Chapter Eighty-Eight
Toxic Combination
Silas stared at the Japanese man before him then at the scarred man behind him.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" he demanded furiously "How did you find our hidden base?"
Arashi chuckled.
"Oh, we have our ways, Silas." He said, "We've been made aware from our scouts and outside spies about strange goings on, most notably in New York, when we found our enemies to be in alliance with some other strange beings, ones not from this Earth."
Silas said nothing then he felt himself get pushed back to sit on a chair.
He tried to get up but the same couple of clawed hands pushed him back down.
Silas looked at the claws then up at who or rather what was holding him down and he saw an ugly lizard face staring down at him grinning showing his teeth and saliva drooling from them.
"What in God's name are you?" he demanded.
"I prefer the term who rather than what if you don't mind!" the lizard said with a hiss.
"Ease off Komodo!" the scarred man said, "We don't want to scare our guest too much."
"Yes Master Arden." The lizard said with a growl "Doctor..."
"You still haven't answered my questions!" Silas growled "Who are you? What do you want? And where are the rest of my men?"
"Oh, they're just fine, my soldiers are with them, and they won't come to any harm, we just want to talk."
"About what?" Silas demanded "The fact you just show up and decide to take my men hostage and make demands on me? Mech doesn't bargain with anyone!"
Arashi smirked.
"You say you don't bargain with anyone hmm?" he asked to which the scarred man laughed as well.
"I seem to recall that not so long ago, you had an individual hostage to use for your own gain!" the scarred man said licking the burnt side of his face.
Silas was appalled as well as intimated and disgusted as Dr Arden got up close to him.
"I can see me in you," the doctor smirked "Cutting open those to find out their secrets, I might have not done it on machines, but I've done it on mutants."
"How did you even know about that?" Silas asked as he looked around then he saw a couple of his men step forward, at least he thought they were his men until they removed their hoods and revealed themselves to be a couple of Japanese men.
"What the...?"
"Our own set of moles." Arashi smirked "We sent them in to follow you and now here we are!"
The two men bowed to Arashi.
Silas was horrified, yet before he could ask, they spoke for him.
"We were made aware of strange activity via some tip offs from associates of ours near where you had been stationed." Arashi said "Despite the fact our main Headquarters are in New York, USA and Tokyo Japan, we still have some connections and friends in other parts of the world, and we happened to find you by chance, thus why I sent two of my spies into your organisation."
"We saw a lot whilst undercover Master." The first one said, "And we saw the freaks appear here, along with one of those giant robots!"
"I see." Arashi said "And how they are in alliance with those robots, I will need to find out, but what I want to know, is how you learnt about them, and how I wish to offer you my services, so we can both achieve our goals."
Silas glowered again.
"Tell me who you are." He growled.
"I am Lord Izo Arashi." Arashi said "Lord and Leader of the Foot Clan, this here is my Doctor, Head Scientist and Second in Command William Arden."
Dr Arden nodded at Silas.
"And these Creatures?" Silas asked looking up at Komodo Dragon behind him, then at the Golden Cobra who had jumped him earlier was now standing next to Dr Arden.
"We are, the Venomous Five." Komodo Dragon hissed "And we are the Good Doctor's top mutated experiments."
Cobra giggled as she stood behind Dr Arden, and Silas's eyes widened as he saw the three other members of the Venomous Five step out of the darkness, a green and yellow Nile Monitor, a black and orange Gila Monster, and a black scaled and green-eyed Black Mamba whose hair hung in scaley dreadlocks.
"How did you create these creatures?" Silas asked looking at them all.
"Ah ha." Arashi smirked "That is a secret I intend to keep secret, but if you wish to know, I will happily tell you, if you are willing to share yours with me."
He smiled a sly smirk as he stepped closer to Silas who glowered, yet he narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"Fine, lets talk..." he said.
Back at the Autobot Silo, The Hamato Clan were doing their ninja training in the middle of the room with Master Splinter watching over them.
The rat called out many moves to the turtles, lizard, hybrid and human girl and they copied giving a few battle cries as they did so.
Meanwhile Ratchet was standing at the screens watching the icons of the Autobots who were scouting for Energon.
He was a little irritated that the mutants were doing their training rather nosily, but in a way, he was glad no-one was pestering him, and he hoped to get some work done as well as keep an eye on his teammates.
Although, he didn't mind Donatello or Kemeko asking him a few questions about his work, and he quite liked the fact that a couple of earthlings wanted to know more about his work as well as offer to help.
Yet that chance for working in peace he was enjoying didn't last as the proximity sensor went off.
"Ugghhh!" Ratchet groaned as he saw Fowler's helicopter hover above the silo, then the agent got out before leading to the door that led to the lift.
At the same time, the Hamato Clan stopped what they were doing and turned to the raised platform.
"Good day!" Fowler called over in a friendly tone as the lift doors open, which was a huge change from his usual barking of Prime's name.
"Agent Fowler." Splinter said, "Good to see you."
Agent Fowler bowed his respect to the rat then looked at Ratchet and the Hamato Clan.
"What brings you to the Silo William?" Leonardo asked.
"I wonder if its anything to do with those jokers of Mech we brought back?"
"I hope so." Monalisa said
At once the Hamato Clan climbed the steps to the raised platform and bowed to Fowler in respect, although Pandora looked a little sheepish at the agent regarding her prank, yet Fowler just gave her a playful smirk in response.
Before he left the silo the other night after he the two hostages the turtles had brought back, he said he would tell her more about how he had been a victim of the cream pie joke before, as well as give the hint he'd get his own back on her which soothed Pandora's soul that he did see the funny side.
"We'll give training a rest for now." Splinter said to the turtles, Monalisa, Pandora and Kemeko, much to Michelangelo's delight.
Get yourselves washed and cleaned then meet back here?"
"Hai Sensei." The mutants agreed and instantly hurried to their living quarters to get cleaned up.
Meanwhile, Splinter went on preparing some tea and Ratchet looked over to Fowler.
"Shall I recall the others, Agent Fowler?" he asked.
"That would be most helpful Ratchet." Agent Fowler said, "This business does involve everyone."
Ratchet nodded and messaged all the Autobots to return to base for a meeting with Agent Fowler.
After about twenty minutes had gone by, everyone was gathered in the main silo.
The Hamato Clan were glad that their living quarters in the silo, having been a part ex-army base had enough showers so there was no waiting their turn for the bathroom.
The Autobots were gathered near the raised platform whilst Splinter, Leonardo, Raphael and Monalisa were on the sofa, Donatello was on the armchair and Michelangelo, Pandora and Kemeko were on the bean bags and mattresses.
Fowler meanwhile stood before them, almost like a professor or a storyteller the way he stood before them.
"Alright, I can see you're all present and accounted for." He spoke.
"Darn tootin!" Ironhide quipped "So what did you summon us for?"
"Something of great importance that I couldn't just tell the clan to repeat back to you." Agent Fowler said, "It is regarding the two MECH soldiers you guys brought back." He looked at the Hamato clan.
"I knew it!" Pandora cheered "Did they spill the beans?"
"Quiet Pandora." Raphael said, "Let the man speak!"
"Hey, I'm just as curious as our tigress!" Michelangelo agreed.
"And so are we Michelangelo." Optimus's voice was heard, and the orange masked turtle and Pandora looked over to the Autobot leader.
"Please, continue Agent Fowler." The Prime encouraged and the agent nodded and looked to everyone.
"My men took the two MECH Soldiers into custody, and there were questioned in their part of what happened with Breakdown, yet they didn't say much, apart from saying that they wouldn't betray Silas."
Leonardo frowned as he remembered when he and his brothers and adopted sister had interrogated Purple Dragons or Foot Nina for information and they had refused to speak, but through some methods of torture, they had gotten answers.
Monalisa also looked rather angry, and she muttered under her breath that she should have been there to break all their fingers if they didn't talk, remembering how she had tortured Purple Dragon members into finding her killers after what they did to her.
"So they did not speak at all about what happened with Breakdown, or what their purpose was with him?" Splinter asked.
"No sadly." Agent Fowler said disappointed, "But we did find out who Silas really is after one of them let slip his actual name."
The Hamato Clan and the Autobot's looked up and a couple of gasps were heard.
"Silas isn't his real name?" Donatello asked.
"Most villians names areb't their real names Don!" Michelangelo said "I see it all the time in my Comics!"
"Aint that the truth!" Pandora agreed.
"So, what is his real name?" Kemeko asked eager to know.
"From what we found out, Silas's real name is Colonel Leland Bishop."
"Bishop!?" the Hamato Clan cried in unison.
"Am I correct in believing that the name Bishop...strikes a cord?" Optimus asked, "As you humans would put it?"
"Indeed, yes Prime." Leonardo said gravely looking over at Optimus "Agent John Bishop, he was a government agent and part of the Earth protection Force."
The turtles groaned and Monalisa sighed.
Pandora and Kemeko looked at each other confused then at their family.
Agent Fowler frowned as he tried to remember.
"That name sounds familiar, but I can't quite recall." He muttered.
Splinter sighed.
"He was a menace for a while." He said, "But he's not around anymore."
"What happened to him?" Bulkhead asked and Bumblebee bleeped in agreement.
"That's a story for another time." Leonardo said then turned back to Fowler "Anyway, Leland Bishop?"
Agent Fowler then remembered what he was talking about, and he got back on the subject.
"Oh yes, of course." He said.
"Leland Bishop was a colonel, and a member of Special Tactics with the US army with ambitious weapons idea which included Project: Damocles ."
The Hamato Clan and the Autobots looked confused.
'Say what?" Arcee asked.
"A space operated satellite." Agent Fowler said. "However, the project was mothballed, and Bishop was discharged as a result."
"Mothballed?" Michelangelo asked and Pandora and Kemeko shared his confused look, as did the Autobots.
"It means to stop using a piece of equipment or building." Donatello explained "But keep in good condition so it can be used again."
Ratchet scoffed.
"You Earthlings have a funny way of saying things or explaining such things." He said.
"So, the guy was fired because of this project?" Monalisa questioned "What did it involve exactly?"
Agent Fowler took a breath.
"The Project Damocles is a United States military space weapons initiative to create a network of satellites in orbit around Earth, which would be able to target any location on the planet with solar-powered lasers."
"Like a weapon from space?" Kemeko asked.
"Very much so." Agent Fowler said, "Needless to say, we were afraid of what damage this weapon could do, and after mothballing the project, Bishop was discharged and stripped off his title."
"Serves him right," Pandora growled.
"Yet in way, he's still obsessed with his weapons ideas and he's founded his own terrorist organization MECH recruiting other Special Tactics soldiers to assist him and adopted the name of Silas." Donatello concluded.
"Hit the nail on the head their Donatello." Fowler said.
"So what should we do?" Leonardo asked, "After we took the hostages, we had no idea where those MECH guys disappeared to."
"They sound almost Like Diablo and his Disciples." Raphael muttered "They cause damage then vanish."
"We'll we're still trying to get the guys you caught to talk, but if they don't give any information, there's not a lot we can do," Agent Fowler said "But we will keep at it, and also keep our eyes peeled for any activity should they show themselves again, they won't stay hidden for long."
"Thats a fact." Leonardo agreed "They never lay low for long."
So Izo Arashi has managed to get Silas to listen to him, meanwhile the Hamato Clan, and the Autobots have learnt from Agent Fowler about what's been found out from the hostages the Hamato Clan brought back.
And that's the start of my take on the 'Criss-Cross' Episode. Hope you liked it!