As the turtles continued to fight, more and more Kraang appeared. They slowly progressed through the base despite the constant onslaught of laser beams. There was no time to check the various doors they passed. They kept pushing on, hoping the aliens would stop appearing. The brothers sprinted through a passageway to find a row of Kraang between them and the end of the hall.
"Where are they all coming from?" Raphael complained. His voice was ragged despite his attempt to hide his exhaustion. He squinted as beads of sweat dripped into his eyes. The Kraang in front of them began to open fire. The mutants managed to dodge their attacks but could not get any closer to their foes. "Fall back!" Leonardo barked as he ran for cover in a passageway. His brothers followed as more and more lasers were fired. Pressing their backs against the wall, they could barely hear their heavy breaths over the laser fire.
"Is it just me, or is there a lot more Kraang than usual?" Mikey asked.
"They're not...Kraang," Donnie answered between breaths. He gripped his bo staff tightly and leaned on it; his legs trembling slightly. He rubbed his face and continued. "They're robots. There's no aliens in them. Well, for most of them." Raphael sidled to the corner of the passageway and looked back to the hall filled with Kraang. They were slowly marching forward. Just like Donnie said, there were no pink aliens in the robotic suits. There wasn't even a cavity for them. They were just regular androids.
One of the robots spotted the mutant and returned to firing. Raph quickly popped his head back behind the wall and looked to his brothers. "We need to get out of here. Quick!"
"What about Crow?" Mikey asked.
"What about her? If she was here, we'd have found her already."
Out of the corner of his eye, Raphael watched as someone ran past down the passageway. Time seemed to slow as the turtles and the person locked eyes. It was Crow. Without stopping, she looked away and ran even faster past the mutants.
"Hey!" Leo yelled as he ran after her. The others stumbled about before chasing after their brother. Cori's legs felt like they would snap, but she pushed herself as the turtle's footsteps grew louder and louder behind her. She looked back to find Leonardo too close for comfort. He reached out with one arm as he yelled out, "Stop running!"
Still running, Cori reached for her laser gun and pointed it towards the turtle. Leo's eyes widened with his mouth slightly agape. "Leave me alone," she cried as she shot wildly behind her, unable to aim without looking. Leonardo jumped to the side, avoiding the lasers. They whizzed past him, heading towards his brothers. A pink laser flew towards Donatello's head. Right before it hit him, Raphael tackled his brother to the ground. Mikey slowed down to help, but Raph waved for Mikey to continue on. "Catch her already," Raph shouted. Mikey nodded and sprinted off.
"Thanks, Raph," Donnie said with a dazed expression.
"Don't mention it," Raph responded in a low grumble.
Leonardo paused and watched his brothers recover as Mikey rushed past. Cori did not spare another glance as she turned into another passageway. Michelangelo's lungs began to ache as he continued the chase, but he grew faster and faster with each step. He drew out his nunchucks when he was only a couple feet away from the teenage girl and whipped the chain towards her. Cori fell forward, smashing her head onto the ground. Her gun skidded out from her hands and slid forwards. She rolled herself over and looked down at her legs, which were now wrapped in metal chains. She pulled at it frantically while Mikey walked over to her.
"Dude, can you stop running for five minutes!" The turtle stood over her panting. Cori tried to crawl backwards, but Mikey pulled the chain taut. She rested on one elbow as she dove into her pocket for her knife. She whipped it out and was about to slash at Mikey when Leonardo grabbed her wrist. Cori did not even notice him catching up with his younger brother. He squeezed her wrist until she dropped the knife. As it fell, he grabbed it with his other hand. Cori groaned as he continued to hold her arm. Raphael and Donatello finally jogged over.
Donatello watched from a distance as Raph stormed over to the girl. "You got a lot of nerve trying to shoot at us like that. You almost killed Donnie!" Cori ignored him and tried to pry her wrist out of Leo's grip.
"Let go of me!"
"Hey, are you even listening to me?" Raphael crouched down and grabbed the front of her jacket, pulling her close.
She turned her head over to him. Her hood had fallen down revealing her knotted brown hair. The red scarf that usually hid the lower half of her face hung loosely around her neck. While her nose was hidden behind the beak of her bird mask, Raph could see some blood dripping down it onto her lips. She hissed as he pulled her close to his scowling face. Leonardo let go of his grip and pushed his brother off of the girl.
"Calm down, Raph."
"Calm down? She tried to kill us!"
"Not to interrupt things," Donnie interrupted, "but we should probably hide before the rest of the Kraang find and kill us."
"Donnie, see if you can unlock one of these doors," Leo ordered, gesturing to the several doors that lined the hallway. Donatello nodded and ran over to a door. He immediately started to fidget with a device bolted onto the wall beside it. Leonardo motioned to Mikey with a head nod. His younger brother understood the order, despite no words being spoken, and loosened his grip on the chains that wrapped Cori's legs. While Mikey unraveled his weapon, Leo walked over and picked up the dropped laser gun. He hid it partially behind his shell with one hand, ensuring Cori could not reach out and grab it.
Mikey slid his nunchucks back onto his belt and held out his hand towards Cori with a bright smile. She looked at his hand for a moment. She stared at it, counting the few fingers he had compared to her human hands. He was otherworldly and alien, but his outstretched palm was reassuring. She finally accepted his help and pulled herself up from the floor. She stood next to him and her tender wrist silently. Raphael glared at her while waiting for Donatello to unlock the door.
Down the hall, the group could hear the sound of metallic footsteps. "Hurry up, Don!" Raphael yelled.
"Oh, sure. Yell at me. That'll make me work much faster," Donnie replied. He poked his tongue out as he pressed several buttons. Suddenly, the door slid open. "Got it!" Raphael and Donatello rushed into the room with Mikey pulling Cori along. Leo looked around cautiously before heading inside after his brothers. "Whoa," Mikey said slowly as he looked around.
They stood on a metal grated walkway inside a large circular room. It was dark inside save for the light emanating from large pools of melted metal below. The heat from the metal made the air hot and thick. The burning sulfur smell made it almost toxic to breathe. A large conveyor belt laid out in front of them. The belt moved slowly as it carried numerous robotic figures. They stood motionless as various mechanical arms and tools assembled them. Below the conveyor, molten liquid was siphoned out the pools and poured into various molds.
"Incredible," Donatello watched with pure fascination. "It's some sort of factory! It's so efficient, especially at such a large scale. I wonder how they manage to—"
Raphael punched Donnie roughly and said, "Can we admire the alien tech after we get out of here?" Cori leaned over the rail and followed the movement of the conveyor belt. She wiped the sweat off the back of her neck and watched as the robots were placed into pods with a giant metal arm. Near the beginning of the walkway, there was a box with levers. The claw looked to be controlled by the levers but at the time seemed automated. Rows and rows of pods were stacked all the way to the ceiling along the walls. She resisted the urge to cough as she breathed in the nauseous gasses from the swirling pools below. Leonardo grabbed the railing and stood next to Cori. The metal railing was warm, but not too hot that he had to let go.
"Guys, those robots kinda look like...footbots."
His brothers joined him at the edge of the walkway. Mikey leaned over a little too much and tottered until Raphael pulled him back up. Leonardo was right. As the robots reached the end of the belt, they were dressed in the ninja garments they were unfortunately familiar with.
"What's a...footbot?" Cori asked. "It's none of your business," Raph responded sharply. Cori frowned and continued to ask, "So, this whole place is a factory?"
"It looks like it."
This time, it was Donatello's turn to answer. "That must be why there're so many Kraang bots in this base. They were getting them directly from the source." He gestured widely with his arms towards the whole room, smiling slightly. Cori's heart sank as she came to a realization. "If this is a factory, then that means no mutants."
"Uh, probably not. But, why would you—"
"We need to destroy this place," Leo said abruptly. The others shot him a curious look. "What are you talking about?" Raphael asked. Leonardo pushed himself off the railing and continued. "This is where Shredder has been getting his footbots from. If we take out the base, he'll be short on allies. We might actually get the upper hand for once."
"Shredder?" Cori asked. "Am I missing something? What are you guys even talking about?"
"I said, it's none of your business," Raph said as he pointed towards her angrily.
Leonardo stroked his chin and gazed at Donnie. "What do you think, Don? Is there some way we can shut this place down?" Donatello's eyes moved around as he formulated a plan out loud. "Well...A factory this big will need a lot of power. There must be some type of generator room in this base. If I can get to it, I might be able to sabotage the power source. But, this place is huge. It would take forever to find a room like that without a map If we had just found the control room…"
"What does it look like?" Cori asked. Donnie turned to her with a perplexed expression.
"What?"
"What does the control room look like?"
He raised an eyebrow to his brothers before saying, "I don't know. There would probably be some type of console where you could access the Kraang database."
"Would there be a lot of screens on the walls?"
"Uh, I don't see why not."
"I know where it is."
The turtles glanced at one another. Raphael shook his head disapprovingly at Leonardo, already knowing what he was going to say. He furrowed his brows and frowned, but it was not enough to convince his brother.
"Here's the plan," their leader started to say. "She's going to lead me and Donnie to the control room. Once there, Don does his thing and shuts the whole place down."
"What about us?" Mikey asked.
"You and Raph will go around destroying as much of the factory as possible. I think that's more of your guys' speed."
Mikey smiled and held out his hand for a high five from Raph. His brother ignored it. Leonardo nodded and said, "Alright boys, let's get to work." He and Donnie turned to leave. Cori hesitantly walked behind them. She looked back to find that Raph and Mikey had already begun on their mission of destruction. Michelangelo laughed giddily as he knocked robots over one at a time. Their metal bodies clanged loudly as they crashed onto the floor.
"Cori, you coming?"
Hearing her name electrified Cori, spinning her around. Leo watched her as Donnie peered out the doorway, searching for Kraang.
"How did you—"
"I'm trusting you to watch our backs," Leo interrupted as he held up her laser gun. Her eyes flicked down to the gun and back up again to Leonardo. He shook it a bit when Cori did not take it immediately. She grabbed the weapon, holding it with both her hands. Leo continued to stare at the girl with intense blue eyes. He studied her, waiting for a reaction. Cori nodded and pulled her hood back up. Leo said nothing and joined his brother at the doorway. Cori wanted nothing to do with the turtles, but helping them was her only option. She followed the two brothers out the door, gripping the gun tightly.