Note: References to the first TMNT 2003 Episodes of season one, mainly 'Things Change', 'A Better Mousetrap' and 'Attack of the Mousers' appear in this chapter.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Close Call
Meanwhile back in the Autobot Base, the mutants and Kemeko continued to spray the Scraplets with the fire extinguishers as well as strike them down with their weapons.
Soon the ground of the silo was littered with frozen or destroyed Scraplets and the Autobots were leaning against the raised platform covered with bite marks and moaning in pain.
"Did we get them all?" Michelangelo asked hopefully as he smashed another scraplet with his nun chucks only to hear a drilling sound from the corridors of the base.
"I don't think so Mike." Donatello said in a dark tone.
"No..." Ratchet muttered hopelessly "These were just scouts."
Bumblebee groaned with a few bleeps as he sprawled out both in pain and exasperation.
"Oh you gotta be fucking kidding me!" Pandora shouted.
"Language!" Raphael scolded his daughter, but he did share her opinon on the situation.
"This is just like when those Mousers attacked and destroyed our first sewer home those years back!" he said "Only...these are just as bad, if not worse!"
"You're telling me Raph!" Michelangelo agreed.
"Do rest of them know we're in here?" Bulkhead asked in fear looking to the corridors.
"And if we allow ourselves to become the next meal, Optimus, Ironhide, and Arcee will never make it home." Ratchet stated.
"But how are we gonna get rid of these Metal pests?" Monalisa asked as she kicked one frozen scraplet away from her.
"We must get the Ground Bridge operational." Ratchet said.
"So, we could send them anywhere on Earth." Leonardo added.
"Why not back to the Arctic?" Kemeko suggested.
"A sound idea Lotus." Donatello said, "We already know they don't go so well with extreme cold."
"That is correct!" Splinter agreed.
"Giving the body mass of the Scraplets, sub-zero temperature should freeze them on contact." Ratchet theorised.
"Sure!" Pandora said "But there's one teeny problem! The Ground bridge is down because of those chomping fuckers!"
"No shit Sherlock!" Kemeko retorted rolling her eyes.
"Girls!" Monalisa barked warningly.
"Everyone quiet!" Donatello snapped looking at Ratchet who was deep in thought about the situation regarding the Ground Bridge.
"The Doc Bot's trying to think!"
"Thank you, Donatello." Ratchet said gratefully then closed his optics.
"If the Ground Bridge is still not receiving power, then…" he paused then opened his optics again "There must be a breach in the Energon fuel line." He concurred.
Bumblebee bleeped and whirred then fell back on his back exhausted.
"Ugh, if we weren't breaching, one of us could get back over there and fix it." Bulkhead spluttered.
"Where do we find it?" Donatello asked.
"And how do we fix it?" Monalisa added.
"Since we're not made of metal, we can get past those gluttonous critters and get where the problem is!" Pandora cried.
"Exactly!" Kemeko agreed.
"The Hybrid's got a point!" Bulkhead said.
Ratchet narrowed his optics and nodded.
"Okay," he said, "Let's do this!"
Five minutes later, Donatello, Kemeko and Monalisa walked through one of the corridors where there were some large pipes which Ratchet informed were the main fuel lines whilst many scraplets scurried around them like rats or ants.
Donatello carried the repair kit whilst Monalisa held up her fans and Kemeko had her tanto drawn.
Leonardo, Splinter, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Pandora stayed behind to guard the Autobots from any Scraplet who came into the main silo.
Despite the fact they knew the Scraplets wouldn't harm them, they didn't want them to discover the autobots by triggering a scraplet to go and look for them.
"Tread carefully girls!" Donatello said "Remember, we're okay, we're not metal."
"We know." Monalisa said "But we're prepared just in case."
"You know." Donatello said as he looked around at the Scraplets "As much as I hate to admit it, I am fascinated by these creatures..."
"Don't start theorising now Donnie!" Monalisa reminded her adopted brother sharply "Focus on getting this life-or-death situation sorted first!"
"Yes m'am!" Donatello simpered sheepishly.
Before long, they came to a part of the pipe that was leaking a blue liquid.
"There's the breach!" Donatello pointed it out. "We have to work fast."
The girls nodded and they hurried over to the pipeline and Donatello was quick to get to work.
He took some bits of a metal panel and with Monalisa and Kemeko's help placed it over the leak, and he started to weld it on with a blowtorch.
All the while the scraplets walked past them, yet as Donatello welded the last parts onto the pipe, they started to move faster, and then the same drilling noise was heard from them.
"They're getting ready to feed!" Kemeko said in concern.
"Hurry Don!" Monalisa urged.
"I'm almost done!" Donatello reported "Just need to fix this last bit here!"
Back in the main silo, the three Autobots were feeling very weak due to leaking energon whilst the three turtles, rat and hybrid stood guard.
Pandora was starting to get concerned about them, especially Bumblebee who was on the verge of losing consciousness.
"Stay with us Bee!" she whispered patting his servo.
"Don't worry Pandora." Leonardo said "Donnie, Mona and Kem will find the problem and get the bridge up so we can get rid of those creatures and bring Optimus, Ironhide and Arcee home."
"Man I hope so..." Michelangelo said nervously, he was sweating with nerves as he looked around for any scraplets.
"Stay focused Michelangelo." Splinter said.
"I got my eyes open and I'm ready to smash some bugs!" Raphael growled as he gripped his sai.
"So if we get…" Bulkhead corrected himself as everyone turned to him.
"When we get the Ground Bridge open, do we send the creepy-crawlies out or our Bots in?" He asked, trying to understand the plan of action.
"Optimus, Ironhide and Arcee will be fresh meat." Ratchet explained. "If we bring them in first, the Scraplets will have no reason to leave. We'll need bait."
"Where are we going to get bait?!" Bulkhead shouted angrily making everyone jump. "The Scraplets have already helped themselves to everything in here!"
As he said that, some drilling sounds were heard, and everyone looked up to see the Scraplets burst through the vents and were swarming in the air over the Autobots who gasped in fear and lay back on the ground as if that would protect them from the swarm.
"Incoming!" Michelangelo shouted.
"ATTACK!" Raphael shouted as he leapt into the air to strike the vermin, Leonardo and Pandora following him whilst Michelangelo and Splinter held up their fire extinguishers.
"Come on Donnie!" Leonardo prayed "Fix that pipeline!"
As if on que, Donatello, Monalisa and Kemeko ran back into the silo!
"Ratchet, all systems go!" Donatello shouted.
"Fire it up!" Kemeko added.
"Well done my children, my granddaughter!" Splinter praised and Ratchet picked himself up with difficultly and grabbed the control lever.
"Ground Bridge… activated…" He announced as he pulled it down before falling to the ground once more.
Back in the Arctic, Optimus, Ironhide and Arcee were mere seconds from off lining when the ground bridge vortex opened before them.
It was enough to bring them to life again!
'It's fixed!" Ironhide cheered sitting up with newfound energy "We're saved!"
"Thank Primus..." Arcee smiled weakly.
As that happened, Bulkhead looked at the ground bridge then at the scraplets flying above him and the autobots and he got an idea.
"Bait, huh?" Bulkhead pondered aloud then with his remaining strength, he stood up and approached the Ground Bridge and waved his arms around to gain the Scraplets' attention.
"Bulkhead what are you doing?" Michelangelo asked.
"These guys want to feed? Well, they can feed!" Bulkhead said then shouted up at the scraplets who saw him waving his arms.
"Ready for the main course?" He shouted up at them and got a drilling sound in response.
"Come and get it!"
He then staggered into the GroundBridge portal, the Scraplets hungrily followed him snapping their jaws filled with razor sharp teeth.
"Great idea Big Guy!" Leonardo praised as he watched and the mutants and Kemeko moved to the side still ready to fight as the many scraplets went through the ground-bridge whilst Ratchet pushed Bumblebee flat onto his back on the ground.
As they watched, they were ready to cheer but they didn't want to celebrate just yet as they hoped against all hope they weren't too late to save Optimus, Ironhide, and Arcee.
"Just a little longer, hold on guys!" Leonardo prayed and Splinter began to speak a Japanese prayer for the survival of the Autobots.
As the ground bridge opened in the Artic, Optimus, Ironhide and Arcee slowly staggered towards the Ground Bridge vortex.
"Come on guys!" Ironhide urged "Our sparks depend on it!"
Just as they got close to it, Bulkhead ran through it with a striken look on his face.
The three Autobots hardly had a moment to register what was happening when he barked out to them:
"DOWN! DOWN!" then he fell forward and the three Autobots saw with horror the swarm of Scraplets come through.
"Oh Frag!" Ironhide cried as he jumped in fear and Optimus pulled Arcee behind him!
Yet their fears were short lived as the artic temperatures froze the Scraplets and they pelted the armoured skin of the three Autobots before falling lifeless into the snow.
Bulkhead lifted his head and brushed off the frozen Scraplets from his body.
"I'd invite you in, but the place is a mess." He joked before holding out his hands and leading the three of them back through the Ground-Bridge and the safety and warmth of the silo.
"What in tarnation happened?" Ironhide asked.
"It's a long story Hide!" Bulkhead said, "We'll explain back at base!"
A couple of hours later, everyone was sitting in the main silo recovering from their ordeal. The Autobots were hooked up to medical equipment both to defrost those who had been in the Arctic and the others to replenish them with energon after being attacked by the scraplets.
Optimus was horrified to learn that the pod had been a scraplet trap and how close they had been to being eaten, but he was pleased to hear that the Hamato Clan had helped them.
"Never would I have encountered a day when we, the protectors if you, had to be protected by you Earthlings." He had remarked.
"Good thing you found us that fateful day huh?" Pandora had quipped with a wink as well as clicking her tongue.
"I'll say!" Ironhide had agreed.
The place was virtually destroyed from the Scraplet infestation as the beams of the silo had been chewed through and the dead and destroyed scraplets lay all over the place.
Optimus and Ratchet were resting against the wall along with Bulkhead and Ironhide.
Bumblebee was laying on a berth and was unconscious having suffered the worst injuries from the Scraplet infestation, as well as Arcee who had suffered most from the freezing temperatures of the arctic.
Her temperature was steadily rising back to normal temperature, yet she was yet to wake up, and Raphael and Monalisa were especially worried, but Ratchet reassured the couple Arcee would awaken when she regained enough strength.
"Report bio circuitry status?" Ratchet requested looking at Donatello who was looking at a laptop.
After he had gotten everyone hooked up to medical equipment, he asked the Hamato Clan to keep an eye on the systems and Donatello lead everyone to their stations.
At the same time he had gathered a couple of destroyed Scraplets which he planned to study as some point since they truly fascinated him.
"Levels are rising!" the brainy turtle reported.
"Excellent! Monalisa, Kemeko, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro pulse monitor." Ratchet instructed to which Monalisa nodded and winked.
"Pandora, check Bulkhead's interface patch, Raphael, Michelangelo, keep an eye on Arcee's temperature and spark pulse readings." Ratchet instructed.
"It's steady!" Monalisa announced.
"Looking good!" Michelangelo observed giving Ratchet an okay signal with his hand.
"Perhaps you should get some rest yourself, old friend." Optimus suggested. "You saved quite a few lives today." he added with a smile.
"It…wasn't all my doing." Ratchet admitted as he looked down at the mutants and Kemeko that were working hard. "We're just fortunate this infestation happened when we had our guests here." He remarked.
"For sure!" Ironhide said "Like the Hybrid said, it was fortunate Optimus here found them in the woods that day!"
Optimus nodded at the veteran.
"Our human friends may be small, but they are strong." Optimus complimented the kids as he looked proudly at the Hamato Clan, his optics focusing on Leonardo.
"You know." Raphael said as he looked away from monitoring Arcee for a second "I did feel a sense of déjà vu during this ordeal."
"Likewise!" Leonardo said "After Baxtor Stockman's Mousers attacked our first home, which lead us to meeting April O'Neil."
"I remember it like yesterday." Splinter sighed leaning on his cane.
Optimus cocked his head curiously.
"Mousers?" he asked catching the attention of the rat, "I am intrigued to hear this tale."
Leonardo gave a small smile and walked over.
"I'll tell you." He vollenteered walking over to Optimus's open servo and he stepped into it and the Prime lifted him up to listen.
Yet before the leader of the Ninja turtles could speak, a girly scream echoed throughout the base making everyone jump and look over to see Raphael jumping around and grabbing his shell!
"Raph?" Monalisa asked in concern.
"What's wrong?" Leonardo asked.
"Spider!" Raphael screeched fearfully as he grabbed something on his shell and threw it down only to find it was a rubber one!
"…Did he just scream like a little girl?" Bulkhead asked pointing at the red masked turtle.
Michelangelo then started laughing and pointing.
"Hahahaha!" he said "Gotcha Raph!"
Hearing his younger brother's voice and realising he had been pranked, Raphael went red in the face and glowered at Michelangelo.
"MIKE!" he bellowed "I'll get you for this!"
He then went for Michelangelo who went pale and took off running!
"Come here you!" Raphael shouted.
"Hey! Hey! Raph! It was just a joke!"
"I'll joke you!" Raphael shouted as he chased Michelangelo around the base as the Autobots watched in disbelief.
Splinter sighed whilst Monalisa shook her head at the immaturity, but Pandora and Kemeko just laughed at the spectacle.
Leonardo frowned at his two brothers then looked at Optimus.
"They're gonna be at this for a while." He informed.
"Are they always like this?" Ironhide asked to which Leonardo nodded "Both are a dad and uncle, but they still behave like children."
"I'll say!" Ratchet scoffed before wincing at the noises of Raphael's furious shouts and Michelangelo's squeals of fear.
Phew! Alls well that ends well! Everyones safe and alive and the infestation is over!
Now that's the end of the Scraplet episode, we move onto Con Job! And I think a lot of you know whose gonna make an appearance next chapter!
See you then!