Note: Big thanks for Tyroth Darkstorm for his imput in this chapter!

Chapter One Hundred and Nine

Emotions

Back at the base, Culpepper sat on the sofa with Pandora next to him and Kemeko on the other side along with the Geckolings perched on the arms whilst the older mutants sat on the armchairs and beanbags, all were sharing hot drinks.

Monalisa was sitting on the armchair close to the sofa and sipping some Jasmine Tea whilst she looked at the young man whom her daughter had taken a liking to.

"Tell us more about your family." Monalisa encouraged.

Culpepper smiled.

"Well, as far as I can recall, my family have either chosen a career in the Military or the Medical field." he said "My grandfather on my mother's side, he was a soldier in the army, my grandmother was a nursing sister, and my Auntie and Uncle, they both work at the same hospital in Jasper, my Aunt's a pharmacist and my Uncle is an X-Ray Technican."

"Nice." Monalisa said.

"After mum passed away," Culpepper continued "As I said before, when dad was stationed at the base or abroad, I spent a lot of time with my maternal grandparents, and my aunt and uncle."

"Do you remember your mother at all?" Freya asked.

"Quite vividly." Culpepper said, his eyes misty "Only a few snippets anyway, one memory I have of her was the last Christmas before she passed where she was sitting on an armchair next to the tree with a Santa hat on her head which was bald because of the chemo and we were exchanging presents."

Everyone was quiet as they listened.

"I guess I was so wrapped up so to speak, about the fact that Santa had come, I didn't see that she was quite teary as it would be her last Christmas with me, she didn't want to be in the hospital so she requested to come home briefly, after about three weeks, she was gone."

"Was she ill for a while before she passed?" Raphael asked, making Culpepper jump a little as the turtle had been observing him with suspicious eyes for a while and this was the first time he had spoken in a softer tone.

"She was diagnosed not long after my fourth birthday so I had some idea that she was ill, but I never understood how serious it was until my dad, grandparents and my Aunt and two uncles sat me down to tell me that she was going to die, but it didn't really hit home until after she passed."

"We are extremely sorry for your loss." Splinter said softly "And It must have been hard for your grandparents."

"It was." Culpepper said "And for my Aunt and Uncle, loosing their sister."

Monalisa instantly thought back to when she went missing in New York and how her family had coped, even though Jake had told her all that they went through, it was hard to imagine.

Pandora gave a sad look and placed her hand on Culpepper's to which the human man was rather surprised but he looked up at the hybrid and smiled with a blush.

"I'm sorry you went through that." Pandora said "It must have been difficult."

"It was." Culpepper said "I know I was young, but I still felt the grief loosing my mum, I remember my dad telling me, along with my aunt that she had fallen asleep and that she would never wake up, but that she was watching over us and me..."

Raphael lowered his head, and the other turtles were quiet as they listened.

"Again, we're sorry." Monalisa said "But please continue."

Culpepper nodded.

"Well, growing up, I was under the care of my grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle when my dad was stationed, and I got through High School before deciding to follow in my dad's footsteps and join the Air Force, I got the grades I needed and joined the flying school then went through the training to be where I am now, and needless to say, I love it!" he smiled.

"That's great!" Monalisa smiled.

"Yet despite my commitment to the US Military," Culpepper said "I do have my own interests too."

"And what are they?" Monalisa asked as she sipped her tea and the other mutants leaned in to listen.

"Building model planes was one right?" Pandora asked.

Culpepper chuckled.

"That is one yeah." he said looking at the hybrid "Only on a rainy day, but apart from that, I've always been an outdoor dude, I love camping, and outdoor activities."

The turtles looked at Culpepper with curious eyes.

"I got a couple of quad bikes, and cross country motorbikes." the young man continued "Learned to ride those when I was fourteen, my Uncle and father taught me."

"Nice!" Loki said "I bet you got better skills than Rattletrap!"

"Whose Rattletrap?" Culpepper asked.

"He's our self proclaimed engineer back in Mutopia." Freya explained "Though he's pretty shitty at his job."

"Language!" Donatello reminded the geckoling, a little surprised that she had the potty mouth for a change as it was Pandora who was usually the one with a mouth like sailor.

"Growing up," Culpepper continued "I spent a lot of my vacations camping or doing quad biking and cross country motorbiking, and I'm not ashamed to admit, I like to take my car out in the desert and do some speeding." he looked a little sheepish.

Raphael crossed his arms and frowned.

"You like speed I see?" he asked.

"Well, I've always been one for adrenaline." Culpepper admitted "Started with fast rides at the fair grounds and the theme park, in fact, when I was ten, my Aunt, her husband, and my Uncle took me to Disneyland in California for my birthday, and the first ride I wanted to go on was Space Mountain."

"Cool!" Michelangelo said.

"Disneyland." Pandora sighed looking at Kemeko who nodded in agreement.

"I remember how we wanted to go there, but of course we couldn't given our...well..." she hesitated looking at Pandora "You know."

"I getcha." she said then looked back at Culpepper.

"What about your father's grandparents?" Donatello asked "You mentioned them, and another Uncle?"

"Oh yes." Culpepper said as he remembered.

"My grandparents and my Uncle on my dad's side, they live in Wisconsin."

Monalisa's eyes widened as she heard that.

"Wisconsin!?" she said looking at the young man.

"Mona's home state!" Michelangelo cried without thinking.

Culpepper blinked as he looked at Monalisa.

"You lived there?" he asked.

Monalisa nodded.

"That was my home yeah." she said "I lived outside Madison."

"Wow." Culpepper said "Well my paternal grandparents lived in Milwaukee and they used to take me to Wisconsin Dells, and my Uncle, my dad's brother, he's a police officer there in Milwaukee."

"Interesting." Leonardo said imagining Culpepper as a young boy in Wisconsin and he wondered how old he was when Monalisa was still there before she came into his and his brothers lives.

"My dad's grandparents aren't around anymore sadly." Culpepper went on "Both died within two years of each other from old age, my grandmother went first, followed by my grandfather."

"Sorry." Loki said "What about your maternal ones?"

"My grandmothers still around." Culpepper said "But my grandfather died last year."

"Awww." everyone sighed.

"It's alright though." Culpepper said "He was ninety-four though."

"Good age!" Michelangelo said.

Culpepper chuckled and was about to speak again when Sephie's voice was heard from the screens making everyone jump and look over.

"Ratchet! Ratchet! Come in Ratchet!"

The Autobot medic instantly patched into the communications.

"I read you Sephie." he said "Is everything alright?"

"We need a ground-bridge! Pronto!" Sephie said "Arcee's injured and Optimus, Ironhide and Bulkhead are...well...frozen."

"Frozen?" Michelangelo asked "But it's really hot here!"

"Not that kind of frozen shell for brains!" Donatello said "I think she means something else!"

"Frozen?" Ratchet asked "Like how?"

"I'll take that question!" Tyroth said over the com-link, then explained all that had happened when the Autobots encountered Airachnid and hoe she had used a staff with a beam that froze Optimus, Ironhide and Bulkhead into statues.

Ratchet's optics widened.

"The Immobilizer!" he exclaimed.

"The what?" Loki asked flying over.

"I'll explain later young one." Ratchet said "But right now we need to help your parents and the others!"

He fired up the ground-bridge and as he did so, Bumblebee ran through and explained through his bleeping what had occurred as well as carry a broken stick in his servos.

Ratchet was alarmed the immobilizer had been snapped in half but he took it and placed it aside to which Donatello and Loki went over to have a look along with the others.

"That's the relic?" Leonardo asked.

"Is that what froze the Autobots?" Monalisa asked.

"It was!" Tyroth's voice was heard as he flew with Sephie on his back through the Ground Bridge and he landed on the ground, Sephie sliding off his back.

As the dragon arrived, everyone soon noticed a long black stick with a claw on the end of it in his paw yet before they could ask him what it was, Bumblebee with the injured Arcee in his arms.

"Arcee!" Raphael cried in fear as he ran down the steps of the raised platform to check on his friend, Monalisa not far behind.

Bumblebee placed the two wheeler on a large block hen ran back through the ground bridge to assist Ratchet in bringing Optimus, Bulkhead and Ironhide through.

"What happened out there?" Monalisa asked yet Sephie walked over and stopped the lizard lady and her mate.

"Trust me." she said "She's been through a lot." she looked up at Arcee who was bent over and holding her side that was covered in energon.

"She's hurt!" Raphael cried and he looked behind him to yell for Ratchet only to see the Medic come through Bumblebee with Bulkhead's frozen form.

"Bulkhead!" Pandora and Kemeko exclaimed in horror "What happened!"

"Calm down girls!" Tyroth quickly called up "He's not dead! Just frozen from that thing!" he pointed at the immobilizer that Donatello and Loki were looking over.

"Can he be cured?" Pandora asked anxiously.

"He will!" Ratchet called over as he came through the ground bridge with Optimus and Bumblebee with Ironhide "They all will."

"Whoa man!" Michelangelo cried "Talk about living statues!"

"That rod did this?" Leonardo asked, going pale as he saw Optimus's appalled look.

"Can they still hear us?" Pandora asked and Freya opened her wings and flew over to Bulkhead waving her paw in front of his face yet the Wrecker showed no signs of life.

"I don't know." she said "But if they're still alive, they should..."

"The immobilizers not badly damaged!" Donatello called over "Ratchet should be able to fix it! and if I'm correct, if it can do damage, it can also reverse it's effects!"

"You are right in that Donatello!" Ratchet said then looked over at Arcee "But Arcee need's medical treatment."

He looked over at the Two-Wheeler then at Donatello and Loki.

"Just tell us what to do." Donatello said "Loki and and I can fix this!"

Ratchet smiled then pointed out on the rod where it needed to be fixed and Donatello turned to Loki who gave him a thumbs up.

"Ready to help!" he grinned with a wink.

Ratchet smiled gratefully at the turtle and Geckoling then walked over to Arcee to tend to her wounds.

At the same time, the Hamato Clan looked at Tyroth who still held the spider leg of Airachnid in his paw.

"Tyroth?" Leonardo asked "What have you got there?"

The Dragons smirked then threw it towards the blue masked turtle who caught it and as he did, Raphael took a look at it and he realised.

"Wait a minute!" he cried "That's Airachnid's leg!"

"What?" Arcee asked looking over yet Ratchet reminded her to keep still whilst he attended to her wounds.

"Hopefully she will keep her distance from us from now on," Tyroth stated in a matter of fact voice "After learning that some of us can actually be dangerous.

"Whoa Uncle T!" Pandora cried "You sliced that slag's leg off!"

Tyroth nodded.

"Whoa dude!" Michelangelo exclaimed.

"Incredible!" Splinter said with a gasp.

Bumblebee joined in with a few bleeps and whirrs saying what he saw wasn't a lie.

"I gave her a few other things to remember me by," Tyroth said "But I'm pretty sure this stung the most."

"To be fair, though," Sephie called over from where she stood with Arcee "It wasn't really you who cut it off, love.

Tyroth gave a sly smirk.

You are completely right about that, hun." he replied "That honor goes to Ryujin, my trusted blade."

As he spoke he took his large sword off his back and presented it to the group.

As he did, Culpepper went a bit pale.

"You cut off the Spider-Bot's leg with your sword?" he asked.

Tyroth turned to the young man.

"Not exactly." he said, the same sly look on his face "It's no ordinary sword!"

"You bet it isn't!" Michelangelo said "That swords got magical properties!"

Tyroth nodded.

"I named him Ryujin." he said "In English, it means Dragon Blade, named by the great weapons master Sukiwara Haito, and it gave that spider bot a good cut when she was busy with me!"

Bumblebee bleeped in agreement and spoke more in his language what he had seen.

"Wait what?" Arcee asked and Ratchet also looked up.

"You mean to say the sword is living?" the medic asked.

"Impossible!" Arcee cried.

Tyroth looked a little sheepish seeing the Autobot and Culpepper's reactions.

"Right," he chuckled "I forgot to mention that. I've channeled so much magic through Ryujin, over the years, that it has come alive and become sentient. It can move around on its own to help me when I need it."

Sephie nodded.

"We're just so used to it now, that it slipped our minds. All of us."

She turned to the Hamato clan and they all murmured in agreement.

"I wish I could do the same for Mr Swinger!" Pandora quipped as she held up her weapon.

Culpepper meanwhile blinked as he took everything in.

" The sword can fight...on it's own?" he stuttered.

"It sure can." Sephie said "We've seen it fly, slash, stab, burn, launch crescent shaped energy attacks, just to mention a few things."

"Hey, just because you're alien mechanical lifeforms with far more advanced technology than us, doesn't mean that you're the only ones that have something unbelievable." Tyroth quipped.

"We've got a lot of advanced Tech and stuff, but a living sword..." Arcee said and Bumblebee bleeped over to her.

"I know right?" she said "Crazy!"

Culpepper blinked again and he bit his lip, he had been slightly scared of Tyroth, but now realizing that the Dragon had more abilities than he ever thought of, it made him more nervous and determined not to get on the wrong side of him.

Pandora saw his pale face and how he looked a little unsteady and stood close to him.

"Are You alright?" she asked concerned to which Culpepper looked over at the Hybrid.

"Yeah..." he gave a sheepish smile "Just a little...overwhelmed."

"The Staff's been fixed!" Loki called over to which Ratchet looked up.

"Great work!" he praised as he picked up the staff then after checking it, he turned around to the frozen forms of Optimus, Ironhide and Bulkhead, and after warning everyone to stand back, he activated the rod and fired a beam at each frozen form of the Autobots.

Everyone watched anxiously, then after a few seconds, the autobots started to move again from their frozen positions.

"By Primus..." Ironhide exclaimed "What wasn't a pleasant experience!"

"You guys alright?" Leonardo asked.

"I think so..." Bulkhead said as he rolled his shoulders "Feel rather stiff though!"

Optimus meanwhile groaned as he moved his limbs and looked around and he was relieved to see everyone was alright.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Airachnid used that immobilizer rod there to freeze you in place." Tyroth explained "But Bumblebee and I were able to stop her and get it away from her."

"And we were able to use it to reverse it's effect on you." Ratchet said "You should regain your full range of motion before long."

"Thanks Ratchet!" Ironhide said gratefully.

"Indeed," Optimus agreed "Thanks old friend."

Ratchet smiled proudly.

"Tyroth didn't just snatch the immobilizer!" Donatello called over.

"yeah! He snagged a souvenir as well!" Michelangelo called up pointing at the severed spider leg.

Optimus blinked in surprise as he saw it was one of Airachnid's Spider legs.

"How...?" he asked to which he saw Tyroth hold up Ryujin proudly.

Optimus was about to ask until he looked over to see Arcee sitting nearby with Sephie, Monalisa and Raphael.

"Ratchet?" he asked remebering her emotions regarding the Spider-bot and how she had wanted to make her pay for what she had done to Tailgate.

"How is Arcee?"

Ratchet sighed.

"She is rather resilient, for a two wheeler." he said.

Optimus looked at the femme and felt sad seeing how broken and depressed she looked as Sephie, Monalisa and Raphael stood with her, giving her much needed support.

"It is the external wounds which heal the quickest." the Autobot leader said factually.

"I thought settling scores would allow me to move on." Arcee confessed "Instead, I chased away our hope of winning this war anytime soon."

"Wisdom cannot be granted Arcee." Optimus comforted "It must be earned, sometimes, at a cost."

Arcee didn't reply but lowered her head sadly yet she gave a small smile seeing Sephie, Monalisa and Raphael place their hands on her servo showing they were there for her, no matter what.

Back on the Nemesis, Airachnid had found herself at Megatron's wrath when she had failed to return to the ship with both the relic and Starscream.

"You left Starscream with the Autobots!?" Megatron bellowed as he towered over Airachnid.

"Do you have any notion of the consequences of your blunder?!"

"But my Lordship! It was Starscream's incompetence that cost us the immobilizer!" she spluttered.

"I don't care about some trinket!" Megatron bellowed leaning close to Airachnid's face "My second in command is a prisoner of the enemy!" he gritted his teeth as his red eyes glared at Airachnid who cowered and flinched "Which means all Decepticon intelligence could be at the fingertips of the Autobots!"

Airachnid cowered more as well as looked at where Tyroth had sliced off her spider leg.

It was bad enough she had lost an extra leg to an organic but being at the recieving end of Megatron's wrath was worse and it was then she understood the abuse Starscream endured all the years under the Warlord.

Meanwhile back in the Nevada desert, unknown to Megatron and Airachnid, Starscream after he had fled the Autobots managed to hide himself among the cliffs and crevices, and after seeing them go back to their base via the ground-bridge, he had bashed his wings against the rocks to free them of the cuffs they had placed there.

After a few tries, his efforts soon paid off and he managed to free himself from the cuffs.

Taking a few moments to steady himself as well as test his wings, he leaned against the rocks and considered his current situation.

He knew he had blown his chances of joining the Autobots, but he also knew he faced the wratch of Megatron as the mission had gone wrong and he knew that Airachnid would have lied to the Warlord about him and if he showed his face on the Nemesis, he would get more than a trouncing.

There was only one choice.

"I have been a fool." he thought to himself "Made mistakes, monumental ones, but I have gained a clear understanding of my place in this universe, of who I am!"

He jumped into the air and transformed into his jet form as he got ready to take off into the skies.

"Starscream! Aligned with no side! servant to no-one!"

And with that, Starscream flew away into the open skies, deciding to take his own path, where it lead him, he didn't know, but he knew one certain thing.

If he was to fly solo, then he faced no punishment for his actions, and that was the best way to go, at least until he figured out a new plan, whatever that would be...

So we've learned a little more about Culpepper, his past and his interests.

And Optimus, Ironhide, Bulkhead and Arcee have returned to base and been restored and healed, in a sense, yet Arcee still carries hurt in her spark.

As Optimus says, physical wounds might heal, but the heart needs more time, if it ever can heal.

Meanwhile, Starscream has decided he's better off alone, and for those who've seen the show, you know what's in store for him!

And thus ends the 'Partners' episode! I hope you enjoyed it, and next time we'll be moving on to the T.M.I episode and I got plans for that one! Stay tuned to see how it goes!