CHAPTER FOUR
Following April's directions, the Turtles soon made their way topside and joined her a few meters away from the building Shredder was keeping the bakers hostage in. They noticed the stricken cop lying nearby, his thumb in his mouth, crouched in a fetal position
"Woah, isn't he a bit big for that sort of thing?" Michelangelo said as he witnessed the cop's odd behaviour.
Donatello walked over to inspect the cop, he waved his hand in front of him, the cop didn't react, Donatello tried pulling the thumb out of his mouth, which produced some type of reaction, as the cop burst into tears. Donatello inserted the thumb into the cop's mouth and his temper tantrum ended.
"Seems he's reverted to an infant-like state" Donatello evaluated.
"Times like this make me pine for the days of Rex-1" Raphael said, "Man was that a good adventure...there we were, surrounded at a fair ground by all these renegade Rex-1 duplicates, only the good old, dependable original, slightly modified by Donny and a few hundred videotapes, could hope to save us. Yeah, it took an aerobics workout to short-circuit all the renegades, but it was something that'd tax out any ordinary human or Turtle, only a robot like Rex could take on such a physically demanding challenge..."
"He's in a nostalgic mood today" April observed as Raphael rambled on.
"He better start focusing up, we need everyone's attention fixated on neutralising the hostage situation" Leonardo said.
"Sorry guys, I went on a tangent there" Raphael replied apologetically, "Reminds me of the time I got on Donatello's case for constantly talking like a 50's Bogart Detective when we were wearing trench coats, I think that was the time we were clashing with Tony "The Butcher" Vavaldi"
"Oh Donny, he's doing it again" Leonardo complained, Donatello wasn't too frustrated by it, for obvious reasons, it was, after all, the desired results of his most recent success story.
"Listen guys" April said as she suddenly picked up voices, the Turtles stood ready, arming themselves with their weapons. From out of the building came Bebop and Rocksteady licking their lips and rubbing their stomachs, leering at the cakes on display
"The boss may not be up to helping himself to this all day, but he doesn't have the belly of a beast" Bebop, taking a cupcake and swallowing it in one gulp
"Yeah, grab a plate, or better yet, a whole table, this will be worth our while" Rocksteady, picking up one such round coffee table, and titling it sideways, allowing all the iced donuts sitting on it to spill neatly into his mouth
"It definitely won't take us a while to make you gingerbreads snap" proclaimed Leonardo as he made the Turtles presence known to the two
"The Turtles" Bebop yelled, "And just before I could work on my appetite, I gotta work up one now"
The Turtles charged at the two mutants, Rocksteady went after them, Leonardo jumped over him while the other Turtles scattered left and right. Leonardo landed behind Rocksteady and taunted him, tempting him to try and attack him near the building. Leonardo backed all the way up until his shell hit the rim of the large stretch of table at the front of the cafe. Rocksteady grinned and threw himself towards the Turtles' leader, his horn aimed firmly in his direction. Leonardo suddenly somersaulted onto the table and jumped over Rocksteady, who couldn't stop his charge in time, his body hit the table, causing it to break, and his horn dented the window. Leonardo took a running charge, ran up Rocksteady's back and delivered a swift kick to the window, shattering it, he landed with a thud, right into the path of Shredder, who was standing at the entrance, blocking the bakers from exiting
"Quickly, get out through the hole I've made, just mind the glass" Leonardo said, covering the bakers as they scrambled for the broken window and their custom exit. Shredder stared down Leonardo coldly.
"Brad, consider this your last day of employment" one of the bakers uttered to him
"Fine by me, I always wanted to be a regular old chocolateer anyway" Brad replied.
Outside, Rocksteady had recovered from his spill . He was covered in layers of icing, and some of the cakes were sticking to his face. He licked most of the icing off his face with his tongue and turned his aggression on the other Turtles, he spotted Raphael being cornered by Bebop, and attempted to join him. Donatello and Michelangelo stood in his way, but this time Rocksteady seemed ready. As Donatello swung his Bo staff at Rocksteady, the man-rhino casually grabbed it and used it to hoist Donatello high up then brought the Turtle crashing to the ground before swinging the staff like a disc at a highland game and threw Donatello clear through the air and into a nearby set of garbage cans.
"What gives? He's never been that good with reflexes before" Donatello said, his head throbbing from the impact.
Michelangelo twirled his nun-chucks around, ready for anything, Rocksteady grinned, and waited for Michelangelo to start tossing it, as soon as he did so, Rocksteady grabbed it and dragged Michelangelo over to him, he took both nun-chucks and fastened them around Michelangelo like a makeshift chain, before tossing him aside. Michelangelo, unable to control his free-fall, came crashing down in the same spot Donatello had landed in near the trash cans.
"Hey, Bebop, I think I've found where those bakers stashed the ingredient that makes you smarter" Rocksteady proclaimed "I think it was that row of Gingerbread slices I fell into, the icing is coated with it"
"Good, we'll scoop them all up once we deal with this pip-squeak" Bebop said as he approached Raphael, Rocksteady joined him, cutting Raph off from a hasty exit. With Donatello and Michelangelo still incapacitated, it left Raphael isolated
"Rocksteady and a hard place Turtle" the rhino joked, adding some egotistical wit to his enlightened repertoire.
"Oh I've been in these sort of scrapes before remember?" Raphael replied, "There we were, deep in the heart of the Technodrome, we'd gone through every kind of insidious apparatus Shredder could throw at us, we made it to a large chamber, Master Splinter held high above us, bond to some rope. Shredder came in, gave us his old wretched story, offered us the chance to join the foot, I made a reference to lemon sucking he didn't particularly appreciate, and then you two fellas graced our presence for the first time...and do you know what you did next?"
Rockstedy and Bebop had tired of the war stories and charged at him, Raphael was of course counting on them to do that and promptly leapt upwards, causing the two to collide and hit one another.
"Exactly that" Raphael said as he made a perfect landing on top of Rocksteady's head, dusting off his hands, "Maybe ol' Tin-Grin should have kept those robotic counter-parts of you two around a lot longer...Super Rocksteady and Mighty Bebop, they had nuts and bolts for brains, but at least they could test our metal and made you two look like monkeys. Matter of fact, I loved how Shredder acted like a chimp that one time, I think it was on the same day we tangled with those metal headed machines..."
"Raph, a little help here" Michelangelo interrupted, still tied up in his own nun-chucks. Raphael promptly came to his assistance and untied him, the two then helped Donatello up.
"Glad you could pull yourself away from a little bit of history to help us out here Raph"
"I like the big tour of memory C.I.T.Y's given me Donny" Raphael said, "Thanks to those memories, I'm giving those cronies some old-school headaches"
"Those two seem to be going to school, I overheard Rocksteady say something about the cakes making you a major brainiac" Michelangelo revealed
Recovering from this clumsy collision, Bebop and Rocksteady assessed what had gone wrong. "I thought you said the cakes improved that noggin of yours, why'd you fall for a crude trick like the one that Turtle pulled on us" Bebop asked his partner
"I only took a lick of the icing, maybe you have to eat the whole thing" Rocksteady replied, before getting up and brushing himself down, "Let's gather up those slices before the Turtles get their hands on them"
The Turtles were, however, ready for them, two of them standing in front of the assorted tables while Michelangelo gathered up as many as he could in his hands.
Suddenly, everyone's attention was diverted by the clashing of steel, as Leonardo and Shredder emerged from the cafe, duelling with their swords.
"Hey guys, how are things?" Leonardo said as he tried to keep Shredder at bay.
"Leo, we think we have what Shredder came for" Donatello revealed. Leonardo pushed Shredder away with a swift kick and ran up to his brother. "Great" he said, "Then we'd best make a tactical retreat"
"Rocksteady, use the Pulse" Shredder commanded, Rocksteady produced the small triangular device and aimed it at Donatello, whose back was turned. Leonardo, however, managed to catch sight of it.
"Donatello, look out" he said, and threw himself in front of his brother, shielding him as a blast erupted from the Pulse, enveloping him. In seconds, Leonardo had collapsed, dropping his blade and curled up in a protective ball, his body trembling in fright, small traces of saliva dripped from his mouth.
"Raph, Leonardo's down" Donatello yelled, "Protect Mikey, he has what they want"
"Way to advertise dude" Michelangelo remarked, not appreciating the target being painted on his back. Donatello realized his mistake and let out a faint "oops".
Raphael however, decided to make a play for Shredder, who had scooped up Leonardo's sword and proceeded to confront him wielding two blades.
"So, you're trying to be a hero are you?" Shredder said, taunting Raphael.
"This is all too familiar territory for you Shredder" Raphael replied "This is just like the time me and the guys attacked you in the Technodrome all those years ago, you had two blades then, and your ego was taking up too much room, we wore you down even then, forcing you out of the machine, which was the plan, and before long you were duking it out on the streets with us while the whole time we were planning to send that thing back to Dimension X with all your forces inside of it, except for you and Krang"
"What a reliable memory, I should win a few pub quizes with you as a hostage" Shredder responded, and he lunged at Raphael, Raphael ducked the shot with the blades and kicked it out of Shredder's hand, reducing him to one sword, Raphael produced one of his sais and matched Shredder's steel, the two swayed back and forth with their weapons joined, each briefly overpowering the other in tests of strength, before standing off yet again.
"Kind of funny, your pride got in the way that time, I didn't think lightning would strike twice, but there you go" Raphael boasted, before looking to his left and seeing Donatello and Michelangelo tailed it. A fateful error Shredder quickly capitalised on.
"You're forgetting two important aspects Turtle...this time I'm not alone, and this time you're bragging and giving me fair warning. Rocksteady, open fire"
Rocksteady complied and fired two shots from the Pulse. Donatello caught sight of them and threw himself in front of Michelangelo, his bo staff caught the first blast, but the second hit the target, felling another Turtle.
"No" Raphael cried out as Donatello fell backwards. Michelangelo felt helpless, as if he tried to pick Donatello up, he would drop the cakes and leave them open to Shredder. For once, he cursed the fact he had to carry around snacks.
Before Shredder and his cronies could close in on the two Turtles, they heard a screech of tires, they turned to find the Channel Six news van heading towards them. The trio scattered, but in making the attempt, Rocksteady dropped the pulse. Before he could grab it, it met it's end as it was crushed under the wheels of the van.
The doors opened and April popped out, "I couldn't leave you guys vulnerable to Shredder while I just sat there and covered the story" she said
"I'd hug you but I'm kind of treating myself right now" Michelangelo replied. April smiled and petted him on the head instead.
"Nice driving April, you only went and mowed over the one thing that could help bring the drool school out of their slumber" Raphael said, making note of the Pulse's destruction and the hapless Turtles and policeman, "Man I wish Splinter had been driving that van, remember all the cool moves he made when rescuing us from Baxter Fly? We were almost sheep-herded into some weird electrical thing that would have placed us in some out-of-synch dimension and..."
"...Hardly think now is for nostalgia dude" Michelangelo said, cutting him off.
"Tell me about it, but I can't shake the urge to do that" Raphael said, "Worse, if I hadn't been so cocky about it, Donatello wouldn't have suffered"
Shredder cursed out his hench-mutants as he surveyed the damage and the cost of the day as several sirens could be heard in the distance
"Blast it, we're out of time" he said, "The boys in green have given the boys in blue time to rally their troops, we must take our leave" . He activated his communicator com-link to the Technodrome and requested Krang open the portal. Before long, the wooden door materialized, opened up, and sucked all three into it, before swiftly closing and vanishing from view.
"Shredder and his goons have tailed it" Raphael said, "And we better do the same, April, help me take Leo and Donny, Mikey, you go ahead, and whatever you do, don't lose any of them"
Michelangelo nodded and ran to the manhole nearby, he placed the cakes down on the ground and lifted the manhole cover off, before gathering them up again and, realizing he couldn't climb down, hoped to make a splash below as he dropped like a stone down the tunnel.
As April climbed down, Donatello slung over her shoulder, Raphael, carrying Leonardo, noticed Michelangelo had left one of the cakes on the ground
"I wonder just what it is about these things that somehow wets Shredder's appetite?" he said, and took a soft bite. He chewed on it a bit, then, as the sensation of heightened awareness swept over him, his C.I.T.Y-enhanced memories began to play up...the cake had done something more than expand his mind, it was telling him something quite different. It was reminding him of something.
Something that he couldn't possibly remember.
"Oh no" he said under his breath.