I don't own anything in this chapter, but also don't make any money from doing this, so please don't sue.

The cat barmaid turned back toward her customers with a smile and a tray of mugs of foaming sarsaparilla. True, all the celebratory drinks wouldn't offset the damages done to her place, but the visitors and lawcows had agreed whoever won their card game would pay for her broken wall, glasses, and furniture. So, on this day, she would come out ahead.

The cat dropped the tray as the businesswoman's mind melted away. Her head was replaced by that of another, who wasn't happy. "What?!" A pile of programmed characters was on the floor. No turtle pets of Cody Jones were mixed in.

"Hey, what took ya so long?"

She turned to see two ninja turtles smirking at her from a table where a card game was in progress. Marshall Moo Montana and a gold mining mule grinned at her from their places in the game too

The instigator of the earlier violence there raised her voice. "You dare to mock me?"

Leonardo grinned. Whatever she had been expecting to happen, this obviously wasn't it. The vast quantity of escapees from federal prison in this saloon alone had seemed suspicious to Marshall Moo. Leo imagined it had something to do with level two and perhaps three of Cody's programmed battle scenario here. The Marshall, for his part, had decided against taking them to the local prison and had telegraphed the commanding officer of the nearest fort instead. Leo's respect for the lawcow was climbing every moment.

The turtle's leader had even explained to the bovine how he and his brothers had slipped out through the window of the room they'd left their father in, climbed along the roof outside, and slipping back in through the open window of the room they'd passed earlier. He'd seen then that room had had a bed that wasn't visible through its open door. Leo hadn't even been annoyed since things had worked out so well. After getting into that room, it had just been a matter of sneaking around on silent ninja feet to the right positions.

The Marshall and his deputies had been impressed and a lot more trusting since they'd interfered on their side and the side of the law here … in this computer program. If something or someone hadn't been trying to kill them and only left them here to search out Cody and probably Donnie as well outside, Leo could have considered the last ten minutes or so a strange vacation. He'd have to ask Cody more about this battle scenerio.

After piling up the old west criminals, with Moo and his deputies, he and Raph had agreed to a round of Saspirillas on the lawcows and a friendly card game to decide who'd pay the damages to the place. The mule miner had given them some gold dust to start with. Meanwhile, Mikey had begged the piano player to let him try out the iconic old-west instrument. The thin bull had first relented and then instructed. Mikey, after a beginning that had Raph grimacing with most of the locals and Leo at least frowning, was now playing quite convincingly.

The orange-masked turtle turned away from the keys he tickled, the tune disappearing out of the air as he did and tipped his borrowed hat back on his head. "Yeah, it's kinda what we do between kicking butt." Leo expected another scream or attack after that.

The invader did neither. Instead, the villainess' voice lowered and steadied her voice. "The child is no longer in play."

Raph stood up from the table. Leo stood with him. The hothead spoke first. "What did she say about Cody?"

The same question tightened Leo's throat. All the pride and joy from their victory in this meaningless hologram scenario melted away leaving empty space that slowly filled with fury. The child … is no longer … in play … After all this … Cody was … what?!

Then, their surroundings fizzled. It was like being in a staticky TV. The invader grabbed her tentacled head and screamed. Then, she rose into the air still bending her head back and screaming while bolts of red lightning shot out of her.

The turtles backed away. Leo barely realized all the new friends and enemies he'd made here disappeared. They stood in an empty saloon and hotel. Everything fizzled again before disappearing too along with their enemy's barmaid clothing and cat-body. For a moment, her red and orange body hung starkly against a dark sky above an alley in "their" twenty-first century New York. Then this battle setting began to spin around them. Flashes of color suggested maybe a third, fourth, or fifth setting were appearing and disappearing, but Leo couldn't really tell for sure. Hues melted into each other like a swirl of paint that was becoming darker. It was like being in the center of a kaleidoscope.

Mikey said, "I think I'm gonna hurl!" He and Raph slapped their hands over their mouths and heaved. Mikey fell to his knees. Their still screaming foe seemed to break apart into smaller pieces above them that then disappeared. Her scream trailed off into silence.

Leo and Raph grabbed their heads and stumbled back into the most solid and permanent things that seemed to be there each other. Their shells touched behind them before they collapsed into sitting positions. They then leaned against Mikey's shell too. Their surroundings seemed to stop spinning as the lights went out completely. Then the green glowing outlines of octagonal panels reappeared around them forming a spacious dome once more. Raph spoke first. "Are we dead? This don't feel like dead."

Before Leo could think of a good way to ask why that was his brother's first question, Mikey fell backward bumping into them both. They parted to get out of his way and then stared as he landed shell-first on the floor. His whine rose up between them. "Who cares as long as we get to lie down?!"

A swish on what sounded like the other side of the room was followed by a shaft of light proving that's where it came from. The turtles stared into the light tensing with their mouths slightly open. Was all better than they hoped, or worse?

Two figures, one taller and thicker with an oval-shaped torso, one shorter and slighter with what seemed to be hair sticking out of its head, stood silhouetted in the light. Both had their hands on their hips and chests puffed out. Big smiles were on their faces. The shorter and slighter one asked in a high voice, "Are you guys alright?"

Leo stood up grinning himself. His annoyance returned as his panic subsided though. He trained his eyes on Donnie and his brother and the human kid approached. "Well, look who missed all the fun."

Donnie's smile became a slight scowl as he marched forward swinging his arms forcefully at his sides. "That's a fine way to say 'thanks' for saving your sorry shells."

Leo and Raph glanced at each other. Raph spoke what Leo was still thinking. "Saving our shells?" He pointed a finger at Leo as if accusing him of making this ridiculous statement or of being in on the joke.

Leo's own mind fought to catch up. First, they were scared Cody was unconscious or dead, since he was, 'out of play' according to their enemy. That would likely have meant a distressed, unconscious, or dead Donnie too. Then the dojo went haywire, Donnie and Cody showed up fine, and now they seemed to have somehow defeated … whoever that was who'd just disappeared in front of them? He could be proud of Donnie "and" Cody if he could only learn what happened.

Donnie's grin came back in full force. He proceeded to do one of his favorite things: explain his latest success. "I cut off the power to shut Viral down."

Leo grimaced. "Are you sure?" He first pointed then upfolded and waved his hand to gesture to the glowing outlines of the panels. "What about these lights?"

Cody shrugged. "Battery powered," Donnie sent him a wide toothy grin before looking away while squinting. The younger genius went on smiling "like my pocket tab. They're not connected." The kid held up his small remote-like device, which had its own light as well.

Donnie now frowned while cupping his chin in one hand. "Uh, Cody there isn't anything else in the building that can run without being plugged into the system is there?"

As Cody scratched his head and looked up to the ceiling in thought, Leo felt his own smile disappear. He frowned instead. Beside him, Raph did the same. He thought he felt Mikey tense behind them. They all shifted forward to listen to the Cody's reply. Then they heard something else.

There was a banging on the outside of the dojo across from them. A bulge appeared in that wall, then two, then three, then four before a red arm with orange lines in it burst in. Another hand peeled back the metal surrounding that arm. A head poke in followed by a chest. The metal wall parted as the form strode in.

Cody stared at it exclaiming, "Only the new practice bots!" The kid now leaned in among the turtles who were staring at the intruder.

Raph raised and shook a fist. "You had to ask!"

Before their eyes, the shape of the practice bot changed. The waist grew narrower, and the hips, thighs, and chest grew curvier. Tendril hair seemed to grow out of its head. In addition to all this while the arms got narrower the hands and fingers grew longer until their length was equal to or longer than the figure's hair. The fingers also grew talon-like nails. Bolts of red electricity came crackling out of her.

Donnie held his own arms and hands out toward the sinister figure. "Well, this certainly wasn't in my brilliant save-the-day plan."

Their enemy commented, "I detected your clumsy gambit and found this construct charging its power core before shut-down."

Donnie got into a fighting stance during her speech. "You just made a big mistake Viral! It's ninja-time!" He pulled his bo-staff out. Leo, Raph, and Mikey drew their weapons as well.

Raph glared at Viral as he added. "Cause now you can't hide in the walls and throw your toys at us anymore!"

Mikey grinned, "Exactomundo! We're set to upload an interface of kick-butt ninja action!"

Leo wondered if that actually made sense. Then his entertainment-obsessed brother and teammate threw himself at their enemy, so he'd save that question.

Viral shot an elongating arm at Mikey. Its end almost reached Cody. He was wisely hanging back to Leo's relief. Mikey dodged under the arm rolling across the floor beneath it before coming up inside her guard. Leo, Donnie, and Raph closed in on her from other sides. Leo sliced his katanna through that too-long arm cutting it off. She turned her remaining arm into a chainsaw. He'd have to ask Donnie how that worked. She slashed these spinning blades at Raph. He jumped over the swipe. Mikey threw his nunchucks chain around her remaining arm entangling it and pulling it right off. "Like my 'disarming' personality?"

Donnie slammed his bo-staff into the bot's leg, causing Viral to contort and grunt. Raph plunged his sai into her back. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours." Tendrils of whatever made up this bot were drags out by Raph's blades. The cords were also poking out of her arm sockets. Raph jumped back the cords slipping off his sai. Then he eyed her along with the other turtles. Viral glanced around at them as they stepped toward her from four sides. If she had eyes beyond a single camera lens, Leo thought he'd see fear in them.

The dojo door opened. She ran between them and out through it. They followed Raph shouting, "What's your hurry sweetheart?!" Leo felt a little bad as they ran around and over Serling, but he wouldn't let this foe get away to hurt them, particularly his new student whom she'd seemed focused on, again.

As Viral ran up the long hallway leading to the staircases that led to an elevator door, she threw out the cords from the bot's snapped-off arm sockets. Their ends became a hand that gripped a guardrail. Like bungy cords her tossed out lines retracted drawing her up and away from them. Still, they pursued. None of them even slowed to gape. She also used the cords to pull apart the elevator doors, but there was no elevator there just an empty shaft.

Raph called out to her as he climbed the stairs. "Going somewhere?!" After reaching the landing he added, "You can shell it out, but you can't take it."

Leo stopped beside Raph. Donnie, and Mikey also arrived. As they closed in on her again, Viral shouted, "No, get away!" She backed up to the edge. Her cords reached up and in. They grabbed a door they'd earlier pried back, pulled it out, and threw it at them.

Leo glared at her after he and his brothers dodged the projectile. She had electrocuted his father, threatened his brothers, and all to get at his young, beginner student she'd casually said was "Out of play."

"Sorry you're going down." He rushed her along with his brothers. They slammed into her almost as one. The blow sent her falling down the shaft.

What did you think?

I'd like to thank my guest reviewer of the last chapter for their encouragement. It was much appreciated. :)

God bless

ScribeofHeroes