Healed [Sequel to Burned](Transformers Prime)

Chapter Thirteen | Close Calls

"Crashin', hit a wall,
Right now I need a miracle,
Hurry up now I need a miracle,"

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Dana leaped out of the way, tucking the relic to her chest as the shot whizzed by. She heard Lockdown growl in frustration, the human woman not stopping to think as she scrambled out of the way of a second shot, her heart racing.

Scrap! Scrap! Scrap!

"Stay. Still!" The bounty hunter snarled, taking out a new weapon as he waited for the other to charge.

With each jostle pain seared up her ear, warm blood flowing from it and increasing her concern. She took the moment of pause to look at her relic, tapping it on the Apex Armor to see if it would react with the Cybertronian technology.

"Come on, come o- ah!" She cried out in pain as a wave of energy sliced through her, knocking the girl back, her body skidding across the ground. The Apex Armor shorted out, Lockdown watching with some surprise as it shrank back and revealed that the wearer was nothing more than organic, the device she had been handling falling out of her hand.

"So, you're nothing but a native lifeform," he stalked up to the dazed woman.

Panicked, Dana tried to scramble back, but found to her horror that her legs were no longer responding. They were dead on the ground. The technology that had shorted out the Apex Armor had also destroyed - at least temporarily - her back strut.

"You stay away from me!" She snapped, gripping the ground as she forced herself to sit up. "Or . . . Or . . ."

"Or what?" He mocked. "I have disabled your Cybertronian armor; it will be of no use to you for a few hours at most. Plenty of time for me to get what I want from you."

Dana swallowed the lump of fear in her throat, desperately shying away from his grip. He was not like Megatron - there would be no bargaining, and no mercy.

"Don't - " her voice faltered as the sound of another jet shrieked above them, Lockdown not even able to look up before he was blindsided, slammed backwards as the jet moved and shifted, Megatron snarling with feral rage as his claws dug into the hunter's armor.

Another explosion rocked beneath them as Lockdown skidded across the ground. Dirt flew up into the air as the two Cybertronians jolted from the blast, Dana flinching and covering her ears as a physical wave of sound ripped through her skull. She yelled in pain as her injured ear flared once more, canal throbbing. 

Lockdown scrambled to his pedes as his long-awaited quarry did the same, the two sizing one another up. His weapon lay a few kliks out of reach, but he had little to worry about - he had a few more hidden surprises on his person. The bounty hunter took their moment of pause to assess Megatron's neck cables; yes, they were thick, and it would probably take more than just a simple swing to cleave his helm off his shoulder plates. But, if he used enough force, one swipe would do the trick.

Megatron gazed at his former killer for-hire, more than well aware that there was no reasoning with Lockdown. He did not have the credits to pay him more than his current sponsor would, nor would pretty words sway him to his side. This was life and death; one of them would not walk away from this fight.

He spared a glance at the human girl, baring his denta when he saw her without armor, red blood running down the side of her face. Something else was off about her body; she struggled like an injured animal to crawl away, her green eyes filled with awe and terror. The sight of her in such a state cause anger to surge in his energon veins. Lockdown had dared to hurt her; he would pay dearly for his offense.