NOT QUITE HUMAN

Part Five: Ronins to Arms!

"Thank you for dinner, Splinter," Sage admitted.

"The sushi and sashimi were excellent," Cye added.

"Thank you," Splinter replied. The five teenage boys, Splinter, and the Turtles were having dinner in the practice area, since the kitchen wasn't big enough for all of them.

"Well, why don't you dudes have some pizza?" Michelangelo asked.

"What is that?" Ryo asked suspiciously, referring to the odd-looking toppings on the three remaining pizzas.

"We got bananas and sausage, pepperoni and ice cream, or anchovies and peanut butter," Michelangelo explained.

"Ugh! How can you eat that junk?" Rowen retorted.

"How can you eat raw fish? Yuck!" Donatello asked as he stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"I'll give it a try!" Kento announced, catching his four friends by surprise.

"Kento, you can't be serious!" Ryo exclaimed as Kento looked over the three pizzas.

"When it comes to food, he's always serious!" Cye joked teasingly.

Kento pretended not to hear Cye as he continued looking over the pizzas. "I think I'll try that bananas and sausage," Kento finally decided.

"This I gotta see!" Sage remarked as Kento took a slice of the bananas and sausage pizza and took a bite.

"Hmm…it's actually pretty good," Kento admitted after swallowing the bite he took. "You guys want to try some?"

"Umm…no thanks, Kento. We'll just take your word for it," Cye declined.

"We should be heading back up to the city. That play's supposed to start in a couple of hours, right, Cye?" Ryo asked as Cye pulled the tickets out of his pocket to check the time listed on them.

"Yeah, it is," Cye revealed as he put the tickets back in his pocket.

"Thanks for letting us come down here," Rowen admitted as he, Ryo, Sage, Cye, and Kento stood up from the floor.

"No problem, Rowen," Donatello replied as he, Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo stood up as well, along with Splinter.

"We'll lead you back up to the surface," Leonardo insisted.

"It was a pleasure to see you again, Splinter," Sage confessed as he bowed to Splinter.

"The same to you and your friends, Sage," Splinter replied.

"Come on, guys. Let's go," Ryo announced as he and his friends followed the Turtles out of the lair…

"This is very strange…" Shredder muttered to himself. He was driving the lead module with ten Foot Soldiers, followed by two more modules driven by Bebop and Rocksteady, which carried the remaining twenty Foot Soldiers. Shredder was studying a small radar screen on the module's control panel. It was showing a blinking dot of yellow light on the pale blue radar screen.

"According to that tracking device, those boys are in the sewers. But why would they be down there?" Shredder murmured thoughtfully to himself. Suddenly, the module shook violently, knocking Shredder and the ten Foot Soldiers to the floor.

"Why, I'm gonna…" Shredder groaned angrily as he took out his Com Link. "BEBOP!"

"Uh…yeah, boss?" Bebop asked a bit nervously through the Com Link.

"What was the big idea, crashing into me? What were you thinking, you idiot?" Shredder shouted angrily.

"Sorry, Shredder," Bebop stuttered, "but it ain't all my fault. Rocksteady crashed into me first!"

"Silence, you blithering incompetence!" Shredder interrupted. "Just follow me to the surface, but not so closely this time!"

"Right, boss!" Bebop agreed with a snort before Shredder turned off his Com Link.

"Now, to more important matters," Shredder muttered out loud as he sat back down…

"How much longer is this gonna be?" Kento complained as he and his four friends followed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles through the maze of sewer tunnels.

"Take it easy, dude!" Michelangelo announced.

"It's not much further. We're taking you to a sewer opening located in an alley just off of Broadway," Donatello explained.

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Sage muttered out loud.

As Ryo walked behind Sage, he noticed something unusual on his back. "Sage, what's that?" Ryo asked curiously.

"What are you talking about, Ryo?" Sage asked as he turned around to look at Ryo.

"There's something on the back of your jacket," Ryo explained.

"What is it, then? A bug? A piece of garbage?" Sage guessed as he stopped walking and took off his jacket to see what Ryo was talking about. He soon noticed the small circular piece of metal with a flashing yellow light attached to the back of his jacket's collar and carefully pulled it off.

"What the heck is this thing?" Sage asked curiously as he looked at the metal piece in his hand.

"Here, let me see," Donatello requested as he approached Sage.

"All right," Sage agreed as he handed the metal piece to Donatello. As Donatello inspected the piece, Sage put his jacket back on.

"Uh-oh!" Donatello gasped loudly.

"What's wrong, Donatello?" Rowen asked suspiciously.

"Unless I'm wrong about this, Rowen, this thing's a tracking device of some sort," Donatello reluctantly revealed.

"A tracking device? Are you sure, Donatello?" Rowen asked.

"I'm usually not wrong about these things, Rowen," Donatello replied as he showed Rowen the tracking device.

"But, who would want to plant a tracking device on us, and why?" Cye wondered out loud. As if on cue, the ground suddenly started to shake violently. "What's going on? Is this an earthquake?" Kento asked a bit worriedly.

"Highly unlikely, Kento! There are no fault lines on the East Coast of the United States!" Rowen shouted.

Suddenly, the five boys and the four Turtles saw a large hole appear in the floor, with three modules flying out of the hole and landing on the floor.

"That was no earthquake, dudes! That was a Shredder Quake!" Michelangelo exclaimed.

"Stand back, guys. Let us handle them," Leonardo instructed as he, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo quickly withdrew their weapons.

"All right," Rowen reluctantly agreed as the doors to the three modules opened and Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, and thirty Foot Soldiers stepped out of the modules.

"Step aside, you wretched reptiles! It's not you we're after this time!" Shredder announced.

"Either way, you still have to deal with us, Shredder!" Leonardo shouted.

"Bebop, Rocksteady, Foot Soldiers, attack!" Shredder commanded.

"Go, Green Machine!" the four Turtles shouted simultaneously as they charged at the incoming army of Foot Soldiers. While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fought off the Foot Soldiers and the two mutants, Shredder slowly snuck around them towards where the five boys stood as they watched the fight going on in front of them.

"We can't just stand here, guys! There must be something we can do!" Cye muttered out loud.

"Yeah, so what do you say we get armed and wipe out those robo-twerps?" Kento suggested.

"No, Kento! We can't risk our secret getting exposed," Rowen reminded Kento.

"Besides, the Turtles seem to handling them just fine all on their own."

"Umm…guys? We got company!" Ryo announced as he pointed at Shredder, who had mysteriously appeared in front of them.

"What do you want, scum bucket?" Kento retorted loudly.

"You'll soon see for yourselves," Shredder muttered out loud.

"We don't have time for your little games, Shredder!" Ryo shouted angrily.

"Silence! Now, give me your armor!" Shredder demanded, catching the five boys by surprise.

"No way! How do you know about our armor?" Cye asked suspiciously.

"I did some special research. I know that you five boys are the Ronin Warriors. Now, surrender your armor or you will fall to my feet begging for mercy!" Shredder announced with a sinister laugh.

"Oh, those are brave words coming from someone who hides behind a mask!" Sage retorted.

"You will pay for that insult!" Shredder shouted as he removed a large laser blaster from underneath his cape and aimed it at the five boys.

"Look out!" Ryo shouted as Shredder fired the weapon at him and his four friends. To their surprise, the yellow-orange laser fired from Shredder's laser blaster encased them in a large hollow orb.

"What is this?" Cye asked curiously as he pressed his hands against the wall of the orb and discovered to his surprise that it was solid.

"It's some sort of force field," Rowen muttered thoughtfully.

After wiping out three more Foot Soldiers, Donatello turned around and gasped when he saw the predicament that Rowen and his friends were in. "Stand back, guys! I'll get you out!" Donatello shouted as he leapt towards the orb, ready to swing his bo at it. To Donatello's surprise, when he struck the orb, his wooden bo snapped in half.

"Aww, man! My lucky bo!" Donatello complained as he looked at the broken piece of bo that remained in his hands.

"You wretched reptiles won't stop me this time!" Shredder proclaimed as he pressed a button on the side of the laser blaster.

"Whoa!" Ryo, Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen gasped slightly when the orb levitated a few feet off of the ground, with them still in it.

"One way or another, you will give me those armors!" Shredder remarked sinisterly as he started to walk back to the modules, with the orb containing the five teenage boys floating a few feet behind him.

"Yeah, right! You seriously think that we're just going to hand over our armors without a fight?" Kento asked sarcastically.

"What the heck is Shred-Head talking about? What armors?" Donatello muttered thoughtfully. "Well, whatever he's up to, I can't let him take my friends!" Donatello quickly did a high somersault and landed in between Shredder and the modules, blocking his path.

"Stand aside, you annoying amphibian!" Shredder demanded.

"Technically, turtles are reptiles, not amphibians," Rowen corrected.

"Now's not the best time for a biology lesson, Rowen!" Ryo muttered through clenched teeth.

"Silence, boy!" Shredder warned Rowen. "I'll deal with you and your friends later, but for now, I'll finish off your mutant friend here!"

"I'd like to see you try, Shredder!" Donatello shouted.

"Hi-ya!" Shredder shouted as he dove towards Donatello, with the long sharp steel blades extending from his fist aimed directly at Donatello's head.

"Donatello, look out!" Rowen shouted. Before Shredder could strike Donatello with the long steel prawns, Donatello quickly withdrew his head into his shell. Shredder ended up getting his steel prawns deeply embedded into the brick wall instead.

"You wretched reptile! Come fight me like a man!" Shredder demanded as he struggled to pull his hand free.

"Thanks, but no thanks, Shred-Head! I prefer to fight like a turtle," Donatello remarked as his head popped back up from within his shell.

"Smooth move, Donatello!" Kento openly confessed as Donatello picked up the laser blaster that Shredder had dropped.

"One of the many reasons why I'm glad to be a turtle," Donatello admitted as he looked over the laser blaster. "I should have you guys out of that force field in just a few seconds." As Donatello looked over the laser blaster in his hands, Shredder had managed to free his hand from the brick wall and was sneaking up on the mutant turtle.

"Donatello, watch out behind you!" Rowen shouted in warning. Donatello turned around but was knocked out cold by a quick blow from Shredder.

"Donatello, no!" Rowen shouted.

"You're gonna pay for that, Shredder!" Ryo proclaimed.

"You want to see our armor so badly, you tin creep? What do you say we show it to him, Ryo?" Kento suggested.

"Yeah, all right. Ronins to arms!" Ryo shouted as he, Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen simultaneously removed small glass orbs from their pockets. Suddenly, the immediate area became engulfed with a brilliant white light, nearly blinding everyone.

"Dude, who turned on the lights?" Michelangelo complained loudly as he shielded his eyes from the light, along with Leonardo, Raphael, Shredder, Bebop, Rocksteady, and the Foot Soldiers.

"WHAT?" Shredder gasped loudly as the force field holding the five teenage boys suddenly exploded, with the force of the explosion knocking him into the brick wall. Soon after the unexpected explosion, the brilliant white light disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.

"What the heck…" Raphael gasped slowly. Leonardo and Michelangelo were also too stunned for words by what they saw. Even Rocksteady, Bebop, and the Foot Soldiers had stopped fighting as well. The five teenage boys were now wearing Japanese-style metal sub-armor in a variety of colors. Ryo's sub-armor was red and white, Sage's sub-armor was green and white, Cye's sub-armor was light blue and white, Kento's sub-armor was orange and white, and Rowen's sub-armor was dark blue and white.

"You want our armor so badly, Shredder? Well, then, come and get them!" Rowen shouted.

Shredder just sat there with his back against the brick wall, staring at the five teenage boys in awe. His dark shifty eyes soon glanced over at his laser blaster, which he had dropped when he was knocked back by the explosion of the force field. Shredder tried to reach for the laser blaster, but before he could even touch it, Kento placed his armor-clad foot on top of the weapon. A devilish smirk spread across Kento's face as he pressed his foot down harder on the laser blaster, smashing it into little pieces.

"Oops! Looks like I broke your little toy, Shred-Head!" Kento retorted sarcastically as he, Ryo, Sage, Cye, and Rowen surrounded Shredder.

Before Shredder could say a word, the Ronin Warriors could hear obvious signs of fighting going on behind them. Ryo, Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen turned around and saw Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo fighting off the remaining twenty-five Foot Soldiers, Bebop, and Rocksteady.

"First thing's first. We have to help them," Ryo announced.

"Right!" Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen agreed simultaneously as the five teenage boys ran off to help Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

Kento ran over to Michelangelo, who had three Foot Soldiers piled on top of him. "Hey! Get off!" Kento shouted as he pulled two of the Foot Soldiers off of Michelangelo and threw them into the brick wall, causing them to smash into little pieces.

"Why don't you go join your friends, you overgrown wind-up toy?" Michelangelo asked loudly as he pushed the third Foot Soldier away from him with both of his feet, smashing him against the brick wall.

"You okay, Michelangelo?" Kento asked curiously as he pulled Michelangelo back up on his feet.

"Yeah, I'm cool, Kento. My shell's a bit scuffed, but that's nothing a little turtle wax won't fix!" Michelangelo admitted as he held his hand up in the air. "Thanks for the help, dude!"

"No problem…dude!" Kento confessed as he gave Michelangelo a high-five.

"We better help out our buds! Time to kick some shell!" Michelangelo shouted as he ran to help out his brothers.

"Rock and rock!" Kento added as he quickly followed Michelangelo.

As the Ronin Warriors and the three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fought the remaining Foot Soldiers, they never noticed Shredder dragging an unconscious Donatello into one of the modules.

"Bebop! Rocksteady! We're leaving!" Shredder shouted to his mutant henchmen.

"Sure thing, boss," Rocksteady agreed as he and Bebop ran into the other modules.

"Hey, those sleaze buckets are getting away!" Kento shouted as he ran his fists through the last two Foot Soldiers' chests.

"Come on! We gotta stop them!" Leonardo shouted as he, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ryo, Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen ran towards the modules.

"Sayonara, you shell-backed simpletons!" Shredder shouted before he closed the module door. Almost instantly, the three modules dove back down in the hole one by one, disappearing into the dark tunnel. Just as the Turtles and the Ronin Warriors reached the large drilled hole, a large geyser of red-hot lava rapidly pouring out the hole startled them.

"Whoa! Watch it!" Ryo shouted as he and everyone else cautiously stepped back. Within moments, the geyser of lava stopped and quickly cooled off, forming a rock-hard seal over the drilled tunnel.

"What just happened?" Cye asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing. Shred-Head just flooded the tube with molten lava!" Raphael retorted angrily as he tucked his sais back into his belt.

"Don't sweat it, dudes. He does it all the time!" Michelangelo confessed as he put away his nunchucks.

"One of these days, we will get Shredder and make him turn our master human again," Leonardo added as he put his katanas back into their sheaths.

"Hold on a minute. Where's Donatello?" Rowen asked when he noticed that his reptilian friend was nowhere to be seen.

"What? Donatello's missing?" Leonardo asked a bit worriedly as he, Raphael, and Michelangelo frantically looked around the sewer tunnel for their missing brother.

"Donatello? Where ya hiding, dude?" Michelangelo shouted loudly, his voice echoing off the walls. There were a few moments of silence that followed when the three Turtles realized that Donatello wasn't going to answer them.

"Where was he last? Does anyone remember?" Leonardo asked curiously.

"Last time I saw him, Donatello was over there," Sage announced, pointing at the spot where the modules once were.

"Guys, you don't think that…" Raphael trailed off.

"It wouldn't surprise me one bit, Raphael. The Shredder has been known to stoop that low before," Leonardo stated calmly, although there was a slight hint of anger in his voice as he spoke.

"What do you mean, Leonardo?" Ryo asked curiously.

"Are you saying that Shredder kidnapped Donatello?" Rowen inquired.

"I'm afraid so, Rowen," Leonardo reluctantly admitted. "If Donatello was still here, he would have answered us by now. And if he was still unconscious, there's no way he could have moved on his own."

"You could be right, Leonardo. Donatello was out like a light, so he wouldn't be able to put up a fight," Cye reluctantly revealed.

"Where would Shredder take Donatello?" Sage asked curiously.

"Odds are down to the Techno-Drome," Raphael answered.

"Techno-Drome?" Kento repeated. "What's that?"

"It's this humungous fortress down in the center of the Earth," Michelangelo explained. "It's run by this evil alien brain called Krang."

"Krang?" Ryo repeated.

"Yes, Ryo. Krang was a ruler of another world called Dimension X, that is until he was exiled to our planet without his body," Leonardo explained. "He's just as much of a threat as the Shredder."

"Is there some way we can get down to the Techno-Drome and rescue Donatello?" Rowen asked curiously.

"Well…there is one way we could get down there…" Leonardo muttered thoughtfully.

"No way, Leonardo! Anything but that!" Raphael complained loudly.

"It may be our only choice, Raphael. It's either that, or we wait for the Shredder to come back to the surface, and who knows how long that will be?" Leonardo pointed out.

"Wait a minute, Leonardo. What's your plan on getting us into the Techno-Drome?" Ryo interrupted.

"We can use Donatello's interdimensional portal generator to teleport into the Techno-Drome," Leonardo suggested.

"Uh-uh! No way, dude!" Michelangelo protested.

"Why? What's the problem?" Sage asked suspiciously.

"Let's just say that Donatello's portal generator doesn't always work right," Raphael revealed.

"I know it's risky, Raphael, but unless you have a better idea to get us in the Techno-Drome, we have no choice," Leonardo explained.

"Well, if you want, I could take a quick look at it before we try to use it," Rowen suggested. "I'm not quite an expert at mechanics, but I'll do my best."

"Dude, you're hired!" Michelangelo replied jokingly.

"Come on, let's head back to the lair before something else happens," Leonardo announced as he headed back to the Turtles' lair, followed by Michelangelo, Raphael, Ryo, Sage, Kento, Cye, and Rowen…TO BE CONTINUED