"Ugh, again?! Anchovies, how can you eat those things?" Spinner watched his younger brother down a second slice of anchovy and chilli pizza. Sherman just grinned and wiped his mouth, making a sound of contentment. "Who decided to put fish on pizza?" The younger Cortez gagged as he slumped down in his seat and folded his arms. "I think I've just lost my appetite."

"Speak for yourself," Agura added, sipping her coffee "I still feel a little nauseous from that last battle zone."

"Kiburi did shake you around in that fight for the key," Vert admitted, "maybe you should ask sage to check you out when we get back."

"I'm fine, really, it just doesn't seem like we're getting the edge that we need on the reds." Vert frowned as the rest of the team seemed to nod or mumble in agreement.

"She's right mate, Reverb was completely scorched back there," Stanford said with his usual attitude.

"It should get easier the more we fight them guys, and sage's work on the respawn chamber technology shouldn't continue for much longer," Vert assured, seeing everyone's demotivated faces.

"At least we don't have Zemerik and his robo buddies to deal with for the time being," Zoom cut in, seemingly making the team feel better about the situation.

"Yeah, narrowing it down to two groups of baddies should make things easier," Spinner chimed in.

"Down to brutal red sentients and ferocious, mutant animals," Stanford muttered.

Just as Vert was about to respond, the door to the diner swung opened and Zeke walked in, proudly carrying something that could only be described as a pile of junk. Nearly everyone in the small diner raised their eyebrows at what the 'could be called crazy' man had in his hands. Grace was the first one to ask him what it was and he responded with it being a 'UFO signature detector'. Spinner and Stanford were the first two that Zeke heard snickering at this.

"Now hold on a sec you young'uns, abnormal space activity is the perfect time for aliens to invade! And this beauty is gonna detect them when they arrive," Zeke said, polishing the rusty contraption.

Vert cringed, knowing that the 'abnormal space activity' was just a lunar eclipse about to take place over the salt flats. Vert patted the man on the back in a friendly manor. "It's only a blood moon Zeke, I don't think that it'll attract any aliens to Handler's corners."

"That's what you think!" Zeke marched off outside with his machine, slamming the door. Vert shook his head at Zeke, but then hesitated as his com link beeped loudly. The rest of the five noticed and stood up from their seats.

"Problem with your watches?" Grace asked from a nearby table.

"Just an issue back at the garage," Vert responded with a lie, pausing at the door before dashing out, everybody else following. Whilst jumping into the saber, sage's voice became apparent in the car.

"Storm shock in t-minus 2 minutes." Vert pulled out of the small lot and led the team off road into the salt flats. The red eclipse moon was shining down onto the barren land from the early night sky, giving it an eerie red tint. "Be careful team, the lunar activity may cause battle zone anomalies."

"Oh great, please say that it doesn't mean evil doppelgangers and good vandals again!" Stanford growled, throwing his hands up inside his car in response to the memory.

"These readings could mean anything team, please proceed with caution."

Vert had already eyed the electric storm up ahead and looked on as the cars began to lift towards the portal, the lightening striking around the dark whirl of blue that was the portal. When the blinding light cleared, it revealed the battle zone.

It wasn't the average kind of battle zone that they tended to face. No machinery, rockery or sentient technology, not even any sort of landmarks. In fact, from the clearing that was the portal, it was nothing but trail paths wound into a huge fortress of trees. Possibly like your average multiverse coniferous forest. The second thing that was noticed was the lack of light, only provided by the red moon above.

"That must be the anomaly that sage was talking about."

"Fan out guys, see if you can find me a key," Vert called, each car taking a separate dirt path. The darkness made his skin crawl, each gap between the trees so dark that it could camouflage almost anything.

"This place is creep central," Spinner shuddered.

"Yeah, no kidding," Zoom agreed, the chopper's headlights being the only thing illuminating the road ahead.

"Blimey, how do we find the key in here! It's like looking for a needle in a haystack!"

"Yeah, do you think we could manage with a little recon above the trees?"

"Can't take the chance," Vert told the youngest team member, "we need more space."

"So much for a quick run," Zoom muttered, "at least we haven't run into any evil doppelgangers."

"Yet," Spinner finished. He too had to note that the buster's targeting system wasn't picking up any moving targets.

"Do you think it's an ambush?" Agura added with a cautious tone.

"There's nowhere to ambush us from."

"Just keep looking, but stay sharp," Vert cut in, "the vandals or red sentients won't be far behind us." He bit his lip, thinking that maybe they should have brought AJ along with them, as maybe the gear slammer could have cleared some of the trees to find something, or at least make some space to get the chopper airborne above the towering spindly pines. As he continued to drive down the dirt path, he noticed how the road continued to deteriorate the further on he went. All of the paths seemed to wind about into different directions rather than diverting away from each other, so that he would sometimes see a flash of headlights from between the trees. The eeriness of the situation was increased by the lack of communication over the com lines by the team mates. The silence was that loud, that when Agura's voice crackled to life in the radio, it gave him relief. But relief not to last.

"Vert! I've got a situation here!"

"What's the problem Agura?"

"I've got good news and bad news," She replied.

"Good news first," Spinner asked.

"Good news is, I've found the key-,"

"And the bad news?!"

"The vandals have found it too," She admitted, "the key is in some kind of creatures nest at the mouth of a cave, and the vandals have congregated around it."

Vert stamped the gas pedal. "Hang tight, we're on our way." Impeded by the space to reverse, he carried on, hoping that the paths would merge. Within driving a couple hundred yards, Vert came upon a clearing with a large ledge, the tangler sitting atop and the rest of the team pulling up behind them. Vert noticed immediately that the drop led into another level with cave mouth nearby and at this entrance was the alleged nest, with the key centred it the middle. However, the vandals seemed to no longer be focused on this key.

"Subspecies!"

A string of spears flew upwards from the dip, nearly striking the saber. Moving first, Vert watched as the tangler jumped down into the gap and began to wage battle on the mutants. The rest of the team followed suit, driving down the less steep slope on the other side. There was a large amount of space around the cave, and Kalus had taken this opportunity to form a defence around the key. Yet Vert's confidence told him that a couple of weapon strikes would break the warlord's defences. Agura had gone straight for sever, trying to disable the metal jaws that were snapping at her tyres. Everyone else was engaged with a vandal, including Zoom who had finally managed to get airborne, leaving Kalus for him.

"Paws of the key Kalus!" Blades charged, he assaulted the humanoid cat, who responded by shooting a number of crossbow arrows. The two vehicles collided, leaving them parallel to the nest and the key.

"It is you who will be destroyed!" Kalus roared, but then ducked with a growl as hatch and the scarab came barrelling over his charithot, clattering to a halt with a missing wheel. The leader's eyes narrowed to slits with anger. Vert could only smirk. With hatch busy fixing his wheel and Krocomodo and Sever cornered by the rest of the team, Kalus seemed to be outraged. Stanford began firing his sonic cannons at the warlord, who began to drive circles around the pit to avoid being hit. Sever had managed to slip past the barricade, but was soon sent spinning out by the chopper as Zoom landed in the centre of the nest, ready to swoop in on the key.

"Nice one Zoom!"

"Nothing like kicking Vandal butt!" The biker grabbed the key with a victory cheer as Kalus and his Vandals growled. The growling only seemed to get louder the longer Zoom held the key.

"Hey Sherm, is that your stomach?" Spinner joked, prodding him.

"That doesn't sound like Sherman or the Vandals guys!"

Zoom swallowed nervously. "Oh boy." The growling turned into snarling as even the vandals started looking towards the cave, where the loud noise was echoing from. Several pairs of yellow eyes appeared in the pitch black maw and both teams froze as the creatures made themselves known. A small pack of large canine creatures came forth into the car headlights. Vert's eyes widened as the largest one at the front, presumably the leader looked right at the team scout. The huge creature snarled, salivating, revealing its gaping maw and curved fangs. Its brown brindled fur was bristled all along its back and its eyes were locked on Zoom, more specifically the key.

Vert could only watch as the huge beast leapt at the biker.

"Zoom!"

Hello there, this is my first and probably only story for this fandom. This idea has been at the back of my mind for ages and would not leave me alone so I ended up trying to write it out. You've probably read the summary and title and already correctly guessed what this story is about XD. If this gets any reviews/favs/favourites/a few views I will be more likely to continue it. I apologize for this chapter being a little sloppy, it takes me a little while to get into a story but this should have more action as of the next chapter. The BF5 characters are easier to put into character than the other fandom I write for, and I apologize for any little grammar slip ups in this story. Thank you for reading, and if you do like what I have so far, please review to tell me what you think, don't be strangers :D