And so it begins!

"That went smoothly," Qatan looked at the bird and the bee and smiled in his usual carefree manner. But they looked extremely horrified. Even the bird had stopped chewing the grubs that he had brought with him and was looking at Qatan with his beak slightly open.

"It could've been worse. Cheer up, guys," Qatan tried to reassure them both as they were walking to the exit. The hive was a marvel of complex engineering, having its airways and roadways that overlapped with each other yet served their purpose exceptionally well. Bees were unmatched in architecture and engineering.

Paw by paw. Step by step. Whistling and singing under his breath. The fat cloud kitty was radiating an aura of a hidden agenda and dread. #212 was slowly descending into the state of madness he had barely recovered from after getting the promotion. And the crow... Well, he had forgotten about them and was just twitching and following along.

Qatan stopped at a point and specifically pushed off a small tank filled with honey off the road. As it fell down to the depth of the hive, #212 looked at him with more surprise now.

"I'm going to request the queen to reassign me," he said resignedly.

To this, Qatan looked at him with reassurance and said, "Don't worry, #212. There's literally no flaw in my plan. Just follow me along, and I promise you'll be fine."

"NO FLAW? YOU ARE THE FLAW, YOU DAMN LUNATIC, EXTREMELY FLUFFED UP... Cloud... CAT. I don't know what you are... I don't know anything anymore." #212 had had enough.

Suddenly, the hive was in lockdown, and sirens blared everywhere. A soldier came running to #212 and whispered something into his ear.

"What?" Qatan asked the petrified bee.

"The demon child and her accomplice are here to finish the job," #212 replied.

"That makes it easier for us then." The cloud looked at #212 with a hint of madness in his eyes. Suddenly, #212 knew who the person was that the cloud wanted to strike down.

************

Khadija stood at the edge of the field around her swarmed countless bees, trying to warn her off. They were keeping an eye on her in case she did something awful. By now, they knew she was the main accomplice to the demon child, so she was marked as well.

"Please, I know you can all understand me. Take me to the queen. I want to talk to the queen."

The bees buzzed more loudly, and they came together and formed an N and O. It looked comically funny. The N was reversed, but they tried. Special units like nectar#1 were trained in extensive communication skills. They could form themselves around each other and communicate in human languages as well. They were prepared for invasions from a lot of species that surrounded them. Today the worst of them had come for the hive.

"Why not!? I just want to talk to her."

Khadija started crying as she sat down. Nectar#1 had no idea how to deal with a crying child and someone who looked extremely innocent as well on top of that. But they were well informed by the cloud. They already knew something like this could happen.

The cloud had well-informed the team, and now it was his time to extract revenge. The bees swirled around her in a menacing pattern that made Khadija flinch back a bit. From the swarm, a bee of beautiful lustrous armor descended on Khadija's palm. #212 had arrived. He was fearless.

The next moment, a few more words were written in the sky by the bees. 'Where is the demon child?'

"Who's the demon child?"

The cloud was looking at everything from a distance hidden in the sunflowers, directing them at his command.

"I don't know where Isra is, and she is not a demon child. We just got scared and got separated. I don't know where she went. Please."

"If only I could talk to the queen once, she would understand."

The antenna-coms stood, and a signal was passed to #212.

"We have found her. The demon child is nearing the west entrance. She has a SMO--"

The connection was lost. #212 looked grimly towards the west from where a small cloud of smoke was forming. Isra had come.