After Mikey had twice explained how he had come to be where and what he was, it was evident that -not only didn't anyone believe him- they were developing concerns about his mental health as well.

However, there was one good piece of news. The leader seemed to be convinced of one thing, and that was that Mikey hadn't come here to cause them any harm. He holstered his blaster.

"Take it easy, gang," he said, "I think this guy's pretty harmless."

Mikey wasn't sure whether to be relieved or offended by this. Before he could make a fair decision, his new acquaintances were distracted by a call, which the red haired human girl said was "Quiet Lawn Cavern being attacked by the Hooligang and a giant slug of some kind".

"You want to prove you don't mean any harm?" asked the leader (a dark haired boy about the same age as the turtles), and Mikey nodded eagerly, "Then come on and give us a hand. Where's your Mecha Beast?"

Mikey smiled innocently for a few seconds before cracking and saying, "My what?"

"Never mind. You'll ride with me," the leader said, shaking his head, "I'm Eli Shane."

"Michelangelo," Mikey replied.

The other three were a human (the girl), a cave troll (the big blue person) and a molenoid, their names being Trixie, Kord and Pronto respectively. Mikey was moderately disappointed that he didn't get to name the mole, but he didn't say anything. Before he could do anything foolish like that, Mikey spotted the fiery orange and yellow slug on Eli's shoulder, which seemed to be scrutinizing him intently.

"What's his name?" Mikey asked, immediately in love, "He's so cute! Can I touch him?"

"His name's Burpy," Eli replied, "He doesn't always like strangers-"

Eli broke off as Burpy hopped into his hand and leaned forward to get a closer look at Mikey, who very, very gently, touched the top of Burpy's head and then made a "that's so adorable" squeak. Burpy chirped, but then lost interest in Mikey, hopping back onto Eli's shoulder.

"Come on, let's go," Eli said, deciding the introductions were over.

"You sure we can trust this guy?" Kord the cave troll asked Eli quietly, thinking Mikey couldn't hear him, "He did break into our home in the middle of the night."

"Maybe so, but I don't think Mike meant any harm," Eli replied mildly, "Besides, Burpy seems to like him, and he's usually a pretty good judge of character."

"Pronto is also a good judge of character," Pronto interrupted, "And Pronto does not trust the turtle who claims to be from the Burning World."

"Well I don't know what you expect me to do," Eli said in a matter-of-fact tone, "We can't just leave him in the Hideout. If he's not okay, then he could tell a lot of people where we are. We need to keep an eye on him, at least until we know whether he's trustworthy or not."

"I hope you're planning to be careful with your trust, Eli," Kord remarked, "You remember what happened last time."

"I haven't forgotten," Eli told him, "And I'll admit I've never seen anything like him, so I don't think he's really from the surface. But a few tall tales doesn't make him evil," Eli glanced significantly at Pronto, who fairly routinely told exceptionally tall tales.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Trixie said.

"Ah!" Mikey squealed, catching sight of the Mecha Beasts, "Coolest! Robots! Ever!" he ran forward and touched each beast in turn, and then went for the nearest button, "What's this do?"

"Don't touch that!" Eli warned sharply, ignoring the glances of his gang.

Clearly, they were all wondering exactly what sort of person this was who didn't know what a Mecha Beast was, or even to keep his hands off things he didn't understand.

"Ooh, what does this one do? And this one? And this one!"


If Mikey had found new friends, Don had discovered new enemies. His attempts to escape from the battle between the Kraang and the black-clad henchmen were thwarted repeatedly.

In the end, both he and the few remaining Kraang were forced to surrender (though in the Kraangs' case, it was more like being ripped from their robot bodies and held up by their tentacles). Don quickly realized that he and the Kraang were unfamiliar to the henchmen, who briefly considered simply doing away with these pests, but decided maybe that wasn't such a smart idea.

Don was meanwhile struck by what he found to be a horrifying thought.

While the henchmen argued, Don knelt staring at the arsenal they had, the snarling, writhing little dark colored beasts that transformed into much larger, nastier monsters. He considered that the best thing one could say about them was at least these things had never had mutagen spilled on them, as he imagined that would make them several times worse, assuming that was at all possible.

And it was a perfectly valid concern. A vial of mutagen had been confiscated from the Kraang, and was being suspiciously examined by two henchmen, who took turns holding it at arm's length and listening to it slosh around in its container.

"What is it?" Asked one.

"Some kind of... slug food?" suggested the other.

"I've never seen anything like it. Maybe it's some kind of Dark Water variant?"

"It's not very dark. Or very much like water."

"We better take it back to Dr. Blakk. He'll want to study it."

"What about these?" the one henchman jabbed a finger at the Kraang and Don.

"I guess we take 'em with us," shrugged the other, "Who knows, maybe the pink ones are some kind of slug we've never seen."

"Okay, but what about the green one?"

"Did you see that thing fight? Dr. Blakk will want to study its combat abilities."

Don didn't feel particularly enthusiastic about this Dr. Blakk fellow, or his studies. Something told him that where these henchmen wanted to take him was a place he very much did not want to go.

"Couldn't we just call it a draw?" He suggested hopefully, "You go your way, I go mine, and we promise never to see each other again. How does that sound?"

The response was the time honored mantra of all menial henchmen, "Shut up and get moving."

Don decided that these people could not be reasoned with. He also decided that, for the moment at least, he had no choice but to cooperate with them. Still, he fully intended to escape at the first opportunity. He didn't want to meet the man responsible for these henchmen or their weapons. And he especially had no desire to be studied.

He was a ninja, and ninjas preferred that their secrets stay just that. Secret.


Leo, meanwhile, had done the majority of his communicating with his katana. It had proven to be easier than expected to evade the shots aimed at him. The fired slugs were incredibly bad at altering their trajectory and so were not unlike the blaster shots Leo was accustomed to avoiding back home.

His opponents were slow of body and wit, and so when he went on the offensive, it wasn't as difficult as anticipated to get past their defenses and then slice their blasters neatly in two. The only real challenge was aiming his strikes so he didn't hurt the slugs, but even that was easy once he got close enough to see where the chamber of each blaster was.

Bolting past his disarmed opponents, Leo also sliced up the big robots they'd ridden in on, just in case those were some kind of weapon too. And then he held his opponents at blade point.

"Surrender now, before I get angry," Leo advised.

"Charge!" this unexpected remark was timely in that it prevented Leo from making a terrible mistake with his next words.

Leo looked up to see four more robotic animals galloping from the other end of the street from whence his defeated opponents had come. Leading the charge was a metal donkey with... well, a mutant on board. This mutant had a rather longer blaster than the ones Leo had just cut to pieces. And he was firing it wildly.

Leo didn't know what it was that flew towards him at a hundred miles an hour (this, Leo didn't know, was no exaggeration of any kind), but he did know that he wanted no part of whatever it was.

He ducked and rolled, and a cloud of dark green stink erupted where he'd been a moment before. A rather annoyed looking slug staggered out of the cloud and glared at him, as though it was deeply offended that he had gotten out of its range. It chirped angrily, shook a squishy, boneless limb at him, and then hopped off towards the mutant on the donkey, who was already lining up another shot.

"Stop!" Leo perked up on hearing Mikey's voice, "Stop it! That's my brother!"

From behind one of the riders, Mikey flipped out and landed squarely in front of the donkey robot and its rider, arms spread.

Leo straightened slightly, but did not relax. He wasn't at all convinced that these new arrivals didn't intend to have his head on a stick just like the ones he'd dispatched. After all, nobody around here seemed to have anything in the way of reason governing their actions. He hadn't done anything to warrant being attacked the first time, yet attacked he had been. He wasn't sure at all that it wouldn't happen again.

"If he is your brother," said the decidedly ugly creature on the donkey, "Then what is he doing helping the Hooligang to destroy this beautiful cavern?!"

"I didn't destroy anything!" Leo shouted back, and was abruptly shushed by a resident, who was peering out from under some piece of machinery he didn't care to identify.

Leo continued in a quieter, but still emphatic tone, "They attacked me. I was only defending myself."

"See?" Mikey said, "We're all friends here. This is my brother, Leo. These guys..." Mikey paused thoughtfully, "Well, I don't really remember all their names, but the little orange one is Burpy. Isn't he the cutest thing ever!?" Mikey gestured broadly to the slug perched on the shoulder one of the riders.

"Yes," Leo sighed wearily, "Yes, it's very cute and all, but-... wait, did you say it had a name? The slugs have names? I thought they were just live ammunition."

The orange slug leaned forward in response to this remark and, quite unmistakably, growled at him. It was so furious that its little head caught fire. Leo had never seen anyone literally burn with rage before, and he wasn't sure he wanted to again.

"Wait," a bright looking girl on a cat robot maneuvered from the back, "Did you say that you defeated the Hooligang? By yourself?"

"If that's what these guys are called," Leo waved a katana towards his captives, "then yes."

He bit his lip, wondering if that was a bad thing, tensing for another battle.

"Cool," was all the girl said, sounding genuinely impressed.

"Can we go now?" asked the leader of the three Leo had trounced.

"Uh... sure," Leo shrugged, "But... try not to cause anymore trouble, alright?"

"Yeah, whatever."


Raph was unaware of it, but his arrival had caused considerable consternation to a group of ghoul slugs who'd escaped their masters and made their home in this cavern.

The trouble was that he'd taken up residence on the particular rock ledge that they had been claiming for themselves until he rather rudely showed up and plunked himself down. Angry, but feeling slightly menaced, the pack of ghoul slugs had retreated to the shadows to consider their options.

Not being particularly bright or clear headed, it seemed to them that they really must attack and drive the intruder away, only they weren't too eager about that, seeing as they sensed in him an anger that, while less twisted than theirs, was comparable to the one that possessed them. They equated this fury with danger, and they really weren't thrilled about it.

Being only what they were, they assumed Raph was a resident of Slugterra, and probably in possession of a goodly amount of slugs that they, for reasons they didn't understand, could neither see nor sense in any other manner. And too, they were quite aware of their own limitations.

Without a slinger, they couldn't hit the all important 100 miles an hour to achieve transformation, meaning they were largely limited to just biting. Being only Barreto slugs (the ghouled version of a Polero), they were relatively weak as protoforms. Even at velocity, their uses were somewhat limited: mostly they were good at tripping people and biting them.

Not that the bite of any ghoul slug was to be taken especially lightly. Though their jaws were not terribly strong (slugs weren't really meant to be predators), the long, very sharp fangs of ghouled slugs meant they were very much capable of drawing blood and, taken in numbers, they could be deadly. But this pack wasn't very big (ghouls were antisocial as a rule, and extremely particular about who they shared space with, in that they absolutely refused to associate with any ghoul slugs not of their own kind, which was why most slingers of ghouls had only one kind on their person unless they had a means of keeping the different species separate from one another). While they could put up quite the fight in their present number and form, the most they could hope for was to drive their enemy away.

What they were not concerned about was the only slug they could see, a Fandango. They certainly hated it. It being a product of light and they twisted as they were into one of darkness, it was in their very nature to despise it. It was entirely possible the Fandango knew of their presence and was sticking with Raph for protection rather than companionship. Ghouls were always eager to tear other slugs apart, but especially ones like Fandangos, who gave energy and life to the caverns. However, the Fandango was even less useful in combat than the Barretos, being virtually ineffective for anything in the way of attacking or defending.

Perhaps, thought the Barretos, showing a rare flash of intellect, this slinger had shot all his slugs and was waiting for the Fandango's distinctive energy to draw his slugs back. That would certainly account for why they had seen neither hide nor hair of any tamed slugs the entire time they'd been watching. What that didn't explain was where his blaster was, assuming he had one at all.

That being the case, they ought to attack immediately. But if it wasn't the case, they might ought to do something else entirely. Only they weren't sure what and, having no clear leader and certainly having no interest in democracy of any sort, they weren't in agreement about what, exactly, should be done.

While they argued amongst themselves, the other slugs that had been inhabiting the ledge gravitated towards Raph (or perhaps the Fandango), and chattered urgently to one another. They knew the ghouls were there, and they didn't like it, but they didn't have any way of dealing with it except running away and, when one is on a ledge, even that option is fairly limited.

Raph noticed the shift from curiosity to nervousness and, not being entirely slow of mind, realized fairly quickly that it had naught to do with him. If the slugs had been worried about him, they would have slipped away from him, they would not be drawn in closer. They were afraid of something, and seemed to think -if he wasn't actually a protector- Raph was at the very least the lesser of two evils.

Raph tried to think of something besides turtles that ate slugs. But scientific awareness of any sort had never stuck to him, and so he couldn't think why slugs would voluntarily come towards him, unless there was something so heinously evil lurking in the shadows that it defied imagination, and soundly trounced logic as well. As nonchalantly as possible, Raph prepared to fight for his life.