Rocksteady and Bob were led to the back of the building, to what appeared to have been a loading dock at one point. Their eyes went wide when they saw the weapons laid out for them - every gun and martial arts weapon seemed to be there at their disposal. While they stared, one Foot soldier handed them both guns, and another gave them belts of ammunition. Rocksteady looked over the swords, knives, and shurikens. They were all really cool, but he decided he'd better stick with something he knew, and selected a baseball bat. Similarly, Bob picked up a bat and chain. Once they were outfitted, they were quickly herded out the back door into the back of a van, and it sped off into the night.

Rocksteady balanced his weapons on his knees, then looked up at his friend, smiling. "Bob."

"Not anymore," he grinned. "They been callin' me 'Bebop'. And they tell me you're Rocksteady." Laughing, he said, "Bebop an' Rocksteady. Cool, huh?"

Rocksteady grinned back. "Yeah." He looked down at the gun in his lap. "I never used one o' these before."

"Me neither."

For some reason, Rocksteady found that surprising. "Really?"

"Nah - always been a basher, not a shooter."

"Yeah, me, too."

"S'OK. We'll get the job done, one way or th' other."

Rocksteady sighed. "Yeah, we gotta. Y'know, if we wanna ever get back."

"Get back? What'd ya mean?"

"Get our bodies back. Shredder said once we kill them turtles, he'll get us back to normal."

"Back to normal?" repeated Bebop. "Why you wanna return to normal? Rocky, you ain't thinkin'! With these bodies, we got everything! Everyone's scared of us, we're strong as hell - like I said before, we're on top of the world now!"

Rocksteady considered that for a bit. Yeah, he did like the attention he was getting. And yeah, it was pretty neat being really strong. But he was pretty sure he didn't want to spend the rest of his life as a rhino.

Suddenly, the van pulled to a stop. Bebop and Rocksteady spilled out, just as a homeless man stepped up to ask for some change. One look at the mutants sent him tearing down the street.

Bebop laughed. "See, what'd I tell ya?" Rocksteady watched the guy run off, wondering if that was really the reaction he wanted to inspire in everyone he met. Turning to the driver, Bebop asked, "Where we headed?"

She pointed to the alleyway. "That's where they're supposed to lead them. Better hide out in there before they show up."

"Gotcha. Thanks." Bebop slapped the side of the van, and it sped off. Bebop leaned his head toward the alley, and they walked in, glancing around. Rocksteady found a spot between two dumpsters that he fit into pretty well, and Bebop found a spot at the other end between two stacks of boxes.

Rocksteady paused before crouching down. "When're they gonna get here?" he yelled to his friend.

"Dunno - better stay down, though."

"Gotcha." Rocksteady went down on one knee. Nervously, he looked at his gun. Something about this whole set-up didn't seem right. He gave it quite a bit of thought before it hit him. He and Bebop hadn't ever used a gun before. So why were the Foot just handing them guns? If the Foot wanted these freaks shot, why not find out who the best shot was, and then hand them the guns? Shouldn't he have been given lessons first before they just handed him a gun? Well, if he was going to use the gun, he better make sure he knew how to use it. He looked at it intently, cursing quietly. Rhinos sure got lousy eyes, he thought.

He looked up as a Foot soldier ran by his hiding place, followed by several others. This was it! And he might only get this one chance. Setting his teeth and growling quietly, Rocksteady prepared to move. The Foot soldiers leapt up on dumpsters and then onto fire escapes, climbing to safety, as the turtles turned the corner and ran by him. When he counted four (he was pretty sure there were four of them), he stood up and stepped into the alley. He saw Bebop emerge from his hiding place right after he did. The turtles pulled to a stop and saw they were surrounded.

Rocksteady laughed. "End of the road, freaks!"

One of the turtles spun his knives around in his hands. "Look who's calling who 'freak'," he said pointedly.

Rocksteady was taken aback. The turtle was right - he was a freak now, just like them. In fact, having seen his new body up close, the turtles didn't seem quite that freaky anymore. But none of that mattered. He wouldn't be a freak much longer if he could take these turtles out. He raised his gun and pointed it at them.

"Scatter!" yelled one of the turtles, as they ducked to the edges of the alley.

Rocksteady went for the trigger, then looked down in alarm. His finger was too big to fit inside the trigger guard! In a panic, he tried twisting and forcing it in, to no avail. Finally, he gave up and pushed his pinky finger into the trigger guard. That one fit, just barely. He pulled the trigger back. Nothing happened. Cursing, Rocky brought the gun up to his face, trying to figure out what was wrong. Finally, he found the problem - the safety! He flicked that off, and the gun began firing round after round into the air. Rocksteady clumsily brought the gun down towards the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bebop waving wildly. Pulling his finger out of the trigger guard, he looked over at his fellow mutant.

"You tryin' to kill me?" demanded Bebop.

Before Rocksteady could explain, the turtles leapt out of their hiding places. Two came after him, one carrying wooden swords, the other nunchakus. The first immediately slammed both swords into his gun, knocking it out of his hands and stinging his fingers pretty bad, to boot. At first, he was angry, but then Rocksteady realized he didn't need it. He was better fighting with his hands. Reaching behind him, he pulled his baseball bat out of its sling. He grinned as the turtles eyes got a bit bigger. Yeah! Now this is more like it!

Rocksteady brought the bat up, then took an overhead swing at the one carrying swords, who immediately ducked out of the way. As Rocksteady went into his follow through, he felt the other turtle strike his side with the chucks. It hurt a bit, but not that much. He smiled - that shot probably would've knocked him down before. He lifted the bat and spun it towards his attacker, who leapt backwards out of range. As the bat followed through, he felt the wooden swords hit the back of his head. Again, it didn't hurt that badly. Growling a bit, he then lifted the bat above his head and tried to implant it on the swordsman's skull, but the turtle was too quick - he dodged it to the side. And again, he felt the chucks hit him in the side.

The battle went on for some time, in an apparent stalemate. Rocksteady couldn't land a blow, and after each missed attempt, would be smacked somewhere on his body. He wasn't in that much pain, but it was making him angry, which made his swings even wilder. After a few minutes of fighting, Rocksteady felt one of the nunchucks glance off his shoulder and hit his snout. OK, that hurt. He winced, growled and turned to face the turtle with the nunchucks. He was spinning them around, and smiling - which made him even madder than before. He readjusted his grip on the bat, lifted it above his head, and with a lound growl, he swung with all his might. The turtle dove aside, narrowly avoiding getting struck. As Rocksteady leaned forward, his head coming low down. The swordsman didn't let that opening go - he slammed both wooden swords onto his snout, one on either side of his horn. Rocksteady howled in pain, dropped the bat, and fell to the ground.

It took a few minutes for the pain to subside. Rocksteady finally opened his eyes. Bebop was lying on his side at the other end of the alley. The turtles were gone. They had failed.

From that point on, both Bebop and Rocksteady were persona non grata at Foot HQ. Apparently, the Foot had thrown all their hopes behind them, and they hadn't delivered. Come mealtime, they were stuck at a table by themselves, and they never got enough food to fill themselves up. They still had their room, with the same beds, but now they had to curl up into a fetal position to fit into them. After a few days, Jutaro and the other leaders would bark orders at them, assigning them menial tasks - moving heavy stuff around, mainly. Rocksteady had half a mind to quit, but then he realized that he'd never be accepted anywhere else. He was stuck with the Foot. Rocksteady never felt so low, but he was surprised that Bebop didn't seem that affected by the current state of affairs. True, he wasn't whistling all the time anymore (he couldn't - his new body's lips were all wrong for it), but he maintained an upbeat outlook.

"Look, they're pissed - and that's cool. They'll get over it, an then they'll send us back out. We'll get another crack at 'em," he said, confidently.

Rocksteady sighed. He wanted to believe that. All of it. The alternative wasn't pretty - stuck in a body he despised, working for a gang that didn't want him, but unable to go anywhere else.

For a few months, they continued to perform brute force jobs for the Foot. Still, no one talked to them unless they had to. Rocksteady couldn't decide if that was because they were told not to, or they simply chose not to. He decided it probably didn't matter.

It had been a long night - Bebop and Rocksteady were stuck pulling catwalks out of an old warehouse that the Foot was going to give up. They wearily got back into the van, and headed back to HQ, ready for their regular never-enough meal and bed. When they pulled up, however, they knew something was wrong. Too many Foot soldiers were milling around outside the building, many out of uniform. Rocksteady hopped out of the van and grabbed someone.

"What's goin' on?"

The Foot soldier just shook his head. "It's over."

"What's over?"

"The Foot. Everything." He walked away, leaving the two mutants to run into the building to find out the entire story. The turtles had attacked last night. They had gone through all of the Foot's best fighters, and finished off by dueling the Shredder on the roof. The duel had ended with the Shredder falling off the roof and breaking his head open in the fall. He was dead. And as far as most Foot soldiers were concerned, with his death came the death of the Foot. Jutaro was nowhere to be seen, and the few group leaders remaining there seemed as clueless as everyone else as to what to do next.

Rocksteady walked up to his room in kind of a daze. Inside, he saw Bebop in a flurry of activity, tossing stuff into an old army bag. "C'mon," said Bebop. "Get yer stuff."

"What?"

"We gotta get outta here. Cops'll be here soon, and we better not be here when they show up."

Numbly, Rocksteady took another army bag from Bebop and began putting his few possessions in it. "Where we gonna go?"

"We'll figger that out later." Once their stuff was packed, they headed out the back. It had suddenly started pouring, and Bebop and Rocksteady could hardly see into the parking lot. There were only two vans left, and one Foot soldier was about to climb into one. Bebop growled, "Oh, no, ya don't". He ran over, grabbed him by the shoulder, and pulled him out. Holding him up with his left hand, Bebop spied the keys in his hand. Grinning, he snatched them. "Take the bus," he sneered, and tossed him aside. "C'mon." Rocksteady climbed into the passenger seat, and Bebop tore out of the parking lot.