CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Back at Maxwell's office, Baxter found himself tied to a chair with duct tape. The Turtles swarmed over him. Maxwell was pacing back and forth, smoking a cigarette at a frantic speed, coughing as he inhaled the smoke a little too readily.
"Lack of pay wasn't it?" he said
"Lack of appreciation. Recognition" Baxter said
"This facility isn't some fucking vanity project Stockman" Maxwell said, "If we're implicated in whatever hair-brained scheme your other boss is concocting, you will go down with the ship as well"
"You think I don't know that?" Baxter snapped back, "Do you know how hard it is to give up your creations that you've nurtured and cared for this whole time? To disavow all knowledge of them because..."
"...Because what?" Maxwell said
"He means the mousers are playing a key role in what's going down" Donatello replied
"But what? What possible role could they play? They're good at deconstruction and pest control, but..."
April suddenly burst in
"...They're part of the recipe. There's a whole different concoction being brewed, and they're the central ingredient. All they need to add is the soup." she said
"Where have you been?" Michelangelo asked
"Prince's place. Found a good deal of stuff there. Seems he stumbled on to Baxter's little plan months earlier, according to his last diary entry he was intending to contact Maxwell about cancelling "Magic Monday'" April replied
"Figures that part of the past would come back in a big way" Raphael said
"Oh I get it, babe to the future" Michelangelo joked
"...What's so special about today? It's just an old building we're demolishing..." Maxwell said
"Which brings us to the 'soup'. Baxter had made several component deliveries to a Mr. Finlay Sharpe" April said
"Finlay?" Maxwell said
"You know him?" Raphael asked
"He's better known as 'conduit' to us, but he's one of our oceanic and tech experts" Maxwell admitted, and gave Baxter another dirty look, disgusted at the lack of remorse on his stony expression.
"How could any of this slip under our radar?" Maxwell said, "Just how far does this insurgent movement of yours reach? How many are involved?"
"Lions and tigers and bears oh my...or is that rhinos and warthogs and bats oh boy?" Baxter cryptically replied
"He's talking in riddles, I wouldn't entertain him any further" Leonardo said
"Anything else you dug up April?" Raphael asked
"Yep. Those components? A mix of rare and expensive chemicals were shipped to the same address many times over. We checked the address since but it had long been evacuated. No trace of him" April revealed
"Let me look at that list" Maxwell said.
April handed it to him, Maxwell's face became awash with hints of dread.
"This...my word, this is the standard instruction on how to develop a large strain of mutagen" Maxwell said
"Great...so a bunch of sub-human submariners have been working on making a monster squad all on your pay-roll. At this rate, the Technodrome is gonna look like the base camp of some real moustache-twirling Saturday morning villainy...though with a name like that it might as well be" Raphael said
"Let's not focus on the finger pointing, all we need to focus on is being pointed in the right direction. We need to recover Master Splinter and find out how the mousers, the mutagen, and the demolition job connects to the larger plan"
"I've been able to trace the corrupted network trail to its main source" Donatello said, "And I need to find a way to hack into their network and corrupt their hardware so they can't control the mousers"
"You got the address of this compound on the docks?" Michelangelo asked
"Right here" April said, pointing to another of the papers she had brought in
"Then what are we waiting for?" Raphael said, "Wise Dock, just south of here"
"I'll seal off the Mirage theatre. Maxwell, where are the mousers currently stationed?" Bishop asked
"We sent them out early, we like our afternoon showings, they should be east of us by now"
"I'll send as many as we can muster in after them, their orders are to destroy every single one" Bishop said
"Thing is...what can we do to really take those at the compound by surprise?" Donatello said.
"Dude.. suggestion?" Michelangelo said, and whispered something in Donatello's ear, Donatello's eyes lit up
"It's...doable, I'll put it together, but you really need to drop this particular film fixation" Donatello said.
Michelangelo suddenly had a nagging notion echo in the back of his mind. He had been gradually piecing together part of a puzzle that had been perplexing him since he tore the dog tags off of Wingnut, a name he had seen on them, he decided to entertain his suspicions and get a full look at the name.
"Oh no" he whispered as he took a closer look
The tags read 'Ester'
He looked around, and spied the exit to Maxwell's office and the way out of the Technodrome, he looked at the other Turtles and stretched his arms out wide
"Boy is it hard to find the bathroom in here, I think I'll just go outside if you guys don't mind" Michelangelo said
"Don't be so public about something as private as that Mike" Raphael said
"Yeah...will do" Michelangelo said
April followed him out
"Mike, what's going on?" she said as they left the office
"Call of nature" Michelangelo said
"Your face is pale, I can read people easily, what are you hiding?" April said
Michelangelo could sense April's urge to help, and he cared enough not to lie to her.
"Look, people I look out for are in danger. Zach's neighbor Mrs. Ester, I think one of the creatures we tangled with at the lair is after her, I gotta check in on the street" Michelangelo said
"I'll come with you" April replied
"No way babe, this is too hot to handle for you, and the guys need to find Splinter" Michelangelo said
"It's dangerous on your end too, I saw what those creatures can do, you'll be totaled without some help" April said
"I won't be able to dig myself out of an angst chasm if I don't do something" Michelangelo said
"I won't stand to see you hurt knowing I could have done something to prevent it" April replied, her features tinged with traces of longing and desperation. Michelangelo sensed her urgency, and rewarded her for it with a calm stroke of her tender face.
"Hey, you do plenty for me already, you have a groovy kind of...faith, and I'll hold onto that " he replied. April calmly placed both of her hands into his.
"Hold onto this too" she said, and, to Michelangelo's astonishment, she kissed him passionately on the lips.
For a moment that would endure throughout their lifetimes on Earth, they were locked tightly in a touching period of paradise, slowly beginning to embrace before the urgency of the situation overtook their minds again and they detached from each other
"...Is that...was...that..." Michelangelo said, words failing him
"It's real Mike. This wild, crazy dream of ours. It took us a while...but...finally, it's real. Now go."
Michelangelo kissed April on the cheek, held her hand briefly, and finally walked away , jumping into the air and humming pleasantly to himself. April watched him go, then, just as swiftly, got on the phone
"Hi, listen I know you don't want to hear anything from me at the moment, but you need to get your ass over to Klunk Avenue now"
