Note: Some characters mentioned in this chapter belong to my dear friend and co-writer Tyroth Darkstorm.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Fighting for Control
A Ground Bridge portal opened behind the security fences of the Largest Satellite Rays in Texas and the four turtles, Monalisa, Pandora and Kemeko leapt out of it.
After it closed behind them, they took a moment to get their breaths back.
"That'll take some getting used to." Leonardo remarked as he shook his head.
"I'll say!" Raphael agreed as he held onto Monalisa who had gone more pale green.
Kemeko and Pandora leaned on their knees as they tried to stop the motion sickness.
Donatello leaned on his staff and panted.
Casey nearly stumbled as he tried to get his bearings.
Michelangelo meanwhile looked paler than the others and he soon turned away from them and a puking sound was heard!
"Mike?" Monalisa asked concerned.
"I'm alright!" Michelangelo lifted his arm, yet he kept his shell to his family "Ugghhh! That's the last time I eat Chilli and chorizo pizza before doing that!"
He stood up and panted.
"Ugggh!" he groaned then joined his family again.
"Don't go over there alright?" he said to which everyone looked grossed out before Leonardo clapped his paws to get their attention.
"Come on guys, let's get to work!"
"Right you are!" Monalisa agreed.
"Whoa!" Pandora and Kemeko gasped as they saw the satellite dishes pointing upwards to the sky as big as the tall buildings back in New York.
"Never seen such a satellite dish up close before!" Kemeko remarked.
"Ditto!" Pandora agreed.
"Seems rather quiet for a military base." Raphael commented to which everyone noticed as well.
"I would have thought there would be guards." Donatello agreed.
Leonardo frowned.
"Something's not right." He said as he led the way towards the building.
"Stay alert and stick together."
"Gotcha!" the others agreed.
On the Space Bridge, the Autobots were doing all they can to strike down the fliers that came at them.
There were many Decepticons that attacked from the air, many that hadn't been shot down first transformed into their robot forms and landed on the space bridge to attack.
As soon as they did, the Autobots got into action and started to fight.
Ironhide put away his blasters and activated his drill.
"Come on!" he roared "Let's dance!" he drove his drill into one drone then did a manoeuvre to kick another one down that came close to him.
Optimus grabbed a couple of drones and with his strength threw them away from him before blasting them with his guns.
Bulkhead punched a few down who came at him but also activated his large wrecking ball to provide more throttle.
Arcee also put away her blasters and activated some blades on her arms which she used to slice and dice the drones as she leapt around the place.
As that was happening, the turtles, Monalisa, Pandora and Kemeko had managed to sneak into the base.
Despite there being no guards, they took no chances and used their ninja skills to stay hidden and avoid security cameras and they soon arrived at one of the rooms that had a computer hooked up to the mainframe.
"Security sure is lack in this place." Pandora commented she scanned the hallway outside the room before closing the door.
"I'm willing to guess the Cons tricked them into evacuating." Monalisa mused "I know we've had to pull a few tricks of our own to make sure the humans stay away from areas we wish to infiltrate."
"Hacker's done that a few times too for the Knights in Chicago!" Donatello agreed as he fired up the computer and started typing on the keyboard.
It took a few seconds, but Donatello gave a triumphant 'Yes!' and fist pump as he managed to get inside the system.
"I'm in." He cheered "And so are the Decepticons." He said cautiously.
"What?" Leonardo asked as he looked over Donatello's shoulder.
"How can you tell?" Kemeko asked.
Donatello brought up some Cybertronian equations.
"Schematics with the same alien math we saw on their ship, but this time I can download it." Donatello winked as he stuck his flash drive into the computer.
"Good job Donnie!"
Casey blinked a few times.
"All this is making my brain hurt!" he groaned "I couldn't tell one thing to the other there."
"Likewise!" Raphael said nudging his human friend.
"It's gotta be the Spacebridge." Pandora said as she looked at the screen.
"The Decepticons are syncing it to the dishes, but I can sync to them." Donatello said as he started to type furiously.
"Will they know?" Michelangelo asked in a small voice.
"They'll know." Leonardo said nervously as he remembered his, Monalisa and Fowler's encounter with Starscream, and how they knew the Con wasn't stupid.
"Even if the Decepticons see that I'm in the system, they'll have no idea I'm in the house." Donatello answered back.
"I hope you're right Don!" Monalisa said sharing Leonardo's worried look as she watched over her adopted brother's shoulder.
Leonardo and Monalisa had a right to be worried as down the hall, Soundwave was already there and had plugged himself into the control systems for the Dishes to pinpoint the co-ordinates of Cybertron, and he was close, as after a few seconds he was able to get the dishes locked onto the Space-bridge and directly onto Cybertron!
As that happened, the Autobot's felt a jolt and shudder as the Space-Bridge was connected to the satellite dishes and they all had to steady themselves to stay balanced.
"What's happening?" Arcee asked.
"The Decepticons are locking onto Cybertron." Optimus answered narrowing his optics.
"No way!" Ironhide cried.
"I wonder how Donatello's doing?" Bulkhead asked nervously.
Optimus said nothing yet he hoped that the brainy turtle was able undo the progress.
Meanwhile on the Nemesis, Starscream looked at the navigation system and saw Soundwave's work on pinpointing their destination.
"Lord Megatron." He reported "The Space-Bridge is ready for activation."
"Finally." Megatron growled as he looked out the front hungrily.
Yet just as they thought they had everything ready to go, the space-bridge moved again and Starscream saw they weren't locked onto Cybertron.
Megatron growled in anger.
"What is happening?" he growled.
Starscream looked at the navigation system and started to type furiously before contacting Soundwave.
"Soundwave?" he questioned in a panicked voice "What is happening?"
Back at the Array, the large dishes moved back to facing the desert before they had been locked onto Cybertron.
Donatello smirked as he had been able to pinpoint the dishes away just by hacking into the system.
"Nice job Don!" Monalisa smiled.
Donatello grinned, but it faded when he saw the dishes via the computer lock onto Cybertron again.
"Damn!" he cursed "I'll unlock it again!"
Leonardo bit his lip in concern.
"The Con's are starting to realise what's going on!" he hissed.
"Calm down Leo!" Donatello argued "It's only virtual combat, like online gaming!"
"I get that!" Michelangelo said, "And Hackers really good at it when we play together!"
Kemeko watched then her ninja ears picked up a sound, like a creaking as well as a twitching and she turned around to see a large black tentacle with tiny fingers on the end of it!
Kemeko screamed and everyone also turned around to see the tentacle.
"What the shell!?" Raphael shouted.
"What the Fuck?" Casey yelled as he pulled out his golf club.
At once the tentacle slammed into them and sent them both flying!
"Dad!" Pandora yelled "Uncle Casey!"
Monalisa gritted her teeth and drew her fans and Michelangelo swung his nun chucks.
"What is that thing?" Pandora screamed as she clawed her fingers and positioned her tail blade.
"I don't know!" Kemeko cried unsheathing her tantos.
"I don't wanna know!" Michelangelo cried.
"Whatever it is! We can't let it attack Donnie!" Leonardo shouted slashing his Katana.
"Gotcha Leo!" Monalisa agreed.
Donatello meanwhile ducked low and kept trying to keep the dishes away from Cybertron.
As much as he wanted to help his brothers, sisters, friend, and nieces, he knew he had to make sure the dishes didn't get locked onto Cybertron, the world was at stake and depended on him to keep the Decepticons from locking on.
"I won't let them lock back on earth!" he muttered as sweat started to pour down his forehead in stress.
Leonardo and Monalisa went for the tentacle and tried to slash at it with their blades, but sparks flew up from it, barely denting the armour!
Casey and Raphael did the same only for the tentacle to swipe at them again, yet the mutants ducked before it hit them.
Pandora then jumped up and grabbed the tentacle to pin it down, Michelangelo joined his niece along with Kemeko.
"If our weapons won't hurt it! We can try and immobilize it!" Pandora shouted.
"Good idea Tigeress!" Raphael shouted, "You heard the kid!"
At once everyone jumped onto the tentacle to stop it from attacking Donatello.
"Put all your weight on it!" Leonardo shouted.
"Doing our best Fearless!" Raphael growled.
The five mutants and two humans did all they could to keep the tentacle down, but it lifted them all off and threw them to the side making them hit the wall, and Donatello saw it come towards him!
But luckily, he jumped up doing a mid-split in the air then pulling out the flash drive before the tentacle went for him again and smashed the computer!
Leonardo shook off stars as he looked up and saw the tentacle had picked up one of his katana swords.
"Hey!" he shouted indignantly.
"Oh shit!" Pandora gulped.
"It's got a sword!" Michelangelo cried in fear.
"Not good!" Casey muttered.
As the tentacle raised the katana, the mutants and humans got ready to fight, but just as they thought it was going to attack them, it didn't.
It suddenly pulled away and retracted out of the room!
"My sword!" Leonardo shouted and ran after it!
"Leo wait!" Monalisa called after him and the others followed her, their weapons still drawn and ready to fight.
They followed the tentacle until they reached the room where Soundwave was, only to see the giant faceless Decepticon about to leave through the roof.
As the gang made their presence known, Soundwave turned around and saw them.
"Oh shit!" Raphael cried.
"Whose that?" Casey asked.
"It's Soundwave!" Leonardo confirmed remembering him from when he, Monalisa and Fowler had been taken onboard the Nemesis.
"I remember him too!" Monalisa said.
As Soundwave looked at the group below, the screen on his face showed an image of them and a camera click was heard before he jumped into the air and transformed into a long thin jet and flew away.
"Why is he leaving?" Michelangelo asked.
Donatello then looked over to see Leonardo's katana embedded in the floor and a long thick wire had been severed.
"He cut the hard line!" he said.
"And that means what exactly?" Raphael asked.
"The dishes are locked onto Cybertron...for good!" Donatello explained sadly.
"Oh no!" Pandora cried.
"Aww shell!" Michelangelo gasped.
"Oh boy..." Casey murmured.
"We're boned..." Raphael gulped.
"No..." Kemeko looked at Leonardo fearfully and Leonardo bit his lip before looking skywards.
"Looks like our only hope is the Autobots now." He said then he sent a text via his shell cell to ask April to get Ratchet to Ground-Bridge them back.
"Do you think they can stop Megatron?" Kemeko asked.
"I hope so..." Leonardo whispered "Otherwise...all hope is lost..."
The Hamato Clan have done what they can to help, yet has it been in vain?
Check in to see how our Autobot heroes fair!