Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Aww, I expected more… I dunno.” Miko leaned into the driver’s window as she looked around. “Big piles of alien goop and crystal trees or something.”

“Don’t believe everything you read online.” Jack responded as he looked back from Arcee’s seat. “Besides, it’s been a couple of months already.”

New York City stood around them, one of the biggest cities in the world and a shining jewel of its country, battered yet whole. Construction work made itself known almost immediately, proceeding at a healthy pace as workers moved around diligently to keep up with the schedule, cranes carrying steel girders to an upper part of a building while bulldozers took care of any remaining rubble. 

The last few months hadn’t been kind to it; an attack from a now-known race of beings known as the Kraang isolated it from the rest of the world, tricking them into believing it was some form of terrorist attack as the city closed down. The Autobots had looked to investigate the area, fearing some kind of Decepticon interference; however, not even Agent Fowler’s connections would allow them into the city. 

Before they could properly plan around it, the city had inexplicably opened back up again, confused and desperate citizens finally contacting their families again to try and explain what had happened. Naysayers had to eat their words almost immediately after discovering the remaining technology and fauna littered across the whole region.

News spread like wildfire about the city that had suffered alien infiltration and the poor state it had left it in. Back at base, the Autobots couldn’t believe it, especially Prime. He thought himself a fool for not acting sooner or even considering the possibility of further threats coming from the stars. A rare burst of emotion coursing through each of his words, laced with regret, he could not let something like this happen again; he had made a promise to protect this world like he had his own. And he would not let it turn to ruin as well.

Ruin, the ruin that had befallen a civilization that, while flawed, did not deserve the near eradication that so many years of war entailed. Arcee had seen through all of it from the very beginning, seen comrades that stood tooth and nail with her to decorate the streets in macabre shows of strength and fear, and seen monuments and buildings once thought iconic fall into rubble and ash. The same kind of ash that she could feel in her wheels right this moment.

They had spent so much time fighting with the Decepticons that they hadn’t even stopped to consider their surrounding universe, filled with threats that could start wars just as deadly as the one they were trying to win.

Humanity doesn’t deserve that pain. She has made too many friends here, opened herself too much, to bear something like that again.

Arcee shook her head, well, as much of a head as her vehicle mode had.

“Jack, we can go sightseeing later; there are too many eyes here.” She dryly reminded the group, sharp in her delivery.

“Right. Sorry.” Jack lowered his head. “Now, how do we get underground?”

“Oh, hmm, let me see here.” Miko exaggeratedly looked around like a pirate looking for treasure. “Maybe that big hole that was blown wide open.”

All of them turned towards it, decent enough for the vehicle modes. The char marks and the rubble littered around it indicate that it was some form of a rush job. Could it have been the so-called alien invasion? Or were the Decepticons really that desperate? 

Bumblebee beeped enthusiastically, which only made Jack and Miko look at each other in confusion; they really should have brought Raf here.

“You’ve been around Bulkhead too long.” Arcee responded, the edge in her voice softening a bit. “Alright, Jack, Miko, lead the way.”

“You gotta be kidding me.” Raph was quick and to the point, while his mind was still groggy.

“How long have they been there, Don?” Leo asked, looking straight into the security camera.

The Turtles always knew that the Kraang’s defeat wasn’t going to be the end of their problems; if it wasn’t the Shredder trying to stuff them into their own shells, it was probably going to be one of the dozen or so mutants that they accidentally set roaming around the city and that were now free to do what they wanted. But they always wagered they would have a little time to rest before having to immediately head back to the fray. Unfortunately, their world-class turtle luck didn’t fail its target, as they now stared at a gigantic drill slowly making its way through the subway, guarded by a squad of metal clad giants, one of them clearly growing impatient of the effort.

“So what are we looking at, Krang drones or somethin’?” Raph asked.

“Unlikely, this design isn’t like anything we have seen before.” Don leaned into his chair. “If they really had these on standby, they would have used it on us back at Dimension X, remember?”

“Dudes…” Mikey spoke in shock. “These are just like the giant robots from Mecha Force!”

“Eh, more like the Biorgs from Space Heroes.” Leo muttered under his breath until shaking his head. “Nevermind, you think there might be another alien invasion?”

Raph groaned. “Don’t even say that, you’ll just make it happen, we just got rid of one!”

“It’s not out of the question, if we really did take out the Kraang, we might have accidentally created a power vacuum, space power vacuum I guess, that would bring more alien presence to the planet.” Donatello responded. “What I’m more worried about is where they are drilling.”

The turtle changed the view of the camera of one monitor into a general map of the subway structure, also showing its connection to the sewer and their lair. Red dots blank around the area in specific areas until meeting at their current position.

“Remember how Irm- Subprime basically had a bajillion Kraang swarm the lair?” Donatello typed as the screen focused on the red dots. “Each of these dots represent the entrance points they made to reach here. We managed to rebuild the walls closest to the lair before the reconstruction efforts began but everywhere else is open season. And these guys went straight through them, if my estimations are correct, and they normally are, there is a very real chance that their drilling operation could lead them-”

Leonardo sighed as he pinched his forehead, great, just fantastic. This was exactly what they needed.

“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” Leonardo explained. “This is exclusively a recon mission; we are not engaging until we know for sure what they want or if they get close enough to the lair. We don’t try to engage directly and only work on evasion, sabotage their equipment if-” 

The screen beeped again.

“Aw, what now!?” Leonardo whined.

“Camera just picked up another two of these things, and… humans?” Donatello scratched his head.

Leo restrained a yell. “Change of plans, Donnie, you are with me for the drill. Raph, Mikey, you are checking those two out.”

“Why do I have to go with Mikey?” Raph shot back.

“Because I need someone that for sure will stop you from doing anything stupid.” Leo responded.

“And Mikey was your best option?” Raph raised an eyebrow.

“Well, April and Casey aren’t available.” Leo turned to run. “So work with it.”

“Sooooooo…” Mikey pondered as he swiftly made his way through the subway tunnels. “What do you think these guys want? Eat us all for fuel? Take over people like weird meat puppets- Dude! What if it’s Casey they want now!?”

“Yeah, him and his special ability of hitting pucks really hard.” Raph responded. “Surely we are doomed. You know, Mike, sometimes I- Wait.”

The turtle quickly turned over a corner to shield his brother as he tried to pick up the brief sound he just heard. An electric buzz, its echo still cracking the deep empty tunnel, and then, once it settled, cold metallic thumps. He only got a brief look at a blue figure before deciding to turn back towards his teammate. 

“Well, we got our go-bots.” Raphael quipped.

“What are they doing?” Michelangelo asked.

“I dunno, walking, I think." Raphael tried to briefly look back. “Come on.”

The two jumped back into the shadows.

For what felt like hours, the both of them tried their best to pinpoint their newfound intruders’ intentions, but the tunnels had very few blind spots to exploit, courtesy of their last encounter there, which made approaching a dangerous chance they wouldn’t take. In the meantime, they tried raising an ear to any kind of intel, but some kind of location device’s beeping kept more conversations inaudible, barring some loose words like “artifact” and “prime”.

That last one got them a bit nervous.

“Ugh, we’ll never get answers like this.” Raph lost his cool. “Hate to say it, but we are kind of stumped.”

“You’re telling me.” Mikey commented, reaching for his pocket. “I think I forgot to feed Ice Cream Kitty. Hold on, maybe I can call Master Sp-”

The blunt sound of something small hitting the ground reverberated through the entire tunnel. 

“Mikey…” Raph glared daggers.

“Whoops.” Mikey nervously chuckled as he reached for his T-Phone. “It’s cool, I don’t think they heard.”

Bumblebee beeped again.

“Yeah, I heard it too.” Arcee looked back, one of her hands turning into a blaster.

“It came from this way!” Miko ran up to a small corridor in the tunnels. “Come on!”

“Miko, wait-” Jack tried to talk before just giving up and running right behind her, clearly frustrated.

The girl ran as the world around her went darker and darker, stopping as it went pitch black. She reached for her phone, its small light giving some much-needed visibility and showing a grimmer section of the subway than she had seen before. After some fiddling, she managed to turn on the flip phone’s flashlight option. She was disappointed as it seemed to be a complete dead end, stomping the ground in frustration.

“Darn it! I swear I had something this time!” Miko shouted before feeling something in her shoulder, freezing her blood.

Before panic could properly take over her body, the lights illuminated the source as she gave a sigh she didn’t even know she had held.

“Oh, it's you.” Miko was deadpan.

“Yeah, it’s me.” Jack responded, annoyed, as he also looked into his pocket for his own phone to light the way. “What were you thinking? We are on a mission! If there was a Decepticon here, you could have been-”

“Well, there isn’t!” Miko shot back. “So you can take the lecture somewhere else.”

“No.” Jack pressed harder. “You wanted to be here, Miko. I need you to take this more seriously-”

“So you are the leader now, is that right?” Miko got angrier. “Just because Optimus named you his best boy, you gotta act like him now?”

“Wha-” Jack was taken aback. “Is this about Cybertron?”

“No, it’s not just about Cybertron!” Miko shouted, having lost her cool. “Ever since that whole Unicron thing we’ve done zilch while everyone around us does all the work! Optimus thought he was a Decepticon and we barely got him back! Bee lost his T-Cog and Ratchet almost had to give him his’! Bulkhead almost got blown to pieces! And I! Couldn’t! Do! Anything!”

She stepped back and turned.

“Miko…” Jack tried to respond.

“Zip it.” Miko whispered. “I’m going back to the others.”

Her teammate tried to reach out, but she just shoved him back, inadvertently making both of them drop their phones at the same time.

“Miko!” Jack complained as she sighed to pick it back up.

Well, she would have, had the lights not immediately revealed the two large lizard people that had been following them the whole time.

“Uh…” One of them tried to speak. “Hi?”

A yell pierced through the corridor as Arcee and Bee were immediately alerted, the former immediately turning into her vehicle mode as she rushed through as fast as possible, turning on her headlight to reveal Jack, Miko, and two strange alien beings. She expertly dodged the kids as she tried ramming headfirst into the strangers, who jumped out of the way in the nick of time. Arcee flipped through the air as she quickly changed back to her robot mode, blasters in hand. 

“Don’t. Move.” Arcee’s threat was simple and quick.

The two lizards raised their hands, one of them clearly holding something in his left hand.

“Drop it.” Arcee pointed her blaster closer.

“If you say so.” The lizard dropped a cylindrical object as the entire area was filled with smoke.

Arcee tried to pin them down with a few shots, immediately stopping after realizing that she couldn’t fire blindly with the kids still around. She huffed in frustration, before reaching to her ear.

“Bee, you got incoming.” Arcee said, turning back to her human allies. "You two, hop on!"

“Hi!?” Raph yelled between breaths as the two tried making it out of the corridor as fast as possible. “We were about to get run over by a sentient bike... robot... thing, and you say Hi!?”

“I panicked!” Mikey whined until gasping. “We gotta call Leo and Donnie!”

“Right.” Raph said, jumping out of the entrance as he started typing on his T-Phone. “If they are all working together, they gotta-”

His thought was immediately derailed by a laser shot landing just in front of him, as an even larger robot thing, yellow this time, held them at immediate gunpoint, beeping as he did. Screeches of a bike not far behind them.

Stuck between two killer robots and without any backup to speak of, Raphael’s increasingly panicking mind could only think of one thing.

“Aw sewer apples.” 

Chapter Text

“Could we please pick up the pace? The humidity down here is threatening to corrode my undercarriage.” The large red robot bemoaned before being silenced by a larger robot’s growl. “Must you hover!?”

Taking advantage of an open gap in the ceiling from the previous invasion, two figures quietly observed as the drill dug deeper into the tunnels, while other robots made their way into the open gap with various pieces of equipment of varying familiarity, slowly extracting rubble and scanning for… something. 

The precision and speed of the operation was quite remarkable, brief words, surgical removal of rubble that might betray their location, scans every few minutes to ensure their position and a very clearly armed guard to locate and destroy any intruder coming their way. A lot of it reminded Leonardo and Donatello of the last intruders who came so close to their home.

“How long until they reach the lair?” Leonardo asked as he tried catching anything he might have missed.

“About half an hour, if we’re lucky.” Donatello, staying a bit behind, quickly checked his T-Phone, the faint shake in his hands betraying his emotions. “Have you seen anything yet?”

“Nope, whatever they want must be even deeper inside.” Leo’s brow furrowed. “I don’t like this at all, have you called Raph or Mikey?”

“Let me check.” Don said as he called Raphael first, long beeps became agonizingly longer as he and his brother stared attentively at the screen, going for a while before the call ended entirely. Soon came Mikey, the wait somehow even longer this time, with the same result. A deep silence permeated them both.

“What do you think?” Leo stared at his brother who struggled to find the right words.

“Either they’re close to a lead or… something happened.” Don looked down as he reached to his back, pulling out a large pistol. “Which means we have to move now.”

“Wait, is that the uh… Omni-Fribilitator-” Leo raised his eyebrow as he struggled to remember the name

“Microfission Omni-Disintegrator.” Don replied bluntly. “I managed to recreate it with some of the leftover Kraang tech from the invasion, about the same charge though. If that doesn’t work however…”

Donatello pressed a button on his T-Phone.

“Uhh, what was that?” Leo questioned again.

“Back up.” Donatello replied. 

Bumblebee spoke in tones of distinct pitches as he talked behind the intruders over to Arcee, who had her sights completely set on the creatures below her; her two human companions cautiously stood next to the Autobot as they were trying to make out what was even going on

“I don’t know.” Replied Arcee, gears still running in her head. “They look a bit too puny to be Shockwave’s work.”

“Hey, who are you calling puny!?” One of them spoke back, clearly angry. 

“Shut it.” Arcee pointed her blaster closer, only angering her target. “Haven’t you been nosy enough?”

“Oh I’m sorry, next time a bunch of giant robot alien freaks come around the neighborhood I’ll have a warm oil pie ready for ya, how’s that sound?” Raphael sassed back, his anxious posture not matching his words. 

“Says the tiny green man.” Jack whispered. 

“I heard that!” Raphael shouted.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Michelangelo tried to defuse the situation as he slowly approached forward. “Hey, come on dudes! We aren’t here to hurt anybody!”

“Mikey, are you crazy!?” Raphael looked to his brother, about to follow. 

Michelangelo gave a brief look to his brother, once he rarely ever saw from him, the same look he gave him the day they first met Leatherhead. He wasn’t used to seeing him so… set on something, his gaze measured and his stance completely relaxed, they didn’t really have the luxury to let their guard down like that, especially these days. But that warm look made Raphael feel like his brother knew it was going to be alright, and so he put his faith in it, and he relented.

“Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot, heh. Sorry for being all ninja earlier, by the way.” Mikey looked at Jack and Miko, the latter having a more puzzled expression more than anything. “But I don’t… think you’re bad guys, right? I heard a lot about worries, for you, your friends, like you are all… family, like us. And… I don’t think that screams evil alien invaders to me. And trust me, we’ve met quite a few.”

Mikey stared around him at the tense figures of everyone, taking in the words and mincing them in their own way, one of them staring at him harder than the rest before something clicked.

“Wait…” Miko squinted before her eyes shot open, snapping her fingers as she tried to verbalize. “You’re, uh, uh, one of those green karate lizard… things, right!? I saw you on videos online!”

“Green Karate Lizards…” Jack followed up. “Wait, you’re saying these guys fought those big ugly monsters on the news every few months!?”

“Barely caught on camera, I know.” Miko responded, pointing at the two turtles. “But, like, these must be them, right? These guys are heroes!”

Arcee turned her head to the children, blasters still trained. “Are you absolutely sure?”

Miko looked into her eyes and nodded, the autobot then looked into her robotic partner who beeped slowly before finally taking a deep breath and closed her eyes as her blasters turned back into regular hands. Bumblebee followed soon after.

“I hope you have a damn good reason to be following us.” Arcee spoke to the turtles. 

“What, you aren’t drilling a hole through a solid three miles of concrete?” Raphael asked wearily, catching the immediate attention of the Autobots.

“Drill? No we-” Arcee pieced it together in an instant. “Where did you see it!?”

“Hey, I asked you a question first!” Raphael asked. “What’s going on!?”

“Listen to me, because I won’t repeat myself.” Arcee kneeled to make eye contact with Raph. “Whoever you saw there isn’t going to be as nice as I am, and right now, they’re going to get a relic that can potentially doom your entire city, maybe even the world. So if we are really allies here, you will tell me where it is right now.”

Raph struggled to keep his guard up but ultimately relented.

“Me and my brothers spotted it a few hours ago.” Raphael spoke. “It’s about fifteen minutes from here, I don’t know what they want but I’m sure that we have to stop them.”

“Why?” Arcee asked again.

“... Because if we don’t.” Raphael responded, looking down. “We’ll lose our home again.”

Something in those words, that tone, resonated with Arcee. Earlier attitude aside, he was clearly speaking out of a place of hurt. The gaze in him said it all, despite being young, he had already understood the price and sacrifice of battle. It reminded the Autobot of young sparks who were pulled from their lives and into the battlefield back home, the very same home the creature in front of her was about to lose once more.

“... Okay, we’ll help.” Arcee spoke a little more softly. “Can you lead us there?”

“Yeah.” Raphael said, and in an instant he saw how the robot once again turned into a bike, her autobot partner turning into a car in response. 

“Then let’s go.” Arcee’s engine roared.

The rest then began to walk up to their vehicle allies. Michelangelo walking to the car and Raphael to the bike.

“Hey, uh, sorry for that whole thing again.” Mikey awkwardly spoke to Miko, putting up his hand. “I’m Mikey, that grumpy dude over there’s my brother Raph, what’s your name?”

“Miko. Miko Nakadai.” Miko shook it. “And the hardbutt over there is my friend Jack.”

A brief “hey!” was heard.

“Aaaaand I think you’ve already seen Arcee and Bumblebee.” Miko continued motioning to the vehicles, Bumblebee greeting in some beeps. 

“Oh! Hey, car dude!” Michelangelo greeted back. “You’re an Auto- what now?”

“Wait… you can understand him?” Miko asked, clearly shocked.

“Uh, yeah? You can’t?” Mikey innocently asked. 

“Can this wait!?” Arcee and Raphael spoke at once.

“Sorry!” Miko and Mikey apologized.

“Heh, must be seeing double.” Jack commented.

Leonardo and Donatello prepared for the right moment to strike as the drill stopped to a complete halt, the two turtles wearily looked in curiosity and dread.

“Medical engineer Knock Out.” One of the robotic soldiers saluted. “We have located and unearthed the relic.”

“Oh, thank the AllSpark, I thought I was going to rust over here.” Knock Out sighed in relief. “Very well, let’s go, soldier.”

The turtles tensed as the Decepticon team began to mobilize.

“If they get inside, we’ll lose them for sure.” Donatello took out a grappling hook and jumped below.

“Let’s go!” Leonardo shouted, following suit while throwing two smoke bombs, covering the area in a thick smoke.

“What!?” Knock Out shouted in surprise, as the Vehicons immediately opened fire before stopping to hear anything. After a while they assumed the threat was neutralized, until out of the smoke, something stuck directly into one of the arms of a Vehicon, wrapping it as Leonardo leaped into it’s shoulder.

The Vehicon struggled to move as Leonardo yanked the rope to push the Vehicon off balance and into the line of fire of another one of them, hitting it directly in the head, the explosion rocketing Leonardo back as he tried jumping back in the smoke, before being backhanded by Knock Out and hitting a wall.

“Well, well, well, I suppose those reports from this area were true. Genetic goldmines stuck around humanity’s filth, how ironic” Knock Out sneered, hand turning into a blade. “I should probably put something on before dissecting you first, but I suppose that can wait.”

Before Knock Out could approach the turtle, a blast of energy almost grazed his shoulder before landing directly into another Vehicon’s torso, disintegrating it completely.

“Ugh- Slimy little runt! That’s a new paint job!” Knock Out shouted at the other turtle behind him, as the smoke began to clear. “Just my luck, another sample, but I don’t think I’ll need it. You can take over.”

Knock Out turned as Donatello prepared a second shot before a large shadow loomed behind him, and before he could react, the Insecticon struck at Donatello, sending him far away, knocking the pistol out of his hands as he landed at the bottom of the drill. A wicked smile of satisfaction was drawn in the Decepticon medic’s face.

“Now, where were we?” Knock Out spoke, ready to lunge forwards.

Or at least he would, had it not been for the large blue steel leg that sent him tumbling down into the ground. The medic stared in shock as the subway’s light revealed an all too familiar sight.

“Sorry, I think we’ll have to cancel that appointment.” Arcee quipped.

“Of course.” Knock Out stood up. “You can talk to my secretary.”

Arcee barely dodged the Insecticon’s blast as Knock Out falled back to his troops.

“Get them!” The Decepticons commanded as the Vehicons followed into the fray.

As the battle roared, two other turtles ran across the beams and the hulking titans of steel the best way they could.

“Leo! Donnie!” Raph shouted as he approached to check on his brothers.

“Ugh, my head.” Leo sat straight thanks to Mikey as his eyes slowly opened again. “Guys?”

“Yeah, good timing, I know.” Raphael responded in relief, helping Donnie up, looking back into the Autobots. “We had a lift.”

“Can anyone get the number of that truck… bug… whatever.” Donatello leaned into his bo for support.

“I assume those guys are ours?” Leonardo commented on their robotic allies fighting against the Vehicons and the Insecticon.

“Yup.” Raphael, having finished his check up, took out his sais. “And I ain’t missing a second of this!”

“Are you crazy? We are lucky we didn’t get squashed!” Donatello complained. “The only thing that could take those things out would be the Desintegrator! Where did I leave that actually-”

It only took the turtles one second to spot it.

In the middle of a giant robot gunfight.

“Awww man.” Michelangelo whimpered.