Shredder entered Stockman's lab being flanked by Tiger Claw and Hector. Behind them were Bradford and Xever. Stockman buzzed down to meet the bladed master. "How are you progressing Stockman?" He asked the fly.
"We are on ssschedule, massster." Stockman answered. "I sssuccesssfully reverssse engineered one of the Kraang'sss Footbotsss to make the next ssstage of them." He flew off to one of the consoles and started to press some buttons. "They can deal with the turtlesss and their alliesss when they come out of hiding to find the sssignal of the fragment and then we can unleasssh our final weapon on them and put them out of our misssery."
"Where is the second fragment?" Tiger Claw asked.
"The fragment isss being usssed as the power sssource for the final weapon." Stockman answered him. "We ssshall tessst to sssee how powerful thisss sssarnath piece really isss."
"This had better work." Shredder said to the fly mutant. "Or else you might find yourself lacking wings to get around with."
The door opened again and two of his henchman; the rhino mutant Ivan Steranko and the warthog mutant Anton Zeck came in. They stopped before Shredder and somewhat reluctantly bowed before him.
"Zeck, Steranko, I want you two to lead them into battle against the turtles." Shredder ordered. "Bring them to me or Tiger Claw will teach you another lesson in pain."
"We won't fail you master Shredder." Zeck promised him as they rose to leave the lab.
"Any luck finding the signature of the second fragment?" Leo asked as he poked his head into the lab where both Donnie and Rockwell were working. The Mutanimals had agreed to lend their aid for finding the fragments.
"Not yet." Donnie said. "Shredder must have found some way to camouflage the signatures."
"Undoubtfully due to some assistance from the Kraang." Rockwell added. "It makes sense since they already knew they were going to crash land on Earth before you all even knew they existed,"
"If only we knew what they were going to do with it." Aaliyah said as she stood behind Leo, her hands on his shell, which in truth sent some shivers through the blue masked turtle's body. "Then maybe we could at least try to stop the before they do something stupid."
"What could they even do with one tiny fragment?" Mikey questioned with a shrug.
"Remember that Kraang power cell Leatherhead was guarding?" Donnie asked him.
"Um…maybe." Mikey said.
His older brother's rolled their eyes. "I remember it." Raph said. "You said it could power anything with the right stuff, like a flashlight…or a city on the moon."
"Pretty sure I said components." Donnie corrected him. "Well that fragment can do basically the same thing."
"So it's good then?" Mikey asked.
"On its own it's already powerful." April said. "But if combined with that third fragment…" She started.
"Or the fragment in my Nightwatcher armor." Angel added.
"Then it would be even stronger." Donnie said. "And if all three fragments were put together." The purple masked turtle shook his head. "I don't know what it could do."
"Why is it basically customized for Angel's armor?" Karai asked. "Is it meant to do something more?"
"I don't know." Angel answered for them. "I haven't noticed any real difference between the armor before I found the first fragment and the armor afterwards."
"And if there is something special I can't detect it." Donnie filled in. "Though the truth is it might not be something that could be noticed until Angel finds out what it is and activates it."
The Latina girl rolled her eyes and groused, "Great, no pressure or anything."
Adelita, Jennifer and Renet laughed a little at that.
Angel rolled her eyes. "Glad you three liked that." She said but she had a small smile on her face as she looked from Renet to Jennifer before stopping at Adelita. "Anything I can do to amuse."
"No one said it would be easy Angel." Splinter said to her gently yet sternly. The mixture of paternal pride and annoyance wasn't exactly something she was used too. "But you will figure it out when the time is right. And we will do what we can do help you in that task."
"Yeah, uh, thanks." Angel said uncomfortably.
Then Donnie looked up and said, "Uh oh. It's trap time." When Leo looked back at him he elaborated, "The energy signature for the sarnath fragment is back on the radar."
"We have no choice but to go after it." Leo said. "All we can do is be prepared."
"How do we be prepared for what we know nothing about?" Jennifer asked him.
Rockwell looked at one of the monitors that had been temporarily set up. "According to what I can see on the satellite the signature is coming from a rather large warehouse at the docks." He informed them all. "It's either a huge maze or a storage facility of some sort."
"Yeah, for storing the statue of liberty." Raph added sarcastically.
"Like in Ghostbusters." Mikey added with a laugh.
Leo thought a moment as he glanced around the lair. Then he said, "Donnie, Rockwell. Join us out here. Then I'm going to suggest a course of action and let's see what we can come up with."
A couple hours later they had their plan set. The four turtle brothers, Aaliyah, Karai, the Mighty Mutanimals, and Angel made their way to the warehouse where the signature was located at. So far it had been easy going and that made them even surer this was a trap.
As they approached the docks they saw Bebop and Rocksteady step out from the shadows. "Look what we have here Bebop." Rocksteady said. "We have turtles, armor person and other assorted freaks."
"I told you I ain't no Bebop." The mutant warthog snapped. Then he looked to them. "I owe you turtle freaks for this you know."
Raph laughed at them. "I don't think you two should be talking about who's a freak around here." He replied.
"Aren't you two safari animals a bit outnumbered?" Angel, now fully outfitted in her Nightwatcher armor including the voice modulator, questioned them both.
"These safari animals have gone high tech baby." Bebop answered with a snort laugh. "Compliments of the fly man." From the shadows emerged something new. They looked like the Footbots the Kraang engineered for the Foot Clan a couple years ago but these guys were more along the height of Slash and Leatherhead and in addition to their katana or various other weapons the robots carried they also had knee and arm pads like the Shredder, razor sharp blades protruding from them.
"I don't think we want these guys trying to give us a gut check." Raph noted wryly.
"I tend to agree." Rockwell said.
"Turtles, Mutanimals." Rocksteady said cockily. "Meet Superfootbots." He laughed then.
"And I hope they tear you all to shreds." Bebop added and then followed up with his own laugh.
The Superfootbots ran right toward the turtles. Mikey swore he was the ground under them shaking slightly as they moved in.
The turtles drew their weapons. "What now Leo?" Donnie asked.
"Aaliyah, Angel get into that warehouse." Leo said to the two of them. "The rest of us will keep these guys busy."
"These guys can't be that tough." Raph declared and with his sais drawn he leapt at a Superfootbot only to be met with a hard uppercut to his jaw from his mechanical opponent. With a hard landing Raph relented, "Okay, I might be wrong."
Leatherhead now roared and charged at another one. The Superfootbot raised its arms to intercept the mutant gator and they were now involved in a struggle for power, an edge over the other.
"Wow, this doesn't look too good." Pete noted nervously. "Do we have plan b for this?"
"Afraid not." Slash said simply. "We're going to have to give it our all." With that he went in intending to bash his mace into a Superfootbot but the mechanical menace caught the spiked end in his hand and then thrust it back, the handle end hitting Slash in the face.
Angel and Aaliyah moved under the confrontation going on only to find themselves to face Bebop and Rocksteady. "And where do you think you're going?" Bebop asked the two of them. He then twirled and unleashed his hip lasers on the two of them. Aaliyah dodged instantly.
Angel tried to stand her ground, thinking that the Nightwatcher armor could simply reflect it like it had the bullets that the EDF guys had fired. Instead it struck her and sent her back for a moment; in addition the sound of the strike seemed to reside in her head for a moment. "Okay, don't take the laser hits head on." She noted to herself.
Rocksteady then tried to gore her but she brought her hands up and caught him by the horn before twirling around and tossing him at his warthog partner. Only a quick dodge prevented him from getting squashed by his partner, but by that time Aaliyah had lashed out and connected with his jaw.
Leo and Raph each dodged a Superfootbot that was approaching them and then tried to bring their weapons down on them but they moved quickly enough to use their razor edged arm pads to block the attacks, and then as if in synch they hit the two turtles hard in the jaw. "That's getting annoying." Raph noted as he rubbed his jaw.
Mikey dodged an attack from one of the Superfootbots as he joked, "Maybe they got tired of hearing us talk."
Raph dodged a follow up attack from the Superfootbot that went after him as he replied with, "If I could I'd show you who's tired of hearing who talk."
Karai was able to dodge the attack from a couple of Superfootbots but only because she had to tap into her snake abilities. "I guess Stockman knew what he was doing when he upgraded the original Kraang designs." She had to reluctantly grant. The problem came that she couldn't get much of a hit on her opponent either.
"Yeah, I hate to say it but if he weren't working for Shredder he might actually be good to work with." Donnie said as he tried to stab a Superfootbot with his naginata but the robot grabbed it and tossed the purple masked turtle hard, almost into the water.
Pete got swatted very hard as he tried to attack a Superfootbot and landed just as hard. Mondo and Candy tried to double team another but both were swatted aside almost as if they were a mosquito. Rockwell levitated above the fray but any attempts to toss something at them were summarily knocked aside.
"Dudes, we've got to come up with something here before they beat us down." Mikey said as he dodged another attack.
Rockwell glanced around for a moment. Then he had an idea. He didn't want to broadcast it to the Superfootbots just in case they could somehow understand what was being said. So he thought he'd try something else, and if this worked he'd have to teach Ms. O'Neil how to do it too. He focused really hard and shot out a mental Gentlemen…I mean everyone to those fighting the robots. He had to remind himself that was Karai were here after all. He didn't include Aaliyah and Angel since they were busy with Bebop and Rocksteady.
Everyone looked around slightly confused. "What the hell was that?" Raph wondered.
"I think that was Rockwell." Donnie told him. "Telepathically." He shook his head in amazement. "Wow that is awesome. He took that mind reading thing he does and instead of reading our thoughts he's reflecting his thoughts to our mind."
"Swell." Raph drolled much less enthusiastically. "Why?"
I have an idea on how to take these Superfootbots out. The monkey mutant answered, once again telepathically. In order to do that we're going to have to get them together. We need to lure them to that lamp post over on the far side of the warehouse docks. I believe I can douse them with a rush of ocean water but in order to get them to short circuit we are going to have to destroy the lamp post and deliver the electrical charges to them.
"I think Leatherhead and I can handle that doc." Slash told his primate team mate.
"Fall back team." Leo ordered them all, under the pretense of leading them toward Rockwell's ultimate goal. "Our objective is still in front of us." With weapons still drawn the team made their way over.
This left Aaliyah and Angel still dealing with the mutant duo. Since Rockwell had not included them in the plan Angel felt kind of confused. "What the hell are they trying to do?" She wondered.
Aaliyah wasn't entirely sure. "Maybe use the electrical energy in the lamp post to short circuit the Superfootbots, though I would think that would be difficult. They seemed much sturdier than the Footbots we've all grown to know and loathe." The female turtle speculated.
"I suggest you worry less about comrades and worry more about yourself." Rocksteady interjected as he took out his hammer and sickle and tried to smash Aaliyah between the two large metal weapons. The white masked mutant jumped above the attack and then kicked him right in the nose…snout…she wasn't quite sure what the appropriate terminology would have been.
Bebop used his laser Mohawk to try to shoot at Angel but she dodged that one easily enough and followed up with her own uppercut to his face. He sprawled awkwardly. "Yo, big S. I think we should switch opponents over here." He called out.
Angel laughed at that "You really think Aaliyah is going to be easier for you to take out?" She questioned amused.
"Is fine comrade Bebop." Rocksteady decided as he got up and immediately started toward the armored vigilante. He had already learned that trying to impale this opponent was not a good idea. "I squash him like the tin can already present."
"Him?" Angel questioned incredulously. "You think because I'm kicking your ugly hides all around here that I got to be a guy?"
"Like anyone could really tell with the modulator." Aaliyah pointed out to their new friend.
"That's not the point." Angel said as she dodged the attack from Rocksteady and kicked him in the side hard.
"I don't care who or what you are." Rocksteady told the vigilante. "I will crush you into metal and flesh paste and then give you to Zeck to give to piranha." He swung at her again with the hammer.
Angel caught the hammer though it did leave a slight ringing in her ears as it connected with the armor. She was getting the idea she should get used to that sort of effect, but if that's the worst that ever happened the Latina decided she would be grateful for that. "That is such a nasty image I don't even know how to respond to that."
Karai and the turtles made their way to the lamp post but as they were doing so they discovered a whole new problem with their new adversaries. The Superfootbots had started to blast laser beams at them from their eyes. "I think we better take one of these back to the lair to get a better understanding of it." Donnie said.
"Yeah, that sounds safe." Mikey commented.
"By the time they short circuit they'll be all but useless anyway." Donnie reminded them.
They reached the lamp post and looked as if they were getting ready for a fight, possibly for a last stand. Leatherhead even positioned himself to get ready to push the lamp post down. As the Superfootbots approached Rockwell struggled to gain the necessary control over the water in order to soak them. It wasn't an easy thing to do but he managed to get just enough control over a naturally oncoming wave to wash over their robotic foes.
Then Leatherhead pushed at the lamp post and he was joined moments later by Slash. The two large mutants were able to push it over easily and the sparking lamp post crashed into a couple of the Superfootbots and the electricity cascaded around them, causing them to overload and fall to the ground in multiple heaps. It reminded Leo and Raph a little bit off the time they did that to Stockman's mousers. They just hoped that more of them wouldn't show up as the mousers had back then.
As that happened Aaliyah and Angel paced the two mutant goons until the two were back to back. Then the girls jumped up and kicked the two mutants hard in the stomach and as they recoiled they ran right into each other's backs. A follow up punch from each of the girls rendered them unconscious.
"Serves them right." Angel commented and Aaliyah had to laugh a little.
"Come on." The female turtle said once she had stopped laughing. "Let's join the others and get that sarnath fragment out of the warehouse."
The two girls joined the team and they started again toward the warehouse. "It had better not be that hard to find the damn thing." Raph said as they came to the warehouse door. "I just want to get this mission over and done with."
"Just stay calm Raph." Leo told him. "We'll be out of here in a few minutes."
Slash and Leatherhead had to work a moment to get the large warehouse doors opened. Both Donnie and Rockwell found it odd that the doors were large and very tall rather than the normal long shape most warehouse doors tended to have.
When they had forced the doors opened they had only take a couple of steps when they were able to see what was inside the warehouse. Mikey gasped. "Holy giant foot bot."
"Wow." Karai said. "I never even knew the Foot were developing something like this."
Mikey's assessment was quiet literal. They were looking up at a giant version of the Superfootbot that they had spent the last few minutes in a downhill fight against. And on the very top of its forehead they could see a glittering red object; the second fragment of the eye of sarnath.
"Guess we're going to have to scale this thing to get it." Mondo commented.
Only a few more steps were taken before they heard electrical humming. Then a large whirring sound as the Giant Superfootbot looked down at them. Then it shot its foot out hard and they all barely dodged out of the way of the massive foot.
"That's just great." Raph said. "Now we gotta deal with Godzilla's hidden enemy."
They all backed out of the warehouse. The Giant Superfootbot was literally right there, able to take more massive steps than any of them could possibly compensate for. It looked down at them and they all could swear if it was possible that the thing actually was looking forward to stomping them out of existence.
How can the team combat something so huge? Can they retrieve the second fragment with such a massive obstacle in their way? Are there more Superfootbots? The adventure continues.
