"Baby I'm preying on you tonight,
Hunt you down,
Eat you alive,"

»«

The pod sent Lockdown confirmation that it had entered the planet's atmosphere, finally, and gave him the coordinates for its destination. He guided his ship across the skies, increasing its speed cautiously, unsure of how it would react in this planet's thick atmosphere. When nothing seemed to bother it he continued on the course, the coordinates not very far from his current position, a blessing in disguise.

Estimated landing time: Twenty-four kliks.

So, only a short while. He grinned, putting the ship on autopilot before standing, giving his hounds a few quick pats before he grabbed the weapons he needed, prepping the capture nets and hooks, wanting to waste no time in entangling the warlord and slicing off his helm. If his hounds then wanted to tear him apart, that was fine. All he needed was his head.

As Lockdown prepared to engage his target the pod continued giving him updates, one final signal being sent out as it crashed into the planet, landing in a remote area on a far north portion of a continent, its rescue beacon now activated as it waited patiently for a response.

He would let Megatron respond to it first. If only to allow the Autobot inside to tire him out first before Lockdown swooped in and claimed his prize.

Everything was going according to the perfect plan.

»«

"What is it?" Dana asked her guardian as an alert popped up on the screen. Her thoughts immediately went to MECH, but the chance of coincidence was too great. The odds of them popping up just two days after she and the others managed to connect them to different places within top secret government facilities was slim.

"Another rescue beacon from a pod, this time of Autobot origin." Ratchet announced, typing. "It landed in the Canadian forest not long after this signal was sent."

"Well, wait are we waiting for? Let's go check it out!" Dana cheered, zipping down the steps and heading towards the Apex Armor.

"Ep, ep, ep!" Ratchet interrupted, stopping her in her tracks. "Who is going to look after him while we're gone?!" He gestured to Megatron, who was admittedly becoming antsy as he was constantly denied to do anything.

"Why can't he come with us?" Dana questioned. "We'll be out in the middle of nowhere!"

"Which is not only precisely the problem, but if there is an Autobot in that pod, they could be hostile to him," Ratchet noted. "It would be best if I gave them fair warning first."

"Then Agent Fowler can watch him." She waved a hand dismissively. "That's his job description isn't it? 'Giant Robot Babysitter'?"

"Considering I am not a robot, that would make his title false." Megatron inputted, noticeably agitated from lack of doing anything.

Ratchet sighed. "No. But, after we get the Autobot settled in, Dana will be teaching them driving lessons. Then after that, if you continue with this rather impressive good behavior, Megatron, you may be next."

"And we retrieve Soundwave from the wretched Shadow Zone you put him in." Megatron growled, slightly unhappy.

Ratchet let loose a long vent, just as unhappy as the warlord. "Yes. Then we release Soundwave."

Dana noticed the tension, saying her next sentence carefully.

"So . . . Am I going with, Ratchet, or are you going to make me stay here?"

"Stay here." Ratchet ordered, typing coordinates into the Groundbridge. "Agent Fowler may be qualified, but," he looked at Megatron, "you are the only one who can stop him."

The warlord gazed at the medic for a long time before they broke optic contact, Ratchet going over and typing the coordinates into the Groundbridge, Dana standing next to the Apex Armor with her arms crossed unhappily.

Activating the Groundbridge, Ratchet grabbed his medical kit. "I will try to remain in constant contact with the base." He told them as he headed to the swirling green portal. "If I need back-up, then Dana, it will be you. Megatron, I am trusting you to not lock us out of base."

Though he felt some relief at this extension of trust, Megatron couldn't help but feel a little offended. "Of course." He said smoothly. He was certain Ratchet would still deny him access to the computers, save for activating the Groundbridge.

"Dana, if you could let the Groundbridge close after I go through." Ratchet said, however he tried to word it as gently as possible; he knew she was disappointed, and by giving her something to do he insured she wasn't going to sneak through.

"Fine," she sighed, heading back up the stairs and to one of the small computers that accommodated to her size. She typed in a password, then nodded. "Okay. Ready."

Ratchet gave a confirming nod, then he turned and walked through the Groundbridge.

His life signal glowed to life on Lockdown's screen, the bounty hunter frowning when no one else popped up with him. From what he could see visually, the Autobot had come through a Groundbridge, meaning their base was most likely not local to the crash site.

Ratchet carefully approached the pod, noting the Autobot markings on it as he slid into the ditch it had created. The crash had been recent enough that no wildlife had returned to investigate. Peering into the pod, his optics brightened as he read the vitals which glowed on the inside of the pod.

"The Autobot is critically low on energon." He stated, quickly opening it up.

"Do you know who it is?" Dana's voice crackled into his audio receptor.

Ratchet pried open the door, gazing in at the femme curled up inside.

Lockdown bared his teeth. The Autobot was going to take his comrade and leave; Megatron wasn't coming.

Unless . . .

"Yes, I recognize her. Her na- " he stopped as the loud grumbling of engines drew his attention to the Cybertronian ship speeding his way. His optics read the name on the side and he swore loudly, quickly turning around to grab the femme from her stasis pod, knowing every moment she was out of induced stasis could mean drying out the last of her energon reserves.

"Dana, I need a Groundbr-" the medic cried out in pain as something blasted through his left shoulder plating, the grappling hook extending and trapping itself on the other side of his armor, bright blue energon coating it and the ground he walked on. Dropping the Autobot, he desperately tried to free himself as the grappling hook began dragging him closer to the ship.

"Ratchet!!" Dana screamed into the comlink, but when she received no answer she raced down the stairs, leaping onto the Apex Armor. "Megatron, stay here!" She ordered. "Ratchet's in danger."

"You have no weapons," he stood, almost looking for an excuse to get out of the base and fight. "The armor may protect you, but without a long-range firearm-"

"I'll be fine. You stay here." The girl cursed a little and slipped her arm out of the armor briefly to fix her ear-com, shoving it on and making sure it stayed. "If I need you, I'll call." And with that she activated the Groundbridge, running through as fast as she could and leaving the warlord with the base to himself, save for Agent Fowler, who had run out to see what was the matter.

Ratchet recognized Lockdown almost instantly after he had slid down the chain, his two hounds in tow. One of them was sniffing the Autobot femme, but unless his master ordered the brute to kill, it wouldn't touch her. For now. Lockdown himself had Ratchet trapped under his foot, only slightly smaller than Megatron himself, armor smooth around his head but heavily plated along his shoulders, chest, and legs, abdomen free to move about like most models. The medic recognized some of the weapons he bore as the hunter's personal favourites, realizing quite quickly why he was here.

How did he manage to track Megatron? And how long has he been here?!

"Now, Autobot, where is Megatron?" Lockdown growled, his cannon warming up. "I know he is hidden somewhere on this planet. Where is he?"

Ratchet gasped as some energon leaked from his mouth, feeling the crushing weight of the hunter's pede on his chest plates. To expose Megatron was to expose Dana - he was not going to put her in this kind of danger. Not again.

"I will never tell you," he rasped.

Lockdown tilted his helm. He had no time to play games, and less time to interrogate. "Never is here," he raised his gun to Ratchet's helm, the medic looking straight into the barrel of a charged cannon.

Dana -

"No!" Lockdown's arm was violently pushed upwards, the hunter snarling as it shot straight through the chain that was holding Ratchet in place, the medic falling on his back. A small pest drove its fist into his gut, then picked him up with the strength of an angry, desperate creature and threw him against the tall organic towers of this planet.

Lockdown barked an order to his hounds, optics landing on a strange-looking Cybertronian. The face inside what appeared to be armor was most certainly organic, he realized, teeth exposed and snarling in a vicious form of aggression. His hounds pounced on the offending lifeform, but no satisfactory howl of pain came from them. Instead, they ripped the hounds off themself and threw them to the side, one arm scooping up the Autobot femme not much larger than themselves, the other rushing over to the downed medic.

"Megatron, I need a Groundbridge, now!" It screamed, Lockdown roaring in rage.

Megatron is at their base of operations!

As the Groundbridge opened and he struggled to pick himself up, he snarled another order at one of his hounds, the brute getting to its feet and rushing for the three retreating Autobots.

Dana leapt backwards into the bridge, not even bothering to try and run into it, flinching as the hound charged for them, her eyes meeting Lockdown's for a brief moment before the bridge closed in front of her, missing the swipe of a powerful Cybertronian wolf paw.

She landed on her back with a groan, Ratchet collapsing next to her as the Autobot femme slid from her arms and laid where she had fallen.

"Ratchet!" Dana sat up to look at him, the armor providing her with a better height and overall size advantage. Her guardian groaned softly, the hook still lodged against him and inside him, Megatron immediately coming over and kneeling to assess the situation.

"It was . . . A trap." Ratchet gurgled through the energon that was pooling in his voicebox. "Lockdown is here . . . And looking for you." He looked at Megatron.

"We can discuss that another time." Megatron looked at Dana. "Are you well versed in Cybertronian anatomy?"

She looked mildly offended. "Yes." Her green eyes narrowed a little as she thought, constructing a plan in her head. "I will work on Ratchet. Help me get him to the med-bay. Then you work on . . ." Dana realized she didn't know her name, but gestured to the femme. "Her. Get some energon and start refueling her. Ratchet said she was at a critical low." With a grunt of effort she picked up her guardian, who tried to help, still conscious but in immense pain and losing quite a but of energon.

Megatron carefully, though almost effortlessly, picked the medic up on the other side, being his main support and helping him into one of the medical berths.

"Do you recognize her?" Dana asked Megatron briefly as she began to prepare Ratchet for an extraction kind of surgery, the warlord taking the femme to other berth.

"I do," his gaze swept across her deep blue armor, not much unlike Arcee's, however her secondary color was a lighter blue, silvery-grey her tertiary. "She was one of the few femme's brave enough to fight on the front lines. At one point, she even was affiliated with the Wreckers for some time. Interestingly enough, you met her 'fraternal' twin, Arcee."

Dana's jaw dropped little. "Arcee had a twin?"

"In a sense, yes." Megatron attached an IV to the femme, beginning to give her the energon she needed. "They were created at the same time, by the same paternal units, but with different spark shards, if I am remembering the profile correctly." Megatron gazed at the femme for some time. "And she was a thorn in the Decepticon's side along with her partner."

"What is her designation?" Dana asked, realizing she still had no idea.

"Chromia." Megatron answered for her. "Partner to Ironhide." He let out a long ex-vent. "I doubt she will be pleased in the slightest to see me. She may even try to offline me."

Dana raised an eyebrow. "Because she doesn't trust you? That seems just a little extreme."

"No, not just because of that," Megatron's face twisted into a grim expression. "Rumor has it that I killed her and Arcee's older sister, Elita One."