Chapter 2: Neither Autobot nor Decepticon II

Brawl was smashing and lobbing piles of rubble at the building that was the Autobots secret base.

"I'll tear this place down, you find the entrance!" Brawl ordered, "Bounty Hunter, you're my back up." Barricade transformed and raced away from the fight, Blurr transformed and gave chase.

"Autobots, attack!" Arcee yelled. Her servos transformed into pulse cannons and she fired up the Decepticon. Brawl's shoulder was grazed as a small piece of shrapnel from his armor flew off. Brawl turned his left servo into a energy cannon, he fired it at Arcee, but Arcee was too quick, she backflipped over the shot of purple energy. Bulkhead charged in, turning his right servo into his Wrecking Ball Arm. Bulkhead sucker punched the big Decepticon, a piece of helmet fell off of him as he stumbled. Brawl and Bulkhead shared the same height. Brawl clenched his fist and counterattacked his Autobot counterpart. The Behemoth Bulkhead just stumbled a bit.

"Is that the best you can do, 'Con?" he taunted. Brawl shouted in rage, many cannons and maching guns appeared on his arms, and shoulders.

"Scrap!" Bulkhead said defeatedly. Brawl fired his missiles, energon bullets, and so on at Bulkhead. Bulkhead tumbled out of the way, but a local shop wasn't so lucky.

"Ooh, I hope those guys have insurance," Bulkhead proclaimed. Brawl was getting even more steamed by the second.

"C'mon, Autobot, no more jokes, it's time to finish this!" he exclaimed. Brawl raised his servos into a fighting stance.

"I agree, 'Con," replied Bulkhead. Bulkhead raising his servos. At the same time both mechs delievered serious punches to their faces at the same time, causing both Brawl and Bulkhead to stumble a bit backwards. The two continued their close combat action. However, it was cut short when Arcee intervened. Arcee in her motorcycle form raced to the Warmongering Decepticon, she jumped and transformed. The female Autobot produced two twin blades from both servos, Brawl's left shoulder transformed into a cannon, but before he could fire, Arcee sliced the shoulder cannon in half. Brawl flung Arcee off of him, but was quickly grabbed by Ironhide. Ironhide fired his cannons at Brawl's sides, wounding the 'Con. Brawl attempted to counterattack, but he was too slow, Ironhide continued to work on him. Large chunks of armor flung every, pieces of body parts from Brawl flew every as well. Bulkhead ran up, and sucker punched Brawl a second time, this time knocking the 'Con on his face.

"Decepticon punk!" Ironhide exclaimed. Arcee tried her luck again. She raced to the wounded Decepticon, as he tried to get up.

"W-wait!" Brawl stammered. Arcee transformed and in a flash, Brawl's head was on the other end of the street corner.

"Now, we assist Blurr in capturing the second Decepticon," Ironhide ordered. Before the Autobots could advance, a green and black muscle car transformed right near Longarm, Longarm threw the tow hook right at the Transformer. But the mech caught the hook and gave it a hard tug, the cable from Longarm tore off, Longarm changed his servos into pulse cannons, he fired upon the Mech However, the Mech dodged the attack with ease. The two then engaged in close combat. Longarm uppercutted his opponent but the Transformer blocked the attack, the unknown Mech did a right hook, but luckily for Longarm he blocked and parried. Longarm roundhouse kicked the Mech in the right leg, the Cybertronian fell a bit, and growled in frustration.

"Enough of this!" the Mech shouted. The Cybertronian used his hook servo to deliver a severe slash at Longarm's sides. Purple liquid leaked profusely from Longarm. The Mech continued to slash at Longarm, til the Autobot could no longer stand, Ironhide and Hot Rod fired at the Cybertronian.

"Who in the Allspark are you!?" Hot Rod questioned. The Mech's smile had a gap in it.

"You can call me, Lockdown," he announced, "I did a number on your friend, know this: I am neither Autobot nor Decepticon." Lockdown transformed and retreated. As Lockdown took his leave, Hot Rod was tempted to go after him, but Ironhide told the young brash Autobot to stand down. Longarm was laid on his back, the "bleeding" continued.

"Nrrgh, gggggh, raaah!" Longarm grunted and winced in pain.

"Bulkhead, put pressure on his wound!" Arcee shouted. Bulkhead ran up to the fallen Autobot and placed his hands on the wound.

"We need to get him back to Ratchet, stat!" Bulkhead shouted.

"G-g-guys, if I... don't... make...," Longarm choked out.

"You're gonna make it, soldier, we're gonna get you to Ratchet," Arcee said to Longarm.

"Listen... if I don't... make it... p-pl-please... make sure... I didn't go offline... in... vain," Longarm continued.

"You're not gonna go offline, Arms, you're gonna be okay," Bulkhead reassured. Wheeljack contacted Ratchet via comlink.

"Come in Ratchet, Ratchet come in," Wheeljack said with worriment. Ratchet recieved the message loud and clear.

"This is Ratchet, what is it, Wheeljack?" the old Medibot asked his warrior friend.

"Please come here quick, Longarm's going into energon shock, we need you here now," Wheeljack said.

"Scrap," Ratchet said sharply under his breath. The Medibot transformed and raced out of the base.


Meanwhile, in downtown Washington D.C. Blurr continued to chase Barricade. Barricade transformed from car to robot and the Cop 'Con turned his servo into a buzz saw. Barricade attempted to slash at Blurr, but the speedy blue robot was too quick, he jabbed at Barricade's face causinf him to land on his chassis. Barricade quickly got up and countered but no avail, Blurr dodged the attack with greatest of ease. Barricade growled in anger, he aggressively slashed his buzz saw arm at Blurr, but Blurr laughed at the feeble attempts from the Decepticon.

"From my calculations, you have a 25 percent chance from catching up to me, that is your highest number, but if I were to go full speed, your chances of catching me are down to 3 percent, that is a 22 percent gap difference," Blurr said to Barricade. However, in a flash a yellow laser hit Blurr's back, the Autobot was unconscious, Lockdown transformed his hook servo into an EMP blaster.

"Sweet dreams, Autobot," Lockdown laughed.

"Bounty Hunter, I'm glad to see you," Barricade said.

"C'mon, back to base," Lockdown ordered. The two transformed and raced off back to their base.