CHAPTER 17
Force lightning
This was it, the moment of reckoning. The boss fight at the end of the dungeon. Having taken out all the lesser clones, it was now up to the mighty ninja warriors to face the ultimate foe comprised of all their strongest attributes. The battle would be long and arduous, but they would strive with all their might to put an end to the cloning blues once and for all.
Wistfully, Mikey wished that there was some kind of save point that they could use. Preferably with a recovery system to get them all back to full health. It would have been particularly useful in the case of Raph, who was still in the process of throwing up the contents of his stomach and, for the moment, definitely not in a fit state to fight.
The battle stage was set, a concreted expanse outside the warehouses surrounding the chemical factory within the domain of the Purple Dragon gang. With the moon covered by clouds the illumination for their arena was patchy manmade lighting, powered by the substation nestled in one corner.
Overhead, the persistent drizzle that had been dampening the evening had strengthened to become a steady rainfall. Puddles were forming on the ground, adding a layer of treachery to what should have been steady footing across the area. All it needed now was for distant thunder to allude to an approaching storm and the dramatic setting for the climactic encounter would be complete.
On cue, Michelangelo heard the tell-tale rumbles that promised theatrical weather was heading their way. At least, he thought that was what he heard. There was a chance that it might just have been his stomach growling. The half a bowl of clone-fodder slop he'd managed to consume, before throwing the rest at Raphael, had barely made a dent in his insatiable appetite.
Nearby, Casey had enthusiastically launched himself into his ongoing grudge match with Hun. There was a clash of sports equipment, as the battle began between them. But where Casey sometimes struggled against the formidable foe, this time he had help at hand with an ally at his back. After April had ensured Raph was a safe distance away from the fight so he could continue retching in relative safety, she raced over to help her human friend in his battle.
He probably did need the assistance more than the turtles did. Even with one brother down, Mikey was confident that the remaining three would surely be able to handle the giant mutant hybrid clone of themselves. As he moved into position, as Leo had directed, he bent down to retrieve the sai that Raph had dropped and stick it through his belt.
Following the tactics they'd trained for, Michelangelo then held back initially, instinctively spinning his nunchaku as Donatello ran the initial distraction. That would then give Leonardo an opening against the Raphatellonardangelo that he could use to score the first hit, with Mikey placed to follow up.
With moments yet until his participation was called for, Mikey took the time to observe and realised abruptly that the creature was moving in an eerily familiar way. It was almost as if it had been schooled by Master Splinter just as the turtles had.
In fact, right now, it was moving with the confident strength of Raphael and, accordingly, drew a pair of oversized sais from its belt. As Donnie finished his feint, Leo leapt forward with ninjaken swinging. But the creature promptly countered exactly as Mikey knew his most volatile brother would have done. It had the perfect timing that only came from detailed prior knowledge of the attack technique and the formation in use.
One ninjaken was wrenched from Leo's hand and sent skittering across the ground. The other he managed to keep hold of, barely, as he was thrown some distance away and rolled several times before jumping nimbly back to his feet.
With Mikey's move blocked as the creature spun round, Donnie instead raced in and swung to strike the clone across the side with his bo staff. Yet again, Michelangelo saw the creature anticipate the attack and react perfectly. It briefly grabbed the end of the bo staff and used momentum to trip up and then fling the turtle hanging on the other end a short distance.
Donatello crashed into Leonardo, knocking him back to the ground. As they struggled to disentangle themselves from one another, Michelangelo unwillingly took his cue to launch an attack of his own, even though he suspected he knew exactly what would happen. Racing in, he started with a flying kick and then intended to swing round for a double blow.
It didn't work. Not just the second part, but the first part as well. As before, it was like the clone knew or strongly suspected what would happen and was able to react quickly enough to prevent it. In fact, it did exactly the moves that Mikey would have done, if any of his brothers had attacked him in the exact same manoeuvre he'd just performed. Mikey found himself smoothly deflected, then kicked over to end up in the pile with his two brothers.
"It knows all our moves, and our tactics!" Donnie stated in alarm, with the same realisation that Mikey had reached minutes previously.
The turtles extricated themselves and their weapons from one another then quickly scrambled back to their feet. Some distance away, the hybrid clone sheathed the sais and drew two oversized ninjaken.
"Well, then we're just going to need to do something it doesn't know." Leonardo decreed, confidently.
"Like what?"
"I don't know yet! If I knew, then it would already know too. So I need to know something I didn't knew, I mean know, before."
Mikey grinned excitedly. "Dudes! You want moves that no-one could ever predict? I AM YOUR TURTLE!"
His brothers stared at him uncertainly, before sharing a glance with one another.
"Actually, he has a point." Leo conceded.
"You can't be serious, Leo!" Donnie protested, incensed. "Mikey is our attack plan?!"
"Back him up." Leonardo then ordered, much to Donatello's chagrin.
"We are turtle toast…"
But despite his misgivings, Donnie still sprang off to run diversion and draw the attention of the hybrid clone. Leo, more confident, lingered long enough to give his youngest brother an optimistic fist bump before rejoining the fight.
Michelangelo returned the movement and beamed. Sticking his nunchucks back into his belt, for now, he sprinted over to snatch up the ninjaken Leo had been forced to let fall earlier in one hand and brought Raph's sai into the other.
"Oh yeah, time for my sweet ninja moves!" Mikey declared, entering the special battle stance he'd developed during his practice sessions with sensei using this very combination of weapons.
Even Master Splinter had said that he'd never seen anything like it before, and likely never would again. The tone the words were delivered in had been somewhat long suffering, but Mikey had chosen to take it as a complement anyway. After all, it meant the method of attack he'd developed was uniquely his own, impossible to predict or imitate!
Although, admittedly, that was at least partially because it tended to change and evolve on the fly. But hey, that was just how he rolled.
He waited for an opening, watching Donnie tumble out of the way of an attack while Leo dived in from the far side and was then roughly batted away.
"You can't fight like that!" Donatello protested, catching sight of Michelangelo with his unorthodox stance and weapon combination.
Mikey just smirked at him, before spotting an opportunity and charging into the fray.
"BOOYAKASHA RAPHATELLONARDANGELO!" he cheered, suddenly switching from what had looked to be a flying kick and instead sliding under the outstretched blocking arm.
"How can he pronounce that?!" he heard Leo say in mystified admiration from somewhere to the side.
The hybrid clone had not been anticipating that attack to be a feint and was helpless to prevent Mikey from hooking the sai through the belt. With a pivot point in place, he then leapt up onto the creature's shell and used the ninjaken to slice through the leather straps that held the armament belt in place.
A flick of the sai as Mikey sprang clear sent the belt flying, along with most of the weapon options the hybrid clone had access to. They fell to the ground a short distance away and with a kick from Leo slid further out of reach.
"Nice work, Mikey!" Leo called, rapidly returning to duck under a flailing attack before getting a good punch in against the now exposed side of their foe. The carapace absorbed some of the damage, but it still threw the creature briefly off balance.
From the far side Donnie used his bo staff to vault into a position where he could land a kick against the creature's shoulder, causing the hybrid clone to stagger forwards.
Donatello landed neatly with a buoyant smile, as the tide of battle seemed to have changed to their favour. "Ok, I was wrong. Mikey's got the moves!"
"You know it!"
"Oh yeah, we got this." Leo grinned, confidently. "You're going down, Raphar-rara-telly-nar-er…" he then stuttered, the threat sounding rather feeble as he fumbled the designated moniker.
"Mikey, it needs a shorter name!" he demanded, as he lunged in for another blow.
The creature, seemingly infuriated by the pummelling it was receiving, responded by grabbing hold of Leonardo's arm mid-attack. It then then yanked him forward and twisted suddenly to fling the turtle powerfully across the outdoor expanse.
Michelangelo could do nothing but watch in alarm as he saw his brother flying towards where two large shipping containers were stacked one atop the other at the side of the area. The containers were obviously disused, as they were in the process of gently rusting with small holes where the metal had already been eaten away. What remained was covered with years of gang graffiti.
With a panicked cry, Leo retreated into his shell just in time before he crashed straight through one of the weakened corrugated metal sides of the lower vessel. There was a clang as he the bounced about on the inside, before an ominous creak as the vibrations overbalanced the top container.
With a squealing groan, it lurched slightly then plummeted towards the ground. It avoided hitting anyone, but was unfortunately so positioned as to cover the Leo shaped hole that had just been created and block any easy exit that the turtle might wish to make. Assuming he was in any fit state to do so.
"Leo!" Mikey called, worriedly. He was echoed by Donnie yelling the same thing.
"I-I'll get him!" Raph shouted back, staggering towards the containers with one arm across his stomach.
Nimbly dodging as the hybrid clone swung for him, Mikey hurried to stand near his other brother. Everything had briefly been going so well. But in that one moment the tides had turned again, and this time not in their favour.
"Now what?!"
"I, er…" Donatello stammered, quickly casting his eyes around the area as he tried to formulate a plan in Leonardo's absence.
Michelangelo felt like he could see the cogs turning rapidly in his brother's mind, as he took in all the available data and tried to work it into something usable. He never ceased to be impressed at Donnie's intellectual prowess, while at the same time also finding it completely unfathomable. Why would anyone want to think that hard all the time?
Lightning flickered overhead, causing both the turtles to briefly glance upwards at the sky as it was accompanied by a loud crash of thunder.
"We should hit it with lightning!" Mikey declared, inspirationally.
"That's impossible." Donnie chided, skittering aside as the mutant clone swung for him. "There's no way to know where lightning is going to strike. Besides, with so many tall buildings in the area there's virtually no chance of-"
He hesitated, as his eyes alighted on the substation humming a short distance away. "But maybe we don't need lightning. We have electricity right over there!"
"Where?" Mikey asked, confused.
"There!" Donatello insisted, pointing to where he was looking.
Ducking under an attack, Mikey looked over to the fenced off area blankly.
Donnie groaned in frustration. "You see the picture of a man being zapped?"
"With Force lightning?"
He sighed. "Yes, fine, with Force lightning. What do you think that means?"
"Beware of Sith?"
Donatello face palmed.
"Look, just-" he started in exasperation, but never managed to finish the sentence before he was smacked in the head by the hybrid clone.
"Donnie!" Michelangelo yelped, as his brother dropped with a groan to the floor. "You didn't tell me what to do! What do I need to do?!"
But he couldn't linger in the hope of Donatello reviving enough to provide him with the instructions, as he was forced to roll to one side in order to evade being taken down in much the same way.
This was the moment he could have really used the save point, Mikey contemplated unhappily. Or some kind of enchanted elixir that would bring the team back to full health instantly. Or a summon spell that brought an enormous but friendly magical creature to come and fight the battle for them. Yeah, that would be good.
Keeping his eyes in the hybrid clone, he took a wary step backwards as he tried to focus on calculating his next move without his brothers there to guide him. From above, the incessant rain was growing steadily heavier, stinging where it struck and hampering both movements and visibility. Behind the foe, lightning continued to streak across the sky where it was accompanied by rumbles of thunder.
Another sound could also be heard, which was the distant sirens as the emergency services finally approached the vicinity. They were presumably responding to the alarm Leo had triggered inside the warehouse, in order to activate the sprinklers to wash the mutagen away.
"We need to get out of here!" April called, evidently also hearing the sirens. She and Casey were still caught up in the battle with Hun, where the two sides seemed to be evenly matched despite the disparity in numbers.
Over near the containers, Raphael had seemingly curbed his nausea enough to rescue Leonardo. He was awkwardly heaving his brother's unconscious form out of a freshly cut hole at one end of the rusted metal vessel. But this distance, Michelangelo couldn't make out whether or not his eldest brother was all right.
Seemingly tiring of trying to hit the evasive target as Mikey danced indecisively between blows, the hybrid clone turned away and reached out towards Donnie, evidently not satisfied with just rendering the turtle too stunned to move.
Stowing the ninjaken in his belt, Mikey protectively rushed forward with sai and nunchuck. The former he used to hook the foe's arm and prevent the attack, while the latter he used to smack the creature in the face.
"Leave my brother alone!" Michelangelo yelled aggressively, following up his attacks with a roundhouse kick before leaping clear.
Mikey breathed a brief sigh of relief as the Raphatellonardangelo turned back towards him, before yelping in concern as he realised he was being charged. Help came from April, battling nearby, as her tessen fan spun in front of the hybrid clone's face. While it didn't land a successful hit, it caused the creature to flinch back and check the speed at which it was stampeding.
It also gave Mikey the moment of distraction he needed to dive out of strike range and roll around to flank. Leaping back to his feet, he clipped the creature across the back of legs with a heavy blow from the nunchuck and sent the hybrid clone tumbling to its knees.
The sirens were growing louder and in the distance flashing lights could be seen that, this time, weren't related to the storm.
He had to finish this fight, and he had to finish it quickly! Donnie had said to use the substation. But how? Did he have to try and throw the enormous hybrid clone in there? Maybe there was a better way… Sheathing his nunchuck Mikey redrew the ninjaken as an idea suddenly popped into his head.
Ducking aside to avoid an attack, he then suddenly leapt onto the Raphatellonardangelo shell and jammed blade tightly into the into the folds of armour, using Raph's sai to help wedge it into place. The hybrid clone protested angrily and reached back to try and grab hold of and remove its unwanted passenger.
Narrowly dodging, knowing that he only had a few moments left before he would be caught and likely sent flying, Michelangelo drew his beloved kusarigama and wrapped the chain around the hilt of Leonardo's sword.
That was all he had time to do, before the hybrid clone grabbed hold of his ankle and furiously flung the smallest turtle away. Miraculously, Mikey managed to keep hold of the other end of his kusarigama. As he was flying through the air he maintained the wherewithal to fling the bladed end into the middle of the electricity substation.
"Oh yeah!" he yelled triumphantly as his aim proved true. "Accept no imitations... Original ninja turtles are the best!"
There was a crackle as electricity shot out and arced along the chain to reach the embedded ninjaken. The Raphatellonardangelo made its first and only sound of its entire brief existence, as it screamed horribly while convulsing from the electrical charge that was coursing through its body.
A horrible, acrid smell began to fill the air, as Michelangelo somersaulted neatly to land next to where Raphael was standing with an unconscious but clearly alive Leonardo in his arms.
Mikey hadn't expected a flurry of praise from his gruff brother, but he'd been expecting at least a little approval or pleasure that the fight was won. But instead, Raph was staring back towards where the creature was with his eyes wide. Pushing Leo towards Mikey, he started to run. But it was too late, he was too far away.
Reflexively grabbing onto Leo, Mikey turned back to see what Raph was so worried about. He was just in time to see the hybrid clone explode, with Donnie still on the floor nearby.