Honeycutt wasn't sure what to think about Leatherhead.

Strictly speaking, there was no real reason to distrust the mutant. He had briefly explained his background to Honeycutt as the robot prepared Donatello for the surgery. He had been native to Burnow Island, and had been mutated when canisters of ooze and mutagen had been dumped in the lagoon where he had dwelled.

Knowing with his newly-enhanced intelligence that the substances were precious, he had hoarded them for the many years that followed. For those years, he had dwelled peacefully in the wilds of the island, he said. Now he needed to leave the island behind before the terraformed atmosphere killed him, a perfectly reasonable request.

It was just… he was a little too perfect — a little too convenient. Honeycutt had had too little ooze to heal Donatello of his wounds and replace his shell, and no way of obtaining more that did not endanger innocents. Lo and behold, a mutant had appeared with a convenient store of ooze, which he would freely share in exchange for a simple, easy favor.

The semi-conscious Donatello moaned faintly, breaking Honeycutt out of his thoughts. He quickly brushed his doubts from his conscious mind. Perhaps Leatherhead was the answer to a prayer to the Creator — a miracle of sorts. Honeycutt had been desperate to save his friend without endangering innocents — he wouldn't be ungrateful for having his wishes answered.

"M'family," Donatello murmured drowsily. "How are they?"

"We haven't received any word," Honeycutt said, giving the Turtle a comforting stroke on the head. "Don't worry about them. The four of you saved my entire world from Krang — I have no doubt that your brothers can triumph over the Foot Clan."

"Mmm," Donatello responded, his eyelids fluttering. "Still… need to know…" He drifted off, much to Honeycutt's relief. The robot quickly swabbed a patch of skin on Donatello's arm with alcohol pads, and slipped the needle from the general anesthetic IV into his flesh. Then he watched as the lines of pain were smoothed from the young Turtle's face.

He was fitting the gas mask over Donatello's mouth and nose when he heard the heavy footsteps of Leatherhead behind him. "Your friend is also a mutant, I see," the alligator said.

"Yes — a turtle," Honeycutt said. "He was badly injured by an enemy, and very nearly died."

"And you want to save him, even though he is — something unnatural?" There was a peculiar tone to his voice, as if he expected Honeycutt to suddenly be repulsed by his friend.

"I only care that he is a good person," Honeycutt said defiantly. "Donatello is one of the noblest souls it has been my privilege to meet, and he has done and sacrificed more for this planet — and for others — than most will ever know."

"I see," Leatherhead said.

Honeycutt cast a look at the prosthetic shell, and picked up the canister of ooze. "You may wish to wait outside, Leatherhead. What's coming next will not be pleasant."


"We gotta — get up," Raph grunted as he rolled off of Angel's body.

Mikey groaned as he tried to get up, his hands groping feebly at the floor for his fallen nunchaku. Leo looked even worse than he did, shaking his head and staggering a little as he got to his knees. And as Angel pulled her legs out from under Raph, her faceplate slid up, revealing a trickle of blood coming from her swollen nose.

Her eyes widened as she turned towards the enemy mutants — Rocksteady was directly behind Leo, raising his massive sledgehammer over Leo's head. For a horrifying second, Angel remembered what she had found when she and Alopex had arrived at the lab — the broken, bloodstained body of a Turtle, shattered by that very hammer. Her hand flew out without conscious thought, and a blast of antigravity hammered into Rocksteady like a tidal wave.

"Whoof!" Rocksteady huffed as his hammer flew from his hands, whacking against his head with a loud thunk.

"Thanks, Angel," Leo gasped as he got to his feet.

"No problem," the human girl panted. "So, any bright ideas?"

"We're not going to win if we just keep fighting the way we have been," Leo said grimly. "Brawling isn't the answer. We need to use our speed, our brains, and our training to determine how the fights come out, not just lashing out." Raph grimaced, and Leo added, "And I want to punish them as much as you do, Raph, but we can't afford to let our emotions rule us. Fight to win, not to get revenge."

"I'll try," Mikey said dubiously. "But that whole they're-bigger-and-stronger-than-us thing keeps getting in the way."

"What are you waiting for?" Shredder's voice lashed out. "Kill them all!"

Rocksteady clambered back to his feet as his three fellows lunged forward, snarling and screeching as the rhino joined them with his hammer. And at the same time, the Turtles sprang forth into the fight with a cry, Angel following a step behind them.

For Raph, the next few minutes were a dizzying spin of relentless attacks — he was pitted against Rocksteady again, but forced himself to focus more on dodges and targeted attacks than stabbing the rhino for what he had done. It burned at him, but he did it. Angel's taser lashed out and struck Bludgeon in the gills on the side of his head, sending a vicious electrical shock coursing through the shark's sensitive breathing organs. Mikey managed to land a painful hit on Bebop's face as he soared overhead.

And Leo was up against Koya. He knew how he could beat her, if she wasn't as skilled in ninjutsu as he was. Hopefully she was just a predator bird made large — all claws and beak, speed and ability to fly. If she didn't know where to look or what to look for, then he could beat her easily — and then he could help his brothers.

He sent a shuriken flying towards her face, and saw rage blaze in her eyes as she narrowly dodged it. With a screech she launched herself down towards him, her claws almost scraping at his head as he threw himself to the ground. Now — before she could turn around —

Leo gritted his teeth, and threw a smoke bomb at her neck. It snapped the bird's head back in pain and confusion, sending her crashing to the ground in a cloud of all-obscuring gray smoke.

"You can't hide from me!" she screeched as she got to her feet. "Tricks won't… work…"

She looked around in confusion, seeing no trace of the Turtle who had been there mere seconds before. Her teeth ground together as she turned this way and that, looking for that telltale flash of blue signaling where that traitor was hiding himself.

"Fool!" Shredder raged.

Mikey grinned to himself at their enemy's obvious anger. They must be doing something right if they were making him that angry. He glanced over briefly at the figure of his father sitting in the lotus position, lost in meditation — although Mikey wasn't sure how meditating was supposed to help in a fight. But he didn't have time to mull it over — all their enemies were still unbeaten.

"Wanna take the ugly twins down?" Raph said, pointing his sai at Rocksteady and Bebop, who were clustered together at the center of the arena.

"I thought you'd never ask," Mikey said.

Raph sent a handful of kunai knives flying through the air as Mikey let some shuriken loose, aimed at one of Rocksteady's meaty forearms. The rhino yelped in pain, even though the damage obviously wasn't enough to seriously cripple him — but he let go of his hammer. The massive steel head fell directly onto Bebop's foot, sending the mutant warthog reeling back, clutching his injured foot and yowling with pain.

"You know what would be great? If they did all the work and beat each other up instead of us," Mikey said.

Raph grinned suddenly. "That ain't a half bad idea. They're dumb enough."

Mikey felt his brother's hand clamp on his shoulder, pulling him towards the middle of the arena. In no time at all, he found himself standing between Rocksteady and Bebop, their beady eyes fixed on him and Raph, their heavy fists balled in front of them.

Suddenly nervousness welled up inside him — they were dumb, but were they that dumb? Raph's plan was crazy and reckless, but it was also pretty obvious to anybody with six or seven brain cells…

"Get 'em!" Rocksteady roared, and Bebop joined in with a wordless snarl as the two lunged forward.

"Jump!" Raph howled.

And Michelangelo jumped, soaring into the air above Rocksteady and Bebop like an Olympic gymnast going in for a medal-winning move. His head was thrown back, allowing him to see the two massive skulls crashing into each other like a pair of falling boulders. A delighted smile crossed his face as he and Raph somersaulted through the air, their agility and speed letting them get the upper hand in the fight.

For once, Rocksteady and Bebop's superior strength wasn't enough. They might just have a chance to win this.