Kraang guards gathered at the archway of the hall from which the noise came. More stepped into fighting stances around the room, and quite a few perched in front of the turtles' containment.
The aliens and turtles alike waited in apprehension. The room was entirely still.
The noise beyond the hallway stopped. A spell of silence fell over the space.
The Kraang watched the hall. Despite their robot bodies' skeleton-like structure, the machines betrayed the aliens' anxiety- shoulder joints rolled up, elbows locked, fingers gripping their laser triggers- the position almost gave the connecting metals the appearance of tensed muscles.
Seconds ticked by. Seconds turned to minutes.
Michelangelo looked to all of his brothers in turn. Donatello knew he was looking for someone to deny the possibility that the Mutanimals had been defeated, but at the moment, they were all trying to reason around the idea themselves and could offer him no reassurance.
Especially when the array of guards parted to allow two more Kraang through, each tugging on one arm of a slumped Dr. Rockwell.
Donnie gasped and stepped closer to the forcefield. He squinted through the barrier, and cursed the pink light for discoloring his view of his ally. At least he hoped Dr. Rockwell wasn't that sickly colored. Considering the gash spanning his back, though, he couldn't dismiss the possibility.
The Kraang dropped Rockwell onto the hard metal floor and removed his psychic amplifier.
Two more Kraang emerged, carrying a struggling Pigeon Pete.
Pete pecked and squawked at his captors, who promptly threw him next to Rockwell.
One of the robots who had been carrying him produced a taser rod and stopped his resistance with one electric jab.
They dragged the subdued mutants towards a second containment next to the turtles'.
The guards remained parted, indicating they were waiting for the rest of the Mutanimals to come through.
Their lowered lasers indicated they weren't prepared for the rest of the Mutanimals to come through still fighting.
Leatherhead rolled into the room and knocked the robots over like bowling pins.
The Kraang were slow to open fire, giving Slash time to dash in after his friend and eliminate a few more with a swing of his mace.
"Yes!" Raphael cheered.
Leatherhead and Slash both looked worse for wear, but they fought aggressively as always.
Slash knelt by Rockwell and Pete, shell shielding them from laser fire. He scooped the pair up and examined them.
Leatherhead let his defensive instincts take over, and his eyes glossed over white. He charged the Kraang with animal ferocity.
Rockwell stirred. He looked at Slash, then at the turtles' containment, and said something Donnie couldn't make out over the laser fire and Leatherhead's roaring.
Slash carried Pete and Rockwell over to Rockwell's amplifier helmet.
Rockwell grabbed his psychic amplifier and returned it to his head before crawling out from Slash's grasp, apparently secure enough to leave the safety of Slash's protection now that he'd regained his weapon.
Rockwell approached the containment and searched the panel on the wall next to it. He smirked, tapped something into it, and the forcefield came down.
"Thanks!" Donatello said.
"Glad to provide a rescue anytime," Rockwell responded, gesturing towards the turtles' confiscated weapons.
The team rushed to claim their weapons, then joined Leatherhead in battle.
Pigeon Pete came to, and after he regained his senses, he and Slash came to fight alongside them.
They formed a circle in the middle of the room. Covering each other's sides and backs, each was able to focus on only the enemies in front of them, making for steady progress.
Donatello looked at Michelangelo and Raphael on either side of him when some time had passed and neither had made any moves to protect him. It would be the first fight in weeks everyone trusted him to take care of himself.
Donnie had thought Raph wasn't paying much mind to his brothers when they were talking in the containment, but seeing Raph keep to fighting his own Kraang, Donatello mused he had been listening all along.
Donnie had admittedly been concerned about Raphael's apparent apathy, but now reasoned Raph just didn't feel comfortable talking about all the feelsy stuff. He should have known Raph would steer away from giving input. Raphael was always one to let his actions speak for him, and as he let Donatello fight his own battle, Donnie mused it really was true that actions spoke louder than words. Raphael proved right then and there he was willing to go past empty talk, and do something about his brother's distress.
Not wanting to lose his family's newly found confidence in him, he fought harder.
With the eight of them working together, the tides began to turn. The Kraang were dropping like flies.
"Alright!" Raph said. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"
"Fighting the Kraang in this room won't help us much with the ones who are out capturing humans right now, though," Donnie said.
Rockwell propelled a droid into the wall with a psychic burst. "How are we going to stop them? They're already out there, and there aren't enough of us to cover the entire city and look for every last bot trying to capture humans."
"I don't know," Donnie admitted. "For so long, I didn't know what they were doing. I was too caught up in what they were doing to the team. Ugh, if only there was a way to put them into the disarray they put us into!"
"That's not going to work," Raph said. "Kraang Prime controls them all with her hive mind. They'll be too organized."
Mikey swung his nunchucks at a Kraang's skull. "But Bishop said she only has the creepy hive-mind powers because she's a mutant Kraang, right?"
Donnie arched a brow. "Yeah?"
"So what if we just… un- mutated Kraang Prime?"
The turtles stopped fighting to stare, first at Mikey, then at Donnie.
No, Donnie thought. That was too simple. There had to be a reason he had dismissed the possibility before. He'd thought of an explanation of why that solution had been too simple. Why it wouldn't work.
But if that were the case, why couldn't he think of such a reason now?
Perhaps Michelangelo didn't think of solutions as detailed or complex as Donnie did, but the genius turtle reminded himself that even though Mikey's thought process was different, it may not necessarily be wrong. Simpler, yes, but maybe the solution could be simple.
"That," Donatello said, "Might work." He shook his head. "Man, I am really sorry I didn't listen to you."
Leonardo sent the final Kraangdroid to the ground with a jab of his katana. "But you don't have the retromutagen with you, do you?"
Donatello grinned and pulled the vial from his belt. "Oh, ye of little faith." He produced a dropper and several smaller vials, and divided the retromutagen between them. "I only have so much. We won't get very many shots at this." He handed one vial to each of his brothers, one to Dr. Rockwell, and kept the fifth for himself.
"Five chances isn't so bad," Leo said.
"Five if we're lucky," Donatello said. "It would be better to keep one, just in case."
"What do you mean?"
"Do I need remind you that the Shredder has mutagen, as well?"
"He's not as much of a threat as the Kraang," Rockwell argued. "Let's focus on them first, we'll worry about the retromutagen and Shredder later if need be."
"The Shredder could become an even bigger threat than the Kraang with access to that kind of power. He's already almost unbeatable by himself. He'll be impossible if he gains time-travel abilities, and if that's what he's planning, it'll be soon. The Shredder is not a patient man," Donnie said. "Not to mention retromutagen takes months to make. A man of his power could potentially capsize the entire city by the time the next batch is done."
"You're absolutely right," Leo said. "He needs to be stopped as soon as possible." He turned to leave.
"We can't leave now! The Kraang!"
Leo faced them. "You all take care of the Kraang. You'll need as many people as you can get to beat their army. I'll take the Shredder."
Raphael stormed towards him, looking ready to start a fight with him right there despite the situation. "What, are you nuts? There's no way I'm letting you fly solo to that maniac's lair! I'm going, too."
"No. You're needed to help fight the Kraang. Stay here."
Raph crossed his arms. "Make me."
Leonardo started a stare-down, but thought better of it, and addressed Donnie. "Do you have the mutagen's contaminant?"
Donatello internally scolded himself. He'd thought to bring the retromutagen, but not the chemical that had proved useful on their previous missions this month? "No. It's in my lab."
Leonardo nodded at Raph. "Let's not waste any time." He turned to Mikey and Donnie. "Good luck, guys."
Leonardo and Raphael ran the way they'd come.
"We had best be moving forward, too," Rockwell said.
Donatello took a deep breath. "Let's stop Kraang Prime. Once and for all."
Next chapter Wednesday. Have a great day, y'all!