couldn’t see what was going on.
By the time Smokescreen looked back up again, energon trickling from his lips, Laserbeak was gone, and Optimus appeared motionless.
“Optim….”
“I said shut it!” Blackskull shouted, kicking Smokescreen again, this time knocking him out.
“Good one,” Blacksaw said as she ran over and saw Smokescreen motionless on the floor, “what about her?” she gestured to Arcee.
Blackskull looked at the blue femme who was shaking as her helm was slowly drooping into stasis.
“She’s as good as scrap,” Blackskull announced, “come on, let’s collect our pay…”

Description
Keep your enemies close, but your twin even closer…

A blue motorcycle zoomed along a highway in Nevada, it’s rider was a black silhouette of a woman; she sat aboard the bike casually, barely moving against the resistance of the wind speeding past. The motorcycle slowed down briefly but only to make a turn taking it off the highway and into the sand dunes either side of the tarmac, up and over the first dune wasn’t enough, trying to keep up the pace she travelled further, up another dune that came down lower on the other side. Cautiously coming to a stop, the wing mirrors adjusted to see that the highway had been lost, the motorcycle and its rider now invisible to the traffic noisily going past on the other sides of the dunes.
“Where is he?” a frustrated voice, a foot dropped down from the bikes rear wheel, extending into the sand, eventually studying the rest of the bike. Leaning to one side, the rider vanished into thin air, and the blue motorcycle sat there, alone.
Arcee waited, watching the sand blow by from the tops of mountains in the distance, she wondered where the crash had taken place, but right now she was grateful it was somewhere out of sight, a strange convenience.
Screeching tyres interrupted her thoughts and she knew her waiting had finally come to an end.
The unpleasant screech became muffled by the sand below tyres, engine still roaring, the garish sports car struggled to climb over the dunes she had managed to easily, a wave of pride began to wash over her.
Arcee watched in her wing-mirrors until the white car pulled up beside her.
“What took you?” Arcee barked.
“I took a scenic route,” Smokescreen purred back, his voice strained from the aggravation from his battle with the sand dunes.
“There could be lives on the line and you ’took the scenic route’.” She didn’t give him a chance to speak, “never mind, come on,”
Arcee lifted the pedal from the sand and, with much effort, pushed forwards towards a flattened area ahead, completely surrounded by mountains and dunes.
A sight sigh of exasperation came from Smokescreen as he too pushed ahead over the dunes, his tyres barely gripping the soft sand.
“I can’t believe I’ve been put on re-con duty with you…” Arcee eventually said.
“You really think Jack is any help when you run into trouble? Besides, I’m a trained professional,”
“Okay, we’re good,” Arcee announced, taking a quick look around before transforming into her bipedal form.
“Finally,” Smokescreen transformed and took time to make sure all the sand was shaken off from the cracks of his armour, the feeling it made as it crunched within his joints made the feel of it below his tyres seem almost comfortable…
“Wait,” Arcee furrowed her optic ridge and darted her optics left and right repeatedly over the horizon.
“What?” Smokescreen was just tapping his shoulder free of more sand when Arcee raised a servo to silence him.
Arcee stopped her breathing to listen; the sounds of heavy trucks roaring along the highway, the occasional horn would carry the sound over a wide area creating a stereo around them. Then there was the wind, not nearly as loud as it had been when she had been on the road, but it sounded hollow through the dunes, coming from all directions, but the only sound it carried was that from the highway traffic.
“Something’s not right,” Arcee raised a hand to her helm and opened communication back to the Autobot base; “Ratchet, is the beacon still active?”
“What’s wrong?” Smokescreen approached Arcee, satisfied he had gotten all the sand out from his armour.
“Ratchet?” Arcee repeated, but she could only hear static. Her spark began to pulse, constricting her chest as fear took over.
“Arcee? Hello!” Smokescreen was waving a servo in front of Arcees optics; eventually she lowered her arm and acknowledged him.
“We need to leave,” Arcee broke into a run and headed straight back to the highway.
“What?” Smokescreen ran after her, “What’s happened? What did Ratchet say?”
“Nothing, my communication link is scrambled, yours will be too so don’t bother trying, this is an ambush.”
“How do you know?”
“I couldn’t hear the beacon, suggesting its offline or it’s a fake signal we picked up,”
“So what sent the signal?”
“Whatever did it is out there waiting for us,”
Arcee transformed, back to her motorcycle form and thundered over the dunes, Smokescreen did the same with reluctance.
Arcee was approaching the final dune before the highway, once she reached the highway it would be safe, she could contact base and let them know it was a trap. The hologram flickered onto her back, the blacked out woman with no noticeable characteristics.
Something was wrong, Arcee felt a weight on her back, but her hologram was merely an image, she shouldn’t be able to feel it. Her wheels sank into the sand almost instantly, her tyres digging a trench below. Cutting off her engine and adjusting her wing mirrors again, she could see a very different blackened silhouette above her, it wasn’t her hologram…
“Smokescreen!” Arcee called, but she didn’t get a response, she didn’t hear anything other than the comfort of the highway sounds in the distance.
A moments silence, the weight on her back ceased, she transformed to release herself from the sands clutches, but before she could dig herself out, a clawed servo grabbed her shoulder, pulling her from the sand and throwing her backwards, away from freedom.
Picking herself up, Arcee saw Smokescreen lying face down in the sand, groaning from the pain, why wasn’t he moving?
Arcee crawled over to try and lift him, but then she noticed it, a foot pressed into his upper-back, following the leg up she could see the bright sickly green highlights against the dusty black armour. This wasn’t the same one she had seen on her own back, which means there was another one somewhere. Arcee tried to push herself up but the same fate that had Smokescreen pinned to the sand hit her too in the lower back, the foot crunched into her armour and the agony set in immediately.
Arcee screamed from the pain but her screams were masked by a cackle looming over her helm, she looked up from the corner of her optic again, another laugh sounded from Smokescreens captor, just as sister as the other, sending shivers down her arms and legs, it was an ache on her audio receiver.
When her optics opened again she cringed from what she saw; the same vile green was on her captors lips, the lips were twisted into a grimace that showed sharp denta that didn’t quite match together. Burning red optics locked onto her features, studying her for a moment.
What was that? A skull upon the helm of her captor? Arcee could see the teeth protruding down, casting an eerie jagged shadow across the face that was only inches away from her own.
“Such a pretty thing,” Blacksaw breathed, followed by a light chuckle.
“Get your filthy servos off me!” Arcee spat back.
“Humph,” Blacksaw slowly placed a servo onto the back of Arcees helm, stroking her armour, “let’s play nice,” she hissed before shoving Arcees face into the sand, muffling her protest.

Smokescreen began to push and shove against his captor who had been watching her twin sister torment the blue femme.
“I gotta’ live one!” she smiled and punched her foot harder into Smokescreens shoulders, but he still wiggled beneath her.
“Get off! Stop it!” he finally shouted, able to turn his helm to the side and see Arcee being suffocated.
Blackskull frowned before bending her leg and ploughing her knee into the back of Smokescreens throat, he writhed beneath her before finally accepting that he was trapped.
“Ever been beaten by a femme before?” Blackskull smiled, putting her helm close to Smokescreens.
Smokescreen opened his optics, taking a minute to survey his opponent he smiled cockily, “not yet,”
Blackskull chuckled playfully, “how’s it feel?” she pushed more of her weight onto Smokescreens throat, hearing him groan, watching his denta grit together in pain, his optics shut and watered at the edges.
“Be gentle with me, I just said it’s my first time,” Smokescreens denta were still gritted as he forced a smile back at Blackskull.
Blackskull let out a bark of laughter, “oh I like this one, he’s fun torture,” her sentence trailed off into a cackle.
This rough-play seemed to go on for hours, Arcee and Smokescreen would each try to attempt to free themselves of their captors, but each time they were greeted with a joust in the back or a face in the sand. With each effort they made they became more and more exhausted while the twins didn’t seem to be wearing down, both of them were clearly experts in the handling of their enemies… But why all this roughness? Why don’t they just finish them off? Arcee tried not to think, she had to hope that this was all some sort of a game that would eventually put them in a situation to reason with the Decepticons, or a situation to call for help. Arcee discretely tried to communicate back to the base, but the signal was still scrambled…
“Yeah well I’m done playing, we’ve got a job to do,” Blacksaw reached to a set of stasis cuffs hanging from her waist and expertly cuffed them around Arcees wrist in one swift movement.
“Right,” Blackskull reached for her own set of cuffs and, as rough as she could manage, tightened them to Smokescreens wrists.
Smokescreen hissed as they pinched his armour.
Blackskull chuckled again, “sorry sweet-spark,” she said in a sickening voice.
Blacksaw caught Blackskulls optic and nodded at her twin, who in turn winked back.
Grabbing Arcee by the shoulders, Blacksaw propped the blue femme up into a sitting position.
Blackskull pulled Smokescreen along by his shoulders and sat him up against Arcees back.
Arcees helm fell forward, she had spent the last few moments fighting against the larger femme on her back and had used up all of her energon in doing what turned out to be a meagre attempt.
Blackskull walked off to the peak of a nearby dune while Blacksaw stoped and watched the two Autobots as they appeared to drift in and out of stasis from exhaustion.
“’Saw, come over ‘ere,” Blackskull beckoned her twin over.
Blacksaw came running up the dune, looking back at the Autobots when she got to her sister, “that wasn’t so hard.”
“It still took too long, he will be waiting,” Blackskull was frowning into the horizon.
“Right, I will lift the communication lock,” Blacksaw pulled another device from her waist and punched a code into the blue screen, a light blinked blue and then red “communication links are enabled,” she said, absently attaching the device to her waist again.
“Good, now we wait,” Blackskull lowered her optics to the ground at her feet.
“Shouldn’t we contact…”
“No!” Blackskull looked into her twins optics with a scowl, then she quickly softened her expression, “Sorry, but if we call now when we don’t have anything, it will be a waste of time…”
“How do we even know the target will come?”
“We don’t.”
“So if he doesn’t come?”
“We run and don’t ever come back.”
“But…”
“That’s why this job can’t go wrong. Not when Megatron is employing us to do it…”
Blacksaw nodded, subdued by the same fear of Megatron that consumed her twin. She looked back, the Autobots were silent, and they had to wait…

Arcee blinked lazily, jolting her helm up and looking around, once again hoping to be somewhere different, but she wasn’t. The drone from the highway was no longer comforting, instead it was tormenting her, how she had been close to running away from this…
A siren went by.
“Help,” she croaked quietly, dropping her helm again.
“’Cee?” Smokescreen whispered, “hey ‘Cee, you okay?”
“Never better,” Arcee whispered back, feeling woozy.
“We need to work together and get out of this…”
“I can’t move my legs,” Arcee whispered, trying to bend her knees but failing to find the energon to do it…
“I can still move pretty good, if we can get out of these cuffs, I could take us…”
“Take us where?” Arcees voice was strained with anger, “we wont last 10 nano clicks if we tried to run, didn’t you notice how quick they were to pin us down?”
Smokescreen was defeated.
“What about the communication link?” he sighed.
“It doesn’t work.”
“Let me see…”
“it won’t work,”
“Hey, Ratchet, you there?”
“Smokescreen, stop it,”
“Shh, I can hear something,”
“What?” Arcee tried to turn around and look at Smokescreen, but she felt the pinch of the cuffs and immediately stopped.
“Thank Primus you can hear me,” Smokescreen whispered into the communication link, “listen, Ratchet, we’ve been captured by two Decepticons, I didn’t catch their names but the beacon was false, it was a trap and…” Smokescreen paused as Ratchet spoke on the other end.
Arcee felt him nod occasionally before finally ending the conversation with; “great thanks, and have Arcee some energon ready.”
“Well?” Arcee had hope in her voice, but she was reserved at the same time,
“Bee and Bulk are out, but Ratchet said Optimus is nearby, he’s on his way.”
“Thank Primus…” Arcee breathed, then she looked at the two twins, they hadn’t looked back since they tied her up to Smokescreen.
“Have they been over at all?” Arcee asked Smokescreen.
“Nope, they’ve barely looked at us,”
“Don’t you find that suspicious, what are they waiting for?”
“No idea…” Smokescreens voice trembled…

“Did you hear that?” Blacksaw hissed at her twin who had also just been tapped into the Autobots communication.
“Loud and clear,” Blackskull grinned,
“So does this mean we can…”
“Do you want the honours?”
Blacksaw didn’t reply to her twin, she immediately opened a communication with Megatron and could tell that she was put through to his main computer, “Lord Megatron, target is on approach,” she didn’t wait for a response, she knew none would come, so she closed it again immediately.
“Ready?” Blackskull asked, swiping a sword out from her armour and bringing the blade-edge close to her optics, surveying it’s sleek deadly edge.
Blacksaw brought her tail up and over her shoulder, releasing a blade from it’s tip that looked equally as brutal as her twins. It shined and reflected her optics back at her, “ready,” she hissed, watching her features scowl back from her reflection. A cackle escaped her throat again and trailed off into a throaty chuckle.

Smokescreen and Arcee looked over at the twins, watching them as their deadly weapons were revealed, eerily being waved about in the air around them.
“That’s unexpected,” Smokescreen said.
Arcees optics widened, “it’s a trap, contact Optimus!”
“Too late,” Smokescreen said as he stared helplessly into the distance, watching as the bright red and blue truck approached from the horizon, stiring up the sand behind it and ploughing through the dunes, picking up its speed the closer it got, engine roaring…
“No… Optimus…” Arcee croaked…

“Show time,” Blacksaw rose her tail and used it to point in Optimus’ direction.
“Let’s go,” Blackskull rose to her feet and started running down the dune towards the red and blue truck, clumsily transforming into her mustang alt-mode, one of the skulls adorning her armour delicately placed on its hood against the garish green and black paint work. Meanwhile Blacksaw disappeared into the shadows cast off the dunes from the setting sun, waiting for her cue.
Optimus saw the approaching mustang, and came to a halt, transforming into his bipedal mode just before a collision. Grabbing hold of the front tyres, he sent the mustang into the air and revealed his ion blaster, taking aim on the skull.
Blackskull transformed mid-air and flailed her limbs in the air, avoiding each of Optimus’ shots before landing elegantly.
Optimus had his mask up, but his distaste was still evident by the scowl on his optics, casting a coarse shadow around his facial features.
Blackskull chuckled, her optics fixed to the red and blue Autobot before her.
Optimus looked over the Decepticons shoulder, he could see Smokescreen and Arcee restrained behind her, they were in no fit state to fight, he was on his own… Something was wrong, Ratchet had mentioned two Decepticons… Two! Where was the other?
“Fancy having the great Optimus Prime walk into one of our little traps?”
Optimus scowled again, he was untrusting of all Decepticons but the casual approach of this one made him feel uneasy. She was clearly no match for him, so why wasn’t she scared? What was so special about her partner? Where was her partner?
Optimus was spending too much time trying to answer questions when he could be disabling this Decepticon and saving his comrades, he needed to find himself again.
“Stand down or prepare to face the consequences of your actions, Decepticon…”
“Oh, sweet-spark, I’m scared,” Blackskull raised an optic ridge, pulling her sword out from within her armour, gripping it tightly and swaying it in front of her.
Optimus put his ion blaster away, this femme was too quick for his aim to be of any use, instead he revealed his own blade from his right servo.
Blackskull grinned, running towards Optimus, pulling her arm back and raising the sword above her shoulder.
Blacksaw fired up her engine, this was her cue, and in the distance she could see Laserbeak; Soundwaves spy drone, approaching. Perfect timing.
Optimus was too late by the time he noticed the metallic tail wraping around his helm, coving his optics and blinding him to Blackskulls attack.
Blackskull drove her sword into Optimus’ shoulder, dodging his arm as he flailed in an attempt to fight back, blinded by Blackskulls twin.
Blacksaw tightened her tail around the Autobot leader while Blackskull pried her sword from his shoulder, sparks danced out of the wound and energon trickled from Blackskulls blade.
Blacksaw loosened her tail and snapped it away from Optimus’ helm, grinding each joint against his face, eventually finishing it by slashing open his helm with the blade at the tip of her tail.
Optimus cried out from the pain, but stopped, her could feel himself being restrained by one of the twins, then he could hear the clicking of the others tail, she was about to strike him again but he wasn’t going to let it happen.
Blackskull looked up to find an Ion blaster charged at her helm, she didn’t have the time to scream or dodge it… First there came the punch, knocking the air out of her systems, then finally the burn as she felt her armour weaken. Once she was back on her feet she had to check it was still there and it hadn’t disintegrated. Tapping her spark chamber with her servo, she gave herself the all clear.
Blacksaw tried to restrain Optimus for longer, but she couldn’t, both his servos clutched hold of her tail as she tried to pull back, but the leader was too strong.
“Blackskull! Help!”
Blackskull heard her twins cry and panicked, looking up at the other Autobots she had tied up, gave her an idea.

“Laserbeak!” Arcee called, watching as the drone hovered above Optimus struggling with one of the Decepticons.
“Optimus…” Smokescreen whispered, defeated, he had watched on helplessly as Optimus was being torn apart by these two femmes, he tried to fight the restraints but it was no good…
“Smokescreen…”
“We need to help Optimus!” Smokescreen struggled harder.
“Smokescreen, stop it…”
“No!”
“Smokescreen!” Arcee shouted, finally grabbing it attention.
“What!?” then he saw it, one of the femmes, the one with the skulls decorating her frame, standing by them, a blade trained at Arcees throat. Smokescreens jaw dropped, still he was helpless to do anything…
“Hey! Optimus!” Blackskull called, grabbing the leaders attention as he pushed his ion cannon into the other twins throat.
Optimus looked over, watching as Blackskull put an arm around Arcees throat and brought the blade closer, he paused, silenced.
“If you harm a single layer of armour on that femmes frame, I swear to Primus I will slit your pretty little motorcycles throat!” a kind of emotion was in Blackskulls voice, a tear trickled down her cheek. She knew this job was dangerous, but she had almost watched her twin get scrapped.
Optimus paused, letting the charge drain from his ion blaster, he threw the black and green femme to the floor, raising his servos in the air, he took a step back.
Blackskull was panting, snatching her servos away from Arcee she took a moment to gather her thoughts.
“That’s more like it,” she called, somehow with less confidence, “go ahead ‘Saw,” she nodded at her twin who ran over to Optimus and fired stasis wire around his arms, once again she was too quick for him to react, then he felt the pulse. An EMP pulse was a powerful weapon when used correctly, at first it just knocks you back for a few moments, but then everything goes fuzzy and you can’t move. Finally, an electrifying throb sends you into an unwelcome stasis. This was what Optimus was now feeling…
“Optimus! Look out!” Smokescreen called as he saw Laserbeak swoop down.
“Shut it you,” Blackskull kicked Smokescreen in the helm.
“What’s going on?” Arcee now had her back to Optimus and couldn’t see what was going on.
By the time Smokescreen looked back up again, energon trickling from his lips, Laserbeak was gone, and Optimus appeared motionless.
“Optim….”
“I said shut it!” Blackskull shouted, kicking Smokescreen again, this time knocking him out.
“Good one,” Blacksaw said as she ran over and saw Smokescreen motionless on the floor, “what about her?” she gestured to Arcee.
Blackskull looked at the blue femme who was shaking as her helm was slowly drooping into stasis.
“She’s as good as scrap,” Blackskull announced, “come on, let’s collect our pay…”