Hi everyone! So, as I said in the last chapter, updates will be coming slower. That's why it's been a couple days since I updated x.x So thank you all for your patience! And thanks to everyone who faved, reviewed and/or followed!
I hope you all like this chapter! Please review to tell me what you think of the story, or if you have any ideas for it!
By the way, sorry to all of you who were hoping for this to be yaoi. It just seemed that more people than not wanted it to just be friendship :\ But I might make a yaoi oneshot or story at a later time, so keep your eyes open just in case!
EDITED MARCH 18th 2016
Enjoy!
Jack yelped as the car went over a bump and his head hit the roof.
"Ow!"
Lockdown laughed.
"Sorry kid!" He managed between rough, coarse laughter. "I didn' know that'd happen!"
Jack grumbled under his breath, coaxing a chuckle from the bounty hunter.
"C'mon kid, it's jus' a bump on th' head."
Jack stuck his tongue out childishly at the radio, leaning an elbow on the armrest to his right.
The two fell silent, though it wasn't all that uncomfortable (Jack decided it wasn't because he liked the mech. No. It was because there was music, he assured himself. That was it).
Slowly, Lockdown came to a halt. They had left the main road an hour ago, and now were in the dusty plains of Nevada, cliffs standing tall above them. The door popped open.
"A'right, get out, an' don' try t' run."
Jack sighed.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Jack muttered sarcastically.
As the teen stretched, yawning, Lockdown changed out of his alt mode. He then picked up Jack, setting the youth on his shoulder.
"Let's get t' work, yeah?"
He didn't wait for a reply, starting to blast away at the walls of the cliffs. Jack held on tightly, fingers digging into the cracks in the mech's plating, not that Lockdown seemed to mind. Jack wondered if the 'bots would notice the explosions. It was kicking up a lot of dust, after all.
"Yer thinkin' way too hard 'gain." Lockdown said over the sound of falling rocks and crumbling rubble.
Jack scowled at the mech.
"At least I think, unlike some mech I know."
Lockdown chuckled, aiming once more at the cliff.
"I wouldn'a gotten this far if I didn' think, kid."
Jack glared.
"Will you stop calling me kid?" He demanded.
The hunter raised a brow.
"Wha'd ya rather I call ya? 'Pet'? 'Fleshie'?"
Jack growled, rapping his knuckles against the mech's shoulder plating sharply.
"How about my name?"
Lockdown paused, looking at Jack in honest surprise. Jack groaned.
"Whaaat?"
A smirk turned up the corners of the mech's mouth as he returned to blasting the wall.
"Nothin'. Jus' didn' think ya'd wan' me t' use yer name."
"It's better than kid." Jack muttered, looking away.
A short bark of laughter.
"Guess tha's true."
For a good forty-five minutes, the two stayed like that, Jack resting on the mech's shoulder and Lockdown blasting at the cliff. Finally, the two saw a glimmer of blue crystal. Energon.
With a grin, Lockdown moved forward, reaching in and pushing aside remaining rubble. A few large energon crystals shone in the afternoon sunlight.
"Not too bad a haul, eh?" Lockdown said to Jack, taking the energon and storing it in his subspace.
Jack merely shrugged, then,
"Are we going back to the ship?" He asked, dread settling in the pit of his stomach. The ship felt like a prison to him by now.
A moment of silence, in which Lockdown inspected the teen. He then shook his head.
"Nah. We'll head t' th' nearest city. Ya can pick a book fer yerself this time."
Though Jack's expression didn't change, the hunter saw joy and relief flash through the youth's blue-grey eyes. Jack nodded.
"Sounds alright. But aren't you worried people will be curious about this stupid collar?"
Lockdown smirked.
"Nice try. It ain't comin' off. Ya humans have weird coverin's, they'll think it's some sorta weird fad."
Jack sighed.
"A guy can dream." He muttered.
"Don't mean it'll come true." Lockdown snorted.
This time, Jack was ready when the mech tossed him up lightly, though the air still left the youth's lungs when he landed in the black leather seat bellow.
"You realize you could just put me down and I could climb in, right?" He demanded, glaring at the dashboard.
"Not as fun." The hunter replied. Jack could hear the smirk in the mech's voice and his scowl deepened.
"Bastard."
"An' proud of it."
Lockdown watched as Jack rummaged through the bookshelves, seeming much happier than he had been before. For some reason, Lockdown found it irritated him to no end. He'd done all he could think of to make things comfortable for his pet, and yet some old, dusty books in the back of an old bookstore brought the teen more delight than anything the hunter had tried.
"Ki-...Jack." The holoform called, managing to catch himself before calling the human 'kid'. Blue-grey eyes snapped up. "You find anything yet?"
Jack shrugged.
"I can't decide between these two." He replied, holding up the two books in his hands.
The holoform nodded, pushing off the wall he leaned on and casually moving over to the teen. He took both books, inspecting them for a moment. Both were big and sturdy, with hard covers and many, many pages. A glance at the covers revealed them to be on mechanics.
"Heh. Jus' get both." Lockdown said a moment later, handing the books back to Jack. The teen looked surprised.
"Really?"
Lockdown snorted, turning and starting towards the cashier.
"Really really."
Jack seemed to be a bit skeptical, but handed the books to the holoform. Lockdown dropped a couple of twenties by the cash register, glad for once that the human bounty hunting jobs he picked up for fun left him with a fair amount of cash to use to care for Jack. Jack hesitantly followed Lockdown out the door, seeming reluctant to leave so soon. No doubt the idea of being taken away once more from civilization was an unpleasant thought.
The holoform smirked as the door shut behind them.
"There, see? Wasn' so bad, righ'? Now le's get goin', we're burnin' dayligh' here."
Jack winced when the holoform put a hand on his shoulder (an instinctual action more than anything), causing the hunter to frown.
"Ah c'mon, I didn' even hurt'cha!"
Jack grimaced, avoiding the holoforms eyes.
"Not my fault your scary." The teen muttered.
Lockdown sighed grip tightening on Jack's shoulder, making the human stop.
"Listen, Jack. I told ya why I hurt'cha those other times. 'Cause ya broke th' rules. Ya've been doin' what I tell ya, so there ain' no reason I'd need t' punish ya."
Jack frowned, form tensing and hands balling into fists.
"And why should I trust you? You're more like a Decepticon than anything." He snapped, making Lockdown blink in surprise. The holoform then sighed.
"Look, I'm a bounty hunter. I've offlined 'bots, I've offlined 'cons. If I were all nice an' sweet, I wouldn'a survived this long, an' I wouldn' have th' ball bearin's t' grab ya out from under th' 'bots. I may act like a 'con, but trus' me when I say I wouldn' join them even if they gave me th' chance t'. Got it?"
Lightly pushing at the teen's shoulder, they continued walking down the back alley towards where Lockdown's real form was parked. He then saw the teen roll his eyes.
"Don' roll yer eyes. I ain' so stupid as t' get inta this stupid war."
Jack gave a short humorless bark of laughter.
"I don't think you're that smart either. I nearly got away from you twice."
Lockdown suddenly stopped, something that was a cross between realization and surprise. Jack, seeing him stop, halted as well.
"Is...is something wrong?" The youth asked hesitantly, brow furrowed. Had he crossed the line with that comment?
After a long moment, the holoform blinked, glancing at Jack as though he hadn't noticed the teen was there. He quickly smiled, altough his eyes still showed his thoughts were far away now.
"Nothin' ki-..Jack. Get on in." He said, lightly nudging him towards the black and green car before them.
He had a lot to think about later.
It was late into the night, and the ship was silent aside from the soft, gentle whir of the ship's inner mechanisms.
Jack was out cold, fast asleep on Lockdown's chasis.
Lockdown himself, though, was far from the realms of recharge.
Blood red optics were dim with thought, a large metal finger gently petting the mess of black hair atop the sleeping teen's head.
The hunter's processor was running over the conversation from earlier outside the book store.
Lockdown knew he was a smart mech. Much smarter than many others, and certainly smarter than human's. Yet Jack had nearly escaped the ship, more than once, as the youth had pointed out. Jack wasn't like other humans.
He was fast, and of course other humans were, but his mind was just as quick as his feet, as he'd proven before. Lockdown's thoughts went back to the few times when Jack had pounded his fists against his plating. He was strong for a youngling.
The teen had no practical fighting expertise, and soft unprotected skin, but he in no way lacked knowledge on Cybertronians and humans alike. He'd seen his fair share of hardships, more than most humans twice his age.
Dim optics turned to the peacefully sleeping teen.
Fighting skills and missing plating. But besides those two things, the teen would be a rather useful lookout, or even a spy.
If he could find a way to create an armor like the apex armor, but much less bulky and clunky. But he'd need the apex armor to see how it could shrink down and enlarge.
It seemed he'd get his revenge on Starscream soon.
The thought brought a dark smirk to the hunter's face.
Jack groaned when he was poked in the side.
"Mmm...No...staaaahhpp..." He mumbled, squirming and trying to get away from the insistant poking.
"Sorry kid, but I gotta get goin'. Ya need t' get up."
"Whhhyyyy?"
Lockdown chuckled.
"'Cause I need t' go somewhere, an' I need ya off my chasis t' go anywhere."
With a sigh, a blue-grey eye peered out from the lump of blankets that hid Jack.
"After I move can I go back to sleep?"
The mech pretended to think about it, then smirked and shrugged.
"Eh, sure. Why not."
Muttering under his breath, Jack sat up, hugging the blankets close around him as he let Lockdown pick him up. Sitting up, the mech lumbered out of the room, down the hall, and into the main control room. He set Jack down on the workbench, then carefully latched the teen's collar to the now familiar chain.
Jack teetered precariously for a moment, then flopped down, hiding in the blankets once more.
Lockdown chuckled, carefully patting the lump of blankets and youth with a hand.
"Sleep well, Jack."
The mech, getting no reply, turned to the many shelves that housed his 'trophies'.
"Time t' get some payback." He muttered to himself, twisting off the hook on his left, instead grabbing a sharp drill. Twisting it on, it began to buzz with electricity. "Hope yer ready 'Screamer, 'cause I ain' one t' show much mercy."
Starscream was having a very bad day so far.
Megatron, in a decidedly bad mood after losing an energon mine to the Autobots, had decided to use Starscream as a punching bag. After, the SIC had to suffer through Knockout's complaints about being unable to properly buff himself as he repaired the seeker. After that, 'Screamer had to deal with several vehicons that had no clue what they were doing.
All-in-all, the 'con thought he'd be able to have a nice, relaxing late-morning in the safety of the canyon's at the edge of Nevada.
He...had been utterly wrong.
The seeker was admiring the apex armor when a black car with green flame decals screeched to a halt only a couple dozen feet away. The coloring was what allowed Starscream to recognize who it was.
Jumping to his feet, the seeker stumbled back.
"Lockdown!" Realizing his voice had cracked in fear, he cleared his vocalizer and tried for false confidence, smirking. "Come back for another beating?"
The sound of shifting metal came, and the care became the ever terrifying bounty hunter that every Cybertronian knew, and most feared.
"Ah 'Screamer, ya were always good fer a laugh!" The taller mech chuckled, pretending to inspect his absent left hand.
"It seemed to me that I had the last laugh when I nearly offlined you." Starscream stated, scowling at Lockdown.
The mech shrugged.
"I'll admit, I wasn' expectin' tha' sweet little mod ya got. But this time?" A dark smirk flashed across a scary face. "This time I'm prepared. I'd suggest ya kiss tha' mod good bye, 'cause I'll be takin' it off yer hands now."
"I highly doubt that." The seeker replied, confidence becoming real as he was consumed by the apex armor. "I beat you before, I can do it again easily."
No fear showed on the other's face, in fact, amusement flashed through the hunter's optics. Blue electricity buzzed about the dangerous drill.
"Sorry, 'Screamer. But tha's where ya'd be wrong."
The mech was by far faster than he seemed, and Starscream gave a loud yell of pain when the drill dug into a crack in the apex armor and electicity coursed through him.
"Very, very wrong."
Mechanics was always a fascinating topic to Jack. He excelled at it as well, always able to fix up his ten speed without a problem, and managing to keep his mothers car up and running.
But at the moment, Jack couldn't focus. He was curious as to why Lockdown had left so early that morning. Usually the mech slept in for a good while, until nine in the morning, if Jack had to guess. Yet the mech had been up and about at eight, sat at the console until ten as he searched for...for something, then left.
And now it was about two, Jack supposed as he glanced out one of the thick, tinted windows and checked the sun's position in the sky.
Jack heard a rumble of an engine, then the door to the room slid open with a hiss. Jack straightened, standing up as he set aside his book.
Lockdown was dented here and there, a little energon leaking from a cut on his face plates, but no worse for ware otherwise. He was grinning widely, pride just about radiating off of him. He held something in his hand, and Jack recognized it. His eyes widened.
"That's..!"
Red optics turned to the teen, lighting with amusement.
"Yep. Th' apex armor."
The mech tossed it lightly from hand to hand.
"'S a lot more clunky than I thought it'd be." He commented, moving over to the workbench.
Jack watched as the mech unlatched the chain from his collar and picked him up. He set the teen on a shelf next to the workbench.
"Stay there, alrigh' Jack? Gotta use th' workbench fer a few klicks."
Jack nodded, moving to the edge of the shelf and sitting down, legs dangling.
"What're you doing?" The teen asked, watching the mech sit and begin to fiddle with the apex armor.
"Ah, nothin' t' worry 'bout. Jus' experimentin' s'all."
Jack looked at him, confusion and wariness on his face. Lockdown grinned at him, running a metal finger over his head, mussing the black hair.
"Relax, kid. Ya look like 'M gonna get'cha in yer sleep."
"Knowing you, I have a good reason to be worried." The teen replied dryly, earning boisterous laughter from Lockdown.