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Jack quietly watched as the 'bots argued by the main console.
"I'm tellin' you, Ratch'!" Bulkhead exclaimed. "I didn' take any from the emergency stores! I've been too busy runnin' around with 'Bee, lookin' for relics!"
'Bee trilled, nodding in agreement, vouching for his friend.
Jack nervously squirmed where he sat on the couch. He felt bad for taking some of the energon, but it barely made a dent in the stores, and it was for a good cause, right?
Ratchet sighed, looking at the others.
"Smokescreen, what about you? Did you withdraw any energon and forget to inform us?"
The young mech shook his head.
"Nope. I've never even been to that forest, let alone touch the emergency stores."
"Maybe a 'con stumbled on it?" Arcee suggested. "A rogue like Starscream?"
"That seems like a plausible explanation." Ultra Magnus agreed.
"Hmph." Ratchet grunted. "Perhaps. I'll do a perimeter scan of the area tomorrow. I may be able to pick up a stray Decepticon signal there."
Jack felt fear and worry settle in the pit of his stomach. This wasn't good! He had to go warn the scarred mech! Try and find a way to get him out of the forest and somewhere safe. And soon.
Far from the Autobot base, at that exact same moment, Lockdown was in his ship, 'The Deaths Head'. He reclined in the seat that was before the ship controls, grinning to himself as he watched data flash across a holoprojected screen.
He was in a much different condition than he had Jack thinking. While a wound still gaped in his side, all of the important wires and energon lines were functioning. He could easily move, and speak. In fact, he'd been well for two days now, his self-repairing systems having kicked in after a bit.
But he had to keep up the façade to keep an optic on his current object, or rather person, of interest. If he was well and could take care of himself, then the boy would run off, most likely. Even though the teen was human, he was smart. Lockdown knew he'd have to handle this like he did when after a Cybertronian target.
"C'mon..." Lockdown muttered, a bit irritated now. "'S been an hour. Where's the kid..?"
For the past hour, he'd been scouring the streets of Jasper and the nearby roads, hacking into all of the street cameras, all in search of Jackson Darby. Yet there was no sign of the teen.
He was probably hidden away in the Autobot secret base, Lockdown mused. No camera's there...Well, there probably was, he just didn't know where they were.
With a sigh, Lockout leaned forward, going to switch off the console-
But then he saw it.
On one of the screens, he saw Jack. The teen was running out of a groundbridge, which was behind a house (Jack's home, no doubt). He was heading towards the forest, it seemed.
Lockdown smirked to himself, standing. As he headed for the ship's exit, he grabbed a strange, small, circular disk of metal. Time to catch himself a human.
Jack ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He had to go and warn the mech in the forest! If the 'bots found him, they'd think that the scary looking mech had stolen energon from them, and the results would definitely not be good.
"C'mon..!" He muttered to himself, voice desperate. "Faster! Gotta get there..!"
It took him only ten minutes, but to Jack, it felt like ten hours. Once in the cover of the forest, he hurried towards where he assumed the mech still rested in the crater in the ground.
But when he got there, he found...nothing.
The crater was still there, as where the torn up trees and died energon on the ground...but the mech was gone.
Jack looked around, worry in his eyes.
"Hello?" He called out. "It's me! Jack! Are you here? Hello?!"
No reply came.
He shuffled forward, peering into the tree's for any sign of the mech.
"Hello there."
Jack gasped, whipping around as a large shadow fell over him. He found himself staring up into the now familiar faceplates of his patient, or rather, former patient.
"Y...you're..."
The mech grinned.
"Yeah. 'M all better, thanks t' yer care. Thanks fer th' energon an' makin' sure I didn' bleed out."
Jack shakily nodded, taking a few hesitant steps back. The mech was as tall as Optimus!
"N-No problem."
The mech's grin widened.
"Ah c'mon, no need t' be scared, kid. Ya helped me out a lot. Why would I hurt ya?"
Jack paused, thinking for a moment.
"You're not a 'con?"
The mech shook his head, leaning casually against a tree.
"Nah. I'm a neutral. When ya found me, I'd just had a run-in with Starscream in that fancy apex armor of his."
The mech straightened, the tree creaking as the mech's weight was lifted off it. He strode forward a couple steps, the ground shaking, making Jack stumble a bit.
"Th' name's Lockdown. Yer Jack, righ'?"
The teen nodded.
"Y-yeah. That's right. I thought...I thought you weren't better yet? How can you already be moving around, just a few hours ago you couldn't move or talk."
The mech chuckled.
"Yeah. I couldn' move the first couple of days. But my self repair systems kicked in."
"Then why-"
"Did I stay 'ere? I didn'. After you'd leave, I'd go back t' my ship an' come back in th' mornin'."
"But why?" Jack asked, stressing the word. He was very confused, and starting to feel a little worried too.
Lockdown crossed his arms, grin becoming something dark.
"Yer an' interestin' little organic, did'ja know tha'?"
Jack took a few steps back, form becoming tense. For every few steps back that the teen took, Lockdown took one forward.
"C'mon, like I said 'fore, I ain't gonna hurt ya, kid."
Jack's eyes narrowed.
"I'm sorry, but I don't exactly believe you." Jack muttered in return, continuing back.
He yelped when the ground suddenly seemed to vanish under his feet, and he fell into the crater that Lockdown's body had previously created. He tumbled down, stopping only when at the bottom. He scrambled to get to his feet, but was picked up by a large metal hand.
"H-hey! No! Put me down you-!"
Lockdown chuckled to himself as he examined the teen for a moment. He then pulled out a metal disk. He dropped Jack onto it, and glass shot up, trapping the teen in a cylinder. Jack got up, pounding his fists against the thick glass.
"Let me out! What are you doing?!"
"No can do, kid. I'm a bounty hunter, an' once I've got my target, they never get 'way." Lockdown held the cylinder up, grinning at the youth inside. He flicked the glass, making the teen stumble. "An' you're the target an' the prize, kid."
Lockdown then put the container in his subspace. he started back towards his ship, grinning as Jack continued to yell.
When Jack was finally pulled out of Lockdown's subspace, the teen was thoroughly pissed.
"You fraging-!"
He yelped when he was dumped out of the glass cylinder unceremoniously. He landed with a thud on a metal work bench. Pain shot up Jack's spine and he groaned, rubbing at his lower back. He then glared at Lockdown.
"Ow!"
The bounty hunter smirked, setting aside the container.
"An' here I thought th' 'bots would come 'long and give me trouble. Guess it's my lucky day."
Jack scowled.
"You glitch-spwan!"
Grinning, the mech poked him, knocking the teen over.
"Language, kid." He said, though his laughter proved he didn't really care.
He then went about pinching at Jack's clothing with big, metal fingers, seeming to examine them.
"Guessin' yer gonna need more of these, yeah? An' food, yeah?"
Jack growled under his breath.
"Just let me go! I don't even know where we are, so I can't lead the 'bots here anyway!"
Lockdown tilted his head back slightly, a loud, booming laugh leaving him.
"Ah kid, yer funny."
Jack frowned.
"It wasn't meant to be funny." He hissed in reply, shoulders tense. His whole form, Lockdown noticed, was in a stance that could almost be seen as a fighting stance. The teen's fight or flight instinct as kicking in, and it was fight in the youth's case. Lockdown was glad to see that Jack wasn't always as calm as he had been when he'd been tending to Lockdown.
The teen looked around, taking in his surroundings. Lockdown grinned crookedly, taking a couple steps back and holding his arms out as though presenting the room to him.
"Welcome t' my humble abode."
Blue-grey eyes swept over the dark walls, across the dimly lit floor and then to the shelves. He shuddered, horrified when he saw disembodied limbs, no doubt from Lockdown's past 'targets'. Amusement flashed through Lockdown's optics.
"Like my trophies? Got'm from all sorts'a 'bots an' 'cons."
As he talked, the mech went over to one of the shelves, right hand going to his left forearm. Jack wanted to gag as, with a twist, Lockdown's lower left arm came off. The teen averted his eyes, searching instead for a way to get down from the workbench.
A moment later, something sharp carefully snagged at his chin, turning Jack's head. Jack glared up defiantly at Lockdown, trying desperately to ignore the fact that now, instead of a hand, the mech had a sharp, dangerous hook.
The mech turned the teen's head this way and that, examining him more closely than he had ever been able to.
"Sorry kid, ain't no way t' get outta here." He said as he continued to move the teen's head about. "Jus' face it, yer stuck with me."
Jack jerked away, careful to not hurt himself on the hook.
"The 'bots know my life signal, they'll find me."
Lockdown chuckled, going to another shelf once more.
"Ah kid, y'think I didn' already figure tha' out? Give me more credit!"
He picked up something small from the shelf, and Jack had to squint to see what was pinched between the fingers of Lockdown's remaining hand.
It was a ring of black metal, though Jack wasn't quite sure what it was.
Lockdown returned to the workbench, and Jack yelped when he was pushed down flat with the curve of the mech's hook. He struggled fiercely, trying to get up, but it was all for naught as Lockdown carefully pushed the ring on over his head. It stopped at the nape of the teen's neck, and then the metal clicked and shifted, shrinking down until it fit snugly.
He let the teen up then, and Jack furiously tugged at the metal.
"What the pit?!"
Lockdown smirked.
"It blocks yer life signal. 'Sides, every pet needs a collar."
Jack gaped at him incredulously.
"Pet?! No! I am not a pet, dammit!"
Lockdown tapped the metal with a finger.
"Well ya are now, ain'cha?"
Jack glared up at the mech, and in return, the bounty hunter stared back with a satisfied smirk. They remained their, gazes locked in a silent battle, for a good few minutes. Finally, Jack huffed and looked away, crossing his arms unhappily.
Lockdown gave a small, short laugh, then lightly poked the teen with a finger.
"Now ya be a good little pet an' stay here." He said condescendingly, turning to the door. "'Cause if ya ain't, well, trus' me, it won't end well her ya."
He lifted the hook that was on his left, letting it flash slightly in the dim light. A silent warning.
The mech then left without a word, and Jack was alone.
Lockdown should've known Jack wouldn't 'be good', as he'd put it.
He couldn't have been more wrong.