Chapter Eighty-Five
Infiltration
Back over in Russia the Autobots were still searching for the signal Ratchet had picked up.
Ratchet has his scanner in his servo and the others followed behind with their blasters up and at the ready in case of any nasty surprises.
He watched the scanner as it bleeped then he turned to his team-mates.
"This way!" he said and before long the scanner led them to the centre of the Ghost City.
Optimus, Arcee, Ironhide and Bumblebee moved closer to the area keeping their blasters up.
"Readings coming from right here." The Medic reported and the Autobots looked down at what remained of a fountain.
Yet on the top of it, there was a metal ball.
Yet as Ratchet looked closer, he soon realised what it was.
"Breakdown's eye!"
Arcee gasped in shock as she realised that Mech must have removed it, and she looked at Bumblebee who looked slightly sick.
They could only imagine how Mech had done it, and they only knew too well what it was like to be tortured when still fighting on Cybertron.
"Savages!" Ironhide growled "Who'd have thought Humans could be capable of such barbarity? And yes, I said it, even if they are dissecting one of our enemies!"
Optimus glared but said nothing as he wondered how the turtles and Monalisa were doing on their mission.
Meanwhile, Leonardo led his brothers and sister to where he had seen in his vision, and they soon made it to what looked like a railway tunnel in a hill just outside of the city.
Leonardo held up his fist as he listened making the other turtles and Monalisa stop outside the entrance of the tunnel.
"What is it bro?" Raphael asked.
"Can you hear that?" Leonardo asked.
"What?" Michelangelo asked before Donatello and Monalisa shushed him and they too listened.
"Sounds like whirring." Raphael whispered.
"Drills!" Donatello confirmed "I'm sure of it!"
"No doubt!" Leonardo said, "Mech are in there with Breakdown!"
"Should we alert the Autobots?" Michelangelo asked.
"Not yet!" Leonardo said, "First we'll go in and take down the humans from the inside and we'll get Agent Fowler in on them."
"I see where you're going with this Fearless." Monalisa said "We go in there, take the humans down on the inside, alert the Autobots to free Breakdown and then we alert Agent Fowler's boys to come and take Mech into Custody!"
"You got it sis!" Leonardo grinned.
"Sounds like a piece of cake!" Raphael smirked.
"Mmmm, cake!" Michelangelo murmured.
"Focus Mike." Donatello reminded his younger brother "We'll celebrate with cake at the silo later!"
"We better go in the tunnel and see what we can find!" Raphael suggested.
"It's dark down there." Michelangelo said nervously, "And we got no idea if anything or anyone might be in that tunnel waiting to pounce!"
"I thought you got over your fear of the dark years ago Mike!" Raphael said looking at his baby brother.
"Still get the heebie jeebies Raph!" Michelangelo shot back.
"Both of you quiet!" Leonardo snapped then turned to Donatello.
"Got anything in your bag that might help?"
Donatello opened his bag, and he pulled out a flare which he lit and threw into the tunnel.
At once the place lit up and the turtles and Monalisa could see there was no-one else inside and it was still dark further down.
"Okay, that flare should have attracted attention." Leonardo said, "But nothing."
"Let's go in further." Monalisa suggested "But stay together!"
The turtles agreed and staying close together, they wondered into the tunnel.
Meanwhile back at the centre of the city, Ratchet picked up the eyeball and placed it on top of the scanner.
The others gathered around him and observed.
"What are you doing?" Arcee asked.
"The Optic Receptors might have retained the final images seen." Ratchet explained as he fiddled with the scanner.
Before long an image appeared on the scanner showing the figure of a man standing above Breakdown.
"What do you know!" Arcee quipped putting her hands on her hips "Weird Science wins again!"
She looked back at the Scanner with everyone else and they saw a drill aiming for the eye before the screen went to static.
The Autobots gasped in disgust and Ironhide looked away.
Ratchet then gaped as a new image appeared on the scanner and he soon saw Silas standing in front of some mechanical arms that were moving all over Breakdown.
Silas then looked at the camera and smirked,
"Well, Well Optimus Prime." He said, "A pleasure to set eyes on you again."
Ironhide looked back at the scanner.
"What in Tarnation?" he asked, "He can see us?" he looked at Optimus.
"He's converted the optics to a two-way feed!" Ratchet explained.
"And you must be Silas." Optimus growled, memories of when the very man and his army had tried to crash the train with his mutant friends and Fowler's men onboard as well and endanger the lives of others by blowing up the dingus returned to him, and he was feeling his energon boil but he didn't show it.
"In the flesh." Silas replied as he looked at the camera via Breakdown's optic.
"But being that our captive is not one of yours, I have to admit I was expecting Megatron."
"In this circumstance," Optimus replied "Autobots and Decepticons share a common foe."
"Mech is anything but common!" Silas snapped "Our guest is yielding quite a bit of information about your biomechanics as you can see."
He then smirked.
"Although Breakdown can't see so well himself anymore."
"We don't fear you!" Ratchet said defiantly.
"Darn tootin' we don't!" Ironhide agreed punching his fist into his palm.
"Oh but you should." Silas said in a dangerous tone "In fact, I would strongly urge that you do not stand your ground." He smirked again at the last part.
Optimus narrows his optics as he looked at the scanner then his spark leapt as he realised what the man meant, and he looked at the fountain where he saw what looked like a row of dynamite and a red clock attached counting down the seconds.
He could only guess what it was! A Bomb! And there was only eight seconds left!
"It's a trap!" he exclaimed.
"Wait, what?" Ironhide gasped as Ratchet stood up in shock.
"Would this be a roll out kind of trap?" Arcee asked.
"Evacuate now!" Optimus ordered and at once the Autobots fled the area just as the last few seconds on the clock ticked down to zero...
Meanwhile, the Hamato Clan were walking through the tunnel as the flare lit their way.
The flare stayed lit for a few seconds but before long it burnt out and Donatello pulled out a torch and shone it around the area.
"Stay close to me, guys!" he said.
As they kept looking around as well as kept their weapons up, they soon heard a roaring sound, almost like that of an engine.
Leonardo turned to the entrance wondering if it was Optimus or one of the other Autobots, but he soon saw it was a light green car.
"Guys! Split!" he barked and at once they jumped to the sides of the tunnel and lay flat against the brick walls, Leonardo, Donatello on one side with Michelangelo, Monalisa and Raphael on the other side.
The car sped past them and the mutants watched as it drove down the tunnel and it's headlights lit up the area before it came to a wall where they saw a metal gate which lifted as the car approached.
"Whoa! Did you see that?" Michelangelo exclaimed.
"No doubt about it!" Donatello said, "They must be in there!"
"Come on!" Leonardo called out and he led his brothers and sister to the wall just as it started to close.
"Keep to the shadows!" he called "We can make it!"
He raced ahead and did a diving roll to get in before the gate shut.
He turned to see if his brothers and Monalisa made it which luckily, they did and they pressed themselves against the walls to stay in the shadows.
"That was a stroke of luck!" Michelangelo whispered.
"Sure was." Monalisa said "But now we're in, let's keep moving."
"Yes lets." Raphael agreed as he moved along the wall to get deeper inside.
As they moved inside, they could hear the drilling sounds getting louder as well as voices.
"Well, Well Optimus Prime. A pleasure to set eyes on you again."
"Did you hear that?" Leonardo asked narrowing his eyes.
"I did!" Monalisa agreed.
Raphael took out his sai and spun them a few times.
Just then, a vibration was felt as well as a loud bang and the Hamato Clan froze on the spot.
Michelangelo opened his mouth to squeal but Monalisa quickly clapped her hand over his mouth so he wouldn't give away their position.
"What was that?" Donatello asked.
"Felt like something went off." Monalisa said removing her hand from Michelangelo's mouth.
"A bomb no doubt." Donatello theorised then his blood ran cold "The Bots!" he said in a loud whisper.
Leonardo was worried, but he shushed everyone as he heard voices again as well as continued drilling and they walked on further until they turned a corner.
As they did, they were soon greeted with the sight of Breakdown laying on a large table with his chest plates open and missing his right optic whilst several drills and tools attacking him along with several masked humans and Silas standing on a raised platform with orange screens behind him watching the whole scene.
"Enjoying the view?" Silas smirked looking down at Bulkhead "Ironically your would-be rescuers maybe in more pieces than you right now."
Leonardo narrowed his eyes when he heard that, then he remembered the vibration they felt.
"No..." he thought with fear.
"Decepticons don't break that easy!" Breakdown spat defiantly.
"Who said they were Decepticons?" Silas asked.
"That doesn't make sense!" Breakdown replied "Autobots wouldn't come and rescue me!"
"Think we should make our presence known Fearless?" Monalisa asked taking out her fans.
Leonardo licked his lips.
"I think so." He said unsheathing his katana.
Raphael smirked.
"I was hoping you'd say that!" he growled as he gripped his sai.
"Oh yeah, let's party!" Michelangelo grinned swinging his nun chucks.
Donatello agreed and took out his bo staff.
"Let's go!" Leonardo gave the order, and they moved in the shadows to get close to Breakdown.
They soon got close to the table and were about to strike when a banging noise was heard from down the tunnel.
The Hamato Clan froze on the spot and at the same time Silas was alerted and he looked down the tunnel.
"Find out what that is!" he ordered and several masked men with guns ran down the tunnel to which the Hamato Clan pressed themselves further back into the shadows to avoid being seen as the men ran past them.
Raphael growled in annoyance that their chance to attack was interrupted but he then wondered if it was the Autobots and they had managed to find mech before they could alert them.
A smashing sound was soon heard and the sound of gunfire followed to which the Hamato Clan were shocked to see Bulkhead appear throwing his wrecking ball around causing the gunmen to flee.
"Hey! It's Bulkhead!" Michelangelo shouted, "He decided to come along after all!"
As the orange masked turtle shouted, a couple of masked soldiers looked over from working on Breakdown and saw the Hamato Clan hiding near them!
"Hey!" one of them shouted.
"Way da go Mikey!" Raphael growled.
Silas also looked over and saw the Hamato Clan was well as Bulkhead.
"Get them!" he shouted.
At once the Hamato Clan gave cries of attack as they jumped out of the Shadows and went for the masked men and Bulkhead also saw them.
"Guys!" he cried.
"Glad you decided to join us Bulk!" Donatello shouted as he knocked a masked man off of Breakdown who looked rather surprised seeing the turtles and Monalisa and even more shocked to see Bulkhead.
"Well, you can thank those girls and your Rat sensei for talking some sense into me!" Bulkhead answered to which Leonardo, Raphael and Monalisa looked proud.
"Listen you guys deal with Mech, I'll get Breakdown out of here!"
"Gotcha!" Leonardo shouted as he kicked one of the men back and sliced one of the machines in half.
Monalisa did a few spins with her fans knocking the tools out of the men's hands.
Seeing Breakdown on the table reminded her of when she had been experimented on by Dr Arden and it made her feel both sick and furious.
Raphael struck with the hilts of his sai as well as stabbed.
Michelangelo whooped and leapt about as he swung his nun chucks.
Silas watched in fury that the mutants had appeared, and he remembered them from when he had tried to take the dingus.
"It's those freaks." He said then turned to one of the men next to him.
"Those will be interesting to study along with the giant robots." He said then looked back at mutants then gestured with his head to his men to follow him.
Leonardo saw him start to leave and punched the last man on Breakdown off him.
"He's getting away!" he said to which he, his brothers and Monalisa leapt off Breakdown and went after Silas.
Bulkhead watched them leave and looked down at Breakdown.
"This must be your lucky day." Bulkhead smirked as he reached down and Breakdown prepared himself for the worst only to feel Bulkhead rip off one of the restraints on the table that held his wrist down.
Breakdown was surprised that his arch enemy was actually freeing him rather than just ending him right there and then.
"What are you doing?" he questioned.
"Getting you out of here!" Bulkhead replied holding out his servo.
"Yeah, I don't belive it either!" the wrecker added seeing Breakdown's bewildered face.
Breakdown frowned but he took Bulkhead's hand, and the Wrecker helped him up,
"Can you walk?" Bulkhead asked.
"I think so." Breakdown replied as he slid his chest plates back into place.
Just then, a red alert sounded, and Bulkhead realised that Mech would be back and try and take them down, that was if the Hamato Clan weren't keeping them at bay.
"Can you run?" he asked.
"Never run when you can fight!" Breakdown shot back morphing his servo into a hammer.
"Just keep that thing pointed away from me alright?" Bulkhead requesting pushing the hammer away.
He was more than ready to fight Breakdown again, but their differences would have to wait as there were more pressing issues to take care of.
The Hamato Clan have located Breakdown and Mech and so has Bulkhead.
Whilst Bulkhead has rescued Breakdown, the Hamato Clan are chasing Silas.
Stay tuned for another chapter to find out how things progress from here...