"There he is!" Optimus shouted. Ratchet snapped back to reality to see Optimus shoot across the sky using his telescoping axe handle in a pole vault. Optimus landed on the other side of a building in front of the man.

"Hold it right there! Now put your hands over your head and surrender," Optimus demanded.

"Just one problem with that. I don't do 'surrender'," the man said. The lights around town suddenly switched on, revealing the man's tattoos, armor, mechanical arms, and hooked hand.

"Who are you?"

"Oh it's not important who I am so much as it is, who you are," Lockdown activated his EMP generator and fired a beam at Optimus. His nervous system shut down, and he fell to the floor. Optimus tried to move but couldn't.

"Now let's have a talk back at my ship," Lockdown picked up Optimus with one arm. Ratchet ran to his aid but was too late. Lockdown used another smokescreen and was gone.

"Prime! NO!" Ratchet yelled.

*****************************************************************

"I still can't find Prime's signal anywhere," Prowl told the others, "His comlink must be jammed."

"How can some guy just snatch up Prime and then mask his signal?" Bumblebee asked out loud, "How'd some guy beat him anyway?!"

"So what're we supposed to do?" Bulkhead asked. The Autobots looked at Ratchet.

"What're you lookin' at me fer? I'm a medic not a field commander!" Ratchet snapped.

"Well you obviously know something about Prime's kidnapper," Prowl said.

"Yeah, you didn't start acting this bad until that guy showed up," Bumblebee agreed.

"He's not just some guy. He's a Decepticon. Well, sort of. His name's Lockdown," Ratchet explained, "He's the one who captured me in the Great War. The one who gave me this," he pointed at his scar, "He's a bounty hunter. He snatches up Autobots and takes em to the Decepticons in exchange for upgrades. And takes our personal modifications as trophies. But the worst part is that when he's trying to get info, he doesn't use mind scans. He has other methods…"

********************************************************************

"Ah stop you're wiggling, Optimus Prime. Gets annoying after a while," Lockdown finished typing on the screen then walked to Optimus's side.

"How do you know my name?"

"It's my business to know. There's quite a price on your head for destroying Megatron."

"But that wasn't me. It was Star—"

"I don't care. All I care about is that you're going to get me some nice upgrades." Lockdown walked over to a cabinet and looked through it.

"My Autobots will find you. And they'll take you down."

"Bring em on! I could always use an exercise." Optimus then realized that he was missing his axe.

"Looking for something?" Lockdown held up Optimus's axe. Optimus activated his grapplers at yanked the axe out of his hand. The axe cut through the carbon-fiber cables. Optimus was about to get up, but was hit by another EMP leaving him dazed.

"That was a low-level EMP. Just to quiet ya down." A new set of cables wrapped around Optimus and held him down. "Don't make me wipe your brain." Lockdown picked up the axe.

"Gotta say, you're good. That axe is the first thing I'd ever seen could slice through those cables. But those grapplers are good too. Guess I'll just take em both. Oh and by the by. The Decepticons said I could have some fun with you before we arrived," Lockdown picked up some tools that shimmered in front of Optimus's face, "Now open wide and say, 'Ouch.'"

*****************************************************************

"We've been searching for over an hour!" Bumblebee breathed heavily, "We're never gonna find him."

"How could I not've seen it earlier? Lockdown was trailing us; hiding in plain sight. And we bought it!" Ratchet raged more at himself than the others.

"Wait a second, 'hiding in plain sight.' That's it!" Prowl snapped his fingers. He activated his holo-projector and showed them a map, "This is a map of Detroit where Prime disappeared." He projected a new map with one difference: a missing building, "And the same area just a week ago."

"Where'd that warehouse go?" Bulkhead asked.

"It was never there."

"A holographic cloak," Ratchet concluded.

"No doubt hiding the bounty hunter's ship. Clever," Prowl said.

"Not clever enough," Bumblebee said, "Let's go kick his Prime-snatching butt!"

"I can't go back there. I just can't," Ratchet said.

"Are you nuts? This is Prime we're talking about!" Bulkhead reminded.

"No time to argue, let's move," Prowl lead the others on board the Auto-Rover, once again leaving Ratchet to think.

"I just can't go back," Ratchet repeated through clenched teeth.

****************************************************************

"You have Optimus Prime? Hand him over at once! Zat Autobot will pay for what he did to our leader!" Blitzwing shook his fist.

"Yeah whatever. Say, speaking of 'pay'…" Lockdown didn't need to finish that statement.

"Patience my bounty hunting friend. You shall not be disappointed wit your upgrades. So long as I'm not disappointed by your results," Blitzwing twitched wildly, "Oh! Is that Optimus? Can I say hi? Hi Mr. Primey! Lemme see his axe. CAN I SEE HIS AXE?! AHAHAHAHA HA!" Before Blitzwing could continue, Lockdown cut off the transmission. He'd dealt with Blitzwing long enough to know when it was time to stop. Lockdown shook his head and turned back to Optimus.