Wolfhook opened his eyes and, extending his limbs in a morning stretch, tore his bedsheets yet again.  

“Alexa, open the shades and start my tea.”

Light poured into the tiny, immaculate, post-tik-neo-tok apartment as Wolfhook sat up, unplugged his IV from The Dataplex, and fired up his hololens display to check what was going on in the world. 

The price of Bitcorn was down.

“My Exopharmers are going to be upset, but the citizoids will be happy. I’ll deal with that later.” thought Wolfhook, furtively glancing at his desk where he could already see a group of unhappy faces trying to peer into his room from inside his 3DVR SimBox. New Iowans are such a pain.  

Wolfhook continued to scan through his newsfeed, schedule, and to-do lists when a dusty old box on a small table in the corner of his room buzzed and whirred as it turned on for the first time in 20 years.  Wolfhook’s ears perked up and his stomach dropped

Faint bubbling sounds and the sweet smell of hotdog tea filled the room but Wolfhook didn’t notice.  He thought he might throw up as he slowly turned his head to see the old computer’s CRT monitor flickering on and a small red light on top flashing on and off.  

“It can’t be.” said Wolfhook, filled with excitement, dread, and guts.  

The flashing computer screen finally steadied itself revealing a map of the United States centered on Utah.  A pulsating circle, focused on the small town of Price, latched onto Wolfhook’s attention like a latch.  Or a hook.  Or a little kid that would not let it go.  But it was the accompanying text that made Wolfhook’s mouth water, his hooks tremble, and his butt pucker:

STARSCREAM…SIGHTED

MINICON………….SIGHTED

STREET AXN……SIGHTED

OPTIMUS PRIME NOWHERE TO BE FOUND

“After all this time… what could they possibly be doing?” said Wolfhook as he got up to turn off the kettle and poured his hot dog tea.  He pondered with murder in his heart as he lapped up the steaming drink, ignoring the angry New Iowans now tapping on the glass of the SimBox and shouting about going broke or something stupid like that. 

“Alexa, cancel my plans for the week.  I’m heading to Price to settle a score.”