The night was quiet and beautiful. Stars sparkled brightly in the sky. A gentle breeze blew by the Shellraiser and Party Wagon as both gently hummed on a highway marked with the occasional car.
Despite the serenity, as the eerily dark figure of New York City loomed nearer, Leonardo's heartbeat grew louder in his ears.
The pressure of how much rested on his back— on his leadership— threatened to drain all his energy from mere anxiety before they even set foot in the city.
He sat in the cleared-out back of the Party Wagon with his family, hunched over Slash's atlas.
April and Mr. O'Neil sat in the front, serving as faces of normalcy to any human passers-by, though their faces were undoubtedly grim.
No one driving by would understand the intense stress they were under, but even less would understand if any of the mutants sat up front. Even off to save the world, the consistency of the guys' need to remain unseen endured, perhaps, the one constant. It would be a comforting commonality, if the idea of having to hide away for the fear of otherwise being attacked for their appearance weren't a worry all by itself.
As unfair and stressful as that matter was, it was the furthest thought from anyone's mind.
Leonardo looked up from his planning to take note of his team's individual composures.
He instantly caught on to each of them comforting themselves with their own nervous tics that Leo had learned to read over the years; that was to be expected, but he noticed that Michelangelo appeared the most unnerved.
It broke his heart to witness what an anxious mess his usually carefree youngest sibling had become over the past two weeks, and he supposed that the orange-clad turtle's display of such anxiety was only the result of piling the stress of their upcoming attack onto what he already had, but still, Leo ventured to ask him, just in case.
"Are you okay, Mikey?" He asked gently as he could, knowing by now Michelangelo would react to even the slightest hint of annoyance.
Despite how softly he'd spoken, Mikey ducked his head, hugging himself tight, and murmured his unintelligible response.
Leo put a hand to his ear. "What was that?"
Mikey shrunk further into himself. "I don't have my nunchucks," He repeated hesitantly, as though the words could set off a volcano."
"No matter," Splinter announced, reaching past a pile of sharpened metal spikes and their launchers behind him. He produced two large shoeboxes, which he handed to Michelangelo and Raphael. "I crafted replacements for each of you before it came time to work on the spikes." He retrieved a new bo staff for Donatello from the same spot and handed it to him, and brought out twin katanas in their sheathes. He looked at Leonardo. "I had not realized, at the time, that Raphael had saved your old ones."
"Wait. You mean you made Mikey and I our weapons before we even came back?" It dawned on Leo how much it would have hurt Splinter to have to only make two of his sons' weapons. Leonardo felt a renewed thankfulness that everyone had been reunited alive and well, and a renewed determination to keep it that way.
Splinter had made these weapons for them most likely sensing that they would be able to use them once more. It struck him how much it would hurt him, if after tonight, he only ever watched his father make three of them.
But the city and the world came first, no matter what. If he had to sacrifice one of them to save everyone else… well, that was a burden he'd prepared himself for a long time ago, but one he would never fully be ready to see come to pass.
Suddenly, being stuck as a tiny, unconflicted turtle didn't seem so bad.
"Why don't you hold onto them?" Leo asked, meeting Splinter's eyes.
Splinter nodded and tied the holsters' strings in a neat bow around his belt, letting the twin swords come to rest at his hip. They suited him.
Now that his family was properly equipped, Leo turned his attention to the approaching city, then to the map once more. They would be there in a few minutes. "Donnie, could you put the Mutanimals on speaker?"
Donatello called the Mutanimals and laid his T-phone in the center of the floor.
"Hello," Rockwell answered.
"Is everything in working order?" Leo asked.
"Yes, everyone here is ready. I have finished putting the chemical designed to fight the Kraangs' fog into the aerosol spray cans, but we only have a very limited amount of cans. We are going to have to ration the spray as much as we can."
"Do you have any more of the solution?" Leo asked.
"Yes, I have plenty more. But I'm afraid that without something to propel it into the air, the solution is utterly useless. It needs to meet and neutralize the Kraang's gas in air in order for it to properly work. If you tried throwing the plain liquid at it, it would only cover a few feet of fog."
"Alright. So we need to use as little of the spray as possible at a time." Leo sucked in a breath. "We can work with that."
"That's not the only thing we have in limited supply," Donatello reminded him. "I only had enough time to finish making about one-third of the spike launchers we initially planned. It's not enough to cover the entire area Slash and Mikey charted out."
"Then we're gonna have to choose a target, and choose it wisely."
"But how?" Donnie asked. "Even if we choose a good target spot, the plan was to stealthily place the launchers and trigger them all at once, which requires the patrolling Kraang to maintain their consistent timing. If we fight our way to the place we want to put them, they'll notice our presence and disrupt their patterns to come support the other soldiers."
Leo hummed and squinted at the map. He traced his finger along their current route into the city. "Okay. Here's how it's gonna go: we're gonna use the Shellraiser and Party Wagon to bust through the Kraang's defenses until we get near the area we want to target. Once we get there, we'll take both vehicles around slightly larger groups of blocks every time, until we've cut down the all nearby Kraang, at which point, they'll have to thin out their numbers considerably in order to cover the area we've taken out. Then, we'll keep driving around the same blocks we've taken out until we find someplace where we can park in an alleyway unnoticed. At that point, get out of the car and unload the launchers and spikes, and we can sneak to the chosen area from there unnoticed, not disrupting their patterns."
"Got it," Donnie said. "Where do we want to target?"
Leo traced the line where Mikey and Slash had come across the first unsolvable pattern. "We want to thin out the Kraang soldiers guarding here, so we should take out the road behind them, and a few more roads back so the Kraang come to fill in from forward, not back."
Donnie followed the map and listed the indicated street names over the phone for the Mutanimals and Casey to hear.
"After the traps have been set off and the Kraang have dispersed, we'll drive up to the building, fight our way in, and go from there."
"Alright." April took a breath. "Let's do this."
Leo looked out the windshield and saw that the city walls towered over them, blocking out his view of the dark city only seconds ahead.
A cluster of Kraang stood guard at the city entrance, all disguised in their human forms. They saw the Party Wagon racing at them with no visible intent to change its course, and charged their blasters.
Pink bullets of energy showered the Party Wagon and broke on the windshield like raindrops splattering on leaves. The sideways downpour created a constant current on the front of the van, slowly changing the glass's and metal's color with its heat, but the Party Wagon charged forth.
Within seconds, the Kraangs' size grew from that of pigeons to full humans.
Only a few robots could duck out of the way before the Party Wagon hit the rest with a loud CLANG that resounded over the silent city, followed by the crunching of machinery under tires, and the Hamato clan were in New York City once more.
The robots regrouped behind them and started firing at their back, only for the Shellraiser to bowl them over.
A familiar mischievous grin returned to Raphael's face. "Now that's what I call an entrance!"
They surged forth, knocking down any Kraang that stepped out to stop them along the way.
"We're not past them yet," Leo reminded him. "Hold on to your shells! This next part is going to get a little twisty!"
On his cue, Mr. O'Neil swung the van around the corner, nearly tipping the entire thing over in the process. He made the next turn, and then the next, all with similar momentum.
"Woah!" April clutched onto her armrests. "I didn't know you had it in you, Dad."
Mr. O'Neil shrugged with a smirk, albeit somewhat of a sheepish one. "I had my rebellious days, too, y'know."
"Remember, Mr. O'Neil, spiral pattern," Leonardo reminded him.
"Right."
Mr. O'Neil took them around and around slightly larger groups of blocks, running down Kraangdroids left and right with the Shellraiser following close behind.
"I think that should be enough," Donnie said. "Take us back near the center and find someplace for us to get out!"
Mr. O'Neil took them back to where they'd started circling and then a few blocks beyond, where he found an unguarded alleyway to duck into. He quickly cut the engine, and everyone held their breath and listened.
"I don't hear anything," Raph said after a few seconds. "I think we're in the clear."
"I'll be right here when you need me," Mr. O'Neil said as they got out. He put a hand on April's arm when she unbuckled and made to leave.
April looked up at him.
"Come back safe." He wrapped her in a hug, which she returned, then gave her a good-luck pat, and let her go.
Like a well-oiled machine, everyone else opened the back and took out the spike launchers and their ammo.
"The Mutanimals should be finding a place to park nearby," Leo whispered. "Let's take these up to the rooftops and wait for them."
The turtles, Splinter, and April snuck up a fire escape and climbed the building beside them. They stood on the roof, surveying the marching Kraang from a safe distance.
"Where are the Mutanimals?" Donnie hissed.
"Give them time," Leo responded. "It might have taken them longer to find a spot."
So the six of them busied themselves with watching the Kraang.
Seconds ticked by.
Then minutes.
"Maybe we should go looking for them," Mikey suggested. "What if they got into trouble."
"We're capable of handling ourselves, thank you," came a voice from behind them, startling them all into fighting stances.
"Slash!" Raph whisper-shouted, offering his friend a fist bump, which Slash accepted with the arm that wasn't in a sling.
"Yeah, relax, dude. We've only started giving the Kraang a beatdown," Casey agreed.
Leatherhead, Rockwell, and Jason climbed the building's opposite fire escape and promptly joined them.
"Here are the aerosol cans," Rockwell said, handing them out as he explained, "I'm afraid there are only two available per person, and we're going to have to use some of them now. The streets may be safe to walk, but the sewers are still flooded with gas, and if we're to place the launchers at the grates as planned, we'll need to clear a little space to place them without our hands getting eaten."
"We'll have to split up to get them all placed before these guys figure out something's up," Leo said, trying not to falter at his baby brother's horrified expression. "Donnie and Raph, you're a team. Splinter, April and Casey, Slash and Rockwell, Leatherhead and Mond- er, Jason, and Mikey and I will all split off and tackle one area of the map each. Meet back in the Shellraiser and Party Wagon when you're done. Is that clear?"
Leo received several nods, and everyone separated to spread out across the indicated area.
Michelangelo watched them all go with wide eyes, and ran towards Raph and Donnie with an outstretched hand as they jumped off the rooftop.
Leonardo approached him and put a hand on his shoulder. "They'll be fine."
He could feel through his shoulder when a chill ran up Mikey's spine, and the youngest started tapping at one of the aerosol cans tucked under his arm with his opposite hand.
"Remember to breathe," Leo said as he gently led Mikey towards a patch he hadn't seen anyone else leave towards.
By the time they got to the street they needed to trap, Michelangelo hadn't calmed down any, but he hadn't spiraled out of control, either, so Leonardo tried to direct the orange-clad turtle's attention to the task at hand by pointing out sewer grates on either side of the block.
Just as the patrolling Kraang guard had passed the first grate, Leo jumped down and ran to it.
As Rockwell had said, a bit of red-orange smoke still puffed from the sewers.
Leo clipped the loaded spike launcher into place as Donnie had instructed and ducked back into a darkened alleyway. He peered around the corner at the street as the guards passed the second grate.
He saw Michelangelo duck out onto the street, spray the second grate, clip the launcher onto it, and duck into an alley a few buildings away.
Leonardo smiled and climbed a fire escape to go back on top of the building where they'd left their remaining launchers. Mikey joined him a few seconds later, and ran into him at full force, enveloping him in a bear hug.
"Oof!"
Leo patted him and pried him away after a few seconds before gesturing for them to pick up their launchers and continue onto the next block.
Mikey seemed a little calmer than he had a few seconds prior, but not as much as before they'd placed the first launchers. The telltale tap-tap-tap of his fingers on the spray can grew a little faster.
That was okay, Leo assured himself. Mikey had done it; Leo would just have to make sure his little brother remained calm enough to complete his task.
Something easier said than done, he realized when they jumped the street and placed the next set of launchers.
Mikey placed the next few sets flawlessly, but each time, he clung to Leo like glue afterwards, and each time, the tap-tap-tap grew a little bit faster.
Just two more sets, Leo told himself as they jumped over the street onto the next block. He surveyed the block for only a few seconds before pointing to the grate he wanted Mikey to take.
Mikey shook his head.
Leo held up two fingers. Just two more sets. That was all.
Mikey ducked his head half into his shell.
He wouldn't budge unless Leonardo pushed him.
The blue-clad turtle seized his opening in the Kraang's pattern and placed the first launcher before ducking into the alley.
"Come on," He whispered.
The Kraang passed Mikey's grate. Leonardo waited. And waited.
Michelangelo missed his window.
Leo's first instinct was to step into the street and see what had happened, but the next round of guards turned the corner and forced him to duck further into the alley to avoid being spotted.
They passed Leo's grate. Then Mikey's.
Seconds ticked by. Mikey was going to miss his window again.
Just when Leo was about to leave to go check on him, Mikey ran across the street and knelt by the grate.
Leo stifled a gasp. The next patrol would round the corner in a matter of moments.
Mikey sprayed the grate, went to clip the launcher, and fumbled with it. He caught it and clipped it in, but at that moment, Leo could already hear the approaching footfalls of the next guard about to round the corner.
Apparently, Mikey knew they were about to come, too, because he ducked behind a trashcan.
Not exactly the most covert of hiding places.
Leo held his breath when the Kraang rounded the corner. If they looked at the trashcan from the wrong angle, it was all over.
The Kraangdroids passed the first grate. Then the second. They passed the trashcan, and rounded the corner.
Mikey bolted for the alley, and Leo let himself breathe again.
One more to go.
When Leo reached the rooftop again, Mikey latched onto him so tightly he thought his blood would stop flowing. His little brother's breathing was shallow and uneven.
Leo patted his shell and let Mikey cling onto him for a while. "It'll be okay," he whispered. "We're almost done. Just one more."
Mikey gulped and looked at the offending launchers like they were ten feet tall and had venomous fangs.
Leonardo gently peeled Mikey's arms away and picked up the last two launchers before handing Mikey his. "One more block."
They jumped over the street to the next block and waited for their opening.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
Leo gave Mikey an encouraging nod before taking his window, placing his launcher, and ducking into the alley.
Mikey's window opened. He leapt down, placed his launcher, but instead of ducking into the nearest alley, immediately made a beeline for Leo.
Leo heard the footfalls of approaching Kraangdroids.
As soon as Mikey came within reach, Leo grabbed him by the arms and pulled him into the alley, where he pushed both of them down behind a dumpster as the guards passed by.
"You can't do that!" Leo hissed once the robots were out of earshot.
Mikey looked as though Leo had slapped him. "I'm sorry," He said, burying his head in his arms. "I'm sorry."
Leonardo sighed and patted Michelangelo. "Hey. It's- it's okay. It's all over now. We can go back and see the others now."
That got his attention.
Leo helped him up, and together, they retraced their path to where the Party Wagon was parked.
Raphael and Donatello stood on the adjacent rooftop, waiting.
"Where were you?" Raph snapped. "Everyone else has been back for hours now."
"A few minutes," Donnie corrected. "But yeah, we were getting worried."
Mikey raced forward and half-tackled both of them in a hug, nearly knocking the wind out of them.
"Sorry, guys," Leo said. "We had some… complications."
"Did you get everything positioned?" Donnie asked.
Leo nodded.
Donatello shrugged himself out of Mikey's grasp and produced his T-phone. "That's all of them, then. We'll see whether or not this plan works in three… two… one."
He tapped his screen, and the jolt of machinery echoed throughout the nearby streets.
Glints of silver flew through the air, then countess Kraangdroids dropped onto the ground as once as if it were all part of their synchronized rhythms.
The Kraangdroids from the streets around the target building noticed the commotion. After some hesitation, they filled in the empty streets to take up guard and examine their allies' sudden drop.
"It's go time," Donnie reported into his phone.
"You got it," Casey's voice responded.
The turtles climbed down the building and loaded into the Party Wagon where Splinter and the O'Neils were already waiting, then Mr. O'Neil turned the key again, and their rampage of crushing Kraang under their wheels continued.
"There are still a lot of Kraang guarding the entrance of the building, April observed as the van drew nearer.
"We'll have to make a run for it," Leo said. "No one get out of the Party Wagon until the Mutanimals are here."
That proved not to be a challenge, as the moment after he said that, the Shellraiser zoomed up to the Party Wagon's side.
The two vehicles mowed Kraang down right up until the entrance, at which point Mr. O'Neil and whoever was driving the Shellraiser slammed on the brakes.
Everyone flooded out of both vehicles, exposing themselves to a sea of bursts of light and noise and complete and utter chaos.
"Forget everything else! Run for the entrance!" Leo shouted.
The entrance that was leaking toxic, red-orange gas, that was.
As soon as they got near enough, everyone started spraying the entrance with the aerosol containers.
A patch in the gas cleared out for them, and they ducked inside.
"Uhh, I think we just trapped ourselves," Donatello pointed out.
Gas closed in on their sides; the Kraang fired at their backs.
Leonardo spotted a panel on the wall right beside the entrance and punched it.
A big, heavy, metal door crashed down between them and the Kraang.
"Okay," Leo said. "That's one problem solved."
"We need to hurry," Donnie said. "Most of us are already down one out of two spray cans, and who knows how much ground we still need to cover?"
"Then let's move fast," Leo said, taking the lead alongside Slash.
The two of them led the others purposefully, spraying a safe tunnel for them to walk through.
Everyone else followed within the narrow tunnel's safety, spritzing the clouds every here and there to fend them off as they billowed in.
"Dude," Mondo said. "Look at the walls."
Leo squinted beside him through the fog.
The walls were lined with glass panels. Windows. To the inside?
Upon further examination, he realized that there were figures behind those windows, humanoid, but their silhouettes too diverse to be Kraang soldiers.
"This must be where they're keeping all the humans," Donnie realized. "Quick, clear me a space to the wall! I want to see if I can free them."
The group joined in spraying the area around one such window, only to find that there were no buttons, no panels, no controls of any kind.
"The controls must be in a separate room," Donnie thought out loud.
The two humans inside the visible containment saw them and gasped before running to hold each other.
Raph turned to Leo. "Well if this stupid gas does one good thing, it's that none of the humans can see us. Unless we clear it away, that is."
Jason ran up to the glass. "Wait, is that…?" He squinted in. "Mom? Dad?"
The group started. The two humans squinted back at him.
"...Jason?" the man said.
Jason smiled, tears pricking his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, it's me! Dad, Mom, we're gonna get you out of here."
The couple exchanged a glance, and looked at him again.
"That's great, boy."
Jason jumped. "...Boy? I'm… I'm your son."
The two grimaced.
Jason ducked his head. He took a step back. Then he straightened up and walked towards the glass again. "I'll- I'll be human again soon! Isn't that great? We'll get you out of here, and then I'll be a human again, and then whatever- whatever you were worried about when I was a mutant- it won't be a problem anymore!"
The man adopted a fake smile and stepped closer to the glass. "Listen. That's all great… bud."
Jason waited. "...but?"
The man scratched his head, sucking in a breath through clenched teeth.
"But… this," he continued, gesturing at Jason's entire being, "Doesn't just happen for no reason. Even if you manage to turn yourself back, it doesn't… doesn't undo whatever you did to deserve… that."
Jason stepped back, shaking his head. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything to deserve this!"
Leatherhead put a hand on Jason's shoulder and growled.
The woman and man retreated into the back of their containment, not out of any remorse, but because they now had a towering, glowering turtle, alligator, and ape hovering outside their containment.
"Let's go," Rockwell spat. "We don't have time to waste on them."
The team turned and continued on, leaving Jason to linger in front of the containment before bringing up the back.
As they continued on, Leonardo became increasingly aware of how quickly they were using up their aerosol cans, and a sideways glance at the still-healing gash on Slash's arm reminded him of what would happen should they run out. When they got to the end of the hall and reached an elevator at its close, he almost told Donnie to ignore it when his genius brother said, "Hey, look, a control panel!", but chose to trust his brother's judgement. Donnie wouldn't be one to overlook their limited time, so he must have judged the potential contents of the panel important.
Donatello cleared a path to the panel and studied it for a moment before activating it and tapping through its system- one filled with only vague menus and alien chatter, yet Donnie seemed to be able to decipher enough to get where he wanted to go in its database.
"Do you think it could unlock the humans' contaminants in this corridor?" Rockwell asked.
"No, it doesn't have a high enough security pass for that— which, makes sense, seeing as this is the ground floor and the Kraang wouldn't want anyone who just wandered in to have a lot of power over them if they found this panel— but it does give me a basic map of the building. A lot of unlabeled rooms, but judging by the amount of power and types of systems used in each, I think we can find the master controls here." He pointed at a specific room towards the building's rear, separated from the rest by a single-file line of three other rooms. "We should be able to free all the captives from there."
"What's this line of rooms for?" Raph asked, pointing to the three leading to it. "They all seem kind of… isolated."
"The only way to the control is through that path," Donatello thought aloud. "They must be security."
"You mean they're there to slow us down?" Leo said. "If we have to sneak through or fight, there's no way we'll be able to get there and back without running out of spray!"
Donnie scratched his chin. "Rockwell, did you bring your solution with you? The one that combats the fog?"
"Yes," He said, producing a bottle of the said liquid, "But I'm afraid refilling aerosol cans is a tricky and complicated process. There's no way I'd be able to do it in here, especially without any tools."
Donatello hummed and returned to the panel. He tapped around the map a little more, then pointed at a separate room. "This must be where they're spreading the fog from. Based on its properties, I judge that they must be vaporizing the fog from a liquid form. If someone can take the combattant solution and plug it in in place of that liquid, it will vaporize all of the solution and neutralize the fog in midair. That person would have to go now, though. And quick. We only have a few minutes left until we run out of spray."
"I believe Michelangelo is the quickest of all of us?" Rockwell said.
Leo grimaced. That was true, but Mikey had barely held on even when he'd had Leo to comfort him. How was he going to carry the task out on his own?
"I'll go with him," Raph said as if to answer his thoughts. "He'll need backup in case there's any trouble."
Donatello drew his bo and used it to bop the cover of a vent above them.
The cover clattered to the ground.
"You'll need to climb up two floors to get to the room." Donatello sprayed the vent's opening.
Raphael stood under the vent and clasped his hands together to offer Michelangelo a boost. Michelangelo took it, and reached down to pull Raphael up once he was safely inside.
Donnie tapped the elevator's downward arrow. "The rest of us are going ten floors down."
"Good luck, guys," Leo called to his brothers in the vent before leading the rest into the elevator.
He held his arm out to keep the doors from closing until everyone was inside, then let the doors slide shut, and the elevator jolted and sank.
Down, down, down. The numbers on the elevator's indicator sank lower, lower, lower, until the box stopped at -10.
"First security room," Donnie reminded them. "Everyone get ready."
Leo drew his katanas. "Let's find out what's behind door number one."
The doors slid open.
Leo saw what stood on the other side and slouched. "Oooof course."
A small army of biotroids turned to stare at them upon hearing the elevator's chime.
Jason raised his fists in a fighting stance, though Leo saw a slight tremble in his shoulders. "This isn't so bad. I mean, there's only like, fifteen of them, right?"
Donatello emitted a fake laugh. "You've never fought a biotroid before, have you?"
Jason turned to respond and Leatherhead grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back just as a giant fist punched the elevator's floor where he'd been standing.
The elevator's floor dented and folded in on itself like cloth, rattling the resulting CLANG around the enclosed space and through their heads. The noise was as bad as the jolt.
Jason gulped. "I see your point."
Casey fought the clouds back with his spray can and ducked by the gorilla robot's arm, clearing a path for the rest of them to escape.
"Go!" Donnie yelled to the rest, following him.
As Leo's allies fled, the biotroid righted itself and raised both its fists over its head, the Kraang perched at its controls glaring down at the line of people and mutants maneuvering around it.
It swung its massive arms as Rockwell passed under them.
Rockwell caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up at the towering robot, but ran out of time to react.
Leo ducked under the robot's arms, swords crossed in an X, and caught them before they could reach Rockwell.
The impact travelled down his arms and shoulders, making his knees buckle.
The biotroid pushed down on him, making him slide backward, closer to the orange-red clouds his allies hadn't yet cleared.
The pressure eased up.
The biotroid's arms became encased in a glowing blue aura.
Leo glanced at Rockwell and saw him focusing on the biotroid, arm outstretched.
Leonardo gave a nod of thanks, then used his swords to strike at its torso.
He trimmed bits of synthetic fur off its metal skeleton and made a few sparks shoot off of the metal underneath, but did no damage.
"I forgot-" He panted- "How tough these guys are!"
"Remember, their weak spot is under the Kraang head! We need to get the Kraang fliers off them and strike at their necks!" Donatello took a running start and leapt at the robot Leo and Rockwell fought. He reached his bo staff out towards the Kraang's attachable flier and just as the staff was about to hit, he extended the blade, wedging it between the biotroid and flier. He then landed, causing his bo to separate the flier and launch it across the room.
Leo ran at Donnie, who clasped his hands together to give Leo a lift, and Leo leapt into the air, holding his katana like a spear, and stabbed the biotroid from overhead.
The robot whirred down and fell gracelessly to the ground.
Leo put a foot on it and grabbed his katana's handle. "Great." He tugged it out. "Just... fourteen more to go."
By then, everyone had almost cleared the room of clouds, though the occasional patch of fog still hung in the air every here and there, and more filtered in from the elevator shaft and the next door.
As Leo glanced around the room, looking for anyone who might have needed his help, he noticed how big the room was. His allies must have used up a lot of spray to clear it enough to fight it.
They really didn't have much time left.
"Come on, Mikey, Raph. You got this."
Mechanical whirring drew his focus from his thoughts. He looked back in time to see a giant fist inches from his face.
Leo braced himself, eyes screwed shut.
The impact didn't come.
Leo opened his eyes to find Splinter standing beside the giant machine, one of the swords he'd made for Leo wedged down the tiny gap outside the Kraang flier, Kraang still inside. Pink electricity sparkled around the sword, which Splinter quickly retrieved.
Leo smiled. Splinter smiled back at him.
The two stood back-to-back, twin katanas pointed opposite ways as they dared more enemies to approach them.
In another corner of the room, Jason distracted a biotroid by skating around it while Casey tried to beat the Kraang flier off its head like a giant hockey puck and April poised herself behind it, ready to strike.
Leatherhead and Rockwell proved themselves an effective duo. Leatherhead tore the Kraang fliers off with strong, giant claws, and Rockwell levitated any sharp debris laying around to their weak spots to finish them off.
Slash grabbed and clawed at the neck of the robot he fought, but it had learned of his weak arm and used it to keep him at bay.
Slash had yet to eliminate even one biotroid from the fight, and he growled with each failed attempt as the Kraang piloting his opponent sneered at him.
He stomped forward, it pushed him back.
Slash roared and charged it.
The biotroid drew its arm back, and connected a mighty punch squarely on Slash's shell with an audible WHAM.
Slash doubled over and fell, hands clawing over the weakened area on his shell. He went into a coughing fit, holding his head just inches over the ground.
Leatherhead rushed over to him and knelt beside him. "Slash!"
Rockwell sped over and hovered over his leader. "Oh dear! Where did he get hit?"
"Donnie couldn't have specified what door it was!" Raph yelled after checking yet another and sprinting down the hallway to catch up with his baby brother. "Seriously, you'd think he would mention that, seeing as we're in a bit of a time crunch! And by a bit, I mean a massive time crunch that we'll all die for if we don't beat it!"
Mikey stopped at the next hall's intersection and poked his head around the corner. "I think it's that one," he said, pointing to a door Raph couldn't yet see.
"And what," Raph asked, slowing down as he caught up, "Makes you say that? How is it different than any of the twenty other doors you said it might be?"
"Well, it's got guards," Mikey pointed out. "Might be important."
Raphael looked around the corner.
There were, indeed, guards stationed outside the room.
"Well." Raphael drew his sais and gave them a menacing spin. "Now we're getting somewhere!"
He charged the guards with a battle cry and kicked the first to the ground before it could even see him coming.
Another aimed its blaster at Raph, and Michelangelo speared the gun with his kasuraigama before it could charge up.
Kraangdroids surrounded the duo, who circled back-to-back, taking stock of their enemy.
Mikey glanced into the room they were guarding. "Raph! It's the right one! I see the machine thingy!"
"It's about time! Let's hurry up and show these knuckleheads who's boss!"
The duo jumped forward to attack opponents on either side of the Kraang's circle, cutting robots down while watching the other's back.
The alarm sounded.
"I swear that wasn't me!" Mikey said before Raph could ask.
"Was it the guys?" Raph asked.
Michelangelo traced the source to a Kraangdroid accessing a panic button on the wall, next to another button. "No, they're calling for backup!"
Raphael said a word Mikey thought Leo and Splinter wouldn't be fond of Raph saying in front of him. "We need to cut down the rest of these jokers and get in the room now! Before backup comes! We're running out of time!"
Mikey tried to speed up his attacks. In doing so, however, he sacrificed precision in favor of speed, and beat Kraangdroids at the same rate.
The robot Raph was fighting shoved its knee into his stomach.
"Oof!" Raphael doubled over and dropped one of his sais, which the robot picked up and stabbed at his arm.
At first, Michelangelo thought it had missed. Then he realized that the droid hadn't meant to impale Raph's wrist, but to use it to pin him to the wall.
Raph tugged at his sai, but it was buried deep in the metal wall. "It's stuck!" He resigned himself to fighting the rest of his attackers off with his free arm. "Mikey, I can't move. Go! Get the solution into the machine! There's not much time!"
Mikey finished off the last of the Kraangdroids that were attacking him and charged forward to fight the ones battling Raph. "No way, dude! I can't just leave you here!"
"If you don't go, everyone is going to die of the fog! That includes me! I'll be fine, bro, just go!"
Mikey shook his head. "No! No, nononono! We're almost done with these stupid robots! I won't leave you!"
Mechanical whirrs and approaching footsteps came down the hall behind Raphael. An army of Kraangdroids ran into view.
"There's no way we can finish them in time! Go! Leave!"
Hot panic rose in Mikey's chest. He bit tears down. The walls threatened to crush him. Threatened to close in along with the red-orange gas billowing ever closer as the spray wore off.
"I- I can't!"
Raphael met his frantic eyes with sympathetic ones. Then his attention settled over Michelangelo's shoulder, and he gasped. "Mikey! More are coming behind you!"
Mikey turned and charged forward. He would hold them off! He wouldn't let the Kraang give Raph any more trouble! Raph already had his hands full!
He skidded to a stop. There were no Kraang.
He turned around. The approaching army had reached Raphael.
Raphael gave Michelangelo a sympathetic look, dropped the sai in his free hand, curled it into a fist, and punched the second button.
A heavy metal wall crashed down, splitting the hallway in two.
The wall made the sounds of lasers and fighting sound so distant, but they were right there!
"No!" Mikey charged the wall and beat his nunchucks against it. They didn't so much as make a dent. "Raph!"
Raph was right there! Right there! On the other side of that wall! With the Kraang and the control panel.
"Raph!" Raph needed him! He couldn't leave him alone! He couldn't leave him alone!
Mikey didn't stop pounding at the wall, though his wild efforts didn't even leave a scratch. "Raph! RAPH!"