Author's Note: This follows on from the continuity of my last rewrite "The Gang's All Here"-Zarius
In the calm stillness of an evening in New York stood a colossal structure under construction. Work on it had ended for the day, but it would soon find itself in surprising company as five individuals explored it's naked frame.
"Well guys, what do you make of the future home of Channel Six news?" asked April O'Neil to her loyal friends the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Michelangelo, the wildest card of the four, walked over to the edge of the structure and stared out at the distant streets beneath him. He was left breath-taken.
"Totally awesome" he said.
"Boyfriend bias aside, anyone in agreement?" April remarked.
The remaining Turtles nodded approvingly, but Leonardo was not about to keep his concerns to himself.
"It's not much to look at right now April, are you sure it was wise to let us see the building this early?" he asked.
"Is there any other opportune time? April can't exactly give us a more public tour when it's finished, knowing how Burne feels about us" Donatello pointed out.
"Fair point" said Leonardo.
April continued her tour of the complex, pointing to where certain rooms would be situated.
"The newsroom will be in the center of where we're presently standing, and on the penthouse level just one floor above us, we'll even have a revolving restraunt"
"Cool, you could set it on super-spin, the pizzas will come flying off the stove" joked Michelangelo.
"And then of course there's my office" said a proud April, a beaming smile etched across her face, pointing to the right of them.
Unbenowst to her, she was treading dangerously near a discarded mop and wheelbarrow, she was too carried away with her excitement to notice.
"Your office is in a corner? What's the matter? You misbehaving in class so you have to sit in one?" joked Raphael.
"A corner office is ideal for me, it allows me my own space and not have to share it with the likes of that weasal Vernon. Burne sure knows how to treat me sometimes, I think of this as an early birthday present"
The Turtles all froze with apprehension as soon as those two words were uttered.
"Uh-oh...her birthday?" Leonardo whispered to the others.
"Bummer, we, like, totally forgot" said Michelangelo.
"If April finds out even YOU forgot, we're boned" Raphael replied, pointing to Michealangelo.
"Boy, we sure could do with a distraction rigth about now"
Before April could ask the Turtles what they had planned for her special day, she found herself tripping over the mop and falling straight into the wheelbarrow, the force of which sent it careering towards the edge.
"Help" April yelled.
Micheangelo promptly snapped into action, taking out his grappling hook and extending it before tossing the line and hooking it around the wheelborrow's front wheels.
"Hold it steady Dudedette" he said as he hoisted the wheelbarrow away from the edge using the grappling hook, April was soon in the clear.
Michelangelo rushed over to April's side and hoisted her out of the wheelbarrow.
"Probably the most ideal of times to tell you I could use the lift" she joked, rewarding her rescueer with a warm kiss on the lips as he held her in his arms.
"What luck" said Donatello
"Yeah, a fraction of a second later and we'd have been working out funeral arrangements rather than birthday celebrations" said Raphael.
Meanwhile, beneath the waves, lay the Technodrome, home to the Turtles' sworn enemies Shredder and Krang, where the pair were locked in another heated exchange over how to best move forward with plans to conquer the city above.
"Shredder, I can't beleive you're even suggesting this" said Krang as the two looked over a model set of the city.
"I tell you Krang, armor-plated bulldozers makes for a far more ruthless endeavour than sending Foot Soldiers out as door-to-door salesman"
"It's in synch with all the other Ninja enterprises held in the downtown area, people would just assume they were branching out with their products, it's a little something called brand awareness" Krang spoke in defense of his proposed strategy.
"What you don't seem to be aware of Krang, is that all those buisnesses went into liquidation over three years ago" Shredder replied.
"Really?" Krang asked.
"Obviously you were distracted far too easily by that infantile soap opera on the tube" said Shredder.
"Why do you watch that trash anyway boss brain?" asked Rocksteady, one of Shredder's hulking henchmen.
"I have my reasons, none of which are your buisness" said Krang.
"I'm curious myself Krang, what kind of hold does the love-lorn exploits of John and Marsha have over you?"
"Yeah, you looking for a lurve connection?" said Bebop, Rocksteady's warthog partner.
"I don't have to put up with these kind of bone-headed accusations from the likes of you" snapped Krang.
"Did I hit a senesetive lobe on that octopus-like cerebellum that makes up your whole being?" taunted Shredder.
"Call me an Octopus one more time and you'll find your whole being trodden underfoot" Krang retorted.
"Oh yeah?" Shredder replied, goding him further.
"Yeah" said Krang.
Suddenly, the entire war room felt an earth shuddering shake. Shredder, Krang and their hench-mutants swayed from left to right as the tremors intensified.
"What the devil was that?" said Shredder
Krang raced over to a nearby control console and checked the readings.
"We're being bombarded by intense firepower, it's coming from the surface" he revealed.
"Bebop, Rocksteady, get to the bottom of this" instructed Shredder.
"But boss, we're already at the bottom" said Bebop.
"I meant the matter at hand, not the ocean you witless warthog" snapped an irritated Shredder.
Bebop and Rocksteady put on a pair of wet suits and waited anxiously at the airlock, awaiting it's release.
"It sure is awfully wet out there" remarked Rocksteady.
"Don't come back until you give me a full damage report, that goes for how you feel afterwards" said Shredder over the intercom.
"But boss, we're feeling fine" said Bebop.
"Let me give you a hand with that, or better yet a finger" said Shredder, pressing down lightly with a fingertip on the explusion button on the airlock door, which rocketed Rocksteady and Bebop out of the Technodrome and straight into the deep blue oceon outside.
Before they could get their bearings, the two were scooped up by a swirling underwater vortex which threw them like rag dolls around and across the currents before they were hoisted out of the deep and into a hovering starcraft high above the surface.
"I feel like tossed salad" said Rocksteady as he steadily recovered, before being taken aback at the interior of the star-craft.
"This place is a real beauty parlor" Bebop observed.
"Yeah, but given what the pilot is doing to the boss down below, things could get real ugly" said Rocksteady.