=Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003=
=Darkness of the Edge of the Town Part 5=
After making sure that Donnie and Mary were alright after their incident and moving towards their target through another way, the rest of the turtles kept moving along the walkway until the pier 16 and the cannon on the high platform came into their view. Leo then lifted up his hand, signaling the others to stop and the turtles positioned themselves behind of two sailing ships that were docked next to each other to the pier where the warehouse were.
Leo then cautiously peeked from behind of the ship's hull at the cannon in the long distance, before the turtle in blue stretched out his hand towards Arcee, who handed over a regular binoculars she was carrying with her and Leo began to observe the cannon through of them.
"I have a visual on the cannon." Leo said to his siblings in quiet voice as he kept observing the cannon.
"Mary said she saw some guys operating it. How many do you see out there?" Dom asked.
"I only see four guys." Leo replied.
Just four guys? Leo thought for a moment, before the turtle in blue lowered the binoculars down and narrowed his eyes. This situation reminded him of a very similar moment at the museum last night.
"But if only four guys are in open, that means the others are hiding somewhere nearby." Leo muttered.
He was proven correct, because right after he had said those dreadful words, about four dozen of ninjas appeared from the vessels next to them.
Arcee was first turtle to spot them, after seeing a movement in the corner of her eye and turned to look up at the vessels.
"UP THERE!" Arcee cried in warning, pointing up at the ships' aft decks' railings and sail holders. The turtles turned to look up and saw them as well.
"See, guys? This is just a coincidence. None of us knew until now that this would happen again." Louie said to Leo and Dom, reminding his brothers what he had said earlier while leaving the lair
Then, about fifteen ninjas jumped from off the ships to meet them. All six turtles formed the shell-to-shell circle immediately as the ninjas landed onto the walkway and surrounded them, with their swords drawn out.
"But I hate being right about some things like this." Mikey muttered.
"I don't know about you, Mikey, but I love being right sometimes." Louie told him.
It was the moment when Tatsu revealed himself to the turtles while standing on the bridge of one of the ships along with the rest of the ninjas.
"Tatsu! Never expected to see you again so soon after last night! How ya doin' Baldie?" Louie asked tauntingly from the lead ninja.
Enraged from Louie's mocking greetings to him, Tatsu glared down at the turtles venomously, narrowing his eyes in growing anger.
"I warned you not to interfere our business again, Kappa! Now we have to dispose all of you freaks... permanently!" Tatsu snarled, before he lifted up his hand.
"NINJAS! That blue-one is mine. KILL ALL THE REST OF THOSE INTERFERING FREAKS!" He ordered as he clenched his hand into a fist and the ninjas began to close on the turtles from all sides.
"Well, guys. The round two is on." Leo said to his brothers and sister, who responded back with the knowing smirks and nods of agreement.
"LET'S TURTLEIZE THEM!" the brothers and sister shouted out, as they all drew out their weapons and lunged at the ninjas.
"MEAN IN GREEN, HALLELUJAH!" Louie let out as he engaged the enemy ninjas.
The battle broke between the turtles and ninjas again. Raph, Arcee and Mikey took the left flank while Leo, Louie and Dom took the right flank.
Using their knowledge of the ninjas' fighting style they've learned from their previous encounters with them as they advantage, the turtles had the upper hand over the ninjas this time despite their own advantage in numbers.
Raph attacked fiercely roaring on two ninjas armed with Katanas. Turtle in red both blocked few blows of the ninjas and exchanged some blows with them for a moment before he leaped towards them and hook-kicked with his right foot one ninja out before spinning around and snap-kicking another ninja to the faces with the left one.
Mikey, meanwhile, was facing one ninja while spinning his Nunchucks wildly. With one hard swing of his right Nunchaku, Mikey knocked the Katana off the first ninja's hand before whacking him to the chest with his left one, knocking the ninja out and over to the walkway. The next ninja then attacked him and swung his sword horizontally at him, only to miss as the turtle in orange dodged his blade from under it while spinning around. Mikey then swung his right Nunchaku towards ninja and disarmed him with a snappy strike to his sword-holding hand's knuckles, causing him to let go of the sword while letting out the cry of pain, before Mikey finished him with the direct blow to the ninja's face with his left Nunchaku.
Arcee was facing off with two ninjas armed with Yari-spears, which the ninjas raised over their heads before throwing them at Arcee, hoping them to impale the turtle in pink. However, Arcee dodged both towards her flying spears by flipping over the first one that got stuck to the walkway, and she dodged the second one by bowing down and somersaulting forward, until she stood in crouched in front of the ninjas. Arcee then jumped up in the air, spun around and roundhouse-kicked one of the ninjas to the left side, sending him flying into his friend and knocking them both off the walkway and into the river.
Louie battled with one the ninja armed with Kusarigama. The ninja tossed his weapon's chain towards Louie and managed to wrap it around of his right wrist. However, Louie grabbed with both hands from the chain and pulled from it, causing the ninja to wobble towards him. Louie then bent down and allowed the ninja to fall over his shoulders, before he rose up and lifted the ninja up. Louie then spun himself around one-couple times before he tossed the ninja off his shoulders and into three other attacking ninjas, knocking them all off their feet and into the river.
Dom meanwhile faced off two ninjas armed with dual Katanas. The turtle in white spun his Tonfas in his hands while eyeing the ninjas alternately as they circled him, ready to lay an attack on him at any moment. The ninjas hoped that they could break Dom's defense from either side and then attack him when his guard would be down.
The ninjas then attacked the turtle in white at the same time and began to whack him with both of their swords. The ninjas initially got the upper hand in skills, forcing the turtle in white in the defensive mode. Dom did his best to fight off his attackers by blocking their attacks with his Tonfas, but it wasn't easy when you had to hold back two enemies with two swords, doubled efforts and doubled number of blows.
His defense, however, was eventually broken when the ninja on his left took him by surprise with the sudden spin kick to the left side of the turtle in white's face, which was quickly followed by a couple of punches from the ninja on his right, who then struck him to the stomach with his Katanas' handles' blunt ends. The ninja on his left then kicked Dom's left leg off from under him.
"Agh! Shell!" Dom grunted as he fell on one knee.
This surprising move left Dom's guard briefly down and the ninjas attempted to use it as their advantage by lifting up their Katanas before they brought them down on Dom to kill him. However, acting quickly, Dom lifted his arms up and blocked their attacks with his Tonfas. After locking their swords with Dom's Tonfas, the ninjas then pressed their swords down with their hands, pinning the turtle in white down with the doubled pressure. Dom gritted his teeth as he struggled hard against the doubled strength of his enemies. He tried to push them back and off him, but with no avail
As Dom was about to get overwhelmed, Louie came to his brother's aid by throwing his Manriki-gusaris' chains towards the ninjas' Katanas, wrapping them around of their blades just above of the handles' guards, before the turtle in black yanked the swords off the ninjas' hands, disarming them and freeing his brother from under of the ninjas' pressure.
With his quick intervention, Louie had managed to create the distraction that caused the ninjas' attentions to turn away from Dom to him. After seeing and realizing this, Dom quickly seized the opportunity and jumped off the ground, striking the ninja on his left with the uppercut that knocked the ninja off his feet and sent him flying onto his back to the walkway. With one ninja down, Dom turned to the second one, who was more prepared for the turtle in white's counterattack than what his friend was, especially after Dom knocked him out cold. The ninja attempted to throw a right straight at Dom, but the turtle in white moved his right arm under the ninja's strike and moved it up, leaving the ninja's stomach exposed. Dom then rotated his left Tonfa that its haft was pointing outwards, before he struck with it the ninja to the stomach.
"Ahhh!" the ninja gasped as Dom's blow knocked the wind out of him, before he bent over and fell to his knees in pain
Dom then towered over the ninja and placed his right foot onto the ninja's shoulder before kicking him over. The ninja rolled along the walkway one time before he fell over the edge and into the water with the splash, leaving from his two-on-one fight a bit bruised and scratched but otherwise alright and still kicking Dom to watch after him with the smile of satisfaction on his face.
Leo meanwhile was facing off three ninjas armed with Katanas. He blocked the first one's attack with his own, exchanged a few blows with them before the turtle in blue kicked the ninja into two other ninjas behind of him, knocking all three of them over to the walkway and out cold.
Leo then turned to look up and locked his gaze with Tatsu, who stared down at him from the aft deck's railing along with two other ninjas. Tatsu's glare at him was like some hungry predator's that was on the hunt and patiently awaiting for its prey to come to it so that the hunting predator could surprise it and take it down. Tatsu even proved this by daring Leo to come after him with his hand, before he turned away from the railing and disappeared from the sight.
Accepting Tatsu's challenge, Leo went after the ninja leader by jumping onto the boat's aft deck and split-kicked two ninjas out of his way, sending one of them over to the deck and another flying over the ship's railing, before Leo turned to Tatsu and prepared himself to face him off.
Tatsu merely scoffed at the turtle in blue, not impressed in Leo's skills at all, before the ninja master reached for his weapons over his shoulder with his right hand. However, instead of his Katanas, Tatsu grabbed to his a double-ended Yari-spear and pulled it out. Tatsu then spun the weapon wildly in his right hand before grabbing from it with both of his hands and pointed one of its long pointed and sharp-edged spearhead towards Leo.
"Yes! Come to face your death in my hands, Kappa!" Tatsu dared, as he attacked the turtle in blue, spinning his spear.
As he charged at Leo, Tatsu moved his hands alternately, swiftly and repeatedly from side to another while spinning his spear wildly, attempting to confuse Leo and trick him to lower down his guard from either side, so that Tatsu could perform his false attack to the turtle's prepared side as a distraction before moving in for Leo's unprotected and thus vulnerable side to land the fatal blow there. However, Leo was more clever and swifter than what Tatsu had expected him to be. Leo's trained instincts managed to warn him about the setup and he swiftly blocked with his right Katana Tatsu's from the left incoming false attack, before the turtle in blue spun around and blocked with his left sword Tatsu's from the right incoming attack that was supposed to be for Leo's vulnerable side. After blocking both Tatsu's false and real attacks, Leo spun around again and swung his right Katana at Tatsu's face, narrowly missing the surface of his left scarred cheek.
However, even with his well-trained instincts, Leo wasn't able to prepare for the backup setup from Tatsu. After his first failed setup, and so did Leo's counter attack, Tatsu swiftly spun around and attempted to stab Leo to the stomach with one spearhead of his Yari. Leo attempted to dodge the attack but was too late and Tatsu's Yari's spearhead managed to scratch the turtle in blue's left side nonetheless, though Leo's turtle shell protected his hide from further injury.
Tatsu then spun around again, swinging his Yari horizontally towards Leo's head, scratching his left temple above of his mask with the tip of the spearhead and leaving a pretty awful cut to it. That quick but still forceful and painful slash caused Leo to stumble backwards and too close of the ship's bridge's railing.
Tatsu took an advantage of this and charged at Leo before he could recover enough for the counterattack. The scarred ninja master then leaped up into the air and kneed Leo in the face, knocking his head back and causing the turtle in blue to let go of his Katanas and fly over the railing.
"AHHHH! AGH!" Leo cried and grunted as he landed on his shell to the main deck.
Tatsu then leapt onto the bridge's railing and looked down on the turtle in blue, as he was recovering from his attack and slowly getting up from the deck. Tatsu then grabbed to his Yari with both hands before he leaped off from the railing and fell down right towards Leo, raising his Yari-spear over his head and prepared to bring it down on Leo to kill him with the finishing blow.
After recovering enough and sitting on the deck, Leo looked up and gasped as he spotted Tatsu coming towards him from the ship's bridge, preparing to kill him with his Yari.
"WOW!" Leo yelped.
Thinking quickly, Leo hurriedly somersaulted backwards, landing crouched back on his feet right before Tatsu landed to the deck and sunk his Yari's spearhead through the wooden blanks on the spot where Leo had been a second ago.
Not intending to give Tatsu a time to prepare for another attack, Leo quickly charged at his opponent and dived forward, rolling in the air before landing on his hands to the deck, with his shell-back turned to Tatsu, as the ninja master - who had managed to pull his Yari off the deck - turned back to Leo in attempt to strike him with the similar attack. With Tatsu lifting his Yari up for another strike and his own legs hooked together, Leo then wasted no time to push himself off the deck with his hands and shot both his legs upwards and towards Tatsu's unprotected chest, kicking the scarred ninja master right in the chest with both of his legs and with the force that both knocked the air out of his lungs and sent him flying a pretty hard against the wooden wall behind of him.
"ARGH!" Tatsu grunted upon impact against the wall, dropping his spear from his hands before the scarred ninja master fell with the loud thud onto his left side to the deck, stunned by both Leo's harsh kick and the impact against the wall.
However, despite the effectiveness of Leo's counterattack, Tatsu apparently wasn't done yet. Couching and gasping for breath, Tatsu began slowly get back up to his feet, while shooting a burning glare at Leo, who stood still in front of his downed opponent and glared down on him while wiping the stain of blood from his lower lip with his right hand while holding his left hand over his injury in his left temple to stop the bleeding.
Instead of attacking right away when his opponent was down and unable to defend himself to avenge his injuries, Leo patiently allowed Tatsu to get up, while he himself took a battle-ready pose and prepared for another round, while holding one of his recovered Katanas over his head in the air and pointing with the second at Tatsu.
Once back on his feet and his breathing stable again, Tatsu turned back to Leo as a twisted grin slowly emerged on the scarred ninja master's lips.
"You either fight well, kappa, or you just got lucky." Tatsu snarled, secretly impressed by Leo's skills, moves and techniques though unable to admit it. "This time I won't miss my real target and the target will be your throat!"
With that, Tatsu kicked his spear up from the deck and grabbed it from the air. Then the scarred ninja master then took his own fighting pose, reaching out his left palm while holding his Yari up in the air with his right hand, ready to face Leo in round two.
###
Meanwhile, Donnie and Mary had made it to the warehouse's pier and climbed out of the water onto the walkway.
However, once hearing the sounds of the battle coming from the docked ships, the turtles quickly moved/rolled out from the moonlight and hid under the shadows of the pier's warehouse.
After taking their weapons out, the brother and sister were about to head towards the docked vessels and join with their siblings, until the duo halted when they saw two ominous humanoid-shaped shadows that appeared from behind the shadow of the edge of the roof of the warehouse in the moonlight, making them turns to look up at the edge of the warehouse rooftop.
Donnie and Mary gasped when they realized that they'd been spotted by the same ninjas from earlier encounters.
"There you are." one of the ninjas snarled, drawing out of his swords. "KILL THEM!"
The two ninjas then jumped down from the rooftop of the warehouse and towards the turtles in purple and turquoise. They were then joined by two other ninjas that leaped over the railing of the ship and jumped down towards the turtles.
However, Donnie swung his staff forward and whacked the first ninja with the pair of Katanas before he could even land onto the walkway, sending him flying into the river. The another ninja managed to land onto the walkway and swung his single Katana at the turtle in purple, but Donnie blocked his attack before he whacked him with his staff as well, sending the ninja after his friend.
Mary dodged the first ninja's blow with Katana by flipping over him. And almost immediately after she landed on her feet behind the ninja, the another ninja armed with Naginata attempted to bring his weapon's blade down on the turtle in turquoise. However, Mary blocked it with her own spear's haft before she flipped over the first ninja's back as he tried to turn to Mary to strike her in the shell-back with his sword, only to miss her and ending up to slice through his colleague's Naginata's haft instead, splitting it in two. After landing behind of the first ninja's back, Mary then kicked the ninja to the back, knocking him into the second ninja and sending them off the walkway and into the river.
"Have a nice night swimming, guys! Hope you don't mind if the water stinks!" Mary called after them with the light chuckle.
The turtles in purple and turquoise then pole-vaulted themselves onto to the ninja-filled ship's main deck with the help of their Bo and Naginata. Moving to stand shell-against-shell while spinning their weapons wildly in their hands (Mary spinning her Naginata in front of her and Donnie spinning his staff above his head), Donnie and Mary joined their siblings in the fight against the ninjas.
###
Elsewhere, Louie was climbing along the rope ladders to the ship's aft deck's mast. And after the turtle in black reached to the wooden platform serving as the mast's crow's nest, he began to observe the situations of his siblings while they were battling the ninjas on the ships' deck.
From there, Louie spotted that one of the ninja armed with bow was standing on the main mast's wooden yard, and he had placed the arrow into his bow's string and leveled his weapon down at Leo, as he was battling Tatsu in the main deck, before he pulled the string back and prepared to release the arrow.
After looking for a moment for something to get to the ninja before he could let go of the string and send the arrow into flight, Louie spotted the rope that was attached from this crow's nest to the top of main mast. Thinking quickly, the turtle in Black jumped for it and grabbed from the rope with his free hand before he cut the rope with his Butterfly sword and swung on the rope towards the ninja archer and kicked him to the back.
"AGH! AHHH!" Ninja shouted as he fell off the mast.
"Don't interfere with things that does not concern you, pal!" Louie shouted after the ninja, mimicking Tatsu's words back in the museum, as he landed onto the main mast's rope ladders.
"Same words to you, freak!" someone said from above of him and Louie turned to look up to see who it was.
Much to his horror, two ninjas had positioned above of him onto the yard and the wooden platform, both armed with Katanas. One of them lifted up his Katana up before bringing it down and sliced the ladders off the platform, sending Louie falling down.
"WHOA! HOLY SHEEEEEEEELLLL!" Louie cried while falling.
Louie eventually landed on his shell into the pile of six barrels... a pretty roughly, as majority of the barrels got crushed beneath of his weight and shell.(1)
Stunned by the rough landing, heavily bruised and full of superficial cuts caused by the wooden splinters, but still alive, Louie crawled with effort out of the remnants of the barrels, panting heavily, as the rough landing had knocked the wind out of him.(1)
###
Elsewhere, in the ship's bow side, Mikey spun his Nunchucks wildly as he was facing off three ninjas. However, even in such of dead serious situations like this, Mikey couldn't resist the temptation to goofing around as always.
"Avast scurvy, sea dogs! Arrr! Shiver me timbers and blow me down!" Mikey growled, trying to sound like the pirate while backing away, until the turtle in orange bumped his shell up against a wall.
Mikey turned to look at the trio of ninjas, who approaching him menacingly with their swords lifted up, forcing Mikey to realize that he was trapped.
"Okay, about that blow me down part?" Mikey said nervously.
The ninjas kept closing on him until they halted for a second. And then, the trio charged at Mikey to attack. But before they could get to him, a large portion of the heavy sail fell from above and landed on top of the ninjas, trapping them instead.
Confused by this unexpected outcome, Mikey stared at the ninjas covered by the fallen sails, before he looked up to the mast and saw Arcee. The turtle in pink stood elegantly on the yard above of him while holding her Tessens in hands. The yard on which she was standing was missing its sail, hinting to Mikey from where the fallen sail had came from and who had released it.
"Yo Ho, Yo Ho, the turtle's life for me!" Arcee let out jokingly, with the sing-song voice.(2)
"Thanks, Captain Arcee." Mikey said with the grin and holding his thump up.
###
In the other side of the main deck, Leo was still battling Tatsu, though the ninja leader was forcing the turtle in blue to retreat away from him.
While dueling with him, Leo had to admit that Tatsu was indeed a very skillful warrior with swift reflexes and he mastered the skills in using his Yari-spear well.
Leo attempted many times over to slash and stab Tatsu with his Katanas, but the ninja was proved to be fast enough to dodge his own blows time after time without wearying out. Tatsu also blocked some of Leo's attacks effortlessly with both of his Yari's spearheads and haft, before the ninja unleashed his own skills on Leo by repeatedly slashing and stabbing the turtle in blue with his weapon from both sides, which Leo managed just barely to block with his Katanas.
Tatsu then attempted to slice Leo's face in half from above, only for Leo to block the strike by lifting his Katanas into X above of his head. Tatsu then surprised Leo as he suddenly changed his strategy by pulling his Yari's lower spearhead upwards and knocked Leo's Katanas out of the way, leaving Leo's guard wide open. With that, Tatsu spun around and swung his Yari in the horizontal arc from left to right, aiming for Leo's throat in attempt to slit it open with one of his weapon's spearheads.
Leo, however, saw this coming and dodged it by bowing his head down just in time as the spearhead flew over the back of his head, narrowly missing his scalp with the inch. After that, with Tatsu's guard being wide open from his right side, the turtle in blue got back up and spun around, swinging his Katanas at the ninja master and slashed him in the right arm from above his elbow.
"ARGH!" Tatsu cried of pain, but out of instincts and prompted by Leo cutting his arm with his blades, the ninja master spun around again and kicked hard with his left foot Leo's to his unprotected abdomen, knocking him backwards, until he tripped to his own feet and fell over to the deck.
Gritting his teeth in pain, Tatsu clutched to his wounded and bleeding arm with his left hand, before he turned to his arm and carefully removed his hand from over his wound to have a closer look of it.
Two bleeding cuts received to above of his right elbow from Leo's swords visibly reached a bit deeper than the ones he had given to Leo in the beginning and during of their duel. Looking down at his own blood in his blood-stained hand, Tatsu's eyed hardened and his eyes blazed savagely.
"You accursed Kappa!" Tatsu snarled as he turned back to Leo.
The scarred ninja master attacked Leo even more viciously than before, completely ignoring the pain in his arm.
Breathing angrily, Tatsu slashed and stabbed Leo with the doubled speed and even more ferocious desire to kill him. Leo did his best to block as many strikes from both Tatsu's weapons' spearheads as possible, though he received some more cuts to his arms and harmless scratches to both sides of his shell. As the duelists exchanged harsh blows during of their fierce duel, the sparks flew in the air every time when their weapons' blades clashed or rubbed against each other and the air around them was full of the shivers-giving and ear-piercing ringing and screeching of the clanking blades.
Tatsu then attempted to falsely stab Leo with one spearhead to the stomach again to trick him to lower his guard down from above, leaving his the head unprotected. When Leo moved his swords down to block his stab, Tatsu spun around and swung the other spearhead in arc over his head before he attempted to bring it down on Leo's supposedly vulnerable face again. However, Leo once again sensed the setup and pulled his swords hard upwards with the furious yell, and managed surprisingly knock the spear off from Tatsu's hands.
After disarming his opponent, Leo then spun around and attempted to bring his Katanas down on Tatsu to slash him again, this time aiming his blades at his opponent's left side. However, Tatsu blocked the turtle in blue's attack by raising his right arm in the way of his opponent's arms, preventing him from hitting him with his swords again - and at the same time ignoring the pain in his wounded arm when Leo's arms hit it. The scarred ninja master then grabbed from Leo's left arm's wrist and twisted it painfully, making Leo to let go of his left sword, which Tatsu snatched from the air into both hands and savagely slashed Leo to the chest and stomach for three times with the turtle in blue's own blade - though his shell protected him from severe injuries beyond the harmless scratches once again. However, this sudden close-call caught Leo by surprise and, seizing the opportunity, Tatsu kneed Leo really hard to his stomach that it nearly forced all air out of his lungs.
"AGHHH!" Leo gasped loudly in pain as he clutched his sore stomach with his hands.
The turtle in blue bent over and was about to fall on his knees to the deck but, however, Tatsu didn't allow that and mercilessly snap-kicked him to the face with such of force that knocked the turtle in blue back to upright position. With his opponent stunned, his guards down and completely defenseless, Tatsu dove forward and landed a hard kick to the turtle in blue's chest that sent him flying into the bunch of barrels, knocking them over.
After Leo was knocked down, a weary and panting Tatsu sunk Leo's Katana into the wooden plank of the deck, leaving it to there in upright position, and clutched to his wounded arm with his left hand again while glaring at Leo, as the turtle in blue was slowly recovering from such of brutal beating he received from Tatsu.
However, as he found the strength to finally pull himself back on his feet, Leo showed no signs of weariness nor any intentions of giving up to his opponent and he wasn't going to allow his own wounds to slow him down. And once he was back on his feet, he locked his glaring gaze with Tatsu's own and raised his single Katana up, clutching to its two-handed handle with both hands while aiming its blade at the scarred ninja leader.
However, unlike Leo, Tatsu felt like he was in the necessary need of a little respite due to his injury and weariness -and his glaring gaze mingled for a moment with inner fear and disbelief about the physical and mental endurance of the turtle in blue. As if Leo's endurance had no limits, unlike he did in certain situations. And so, instead of resuming his duel with Leo, Tatsu called a reinforcements to his side, that arrived in the form of six ninjas armed with Katanas.
"Subdue that Kappa! Wear him out but don't kill him! That is my right!" Tatsu demanded while backing away, giving to his ninjas a full space to face Leo.
Though lacking one Katana in this upcoming six-on-one fight, Leo held fearlessly his ground. The turtle in blue tightened his grip on it and he narrowed his eyes, growling as all six ninjas all charged at him.
However, before the ninjas could get to him, Dom suddenly jumped in between his brother and the ninjas, halting their charge and preventing them from attacking his brother.
"Mind your own business, boys!" the turtle in white demanded, spinning his Tonfas wildly.
The ninjas were slightly surprised by turtle in white's sudden appearance and interference, though they quickly got over it and resumed their attack, moving in for Dom to eliminate him first before they could get to Leo. In response, Dom charged at the ninjas.
As the first two ninjas swung their swords horizontally at Dom, the turtle in white crouched down to dodge their blades from under them. Then, he rotated his Tonfas outwards before he jumped back up and struck his Tonfas hafts hard into the ninja's guts. The ninjas gasped in pain, while Dom grunted as he lifted them up in the air and over his shoulders, before the turtle in white tossed them off to the deck.
Dom then dodged the third ninja's strike with the sword by flipping over his head, landing onto the ninja's back. Then Dom kicked himself upwards and off the ninja's back, pushing the ninja at the same time face-first to the ship's deck, knocking him out.
While falling down towards the fourth ninja, Dom flipped around while raising his Tonfas over his head and then brought them down, hitting the ninja to the head and knocking him down to the deck, before he flipped over the downed ninja.
Dom then landed in a crouched pose in front of two last ninjas, who instantly switched their swords into a Kusarigamas and tossed their weapons chains at him, hoping to wrap them around of Dom's wrist so that they could bring him closer to them and then strike him down with their sickle-blades. However, the turtle in white captured the chains with his Tonfas, wrapping them around of his weapons wooden hafts. The turtle in white then lifted his weapons up and then unwrapping the chains before tossing them back at the ninjas right at the same time as they pulled the chains back, making the weights at the chains' ends to hit both ninjas in their foreheads, stunning them both. When the duo was distracted, Dom seized the opportunity and dove at the ninjas, knocking them both off their feet and over to the deck, taking them both out.
Dom then turned to Leo after all six ninjas were taken out. "GO, LEO! GO!" Dom told to his brother.
Smiling, Leo gave him grateful nod before rushing past him and after Tatsu.
###
Meanwhile, at the bow deck, Mary was cornered next to the deck's railing by four ninjas, two armed with double-ended Naginatas of their own, one was armed with a dual Katanas and last one was armed with pair of Kamas. The ninjas circled Mary for a brief moment before they then engaged the turtle in turquoise into the vicious four-on-one fight.
While fighting all four ninjas, Mary doubled her efforts to block with her Naginata's haft the ninjas' blows from all four direction, while exchanging some of her own blows against them with her weapon's blade.
After the moment of exchanging blows with one another, the turtle in turquoise then raised her Naginata over her head out of instincts and held it up sideways, blocking just in time the fourth ninja's Kamas from landing on the base of her neck fatally. The ninja that wielded them had sneaked behind of Mary's shell-back during the fight in attempt to assassinate her from behind.
And by blocking his Kamas, Mary had also managed to capture them with her weapons' haft, which the turtle in turquoise found to be beneficial to her as three other ninjas were regrouping on the deck and were just about to charge at her. When they did, Mary bent her knee, falling on one to the deck, and pulled her Naginata hard forward, pulling the ninja with Kamas over her head and sent him flying into the Ninja with Naginata, knocking them over to the deck and out cold.
The other two ninjas with Naginata and the dual Katanas resumed their charge at Mary, swinging their weapons' blades quickly and repeatedly at her, forcing the turtle in turquoise to retreat closer the railing while doing her best to block their blows with her Naginata's haft.
Once the ninjas had her cornered against the railing, the ninja with Naginata raised his spear over his head and then brought it down, aiming for Mary's head in attempt to split it in two. However, Mary quickly tossed her Naginata into the air before she somersaulted through the ninja's legs as his own Naginata's blade sunk into the wooden railing. Mary then jumped back up and flipped over the second ninja as he attempted to slice her in two from the waist with his Katanas, only to miss her.
After that, Mary reached out for her flying Naginata with her right hand and snatched her weapon from the air, before she sunk its blade to the deck and swung herself around its haft for a several times as the ninja with swords turned around to face her again, holding his weapons up.
"Hope you guys can swim a dog, do ya?!" Mary called to the ninjas before she swung herself around her weapon's haft one more time before letting go of it, sending herself flying feet-first towards the ninjas and landed the hard kick with both feet to the dual-Katana wielding ninja's chest, knocking him into the second one - as he had just pulled his Naginata's stuck blade off the railing and turned around to engage Mary again - and sending them both flying over the ship's railing and down to the water below.
###
Meanwhile, at the base of the ship's main mast.
After recovering from his falling and rough landing enough, the turtle in black struggled to pull himself up, only to find himself confronted by eight ninjas: One was armed with Bo-staff, the second one with dual Kamas, third one with three-section-staff, fourth one was armed with the bow and the rest were armed with Katanas. They were soon joined by the first two ninjas, who jumped down from the mast to face him on the deck. The ninjas surrounded the turtle in black from all directions, pinning him against the main mast and cutting his every chance to escape.
"Oh, you wanna play rough, do ya, boys?! I'll show you how rough the turtle can play this game! Count on it!" Louie snarled at the ninjas as he stood up, pulled out his Butterfly swords and took a fighting pose.
For a moment, both Louie and all eight Ninjas then glared silently at each other, while waiting for one of them to make the first move to start the battle.
Then eventually, the same two ninjas, whom had tried to kill him by dropping him off from the mast, made their moves towards him first. As they lunged towards him, both of them took out several Shurikens from their pockets and threw them all at once towards Louie.
"WOW!" Louie yelped and quickly turned around to cover himself with his shell against the incoming throwing stars.
However, he did not react to them fast enough and the Shurikens left him with several superficial cuts: First one scratched him from above of his shell that protected his chest, another one scratched at the same time his right shoulder and his arm from beneath of his wrist, narrowly missing his artery. Two others scratched him from the right side beneath of his arm, though those two didn't cause much injury thanks to his shell and the remaining Shurikens both hit and bounced off from his shell.
Louie then began flipped backwards as the second round of Shurikens flew towards him, though Louie managed to narrowly avoid them as the throwing stars flew past him from underside after each flip and got stuck to the mast. After that, Louie landed on his feet against the side of the ship's main mast before jumping off and diving forward towards the ninjas whom had thrown their Shurikens at him. Before the turtle in black could hit them, he flipped over so that his feet were facing the ninjas. The turtle in black then quickly hooked his legs and then shot them forward at the ninjas, kicking them both to the faces an knocking them off their feet to the deck and out cold.
Louie then flipped backwards off the ninjas' chest and landed back on his feet to the gap between of the ninjas as they lied unconscious on the deck.
"HA! Never, EVER, piss off the turtle!" Louie exclaimed to the duo smugly.
Louie was then attacked by the next ninja, who attempted to hit him with his Bo-staff by swinging it at him horizontally, which Louie dodged easily by crouching down to the deck. The turtle in black then spun himself around to his right and swept the ninja's legs from under him with his right one, making the ninja to fall forward, but Louie quickly jumped back up and flipped backwards, kicking with his both feet the falling ninja to the face, sending him flying onto his back over to the deck.
"And when I say "never", I mean that!" Louie added
Fourth ninja with three-section-staff attacked Louie next from his right, swinging his weapon's another end towards the turtle in black's face, only for Louie to block the strike by making the weapon to wrap itself around of one of his Butterfly swords. Louie then yanked from the weapon and pulled the ninja closer to him, before the turtle in black sidestepped out of the ninja's way and moved behind of his back, before he then pushed the ninja forward with his shoulder, making him to bump head-first into the mast, causing him to go dizzy from the hard impact.
And at this moment, the fifth ninja with pair of Kamas attacked next and lifted his weapons up to bring them down on Louie, only for Louie to block the strike by crossing his swords into X. Using the same technique what Mary had used, Louie them fell onto his shell-back to the deck as he performed the backwards somersault, pulling the ninja down with him while placing his feet against his stomach and kicked him into the ninja whom he had made to bump into the mast, knocking them both against the mast before they both fell over to the deck, knocked out cold.
Louie them turned to the five remaining ninjas, four of which began to approach him, the swords in their hands. And while the turtle in black was busy dealing with four ninjas at the same time, the fifth ninja with the bow stepped backwards and took an arrow from his quiver. The ninja then placed the arrow in the string of his bow and raised the bow and the arrow up, taking aim at Louie. The ninja then started to pull the string backwards and prepared to release the arrow, which was aimed at Louie's head.
However, before the ninja could release the string, a Nunchaku suddenly landed onto his bow-wielding arm's wrist, causing the ninja to let out the cry in pain. The blow also caused the ninja to turn both his bow and arrow away from Louie before he let go of the string out of instincts and the arrow flew off, piercing the plank on the deck.
Letting go of the bow, the ninja clutched to his wrist before he turned to the direction where the Nunchaku had came from. He saw Mikey standing next to him, spinning his left Nunchaku over his head while pointing with his right hand's finger (while his hand's other two fingers were wrapped around of his other Nunchaku) at the ninja with the smirk on his face.
"Hey, pal. Have you ever played the bowling of Ninjas?" the turtle in orange jokingly asked.
The ninja's puzzled look confirmed the answer "No" to Mikey.
"Well then, let me show you." Mikey said.
The ninja quickly recomposed himself and drew out his Katana and attempted to swing it horizontally at Mikey's head. However, the turtle in orange ducked under the sword before he spun around and stretched his left leg as far to the left as he could. The ninja then attempted to bring his sword down on Mikey from above, but the turtle in orange bent his left leg and moved himself in front of the ninja before diving to his left side, making the sword to land to the deck and splitting another plank int two.
Mikey landed on his shoulders to the deck and somersaulted to the crouched position to the deck, before he jumped back up and turned to the ninja. Luckily to Mikey, the ninja had apparently hit his sword to the deck too hard and now it was stuck, as he was trying to pull it off from the plank.
Using this as his advantage, Mikey quickly jumped in the air, landed onto the ninja's shoulders and hooked his legs under of his arms, much to the ninja's surprise.
"Louie! Think fast!" Mikey called out to Louie, before he dived forward, making himself to fall downward until he landed on his hands to the deck, while forcing the ninja to bent over with his weight. Mikey then quickly placed his feet under of the ninja's armpits before he pushed himself off the deck with his hands and shot his legs vigorously straight at the same time, sending the ninja flying towards the ninjas surrounding the turtle in black. Louie spotted this and quickly disengaged the ninjas before he crouched down on all his fours to the deck before the flying ninja flew screaming into the other four ninjas and knocked all of them off their feet and away from Louie. All four of them then ended up landing into the small pile of knocked out cold or still conscious and from the pain groaning ninjas.
With all of his opponents down, panting and slightly weary Louie jumped back to his feet and turned to Mikey.
"Thanks, bro!" Louie said, holding his right hand's thumb up at his brother, to which Mikey responded with the smirk while holding up his own thumb.
###
Raph, meanwhile, was facing three ninjas armed with Kusarigamas on the bridge of the ship. One of them eventually threw his weapon's chain towards Raph, which the turtle in red, however, blocked with his Sai, allowing the chain to wrap around of it.
"Nice try, dipstick." the turtle in red said with cocky smirk, before he grabbed from the chain and yanked from it, pulling the ninja closer to him. And as the ninja was close enough, Raph knocked him out with hard punch to the face.
However, as Raph's attention was in the first ninja, the second ninja suddenly threw his chain at him and managed to wrap it around his legs. The ninja then pulled the chain back, tying Raph's legs tightly together before pulling them off from under him.
"WHOAAA!" Raph yelped as he fell over the bridge's railing, until the ninja holding the chain pulled from them again, leaving Raph dangling there from the chain upside down like some sort of Piñata.
The third ninja them jumped down to the main deck and turned to raised his weapon's Kama over his head and prepared to swing it at Raph to slice his faces in two with its sickle-blade, making Raph to gasp.
However, before the ninja could do it, Arcee suddenly swung down from the mast by a rope, flying towards the ninja that was holding Raph upside down in the air by the chain.
"Since when pretending Piñata has been part of your style, bro?" Arcee jokingly asked from Raph, as she kicked the ninja in the face, knocking him out and causing him to let go of the chain and thus allowing her hot-headed brother to fall down. Raph yelped. until he landed onto the ninja right beneath of him.
After landing on the ninja and knocking him out, Raph stood up to his feet.
"Well, it usually ain't part of it, but I'll take it this time!" the turtle in red responded to Arcee with the smirk as he twirled his Sais.
###
Elsewhere, Donnie was facing three-two last ninjas next to the ship's lifeboats that were kept hanging in the other side of the ship's railing by the ropes of the boat's lowering system. As the first ninja attacked with his Katana, Donnie blocked his attack with one end of his Bo-staff before he swung the other end at the ninja's face, knocking him out and aside.
Donnie then turned his attention to the next ninja, who attempted to slice him in half from the waist, though Donnie avoided this by pole vaulting sideways to his right. The ninja attempted to lunge at Donnie again and from behind once the brainy turtle had landed back to his feet, but Donnie blocked the ninja's attempt on his life by lifting his staff up into the sword's way before the brainy turtle pulled his weapon back and then stabbed the ninja hard in the stomach with the blunt end of his staff, sending the ninja wobbling backwards and towards the lifeboat. Donnie then finished the job by swinging his staff hard at the ninja's chest, knocking him over the railing and into one of the lifeboats.
The last ninja on the feet then attempted to pick the recently beaten ninja's sword up and attack Donnie from behind.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Donnie snapped, before the turtle in purple brought his staff directly down on the ninja's left leg's toes by force.
"OUCH! OW! OW! OW!" ninja cried as he dropped the sword and began to jump around on his right leg while holding with his hands from his left one's sore toes.
Donnie then proceed by swinging his staff at the ninja's right leg, tripping his opponent. The brainy turtle then put his staff under of the ninja's arms from the backside and flung him overboard and into the life boat with his companion.
###
Leo and Tatsu were still clashing with each other as they unknowingly approached the lifeboats, into one of which Donnie had just tossed two ninjas after he had beaten them.
Now Leo's and Tatsu's skills were somewhat equally matched, as the wounds in Tatsu's right arm caused by Leo's Katanas slightly limited Tatsu's ability to use his right arm more properly and effectively in the duel. Leo used this as his advantage and forced the ninja master to back off by doubling his efforts.
But despite his limited capabilities and the pain of his injuries, Tatsu was still capable to hold his own against Leo in the duel, swinging his recovered Yari's spearheads alternately and repeatedly at the turtle in blue, a bit less than half of which were either blocked or dodged by Leo.
However, neither one of them got the upper hand over one other, no matter how much and how long they exchanged the blows with each other by swords and kicks.
But as soon as they reached to the lifeboat, Tatsu spun himself around and swung forcefully both his Yari's spearheads towards Leo: moving his Katanas away with one spearhead before targeting the other one to his stomach. Leo of course dodged the second slash towards him by jumping backwards.
Tatsu then swung his spear over his head and brought it down on Leo in attempt to split his head in two yet again, which Leo blocked with both his Katanas, though this move left his guard open from downwards. Tatsu seized this opportunity and kicked Leo in the leg, making the turtle in blue gasp in pain as he fell onto one knee. Tatsu then kicked him again, this time to his stomach, hard enough to send the turtle flying backwards, until he crashed onto his shell against the railing.
Tatsu then walked over to downed Leo, chuckling darkly at him.
"Pathetic kappa! I though there's more in you than meets the eye!" Tatsu snarled, before he raised his Yari over his head, grabbed its haft with both hands and prepared to bring it down to stab Leo to death.
A twisted smile grew even wider on the scarred ninja master's face and his eyes flashed with anticipation of ending Leo's life and take his head, blue mask and his arms as his trophies to secure his master's favor to him over Jennika.
However, much to his confusion and slight frustration, Leo's angry frown slowly turned into a sly smile.
"Ain't there any mention about "more in all of us together than meets the eye," Tatsu?" Leo asked slyly.
Before Tatsu had time to figure out Leo's point...
"Because there's more of us than just one here, remember?!" Arcee's voice exclaimed from above, before the turtle in pink suddenly appeared out of nowhere - hanging upside down by the rope that was tied around of her leg. She flew over Tatsu's head and swung both her Tessens at the ninja master's Yari, slicing the spearheads off from the weapon before he could use it to kill Leo.
Tatsu was left surprised and dumbfounded by the loss his primary weapon.
"WHATTA...?!" the ninja master exclaimed, turning to Arcee as she flew away.
Tatsu then looked around and saw that the turtles were all approaching him from all directions: Mikey and Mary were coming from the bow deck, Louie and Dom were coming from the other side of the ship and Donnie and Raph were coming from the aft deck. All of them had their weapons out and their angry glares were locked at him.
Puzzled, Tatsu looked around to see that where his ninjas were. However, after seeing a couple dozen of them lying unconscious all around of the deck, the scarred ninja master realizes that the turtles have defeated all of his ninja, and now he was all alone against all eight turtles.
However, even though the tables were turned, Tatsu was unwilling to accept his defeat.
"This changes nothing!" Tatsyu scoffed angrily. "I am Master Tatsu! The High-ranked Ninjutsu-master! The Pride of this Ninja Clan! An Unbeatable Warrior, Assassin and Weapon Master Without Equal! The Slayer of the Toughest Warriors of This Century and The Dragon Warrior of Japan!" And you, Kappa, you're nothing compared to me! You cannot beat me! You cannot kill me! But I can kill..." Tatsu boasted, as he reached for his Katanas with his hands.
"Big Guy, eh?" Louie scoffed, cutting him short. "Well, then you don't need your toys to beat us, baldie!"
After saying that, the turtle in black took out his Manriki-gusari's and whipped their chains towards Tatsu and quickly wrapped them around of his Katanas' handles before he could reach for them and pull them out from their scabbards. Louie then swung his chains hard upwards and the chains around of Tatsu's Katanas' handles pulled the blades out of the scabbards and threw them far away from the ninja master's reach, leaving the scarred ninja master unarmed.
By pulling the Katanas hard out of their scabbards, Louie caused Tatsu to be thrown over on his back to the deck.
"KAPPA!" Tatsu snarled as he pulled himself off the deck and back to his feet. The scarred ninja master then took a couple Tantō-daggers into his hands and turned around to face the turtle in black, only to see both Donnie and Mikey running towards him from either side before they jumped together into the air and flew across the deck towards him.
"IT'S TURTLES!" the turtles in purple and orange corrected him as they drop-kicked Tatsu hard to the chest, sending him stumbling backwards and causing him to release his grip from his Tantō-daggers, dropping them aside.
Mary then jumped behind of Tatsu, and with "HAI-YAH!" cry, the turtle in turquoise threw herself onto her side to the deck and rolled sideways towards Tatsu's legs, tripping him and sending him to fall backwards to the deck again.
However, before the ninja master could've land on his back to the deck after Mary tripped him, Raph and Dom had jumped behind him and held out their hands so that Tatsu could land on them like on the couch. As soon as Tatsu landed on their hands, the puzzled ninja master could only look frantically around him as both turtles in red and white lifted him together into the air and threw the scarred ninja master overboard into the boat along with the Donnie's ninjas.
Louie then jumped onto the railing and crouched down while looking into the boat. Tatsu, while lying on top of his two subordinates, glared venomously up at the turtle in black with gritted teeth, furious of this humiliation the turtles were inflicting to him.
"I swear by the name of Shinigami that you will pay dearly for this insolence, you insolent, spineless, damned son of a- ULPHGH!" Tatsu tried to say, only to be rudely silenced when Louie ripped part of the sleeve from one of the ninjas in the boat and forced it into Tatsu's mouth to shut him up.(3)
"Language, boy." Louie teasingly chided with the smirk, before the turtle in black took out a couple of Shurikens into his hands and gave a knowing look at Tatsu. The ninja master's eyes widened as he realized what Louie was about to do.
"A romantic boat trip in the moonlight awaits you, boys! Have a fun!" the turtle in black taunted as he threw the Shurikens at the ropes that held the life boat up.
The turtle in black's Shurikens cut both ropes at the same time and the lifeboat and the ninjas on it fell freely into the river that awaited below. The ninjas screamed the whole way down from the ship's deck level into the water.
"SAYONARA, SUCKERS!" Louie wished after them.
"CURSE YOU, KAPPA!" Tatsu cried back in anger, until his and the ninja's screams were cut off when the boat hit the water with the big splash.
"It's turtles, again! Try to learn that in the future!" Arcee cried down after the ninjas, as she jumped down from the mast and landed directly onto the railing next to Louie.
Once ninjas and Tatsu were beaten, the turtles regrouped, and Dom helped Leo back to his feet.
"Good work, guys... and thanks." Leo said to his brothers and sisters.
"Outnumbered by a fifty ninjas, plus Tatsu, and finally we're the ones who ends up being victorious." Louie stated proudly, as he jumped off the railing.
"And because of that, I guess our teamwork effort gets the most improved." Leo replied, commending with approval their efforts in teamwork.
Donnie then turned back to the cannon's direction in the pier and to the massive whirlpool in the river. He raised his brow when he spotted the helicopter, that had appeared out of nowhere during the flight and was at the moment hovering above of the whirlpool. The helicopter was dyed to dark-blue and it was branded with the same ninja's symbol from both sides and from the bottom.
"School's not out yet." Donnie said, as he pointed with his finger at the chopper "That's one cool-as-shell chopper!" he added, marveling the helicopter's design.
"Huh?! When that thing came here anyway?" Louie questioned while staring at the helicopter.
"Probably during of that little struggle with those ninjas and Tatsu, I guess." Mary replied.
The turtles also spotted that from the bottom of the helicopter had been lowered into the whirlpool a grappling hook in the end of the cable.
"What exactly are they doing?" Arcee wondered as she eyed the cable that disappeared into the whirlpool.
"Well, according to what Donnie and Mary mentioned about those guys being searching something from under the water, I guess that they've found it and now they're salvaging it from the bottom of the river." Dom assumed.
The grappling hook was soon pulled out from the whirlpool and back towards the helicopter, as pulled out of the depths something that seemed to be some kind of armor suit, covered by the mud and barnacles though.
"What's up with barnacle bill?" Mikey asked, as he followed the object in the grappling hook's grip before it disappeared into the helicopter.
"Whatever it is, it can't be good." Raph deduced as the airborne vehicle flew off.
Leo then spoke up next. "Whatever they just fished from the bottom of the river, we cannot worry about it now. C'mon, guys! Let's get to that cannon and let's see what we can do." the turtle in blue stated and led his siblings off the boat back to the walkway.
His brothers and sisters soon followed him right behind.
All eight turtles then headed towards the pier 16, in the end of which the cannon and the stolen sword were located by Donnie and Mary.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TRIVIA
1 = This is reference to the moment from Disney's Tarzan movie, where Tarzan falls off from the chimney of the ship and lands heavily in the pile of cargo, getting stunned by the rough landing.
2 = TMNT version "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, The Pirate's Life For Me."
3 = The name Shinikami, as you might know already from the similarly named character's debut episode in TMNT 2012 series, is the name of the Japanese God of Death.