"What do you mean it lost them!" War roared at Death.

"I mean just that!" She snapped back at him, her never ending patience beginning to end. "They are no longer at the base! Nether the champion nor his kin are at that location!"

"How could this be! Not even the gods could give them the powers to just vanish!"

"This champion is indeed proving to be quite the challenge." Pestilence quietly noted. "Perhaps more so than we had anticipated."

"Find them!" War bellowed at all of them. "I don't care what you have to do, but find them!"

All three winced at his tone. He was not the most patient leader under normal circumstances...and this was rapidly becoming anything but normal for them.

"The stalker already moves again." Death told him after quietly communicating with her pet. "It suspects it might know where they have gone, but the distance between them is now very great. It will take time."

"Time is something we begin to run out of." War snapped back at her. "Even now does he enter this planetary system."

"He is so close already?" Famine asked him with shock.

"Yes! And we have done nothing to prepare this planet for his arrival!"

"Then we must act quickly." Pestilence determined as they landed their mounts on a high ridge in the California mountain range. "We may have to engage the planets defense systems before the stalker finishes it's task."

"Not something I wish to do with the champion at full strength." Famine muttered quietly.

"We have beat them before without the aid of a stalker." Death reminded him.

War's eyes narrowed shrewdly as he listened. "But...it will draw him away from the targets the stalker seeks. That may work to our advantage."

"He fights with us and the stalker moves against his loved ones..." Death purred. "That may very well work."

War had an evil gleam in his eye now as he thought this through. "Yes...to see his loss on his face in the middle of combat, then take his life from him. That will indeed be a worthy repayment for the hassle he has put us through."

The four exchanged knowing grins of anticipation.

"Death, do you know the location of the base they retreated to?"

"Vaguely, but let me summon our guide who is more familiar with the surrounding terrain." Her eyes crackled a moment with dark energy and her tiny creation once again stood in front of her. "Well met little one. A slight change of plans, you will accompany us."

"Very well mistress. The bargain still remains the same?"

"It does. You have played your part to perfection as well as your abilities allow. Let my comrades and I remove the one obstacle out of your path, then your strike will be able to hit it's mark."

"As you command mistress."

She motioned for him to join her on top of her beast and he flew up and settled in front of the saddle, then the four once again took to the air, eastward under the guidance of the one who was now eagerly awaiting another chance to face Ty. This time the half breed freak wouldn't live through the meeting.

.

.

It was late evening now and Leo found that he wasn't the only restless one. He found his three unusually solemn brothers with a just as quite Prime. All of them looking upward.

"You said what." Raph said as Leo joined them. He really didn't phrase it as a question as his eyes narrowed.

"He is close...and is closing in quickly." Prime told him again, those blue eyes of his searching the skies.

Donnie looked up at him perplexed at that statement. "But nothing is showing up on any kind of feeds or equipment. You would think one of those satellites or space probes out there would pick him up."

Leo was shaking his head even as Donnie spoke those words. "Donnie, his underlings already came down three times that we know of without any warning. Twice they directly tried to engage us. It's not to hard to come to the conclusion that Unicron himself is avoiding detection somehow."

"He is close enough now to where the matrix begins to react to his presence." Prime answered Donnie's question.

"We're running out of time." Leo added as his own eyes looked skyward. "We know what we are supposed to do, have you given any thought to how you are going to handle the larger part of this?"

Silence was the only answer for a long while before the large Bot spoke again. "There is nothing we can do to his body that will harm him enough to bring him down. The key lies into gaining access to his spark chamber and fight him from within."

Raph just stared at him incredulously. "You mean you have to get inside of him?"

"Yes."

"And how do you expect to pull that off without him swatting you like a damn gnat?"

"We could build a big robot." Mikey piped in. "Then hide the Bots in it's nose and have it sneeze on him."

"Oh good god..." Raph facepalmed. "We are all going to die if that's the best we can come up with."

"Shoot him in there." Donnie shrugged.

Raph lowered his hand and looked at Donnie with the disbelief he was still feeling. "You got a gun big enough?"

Prime actually smiled down at them. "Michelangelo's suggestion comes the closest."

Mikey wasn't the only one who looked surprised at that. "It does?" The youngest asked baffled.

"You have got to be kidding me..." Raph mumbled.

"But we will not have to build him, he already exists. And he will not 'sneeze' us in there."

The turtles just looked at each other. "You have a robot the size of a planet?" Mikey finally asked.

"Not quite, but one large enough to aid in this matter."

Before Prime could answer further, Epps came walking up with a very stunned Cris. "Prime! Florida just called. Omega Supreme is there, prepped and ready whenever you are."

"Ortega who?" Raph asked.

"Omega Supreme you dipshit." Cris told him. "One of the biggest bots Prime has in his arsenal...you thought Jetfire was huge..."

"Oh... Why are you so worried about this Unicorn guy-

"Unicron." Donnie corrected him.

"Whatever! Why are you so worried about him if you got all these big beasts for machines?"

"Because Unicron dwarfs them all you dunce." Cris shook her head. "Seeing Jetfire was almost enough to blow my mind, and Omega comes close to pushing the sanity limit on how big a life form can get. I can't imagine how big Unicron is...it refuses to process."

Raph stared at her long and hard at that statement. It was finally sinking in on him how big this living disaster really was... Leo was more than a little uneasy himself. And he thought the heralds were bad enough... Prime's task vastly outweighed their own.

Task that seemed almost impossible when Donnie's eyes grew suddenly very wide. "Look..." He pointed with a shaking hand.

All of their eyes went skywards to where he was pointing, and you could see a small globe in the distance.

Leo stared at it, his sense of dread rapidly rising. "We are out of time..."

Prime didn't even acknowledge that statement before he took off running, calling for every single Bot he had gathered at the base as he went. Dinobots included.

Raph shook himself out of his stupor. "Holy mother of all hells..."

Even Mikey was speechless. He looked from that ominous globe to Leo, his eyes wide and fear replacing his normal cheery innocence. "Leo..."

"Stay calm Mikey." Leo's eyes narrowed. "I have a feeling our turn is coming rapidly as well and that's what we need to focus on." Then he turned and ran as well, grabbing Cris' arm as he passed her and drug her along. "Get everyone together. I don't want to have to go looking all over this base for them when the time comes." Something else besides his leadership instincts was guiding him now, something he actually took great comfort in.

"Where do we take them?" Donnie asked, easily keeping pace with his brother.

"Med bay. It's the largest room we have and there are going to be a lot of troops we need to shelter, not just our own family."

His brothers nodded and split up with Epps to go round everyone up. Soon after directions were being blared over the P.A. system telling Bots to meet at the ground bridge and everyone else to meet into med bay. Soon enough there was organized chaos everywhere as the base exploded into action.

He found Vicky hurriedly pushing their four children in front of her in the corridor outside of med bay. Ty was already moving a lot better on his feet, his mutagen influenced body already shaking off the injuries. Lavi was still a little pale, but she was also running smoothly on her own.

"What's going on Leo?" Cindy asked as she followed the turtle family.

He smiled that the girl felt familiar with him enough to address him by his nickname, and sadness took hold of him that he probably wouldn't get to hear her use it very often. "Our hand has been forced." Was all he said. It was all he needed to say. They all understood.

Ratchet was in his domain, bellowing orders at everyone he suddenly had to deal with trying to get them all in the most secure area.

"You sure about this Leo?" Raph asked as the last of their family had been herded inside. "Being in here might not be the best place for them when this smackdown happens."

"I don't want them out there Raph. This is the most secure area. I refuse to believe that Ratchet didn't have this room reinforced to protect any potential patients if the base came under attack."

"Should we at least call some other bots in to help us hold it?"

"Raph, Prime needs them. And I seriously doubt they are going to stop what's about to happen. The heralds are our responsibility, not theirs."

"It's too late anyway." Blaster said as he joined them. "They've already gone through the ground bridge. We are on our own. You sure about this Leo?"

"Personally, no. But someone else is telling me this is the right way."

Blaster looked at him funny, but didn't push the issue.

"Where's Kyle?" Lavi suddenly asked her eyes looking around with worry.

"He's with Will and Epps, someone had to stay in the main control room to activate the ground bridge."

Lavi immediately went for the door only to have her way blocked by her Father. "I'll go get them. You stay here turtle dove."

"But, Dad..."

Her protest cut off when she caught the firm, confident look on his face. His eyes already slightly glowing. "Stay child." something other than his voice said. "The time draws nigh."

Lavi looked at him in shock, shock that grew even more when she saw her Uncle's eyes had also slightly lit up. "Mom..."

Vicky didn't answer but did pull her daughter close as Leo turned towards the door. Both of them holding each other tight as he disappeared from their view.

It didn't take Leo long to track them down, they were right outside and already making their way towards med bay. But they weren't quick enough as the first rumble echoed across the ground. Leo calmly turned to see what had caused that rumble even as Kyle's face paled. "Lord help us..."

They were large. Each individual could easily give Grimlock a hard time size wise. Wings the shape of a demon's sprouted out of their back and their eyes glowed eerie colors as they gazed down at the so tiny to them turtle. Larger still were they if you included their mounts. Large metal half horse, half dragon contraptions. It was those hybrids that shook the ground again as they impatiently pawed at the earth, fire snorting out of their nostrils. Leo knew he was looking at the heralds, he could feel their essence of chaos clearly. Something that his entire presence wanted to lash out at.

"This? This tiny thing is the champion?" The one with glowing red eyes asked incredulous. "This is the one we have feared we could not bring low?"

"It is." The slimmest one replied. Leo narrowed his eyes. He knew that voice. She was the one who had sent Jeff after his family.

"I'll only warn you once." Leo told them. "Begone from here."

The large one spoke again, his tone taunting now. "You shall command War to do nothing pitiful creature. You just made our task ridiculously easy. We didn't need the stalker afterall. You foolishly gathered everyone you hold dear, and now we will destroy them all in one stroke." Their hands raised and large beams of energy ripped from them to hit the building Leo had housed everyone. The building held against that onslaught for a few moments before it collapsed, surely crushing everyone who was found inside.

The only sound after that was Kyle's anguished cry as he watched everyone he was close too be crushed under the weight of the rubble that had once been a large, sturdy building.