The holding cells rocked and rattled. The two mutant creatures had become so large that they nearly burst the steel-reinforced cages.
"Their cells will no longer hold them," Shredder said. He loved the vicious sounds the animals made, too.
"Nggh," Tatsu agreed.
"Let them out," Shredder commanded.
"Nggh?" Tatsu asked.
Shredder nodded. "It's time they learned who their master is."
"Ngghhh..." Tatsu said doubtfully.
"Remove the bar. And leave us."
Tatsu hesitated, but he did as he'd been ordered. The art of ninja had taught him to move quickly. As soon as he'd opened the cages, he fled from the room, closing the door behind him.
"Come forth!" Shredder commanded the mutants. Rose stood nearby, ready to help him if necessary.
The first creature to step out had once been a wolf. Now it was a gigantic snarling, growling, roaring mutant lupine. Saliva dripped menacingly from its bared teeth. Shredder smiled coldly. He named it Rahzar.
Then came the other mutant. It had been born a snapping turtle. Now, it was a great deal more. For one thing, it was enormous. It opened its beak, seeking something to bite. Even Shredder was impressed by the span of its jaw. When the mutant snapped its beak shut, Shredder could imagine Turtles and rats meeting their doom. His eyes gleamed with pleasure. He named the snapping turtle Tokka.
"Incredible," Shredder said. The animals stepped towards him. He spoke to them. "Yes, come forward," he invited them. "Attack if you will. But when it is over you will call me 'master'."
The animals stopped suddenly.
"Ma...ma..." Rahzar said, trying to repeat the last word Shredder had said.
Tokka tried then, too. "Mama?" he asked.
Shredder was not pleased. Rose sniggered quietly.
"Mama, mama," Tokka repeated. Rahzar did the same. Their young mouths had trouble with the syllables, but they each seemed pleased to have accomplished their first words.
Shredder was very displeased. Rose was laughing properly by now.
"Babies! They're babies!" Shredder roared, bursting through the door to the hut. In anger, he picked up everything in his path and threw it helter-skelter all over the place. He was furious.
When he finally returned to the hut, he found his two mutant babies playing on the floor of the building. Rahzar sat willingly while the professor examined him. Nearby on the floor, Tokka had a length of six-inch-diameter pipe. He played with it like a kitten would play with a string. Rose was sitting with them, smiling at them.
Professor Perry faced Shredder's fury with a shrug. "Well, what did you expect? Thought they'd come out quoting Shakespeare?"
Shredder didn't try to hide his disdain. "They're stupid!" he said.
The professor shook his head. "They're not stupid," he contradicted Shredder. "They're infants."
"OK, then, they're stupid infants," Shredder conceded.
Just then Tokka picked up the pipe and bit it into two pieces. Even in a "stupid infant", it was an impressive, and frightening, display.
"Put that down!" Shredder said sharply. Without hesitation, Tokka put the pipe back on the floor and lowered his head as if he were ashamed of himself. Rose stroked his big head, attempting to comfort him.
"Fortunately they seem to have decided you are their mother and they want to obey you."
It didn't seem like much consolation to Shredder. "They are of no use to me like this. Tatsu, see that these two 'things' are destroyed!"
Rose sprang up from the floor then and faced Tatsu, a fierce look on her face. Tatsu was startled, but bowed his head and told her obediently, "I will not obey, Mistress."
Rose turned her head to look just as fiercely at Shredder, who was also startled, but said nothing. Then she signalled the mutants to follow her out of the hut, to the junkyard.
"They may be intellectually inferior..." the professor said.
Shredder was looking out the window. The professor joined him. They both saw that the mutants had started playing a game of piggy-in-the-middle, with Rose in between them. What made it different from other games of piggy-in-the-middle was that what they were tossing around was a seven-hundred-pound engine block!
"...as you can see, they do have other attributes." the professor finished.