"You're right Sides." I grinned. "They do look like Ironhide cookies."
"Don't they!" Sides grinned back with childlike glee.
Hide just stood in the corner and grumbled to himself as the snacks were loaded up into Jetfire.
We had landed on another NEST base on the outskirts of Hong Kong, the closest one that held the energon goodies, and stopped just long enough to stock up on these things...that were as tall as I was. I was a little amused by that, until I realized and remembered how big they actually were. Yeah...those snacks needed to be bigger.
Bee seemed real excited too about the fact that we were going to see the Dinobots. He radio chattered excitedly with Mikey, Caitlin, Ari and Adam and making flying motions with his hands. Apparently he liked them and was excited to join them in a team up.
That had me wondering in amusement which bunch this was. The cartoon versions like Jetfire here, or the movie version like Hide and the rest of the ground rollers. Secretly I was hoping for the movie version myself. They were just as awesome as dragons...well almost as awesome as dragons. Dragons had a bit more of my favoritism at the moment.
I leaned back and snuggled against Leo again as the last few were loaded up. "That's a lot of snacks." Leo noted.
"They are big bots." I replied.
He raised an eyeridge at me. "I'm scared to ask. Anything that uses Hide for a chew toy has to be pretty big."
I just laughed quietly as I borrowed deeper into my snuggle hold, and he replied by wrapping his arms around me. "How are you holding up?" He asked me then.
"Not very good." Was the honest answer.
He held me tighter.
The other turtle wives were also being held close every chance they got. Even Raph was being unusually attentive to Cris, even went so far to give her a few seldom seen in public kisses...with a fist raised to bash anyone who dared make fun of him for it. Even Cait was firmly snuggled against Mikey as he still listened to Bee's chatter, his hand rubbing her worried shoulder gently.
There was no other way really to come to terms with this gift that really wasn't a gift. The dragon part was awesome, but the cost... To have them taken from us to live on somewhere else. A place I couldn't even visit. That part was still hard to swallow.
Our cargo was now loaded and we were ready to continue on with our trip. Soon enough we were rolling along the runway and taking to the air again. Now we were heading to the island that the Dinobots called home. One owned by NEST so they could roam at will unmolested...and leave the majority of the humans unmolested. I have no idea why Bay thought it was a good idea to just let them roam around at the end of the fourth movie. That was asking for trouble.
We settled in for another long flight. We hoped it would be a peaceful one, but not a damn one of us was surprised when the fist telltale shudders hit Jetfire again.
"Con's are back." Jazz calmly noted as he stood back up from where he was lounging.
"You noticed." Hide rumbled as the scramble to tie everyone and thing off began again. "I'm surprised they didn't attack earlier."
"I'm surprised they have to stupidity to try at all." Leo firmly said as he moved me off of him and stood up. "As Raph said before, if they want the gems they are going to get them. Just not in the way they intended."
"Leo!" I scrambled to my feet even as he walked towards the back of the plane. "Don't!"
"Dear one, we were given this for a reason. It won't do us much good if we don't use it and get comfortable with it."
Before I could even form the words together for another protest, he calmly took off running and jumped out of the back of the plane that was now wide open. Raph and Donnie right behind him.
"I'm going to fucking kill him!" I screeched as they disappeared.
Mikey pissed me off even more when he jumped out, spun in midair then blew me kisses before he dropped out of sight.
"You're dead too stupid!" I bellowed after him.
I could have sworn I heard his laughter coming back up at me before the glow of their changing bodies came up from below. Then there were four dragons flying around in the middle of the armada of Cons that were out there.
Once again that door in my head closed with his transformation. I shook my head in frustration even as I felt that awe rise up in me again. I stood, lost in that childlike wonder as they gracefully maneuvered their large bodies in the air. Then they began to tear shit apart, quickly snapping me out of that daze.
The various drones, or Steves as the fandom calls all those minor bots with no names, did try to fend off those dragons. But there really wasn't much success to that. Mikey came up, using a large bubble of air like a battering ram, the air forcing them off in all kinds of directions. One of them went towards Donnie who caught it in his massive jaws and front legs. He held on with those legs as his head snapped viciously backwards, ripping it in half. He let those pieces drop and zeroed in on another one and swooped down, his claws digging deep gouges as he passed and it began to smoke and spark as it began to spiral downward.
Raph fought as a dragon as he did as a ninja turtle, right in the middle of it all. His teeth ripping into a Con even as his tail came around and knocked another into two more. Then he turned up the heat, his flame breath coming out in one long stream that he swung around, nailing Con after Con. Mikey came over his head in a low pass, tearing into the ones Raph couldn't get.
Leo came in leading with a barrel roll before his wings flared out, sending Cons that were too close to him flying away again on different flight paths. He grabbed one and turned suddenly with it and slammed it into another and they both fell towards the ocean below.
Again we all winced at that one.
"Hey! Dragon boys! You going to leave some for us?" Sides called out, a little annoyed that the turtles were having all of the fun.
Mikey immediately banked and easily caught up to Jetfire and when he was close enough Sides gleefully jumped out and landed on his back and Mikey swooped off again. "Dragon judo!" Sides hollered as his mount headed for another batch of Cons.
"Idiot." Sunny mumbled. Then he let one of his rare grins loose when Raph came up next and Sunny promptly followed suit.
Cris facepalmed. "I thought I'd never see the day when I would see Autobots riding dragons into a fight."
"I'd never thought I'd see the day where I want to kill them, but at the same time feel like they are safer now than they ever have been before." I shook my head. "The Cons seem to be doing hardly any damage to them."
It was mind boggling really. There was no way in hell they would be out there in those large bodies in the middle of that many Cons and not get hit. Even the worst shot among them all was bound to get lucky and hit something on the dragons sooner or later. But they just brushed off those hits as if they were spitballs, the retaliation was like the Con getting hit by a freight train. Even with their superior firepower and numbers...the Cons were outmatched.
"It makes sense though if you think about it Aunt Vicky." Dante said from nearby. "Didn't that goddess say that they were to fight these henchmen? They'd have to withstand some decent hits to be able to do that if they are as strong as she fears they are. She doesn't seem like the type to just halfass her work. So if that's what they are meant to fight...these guys are literally just peons."
"Dante...that really doesn't make me feel better. If they are meant to fight something with so much power that they are protected enough to where these guys can't hurt them...how powerful are these four guys they have to face?"
"Very." Prime answered me his eyes calm as he watched the display in front of him. "Not much is known of those four heralds, but what is known is concerning."
"That doesn't make me feel better either." I craned my neck up at him.
"I do not think anything can be said to give you those feeling of comfort Vicky. But to hide from what is out there will also not serve any purpose. It is best to go in fully aware of what lies ahead."
I sighed. He was right about that. Nothing would ease my worries until the job was done...and then I wouldn't even be able to feel one way or the other about it. Either they lost and the whole world goes to shit...or they win and get taken from us. No matter how it went...I lost.
Quietly I watched as those fierce, mighty dragons ripped through Con after Con. Sunny and Sides getting their fair share of hits in now too as they quickly adjusted to this new way of fighting. If I hadn't been thinking what I was, I would have laughed at the sight. They were like some weird conversion of one of those knights in shining armour stories. Except they were metal instead of just wearing it, they fought with blades and plasma shots instead of swords and lances and their horses weren't noble warhorses but kickass dragons. I wished I had a camera, because this was something worth remembering. This was something I would hang up on the wall and look at everyday to remind me of what they had done to help a world that really didn't even know they existed. This was something that would help me understand their sacrifice they freely made for this world.
It was getting to the point that I had to turn away, my thoughts threatening to reduce me to tears when the remaining Cons finally broke off and high tailed it out of there. Mikey and Raph chased them for a bit, with Sunny and Sides leaning low over their necks, weapons held ready at their sides as they closed in on the stragglers. The dragons each reached out with their jaws and clamped down even as those weapons came up and finished them off before letting the others go. Then both sets of wings flared as the dragons stopped and hovered, watching through calm, angry eyes as their targets retreated the Autobots now sitting tall on their backs.
"We have got to do this again." Sides grinned.
"Much better than hopping from Con to Con." Sunny agreed.
Raph snorted his own agreement and the two dragons banked and turned steeply to rejoin their brothers before all four effortlessly caught up to Jetfire again.
After a tricky dismount, the turtles flew towards the opening, one by one, and used that momentum to hold their speed as they changed back making it easier for them to enter the plane that really wouldn't hold those dragon bodies. Rolling across the floor in their turtle forms before coming to a stop farther in. Mikey rolled a bit farther, crashing into the front wall before he stopped. Leo was the last one in and the doors slowly closed behind him again.
He just stood up from his crouching position he landed in, eyes eyes firmly watching in the direction the Cons took off to. I could feel the determination in him, that no matter how many times the Cons would try, he would stand up to them every time. No more was he the small little reptile they had caught. No longer would he have to resort to quick reflexes and years of training to go for risky eye hits to blind them. He was on their footing now, and he was going to remind them of that every time they made an appearance.
This gift had done more than just give him a weapon to fight with. It gave him his hope again. It gave him a reason to push on. Because even as he turned to face me and began to walk over his eyes and thoughts wandered over to where the twins were. He had something he could now use to protect them against these things that had beaten us before, and he would do just that. Leo had found his place in their life again.