Chapter 8: Getting Serious
April 18th 5:55pm
The turtles were in complete shock. Never in their worst dreams did they think they would ever come across Shredder again. But now, all logic was thrown out the window. They should have known that a pile of wood wasn't going to keep the monster down. As they contemplated over what happened, none of them could speak. But after a very long silence, Mikey spoke up.
"This is…I mean…wow. And you'd think a whole dock would do someone in."
"He's superhuman." Donny said "That whole vial of ooze he drank made him more powerful. He's the perfect killing machine."
"He ain't a machine, Donny. He's the same ugly dog he's always been. He just contracted rabies and now we just gotta put him to sleep." Raph said, brandishing his sais.
"Raph, in case you didn't notice, Shredder is not some rabid dog. He's a monster with no emotion whatsoever!" Leo told his angst ridden brother. The other two turned their attention towards their leader. "He almost killed us tonight. He's stronger, faster, and way more deadly than he ever was before and we need to stop him before he does any more damage, but now is not the time. We're not ready."
"So what are we supposed to do? Just lay around?"
Mikey looked back at the TV to see Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves high-five in the last scene in "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" when a man in a cheap suit, sitting at a desk appeared in the other half of the screen.
"I'm Vernon Fenwick and for tonight's top story, the turtles continue their rampage of destruction."
The turtles turned their attention towards the Sony screen in confusion.
"Several hours ago, the La Guardia National Bank was attacked; its vaults emptied, and now it lies in ruins. Amateur footage was taken by a citizen who witnessed the damage and was able to capture a brief moment but enough to see what happened."
The scene cut to footage of the bank with smoke and fire rising from the top. It was somewhat grainy, similar to the footage of the four police officers beating Rodney King, which happened two years ago. The hands of the camera's handler were shaking and the footage showed. It zoomed in to catch the broken windows, the cracked walls and the burning roof along with a censored comment from the cameraman. Suddenly, he saw four figures leap out the windows and down onto a couple of parked cars. Another censored comment from the cameraman followed as the figures with giant shells on their backs ran to the nearby sewer door, lifted it up and dropped right down.
"You gotta be kidding me!" Raph shouted.
The footage cut away to a man in his late twenties with the caption, PETER LARSON, WITNESS underneath him. He wore a blue Mets cap, had a beard and his gut indicated that he had too many marinara meatball subs.
"Yeah, so I was outside, shootin' my video camera 'cause I was bored and outta nowhere some noises started going off. So I turn and see La Guardia Bank gettin' torched for some reason. It was like a freak accident at a fireworks factory! And those turtles were supposed to protect our money!"
"More on this story later." Vernon said as he straightened the papers in his hands. Before he could scream for Janet in makeup, he heard a loud slam of a fist on his desk. He looked up and saw an angry scowl on April's beautiful yet twisted face.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Vernon?"
"Reporting the news as usual." Vernon stated unscathed.
"You show a piece of footage of them jumping out of a window of a burning building and say they started the fire?"
"Well, what do you see in that footage, April? What makes you think they didn't? Let me tell you something, it's about time you started seeing things my way: the RIGHT way, and the turtles are criminals who deserve to rot for--"
Before he could finish his sentence, he felt her hand smack across his face hard, leaving a crude red handprint on his face.
"APRIL O'NEIL!" a gruff voice shouted.
April turned around in horror to see her boss, Phil Thompson storm right for her. He looked as if he would explode at any minute.
"Clean out your desk and don't bother coming back." He ordered.
A smirk stretched across Vernon's burning face. As April walked towards her office, a feeling of devastation washed over April. What she did was uncalled for and unnecessary even though a small part of her told her it wasn't. April had never been more ashamed of herself in her life. In fact, she felt more ashamed than she was after getting knocked out in the subway by a Foot clansman three years ago. Journalism is what she loves, what she eats, drinks, and breathes. April was born to report. When she was a little girl, she used to pretend that her pink Cinderella pen was a microphone and "report" what when on in the house, whether it was the family dog crapping on the carpet, her father getting a promotion, or her brother Tyler, coming home with a bad report card. Tyler frowned upon her and gave her Indian burns for it but that didn't alter her dream. Nothing did until today.
"I don't believe this." Mikey exclaimed.
"Everyone will think we're criminals now!" Donny added.
"Alright, that's it!" Leo stated before all heads turned towards him. "No more mistakes! From now on, if we want to catch the Shredder and get our credibility back, everybody does what I say, when I say it! Is that clear?"
"Yes." Mikey and Donny said unenthusiastically.
"Raph, is that clear?"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Raph said as his three fingers went to pick up the remote. But before he could touch it, he felt his whole arm being twisted around, his face pushed into the floor, and his older brother mounted on his shell pinning him.
"Let's try this again, Raph! Do I make myself clear?"
"Leo, chill out!" Mikey barked.
Donny tried to grab Leo but his footsteps were heard and he was met with Leo's foot in the gut. As he lay on the ground fighting for air, Leo tightened his grip on Raph. If Raph's shoulder had a mouth, it would be screaming bloody murder since Raph tried his best not to. He tried to reach for his sai with his free hand but Leo trapped it as well.
"Do I…make…myself…CLEAR?!"
"LEONARDO!"
Leo looked over his shoulder to see Splinter standing with an angry look on his face. He let go of Raph's arms and stood in attention.
"Your sense of authority is displeasing!" he shouted.
Leo's head went down in shame.
"I'm sorry, Master Splinter."
"The Shredder has returned, my sons. I suggest you all get your act together."
The other three turtles also felt shame overwhelm them, especially Donny. Despite the genius he was, he had always pondered and doubted the worth of his and his family's existence. People's money was stolen, a bank burned down, and an old foe had awakened.
April 19, 1993 9:26pm
Outside the TGRI lab building, the mutated dandelion plants swayed in the cold wind. The chain linked fence surrounding the lab and bearing several warning signs to keep out remained undisturbed. Why would anyone trespass? If anyone knew what went on inside and cared for their lives, keep out is exactly what they would do. Not only was it conducting ooze-related experiments that would have everyone in the Supreme Court wetting their pants, but it was also housing New York's most dangerous escapees, an ancient ninja clan consisting of mostly teenage runaways, and a vengeful being that has become more monster than man.
Inside, the convicts were munching on Salisbury steak, rice, and corn in the lab cafeteria. Some of them wondered just who was allowed to work in the kitchen because the food tasted awful. It was as if they had Rudy the Red Hook Ripper working the stoves again and Lord knows that he wasn't exactly Gordon Ramsay. Over at one table, the two arms dealers, Tracy and Leon sat across from each other and both wished they were eating something better than the crap called Salisbury steak.
"Hey Leon, what do you think they got planned for us?" Tracy asked. "This Shredder guy didn't really tell us what our agenda was."
His mohawked partner looked up.
"I don't know man, but I'm sure it's real dope. Word's been going around saying we might pull off more banks, jewelry stores, and rich people. Some guys even said we might even pop some world leaders and control entire nations. But those are just rumors. There's no telling what they got for us, but I'm sure it won't stay a secret."
As soon as everyone finished eating their poor excuse for food, several Foot clansmen escorted them out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. Dr. Stockman had mentioned to them upon their arrival that a huge opportunity for greatness awaited them.
In the lab, Dr. Stockman was waiting for his subjects to arrive. He had just finished checking the data of the mutagen on the computer that was once Jordan Perry's. As he clicked on the SAVE option, he grinned. Stockman, like the convicts, was eager to begin the first experiments. Down the stairway, several operating tables were set up, complete with leather straps, and IV tubes. Next to them were several tall steel cages lined up. Each of them contained animals of all sorts. It was like Noah's ark only instead of two, there was one each. They roared and screeched in anger and fear of what was to come until several Foot clansmen hit them with tranquilizer from their 10-foot long injection prods. A small part of Stockman had been screaming inside that this was all wrong and that he must put an end to all this madness before it gets worse. But as usual, the rest of him pushed that tiny voice aside. In his line of work, there was no room for emotions. A slow rhythm of footsteps boomed behind him.
"Is everything in order?" the low voice of his leader asked.
Stockman rose from his chair.
"Yes sir."
"Good. If only we had the real formula, I would have no need for these pathetic lowlifes."
"Well you make due with what you have."
Shredder was right, you know. After the Supreme Court banned the mutagen, it got the attention of several crime organizations. They realized the ooze's potential and decided to capitalize. Many attempts have been made to recreate it but all have failed until just recently. In Japan, scientists who were blackmailed by the yakuza were able to formulate a mutagen that was as close to the original as they could get. Once they tested it on hamsters, the results proved disastrous. The hamsters went into seizures, began to deform and eventually die very slowly and painfully. But Stockman discovered that what the mutagen needs was a stabilizer. He was quite positive that protein of another species' DNA would be enough to keep the mutagen from reacting viciously on a subject once spliced together.
Human DNA
Stockman had explained this to Shredder before and both were anxious for good results. Stockman more so than Shredder for he knew that failure could mean a fate worse than death. The metal doors leading into the lab slid open like the ones installed in Wal Marts, and several Foot soldiers walked in leading an army of orange-clad convicts. One of the clansmen ordered them all to form rows and like the good soldiers in Shredder's new army (although some reluctant) they did so. The monster and the scientist turned towards them. The scientist spoke first.
"Welcome, gentlemen. You're all about to embark on a magnificent expedition; one much superior to robbing banks, dealing drugs, or kidnapping politicians' family members for ransom money." As Stockman said this, he turned to one Julian Bowers, a convict who made headlines for snatching Senator Nash's five year old daughter from her elementary school and held her for a briefcase filled with $50 million. When he received the briefcase, he got a face full of blue paint, a SWAT team member's boot where the sun don't shine, and a life sentence instead.
"We're talking global domination. The world can be ours. But in order to get what we want, we have to improve you. We have to improve your strength, your speed, and importantly, your mentality." He said, tapping his temple. "Throughout history, man has been able to do accomplish a lot. And yet, there is only so much he can do. Imagine what man can do if he had the swiftness of an eagle, or the strength of a lion, or the speed of a cheetah."
After pointing to the mentioned animals in their cages, a clansman walked over to Stockman and handed him two vials of blood, both of them labeled with black Sharpie ink on masking tape.
RHINO and WARTHOG
"Good choices." Stockman told the masked ninja. He held the vials up for all to see.
"I have here, two vials of animal DNA. Which of you gentlemen would like to be our first two volunteers? Which of you would like to have the strength of a rhinoceros and the viciousness of a warthog?"
The cons looked at each other to see who would step up. Like any normal person they were uncertain of any bizarre experiments that seemed to come from a Ridley Scott movie.
"We'll do it!" a voice shouted. Stepping from the clique of orange were two muscular sons of guns. One white, with a blonde crew cut and the other black, with a purple mohawk tied into a rat's tail.
"Our first contestants step right up." Stockman exclaimed.
The two arms dealers were soon strapped onto the two operating tables and plugged with IV lines leading to the main machine. Stockman injected both of the two vials into the machine which also contained the mutagen. He began to type a sequence of info regarding what he put in when he heard Tracy ask,
"So you gonna give us some anesthetics or what?"
Not taking his eyes off the monitor, Stockman pressed ENTER and responded coldly.
"No."
Green fluid (with shades of red) began to flow through the tubes to the operating tables. Tracy and Leon looked around nervously to see the looks on their peers' faces. Soon, the DNA-laced mutagen reached their subjects and through the IV lines, they seeped into their bloodstreams. The two began to breathe heavily for they knew not what to expect. Soon, they started to wince and twitch. An odd sensation they had not felt before began to sweep over. Tracy and Leon had injected some hard stuff together in the past and felt unusual sensations from them before, but nothing like this. This drug was causing them to groan and eventually scream.
It was hurting. BADLY.
As they felt this unpleasant sensation wash over them, they began to wonder if they had been tricked and subjected to lethal injection. It seemed that these two were being executed in front of their peers like the condemned prisoners of Medieval England. That thought began to occur in the minds of the convicts watching and questioned explicitly to Stockman what was going on.
"What the hell is this?" one shouted.
"Shut it off, man!" yelled another.
Shredder looked over at Stockman unsatisfied. They both wanted this to go well and with Leon and Tracy screaming bloody murder, Stockman thought he might have his head on a pike pretty soon. As Tracy screamed, his skin color began to fade to gray; his nose began to grow out, and from the bridge came two ivory horns. His body size began to increase too. So much so that the straps holding him began to rip and break.
At the same time, Leon started to feel his nose grow out too; but to a lesser extent. His nose began to form to a shape similar to a pig's. Clenching his teeth, he felt two extra ones grow from his lower gums and out his mouth. They were long and hooked like tusks. His skin color stayed the same but his body mass increases as well, breaking the straps that were holding him.
Soon, the painful sensation turned from ugly and painful to energizing and powerful. Testosterone times a million. It then, toned down some as the two beings that were once human stood from the tables and roared in triumph. The experiment was a success.
Everyone else looked in amazement at what stood before them. Was it a scientific breakthrough? An abomination of mankind? Or both? Standing where Tracy O'Leary stood was a hulking half man/half rhino mutant and where Leon Silver lumbered was an angry snorting half man/half warthog mutant. A smile stretched across Stockman's face.
"Yes!" Super Shredder said. "At last, revenge will be mine!"
