Each of them looked up at the Giant Superfootbot that was looking down at them. One stomp of its massive robotic foot would be enough to take out even Slash or Leatherhead.
"This would be so neat if we weren't going to be the ones that were road pavement." Mondo said nervously.
"Just remember what we discussed earlier guys." Leo said even as his hand brought out his T-phone and pressed a key.
Earlier at the lair each of them had thought it very bizarre that they would have access to such a large warehouse. The only thing that made sense was they had something big in there. Perhaps an ambush. But April, Donnie, Mikey and Raph couldn't also help but think of the giant droid thing Kraang Prime had operated during the second Kraang invasion. And it had taken everything for the Turtle Mech to take it out, to say nothing of Kraang Prime himself.
"We could try blowing the place up." Pete suggested.
"That would attract too much attention." Donnie reminded the sometimes slow witted mutant Pidgeon. "And on top of that we can't prove that the fragment would survive the explosion."
"What do you think they would have in there anyway?" Adelita asked as she leaned forward and folded her hands together, wanting to help in this way however she could. She already knew combat was out of the question.
"Something big." Leo said. "To that end I think its best that we go in on two fronts. The first is a frontal assault to see what happens and do what damage we can. The second is preparation for whatever could be in that warehouse."
"We don't know what's in the warehouse." Raph replied snappishly.
"We know it's big." Jennifer reminded her boyfriend gently. "Let's hear Leo out."
Leo took a deep breath and then said, "If we need it, the second phase is going to go in with…"
They continued to back off of from the Giant Superfootbot and it came toward them steadily. It seemed more than willing to step on them unsurprisingly.
They heard the laughter from the recovered mutant duo. "Looks like we have turtle paste to take back to Shredder." Rocksteady said. "Not to mention other such paste."
"That is going to look so nasty." His partner Bebop noted and then cackled in amusement.
Then the ground shook with another large footstep but the mutant warthog had been looking toward the Giant Superfootbot at the time and it had not moved. "Hey, Baby S. Why is the ground shaking like that?" He asked.
"What are you talking about comrade Zeck?" Rocksteady questioned. He glanced around and then added, "Oh that is why."
From around the corner came the Turtle Mech, also known as the second phase. Piloting it was April, Jennifer, Casey and Renet. "Again I have to say this is so metal." Casey commented.
Renet laughed. "This is so awesome. I never thought I'd actually be able to pilot the Turtle Mech." She remarked.
April grimaced just a bit. "Yeah, too bad we have to go against that thing." She mused.
"Mikey would no doubt point out that Super Robo Mecha Force Team Five has faced things bigger than this." Casey reminded them.
"I think they fought those things in something a little more…sturdy." Jennifer replied. She thought the device was certainly remarkable but the thought that this battle relied, at least in part, on her made her nervous. "Or at least a bit more protected." She added as she waved her hands in front of the area where she thought some sort of retractable plastic shielding should be.
"Too late to worry about that now." Renet reminded the lithe blonde as the Giant Superfootbot saw the Turtle Mech and immediately moved to engage it in a fight, perhaps recognizing that it was more of a threat to it than the small beings that had been standing way underneath it.
"Fire the harpoon." Jennifer suggested to April.
The red head nodded. "Good a way to start as any." She aimed the harpoon at the center of the Giant Superfootbot and fired. The thing dodged the attack and grabbed it, then pulled the Turtle Mech toward it, intending to punch hard and possibly take out the humans inside.
Jennifer moved her console and raised the right leg so that it impacted with the Giant Superfootbot and kicked it back, forcing it to release the harpoon. Casey followed up on the top left side to deliver a punch to their adversary.
"Isn't there anything we can do to help them?" Raph asked in general, hating to be on the sidelines and also worried about Jennifer. This was her first time and if it could be said of them at all she was not adequately trained to pilot it, it was just the safest of the available options.
"I don't think so." Donnie answered simply. "That thing is just too big for any of us to make an impact against, even Slash and Leatherhead."
"Maybe there is something that we could do." Rockwell interrupted. "I think part of the reason it's so powerful is because of the boosts from the fragment of the eye of sarnath."
Donnie nodded excitedly as he got it, the purple bandana ends moving with his nodding movements. "I get it; if we can figure out how to remove that fragment then we can bring that down to an easier to beat level for them."
"That's all fine and good." Pete interrupted them. "But how do we get to that thing's head when it can swat us aside like a crumb of sourdough?"
"What if they aim for its head?" Karai asked.
"It might destroy the fragment." Angel replied. "Is that something we can risk?"
"Donnie, what would happen if we have to destroy that fragment?" Aaliyah asked the purple masked turtle.
"I wish I knew." Donnie admitted simply. "But with the power in even a fragment I'd imagine it would be a huge explosion, enough to take us out and at least the entire block."
"Okay, so not a good thing." Karai conceded.
"Raph, Karai, you're with me." Leo said. "We're going to climb that thing and get the fragment."
"Hey, what are we supposed to do?" Mikey asked their blue masked leader.
"Maybe we can talk to them?" Pete suggested as he saw the regular variety Footbots coming toward them from the warehouse now.
"Well damn." Angel said. "They're just full of surprises aren't they?"
"At least it gives us something to do." Slash said as he raised his mace. "So let's get to work." He looked to Leo, then Karai and then Raph. "Good luck getting that fragment brother."
"I'd give you some luck but you got the easy job." Raph commented back with a smile. "So just lead them all into some fun." With that the two turtles and Karai started to run over to the building sized battle going on not too far from them as the Donnie, Mikey, Aaliyah, Angel and the Mutanimals got ready to, as it was once put, to bash some bots.
Renet used the left leg to move in a bit as April used the right arm to clobber the Giant Superfootbot with now retracted harpoon up front and managed to smash against it, leaving a small gash there where they could see the circuitry. Then it brought its arm up and smashed the top of the Turtle Mech, causing each of them to have to hold onto the controls and make sure they were still strapped in.
"That thing hits pretty hard." Renet said. "Probably because it's a giant metal robot thing."
"Let' see what it thinks of this." Casey declared and pressed a button that would change the arm he controlled from a regular arm into a flamethrower and aimed it at the Giant Superfootbot. April noticed out of the corner of her eye three figures leap up from the ground and onto the back of what would be the robot's thigh. She then realized what she was seeing. Leo and Raph were using their weapons to ascend up the Footbot while Karai was using her newly 'gifted' mutant snake powers and snake hands to climb up herself.
April used her own mech hand to clamp onto the mech hand Casey controlled as she said, "We can't just fry it. Leo, Raph and Karai are climbing up on it."
Jennifer gasped in shock and even some fear. "What? Why would Raph…why would they do that?" She asked.
"They must be trying to go for the sarnath fragment." April speculated. "The only thing reason I can think of to do it now is because they think removing the fragment would reduce its power in this fight."
"It's definitely a dangerous move." Renet said. "And we're kind of limited on what we can do."
Even though the Giant Superfootbot didn't realize what was happening, it was almost as if it knew it held some sort of advantage as it charged in and slammed into the Turtle Mech. Each of the four had their heads slammed against the back seat as the Turtle Mech fell onto the ground, and then the Giant Superfootbot was on top of it and raised its arm as if to try to smash in the front.
Now trailing up its back, Leo almost lost his hold on his katana and fall downward but Karai used her extended snake arm to wrap around the blue masked turtle's arm and stop him from falling. Leo was glad the kunoichi had the presence of mind to make sure that she didn't use the snake head that served as her hand in that form to stop him or she would have accidently poisoned him. Even Raph slid just a little from the movement but his sais allowed him to get a grip in again before sliding more than a few inches.
"Thanks Karai." Leo said to his older sister as she brought him back to his swords. "I hate to think about how far a fall that is."
"Remind me again why we're taking such a suicidal course of action." Raph joked blandly. He of course knew why well enough. It was his girlfriend in the Turtle Mech after all, though of course it was also Karai's boyfriend in there too. Resolutely the three started to climb again.
"Let's see what he thinks about this." Casey now said as he raised the left arm and shot the grappling hook into the Giant Superfootbot's face. He had to resist the urge to try to send an electrical shock through it as it would hurt Karai and his two turtle friend's more than it would be their foe.
It had the desired effect though as the Giant Superfootbot stopped moving to attack and moved its hand over to grab a hold of the grappling hook and worked to try to pull the weapon off of its face.
"Think you two could use your powers to pull that fragment off of its head?" Renet asked the two psychic enabled girls.
"I doubt it." April answered. "There's no way it's going to stand still long enough to focus our powers."
"How do we get this thing off of us?" Renet asked.
"The only way I know isn't going to work on a robot." April replied.
"And I have to say I'm kind of glad for that one." Casey admitted. He'd already been there the first time he had met Hun and it wasn't pretty.
"Be that as may we need to get up before this thing finishes us off." April said.
"If we work together you and Casey might be able to force this thing off the legs long enough for Renet and I to kick it away." Jennifer proposed. "We're just going to have to hope Raph, Leo and Karai can hold on from the movement."
"Let's do it." April agreed. With that she maneuvered the right arm to clamp onto the Giant Superfootbot's other arm as Casey released the grappling hook grip to and they lifted it up just enough for Jennifer and Renet to take the feet back and deliver a kick to its chest.
They weren't able to see it but luckily this time the three climbers held onto the robot's back as they made their way closer to the neck. Leo couldn't resist craning his neck to check back on his brothers, Aaliyah, and the rest of their friends. He saw that Rocksteady and Bebop had made their way into the fight but were being handled by Slash and Angel respectively.
The four got the Turtle Mech back on its feet even as the Giant Superfootbot was again ready to resume their combat. It reached over and tore a lamp post from where it stood and got ready to use it as a somewhat clumsy, improvisional staff.
"Ah, snap." Renet got out. "What do we do now?"
The Giant Superfootbot swung at the Turtle Mech with the lamp post and sent it flying into a crane, possibly the same one Raph and Jennifer had used against the Cockroach Terminator a few days ago. It left a huge gash and April found her side of the mech not responding as well as it should have.
"Am I the only one thinking this isn't turning out the way we were hoping?" Karai asked her two brothers. "We need another plan."
"How do we have another plan when we're like gnats to this thing?" Raph questioned.
"Karai, get up there and get that second fragment." Leo said to his older sister. Then he looked to Raph. "If we're nothing more than gnats to this thing, then let's get in its face and see what we can do to bug this thing." Both red masked turtle and kunoichi nodded. Karai continued up, now scaling the head as the two turtles started to move to either side of its face.
"That did something." April announced. "I'm having a hard time controlling this side."
Jennifer looked around a bit. "I think it cut into some of the circuitry that connects your arm to the mechanical systems. It looks like if the circuits connect it works, but if they don't then it doesn't get the power it needs to work." She said. She wasn't exactly a mechanical genius but it didn't take much know how to see the wires that should be connected were now waving precariously.
The Giant Superfootbot tried to bring the lamp post down again on them but Casey used the left hand to catch it, and was now trying to wrestle it away from their robotic opponent. "Hey, couldn't Rockwell use his powers to keep those wires together?" Renet asked. "I mean it looks like Mikey and the others have the Footbots, Rocksteady, and Bebop well in hand."
Jennifer pulled out her T-phone and dialed Rockwell. "We got damaged; the wires connecting the right hand of the mech to the system got damaged. April and I are piloting so we can't use our powers to keep them together." She explained.
The mutant monkey nodded. "Ah, I see. It appears our friends have everything in hand, they don't need me here. Give me a couple of minutes to get closer and I'll lend you my aid." Rockwell answered.
"Okay." Jennifer agreed, and then hoped that they could last the couple of minutes.
"Look." April said as she pointed to the Giant Superfootbot. It was getting slightly distracted as it noticed two turtles now in its field of vision. With its free hand it tried to swipe Leo off of him but the blue masked turtle jumped up, ran over the fingers as they would have brushed past him, and then used his katana blades to scratch his way down the face after the attempted brush off had passed.
"Walking the treadmill." Raph joked as he saw Leo did that. Then he stabbed his sais into the Giant Superfootbot's face.
It was further distracted as it felt Karai on its head. She edged her way over the top and started again to crawl toward the fragment.
Rockwell was able to get over and used his psychic powers to hold the wires in place where they needed to be. "I suggest you hurry." He called out.
"Oh, yeah." Renet said. "That's going to be so easy."
"Time to take a page out of that things book then." Casey said. "If you've got the controls back Red, I think it's time to send this one straight back to home."
"I don't think it has a home." Renet noted.
"That's not what he meant." Jennifer said. "I think it's a baseball term."
"And luckily I think I know what Casey meant too." April said as she tried the controls and was gratified to see that they worked. "Renet, Jennifer, get us up." The two girls used their controls to make the Turtle Mech stand up. Casey continued to struggle with taking the lamp post and then April reached out her mech hand got a hold of the lamp post as well.
"What are they trying to do?" Karai wondered.
"Hurry up and get the fragment." Raph called up to his sister. "If I know what they're trying to do we're going to have to make a very quick getaway here."
Karai stretched out one of her snake hands to reach out and grasp the fragment. She found of course it had to be welded on her something but now that she had a grip she could get over to it and use her tonta to get the fragment out of the head. She just hoped she got there before they did whatever they were going to do.
"It's got a good grip." Casey noted. "Of course, considering it's a robot maybe I shouldn't be surprised."
"Let's see what we can do about that then." Renet decided as reared up the left leg of the Turtle Mech and then unleashed a kick as hard as she could do against the arm that was holding the lamp post. It was a lucky stroke that it forced the robot to lose its grip on the lamp post.
"You ever hit any home runs Red?" Casey asked her.
He couldn't see April shake her head. "Not really. But I think we can make this one work anyway." She replied.
Karai managed to dislodge the second fragment from the Giant Superfootbot's head. It was good timing as the Turtle Mech came in for the swing and the lamp post connected solidly with the Giant Superfootbot and sent it flying.
"We're making good frequent flyer miles." Leo noted as he took out his grappling gun. Raph followed suit. The impact did cause Karai to lose her balance but Leo was able to reach out and get a hold of her.
Karai had to take a moment to catch her breath. "Thanks, Leo." She said.
"Anytime." Leo replied.
"Hate to break this up, but we've gotta go." Raph said. With that the two turtles shot their grappling guns out, managing to snag the warehouse where the Giant Superfootbot had come out of just as the large robot hit the waters of the ocean. Whatever had protected the Superfootbots from being taken out by water apparently had not been given to its really big brother because the thing was disable easily as it hit the water, and moments later the mixture of the water and electrical parts caused the thing to explode, getting everyone wet in the process. The wave also sent Raph and Leo off course and the three of them hit the wall of the warehouse hard.
Karai lost her grip on the fragment. "Damn it." She let out. "Someone get it."
Unfortunately it was Rocksteady who managed to get his hands on the fragment just before he and Bebop used the mess left behind by the various Footbot parts to get away from them all.
"That's just great." Mondo said. "All that and those two goons managed to get away with the fragment after all."
"There's always next time." Slash reminded him as they were all getting up.
Leo called April and told them it was time to take the Turtle Mech home, there was nothing more any of them could do now. Leatherhead picked up one of the Superfootbot's for Donnie and Rockwell to examine more thoroughly and the two teams then headed back towards the lair.
Tiger Claw took the second fragment of the eye of sarnath from Steranko and gave it to the Shredder.
"At lease we were able to bring this back." Zeck said.
"A small victory." Shredder replied. "The Giant Footbot is now destroyed and we've lost a great many of the Superfootbot's that Stockman built. I would have much preferred to see those freaks lying bound at my feet and my daughter returned to me."
"He will make more Master." Tiger Claw said. "Zeck and Steranko reported good results from the initial confrontation; they required trickery in order to beat them."
"Have Stockman find a different way to use this fragment for our purposes." Shredder ordered Tiger Claw. "And get on finding the next fragment before the Turtles find it, or even before the Kraang find it."
"Well, it shouldn't take more than about two hours to get the Turtle Mech up and running again." Donnie told the group. "Aside from those wires most of the damage is cosmetic and refueling work."
"You guys did awesome." Raph said as he wrapped Jennifer in his arms and kissed her on the cheek.
The blonde couldn't help but blush a bit, it seemed to her the red masked turtle gave compliments very infrequently. "Thanks Raph." She said.
"Totally." Mikey agreed as Rent sat on his lap. "You guys could have totally been Super Robo Mecha Force."
"There were only four of us." April reminded the orange masked turtle, who shrugged as if it didn't matter how many there were.
"Is there any way to like improve on that thing?" Angel asked them. "Make it more durable or something?" She was sitting on the floor right behind Adelita who had gotten a small space on the couch next to her sister, who was of course in turn next to Leo, her head on his shoulder.
Donnie shrugged. "Honestly I've been trying to think of ways to do that Angel. But the problem is that aside from its power source it's done with current technology. If I had access to some Kraang material that would work with it that might make a difference."
"Do not forget that technology is only a means to an end." Splinter reminded all of his students, even though of course technically Adelita and Angel were not training with him. "It is all of you who must prevail in battle."
"I guess that's true." Adelita agreed as she set her on Angel's shoulder. "You're a good example of that, the armor you're using is nothing without you to control it."
The Latina girl nodded a bit and smiled. "Yeah, guess that's a good point." She conceded.
"We're going to have split our focus here a bit if we want to be prepared." April said.
"I agree." Donnie replied. "April, can you work with the tracker on finding the other fragments?" He asked. She nodded in assent. "Rockwell, you examine that Superfootbot thing, we had more trouble with that than we'd like and we need to be more prepared if…or when more accurately, they show up again. I'll continue examining that Thanosoid thing that seems to have some kind of connection to Bishop and the EDF."
"The rest of you should spend some time honing your skills and preparing for the next confrontation." Splinter said. "Things will only get more intense before things start to settle down again."
"You mean they ever settle down?" Aaliyah asked. "Because it doesn't seem like it."
Who will find the next fragment? Will the team be ready for the next Superfootbots? Who or what is going to come up next? The adventure continues.
