Chapter 3: Attack on the School
Several days later, April O'Neil walked into the Midtown School of Science and Technology. She had been up all last night helping Donnie try to rebuild Metalhead, the turtles' old robot. Now it was 8:00 on a Monday morning, and she was tired.
As she entered the building, her good friend Casey Jones came up to her. "How's it going, Red?" he asked, using the nickname he always called her by.
"I'm tired," replied April, stifling a yawn. "I only got four hours of sleep. How did patrol go last night?"
"Terrible," mumbled Casey, shoving his hands into his pockets. "No sign of Karai. I'm beginning to think we'll never find her."
The one-minute warning bell rang, letting students know that they had better hustle up and get to class.
"Well," said April, "see you later, Casey." She turned to leave.
"See ya later, Red." Casey jogged off to his P.E. class.
April entered her English classroom and slid into her seat just as the late bell rang for class. In the seat next to her sat a girl with olive skin and frizzy brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. April liked to think of Michelle Jones as her new best friend, that wasn't a mutant or a guy. She had met Michelle shortly after her good friend Irma Langstein had turned out to be a Kraang, and the two had become best buddies ever since.
They'd gone to different schools until April's father had had her transferred to Midtown from her old school, Roosevelt High, in hopes that she could get better help pursuing her dream of becoming a scientist like him. She hadn't looked forward to it until thankfully Casey had transferred with her, even if it meant begrudgingly leaving his school's hockey team to play for their biggest crosstown rivals.
Several hours later, April was in her sixth period class: geosciences. Casey was in this class, as well as a cute guy with brown hair named Peter. Today they were studying the three main types of rock. The class was notoriously easy, even labeled as a blow-off by several students. April had only taken it to help finish off her graduation requirements.
"If you'll take a look at the rock samples in the petri dishes before you," said their teacher, Mr. Joe Quesada, "you'll see examples of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphosis rock. Your job today is to compare and contrast all three types of rock in your notebooks."
The class was paired up in groups of two. April saw Peter and his best friend Ned Leeds partner up. Any ideas she'd had of being Peter's class partner were always shot down because he and Ned were inseparable. Instead she paired up with Casey like she always did.
As the class started working on the lab, April noticed a blond girl looking over at Peter. She groaned. Betty Brant was a notorious flirt. If she was going after Peter, he was in for trouble. As April watched, Peter looked up from his work at Betty, who gave him a little fingertip wave.
Oh, brother! April tried to concentrate on her work. She looked over at Casey, who was busy drawing a pencil image of himself defeating the Shredder. She sighed. She knew she would get no help from him. April picked up the igneous rock and jotted down some notes.
Next was the tray of sand. Studying it carefully, April wrote down some notes in her notebook, then pushed the tray in front of Casey.
"Um, April?"
It was Casey, holding the tray in front of her face. April looked closely, and saw something.
The sand in the tray was moving.
April screamed, and Casey dropped the tray in disgust. The sand spilled out, and continued to move. Around her, April heard the screams and shouts of other students observing the same phenomenon in their samples.
The sand slowly and collectively moved to the front of the room, where it collected into the shape of a man. The man wore a green shirt and brown pants, and took on the appearance of a normal human. But then his fists turned to sand.
"Where is the Spider-Man?" he asked the class, who was frozen with fear.
When no one answered he became angry. "Answer me!" he commanded, plunging his hands into the ground. Moments later several sandy creatures climbed out of the floor like it was the zombie apocalypse. This was too much for the class, who ran screaming out of the door and into the hall.
The sandy man followed as more sand goons appeared out of the ground. They formed a barricade in front of each exit, blocking anyone from escaping.
Out of nowhere an immense man plowed through the main doors. He looked like he was wearing a rhino skin, being covered in a bulletproof polymer mat rhino-like hide. Two horns protruded from his head, capable of penetrating two-inch plate steel. "I'm the Rhino!" he shouted.
"And I'm Sandman," said the other man. "And we want to know . . ."
". . . where is Spider-Man?!" both of them finished at once.
April had taken cover behind a table in the science classroom when the class had run out. Now she took her custom-built T-phone out of her pants pocket. Donatello had invented them as the turtles' primary means of communication when missions required them to spread out. A while ago her phone had been stolen by the Purple Dragons and eventually destroyed, so Donnie had given her a T-Phone to replace it. She dialed Leo's number, and waited anxiously as the call went through.
"Hello, this is Leonardo," the recorded message said. "I'm not able to come to the phone right now, but please leave a message and I'll try to get back to you."
"Leo, you guys need to get over here," said April. "Weird things are happening. Hurry!"
Pocketing the T-Phone, April took out a black tessen, or Japanese war fan, from her back pocket. Though it looked like an ordinary fan, it was in fact made of metal, and had a razor-sharp edge. Splinter had given her the weapon as her own.
April stuck her head out of the classroom. Down the hallway she could see Sandman and Rhino. Their backs were turned to her. Drawing her arm back, she flung the fan at Sandman with all her might. The weapon flew towards the vile villain-
-and passed on through him. Sandman was in his softest state, and the part of his body that the tessen had struck trickled away like grains of sand. Just like that, the fan-shaped hole in his body reformed itself. He turned to see April standing in the hall.
"So, a heckler, eh?" He stretched his sandy limbs toward April but stopped as a hockey puck exploded out of the side of his head. "What the-?"
Looking behind her, April saw her good friend Casey Jones. Only he wasn't recognizable as himself. He was in his vigilante outfit. He wore a custom painted goalie mask with skull face paint, a hockey blocker glove with spikes, spikey goalie pads, and custom skates. He held a wooden hockey stick in his hands, which he had used to hit Sandman with the puck. A goalie stick, a baseball bat, and a cricket bat were strapped to his back.
"Leave her alone, you freaks!" he shouted to the villains.
"What's this?" Sandman asked. "A hero?"
"Make that two," said a voice. A figure in a red and blue costume hung upside down from the ceiling by a sticky white rope. April heard whispers of Spider-Man circulating through the crowd.
"Two heroes?" Rhino pounded his big fists together. "Double the smashing!"
"Nice one, Rhiney," said Spider-Man. "I'm surprised that thick head of yours could come up with that one."
"Don't make me angry, Web-head," Rhino warned. "I'll make mincemeat out of ya. CHAAAAARRRRGGEEE!"
As the villains attacked, Spider-Man called out to Casey. "Hey mystery man! I've got Sandman. You take Rhino!"
"The name is Casey Jones!" Casey retorted as he skated into action.
April's phone buzzed. Leo was returning her call. She answered it. "April!" Leo said. "What's the situation?"
"Two guys named Sandman and Rhino are attacking our school," April responded. "Casey's fighting them off."
"We're about a block away," the turtle leader said. "Just hang on!"
Meanwhile, Spider-Man was having a tough time fighting Sandman. Spidey normally stopped criminals with a single punch. However, it was not so easy when your target was a heap of sand. The villain's sandy body easily slipped through his fingers. "Can't seem to hit your target, Wallcrawler?" taunted Sandman. "Let me give you a hand! Ha ha!" He reshaped his fist into a rock-hard, spiked club and sent Spiderman flying out the window in a shower of sand.
"Just great," said Spidey. "I'm going to have sand in my suit for weeks!"
Rhino charged down the hall at Casey, who easily dodged the attack on his skates. As Rhino screeched to a halt, Casey did a 180-degree turn and leaped, holding his hockey stick over his head. "Goongala!" he shouted, smashing the stick over Rhino's head. The hockey stick shattered.
Before Casey had landed, Rhino's massive hand grabbed him. "Let go of me, you freak!" Casey cried, squirming in the big thug's grip. He extended the homemade taser from his hockey glove and jabbed it into Rhino's face. Electricity coursed through the giant villain's body.
"YEEOOW!" screamed Rhino. He threw Casey down the hall. Casey hit the ground hard and slid several feet before coming to a complete stop. Rhino stood bent over, catching his breath as Casey removed the second hockey stick off his back.
"Now, I'm mad!" Rhino roared. He charged towards Casey at full speed. But suddenly a large vehicle drove through the wall and slammed into Rhino like a tank, knocking him off his feet. When the smoke and dust cleared, Rhino was trapped underneath the car, out cold.
The turtles jumped out of the Shellraiser Mark II. Casey was awestruck. "Whoa. What is that?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Donatello said smugly. "Just a rebooted and resuited version of the Shellraiser, now better than ever."
"Looks like you actually built something that works for once," Casey retorted. Casey and Donnie were not the best of friends, since each of them had what you might call a "slight" crush on April. Casey watched as Donnie's face turned the color of Raph's bandanna.
Leo ran over to April. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," said April. "But there are still hundreds of people in trouble." The sand goons had rounded up all the students and faculty and held them captive in the teacher's lounge. There were a good dozen sand goons inside, plus dozens more outside guarding the hostages.
"We need to get those people to safety," Leo said as his brothers approached.
"And let's not forget about Sandman," said Donnie.
"You mean Sand Storm," corrected Mikey.
"Mikey, I don't think-" Donnie began. He was going to say that villains with their own names wouldn't take kindly to being re-named.
But Mikey would have none of it. "Nope! As Official Namer-er, I have decreed! His name shall be SAND STORM!"
"Okay, here's the plan," said Leo. "Donnie and April, you two get your brains working to save those hostages. The rest of us will tackle Sandman."
"Yess!" Donnie pumped his fists into the air.
"Dude!" Mikey shouted. "Did you not just hear that guy's new name? It's Sand Storm!"
"What?" asked Casey. "How come Donnie gets to work with April?"
"Because the two of them will probably figure something out together, while your fighting skills will be better put to use against a super villain."
Casey couldn't argue with Leo's logic. "But . . . but . . ."
As April and Donnie walked off together, Donnie couldn't resist rubbing it in. He gave Casey a smug smile and moved to put his arm around April's shoulder. Now it was Casey's face that turned red.
Sandman now found himself facing new oppponents. "Turtles?" he said. "I'm gonna crack those shells of yours. And the skater kid. What a party?" He created multiple versions of himself, enabling him to attack Casey, the turtles, and Spider-Man from all sides.
"Oh no, dudes," said Mikey. "It's like that time we went to the beach, and fought that sand mutant!"
"Mikey, we've never been to the beach," Raph said.
"We haven't?" Miky asked. Raph shook his head. "Well, that's definitely something we need to do."
"I have," Spider-Man piped up. "And I fought this guy, too. Beachgoers were shocked to see me fighting a pile of sand, needless to say."
"Who are you calling a pile of sand?!" Sandman whipped up a sandstorm and flung it at the Web-head, as the rest of them battled versions of the criminal. The turtles found that their weapons were of little use, against the unstable bodies of the sand goons.
Meanwhile, Donnie and April were hiding in a storage closet, trying to come up with a plan without being detected. "According to my calculations," said Donnie, "the composition of sand in the sand creatures should solidify when introduced to water, and immobilize them. Now, where to get enough water?"
April was getting uncomfortable in such close proximity to her turtle friend. "Uh . . . hey Donnie, how long are we gonna stay down here? My leg is cramping up."
"Of course!" said Donnie. "We simply need to trip the school's fire alarm system." They charged out of the closet.
Donnie dashed into the nearest classroom and came out with an armload of papers and textbooks. He dumped them underneath the nearest smoke alarm.
"I just need to light these on fire so that the smoke will trigger the alarm," he said.
"Or we could just pull that," said April, pointing to a red fire alarm lever in the wall.
"Ah," replied Donnie. "Yes. Of course."
They ran towards the alarm but were stopped by a sand creature who came out of nowhere. "April, pull that lever!" Donnie ordered. "I'll handle this guy." He swung his bo staff and it connected with the creature's head, which exploded in a shower of sand. The creature collapsed to the ground and quivered for a few seconds before rebuilding itself.
"Aw, sewer apples!" said Donnie.
But it was too late. April had already pulled the lever. The overhead sprinkler system came on, dousing everyone in a shower of water. The sand creature quickly solidified, and froze. Donnie beat it down to grains of sand with his staff.
In the teacher's lounge the group of sandy guards had become hard as bricks. The students pushed their way out, and April led them to safety.
Sandman had been about to crush the heroes when the sprinklers came on. "Oh, no!" the villain cried. "Not water! I can't move!" Within a few seconds he was completely solid. Spider-Man webbed him up. The villain looked none too happy.
The turtles took cover until all the students and teachers had left. Then Leo approached Spider-Man. "Good to see you again, Spider-Man. Thanks for the help. It's always nice to have an ally you can count on."
"I know what you mean," said Spidey. "No matter how many villains I bust, there's always another crook. Sometimes I feel like I don't make a difference. It feels good knowing there's someone out there fighting with me."
"So, uh, Spider-Man," said Mikey, "any chance you could come back to the lair and chill with us for a bit? We just got a cool new game called 'Ninja Fury Ultra Blast', and I'm sure you've never tasted one of my world-famous jalapeno and chocolate pizzas!"
Spider-Man threw up his hands. "My spider-sense is tingling! Looks like there's a . . . thing . . . in progress on the other side of town! The side that's, uh, not next to your lair. Sorry!" He shot a stream of web into the sky and swung away.
The turtles ran into the middle of the street, jumped down a manhole and disappeared.