The following contains an homage to Blackwolf219's ShadowStrike rising !
Transformers Prime : Miami
Chapter 16: The Battle of Miami.(Part 1)
"Yuri over here for a second." Verity said as she waved him over, they had maybe a minuet to prepare for this operation. "Who knows what you might encounter so you need to be ready"
Verity tapped the trunk of Prowl and it opened up to reveal a vast array of weapons and equipment. She pulled out two black Kevlar police issue bullet proof vests , and gave one to Yuri. He looked at it curiously, and saw her putting her on over her chest.
"Armor?" He asked , They weren't the armor he was used to as back in the Soviet army only officers had armor and it was big and bulky.
As soon as Verity finished putting hers on she grabbed Yuri and started to strap his on." "You know this cute puppy dog fish out of water routine is cute but now is not the time!, It's a bullet proof vest, you take my gun and some clips." She gave him one of her pistols and some clips. "Once you find her, you get her out of there and you shoot anything that gets in your way!"
" I promise verity," Yuri said as he stuck the clips in his pockets.
In the time Verity had known April, She had to admit, the kid grew on her. Heck even Yuri was starting to grow on her. Not since her days with Hunter and Jimmy had she allowed herself to open up to other people and trust. When they were taken from her it too her a long time to open up and allow that same trust to come back. The last person she allowed that trust to was the person who trained her to be a Detective, her first partner on the Miami police force, an aging detective name James "Sonny" Crockett. He taught her everything she knew about working the streets and honing her instincts. But during a call to a suspicions person on the street, they saw he was armed with a automatic rifle. He opened fired and killed 6 police officers that day including Detective Crockett. There are nights Verity relives the day he died in her arms in her dreams.
She was happy to have it just her and Prowl, and only helping Team Elita from afar and when she could. Then bubbly April came to be in Autobot protection, She felt it was her duty to warn the young doctor about the life she was getting in. Much to Verity's surprise, April hung in there and proved to be very resourceful and brave. It was hard for her to see April being tortured the way she was.
"Do you have a vest and a gun for Jack?"Arcee asked
"I only have two, and I'm not putting a gun in a 16 year olds hands, "She looked at Yuri, " I'm counting on the soldier to help you watch over Jack." She turned to Jack it was the first time he has seen her in her actual body , She had gotten to know hm in that week she had to live as Miko, and in ways she didn't want to admit, maybe too well.
"Jack"She said she placed a hand on his shoulder, she could tell by the look in his eyes, he wanted his aunt back and he wanted blood. " I know your angry now, but don't let that anger get you killed, We're going to get your aunt back but not at the cost of you!"
Jack nodded and looked at her softly." I want you to be safe too, ok?"
"I have two service pistols, Armor piercers, and a sawed off shotgun, I'm good " Verity smiled.
Jack looked at Elita One" So how are we going to find April?" He asked.
" I have a way, but I cant tell you just yet." She said
"What do you mean by that?" He asked with a a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Jack you have to trust me, now let's move!" She said as they headed out.
April Sullivan opened her eyes as she felt Delilah grab her by the hair and lifted her face to hers. " I have to admit Sullivan, You lasted a lot longer than most Cobra Officers I've worked over."
She loosed the handcuffs from the chair and hand cuffed her hands to her front.
"Y-You're a monss-ster..." April barely got out , her mouth filled with her blood.
"That and then some!" Delilah bragged as she hooked the handcuffs around a chain from a pulley on the ceiling, She pulled the chain as it lifted April off the chair and hung barely above the ground her toes hanging slightly over the floor.
Securing the chain , Delilah pushed her to make sure she couldn't reach the floor. " I know I said was gong to torture you all night with sharp instruments all night , yadda yadda yadda,. I just don;t have time right now, I have other things to handle. So Your going to torture yourself
She said as she too a small ampule out of her wrist guard.
She held the small glass ampule filled with a brown liquid, "There was this Psychiatrist, Dr. Jonathan Crane or something. See he invented this "Fear Toxin" it's a gas that targets the parts of your mind in charge of fears, This stuff is potent full strength ,I've seen grown men die from fright cause of it. But I have a low dose for you, Low enough to give you some really bad nightmares."
She then took a syringe that was filled with Ambien, she stuck it in her arm,"This is something to make you sleep, She then cracked the ampule under her nose and allowed the small amount of fluid to contaminate her shirt,
"And this is make sure you wake up screaming!" She leaned in closer " Too bad you haven't been exposed to it as much as I have, it just makes me all "gooey" inside!"
She was stopped as April spit a mouthful of blood in her face. Delilah stopped as she was sprayed with the red liquid, Taking a deep breath she didn't hide the fact she was mildly annoyed.
"You know, I was happy to just leave you dangling but you managed to piss me off!"
Delilah pulled out a gun cocked it and pointed it at April, No sooner did Delilah's phone rang. She looked at it to see it was Sideswipe, Waiting a few rings she finally picked it up.
"Yeah?"
"Stage one is on, It's time for stage two, Drop what your doing and head outside for pickup!"
Delilah stopped and contemplated, she lowered the gun and sent a hard right punch to April's gut.
April gasped and coughed as the effect of the sleep drug started to take effect. Almost immediately the nightmares began,
Eita One raced through the streets leading from Biscayne bay, "Mirage, Where are we going?" She called out .
"As soon as that crazy human started to broadcast I started to triangulate her signal, She's clever I'll give her that she was bouncing three different signals off three different continents." Mirage said as he pulled into a hidden brush on the outskirts of an abandoned plant, He went onto stealth mode as he vanished around his surroundings. "Perceptor , need confirmation of my target, Tell me we still have satellite comms?"
Perceptor was busy disassembling most of the computer systems in the base to fix whatever problem Delilah mucked up. "Luckily the satellite systems were off line at the moment, Give me a moment to isolate its functions from the res of the base and I can give you an answer!" he said as she booted up the Satellite systems. "m patching you in now!"
Mirage soon felt he had control of the Autobots surveillance satellite in Orbit above the earth. T would come in handy to check out any possible Decepticon activity, He used it to pinpoint the factory he was spying on. "Elita ,I've got a bird's eye view of the place, I'm noting 7 life signatures,and one of them is very faint..." He said grimly.
Mirage saw that the other individuals around the compound looked like MECH agents. " This is the place Elita, there are MECH outside, I'm at the Ibanez Coca factory in Ludlam!
Eita one then spun around on the road and drove in the opposite direction headed toward Mirage's location.
Sunstreaker, Green Light, Prowl and Verity waited outside as they saw Elita one and Arcee race off, They were tasked to handle the attacks by the renegades.
Verity and Prowl both listed to the Miami police chatter, Four neighborhoods are under attack, Little Havana, West Flager, Airport West and Liberty City!"
"It's gonna get hot and heavy Greenie, just making sure your head is in the game " Streaker said
Green Light checked her arm riffles and then her propeller double swords, "I'll be good, is it just us against them."
"Nope it's us and THEM" Sunstreaker said as a portal appeared before them out came "Bumblebee, Bulkhead and finally Optimus Prime. " Optimus, Elita and Arcee are rescuing April, She told me to inform you she is submitting command to you tonight."
Optimus Prime nodded, "Our first priorty is to ensure any and all human life is protected, We will cover the four locations in two bot teams, Bulkhead ,Bumblebee and Prowl and Verity cover over the south side of Miami, Sunstreaker you and I will cover the North, Green Light you will prove us Air support."
He turned and looked out into the Miami skyline, He could hear faints booms of Autobot and Decepticon weapons. "Autobots! Transform and roll out!" he commanded as the Autobots transformed and drove off .
"So Tabatha," Elita said as she sped toward the factory, "Who is she? Why does a psychopath have our friend?"
Tabatha looked out into the shoreline, "Her code name is Graceland, She was a part of my Special Operations unit, called the Special Games and Tactics, or S.G.A.T's, During World War II a super Soldier serum was created, It produced the man we know today as Captain America. But before the formula could be reproduced the man who created it was killed. Since then many attempts have been made to recreate this formula, all with failure, some with moderate success. An abstract of the formula was created but didn't work on males. It was discovered this formula worked on young prepubescent girls.
Then Project Athena was created , they used only candidates who had no family due to abandonment or death of parents . This formula enhanced their cognitive skills, reflexes, and intelligence, And to a select few various other gifts like Telepathy, Enhanced Strength , and energy manipulation. There were only a handful of girls trained in black operations, Some could handle the training ,some couldn't. I was one of the first few who competed the training, I was given the name Southland. We performed missions that were deemed ultra secretive, Assassinations, Weapons depot destruction, espionage. I made my first kill before my first menstrual cycle. "
Agent Greene looked at her pack of cigarettes and tossed them out of the window. "I found Grace when she was 6 , It was on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. I was tasked to follow and assassinate a man who was going to sell a dangerous Nerve Toxin to the North Koreans. I manage to stop the car he was in, causing a car crash that toppled the car and sent it crashing. As I collected the toxin from the dead man's body, I heard her crying, She was his daughter. Alone wet in the cold pouring rain. I made the judgment call to take her with me , and she was trained just like me.
Delilah proved to be very good at what she did, She was taught stealth tactics, she was rated with everything that fires a bullet or has an edge, Given a resistance to most neuro toxins and poisons, but her biggest skill was hacking. She could disable an alarm system, crash a computer, and even divert the enemy profits a to treat us a presidential suite in whatever town we were in!"
" So, What happened?" Elita asked. knowing this story had a down turn.
Greene gulped hard, it was rare for her to display any kind of emotion other than extreme irateness or extreme sarcasm. As she told about that fateful night five years ago.
Hanshu islands, Japan
Five year before.
"Troop 121 this is Mercy four-niner,come in" The voice called out over the radio. Tabatha Greene fastened her fingerless gloves and responded in her code name " Mercy four-niner this is Troop 121, Southland reporting in."
"Troop 121 we are making the approach to the south east end of the Hanshu Islands , Be ready for drop in five."
The belly of the C-130 shook as the five female operatives inside readied their gear. ,Their mission was simple, infiltrate the island compound confirm the warhead was there and disable it.
It was mission Southland was all too comfortable with. Go in, raise hell , leave.
She looked back at her team, There was Rough Rider, who was the demolitions expert, They nicknamed her "Squeaky clean" as she was a pretty girl with long blonde hair from Texas who had an annoying clean cut attitude, no swearing, no drinking and no debauchery, How could a person like that do this job?
Then there was Angel Sparrow , the teams medic, a prissy little french girl, More in-tune with how the human body works and can not work than most people Southy knew. The teams expert in hand to hand was Black Betty , she came from Vietnam when she was 3 and was drafted into the S.G.A.T at an early age. Finally was the ginger hacker named Graceland. Named so because she was found near the gates of Graceland .
"You thin after this mission we could jet over to Tokyo? I have a hankering for Okonomiyaki." Graceland asked as she taped up her micro computers to her wrist. She could feel the looks of her teammates, "What? Just sayin, a few keystrokes and we could be partying it up with the hottest boy band in Japan!"
She looked at Southland " Except for you old lady, Maybe we can find a nice Yakuza for you to cut down to size..."
Southland gave her a smirk " Let's focus on the job at hand shall we?" She raised up her assassin face mask, it was a skin tight mask that covered her mouth and nose. Each S.G.A.T wore a variant of the uniform. Black armored boots with black cargo pants, a utility belt with various gadgets and climbing equipment, They also had at least 15 different knives and shrunken concealed on them at all times.
Finally they wore a shirt with a vest like design on it. It was made of a tightly woven material, that could repel some bullets and knife strikes. Each girl had their own colors though.
Southland wore dark purple and black, While Rough Rider wore red blue and black, Angel Sparrow had pink dark pink and black,and finally Graceland wore Dark Green and black.
"let's go!" Southland said as the bay of the C-130 opened and the winds over Japan swirled inside the cabin.
"Comm check!" Southy sad over the team communicators.
"Check!" Rough Rider said
"Check" reported Black Betty
"Oui!" said Angel Sparrow
"Y-y-y-yello!"said Graceland.
"Go!,Go!,Go!" Southland yelled as she and her team jumped out into the night sky. They free fell from 8,000 feet. The team deployed chutes and landed just north of the Castle compound.
They hid their chutes and made the hike through the dense Japanese forest to the outskirt of the Castle.
"Castle looks to he guarded I count 20 or so men, " Southland said as she peered through her binoculars, she then saw a familiar symbol on the wall, that of a red Foot. "It's a Foot Clan compound!"
RoughRider snapped her fingers as both Black Better and Graceland put a 20 dollar bill in her hands. "you said it would Cobra!" Rider said mockingly.
"Grace ,Your up, hack them to pieces. " Southland ordered.
Grace land pulled out her netbook and started to type furiously , whens he got the encryption codes she needed she pulled out her handhold Micro Computer. A few quick coeds and keystrokes and then entire compound shutdown.
"Go!" Southland ordered as they moved in and through the walls, The team moved efficiently , Through the outer guards and found a way in through the second floor, It was inside that they faced resistance from the Foot clan soldiers. The castle got partial electricity restored as they followed the pulse singles to where the warhead was in the top floor,
Taking down several foot, they launched smoke bombs and concussion grenades to cause confusion while they found the target room.
They entered the room where the warhead was stored, "Weld that door! We don't want anyone coming in!" Black Betty and Angel began to set charged to the door frame to weld it shut, ad Rough rider and Graceland began to work to disable the warhead, As they did Southland received a signal from her wrist computer, on it she saw several blips forming from the south. She knew what it was instantly.
It was an Airstrike. It was the contingency plan set to act if their team failed. Somehow it was being enacted early, Soutland knew someone sold them out. She franticly got on the raido.
"Mercy four niner! Mercy four niner call off the airstrike!, Repeat call off the airstrike! ,Warhead is neutralized repeat warhead is neutralized!'
It was useless as the bombs hit the building and surrounding area, turning the entire island into a fiery hell hole. Everything became a blur of sound and dust as the building came down around them, the next thing Southland new she was being dragged from the burning rubble ,She squinted to see Grace, covered in blood, Southland could barely breath as she felt the warm sticky sensation of blood pooling under her shirt and pants.
"They're dead! Oh God they're all dead!" Graceland gasped she she stopped dragging her team leader
Southland then felt Grace hook a tiny beacon to her shirt, She turned it on as it became to send out a tiny radio distress signal. "They'll come for you Tabby," Grace said as she spat out blood. A thunderclap sounded as a hard rain began to fall,Grace leaned in and mouth something unintelligible to her, She got up and Southland began to see her limp away, he tried to call out to her to come back, but all she could was cough and gurgle.
"That was the last I ever saw of her, till tonight" Agent Greene said " After-wards I learned that some how the Prime Minister of Japan Oroku Saki , learned of our operation. He quickly strong armed our president to finish the operation by allowing them to order a airstrike on the compound. "I was transferred from S.G.A.T's then to an office job in D.C, Sent to menial tasks and to bot-sit. I never found out who double crossed us and killed my entire team that night. "
"So what do we expect from her?'" Elita One said,
"You will rescue April, Let me deal with Delilah, She is trained to counter anything we plan, She will more than likely have traps laid out and from what I've seen so far, she has comprised your base and hasn't even took one foot inside of it. "
They stopped and joined Mirage outside of the abandoned coca factory, They transformed and formed a plan.
"How is April's life signs?" Elita One asked.
"Faint, but they spike every so often, I have her at the Northwest corner of the main processing plant, From what I can tell I count about 10 or so MECH agents. I'm downloading the chip reading to you and Arcee!"
"You have my aunt Microchipped!" Jack asked.
"We wanted to chip you but Optimus wanted it to be your choice." Arcee said.
"it's still being tested , April chipped herself. " Mirage said " So what's the plan boss lady?"
"We will laid out a diversion by attacking the MECH head on, Yuri and Jack will take this and find April, Elita said as he handed Jack a hand held device that had a blip that represented where April was. "Yuri your armed, protect jack!" Elita One said.
"That's my job!" Arcee protested,
"I need you here in case back up come, " Elita One said, "We will buy Yuri and Jack enough time to go in and get April out, Agent Green-" She turned to see Greene was already gone.
"She's gone!" Jack stated
"She's off to find Delilah, " Elita said " Greene is many things but not a deliberate traitor, at least she better not be..."
Yuri and Jack waited for Elita, Mirage and Arcee to take the lead and lead the charge, They transformed and burst through the chain link fence. It didn't take long before the MECH soldiers started to fire on them, They transformed and stood back to back.
"Da! Let's go!" Yuri said as he tapped Jack on the back and the two made a break for the building.
"Mirage your shields!, Draw their fire!" Elita said as she saw the two humans ran for the entryway of the factory, Using the cover of dark they mange to sneak past the commotion.
April didn't know where she was all she knew was she was performing CPR on an shadowy figure, her hand were covered in blood, There was fire all around her as buildings burned and Autobots laid dead before her, She looked up to see the Enslaver descending and Decepticons, The Autobots had failed and Miami had fallen, She stopped as she felt the life pa from the boy she was trying to save, To her horror she sprang back and saw the blood covered body of Jack.
"NO!" April screamed a she woke to see she was still dangling, he lost track how many times she woke up screaming and in a cold sweat. She dangled from the handcuffs as her writs were afire, She struggled to kick up and free herself from at least hanging. But he was already too weak, the sleeping med till coursing through her veins. The images she saw when she fell asleep were horrifying, From death, to hate to utter fear. It all came to life as soon as she opened her eyes.
It was as if the fear toxin took her hopes and dreams and twisted them against her, She remembered one particular nasty dream where she was pregnant, and lost the child when a Decepticon attacked the car she was in. Then there were the many dreams where her friends and family would die at her hands, or cause she was too late.
She took a deep cleansing breath as she could feel the drug try to work itself again. She remember from long ago when she had bad dream as a child, Her sister June would comfort her and tell her the best way to beat a bad dream was to program your own dream, Focus on what you wanted to see. She pictured anything, the beach, Her family, The Autobots, Yuri.
She had to admit she was having a growing crush on the Russian. Ever since they rescued him , he had been there for him as he tried to readjust to having everything taken from him. Still he did his best to bees the best in his situation. She had to admit she liked the way he carried himself, How he had old world values, like holding the door for April and standing to greet her every time she came in the room, Then were his corny Russian jokes, which made no sense to April whatsoever, but still laughed in the way he told them. She focused on a spot on the wall and concentrated her thoughts,
"They will come, they will come for me. I have to hang on..." she kept telling herself.
Outside Delilah knelt on the roof on a workers shed , from here she could scan the fight taking place outside. She could see the Autobots had arrived, They were mixing it up with the mercenary MECH soldier Sideswipe had hired. Still she had a deadline to meet.
"I'm outside, where are you?" She said as she called Sideswipe.
"We're dealing with a Prime sized problem, I'm sending someone to get you, just hang tight." Sideswipe said .
Delilah blinked " Have to go ." she said simply as she tossed her phone and pulled out her bowie knife from her waist, and turned just in time to catch Agent Greene's blade.
They locked blades and eyes, "Hello Southy..."
"It ends now Grace!" she said.
Delilah head butted her in the face knocking her back enough to tackle her to the ceiling and roll off of it hitting the ground below. Delilah stood up and kicked her in the gut hard " Graceland, is my slave name!: She said as she delivered another kick to her " I'm freelance baby!"
Far off from them , Mirage had the shields up from the energy weapons being fired on them from MECH agents, He held them off as Elita One and Arcee waited, When Mirage sensed the pulses were getting weaker from the constants fire, He lowered his shield.
"NOW!" He yelled as he ducked, Both Elita and Arcee turned and stored firing at pinpoint accuracy. They aimed for the large rifles they carried. The rifles got blasted out of their hands as all 15 agents were soon disarmed. They retreated as soon as they aw their weapons were ineffective. The Autobots didnt have time to revel in the victory as from behind them something was closing in fast.
They barely had time to see the sleek black Hayabusara motorcycle jump the fence and fly high in the air, it then transformed into a female Autobot with her insignia scratched out. She fired her guns as they knocked Mirage down, as she landed her guns transformed into blades , she quickly took down Elita with a kick and swung to slice Arcee who caught her with her own blades, Arcee's look of determination as she quickly recognized the Female renegade Autobot.
"CHROMIA!" She yelled as she was face to face with her sister.
A/N: I threw in a lot of elements into this story, Marvel universe, DC Universe and others. I also threw in an homage to ShadowStrike Rising a story I am really enjoying right now. This story will have three parts to it, As it will literally be a battle for the soul of Miami. South;and as I said was one of my character from the MMO City of heroes, here is a rendition of her in her S.G.A.T uniform done by Alex Dai!
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NEXT TIME: The Autobots take the fight to the streets as Optimus Prime come face to face with the leader of the Renegades. One of them will make an unspeakable decision that will shake the Autobots to the core.