"Knees higher, Leonardo!" Splinter snapped almost impatiently and Leo dropped from a sloppy handstand onto his head. Mikey passed by doing some lazy back hand springs. "Extend, Michelangelo!" Splinter said, just as angrily. Raph rolled by, completely inside his shell. "Raphael, you call that a Koho Tenkai? Because I do not!" Splinter continued watching their sloppy training before standing up, finally fed up with their performance- or lack thereof. "Ya-me!" He said and his four sons came forward to kneel in a line before him. He regarded them and hummed thoughtfully.
"Is there something you want to tell me?" He asked.
"Something we wanna tell you?" Mikey smirked. "Nope."
"You all seem tired," Splinter pushed, and all of them seemed to sit up a little straighter.
"We're not," Leo insisted.
"Wide awake!" Donnie added.
"Fresh as daisies," Raph added.
Suddenly a monstrous yawn overtook the youngest brother and he fell against Raph, dead asleep.
Splinter frowned unhappily. "So you would not object to a little Randori." Before any of them could react, Splinter pulled out a wooden training katana and attacked. They didn't even know what hit them.
"Well I hope you have learned, turtles, that truth isn't the only thing that hurts," he said to the groaning turtle pile.
? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?
"Captain Ryan! The rebellion is growing! We have to get off this planet!" Came a weedy little voice from the tv. Leo watched with avid admiration as his role model and hero took charge of the situation by slapping the scrawny lieutenant.
"No!" he shouted.
"But, Captain-"
"I said no!"
Leo sucked in a breath and spoke with Captain Ryan as he gave his "speech of encouragement."
"We may have started this rebellion by accident, but by the rings of Nebulon, we are going to finish it on purpose!" They said together.
All of the ship's crew immediately followed his orders without question.
"Aye, sir!"
Raph looked up from reading his motor madness magazine and rolled his eyes at his older brother's "dorkish" behaviour.
"Seen this enough times there, chief?" he asked.
"Would you shh!" Leo all but whined. "This is the best part!"
As karma would have it, the show was interrupted again, but not by Raph.
"We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news," said a heavily set news reporter with outrageously- obsessively- tamed wavy hair. "We've received shocking footage of an assault on the TCRI office complex in Brooklyn."
The view shifted to a hand held recording from inside a big office building. Everyone within sight of the camera was hiding under a desk or running and screaming in terror- as they very well should be.
There in the center of it all was the very same man they had fought the previous night decked out in a new and very much improved suit of armor.
"At last!" he cried. "I will have my revenge!"
"Who who are you?" asked a random office worker.
"You'll never know," the man said with an "evil" grin. "I'm the thing that haunts your nightmares! I'm the nameless shadow who-"
His tirade was interrupted again by the same office worker.
"Baxter?" The man asked. "Baxter Stockman?"
"No!" He said trying to deny that "the nameless shadow" had a name.
Suddenly the office worker wasn't afraid any more.
"Hey, everybody!" He called, getting to his feet. "It's Baxter Stockman!"
Raph crossed his arms with a little smirk. "I think his name is Baxter Stockman."
Someone behind the view of the camera piped up, "Is this because I fired you?"
Baxter Stockman pouted. "That copy machine was already broken when I-" he stopped when he noticed the video camera and cleared his throat. "I mean I don't know what you're talking about!" He then proceeded to throw desks around the room sending everyone back into a terror.
"How did he upgrade his armor so fast?" Leo asked. The clip paused just in time for all four of the turtles to catch a full view of the battle suit, including a very familiar A.I. pod sitting right in the middle of his chest.
Donnie's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and turned on Mikey."He has the tPod!?" He all but screeched.
Mikey shrunk into himself and smiled feebly. "Oh, um I might of dropped that during the fight..."
That did it.
"You dropped it during the fight!? NICE GOING MIKEY!"
"It's your fault!" Mikey whined, trying one last ditch effort at saving his shell.
"How is it my fault?" Donnie cried in outrage.
Mikey shouted right back, "You know I can't be trusted with nice things!"
If looks could kill, Mikey would have been dead ten times over. Mikey, finally having picked up that he was fighting a losing battle, slunk away like a kicked puppy.
"So the A.I. chip is upgrading his armor the same way it upgraded the tPod?" Leo confirmed.
Donnie nodded. "And if it keeps going, there's no telling how powerful he'll get."
"This has gone way too far," Leo said. "We have to tell Splinter about this."
Raph's eyes widened marginally. "What?" He exclaimed "Tell Sensei that we turned some nutjob into a super villain? Do you know what he'll do to us for that? I mean, he pounded us into the ground just for being sleepy!" He pounded his fist for emphasis and they all shivered.
Donnie then took control of the situation.
"Look, we beat Stockman once, we can beat him again," he said. "We track him down, grab the tPod, and get back here before Splinter knows anything."
Mikey, who was sitting upside down in a beanbag chair reading a comic book, chose that moment to pipe up.
"If my opinion counts for anything, Donnie's right."
"Hey, thanks, Mikey." Donnie said sarcastically. "But it doesn't."
"Didn't think so."
It finally occurred to Raph that not the whole gang was there to hear the game plan.
"So who's going to tell Tori that we have to sneak out again to fix a problem that we caused?" He asked. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey all gave him a blank 'Duh' look, and he realized it was going to have to be him.
"Aw shell..."
? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?
It had not been easy convincing Tori to come along. She had been very insistent on the fact that they had already made a big enough mess and needed to tell Splinter before it got worse. The only way Raph got her to comply to their plan was by telling her that Leo was going along with it too.
Somehow this irritated him. How she only agreed to come when she heard that Fearless Leader was in on the plan. But here she was, crawling along behind him on the support beams of an abandoned warehouse Donnie had tracked the tPod to. She was as silent as a panther, and he had a hard time believing that she had only been training with Splinter for a few days now.
Below them, Baxter sat on his "Thrown", trying to come up with a not-as-pathetic super villain name.
"I'm not Baxter Stockman. I am the Baxman!" He proclaimed, then shook his head. "No, no, I am I am the Suitinator! Aw, that's terrible! Captain Punch-you-hard! Why is this so difficult?" He whimpered.
"How about 'The Bax Machine'?" Tori whispered.
"I kinda liked "the Suitinator." Mikey admitted.
Somehow Baxter didn't hear them, but he did hear Leo's shushing. Raph almost snickered. Fearless Leader indeed.
"You guys again?" Stockman said, squinting up at them. Knowing their cover was blown wide open, the all jumped down from the ceiling. Tori stumbled a little then caught herself.
"All right, Stockman," Leo said. "Nobody wants to hurt you."
Raph's shoulder sagged. "We don't? Did I miss a meeting?" Tori gave him a wry smile and he felt a small flutter in his stomach at the success, but Leo ignored him.
"We just want the tPod."
"Give up my source of power?" Stockman laughed. "Why? So you can laugh at me again? Throw me in a dumpster?"
Tori threw her arms in the air in mock exaggeration. "See! What did I tell you? Throw a guy in a dumpster and karma will come to get you!"
Raph growled happily at the challenge and spun his sai around his knuckles. "I don't know, it sounds good to me." And with that, he charged forward, sai first.
Stockman swatted him away like a fly and he went smacking into a wall and falling to the ground, covered in heavy debris. Tori, who knew she was the one outmatched here, didn't give Stockman the chance to kick her butt. Instead she ran to Raph's aid, which he gladly accepted.
Leo, Mikey, and Donnie attacked as one but all Stockman had to do was use arm extensions to push Mikey and Donnie into opposite walls. Tori, who had just finished dragging Raph out of the rubble, signed and went to help them when Leo went running by with a robot stuck to his face, screaming at the top of his lungs and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
"Get it off!" He screamed. "Get it off!" Tori tried to help but Leo kept running away from her.
"Stop moving!" She shouted. The robot then turned its eerie red gaze on her and started shooting at her. She squeaked and ran for cover behind a pile of debris and the robot shot at Raph and Donnie as well, zapping their weapons right out of their hands with stunning accuracy.
"Lasers!" Donnie warned unnecessary. "Run!"
Leo, who was still screaming and could not see where he was going, accidentally started chasing them.
Across the room, Mikey finally dug his way out of his own scrap pile.
"Hey Stockman!" He shouted, before trying to attack him with his kusarigama. He had somehow successfully wrapped the chain around the giant robot, but did not have enough strength to pull the thing to its knees. Instead, Stockman spun him around in dizzying circles. To Mikey's credit, he did not let go of the weapon.
Back on the other side of the warehouse, Raph and Donnie jumped behind the same junk pile that Tori was taking refuge by.
"Incoming!" Donnie three of them huddled there for a moment and Raph growled in frustration.
"What now, genius?" He asked. Donnie and Tori looked around for a makeshift weapon and both their eyes fell on an old mirror and the same time. They, looked at each other, nodded in silent agreement, and jumped for the mirror. They held it up just in time to deflect a laser right back at the robot. It split right down the middle revealing Leo's face.
He righted his mask and breathed a thanks.
Their attention was drawn back to Stockman who was using a screaming Mikey as his own nunchucks. Leo, Donnie, and Raph, being the protective older brothers they were, growled and snatch their weapons back up attacking as one. Tori, who had no weapon but still felt the need to protect the youngest turtle, found a metal pipe off to the side and attacked with that.
Baxter Stockman used Mikey to wipe out Raph and Leo took the opportunity to finally cut the chain of the kusarigama. Donnie squeezed the handle of his bow staff and a blade came out the other end. He tried to jab at his adversary, but Stockman crushed it with his fist. Tori attacked from behind, swinging the pipe with all her might. She did absolutely no damage to Stockman's suit, but effectively broke the pipe.
Stockman grinned evilly at her before grabbing her and throwing her at Donnie. The two landed in a tangled heap next to Raph and Mikey, but they quickly jumped to their feet.
All five of them attacked at once, but it was still not enough. Far from it actually. With one mighty punch, he took them all out, laughing all the while. Then, to make things even worse, he picked them all up as if they were rag dolls, kicked down a wall, and threw them into a dumpster, much like they had done to him just the night before.
"Ha-ha! Oh, yeah! Foolish turtles! Did you really think you could defeat me?" He gloated.
"Well, yeah," Mikey answered honestly.
"All my life, people have laughed at me," Stockman said. "The other kids in school, my co-workers, the woman who fixes the copy machine! How was I supposed to know you don't pour toner in the top?"
"You poor, poor man," Tori said flatly, picking a banana peal off of her head. He ignored her and continued as if he hadn't heard her.
"But when they behold the power of this suit, they won't be laughing anymore! They'll tremble in terro-AHHHHHHHHH" His monologue was interrupted as he started to scream in pain and the whole suit began to glow red.
"What's happening?" Leo gasped.
"Stockman and the tPod," Donnie said in awe and horror. "They're merging. They're becoming one single entity." And they were. The suit grew even larger and even more dangerous. It was almost as if he was no longer human; almost completely machine.
"The Stockmanpod," Mikey finished.
Tori stared at the already more terrifying sight above her. "Well this is just great."
? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?
Having barely escaped the dumpster, all five of them were racing down the street. Raph had thought Tori was going to slow them down and suggested she just hide, but as it turns out, she was actually the fastest one among them.
"The Stockmanpod's right on top of us!" Mikey screamed.
Raph growled and if he wasn't busy running for his life, he would have smacked him.
"Stop calling him that!" He snapped. "That's a stupid name!"
"Split up!" Leo called. "He can't follow us all!"
"No way!" Mikey shouted hysterically. "He's gonna follow me!"
Leo rolled his eyes. "Why would he follow you?"
"They always follow me!"
"Stop being paranoid and just do it!" Leo snapped. Mikey still shook his head adamantly.
"No way dude, not gonna happen!"
"Mikey," Tori shouted, slowing to run beside him. "I command you to follow Leo's orders."
Mikey groaned as he remembered the terms of their agreement (and his slavery), but he finally nodded in consent.
One by one they veered off onto different side roads until only Mikey was left.
"Aah! I told you he was gonna follow me!" He screamed to no one in particular. Tori felt a little guilty for putting him in that unfortunate situation, but if Leo was supposed to be the leader, the whole team needed to follow his lead without question. If they didn't, they could not perform like the well oiled machine she knew they could be.
She was the first to make it to the usual manhole cover and looked around to see Raph jogging down the alley towards her.
"Is everyone else on their way?" She asked. He nodded wordlessly and leaned up against the brick wall to wait.
"Do you think we should find Mikey to make sure he was able to ditch the tin can?"
Raph shrugged. "He can run plenty fast. He's had plenty of practice running from me. He'll be fine."
Tori nodded and they fell into silence. Awkward silence. Silence that Raph did not feel like waiting in.
"How are you so fast?" He asked her and she grinned at him.
"I'm a track runner. It's what I do."
He blinked and wracked his brain trying to figure out what kind of track she meant.
"Whats track?" He asked finally.
She looked at him in horrified shock, then remembered that track isn't as popular in New York as it was in Montana and that there was no way he had ever seen a track meet before.
"Track is a sport I played at my High School in Montana," she explained. "Basically it is one big team everyone doing different events. Some people do events to prove how strong they are by throwing discus, javelin, or shot put. Others jumps really far in long jump and triple jump or as high as they can in high jump. I'm in the running events." She smiled proudly as she thought back on all of her successful track meets. "You can choose to race other people in short all out sprints or in long distances. I always did the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and hurdles which is like running 100 meters but also jumping over obstacles. Sometimes, if I felt like it, I would also so the 800 meter run or the mile run.
"If you get 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place in your event, then you earn points for your school. Then, at the end of the track meet, they add up all the points to see which school wins."
Raph was honestly impressed. She quite obviously had speed, endurance, and agility to pull all of that off.
"It sounds complicated," he said. Tori smiled and shook her head.
"It's not really," she said. "It's actually pretty straight forward. I'm just bad at explaining things."
Leo and Donnie then chose that moment to jump down from opposite rooftops and Raph decided not to ask more about the subject of track.
"Have either of you guys seen Mikey yet?" Leo asked.
"Here..." painted Mikey from down the alley. Leo gave him a quick glance to make sure he was okay and nodded curtly.
"Okay, let's get back to the lair. Sensei might notice if all of us are gone... again."
Thankfully, everyone was to exhausted to complain and instead they nodded and slipped into the sewers.
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Sneaking back into the lair was easier said than done. All the lights had been turned off and it was impossible to make it through the complete darkness without running into something- or each other.
"Shh, guys, quiet!" Tori hissed.
Leo jabbed an elbow into Raph. "You're gonna wake him up!"
"I'm not making noise!" Raph complained a little too loudly.
Donnie elbowed him next. "Shh!"
"Don't tell me to be quiet!"
"SHH!"
Suddenly they were thrown from the darkness as the lights flickered to life, and there stood Master Splinter.
"Sensei!" Leo squeaked.
"And where have you been?" The wise rat asked.
"Nowhere?" Raph said pathetically.
"How did you get so hurt?"
Leo's eyes widened as he finally realized how beat up they really looked. "Oh! That! Um, well..." He looked to Tori and his brothers for help, but they all had the same deer in the headlights look that he had. "Well we were um..."
"Hit..." Raph offered.
Donnie struggled to track his brain. "By a..."
Tori but the inside of her cheek. "Big..."
They all looked to Mikey who panicked and said. "Bus?"
Donnie did a face palm at the disbelieving face other their sensei and glared accusingly at the youngest turtle. "Hit by a big bus?" He hissed.
"Well, what was I supposed to say?" Mikey said defensively. "Meteor? Cow? Flying building?"
"Enough!" Splinter barked, getting their attention again. Then more softly he said, "Tell me what happened."
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"...and then I threw hot cheese in his face and ran away," Mikey said, finishing up retelling his own encounter with Stockman after they had split up.
"Very resourceful, Michelangelo," Master Splinter praised and Mikey nodded respectfully. "But I'm still highly disappointed in you all," Splinter continued more sternly. "The first rule of being a ninja is 'do no harm.' Unless you mean to do harm. Then do lots of harm!"
They all bowed their head in shame, and Tori mentally added that to the thus far short list of rules she had compiled about ninjutsu.
"You're right, Sensei," Leo sighed. "I guess we did make a mess of things."
"So what do you think would be a fitting punishment?" Splinter asked.
Leo thought about his answer carefully then looked up at his sensei. "We need to clean up our mess."
"Yes." He agreed. "You must stop this... Stockmanpod."
Raph winced at the name, but said nothing, also choosing to ignore the little smirks Mikey and Tori had sent him.
Donnie flashed back to the last time they had met up with Stockman and felt a small surge of panic.
"But, Sensei, that guy's already kicked our shells," he said. "And now he's even more powerful. How are we supposed to stop him?"
"I know!" Raph growled. "I'll hit him really hard!"
Tori rolled her eyes. "Yeah?" She scoffed. "And how well did that work for you last time?"
"Tori is correct," Master Splinter said, and Raph's shoulders dipped in disappointment. "Brute force is not the answer. You will need to rely on your ninja training."
Mikey tilted his head in confusion and raised his hand. "Excuse me, Sensei, but ninjas never had to go up against guys in armor."
A look of irritation crossed the elder ninja's features and Tori glanced at the rice paper mural of ninjas fighting a samurai wearing shining armor that she had been examining just that morning. "Uh, Mikey..." She whispered, pointing it out to him.
"Oh..." He said sheepishly. "I mean... ninjas always had to go up against guys in armor." He laughed nervously and Raph shook his head in amusement.
"Nice save," he said.
Leo scrutinized the painting with interest as if it hadn't been there for his entire life. "Sensei, what was their secret?" he asked.
"They understood that you do not fight the armor," he said wisely. "You fight the man inside."
A flare of inspiration flickered to life within all of them and they exchanged knowing looks until-
"Why are we all looking at each other?" Mikey asked. Tori snorted very unlady like and Raph did a facepalm.
·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·
The next evening, Raph, Donnie, Leo and Tori found themselves waiting on one of their commonly visited rooftops, looking out in the city.
"Are you sure this is gonna work? " Donnie asked Leo uncertainty.
Leo gave him a confident nod. "Like Sensei said. Don't fight the armor. Fight the guy inside. And one thing we know about bad guys, they love chasing Mikey."
Raph smirked and brought his attention back to the city. "How did you get him to agree with it?" He asked off handedly.
"I didn't," Leo smirked. "Tori ordered him to."
She smiled somewhat mischievously. "Guilty as charged."
Then, from only a block away, they heard Mikey's tell-tale screech of surprise and they all stood at attention. Mikey was running at them, full speed, eyes wide in horror.
"Guys!" He shouted. "Stockmanpod's got missiles!"
Just on cue, a series of missiles came into view and all five of them leapt for cover. The missiles exploded upon impact with a water tower and from the smoke, the Stockmanpod emerged. He was laughing, already well aware that he had the upper hand in the battle. He looked around for the turtles and their friend and saw...
No one.
From behind him, a kusarigama chain shot from the darkness and wrapped itself around him. The same happened on either side of him and them from right in front of him. All five of the young hero's were holding on, determined to keep hold on their chains. Stockman growled and pulled against them, and the chains groaned in strained protest.
"Hah!" Mikey laughed. "Now who's trembling in terro-AHHHH!" The thick chains of the kusarigama were not enough to hold the Stockmanpod, and they all snapped like flimsy rubber bands. Then, of course, his next move was to grab Mikey by the face and throw him into a building.
"Mikey!" Tori shouted in worry, but couldn't run to him like she wanted to, as she happened to be next on his revenge list. She squeaked in, not quite pain but definitely surprise, as the Stockmanpod picked her up in one of his large metal claws.
She kicked her legs in protest and wiggled to try and free her arms. "Let go you over grown tin can!" She screeched. Raph, now noticeably more angry, growled and snatched out his trusty sai.
"That's it. You're going down!" He said, the remaining three ninja turtles ran right at Stockman, screaming their own battle cries. Stockman looked over his shoulder at them and smiled at the challenge, also charging right at them. Tori, who was still wiggling to get free and shouting a very colorful array of curse words, was finally thrown at Raph, who stopped in the middle of his charge to catch her.
She patted his chest thankful and jumped down from his arms.
"Thanks Raphie! That was like a crazy trust exercise on steroids." She turned and ran back into battle to help Leo and Donnie who were both struggling to hold their own. Raph stared after her for a moment in confusion before also joining the fray.
Donnie was the first to strike, balancing on the end of his bo staff to kick hard at the tough metal suit. When he didn't so much as leave a dent, he retreated a few feet to avoid being swatted by Stockman and his place was taken by Leo. The blue masked terrapin sliced away at the underbelly of the bot looking for weak spots on the armor and Raph used his brother's distraction to come on top of the robot and started hacking away at it from above.
His actions did not go unnoticed though as Stockman roughly grabbed him and threw him at the same building Mikey had disappeared into some time ago.
"Raph!" Leo shouted, and Stockman used the new distraction to his advantage, grabbing the ill prepared Leo and Donnie and throwing them off the buildings edge. Before long though, Raph had leaned over the edge and clutched into both of their wrists before it was to late.
"Gotcha!" He smirked triumphantly.
While all of her teammates were otherwise distracted, Tori took her chance to leap into the Stockmampod's back (which was by far the highest she had ever jumped- ever) and started pulling out random wires that had been exposed earlier in the fight. Her efforts seemed to short out his missiles and lasers, but she did not go unnoticed for long as she to was thrown off and back onto the ground next to Raph, Leo, and Donnie. Stockman loomed over them, no longer smiling, and out for blood.
"Any last words?" He asked.
"Just one," Leo said calmly. "Bees."
Baxter Stockman blinked in confusion. "Bees?"
Just then, Mikey, who had been missing for several minutes, came zipping down the power line, holding a beehive with many an angry bee.
"Beeees!" He shouted before throwing the hive right at Stockman's face. The bees were quick to fill in any extra space, all pushing to sting the threat to their nest. As Stockman screamed and waved his hands around, trying in vain to protect himself, the red techno belly of the beast extended and the little device responsible for all of this was revealed.
"There's the tPod!" Tori called to Leo, who happened to be the closest. He nodded and with a new fervor, all of them raced forward, striking with their last ounce of energy and forcing the Stockmanpod off the roof where he lay helplessly.
Leo looked coldly down at the scrawny man, one of his katana pointed at his face before he stabbed the iPod and the A.I. powered battle suit powered down.
Baxter slowly crawled out and looked up at them formidable group of five. "So we'll call it a tie?" He asked weakly.
Leo smirked. "Wanna call it a tie, Raph?"
The said turtle cracked his knuckles and grinned down at the squirming man. "Not yet."
All five of them worked together to pick him up and carry the screaming man to the nearest dumpster. "No! No! Nooo!" His cries were heard by no one though, and his heart beat furiously as Raph looked down on him from above.
"Now it's a tie," he said finally and slammed the lid shut.
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They were all walking back home, laughing and congratulating each other on the successful mission when Raph noticed that Tori was falling behind. He remembered how she had been thrown around quite a bit that night and didn't have a shell to protect her like the rest of them and was worried that maybe she was more hurt than she was letting on. Looking back at her though, she was not hobbling after them in barely suppressed pain, she was walking slowly, looking around at all the nearest rooftops and peering into every shadow.
"Hey, are you alright?" He asked. She jumped slightly at the distraction, all of his brothers stopped and looked back at them.
"Y-yeah. I'm fine." She smiled unconvincing and all of his brothers shared a look of disbelief.
"Are you sure?" Leo pressed. "You didn't get hurt did you?"
She shooter head. "No, I'm fine. My ribs have already healed, but I can't help but feel that... It feels like someone is watching us."
She watched their reactions carefully. Donnie looked thoughtful, Mikey was oblivious, and Leo looked sceptical. Raph was the only one who really looked worried.
"Do you think maybe Baxter Stockman wasn't alone?" Leo asked hesitantly.
Tori bit her lip before shaking her and giving them a weary smile.
"Nah. I'm probably just being paranoid. The adrenaline must be getting to me." They all shrugged and continued on their way, slipping into the safety of the sewers.
Tori cast on more weary glance around at her surroundings before dropping down behind them, and pulling the sewer cap closed.
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"Kraang, the one that is known as the human who has survived the explosion that is known as the explosion done by Kraang is getting stronger."
"Kraang is aware of this. Kraang is also aware that the one that is known as the human who has survived the explosion that is known as the explosion done by Kraang is called Victoria Queen."
"The one that is known as Victoria Queen must be taken from the ones that are know as the turtles and experimented on."
"Kraang is again in agreement with Kraang. The one that is known as Victoria Queen will be very useful in the experimentation that is know as the experimentation that is done by Kraang for Kraang."
"Kraang will soon take the one that is know as Victoria Queen from the ones that are know as the turtles."
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Back in the lair, Tori was feeling much more like herself. Especially now that she was in the safety of the dojo with everyone else.
"You all showed wisdom and great skill in defeating the Stockmanpod. I am proud of you all," Master Splinter concluded. Her heart swelled with pride and she couldn't wait to go on patrol again. The life of adventure definitely suited her well.
"Does this mean we're not grounded anymore?" Leo asked hopefully. Splinter rearguard each of them carefully. They had all obviously learned their lesson and had done well in dealing with their new found foe.
"Yes," he said gracefully and all five of his pupils cheered. "But first, Randori!" He pulled out the wooden katana again and as Tori eyed it curiously, the turtles ran for their lives.