Glitch woke up in time to tell Shade goodbye and wish him luck. Soon, she was left alone with Perceptor. "I'll tell you what Glitch; we'll have breakfast, clean the house, and then have some fun, okay?" She nodded and quickly ate her breakfast, "Poor Tran, he must be lonely," she stated, "Can we visit him later?" "Sure. Now let's see, organize these pads by date." You don't put them in the computer?" "I do, but I jot down my original notes to have hard copies, just n case of computer crashes." He began sorting through a pile. Glitch started on another pile.
After sorting through that, she noticed something out of place. "What's this? And who's Moonhopper?" "Um, personal log. Nothing you need to see!" He snatched and put it in a drawer. "Put the boxes in order by decacycles. Be careful, you could get shut in the lock box if it shuts." "Don't worry, I will be!"
She carried the box to the lock box and put it in. She heard a noise. She looked around, all sensors in alert mode and all her ninja instincts flaring. "I know you're there! Come out where I can see you!" Nothing moved or responded. She shrugged and put more boxes in the lock box.
Perceptor rushed in and shoved her into the lock box. "Stay here," he told her in a hushed voice, "don't come out until I tell you to." "What's going on?" "I think somebody's trying to break in. I'll explain later!" He shut the door. Glitch held her intake.
Perceptor dug through his desk to find a small blaster. He didn't have a weapon on him. What everybody thought was a shoulder cannon was actually a highly advance scanner, accurate down to the smallest nanometer. It was wired into his system, so no one could use it besides him. In essence, it was a part of him, so he could feel pain through it. The door swung open.
He whipped around to aim his blaster at a strange looking bot. "Who are you?!" he demanded, "What are you doing in my house?!" The bot chuckled. "You seriously think that a little blaster like that is going to stop me?" he asked, his hook gleaming menacingly in the light, "I heard you were smart, but obviously you have no common sense. Now, are you going to come willingly or do I have to use force?" Perceptor held his gaze and fired the blaster.
The blaster sent the sinister mech flying into the wall. He got up and wiped off his mug. "You got a little fight in you, I like that. This isn't going to be as boring as I thought. I'm a bounty hunter, but you can call me Lockdown."
"Bounty hunter, eh? I don't know why you want with me, but you aren't going to get me." He fired another shot. Lockdown easily avoided it. "You see, the same trick doesn't work twice on me." His hook came fling out. Preceptor attempted to dodge it, but it nicked him. He let out an exclamation, nearly dropping his blaster. But as soon as he recovered, Lockdown was on top of him.
He knocked the blaster out of his servo. Perceptor struggled to get the larger mech off him. "They were right. Your IQ might be off the charts, but your fighting skills aren't worth slag." Lockdown picked him up and hurled him into the wall. Perceptor quickly got up to avoid the next blow. After Lockdown missed, preceptor tackled him.
The two rolled on the floor, Lockdown trying to strangle Perceptor and Perceptor trying to not get strangled. "Why are you here?" "Isn't it obvious, prodigy?" "No, ugh, apparently not!" "I want you." "Pardon?" "Let me rephrase that. If I bring you in, I get a nice little reward and a bonus for a youngling that has recently come into your care." Perceptor kicked him off.
He dived for his blaster. Lockdown predicted his and dived for it too. The two collided heads, both missing the blaster. Lockdown took the opportunity to punch him in the face, sending him flying. Lockdown put his foot on Perceptor's chasse, pinning down the younger bot, who was still struggling.
"Aw, don't be that way. MY contact doesn't want the merchandise damaged. Damaged merchandise loses it value."Perceptor didn't cease his hopeless attempt to get the larger mech off him. Lockdown sighed. Something popped out of his arm. "Do you know what this is, smarty mech?" "Yes, ungh! It's an, gah, EMP!" "Don't worry, I'll set it on a low level, just enough to calm you down and stop your squirming." He zapped him. Perceptor closed his optics.
Lockdown removed his foot and picked up the shut down red mech. That was, until Perceptor snapped his optics open and threw the bounty hunter. "Funny thing about me. You see, I'm qualified to some medbot equipment because of my duel role as scientist and sometimes tech. The EMP is one of those pieces. I'm immune to it's effects."
"So I'm going to have to do this the old fashion way, that's fine with me." He charged, hook first. Perceptor caught is, but struggled to keep it from crashing down on him. Lockdown pushed his hook down further. Perceptor began to slide back, his feet digging into the floor causing a grinding noise.
"Face it; you're no match for me. It looks like you need more brawn than data banks." Naturally, Perceptor knew he was right, but he wouldn't let the arrogant bot have the satisfaction of knowing it. Suddenly, one of his knee joints gave out. He almost fell. But remained on one knee. "What now? Are you giving up?"
Lockdown increased his attack pressure, knocking over Perceptor. Once again, he placed a foot on his chasse. "Weren't we in this situation a cycle ago? Except this time, I'm going to do it right." He hit him hard in the head, making the young scientist shut down. He punched him again, just to make doubly sure the he was shut down, for real. "Hmm, better find that youngling quick. I don't know how long he'll stay out."
Lockdown scanned the room with his optics. "No signs of the youngling." The aforementioned youngling was currently stretched out along the ceiling beams above his head. Glitch held her intake, observing the odd looking bot. this odd bot had a white face with black markings and spikes. He was tall and lean, but he looked like he had parts fro other bots on him, especially the hook he had instead of a servo.
"Not a Bot or a con," she thought, noting the lack of a symbol, "Not a neutral either. Shade said that neutrals aren't usually very violent. Then who is this bot? Why did he hurt Perceptor? Where's Shade when I need him?" The mech left the room.
Glitch slowly and silently began to make her way down. Listening to him tear through the house, knocking things over, opening and shutting things. "How many places could a youngling hide?" he groaned, "Hm, a personal log." He skimmed through it. "Nah, not interesting. But I wonder who Moonhopper is."
Glitch knew she had to find help, no matter who it was. But first, she had to get past the intruder that was blocking her goal without being seen. She saw her opportunity to make a dash for the door when his back was turned. She took a deep intake and made her silent but desperate dash. She made a grab for the door knob when something caught the back or her armor around her neck.
"There you are," the intruder commented, "you almost gave me the slip. It's been eons since any bot did that." Glitch struggled to get herself unhooked, which she managed to do. He just grabbed her with his servo. "Don't leave so soon. The party's just getting started." "Let go! Let go! Let go of me!" She gave him a swift ninja kick in the arm, making him let go. She ran, not caring where she ran, or what she ran into. The item ended up being the filing cabinet. It toppled over, nearly squishing her. She crawled out from under it.
"I'm impressed," Lockdown admitted, slinging Perceptor over his shoulder and taking Glitch under his arm, ignoring her kicking him, "You put up a decent fight for a youngling, especially considering your guardian." "Technically, Perceptor isn't my guardian," she replied, "What do you want with us? Who and what are you?" "You're a curious one, aren't you? I'm a bounty hunter" "A what?" He chuckled at her ignorance. "Somebody's put a price on your heads. "Why?" "I don't know and I don't care." "You're not very nice." "No, I'm not."
He walked onto his ship, the lights automatically turning on. He placed Perceptor on the table, the thick cords wrapping themselves around his chasse, arms, and legs. "What did you do to him?!" Glitch cried, "You hurt him!" "I gave him an option, but he chose the hard way." "Put me down! I don't like you!" "Aw, you're breaking my spark. Now be a good little bot and shut up! No, let me go!" He opened a closet and put her in it. He shut the door, leaving her in the dark. She curled up into a ball to meditate on what had happened.