This Whole Situation

Baron Draxum watched the eight turtles without showing the deep curiosity consuming him. On his shoulders, Huginn and Muninn fidgeted, failing to do the same thing.

Where were these new turtles coming from? He would have known if someone else in the Hidden City had experimented with mutagen. And they carried weapons, too. Were they warriors? Were they good enough warriors to be used in his plan against humanity? Would they, unlike the turtles he had himself created, agree to help him?

But these questions would have to wait. Right now, he needed to deal with the threat posed by Big Mama.

The spider yokai had denied being the one collecting every possible Oozesquitoe, and Baron Draxum had no proof except the word of a terrified pet shop owner - who had conveniently vanished - and his own intuition.

Draxum needed more information, and he also needed his Oozesquitoes back.

The turtles were going to help him achieve that purpose.

The eight of them were looking at him with expressions going from mild curiosity to straight out anger, including one completely expressionless. They kept silent, waiting for him to say more.

He complied.

"Turtles. I'll be brief. I'm offering you a chance to redeem yourselves by helping me against our common enemy."

"What enemy?" Mikey whispered, not low enough that Draxum wouldn't hear.

"She goes by the name Big Mama," Draxum said with as much distinction as he could muster.

That name was ridiculous. Now Baron Draxum, that was something; it inspired respect to his allies and fear to his enemies.

The turtles watched one another, looking neither respectful nor afraid.

"She's not our enemy," Leo said. "More like a dangerous crazy spider woman we don't want to mess with."

Donnie nodded melancholically. "Alas, as she's also the first adult to have ever praised my amazing inventions."

"Now you," Leo went on, glaring at Draxum, "you're the one who threw me off a roof."

At these words, Raph bowed his head, as if in shame.

The four other turtles, whose names Draxum didn't know yet, were watching in silence, gathered around their blue one.

Draxum frowned. They weren't reacting as he had hoped.

It was time for Plan B.

"Then I'm offering a bargain," he said on the same calm, reasonable tone he had chosen to address them and their obviously limited minds. "One of you undertakes a small mission for me, and I don't destroy the others. How does that sound?"

The cell erupted in uproar, which Draxum couldn't have cared about less.

If they didn't want to be useful to him as allies, they would do fine hostages.

He would be a fool not to take advantage of the situation.

Leo wasn't happy with the way things were turning out, but he couldn't say he was surprised.

Of course Draxum would try to take advantage of them. It was actually a way better fate than being killed on the spot - it bought them time.

"What would be the mission?" he asked when Raph, Donnie, Mikey, Raphael and Michelangelo had calmed down, his tone as nonchalant as ever while his mind rushed to come up with a plan - any plan.

Had they any chance to break out of this cell by brute strength? The bars looked strong. And he hadn't his portal-making sword.

"Big Mama has stolen Oozesquitoes from me." Draxum's tone made clear it was a major offense done to him. "I want you to retrieve them."

"Ooh." Leo leaned against the cell wall, bowing his head a little as if Draxum wasn't interesting enough to be looked at. "And you're too afraid to go yourself, so you're asking teenagers to do it for you. Very courageous."

From the corner of his eye, Leo could see Draxum was outraged. He smirked. It felt good to know he still had what it took to enrage his opponents.

"I'm not asking for your opinion, turtle."

Raph crossed his arms. "We won't help you. You're a villain, and we're the good guys."

This time, Leo distinctly saw Draxum roll his eyes. He had to admit, Raph wasn't too bad at annoying their opponents either.

"Then you can rot in this cell for all I care. It's portal-proof, you won't be able to use the mystical sword to get out of it. You'll be trapped forever, and slowly starve." Draxum gave them a nasty smile. "Maybe you'll even eat each other, who knows?"

Leo hoped Draxum would be too happy with his threat to notice that he, Leo, wasn't carrying such a sword.

His hope was short-lived.

Donatello had so many questions. What were these Oozesquitoes? Who was Big Mama? Why was she bad news, and why would she have praised his counterpart? What did she intend to do with the aforementioned mysterious Oozesquitoes?

But he could see now wasn't the time to ask them. Leo had taken upon himself to discuss with their captor, and Donatello really hoped he had some sort of plan to get them out of there.

He really hoped, too, that Leo was faking this uncomfortable shift as he tried to get further away from the bars and Draxum, who had just stopped smiling and was narrowing his eyes.

"Where is that sword, by the way?"

"Which sword?" Leo asked innocently.

"The sword you stole from me."

"Oh, that sword."

"So where is it?"

For a while, Donatello thought Leo wasn't going to answer. In the end, though, the blue-masked turtle shrugged.

"I lost it."

For the first time, Draxum truly lost his composure.

"Fool! You lost this sword? It is priceless!"

"Yeah, well. Stuff happens."

Draxum fumed. "You will be the one to go," he spat. "Remember, if you fail me, your brothers will die."

"What? He can't go alone!" Raph rushed to the bars and pressed his head against them.

Even if the bars were too close to each other to allow the turtle to put his arm through, Draxum took a discreet step backwards.

Donatello had to admit, Raph in his worry was particularly impressive.

"He can if I want to," Draxum said, rather meanly.

"It's okay, Raph." Leo came forwards and patted his brother's arm. "I'll do it."

Donatello had an inkling Leo was still eager to accomplish an exploit, no matter how dangerous, and that it was a perfect opportunity. Next to him, Raphael shrugged slightly, as if to indicate he thought the same but it. Wasn't. His. Problem. Anymore.

"I'll need a weapon," Leo went on.

"You can have the staff I didn't want," his brother Donnie suggested. "It's still in the armory."

Leo seemed to consider that, then shook his head. "No, thank you. There can only be one mystical weapon for me. And I will have it back."

Donatello wondered what that staff was, and whether he could have it.

"I'm sure you can improvise," Draxum whispered. "Take the blue one out of here," he ordered his gargoyles before turning around and departing in grand style.

Huginn and Muninn knew what they had to do.

First, switch on the Glass Wall Button so a glass wall would fall near the bars, completely isolating the inside of the cell.

Second, switch on the Sleeping Gas Button and wait until all turtles had fallen asleep.

Third, use the Paralyzing Button because four of the turtles had sat down and were seemingly meditating instead of falling asleep.

Then and only then did they dare enter the cell with remote-controlled pliers to move the turtle selected by the Boss.

Huginn and Muninn flew above the turtles, confused.

"Which one is the Blue One?" they whispered, their heads going from one blue-masked turtle to another.

Raph woke up with a start.

He had just had the weirdest of dreams. He had been reunited with his brothers, but then Draxum had appeared and snatched Leo before running away with an evil laugh, leaving black feathers everywhere.

Raph shouldn't have eaten that fourth pizza earlier.

He blinked, letting his sight adjust - and then he remembered.

It hadn't all been a dream. He had been reunited with his brothers.

His brothers…

Raph stood up and counted the turtles asleep on the floor. One, two, three, four, five…

Plus him, it made six. They were supposed to be four and four equals eight. Eight minus six equals two. They were short of two turtles.

Raph rubbed his eyes and counted again. To his dismay, he found the same result.

Leo was missing, and so was Leonardo.

"Wake up!" he said desperately, shaking his brothers. "Donnie, Mikey! Please wake up!"

Donnie moaned and sat down. "Did Dad break the remote again?"

"Donnie, come back to me," Raph begged.

Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo were also waking up.

"Ooh, my head." Michelangelo rubbed said head. "I hate being shot."

"Where is Leo?" Raphael asked at the same time.

Raph assumed he was talking about his own brother.

"I don't know. Our Leo has disappeared too." Raph knelt next to Mikey and delicately took him in his arms. "Why is he not waking up?" he asked desperately.

Donnie and Donatello looked at each other.

"It's probably because he's smaller than us," Donatello began.

"His organism breathed comparatively more sleeping gas than we did," Donnie added.

Donatello thought for a while. "Considering his size, he should wake up in approximately fifteen seconds."

"And three tenths of a second," Donnie added for good measure.

And indeed, Mikey woke up fifteen seconds and three tenths of a second later.

"I can't believe Leo is gone," Raphael muttered while Raph hugged Mikey. "We had just found him again. Didn't this Draxum say he only wanted one turtle for that mission?"

"I don't know." Donatello stood up. "We have to find a way out. I don't think Draxum is trustworthy. He will try to double-cross us, even if Leo manages to find his Oozesquitoes. What are they, by the way?"

Donnie took it upon himself to answer his counterpart's question. "They're mutant mosquitoes carrying mutagen. Draxum wants to infect as many humans as he can. He doesn't like them very much, I have no idea why."

"Yeah, humans are great!" Mikey added.

"How do we get out?" Raph asked, focusing on the important part. "We need to find Leo and Leo." He tapped the bars with his weapons, looking sad. "If only they weren't broken…" he whispered.

So of course Donatello had to ask him what he meant, and thus he learned about the portal Donnie had created and how it had consumed the mystical energy in Raph's weapons.

"Hmm," Donatello thought aloud. "You mean that if your weapons were powered up, you could break these bars?"

"Of course!"

"Then I think I have an idea." Donatello grinned.

Donnie was excited to see if his counterpart's idea would work. This Donatello was definitely a genius too. He had used Morse code to ask Mikey's weapon if it agreed to lend Raph's a bit of its own energy, and after a heated negotiation Mikey's weapon had accepted.

Now they were doing the transfer. The hope in Raph's eyes was so huge it almost hurt Donnie to look at him.

Not that he felt guilty for draining his weapons' energy or anything.

"I think it's working," Donatello whispered, his tone making clear that he felt as excited as Donnie did.

"Let's try it," Raph said with determination, standing up and heading for the bars. "Stay back."

Donnie obeyed. The glass wall that the gargoyles had used to make sure the sleeping gas stayed inside the cell had disappeared, so there wouldn't be glass shards everywhere, but Donnie wasn't too keen on being hit by metal pieces either.

He and the others watched as Raph took a deep breath and got ready to strike. The red hue of Raph's weapons was definitely a good omen.

KABOOM!

"Yeaaaah!" Mikey shouted. "You did it!"

"Now that's what I call a job well done," an extremely satisfied Donnie said.

His happiness was not only caused by the fact they were now free, but also by the acknowledgment that with Donatello at his side, he could enter a whole new realm of exploding thi- of interacting scientifically with the world.

Raph raised his head proudly.

"Let's go find our brothers!"

Baron Draxum was in the middle of a delicious dinner when the very unpleasant feeling that something was not going according to plan disturbed his feast.

He waved his hand and an oval appeared in the air, showing him the cell where the turtles were.

Or, more exactly, where the turtles had been.

Draxum yelled. "Huginn! Muninn! What have you done?"

The two gargoyles hurried to him.

"There were two Blue Ones!" they whined, flying erratically. "We didn't know which one to choose!"

Draxum glared at them. "What are you talking about? All the turtles have escaped!"

The gargoyles calmed down at once.

"Oh, good. It isn't us," Huginn breathed.

"Yeah, Boss, you had us really worried for a while," Muninn added.

It took every inch of Draxum's considerable self-control not to splatter them against the wall.