Origins: Bumblebee

Chapter 4: Too Late

Something was wrong. Bumblebee didn't know what exactly was wrong but something definitely was. With a sense of growing unease in the pit of his tanks he urge the ship to go fast. When he had finally arrived at the back of the dojo he wasted no time but leapt out of the ship and broke into a run. He had just reached the door but before he could open it the door flung open, knocking Bumblebee to the ground. Dazed, the minibot sat up just in time to catch a glimpse of Lockdown, a bounty hunter and fellow assassin, running in the opposite direction. Bumblebee frowned after him then shrugged. He didn't have time to figure out what Lockdown was up to; he had much more important things to take care of. He rose and cautiously walked into the dojo, taking care to muffle his footsteps so he couldn't be heard. Up ahead he could hear two voices talking. The weaker voice, although he couldn't make out any of the words, definitely belonged to Yoketron but the other voice was not the least bit familiar to him. Activating his newly installed holographic emitter in order to make himself appear invisible, he entered the room where he had last seen Yoketron only to freeze at the sight in front of him. Yoketron lay in the middle of the room surrounded by broken pods that had contained the protoforms, the majority of which were missing. But he was not thinking about that; rather he was concentrating on the slender black and gold mech bending over Yoketron. They were talking but Bumblebee couldn't make out any of the words, the desire to kill the intruder blocking out everything else.

"Bumblebee."

Well, almost everything else. "Yoketron?" Bumblebee commed in disbelief. "What happened to you?"

"Someone wanted the protoforms," was the weak response.

"Was it him?" Bumblebee asked, meaning the other bot.

"No, it was not Prowl."

Bumblebee raised an optic ridge. "Prowl?" now that he thought about it the intruder did look an awfully lot like the holo pic Yoketron had shown him. But Prowl was not his concern at the moment; Lockdown was. It had only taken him a few seconds to connect the dots and come up with someone to pin the blame on.

"The protoforms are gone," Yoketron told him weakly.

"I am sorry," Bumblebee apologized sincerely. "I tried to help you but I failed," he bowed his head sorrowfully.

"It does not matter whether or not you failed, Bumblebee. What does matter is the fact that you tried. I've always known that you had a good spark in you; you just need to see it for yourself."

Bumblebee fell quiet, choosing to let Prowl and Yoketron say goodbye while he mentally planned exactly what he was going to do to Lockdown once he caught that murdering glitch head.

Bumblebee left Cybertron less than two hours later. He no longer had anything left to keep him on Cybertron. Yoketron was dead and he now had a new contract to fulfill. One that was very, very personal. He had arranged for a very substantial amount of credits to be donated towards Yoketron's funeral and whatever was left over went to Prowl so he could keep the dojo in good condition. It wasn't because he felt sorry for Prowl or anything like that but it would be very embarrassing to let the dojo, Yoketron's legacy, fall into ruin especially if he could do something about it. Besides he didn't have time to worry about anything; he had a bounty hunter to track down.

It took four months, three weeks, two days, one hour and fifteen minutes before Bumblebee finally caught up with Lockdown. In all honesty he had almost caught the murderer several times before but either Lockdown was a psychic or he had an awful lot of good luck. Either way there was no way whatsoever that Lockdown was going to escape this time. Bumblebee had a nice slow, painful death waiting for locked and he intended to see that Lockdown got it. After today no one would dare challenge him. They didn't challenge him anyway (except for that one punk but he had been taken care of) but after today he would ensure that. Forever.

Lockdown sat in the bar, his back to the wall as his red optics warily scanned the room. He didn't see anyone that looked like they might be a threat to him but he wasn't taking any chances. For the past several days he had felt…edgy, as if someone were watching him which was impossible. He was one of the best assassins that ever lived; no one could follow him without him being aware of it. Of course he wasn't going to say that out loud; the last bot that had been stupid enough to say so had been found in pieces. Literally. No one said that they were better than Bumblebee and lived to tell about it. Needless to say no one else had said anything even remotely like that since then.

The sound of shouting caught his attention and he turned around just in time to see a red minibot go flying right into a wall. Lockdown winced as did all the other occupants of the bar when the bot slowly fell to the floor where he lay completely still. Deciding to get out while he still had a chance Lockdown stood up and used the chaos to slip outside, unnoticed. Ignoring the sound of screams and sirens he continued heading back towards his ship. Suddenly he heard a noise and froze. He turned around slowly but saw no one. He shrugged then resumed walking, not seeing the blue optics that were peeking around the corner watching him. He had just reached his ship when he heard a voice behind him say, "So we meet at last, Lockdown."

A/N: 3 reviews please and don't forget to vote!

Oh and uh, the mysterious figures that keep killing everybody that tries to help Bumblebee are (in order) a thief who thought that Huffer would have some credits on him and Lockdown was the one behind Yoketron.