Little Honeybee 🐝

Chapter 7

"Where's Knockout?!" Bumblebee snarled, turning to face his team. "Was nobody with him during the attack?!"

"Bee, calm down! I'm sure he's fine!" Sideswipe said, trying to calm Bumblebee down and failing miserably.

"Lieutenant, please. We were too busy fi—" Strongarm began, but was cut off when Bumblebee snapped at her.

"What? Too busy fighting to keep one optic on our medic?! For Primus sake... who knows what Steeljaw could be doing to him right now!" Bumblebee growled, clenching his hands into fists. His anger melted into guilt and he huffed, a dull look in his optics. It was his fault that he left Knockout alone. It was his fault that Knockout had been taken. "Go fix yourselves up.... and leave me be.." he muttered, staring at the ground as he turned in his heel and stormed off.

The other just watched him with surprised expressions on their faces before looking at one another. Slowly, they walked off to different spots to patch up their wounds. No one said a word.

-Meanwhile...-

Knockout groaned, his optics flickering open as his systems came back online. He flinched when his head immediately started pounding, going to rub it with his hand when he found that he couldn't. He looked down, seeing that his wrists were bound together with stasis cuffs. He huffed, pulling at them for a moment before giving up.

"Ey, sleepin' beauty's awake!"

Knockout looked up, seeing a navy blue Cervicon leaning against the wall and peering into the cell he was in. He frowned, giving the mech a glare. "Who are you? And where am I?!" He growled, pulling at the cuffs again.

"Hah, you ain't exactly in the position to be orderin' me around." The Cervicon chuckled, his scarlet red optics studying Knockout for a moment. "Name's Thunderhoof, otherwise known as yer friendly neighborhood prison guard." He grinned, tilting his head to the side.

"Wonderful..." Knockout mumbled, rolling his optics and pushing himself up into a sitting position. "What's next, a walking crab as my torturer?"

Thunderhoof snarled at the mention of a 'walking crab', Clampdown immediately coming to mind. "Good guess, but Clampdown's a worthless piece of scrap. I've got someone better in mind." He said, his snarl turning into a grin within seconds.

'Well... I wasn't expecting that to actually be a real bot...' Knockout thought, holding back a chuckle at the thought of a mech looking like a crab and skittering around. "Oh? Do tell." He said, trying to see if he could get Thunderhoof to tell him things he wasn't supposed to know.

"Nah, I'd rather let you figure that one out, pretty mech." Thunderhoof sneered, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms across his chest. "Still surprised that Bumblebee would even keep an ex-con like you online. You must mean a lot to 'im."

Knockout growled, glaring at Thunderhoof. "I'm an Autobot now, lunkhead. Get that through your thick processor." He huffed.

"Oh wow... I'm real scared now." Thunderhoof chuckled, pushing himself off of the wall and pressing a finger to the side of his helm. "Ey Fracture, the prisoner's bein' defiant. Mhm. Yep. Come on down and join the party!" He took his fingers off of his helm once he said that, grinning at Knockout. "You're going to tell us everything you know, Autobot."

"Over my lifeless husk..." Knockout hissed, pushing himself to the farthest corner of the cell and pulling his knees up to his chest.

"Famous last words, pal." Thunderhoof growled, turning on his heel and walking away.