Note: References to my fanfic 'Camping Trip' appear in this chapter.

Chapter Ninety-One

A Dangerous Hostage

Meanwhile with the girls, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, the girls had had their picnic and decided to burn some energy before they were called back to the Silo.

The sun had fully set and after pointing out some constellations to the two Autobots, who were very interested and impressed with the knowledge the girls had about the stars, Kemeko and Pandora decided to play hide and seek.

Even though most would consider that game to be childish, both girls saw it as a chance to practice their ninja skills as they often played it a different way, and that was that instead of just counting and hiding in one place until they were found, the one hiding would move around and the seeker would try and locate them before a certain about of time was up.

They had already played a couple of times, and they had agreed that after counting to one hundred they had five minutes maximum to look for the one hiding.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee already made a couple of bets between them about how the girls would find each other within or over their time limits and Bumblebee had been triumphant when he wagered that Kemeko would find Pandora within the five minutes in her first go.

Now almost half an hour had past, and they still hadn't been called by their parents nor Optimus to return to the Silo, so Kemeko suggested another go then they would check in with the adults.

Pandora agreed, though secretly she wished they could stay out longer, in fact she planned when they returned to the silo that she would request that she and Kemeko, and the Geckolings if they were up for it to camp out in the desert.

"Just like when we camped in Massachusetts near Uncle Casey's Farmhouse." She thought as she crouched behind some rocks near the road hiding from Kemeko.

"After our success the first time, we started to do it more often in the summer, I can't see any reason why our parents would let us do it this time, and we're a lot older now."

Meanwhile, Black Mamba had her head sticking out of the sunroof of Mech's car that she and Nile Monitor were in and she was still tasting the air.

"She's close!" she said then investigated the car "Nile! Get them to stop the car, I'm going into stealth mode!"

Nile monitor nodded and told the driver to stop the car.

The Driver was surprised but he agreed and slowed the car then Black Mamba did a somersault out of the sunroof and gracefully walked down the roof onto the windscreen and onto the road, her tongue still flicking as she tasted the air.

The driver frowned behind his goggles.

"I just polished this car!" he grunted.

"Oh shut up!" Nile Monitor snarled "You can clean it later, right now Black Mamba might just have found the prize for yours and my masters!"

The driver and the passenger grunted but they knew better than to argue and they watched as Black Mamba started to walk down the dusty road.

Meanwhile, Pandora who had no idea Black Mamba wasn't far away was walking behind the rocks avoiding detection from Kemeko who had appeared a few feet away yet hadn't seen the hybrid.

Pandora smirked and looked at her watch.

"Just another minute and thirty seconds." She thought "Then I will have been about to beat the record at staying hidden!" she moved back more, and she saw Kemeko disappear behind the rocks ahead.

"Just got to get back a little more." She thought then decided to get clever and do a few silent cartwheels.

Just as she did the last cartwheel and stood up straight, she turned, and she was alarmed to see a black figure before her!

"What the...?" she blinked as she wondered if this was just a passerby or someone who was also out in the desert and she hadn't noticed, and her ninja senses hadn't picked them up.

But as she looked again getting over her alarm, she realised too late that it was the green eyes mutant Snake Black Mamba!

"Mam..." Pandora cried out, but she didn't have the chance to scream nor alert Kemeko to her position as Black Mamba punched the hybrid in the face, and she was sent flying into a rock formation hitting her head!

"Ha! Too easy!" Black Mamba chuckled as she knelt beside the Hybrid and checked her over.

"Hmmm, interesting and lucky, she has no weapons on her, apart from her Shell-Cell!" she gathered Pandora in her arms and quickly moved away from the scene towards where Mech's Car along with Nile Monitor was waiting around the corner.

"I got her!" Black Mamba cried triumphantly "I got the Hamato Brat!"

Nile Monitor's eyes widened.

"Well, this is interesting." He said, "We were sent out to look for Raphael and Mona, and lo and behold, we got their daughter!"

"It can still work in our favour." Black Mamba said "Alert the others, and out masters! We'll take the hybrid and use her to get her parents and Arcee to us!"

Nile Monitor nodded and licked his lips.

"The Masters are gonna be pleased as punch!" he said.

Meanwhile, unaware of what had happened, Kemeko was still searching for Pandora, the five minutes were almost up, and she hoped to find the hybrid before then.

"Pandora's not going to let me hear the end of it if I don't find her soon." She thought narrowing her eyes.

She kept prowling along looking in the darkness for her cousin, yet she couldn't see her nor sense her presence.

Just then her watch bleeped, and she sighed disappointed as she realised that her time was up.

She also noticed it was started to get late and that their parents would be calling them soon to call them back to the silo.

"Pandora!" she called "You win this round; we better get ready for our parents to call us back to the silo! Times getting on!"

She waited, yet she heard nothing.

"Pandora?" she called again "Pandora! Games over! We got to get ready to head back!"

But again, there was no reply.

Kemeko narrowed her eyes.

"Come on Pandora! Quit kidding around!" she called sternly.

But again, there was still no answer from the hybrid.

Kemeko frowned harder and she jumped up on some high rocks and looked around.

The desert landscape stood wide and open and the high formations including the ones where the hidden silo was stood out against the star-studded skies and apart from the soft wind in her ears and across the sand, there was no other sound to be heard.

"Pandora?" she called out again, this time her voice echoing "Pandora?" she called again "Come on, it's not funny anymore!"

She looked around again then ran back to where Bulkhead and Bumblebee were still sitting.

"Guys! Guys!" she cried to which the two Autobots looked down.

"What's up kiddo?" Bulkhead asked.

"Did Pandora come back here?" Kemeko asked breathlessly.

"No." Bulkhead said looking confused and Bumblebee bleeped and shook his head.

"Damn!" Kemeko said "I can't find her anywhere!"

Bulkhead frowned.

"You can't find her?" he asked, "You mean she's either hiding from you and not answering you or she's vanished?"

Kemeko looked around, she was starting to get worried.

"Pandora would never just not answer me." She insisted "I mean yes of course she likes to tease me or play pranks, but she wouldn't just not answer and hide especially when it's curfew soon!"

Bulkhead frowned harder.

"I see." He said then stood up, Bumblebee following.

"Something's not right guys." Kemeko said "We need to find her."

"I wonder where she might have gotten to?" Bulkhead asked, "There's no-one else around here for miles and I doubt she could have gotten into trouble within this area!"

Kemeko frowned again.

"Something's really not right." She said, "Yet I don't know what."

"Uggghhh..." Pandora groaned as she felt a pang in her head then she opened her eyes to see lights as well as blurred images above her.

"What the fuck?"

"She's coming to."

"Finally, thought she wasn't going to wake up."

"Well, well, well, I see another creature just like the ones I met in the woods,"

Pandora's heart beat in her chest as she heard voices that didn't sound like those she knew and she shook her head to see the face of a man with white hair and cold hard eyes staring down at her along with some other masked men with goggles.

"What the...?" Pandora cried "Silas!"

Silas smirked and chuckled.

"So you know who I am, very good!" he said "You must have been told of me by your mutant family."

Pandora growled and narrowed her eyes as she sat up.

"What am I doing here?" she asked, "What the fuck do you want?"

"I'll take that question little girl." Pandora's blood ran cold, and she looked to the side to see an intimidating black and silver femme with horns on her head and soulless purple eyes.

"No way..." she muttered "Airachnid..."

Airachnid saw Pandora's lips move and she placed a finger under the hybrid's chin.

"You've heard of me too, have you?" she asked "Good, then you must be aware of my little interaction with your parents."

Pandora narrowed her eyes.

"How do you even know I'm even associated with them?" she spat.

"It's obvious actually." Silas drawled "I remember you from that escapade with the dingus and the train, and you have the looks of the lizard lady."

Pandora glared at Silas then looked at Airachind.

"I'm not afraid of you!" she snarled.

"Oh you should be!" Airachnid hissed "After what your dear daddy and mummy did, I plan to make them pay! And you're part of the plan!"

"Oh yeah? Bite me!" Pandora spat and she moved quickly away from Airachind's clawed digit and went for Silas spinning her legs and kicking him in the face sending him into his men and knocking them over like skittles!

Pandora then leapt up and started to run, kicking down several soldiers as she did so.

Airachnid hissed then shot some webbing at the hybrid, yet she jumped to avoid it and the webbing hit some soldiers and pinned them to the walls!

"Ha!" Pandora shouted as she ran then leapt over furniture and continued to kick and punch several soldiers down as they tried to stop her.

Airachnid glowered and shot another webbing at her, yet she missed much to her fury.

"As long as I keep moving." Pandora thought "That robot bitch can't catch me! I can dodge her webbing just like I can dodge Cobra's venom or anything else thrown at me!"

"You're only making it worse for yourself!" Airachnid snarled "I will catch you and destroy you! And I will make it hurt! You don't want your insides to be sent to your parents, do you?"

Pandora glowered.

"You sadistic freak!" she shouted, leaping into the air and grabbing onto a metal beam and swinging herself up "You're no different from someone else I know!"

"And I think I know who you mean!"

Pandora's heart stopped as she heard that voice and she looked down to see Dr Arden standing on the ground below.

Pandora blinked, wondering if what she was seeing was an illusion and she shook her head.

"No...Arden?" she asked "How...how are you here?!"

"In the flesh!" Dr Arden smirked and pointed his fist at her to which Pandora despite her shock, she moved quickly as she felt a breeze whizz past her, and she realised he was going to fire his syringes at her.

At once she reached for her belt only to realise, she didn't have Mr Swinger with her, nor her metal claws nor her tail blade.

"No!" she thought then remembered she had left them at the silo!

"Shit fuck!" she thought "Of all the times I decide not to take my weapons, and it had to be today of all days!"

She started to move along the beams to avoid Dr Arden's syringes and at the same time Airachnid's webbing, at the same time she wondered how the Foot had gotten involved with Mech and this giant Spider Bot, yet she couldn't ponder on that situation right now, she had to find a way to escape.

Silas meanwhile had gotten to his feet and watched the whole spectacle and looked to Arashi who walked over with a smirk.

"I always enjoy a little action before we bring the prey down." He said.

Silas glowered.

"She's a tough little nut." He said, "I see where she gets it from."

"She can't avoid Dr Arden or Airachnid forever." Arashi reassured Silas "She'll be part of the leverage we need to lure Raphael, Monalisa and Arcee to us."

Pandora kept moving over the beams to avoid the projectiles, yet as she did, she tried to see if there were sky windows she could escape through, but as she looked she heard hissing, then she cried out in alarm as she saw Cobra appear before her.

"Surprise!" she hissed to which the hybrid almost fell off the beam, yet she managed to grab it before she fell.

Cobra licked her lips and sauntered over dripping her venom.

"Gotcha!" she hissed then opened her mouth to drool and Pandora moved her face away and closed her eyes to try and avoid it, but the burning from the drops of poison was too much to ignore or avoid and she then felt Cobra's hands on her fingers making her let go in pain!

Pandora screamed as she felt only to be caught in a large hand and she opened her eyes to see Airachnid holding her like a doll in her large servo.

"The prey has been caught!" she smirked as she looked at the struggling Pandora in her grip.

"Let go of me you ugly freak bitch!"

She then felt a stinging pain in her lower back, and she felt her body become rigid and she stopped struggling.

Dr Arden smirked as he held up his syringe fingers.

"Head on a stick brat!" he said then Pandora felt stiff as a board as Airachnid set her down and the hybrid soon saw the rest of the Venomous Five including Black Mamba who had knocked her out earlier.

"Good job William." Arashi said walking over with Silas as Dr Arden smirked feeling rather pleased with himself.

"Now we can begin the next phase, bring Raphael and Monalisa to us," Arashi said holding up Pandora's shell cell.

"And Arcee..." Airachnid licked her lips, and she lifted her hands to spray webbing at Pandora and covered her in a cocoon.

"I got plans for this one!" she hissed.

Oh no! Pandora's been taken prisoner! And she's at the mercy of not only MECH, but the Foot and Airachnid! Meanwhile Kemeko, Bumblebee and Bulkhead aren't aware of what's happened!

This is bad!