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Bumblebee awoke to a cold ground and a dark room. He slowly got up, his head hurting. What had happened? He looked around, finding himself in a cell of sorts.
Great…
He tried to remember what happened…
Um…he was walking…likely either doing a job or something…then…
Given his current location, he was likely jumped and thrown in here. He heard footsteps coming from outside the cell, and he went on defense.
When they were in view, Bumblebee saw Soundblaster and a couple of other bots, all dawning the mercenary symbol.
“Bumblebee, nice to see you again.”
Bumblebee got up. “Wish I could say the same,” he bit back. “Care to tell me why I’m here?”
Soundblaster got close to the bars, while Bumblebee stayed back. “Because you owe me some things.”
Oh. Right. A while back, Bumblebee had borrowed some money from Soundblaster, right when he was starting to do the whole “energon running” business, and needed some help to make sure that he could refuel and not starve to death.
Big mistake coming to Soundblaster, now he was basically stuck with him.
“You’ve been making it big, I bet you can give me some of what you’ve earned…” he hissed.
Uh, no. Bumblebee was not giving what he had made to Soundblaster. Most of it went to buying energon to either keep himself alive, or to sell to other bots. Believe it or not, he actually had some sort of plan to do with the leftover money, and he sure wasn’t going to give it to Soundblaster.
“Really? And how did you find that out?”
“Word of mouth. News travels fast if you know the right people.”
Damn his past self for getting roped into big energon depots. He should’ve left Iacon when he had the chance.
“How about this, Soundblaster? I’ve got a bunch of energon, unsold…currently. I’ll give it to you, free of charge, and you’ll let me go? We got a deal?”
Soundblaster laughed. “We’re actually doing fine on energon. Problem is, we’ve got no money cause no one’s buying…”
“Everyone’s either broke or dead, that’s why they’re not buying.” Bumblebee would blame it on how the war was playing out currently. From what he heard in passing conversation, some Decepticons were even killing neutrals, mistaking them for Autobots.
Probably.
“Everyone except you…and you’ll give me the money you owe, you little bug-“
Another bot quickly rushed into the room. “Soundblaster! There’s someone who wants to make a deposit!”
Soundblaster sighed. “Are they looking to buy anything, as well?”
“I’m not sure.”
Soundblaster turned back to Bumblebee. “We’ll continue this later. Don’t think you’re getting out of this.” He left the room with the others and closed the door.
Now or never, Bumblebee thought. He quickly opened his subspace, looking for anything to help him.
Yes! He grabbed a pair of plies that he stole borrowed from a bot a long time ago, exactly what he needed. He went over to the bars, and quickly started working, cutting the bars just enough to squeeze his body through. Bumblebee ran to the door, and made a break for it, knowing that if he was caught, the punishment would be far worse than owing Soundblaster some money.