Origins: Bumblebee

Chapter 5: Vengeance

Lockdown turned around very slowly to see a yellow minibot with black stripes leaning against one of the other ships. "Who are you?" Lockdown demanded.

"I think you've heard of me; my name's Bumblebee," the minibot said, moving away from the ship he had been leaning against.

"Bumblebee?" Lockdown stammered nervously, his processor trying not to crash out of fear. Why was Bumblebee visiting him of all bots? There had to be a reason, Bumblebee never did anything without a reason. "What are you doing here?" he asked bravely.

"Why I came to see you of course. I heard all about how you defeated Yoketron. It takes a very good assassin to do that so it appears that you are not the second best assassin that ever lived. I just came to congratulate you."

"Thanks," Lockdown still eyed the minibot warily. He knew better than to turn his back on a fellow assassin, especially Bumblebee. It was not only dangerous to do so but extremely stupid as well.

"How about some high-grade to celebrate?" Bumblebee offered, holding up some cubes.

"Sure," Lockdown agreed. "Come on in," he punched in a specific code then stepped inside the chip. He waited until Bumblebee was inside as well then re-activated the security system. "Have a seat," Lockdown invited as they walked into the rec room.

"Thank," Bumblebee sat down at the table. "This is a very nice ship that you have here."

"Thank you," Lockdown grunted.

"Well, cheers," Bumblebee raised his cube of high-grade as did Lockdown. The two cubes touched then were downed by their respective owners.

"High-grade's good," Lockdown commented.

"It should be," Bumblebee grumbled. "I spent a small fortune on it."

"You shouldn't have gone to so much trouble," the bounty hunter said.

"Oh don't worry about it. I wanted to get some anyway and this provided me with the perfect excuse," Bumblebee said with a laugh.

They fell silent and continue drinking, eyeing each other suspiciously. After several minutes of this Lockdown had finally had enough and sat down his now empty cube. "Why did you come here?" he asked bluntly. "And don't even think about telling me that it was because you wanted to congratulate me."

"I wondered how long it would be before you asked," the yellow minibot smiled as he carefully sat down his empty cube. "I owe you a debt, Lockdown, and I came to repay you."

"What debt?" Lockdown was starting to feel nervous once again.

"A debt of vengeance," Bumblebee said as he stood up. "You see Yoketron was a good friend of mine; a very good friend. And now that I've finally caught you I'm going to kill you."

"I'd like to see you try," Lockdown snarled as he quickly stood up only to collapse back into his seat. "What did you give me?" he gasped.

"Oh nothing much," Bumblebee answered airily. "Just a simple poison that will soon begin to cause you a great deal of pain and eventually kill you."

Already Lockdown could feel the poison taking effect. "I was only doing my job," he said weakly then began to writhe and scream in agony.

"I understand that you were only doing what you had been paid to do but you must also understand my point of view. Yoketron practically raised me and is the closest thing that I have ever had to a family. So I am merely paying you back for that. However, if you tell me who hired you I might be tempted to ease your suffering."

Lockdown thought it over and after deciding that since he was going to die anyway so he might as well hurry up and get it over with he said, "Soundwave. He wanted the protoforms so he could raise another Decepticon army."

"Thank you very much, Lockdown," he headed towards the door.

"Wait. You said that you would get rid of the pain," Lockdown reminded him.

"I did ease you pain; your conscience feels much lighter now doesn't it? Besides, you should know better than to believe me." He walked out of the room and was long gone by the time Lockdown's ship blew up, destroying any traces of him.

Soundwave was happy; very happy. He now had most of the protoforms and he had succeeded in getting rid of Yoketron. Now that there weren't any more obstacles in his way he could easily take over the Decepticons with no opposition. That idiot, Starscream, had declared himself leader and Soundwave couldn't wait to put that traitor coward in his proper place. He was so intent on his thoughts that at first he didn't see the blue optics looking steadily at him but, feeling slightly uneasy, he turned and caught sight of the yellow minibot standing there. "Who are you and how did you get in here?"
"My name is Bumblebee. That alone should tell you everything else that you want to know," was the calm reply.

"It does. Why do you want to kill me?"

Bumblebee leaned close and whispered in his sensitive audio sensors, "Because you ordered my friend killed."

A few minutes later Bumblebee exited the building, not turning to watch as it too blew up behind him.

A/N: 3 reviews and sorry that it's so late.

Also: I will be out of town tomorrow (but I should still post another chapter of 'Masterforce: Animated') and will be gone Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as well.