Note: Those who've watched Transformers Prime will recognise the scenes as well as dialouge from the episode 'Darkness Rising Part 2'
Chapter Nine
Our Predicament
No sooner had Ratchet opened the Ground Bridge and Optimus lead the way through it, that they found themselves in a large underground mine.
Ratchet had opened the bridge up in a secluded area of the mine and the Autobots could hear drilling sounds and talking, showing that the place was occupied so they had to be careful.
Optimus led the way with his arm cannon activated and the other Autobots did the same.
The mine was huge and many blue crystals like the ones Pandora and Kemeko saw back in the woods near the farmhouse.
"Energon Mine!" Bulkhead identified.
Optimus nodded and looked around.
"Judging by its scale." He murmured "The Decepticons have been tunnelling here for quite some time."
"Darn tootin there!" Ironhide agreed.
They walked on a little further and soon came to an area in the tunnel were several giant Decepticon Miner Drones were hard at work mining energon cubes and storing them in large metal boxes.
"Let's find Cliffjumper.' Optimus ordered and he walked down further to the centre of the tunnel and made his presence known to the drones who looked up to see the Autobots.
Alarmed to see them there, they stopped mining and started attacking!
Back at the base, the Hamato Clan were gathered to discuss their situation after what had happened in the woods as well as how Pandora and Kemeko had wound up at the Autobot's base.
"How did you girls get caught up in all this?" Splinter asked looking at Pandora and Kemeko who were seated on the sofa.
Kemeko turned to Pandora.
"Ask her!" she said pointing a thumb at Pandora.
"Me?" Pandora asked indignantly.
"Well, it's because of you and your curiosity we're here!" Kemeko accused "If you hadn't gone over to those blue crystals when we were exploring..."
"Energon." Ratchet reminded as he listened in nearby watching his screens.
'Whatever." Kemeko said "We wouldn't be in this predicament."
"Hey!" Pandora countered "I didn't know there were giant robots in the area, did I?"
"She's got a point!" Michelangelo said "I mean, what are the odds there?"
"Apparently you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Donatello mused nodding his head.
"Which has happened more than a few times than I care to remember." Raphael groaned "Not just to Pandora but us too, and all the escapades we've been on!"
"Could write a book with all we've done in our lives!" Leonardo agreed.
"Come on guys!" Pandora said "I didn't do this on purpose! I mean come on! I wasn't expecting to find a giant robot who could turn into a truck and some evil deceptions."
"Decepticons." Ratchet corrected.
"Whatever!" Pandora scoffed "To appear and Kemeko and I get abducted!"
"A fair point!" April said, "Like all those years ago when I first met you guys, I didn't expect there to be mutants hiding under New York."
"It's stuff you see in movies and shows!" Casey agreed.
"I'll say!" Michelangelo said, "But I for one am not complaining!"
"Likewise!" Donatello said "Seeing all this technology is amazing! It's just fantastic and I can't wait to learn more!"
Leonardo was about to speak when he saw Kemeko yawn and lean into the sofa a little.
"Guys?" He asked, "Any idea what time it is?"
April looked at her watch.
"According to my watch it's ten thirty at night."
"It's eight thirty here." Ratchet reported looking over to the mutants and humans and he saw the Asian girl looking rather sleepy.
"And from what I gather it means it's past your bedtime?" he asked.
Pandora looked appalled.
"What do you think we are?" she asked "Children?" yet she too yawned in tiredness as all the excitement from earlier started to make her feel sleepy.
"That brings me to another point." Monalisa said "Where are we going to sleep? According to what Optimus mentioned about their enemies, after what happened in the woods near the Farmhouse, I doubt it's safe to go back there."
Casey looked rather ill when he heard that thinking about his family's farmhouse and how a home, he had considered safe was no longer the case.
"Not safe?" he cried "My farmhouse not safe?"
"Aww Shell! All my stuffs there!" Michelangelo wailed "My games! My comics!"
"And our other personal stuff!" Pandora agreed "All we have with us are the clothes on our backs and shell cells!" she gestured to herself still in her shorts and bikini top.
Everyone was soon silenced by Splinter clapping his hands and he brought everyone to silence.
"Everyone please!" he ordered "Do not panic."
"I have an idea." Donatello said then looked to Ratchet.
"Ratchet?" He enquired waving at the Autobot medic.
Ratchet groaned and looked over at the turtle.
"What?" he asked annoyed that he was being pulled away from his work.
"Do you think you could bridge us back to the farmhouse so we can retrieve our stuff?" he asked "Like sleeping bags, food, you know? Stuff we need?"
Ratchet frowned then looked at the screen.
"Sure!" he agreed "But I must continue to monitor the screens to see how Optimus and the others are doing in the mission to find Cliffjumper, but when he returns, we will arrange it."
"Thanks!" Donatello said gratefully and the others agreed.
"Indeed, thank you!" Splinter agreed bowing to Ratchet with a smile to which the medic gave a small smile back.
Meanwhile, Optimus, Bulkhead, Ironhide, Bumblebee and Arcee were continuing their fight in the mine as well as continuing their search for Cliffjumper.
They had managed to take out a few drones, but now a few had formed into a small squadron of drones with large drills.
Optimus glowered behind his battle mask and transformed into his truck form.
"Maxium Overdrive!" he commanded and the other Autobots transformed with him, and they used this to their advantage knocking down the drones and running them down as well as bowling others over like skittles!
Before long they made it to the entrance of the tunnel and to the main chamber where there were numerous platforms with a lift made of brightly coloured energy rings and mining drones were hard at work carting energon to the lift.
Bulkhead let out a low whistle in amazement.
"Quite the operation!" he commented yet a few shots rang out towards him and the team.
"Scrap!" Ironhide gasped giving Bulkhead a glare as he started shooting back and Optimus, Arcee and Bumblebee joined in.
Arcee leapt over a couple of drones to get close to the lift and she soon saw something, or rather someone on one of the higher platforms.
"Cliff!" she cried then looked to Optimus "I have a visual!" she reported.
"We'll cover you!" Optimus yelled "GO!"
Upon his word, Arcee vaulted and bounded up towards the higher platform, swinging onto the energy rings of the lift like a skilled gymnast until she got to the platform and over to the red form of her partner.
Yet as she got closer to him, she gasped, seeing he had been sliced in half and was leaking purple liquid, yet she still hoped to bring him home.
Just as she got closer, a couple of blasts rained down on her from the higher platform and struck where Cliffjumper was and the platform collapsed!
"No!" Arcee screamed and reached for Cliffjumper's hand grabbing it and attempting to pull him up!
"Let's get you home partner!" she said, but to her shock and horror, the sliced body of her partner reanimated and looked up growling and snarling at her like a wild animal!
Arcee recoiled as Cliffjumper wrenched his hand away from hers and started to fall from the height down into the shaft below, yet Arcee continued reaching for him!
The other Autobots saw what happened and their optics went wide in horror and Optimus cried out as he saw Cliffjumper's body bouncing off a platform and landing in a pile of raw energon, then he looked up to see a devastated looking Arcee.
He wanted to get up there and console her but his attention was soon drawn by an evil laugh and he saw Starscream standing on the highest platform with what looked like an explosive charge in his clawed servo.
"Prime!" the Decepticon shouted down at him "I'd stick around, but I'm squeamish!" he smirked then dropped the charge into the energon at the bottom of the mine.
"Oh Scrap!" Ironhide yelled.
"The Joints gonna blow!" Bulkhead shouted.
"Autobots! Roll out!" Optimus commanded and Arcee, despite her heartbreak transformed and drove back towards her teammates and once everyone was in front of him, Optimus transformed into his truck form and followed them back down the tunnel just as the bomb went off and ignited the energon around it and sent up a huge blue fireball that engulfed the whole mine!
As the blue flames followed the Autobots at lightning speed, Optimus commed Ratchet.
"Ratchet! Bridge us back" he shouted, "Use the arrival co-ordinates now!"
No sooner did he give that command than the swirling blue and green vortex appeared, and they drove through it as fast as they could!
As the autobots arrived back at the base, the Hamato Clan saw the blue flames from the destroyed Energon following them back in and they gasped in shock.
In fact, they all jumped together to shield themselves but just as Optimus slid away clear from the ground bridge, Ratchet shut it off.
"Whoa dude!" Michelangelo cried.
"Intense!" Pandora gasped.
"What the shell happened?" Raphael asked.
"Cutting it a bit close!" Ratchet commented then looked at his teammates.
"How about Cliffjumper?"
As he mentioned the name, the autobots looked down sadly and in mourning, Arcee hugging herself in grief and sadness.
The Hamato Clan went quiet as they observed, and they picked up that what had happened meant someone didn't come home.
"Arcee?" Optimus asked gently "What did you see?"
"Not Cliff." Arcee said quietly, her arms still wrapped around herself "At least...not anymore!"
She vented as she tried to compose herself and the Autobots and Hamato Clan looked on in worry as well as sadness.
"He was mutated, butchered, like something from those Con experiments during the war..." she then groaned and wobbled catching a metal box at the side to steady herself and Bumblebee whirred in worry and stepped towards her.
"I'm fine!" she forced out "Just...dizzy."
"Did I just hear correctly?" Leonardo asked blinking in surprise.
"Robots who get dizzy?" Kemeko questioned.
"Robots with emotions." Pandora said.
"Robots who can die..." Donatello whispered in disbelief.
"I wonder what happened back there?" Splinter asked.
Ratchet was quick to go over and scan Arcee all over, and soon his scanner picked up on something and he saw some deep purple smoking liquid that was on Arcee's left hand.
"What's this?" he questioned as he scraped it off with a scalpel.
"I don't know." Arcee whimpered holding her head "Cliff was covered in it, leaking it."
"Go take a decontamination bath, now." He ordered to which Bumblebee lead Arcee away to take the bath.
As they did, Monalisa watched and sighed as memories of her being an experiment of Dr Arden came back to her and she felt Raphael's hand squeeze hers in comfort.
She smiled at her mate in thanks and watched Arcee and started to wonder whether to talk to her about what she had spoken about.
Meanwhile Donatello waved his hand at Optimus.
"Optimus." He said "I don't wish to bug, but I made a request to Ratchet that we return to the Farmhouse to bring back some essentials since..." he gestured to his family who were looking tired.
"And after what happened." Leonardo joined in "It's not safe to go back to the Farmhouse, in case the cons come back."
"I see." Optimus said, "You need your provisions as organics" he nodded "Very well." He turned to Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Ironhide.
"You three will accompany Donatello back to the Farmhouse so they can gather what they need to stay here."
"Sure!" Bulkhead agreed.
"Can do Prime!" Ironhide said with a salute then transformed into his van mode, Bulkhead following his lead.
"All aboard!" he called to which Donatello, Pandora, April, Casey, Leonardo, Raphael and Monalisa walked down the stairs of the raised platform.
"We'll be back soon Master! Kemeko!" Leonardo called over his shoulder.
"See you soon my children." Splinter called as he watched them climb into the vehicle modes.
"Don't forget my paints!" Kemeko called to Pandora who gave her a thumbs up.
Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo climbed into Ironhide's form, April, Casey, and Michelangelo piled into Bulkhead whilst the two girls climbed into Bumblebee's form.
"Be careful!" the old rat called as Ratchet activated the ground bridge and the three autobots drove through it.
Optimus watched them go then turned to Splinter who was leaning on the rails of the raised platform and Kemeko was slumping on the sofa showing how tired she was.
"May I ask what happened back there?" Splinter said looking up at the Autobot leader who looked back at where the ground bridge had appeared then at where Arcee was.
"Will she be alright?" Splinter enquired.
"I believe so." Optimus replied "Physically, in spark, I'm not sure..." he decided to speak quietly with Splinter to inform him of what had occurred before the others arrived back at the base.
The autobots tried to rescue their former team mate but they were too late, and almost got blown up in an explosion caused by Starscream.
Meanwhile the Hamato Clan hadve decided that it's safer to stay in the Autobot base than go back to the Farmhouse in case the Decepticons show up which is rather wise, given the situation.