Chapter Forty-Four
Near Miss
Inside the train car, Raphael, Monalisa, Pandora and Michelangelo stood and watched as the hole was almost completed and they were positioned and ready to fight.
"Come on... come on..." Raphael growled impatiently as he gripped his sai so tight his knuckles were turning white.
Just then the hole was completed and as the metal from the top of the train roof hit the floor, the mutant ninjas saw three masked men approach the hole.
No sooner did the men saw the mutants they were alarmed.
"What in the name of..." one of them said yet was cut off when Raphael crouched down.
"You wanna play?" he shouted then with a yell he leapt up at them!
"Raph!" Monalisa cried and went after her mate, Michelangelo and Pandora following suit.
The three men jumped back in alarm; one almost fell off the train as they were confronted by the four mutants armed with Ninja weapons.
"You want the Dingus?" Pandora challenged "Well you're just gonna have to get through us!"
"Yeah!" Michelangelo joined in "What she said!"
Silas meanwhile was also shocked when he saw the three turtles, lizard, and Hybrid, despite the ninja suits, Monalisa, Raphael and Michelangelo were wearing, he could tell they weren't human.
"So not just giant robots, but humanoid animals too?" he mused curiously.
"Sir!" the pilot spoke pointing to the side and Silas followed his gesture and looked out the window to seeOptimus running along with them on a cliff ledge with Leonardo on his shoulder, then they saw him take Leonardo off his shoulder and hold him in his hand then he transformed into his vehicle mode and took off at a high speed,
Silas glared as he knew he and his men were no match for the large autoboot.
"Retreat." Silas ordered then turned to keep watching Optimus.
On that order, the pilot sent word to the three soldiers who were still standing alarmed before the four mutants to return to the helicopter.
They instantly went back, and the two turtles, Lizard and Hybrid were amazed at their sudden retreat until they saw Optimus driving down towards them.
"Look! It's Optimus!" Pandora cried gleefully.
"So glad he's okay!" Michelangelo said.
"And no doubt Leo's with him!" Monalisa added.
Raphael meanwhile glared as the helicopter hovered above the train then he saw Silas lean out of the helicopter with a rocket launcher.
"Guys!" he called to the others and pointed to which the others followed, and they too saw what was going on.
"What's he doing?" Michelangelo asked but his answer was confirmed when Silas fired the weapon into the distance, and they watched helplessly as the missile headed for the tracks ahead and it exploded destroying the tracks!
"Oh shit!" Raphael cried.
"He's blown the tracks!" Michelangelo panicked.
Monalisa looked up at Silas who smirked down at her.
"First rule of combat: never leave the enemy with the spoils." Silas remarked as he pulled himself back into the helicopter and sat back to watch what would happen next.
"Son of a bitch!" Monalisa growled as she read his lips.
"Bastard!" Pandora agreed "He can't get to the Dingus so he's decided if he can't have it, no-one can!"
"And he's prepared to endanger lives!?" Raphael yelled "Not just us and the soldiers on the train, but this area and beyond should the dingus melt down!"
"What do we do now?" Michelangelo screamed in horror.
"Ratchet, Donnie! MECH has blown the train tracks. You need to bridge us out of here!" Monalisa spoke into her shell-cell desperately "The soldiers too!"
"Oh shell!" Donatello's voice was heard on the other side as well as the cries of horror from Kemeko, Fowler and Splinter.
"My children!" Splinter wailed.
"No!" Kemeko exclaimed.
"We've lost access to the train data!" Ratchet revealed gravely.
"I can't bridge you back without coordinates!"
Monalisa felt her heart sink then looked towards Optimus who was still chasing the train in his vehicle mode.
"Everyone! Back in the train!" she commanded, and they all jumped back into the cargo car.
Optimus and Leonardo were still driving after the train when Ratchet radioed the Prime
"Optimus! Raphael, Monalisa, Michelangelo and Pandora are on that train and MECH has blown the train tracks!" the Medic reported.
"What!?" Leonardo cried in despair from Optimus's seat.
"I'm on my way!" Optimus immediately responded. "Maximum overdrive!"
With those words said, Optimus activated his boosters, taking off at such a sudden speed almost impossible for a regular truck and Leonardo felt himself then thrown back into his seat.
"Hold tight Leonardo!"
Inside the train, the Hamato Clan were wondering whether to make a jump for it, but given how fast the train was going, ninety miles per hour to be specific, they risked serious injury despite being stronger than average humans but then they saw Optimus appear alongside the train with Leonardo in the front seat.
"Boss Bots here!" Michelangelo cheered.
"And Uncle Leo!" Pandora grinned.
Optimus sped ahead and transformed into his bipedal form with Leonardo in his palm whom he placed on his shoulder and ran the rest of the way.
When he was directly next to the front cart, he grabbed it and leant back, using his weight to slow the train down!
Leonardo at the same time held tightly to Optimus's neck cables as Optimus hung onto the train and dug his pedes into the ground to stop the train.
He groaned in determination and pain as the underside of his foot burned from the friction with the metal and the ground next to the tracks. But he still didn't stop, not when the family of his turtle friend sitting on his shoulder was on that train, not to mention the human soldiers.
Inside the train, Raphael, Michelangelo, Monalisa and Pandora held on tight as the train had jerked slightly when Optimus grabbed it.
In fact, Pandora almost fell through the open carriage door, but Raphael grabbed her by her black biker vest and pulled her towards him.
Optimus kept holding on despite the burning in his pedes and soon the train stopped before it hit the destroyed tracks and the jerkiness caused everyone inside to fall flat on their backs, or shells in the turtles's cases.
"Whoa man!" Michelangelo exclaimed "That was a narrow escape!"
"I think my life flashed before my eyes!" Pandora sat sitting up then she saw Optimus coming to the train car along with Leonardo who slid off Prime's shoulder and hopped into the carriage.
"Guys!" he cried "Are you alright?"
"We're good!" Michelangelo said giving a thumbs up to which Pandora agreed with a click of her tongue and a wink.
Monalisa and Raphael meanwhile nodded.
"In one piece." Raphael said before looking at Optimus "Thanks Prime!"
Optimus nodded and was about to speak when he heard the helicopter engine and looked up to see Silas's helicopter above him.
"Well-played, visitor." Silas complimented as he looked down at the giant autoboot who glared up at him.
"But MECH still has the home field advantage, and we will find a way to level that playing field. Even if we have to open you up to see what makes you tick." Silas swore as he looked at a scan he took of Optimus on the dashboard.
The Autobot leader looked up at the Helicopter, his optics narrowed and his denta bared behind his battle mask, he was sorely tempted to shoot the evil people within it down after what they tried to do, and the lives they almost cost.
Meanwhile, Monalisa leapt out of the carriage and before Optimus knew what was going on, she had hopped onto his arm and climbed onto his shoulder!
"Mona!" the other turtles cried in worry.
"Mum!" Pandora called and Leonardo jumped up after her, surprising Optimus as the blue masked turtle climbed up his arm and joined Monalisa who had pulled out her longbow and arrows before taking aim at the helicopter with a furious and focused look on her face.
Then before either Optimus or Leonardo could say anything, Monalisa fired an arrow at the helicopter, and it went through Silas's open window and struck the inside between the pilot and Silas!
The pilot almost lost control in shock seeing the arrow, and Silas glowered in anger.
"The Fuck?" he growled then yelled in shock as another arrow was fired at them and this one struck the side and bounced off.
The pilot quickly made the helicopter fly higher and Silas took out some binoculars and he saw through the lens Monalisa and Leonardo standing on Optimus's shoulder, he then saw Mona's lips move as she readied another arrow and the words formed: "Next time, I won't miss!"
Silas smirked.
He then looked at the dashboard where he had used a camera to take a couple of pictures of the mutants both from earlier and presently then turned to the pilot, "Let's go." To which the pilot nodded, and the helicopter flew away.
Optimus, Leonardo, and Monalisa watched as the helicopter took off from the area.
"Fucking Terrorists!" the furious Lizard Lady snarled.
"Calm down Mona." Leonardo soothed placing his hand on Monalisa's shoulder "They're gone."
Optimus looked at Leonardo and Monalisa and retracted his battle mask but before he could say anything, Ratchet spoke through his com-link.
"Optimus!" the medic's worried voice was heard "Are you and the Earthlings…intact?"
"Intact Ratchet!" Optimus confirmed then held out his servo for Monalisa and Leonardo to climb onto and he lowered them to the ground to join Raphael, Michelangelo and Pandora who hugged them.
"Crisis adverted, but the world we live in is a different one than previously imagined, one that has spawned its own Decepticons, in Human skin!" Optimus proclaimed seeing where the helicopter had vanished.
"PRIME!" a familiar voice called out and he saw Arcee, Ironhide, Bulkead, and Bumblebee running up to them having managed to dispose of the Decepticons and had gone to find their leader and the train after Fowler and Donatello told them where he was.
"Are you guys okay?" Ironhide asked.
"We're fine!" Optimus reassured.
"Ditto!" Michelangelo called from the train carriage.
"Wait! What are we going to do about the Dingus?" Arcee asked reminding everyone of why they were here.
"Leave it to me!" Fowler said over Ratchet's commlink, "I called back up for assistance, Me and the Boys will take it from here."
"That's good news!" Ironhide said.
"And we'll start investigating this MECH organisation!" Fowler added.
That night back at the Autobot Base, everyone was exhausted after the day's events.
Fowler was so grateful to the mutants for their assistance with the Dingus that he treated them to pizza as well as some beers, or soft drinks for the younger members and he decided to stay behind and join them.
Needless to say, the Hamato Clan had no issues and loved the idea of pizza and beers after such an exciting day.
"Sorry you bots don't eat pizza." Michelangelo said looking at the bots who were sipping energon nearby although Optimus wasn't with them.
The Prime had decided to take some time to himself, and also as it was pointed out 'Primes don't Party'.
"Don't think we'd be able to taste human food even if we tried." Bulkhead said with a shrug.
"Pul-lease!" Ratchet scoffed "We have a very different anatomies to you Earthlings, even if we..."
"We get it Doc!" Ironhide nudged the Medic, "No need to go into a rant!"
A loud burp made everyone jump and they looked to see Pandora with her hand over her mouth.
"Excuse me!" she said sheepishly.
"Better out than in geisha!" Michelangelo winked to which Raphael glowered at him with the look of 'Don't-Encourage-Her'.
"Manners Pandora!" Monalisa scolded as she looked at Fowler who was sipping a beer with them as well as holding a slice of pizza in his other hand.
"We have a respectable agent with us."
Yet as she finished that sentence Fowler too let out a burp making everyone look at him in surprise.
"Well stone me!" Ironhide commented.
Arcee also looked stunned, and Bumblebee bleeped in question.
"Agent Fowler?" Bulkhead gestured to their human liaison.
Ratchet meanwhile grumbled.
"Earthlings can be so gross!" he muttered.
"Oi!" Pandora snapped to the medic.
Michelangelo also stared at the agent who looked rather proud of himself.
"That hit the spot!" he said, "And also, some say a good burp means you enjoyed the meal!"
"He's got a point." Donatello said with a mouthful of pizza "Some countries encourage it."
"Do they encourage talking with your mouthful too?" Leonardo questioned.
"My sons." Splinter said, "Let's not spoil the evening with arguments about what is right and wrong with certain manners, let us enjoy this lovely treat together for a job well done today."
"The rats right!" Fowler said holding up his can of beer "Cheers guys! And thanks again, to you too Bots!" he said to which the Autobots smiled and held up their energon, even Ratchet smiled proudly.
"Cheers!" everyone agreed happily as they continued to enjoy their pizza and relax until it was time to go to bed.
Alls well that ends well!
Silas didn't get his hands on the Dingus, thank goodness, but he's not going away, not since he's found out about the Autobots and also about the Hamato Clan, no doubt we'll be seeing them again before too long.
And thus ends the 'Convoy' episode, after that it's the 'Deus Ex Machina' episode, and I got some plans for that one, as well as ideas of my own! See you then!