In the middle of the night, three vehicles, two cars and a van, were traveling along a wide muddy road. It had been raining before, late into the evening, causing the vehicles to drive cautiously. The group spread out, avoiding the pitfall of advancing one at a time, in case they were attacked from the front and one from the rear. They were in the forest, heading towards a secret passage to U’dreg Rookweh. Inside the van, Wazp, Hyssss, Vezpar, and Kobre were trapped within the detainment cubes. The ruags shivered from the cold, the chilled air fogging the containers. A different team of Keepers were responsible for escorting the ruags.

One of the Keepers accidentally left the cubes’ intercom feature on, which used sound vibrations off the glass to communicate with the outside world. Unfortunately, this allowed Wazp to complain the whole way. Hyssss looked like he wanted to strangle him, but he had no hands to do it.

“I-z don’t-z want-z to-z go-z to-z the-z Hub-z!” Wazp whined, his tiny mandibles quivering. “Itz zupposed-z to-z be-z really-z cold-z there-z.”

“Itss already cold here!” snapped Hyssss. “Thiss iss all your fault! You just had to keep inssissting on teaching that mynah a lesssson!”

“Itz your-z fault-z!” Wazp buzzed angrily. “You-z juzt-z had-z to-z diztract-z uz with-z your-z oozpad-z: ‘duh-z, do-z I-z ztill-z have-z to-z hold-z him-z?’”

“Sshut it! You’d do the ssame if you were sstuck with the sstuttering fulu!”

“Would-z not-z!”

“Would too!”

“Quiet-sz!” bellowed Vezpar in annoyance.

“Quiet back there!” demanded the brunette Keeper at the front.

THUMP!

Something had landed on the hood of the car. It felt quite strange, as if there were many arms grasping his back. The Gardios sensed a large hairy head with eight eyes glaring down at him.

“Eeeeeeaaaaaaargh!!” screamed the car. He swerved out of control until finally crashing into a tree, which uprooted and toppled over. Blood trickled down the Keeper’s forehead as he sat unconscious in the driver’s seat, resting upon the deployed steering wheel airbag.

The Gardios shouted in agony as the car's roof was peeled back by a large pair of long, furry spider arms. To him, the sensation was like having the flesh ripped off his back. 

“He’ss here!” declared the smirking Kobre, “No one can win againsst the mighty Raknae!”

Raknae tossed the roof aside as a gelatinous mass seeped out from underneath the car and passed out from the pain. It was then that the car collapsed to the ground, unable to bear the giant spider’s weight without a Blood merged with it. The rest of the vehicles screeched to a stop by the crash site. Several Keepers and Gardios shouted as they rushed to apprehend Raknae.

Raknae’s plan was simple enough: stop the lead vehicle, the Creed advance stops, then the last vehicle hinders the escape.

“One ruag confirmed!” shouted a blonde man, “There may be others lying in wait!”

Sure enough, as soon as he said that, two more attackers struck, disguised as unsuspecting rain puddles from the ground, lying in wait as ambush predators did. They would have been easy to spot were it not for the dark and previous rain, but this trap was calculated, and its effectiveness was maximized.

The blond Keeper was taken out first by a tongue strike from a Frog-Blood. As his Gardios partner, a Lizard-Blood went to assist him, he was then taken out from behind by a pair of sickle-like blades from a Prey-Mantis-Blood.

The last two Keepers left standing tried to rush the Spider-Blood in an attempt to subdue him, but to their dismay, Raknae leapt towards them, capturing the pair beneath a heavy, silvery web.

“Oosspad!” hissed Hyssss from the flattened car.

“Yeah-z! Oozpad-z!” Wazp chimed in.

“Can you two jusst sshut it?!” Kobre commanded, finally losing his patience.

Raknae approached the flattened vehicle as his subordinates wrapped up the rest of the Creed forces. After hauling out the Detainment Cubes two at a time, Kobre made sure that they were not within earshot of anyone.

“It took you long enough to busst uss out of here!” Kobre began to berate his rescuer.

“If it weren’t for me, you would be stuck frozen and cramped in the ‘Fridge’ right now,” Raknae gave the prisoner a cold, contemptible stare with all eight of his yellow eyes.

Several miles away, a yellow all-terrain vehicle was driving deep in the forest. Tim sat in the driver's seat, fastened in place by holds made from Terranis’ metallic flesh. Terranis swerved between trees, humming operatic tunes through the mounted radio. His partner was fast asleep, too tired to care about his taste in music.

“Wow … Tim went back to look for you? How nice of him!” said Abby. She had forgotten about the cup of coffee that she was holding close to her lips.

Abby and Jenkins were sitting around the small round table in the Retro Records break-room. Jenkins had black circles around his bloodshot eyes, as though he hadn’t slept at all. Aunt Drasilda had been devastated when she found out about the attack. She was even more upset when she discovered that he had no memories of that night’s events and insisted that he must see the doctor immediately. The doctor said there was nothing wrong with him, except for a minor cut on the back of his head, but Aunt Drasilda could not be reassured until she wrapped Jenkins’ head with bandages and prescribed some vitamins.

“I’m still not sure what happened,” he replied uncertainly. “The last thing I remember is Tim talking to his sister on the phone …” Jenkins fiddled with the string for his Earl Grey tea bag. He had developed his preference for tea with a bit of milk over coffee due to his aunt’s influence.

“You were hit on the head … maybe it knocked out some of your memories?” Abby suggested.

“A lot of things seem to happen when Tim is involved …” muttered Jenkins, quietly rubbing the back of his head.

“Pardon?”

“Sorry, it’s nothing …” he said, taking a quick glance at the change-room door. He pushed up his glasses, feeling quite uneasy. His glasses had miraculously survived the onslaught.

“I wonder why the two of you were suddenly jumped,” Abby asked, finally noticing her coffee and taking a couple of sips. It was lukewarm now, but she didn’t mind.

“The policeman said it was most likely a random attack, given the initial evidence,” said Jenkins, shifting uneasily in his seat. “They probably saw us walking down an empty street and decided to mug us.”

The change-room door abruptly opened behind Jenkins, and the young man yelped in shock. Tim limped out looking even worse than the day before. His lips looked a bit fuller than usual. His arms, visible as he was wearing his lime-green Retro Records t-shirt, were bruised and covered with healing cuts. Jenkins wondered why he wasn’t covered in bandages, too, especially since he had suffered a far greater beating than him. He suddenly felt a bit like a wimp for bandaging his head because of a bump.

“You’re always — so jumpy!” Tim tried to burst out in laughter, cringing slightly from the pain in his sides. The ruags weren’t particularly gentle with him, but they had definitely held back, not truly wishing to kill him. Apparently, a war was not on their mind … yet.

It’s a good thing those thugs didn’t rough me up too badly. If I missed Sarah’s ceremony, she would never let me hear the end of it! Tim grimaced at the very thought of having to deal with Sarah’s sisterly wrath.

“Tim, are you alright?” Abby asked. “I’m surprised you came today!”

Tim had arrived early because he got a ride. Even Grandpa Markus thought it was a ridiculous idea for him to walk to work. Sarah decided against chewing him out when he arrived back home in his sorry state. He was out cold and didn’t wake up until his alarm rang in the morning. Terranis had taken the liberty to set it for him, knowing that Tim didn’t like missing work. Tim liked to keep up appearances. While the Creed provided, there were not many people who worked entry-level jobs who could miss multiple days of work and not be financially impacted. When he got up, there was a large breakfast waiting for him consisting of sausages, waffles, a huge orange, and milk. His mother had given him an extra-large portion, saying that he needed it to recover. Sarah examined him and then gave a big hug, causing Tim to wince from the pain, before informing him that she had to go shopping for new plates and rushed out the door.

“I’m fine, Abby — thanks!” Tim wheezed, trying to reassure her as he hobbled towards the door. “I’m getting — used to the — frequent injuries.”

“That’s not something you should be proud of!” gasped Jenkins, clutching his chest.

Tim chuckled before saying, “Anyways, I’m heading out. Rodney looked like he needed some help.” Tim dragged his feet as he made his way out of the break room. His back was a little hunched.

Rodney’s voice could be heard from behind the door, “You look even worse than yesterday! Are you into this kind of thing?!”

“Oh, haha …” Tim laughed unenthusiastically outside the door.

Jenkins’ heart was still racing from the scare. He rubbed the bump on the back of his head and mumbled under his breath. Jenkins knew that Tim had helped save him, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was mysterious and maybe even dangerous.

“Did you say something, Jenkins?” Abby inquired, sipping the remainder of her coffee before it got too cold.

“Sorry, it’s nothing,” said Jenkins as he stared at the break-room door. He jumped slightly when it suddenly opened. Haley walked in briskly, carrying a small purple and black backpack. She wore a black sleeveless shirt, a leather choker, a decorative skull belt, wristbands with studs, cropped jeans with sheared black leggings, and studded heeled boots. Her hair was slightly curled.

“Good morning, Haley!” Abby looked delighted to see her and bolted to the coffee machine to prepare a cup of coffee for her.

“Morning, Sweet Cheeks,” Haley replied. That was the name she had bestowed upon Abby. “Seems like Tim’s cousin is here toda—” She stared at Jenkins’ bandaged head and raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What’s this? Is Tim’s misfortune contagious?”