animegamefanatic: Yes they will. Count on it. And I'm glad to see that Jennika is starting to get likes. There will be more for her in the future.
ikran feysal: I won't spoil about that. You'll see.
=Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003=
=Darkness of the Edge of the Town Part 4=
In middle of the night, the turtles made it to the South Street Seaport and made their temporary outpost to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge to have a good view from the area they're about to investigate. The view from the bridge over the South Street Seaport was just like yesterday night in the midtown.
"Total blackout. Just like last night." Raphael commented.
"But this time I've came prepared." Donnie said as he dug through his bag, pulling out a pair of goggles.
However, Mikey suddenly snatched one of them from his hands and put them on.
"Awesome! Total turtle vision!" the turtle in orange commented as he goofily waved his hands in the air while looking everywhere through of Donnie's goggles.
Donnie, however, took them back from Mikey and put them on.
"Goggles with a night vision, actually." Donnie corrected him. "With these, we can clearly see through the darkness."
Mikey, however, didn't care but started to wave at Donnie's night vision goggles like it was some kind of camera.
"Knock it off, Mikey." Mary said, elbowing Mikey to his right side to make him stop from making himself to look like an idiot.
"I also need the extra pair of eyes to help me when I go to survey the area." Donnie said before he handed another night vision goggles towards Mary.
"Marietta, I'd like to grant you the honor to be my partner in this mission, as well the honor to test these night vision goggles I made just for you." Donnie said with the smile. "And along with them, I have something else too in the store." the turtle in purple added.
Mary was taken aback by such of propose, but accepted it nonetheless and took the goggles from Donnie's hand, putting them on.
"Wow! I really feel like the turtle with the owl's night vision." Mary commented as she tested them by viewing them towards the town, seeing via the goggles green-toned screen every detail that was covered by the darkness of the night.
"Including eagle-vision, sister. Because I also added to these goggles a zoom devices, enabling us to look further from some distance." Donnie explained, as he took out another bag - similar to one he was carrying in his shell-back - and gave it to Mary. "And believe me, sister, these toys will make you feel like an eagle even more."
"Hey! No fair!" Mikey complained, lamenting that Mary was granted with honor to test Donnie's inventions over everyone else... including him.
"Sorry, Mikey, I only have a couple for each." Donnie apologized while Mary put her bag on. "Besides, I need the extra pair of the eyes of the turtle, who is more matured, lacks a lot of the foolhardiness and silliness and is fully focused on the mission on the task. No offense, of course, Leo." the turtle in purple added, knowing that his description of a reliable partner matches him equally as much as to Mary.
"None taken, but how do we survey such a large area?" Leo asked from the brainy turtle.
"No worry, because I've came prepared for that, too." Donnie simply replied, before he pulled something out from his own bag, which unfolded swiftly behind of his shell-back, revealing it to be a purple-toned mechanical hand-glider.
The turtles were amazed of seeing such of foldaway and in the bag portable invention.
"What's up with the slack-jawed looks?" Donnie asked with the smirk. "I've seen people flying with these on TV, so I decided to make a couple of my own. And I've been dying to try this puppy."
"What?! You mean you haven't tested it yet?!" Leo said, raising an eye in concern.
"How can you be sure it will work if you haven't even tested it?" Dom asked, not feeling a sure that this is a good idea.
"Dudes, how do you test a flying machine in the sewers?" Mikey pointed out.
"Mikey's got a point with that one." Louie said, agreeing with the turtle in orange.
Mary then unfolded her own hand-glider, which was toned with turquoise color just like her ninja-mask.
Arcee then walked to her sister, concerned for the safety of both her brother and sister during this sudden test flight.
"Mary... Donnie... I hate to be a killjoy, but even for once, I agree with Leo and Dom. What if something goes wrong during the test flight, with the mission on the hand and all?" Arcee questioned with a concern.
"Don't worry, sister. We'll be fine." Mary assured. "Besides, if something goes wrong during the flight, the river below will cut our fall safely... depending on the height, of course."
Though a bit reluctantly, Arcee forced herself to nod at her sister and trust to it that everything will be fine.
"Alright! It's now or never. Ready, Mary?" Donnie asked from his sister.
"Ready as always." Mary replied, full of confidence.
Donnie and Mary then stood back from the others as they prepared for the test flight, with the others moving out of their way to give them some space to grab from the wind.
"We'll stay in touch via Shell cell." Donnie explained as he and Mary lowered the radio headsets on their goggles while Leo took out his own Shell cell and connected it with Donnie and Mary's headsets.
"I've worked out all of the theoretically aerodynamics." Donnie assured.
With that he started to run off towards the edge of the bridge, with Mary following closely behind. The others held their breaths while waiting for the outcome.
"It's should be practically full-PROOOOF!" Donnie exclaimed as he jumped off the edge of the bridge
"Let's see if the turtles can FLYYYYYY! Mary exclaimed as well as she jumped off the bridge after Donnie.
"WHHHOOOOAAAAH!/AAAAHHHHHHHH!" the turtles in purple and turquoise screamed as they began to lose the altitude right after the jump and were about to fall into the river. However, they both managed to pull up before they could hit to the water surface.
"AH HA HA HA HA HAA!" both Donnie and Mary laughed when they realized that they were actually gliding in the air.
Arcee, Louie and Mikey immediately released their breaths in relief and cheered while witnessing their brother and sister flying successfully above of the river.
"They made it! They're flying!" Arcee screamed in joy.
"Yeah! Pity that Donnie didn't make more of those puppies. That looks fun." Louie admitted with slight lament.
"That makes two of us, bro." Mikey said to him.
Dom, who was standing near the edge with Raph, shook his head at his baby brothers for complaining about losing their chances of "having fun," even though they had a mission at hand.
"Well, let's just hope that they're doing fine, and that everything what Donnie said is full-proof." the turtle in white said.
"But is it 'Don' proof?" Raph jokingly asked.
"I don't know, bro." Dom replied, as the small smile broke to his lips as he turned his gaze to Mikey and Louie. "But it better be, because otherwise it won't be a daredevil turtle-proof."
"HEY!" both Mikey and Louie yelled in unison, overhearing what Dom was muttering.
Meanwhile, Donnie and Mary were flying right above of the bridge.
Mary breathed rapidly in excitement as she looked around of her while gliding in the air.
"This... this... this is wonderful! We're... we're actually flying!" Mary joyfully commented to Donnie via the radio of her goggles.
Donnie chuckled heartily through the radio. "I told you, sister. Looks like the test flight is a success!"
While flying, both of them heard Leo calling for them through the radio.
"Don? Mary? Can you hear me? DONATELLO?! MARIETTA?!"
"No worry, Leo! I'm okay" Donnie replied.
"Yeah, no problem... DONNIE, LOOK OUT!" Mary suddenly screamed frantically in radio.
Donnie turned to look forward and saw that he was flying up and directly towards another tower of the Brooklyn Bridge.
"Uh oh!" Donnie whimpered as he was on the collision course... again.
"WHOA!" the turtle in purple cried as he managed to narrowly dodge the topside of the tower by making a sharp turn to the right and towards the river.
"DONNIE?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Leo demanded through the radio, sounding frantic.
"Uh, it's nothing. Just forgot to compensate for the wind drag on my Bo-staff." Donnie said, chuckling awkwardly.
Donnie then made contact to Mary.
"Mary! Follow me from above and keep your eyes open! If you see anything abnormal, let me know instantly." Donnie instructed.
"Roger that, Donnie!" Mary said, before she glided upwards and flew higher to position herself above of Donnie.
The airborne turtles took off from the bridge and flew south along the East River, while looking down at the docks through their night vision goggles.
It took fifteen minutes or so from Mary to eventually spot something weird, and she instantly made contact to Donnie.
"Donnie! I spotted something! At one o'clock." Mary reported.
Donnie immediately turned his attention to the direction from where Mary had seen something... and noticed it himself as well.
The sight was so strange that Donnie immediately made contact to Leo and the others back in the bridge.
"Guys? Mary just picked up something very strange down on the river." Donnie reported.
"What it is?" Leo demanded.
As Mary and Donnie flew closer of it, they noticed a strange but familiar-looking beam of glowing energy waves coming from the docks and hitting to the surface of the water, creating a gigantic whirlpool that reached to the bottom of the river.
"It's a whirlpool... but nothing like natural one. Looks more like an artificial whirlpool." Mary reported.
"Yeah. And it looks like... like they're searching for something... under the water." Donnie reported.
"Who's searching?" Leo questioned.
Both Donnie and Mary followed the beam to the pier from where it was coming from, noticing a cannon-like device on topside of the high platform at the end of the pier. Mary zoomed her goggles to have a closer look of it, seeing three-four technicians operating the device. Each one of them had in their suits a same blood-red footprint ninja-symbol the ninjas from earlier encounters wore.
"It's our ninja buddies again, or at least some technicians who're at least working for them." Mary reported.
Donnie zoomed his goggles as well to have a better look to the cannon-like device, seeing the same stolen - and currently brightly and repeatedly flashing - sword that had been positioned into the device like some kind of power source.
"And they have that sword they stole rigged up to some kind of vibrational cannon." Donnie reported, observing the mystical beam of energy waves that emerged from the sword through of the cannon.
"Where this is happening?" Leo asked.
"This is taking place on pier 16." Mary reported.
"Roger that, sister! We'll be there!" Leo said back.
As the other turtles were most likely heading from the bridge to the pier 16, Donnie flew closer towards the beam of the cannon at the edge of the whirlpool.
"Donnie? I think it's best to stay away from the beam. The last time we got caught by it, it almost knocked us out of our shells." Mary tried to warn her brother, reminding him of their first encounter and experience of that sword's power back in the museum.
"I know, Mary. I'm just going in for a closer look of what they're looking- FOOOOR! AHHHH!" Donnie suddenly cried as he accidentally got caught by the beam's energy waves. The beam damaged Donnie's hand-glider's right wing as it knocked him into the air, spinning out of control.
"DONNIE!" Mary cried, as she abandoned her post in the air and dove after her brother.
"DONNIE! MARY! WHAT'S GOING ON THERE?!" Leo's frantic voice asked.
After being knocked into the air by the beam, Donnie's damaged glider floated away from the pier 16 with the falling speed.
"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! GLIDER'S WING IS DAMAGED! STEERING IS OUT OF CONTROL! I'M GOING DOWN!" Donnie cried frantically, as he was freely falling towards the next pier's warehouse's rooftop from such a height that would kill him.
However, before Donnie could crash fatally on the rooftop of the warehouse, Mary deliberately bumped into him with her own glider, re-directing Donnie's free fall towards the river. However, by doing that, Mary lost the control over her own glider in the process and fell off the air alongside Donnie.(1)
"AHHHHHHHH!" Both the turtles in purple and turquoise screamed before they fell into the river and disappeared under water with the big SPLASH!
The rest of the turtles, upon reaching the docks, halted immediately when the connection to the other end of the Shell cell suddenly died.
"MARY! DONNIE! NO!" Arcee exclaimed, panic-stricken.
"Don? Mary? Can you two hear me?! Say something! Anything!" Leo said frantically into his Shell cell.
The awkward silence fell upon the worried turtles who gathered around of the dead silent Shell-cell as the connection with Donnie and Mary remained dead.
"Guys?" Leo called again, but received no answer.
"No..." Arcee whimpered, starting to fear worst.
Suddenly, the connection came back to life and they heard Donnie and Mary couching and gasping for air on the other end of the line.
Both of them had a quite disgusted tones in their voices.
"UGH, MAN! THIS WATER REALLY STINKS!" Donnie exclaimed in disgust.
"Donnie's got a point. BLAH! That water smell's really awful. And this comes from a turtles who lives in a sewers." Mary said, disgusted as well.
The turtles in the docks were extremely relieved - Arcee especially - that their brother and sister were still alive and kicking.
"They made it!" Arcee laughed relieved.
"YES!" all six turtles cheered loudly while punching their fists down.
Dom then suddenly snatched the Shell-cell from Leo. "Give me that!" he said, before turning to it.
"You two shell-for-brains should thank your luck that you're still alive! Don't you two dare to give me the reason to double my efforts to watch after you when I'm already having enough of trouble watching over Louie's..." the turtle in white chided irritably.
Leo, however, cut him short by snatching his Shell-cell back from Dom's hand and pushed his brother's head away with his free hand.
"Not now, Dom! Stay focused here!" he chided his brother, before he turned back to the Shell-cell.
"Donnie? Mary? Where are you two?" the turtle in blue asked.
"And are you two okay? Is either of you hurt?" Arcee asked, switching to her doctor mode just in case either Donnie or Mary had got themselves injured in the fall.
"We're fine, Arcee, not to worry. Just little winded from the fall, but otherwise we're OK. I cannot say the same about our gliders, though. Thanks for asking anyway." Mary replied via the radio.
"And we're a short swim away from the pier 15." Donny replied to Leo's earlier question.
Arcee then took the Shell-cell from Leo. "Great! Swim in there and stay there. We'll come to get you."
"No. It is not worth getting out of the way because of us." Donnie denied."Besides, remember our mission here."
"Donnie's got a point, guys. You go on. Me and Donnie will come after you another route." Mary said.
"Are you sure, guys?" Arcee asked worriedly.
"Absolutely sure, little sister. Don't worry about us. Just get to the pier 16 and that cannon thingy. That sword is in there." Mary said.
"Well, if you say so..." Arcee said, trying her best to reassure herself that Donnie and Mary will be fine until they will reunite with them at their destination.
Leo then took his Shell-cell back from Arcee's hand. "Roger that, Marietta. We see you guys in there." Leo said, before he disconnected and put his Shell-cell away.
Then, switching back to his natural and disciplined leadership mode, the turtle in blue turned to others. "You heard them, guys. We have to continue straight to pier 16 and that vibrational cannon the guys were talking about. We will then meet them there. Questions?"
"I GOT ONE!" everybody said in unison and they began to rain their questions before Leo gave them permission to ask in their turn.
"When the all the fighting begins? I'm hungry for some butt-kicking season." Raph asked eagerly.
"Can we even for once to avoid the fight? Please?" Donnie asked pleadingly.
"When do we eat, Leo? Even ninjas needs a fuel to the tank. " Mikey asked, rubbing his stomach that growled slightly.
"Can we go now? I'm hungry for some action." Louie asked, a bit bored of standing and waiting around.
"Should we send at least one of us to look for Mary and Donnie while the rest of us continue forward?" Arcee asked, still a bit unsure, whether it is wise for them to be divided into two groups - one of which has only two members and in one six - while proceeding deeper into the area, that is most likely a hostile enemy zone.
After staring at his siblings with the dumbfounded look on his face for a moment, Leo snorted in frustration, rolling his eyes once again to this unwelcome reminder that how hard it is to be a leader.
However, Leo decided to give his quick answers to his siblings so that they wouldn't waste too much time to this.
"It depends on whether there are guards out there monitoring this area and whatever is going on here, Raph. And that depends on the same reason, Dom. And if I remember correctly, you drank at least three milkshakes and ate couple whole bag of chips back in the lair before we left, Mikey. Try to last with it through this night, okay? And you heard what Mary and Donnie said earlier, Arcee. We'll meet them at pier 16. Besides, they have a better qualifications to get to pier 16 without being seen than what we have in a group of six. And if you, Louie, or anybody else don't have anymore questions, we can proceed." Leo replied to everybody questions at once.
"Well, hopefully there is some bozos, 'cause my fists are getting withdrawal symptoms for the lack of some activity." Raph murmured.
"Uh, make the turtle-soup outta me, please." Dom moaned in defeat after realizing Leo's point.
"But Leo..." Mikey tried to protest, only to be silenced by Louie who slapped his hand over Mikey's mouth.
"Not to mention about the whole box of pizza you ate. So you heard what our Fearless Leader said, bro." Louie told to his brother.
"Well... if you say so, Leo. I guess." Arcee said, begrudgingly shrugging her shoulders in 'whatever' mannerism.
Leo nodded to his siblings. "Okay then. Remember to stick to the shadows and proceed with stealth, 'till we reach the pier 16. Onward! the turtle in blue ordered.
Taking the lead, Leo moved into a restricted enemy zone fearlessly, motioning his family to follow him. Raph followed his brother soon after and Louie went in next, right behind of his hot-headed big brother. Mikey then went in on his turn, and he was soon followed by Arcee.
Dom, however, remained behind. While watching as the most of his family moved deeper into the enemy zone without looking back, the turtle in white himself hesitated a bit going in there. With what Leo said to him about the guards, he was sure that even now they would be running towards a certain ambush, even though they have not yet seen anybody on the guard. So the turtle in white thought that in order to avoid such of obvious encounter with the guards was to skip the whole thing if the one valued his life.
However, Dom also realized that his brothers and sisters - especially Louie - would never let him live it down if they knew that he began to have cold feet during the mission. Even now, from the deepest depths of his mind, Dom could hear Louie's voice mocking him for his supposed 'cowardice' with the way the turtle in white hated most.
"Ooooooooh, what an incident! I have a 'chicken' as my brother, who was too afraid to step on his foot to the enemy zone. I'm gonna remember this for life, chicken! And every morning before you wake up, I'll sing this as your new alarm clock; Baawk Bawk Bawk Baaaawk! Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk Baaaawk! Bawk Bawk Bawk Bawk..." Louie's voice mocked in his mind.
Dom instantly shook his head to get such of disturbing imagination out of his mind, before glaring after his family's going with the firm determination.
"In your twisted dreams, bro." Dom muttered darkly, as he quickly ran after his family to catch up with them.
However, as the turtles proceeded along the walkway towards their destination, little did they knew that they'd been secretly watched all along from above by some unfriendly eyes. At least six ninjas, with Tatsu standing in front of them, peered down on them from the rooftop of the nearby building.
"Well, well, well." the scarred ninja master sneered as he crouched down. "Those foolish Kappa again, just as I expected."
Tatsu observed the turtles for a moment as they moved towards the docks within the shadows. The sadistic grin then formed on his lips as he took a pleasure of the turtles' obliviousness of the fact that they have already been seen... as well as enjoying the thoughts of all kinds of cruel ways he could punish turtles for their intrusion to the things that don't belong to them.
The ninja master was tempted by an idea to take them by surprise with the help of the blowing tube and the poisoned dart aimed to their leader's neck. But he decided otherwise at the last minute, as he got a sudden desire to challenge the leading turtle to one-on-one duel and kill him, so that he could bring back to his master his soon-to-be opponent's swords, his blue mask and his decapitated head as his trophies. That would definitely earn him his master's favor over that blasted Jennika.(2)
Tatsu then stood back up and turned to four ninjas in his left. "You four. Go and find the other two. Kill them and bring me their heads." he ordered with the sinister grin.
The four ninjas bowed to him before they departed, going to search for Donnie and Mary, while Tatsu turned to the last two of his men.
"You two, follow me! We'll gather the rest of the security crew and set an ambush for our uninvited guests here." Tatsu said to them and was about to jump off the roof.
However, before he could, he turned to his men once more. "But remember this, and pass this on to your comrades: You can kill the rest of those Kappa, but leave that one with the blue mask to me. He is my prey. Mine to kill!" he sternly instructed.(2)
With that, Tatsu and his two men jumped off the roof to gather the rest of them for the ambush.
TO BE CONTINUED.
TRIVIA
1 = Filling the plot gap here: As you remember, Donnie was in the original episode falling towards the rooftop of the warehouse in one shot and then in the next shot he fell into the river instead of the roof. So I wrote it like this to make the difference between the shots to seem more logical.
2 = We're gonna have a mortal duel between Tatsu and Leo in the next chapter!