Author's note: My apologizes for the wait again. Sometimes creating side plots in the chapters of each episode tests my interests, along with the everyday pressures and my other interests. However, I've finally managed to finish the first chapter of the Garbageman episode. So from my part, enjoy and review!
Another night had fallen over New York City. Everything was peaceful and quiet. The gentle wind whistled as it carried some pieces of the newspaper with it.
However, even though the streets were mostly empty, there was still activity in the alley, where three homeless people - two males and one woman: One of the males was an old chubby guy with the torn trench coat, reddish cap and big dark blue mustache and beard. Another male was younger and skinny and he had the brown hair and small chin beard. He was dressed in a blue shirt, wearing over it a sleeveless hoodie and he wore a dirty orange bandana over his head. The woman with them was young and slender. Her hair was dyed purple and she was dressed in the purple shirt, orange pants and brown trench coat and she wore a gray bandana over her head - were scavenging from the dumpsters anything that they could use to survive on the streets. The trio kept throwing from the dumpster away everything that they found useless, until the chubby old man eventually found empty glass bottle, which wasn't broken.
"Bingo!" the chubby man cheered and flipped the bottle in the air before he caught it again.
"Wow! Don't break it, Fumble Fingers!" the skinny guy freaked. "Every nickel counts."
"You hurt me, Ernie. I never break 'em!" the chubby one argued sternly back.
"Oh, really, Phil?" the woman asked with the smirk on her lips. "What about those twenty other bottles you've managed to break within one week?"
The skinny one, named Ernie, chuckled at this. "Crystal is right, Phil. You break them all of time." he retorted playfully.
"Well, yeah... I guess I do." Phil stuttered as he put the bottle in the pocket of his goat. "Well, that's it for this golden mine. Let's move on."
"And let's hope that our next stop will be more productive than this one. The people never throw anything useful away, just a useless junk." Crystal lamented, as the trio headed towards the next dumpster.
"You'll learn eventually that on the streets, every waste thrown away still has even the slightest use that needs to be benefited, if you wish to survive in world where rules the "dog-eating-dog" rule. And if you don't, the nature prunes off the weak individuals." Phil advised.
"I guess." Crystal said as they kept moving.
However, little did the trio know that they were stalked by the abnormally large and black weird-looking garbage truck that stealthily entered into the alleyway and followed the trio.
The trio then stopped to the next dumpster, opened its bin and started to scrounge through it. However, the trio then caught the loud sound of the running engine and screeching tires and turned away from the dumpster to see what it was. The trio then saw the large garbage truck coming straight towards them.
"Oh, man!" Crystal lamented. "Did the garbage truck come right now when we were about to scrounge this dumpster?"
"And that's a pretty weird-looking garbage truck I've ever seen." Phil admitted, finding the appearance of the truck in front of them rather weird and unusual.
However, the trio's confusion - and Crystal's annoyance - immediately turned into a fear when the garbage truck shot the menacing bright red lights out of its headlights at them and approached them slowly but menacingly like a beast lurking for its prey!
"Whatta...?!" Ernie gasped, confused and scared by this truck.
"What's wrong with that guy?!" Phil asked, as it seemed like the garbage truck would carelessly run them over if they do not move out of its way.
"Who cares! Run!" Crystal screamed, equally scared as were her companions.
The trio then turned away and ran deeper into the alley in hope to escape from the garbage truck, which gave chase to them. However, when the trio eventually reached to the end of the alley, they found it to be the dead end with no way out, and the garbage truck was blocking their other way out.
They were trapped!
"NO!" the trio cried as the truck stopped in front of them, shining the dead end of the alley with its red headlights.
Phil and Ernie were petrified still from fear, but Crystal backed away from them until her back hit against the wall. The utterly terrified woman stared with widened eyes at the scary garbage truck standing in front of them.
The truck then activated two huge hydraulic metal claws from either side of it, which approached at the two men, ready to grab them.
"NO! NO! GET AWAY!" Phil cried.
"NO! NO! STOP! PLEASE!" Ernie cried.
However, their pleads were ignored and the claws kept coming for them.
Crystal could only watch in horror as the claws roughly grabbed both Phil and Ernie by their heads and lifted them up like the rag dolls. And as Phil was lifted up, the glass bottle he had found earlier slipped out from his coat's pocket and then smashed when it hit to the ground. The claws then held Phil and Ernie above of the truck's container, on top of which was the lid that automatically slid open once the two were hovering over it. Then the claws dropped Phil and Ernie through the open hole before the lid slid back in place, trapping them both inside of the container. And once that was done, the claws reached forward and towards Crystal to pick her up too.
"NO!" Crystal cried and, snapping out of it, dived towards the gap between the wall and the left side of the truck before the claws could grab her.
Crystal managed to get out of the dead end and far out of the garbage truck's claws reach and headed towards the entrance of the alleyway to get out of here.
However, the danger was not over yet, not by the long shot.
From the top of the container opened a round-shaped lid, and out of it emerged a huge gray tube-like thing, which mouth was aimed towards the fleeing Crystal. And before Crystal could get far, the tube suddenly began to suck the air inside in the manner of the vacuum cleaner.(1)
The sucked air grabbed anything loose waste from the alley with it into the tube: the newspapers, bottles, old clothes, tin cans, plastic bags and food packaging, coffee mugs, dirty rags and handkerchiefs, food leftovers, candy papers and bags, potato chip bags, milk cartons, cookie boxes, old pizza boxes, garbage bags, even the empty and thus light dumpsters (though they were merely knocked over and thrown around instead of sucking them inside the tube) and many other waste, including unfortunate Crystal as well.(1)
"AHH! NO!" Crystal screamed, as the tube's sucking air threw her backwards to the ground and started to drag her towards the mouth of the tube.(1)
"NO! NO! NO! NO! HELP! HELP ME! HELP ME!" Crystal screamed in panic as she tried to crawl along the ground as a last desperate attempt to get away, but the garbage truck's tube's sucking power was too powerful and she kept sliding towards the tube's mouth.(1)
Close of the tube's mouth, the sucking wind was even more powerful that it forcefully tore Crystal off the ground.(1)
"AHHH!" Crystal screamed as she was sucked inside of the tube. Then the round bulge appeared in the tube after Crystal was sucked in, which then continued along the tube from its mouth towards the garbage truck's container. And on the way, Crystal's muffled screams could be heard from inside of the tube's bulged part before it disappeared inside of the container.(1)
After Crystal was inside the container along with Phil and Ernie, the tube's sucking power was shut down before the tube itself was pulled inside of the container. The garbage truck then backed into the streets and drove off, leaving the crime scene messed up from the un-sucked waste and knocked dumpsters, with the Phil's broken bottle lying in middle of the mess.
(The screen pulls away from New York City with couple spot lights waving above of it. Then a four green letters forming the word TMNT towers over the city.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES"
(The screen rises to the edge of the roof, on which was standing eight green shadowy humanoid creatures with the turtle-like features. Two of them were crouching down and all of them had by colors individual ninja masks; One had blue, second one had turquoise, third one red, fourth one white, fifth one pink, sixth one black, seventh purple and the last one orange. As the spot lights passes them, all eight turtles then leap off the edge of the roof.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF"
(The screen then splits from right to left into four narrow screens.)
"ONE, TWO"
(In the first one, the turtle in orange (named Michelangelo) is holding his Nunchucks in the air. In the second one, the turtle in red (named Raphael) is holding one Sai above his head while pointing the other downwards.)
"THREE, FOUR"
(In the third one, the turtle in purple (Named Donatello) is holding Bo-staff in front of him. In the fourth one, the turtle in blue (Named Leonardo) has crossed his sword-holding arms over his chest.)
(TURTLES!)
(Leonardo seen fighting two people dressed like ninjas and wielding Naginata-spears. The turtle slices both ninjas weapons' staves in two with his swords before kicking both one by one away.)
"MUTANT CHAIN REACTION"
(TURTLES!)
(Donatello is seen driving a speedy vehicle down the sewer tunnel, before the turtle in purple turns to smirk to the camera and holds a thumb up.)
"LIVIN' UNDERGROUND"
(TURTLES!)
(Raphael is seen making couple of flips; one over the fence and one towards the screen, before he delivers the kick at the screen, blackening it for a second.)
"NINJUTSU ACTION"
(TURTLES!)
(Widely grinning Michalengelo is seen standing on top of the large green armored car that's speeding along the street, while spinning his Nucnhacku wildly in the air.)
"IT'S A SHELL OF THE TOWN!"
(As the turtle in orange leaps off, the armored car flies in arc over the street before landing back to the ground. Then its back doors open up and two of the turtles, Raphael and the turtle in black, rocket out of the car in the backs of red and avocado green bikes before skidding them sideways to a stop.)
(In the alleyway, next to the blue armored car, the eight turtles crouch down before leaping to attack towards the camera, with the turtle in orange taking the lead and kicks the screen with his foot.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF"
(The screen splits into two horizontal screen: the upper screen shows a blue-masked face with into a glare narrowed eyes while lower shows eight turtles standing in line in front of the gray-furred humanoid rat dressed in the brown robe, Master Splinter by name.)
(In the next one, lower screen shows a purple-masked face with lightly frowned glare while upper shows Master Splinter swinging his wooden staff down at the couple of attacking robots.)
("ONE!")
"LIVE BY THE CODE OF THE MARTIAL ARTS"
(In the third one, upper screen shows a red-masked face with the deep frown, while the lower shows a large and muscular blonde-haired man, named Hun, leading a group of silhouetted street gang members from the ablaze background towards the screen)
(In the fourth one, the lower screen shows a orange-masked face with the soft stare, while the upper one shows Hun sneering at the camera, before he throws a punch towards the screen.)
("TWO!")
"NEVER FIGHT UNLESS SOMEONE ELSE STARTS"
(A red-haired young woman, named April O'Neil, is then seen winking at the camera from the cockpit of the helicopter with the rope hanging from its undercarriage, which she flies past of the blue tower with the Japanese palace on top of it. On top of it, two turtles, Donatello and the turtle in white are seeing battling six ninjas on the edge, until they're knocked off the building. Falling down, the turtle in white grabs from the helicopter's rope with one hand and grabs with his free one from Donnie's hand, cutting his falling, and they're both lifted up in the air.)
("THREE!")
"ALWAYS STICK TOGETHER NO MATTER WHAT"
(In the dark alley, the eight turtles are standing shell to shell in middle of the bright spotlight, while they're surrounded by the dozens and dozens of in the darkness standing and armed ninjas that keep coming from the darkness and rooftops above of the alley. The turtles fearlessly demonstrate their weapon skills with their weapons before taking their respective battle stances.)
("FOUR!")
"IF ALL ELSE FAILS, THEN IT'S TIME TO KICK BUTT!"
(Screen rises up to the tall buildings.)
(Michelangelo jumps from the right, making the flip in the air while spinning his Nunchucks wildly. At the same time from the left jumps the female turtle in pink with her legs bent under, while spinning around and swinging her sharp Tessens around.)
(Then Donatello jumps from the left, spinning his Bo-staff with his left hand while swinging it over his head before grabbing it with both hands and bringing it down hard. At the same time, the female turtle in turquoise jumps from the right, spinning her Naginata in her right hand, before spinning around and sending a horizontal slash with her weapon's blade forward.)
(Leonardo then jumps from the left with his Katanas crossed, before he pulls them to the sides as he delivers the kick forward with his foot. At the same time, the turtle in white jumps from the left, spinning his Tonfas in his hands before thrusting his right Tonfa forward like a stabbing movement.)
(Raphael then jumps from the left and crossed his arms in front of him before pulling them back, making his Sais to flash. Right after him, the turtle in black jumps from the right, holding his left Butterfly sword in front of him and his right Butterfly sword over his head, before swinging them forward to slash with them the air in front of him.)
(Then a 14-year-old girl with purple-dyed hair styled in pigtails, named Angel, jumps from the left after the turtle in black and throws the punch towards the screen with her left fist. Then a tall blue-haired and -eyed man with the hockey mask on his face, named Casey Jones, jumps from the right and whacks the screen with his hockey stick.)
(Leo, with swords in hands, is then seen landing onto one ninja's back, knocking him down.)
(Donnie is then seen whacking another ninja off his feet and out with his Bo.)
(Raph is then seen blocking the third ninja's kick with his left arm while holding his Sai in his fist.)
(Mikey is then seen punching fourth in the face with his right fist while holding a Nunchuck.)
(Turtle in turquoise is then seen kicking the fifth in the chest while holding her Naginata up.)
(Turtle in white is then seen back-handing the sixth with his left hand's Tonfa)
(Turtle in black is then seen blocking seventh's sword with his left hand's sword while thrusting his right towards the ninja as if to stab him in the chest)
(Turtle in pink is then seen with her arms crossed in front of her white holding her opened pink Tessens in her hands.)
(Raph is then seen again, this time surrounded by several ninjas, until he spins himself around with his hands clenched into fist around of his Sais' hilts spread out, knocking all ninjas away from him.)
(Cut to the wide shot, where seven silhouetted turtles are seen jumping and flipping along the rooftops, water towers and chimneys, as the camera follows them. One of the turtles swings over them by the chain with one hand like Tarzan. Then two narrower screens appear to above and beneath of the rooftop screen, showing the repeating line of turtles in blue's and purple's masked faces above and the line of turtles in red and orange's masked faces beneath, moving to the opposite direction.)
"I LOVE BEING' A..."
"I LOVE BEING' A..."
"I LOVE BEING' A TURTLE!"
(The turtles then land to the ground in front of the building. Leonardo is in the middle, Donatello and the turtles in turquoise and white are in his right side while Michelangelo and the turtles in black and pink are in his left side. All seven then ran towards the camera that moved between of Leo's legs.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!"
(Then, Raphael races over the building in the back of the bike and jumps off it towards and past the camera.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF:"
(The screen splits into four narrow screens again, this time from left to right.)
"FIVE, SIX"
(In the first one, the female turtle in turquoise (named Marietta) is pointing her Naginata's blade at the screen. In the second one, the turtle in black (named Lorenzo) is holding his Butterfly-swords upside down in his arms, while holding the left one horizontally in front of his face and right one over his head.)
"SEVEN, EIGHT"
(In the third one, the turtle in white (named Domenico) is holding his Tonga-holding arms crossed over his chest. In the fourth one, the female turtle in pink (named Artemisia) is holding her right hand's Tessen opened in front of her face, partially covering them behind of her weapon, while pointing with her left closed one at the screen.)
(TURTLES!)
(Marietta is seen standing in the dead end, spinning around while spinning her Naginata with her hands in front of her, before she pulls it behind her shell-back and shoots her left hand forward as two two hands, one holding a knife and one a fire-axe, appears from both sides of the screen
"AT NIGHTFALL, WE'RE COMING"
(TURTLES!)
(Lorenzo is seen riding on top of the subway car, with his Butterfly swords sunk to its roof. And as he approaches the camera, the turtle in black jumps forward towards the camera and kicks the screen into black.)
"OUT OF MANHOLE"
(TURTLES!)
(Domenico is then seen stabbing with his left and then right Tonfa at one practice dummy in his right to the head, knocking it back. Then he turns around and spin-kicks the other dummy in his left in the head with his right foot. Then the turns around and whack the camera with his left Tonfa.)
"BEWARE, THE BADDIES!"
(TURTLES!)
(The screen pulls back, showing Artemisia skating with the pair of pink roller skates along the rooftop as she is being by the dozen ninjas with the swords. Four more ninjas appear from the sides of the screen, chasing after the skating turtle in pink. Arcee peeks over her left shoulder at them, smirks and then picks up the pace, skating into the camera.)
"MUTANTS NINJAS ARE ON THE MOVE!"
(Arcee then skates towards a pretty large ninja with the sword held up and ready to strike (with her pursuers' running feet showing in the sides of the screen). However, as the large ninja tries to strike at the turtle in pink horizontally, she grabs from both of his wrists, spins around and throws him over her shoulder at her pursuers. The ninja flies towards the camera face-first.)
(Arcee then turns around and somersaults over the edge of the building. The screen then moves down in front of with the wooden boards boarded doorway, before the same green armored truck - with Domenico in the driver's seat and Marietta in the passenger's seat - smashes through it, allowing the turtle in pink to land onto its roof.)
(Screen then turns to the back-doors of the truck as it is chased by two ninjas on motorbikes, until the back-doors of the truck slam open and Lorenzo jumps out with the barrel-roll, landing on his shell to the street, somersaulting back to his feet and then lunging at the ninjas, knocking them both off the bikes as he flies face-first at the camera.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF"
(The screen splits into two horizontal screens again: the upper screen shows a turquoise-masked face with lightly frowned glare, while lower screen shows Arcee, Leo and Mary in the snowy woods, staring at the five silhouetted canine-like humanoid beings with various colored face-paints (silver, dark blue, light purple, red and dark purple) standing in line. They all hit their fists with their fist before bowing.)
(In the next one, lower screen shows a white-masked face with deep frown while upper shows the silhouetted canine-like humanoid with the light blue face-paint wielding a single Kama in its right had while fighting two hunter-looking men with the hunting rifles: It kicks the one behind of its back in the chest with its left foot, then elbows the second one in the face with its right elbow. It then turns to and snarls at the camera before slicing it half with its Kama.)
("FIVE!")
"WE'LL ALWAYS FIGHT AGAINST THE EVIL!"
(In the third one, upper screen shows a black-masked face with the wide eyes, while the lower shows Lorenzo with Angel, standing back to shell-back in middle of the ring of the silhouetted enemies.)
(In the fourth one, the lower screen shows a pink-masked face with the soft stare, while the upper one shows Louie and Angel turning to each other and taking each other from hands, before the turtle in black swings the girl around him in the air. As the turtle in black swings Angel towards the camera, the girl kicks the screen with her foot.)
("SIX!")
"WE COME, STRIKE HARD, AND VANISH INTO NIGHT"
(A next shot shows two buildings standing next to each other, until Donatello and Marietta appear from the left side of the screen and jump over the gap between the buildings (with Marietta pole-vaulting over the gap with her Naginata). Then four turtles, led by Leonardo, followed by Raphael and Artemisia and lastly Domenico, are seen rushing forward along the streets, weapons in hands. Michelangelo and Lorenzo are then seen following them right behind: the former by zipping along the rope with his Nunchaku and the latter by swinging by the chain while spinning the other one wildly around with his free hand.
("SEVEN!")
"AS A TEAM, WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE EACH OTHER'S SHELLS."
(In the next shot, we see all eight turtles standing under the light in the darkness, with their backs turned to the camera as it pulls away from them. As they all turn around to the camera, they draw out their weapons and take their individual battle-stances, ready to face whoever is standing in front of them.)
("EIGHT!")
"AND WE'LL NEVER LEAVE OUR BUDDIES BEHIND!"
(Out of darkness appears Baxter Stockman, glaring menacingly at the camera while being surrounded by the dozens of menacing-looking Mousers. Stockman points at the camera with his finger and the Mousers lunge forward.)
(Camera moves to the right, showing Tatsu backed up by the group of ninjas behind him. The scarred man draws out a sword from his X-shaped scabbard in his back and raises it with both hands up and next to the scarred side of his faces, pointing its tip at the camera while glaring himself darkly at the camera.)
(Camera moves to the right again, this time showing a strange female creature with the pale skin, red eyes, long elf-like pointy ears, slightly hooked nose and the long-black hair, and who was dressed in a complete black tunic, pants and slippers, including a long black elf-hat like hat. With the mischievous grin on his face, the creature waved its hands over, followed by the flow of glowing various-colored stars in her left hand and the various-colored lightning in her right hand, as if it was the magic.)
(Camera moved to the right once more, this time showing a mobster-like barrel-chested man with the thick eyebrows, mustache, double chin and tidy haircut. He was dressed in the blue shirt and a red black-spotted cravat, over which he wore a mafia-like olive green suit with the golden stripes. He had a same-stylish pants and the shiny black-tipped brown shoes. He wore on his head a grayish-brown fedora hat and he had in his mouth a cigar. Backed up by several tough-looking guys in the mafia-like suits and fedora-hats - all armed with various guns or melee weapons - the man took the cigar out of his mouth and, with the nasty sneer, he pointed with his finger forward.)
(The screen turns back to the turtles, showing Donatello whacking several Mousers away with his staff while Raphael lands on one, crushing it, while stabbing his Sais through of two other Mousers.)
(Domenico then moves to stab with his left Tonfa in the ninja's guts, before he turns around and whacks with his right one in the second ninja's chest, knocking him away, after which Artemisia slices the next ninja's staff in half with her Tessens before spinning around and kicking him in the chest with her left foot.)
(The strange pointy-eared creature then flies over to strike them with with the magical lightnings, only for Marietta to lunge at her from the air and land a kick to her side, knocking the creature off the air.)
(Three mafia thugs then, one in the white shirt, black cravat, turquoise suit and reddish-brown fedora-hat, one in the black shirt, green cravat, the brown suit and with the golden fedora-hat and the large broad-shouldered one with the thick eyebrows, shaven face and dressed in the checkered blue-white shirt, red black-spotted bow tie, dark purple suit and dark blue bowler hat, rush towards the turtles, only for the turquoise-suited thug in the left to be snap-kicked away by Michelangelo, brown-suited thug in the right to be kicked in the guts by Lorenzo and the big thug in front to be kicked away by Leonardo, who spins around before crossing his swords in front of his face.)
(Cut to the wide three-leveled shot, where two silhouetted turtles are first seen running along the sewer pipe: One turtle is on foot while another turtle is skating along the pipe's rounded walls.)
"I LOVE BEING' A..."
(Shot moves upwards to the street level, where three silhouetted turtles are running along the streets: One is running on the foot, while other is riding on the bike and third is hopping along both the driving and parked cars' rooftops. Then two narrower screens appear to above and beneath of the rooftop screen, showing the repeating line of turtles in turquoise's and white's masked faces above and the line of turtles in black's and pink's masked faces beneath, moving to the opposite direction.)
"I LOVE BEING' A..."
(Shot moves upwards again, to the roof level, where two silhouetted turtles are either jumping or pole-vaulting along the rooftops.)
"I LOVE BEING' A TURTLE!"
(Three turtles (Raphael in the left, Leonardo in the middle and Domenico in the right) are seen running towards the camera along the streets. Then Artemisia and Michelangelo jumps out of the open manholes into the streets and join the run next to Raph and Dom. Then they're joined by Marietta and Donatello, who land down from the rooftops to Leo's both sides. All seven then ran towards the camera that moved between of Leo's legs.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!"
(Then, Lorenzo jumps off the building towards the camera, spinning the chain wildly above his head before throwing it away and then swings by it over the camera in Spiderman-style.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF:"
(A small square screen then appears from the left, showing Leonardo's shadowy yet calm-looking face. Another appears next to it from above, showing Donatello's shadowy yet determined-looking face.)
"ONE! TWO!"
(Third appears from beneath, showing Michelangelo's shadowy goofy-like face. Then the fourth appears from the right, showing Raphael's shadowy yet fierce-looking face with the gritted teeth.)
"THREE! FOUR!"
(A fifth square then screen then appears from the left, showing Marietta's shadowy yet calm-looking face. sixth then appears next to it from above, showing Domenico's shadowy yet deeply frowning face.)
"FIVE! SIX!"
(Seventh appears from beneath, showing Lorenzo's shadowy wildly hilarious-looking face. Then final eights appears from the right, showing Artemisia's shadowy yet determined-looking face with the smile.)
"SEVEN! EIGHT!"
(TURTLES!)
(All eight turtles are seen jumping down from the tall blue tower with the red Japanese palace on top of it, which towers over all the other buildings of the town. With the weapons in hands, the turtles spin in a circle (First Leonardo, then Marietta, then Raphael, then Lorenzo, then Donatello, then Domenico, then Michelangelo and finally Artemisia) as they fall towards the camera)
"THERE'S NO ONE BETTER"
(TURTLES!)
(In the ledge of the same tower, that is above of the blood-red three-toed symbol in middle of the bright light blue circle, a menacing-looking man in the full Samurai-looking armor and helmet looks down after them, as his black cape floats in the wind and the lightning flashes in the sky behind him. The camera moves closer of his helmet-covering head, before the man turns to the camera and raises his left arm with the gauntlet armed with two sharp claws.)
"WATCH OUT FOR THE SHREDDER"
(TURTLES!)
(The turtles are then seen standing in middle of the rooftop. With the weapons in hands, they briefly demonstrate their weapons-skills before taking their individual fighting poses: Donatello is seen standing in the middle, pointing his staff's end at the camera, while Raphael and Lorenzo are standing in his right, Marietta and Michelangelo are standing in his left and Domenico, Artemisia and Leonardo are standing behind of them.)
"THEY'RE LIKE NO OTHERS!"
(TURTLES!)
(The turtles are seen riding or skating on the various human equipment along the underground tunnel: Donnie was in the lead, wheeling with his purple-gray foldaway bike as he rode past the camera. Artemisia followed him afterwards on her own turquoise tuned dirt-bike, waving at the camera. She was followed by Leonardo on foldaway kick scooter with the blue board, hopping over the handlebar with his hands. He was then followed by Domenico on the white-tuned road bicycle, who made the high backward flip over the camera. After them, Raphael and Artemisia were roller skating along the wall of the tunnel with their red roller blades and pink roller-skates. Lorenzo then skated after them with his oversized green and black skateboard pair of rocket boosters and he was followed by Michelangelo, who skated along the tunnel's wall with his orange skateboard, going higher and higher along the wall before he jumped off it, landing in front of the camera with the smirk before skating away.)
"THOSE TEENAGE SIBLINGS!"
(First Donatello, then Domenico, then Leonardo, then Marietta, then Raphael, then Lorenzo, then Michelangelo, and finally Artemisia landed onto the rooftop with weapons in hands.)
"ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"
"FIVE! SIX! SEVEN! EIGHT!"
(Either spinning or waving their weapons, the turtles then charged forward towards the camera, with Leonardo taking the lead and slashing his swords forward.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES"
Then the logo of "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES" appears, with the silhouetted figures of the eight turtles with the glowing eyes behind of it.
"TURTLES! TURTLES!"
= TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2003 =
= THE GARBAGEMAN PART 1 =
Couple weeks after rescuing Casey from the Dragons' den.
Tonight, the turtles were paying a visit in the small dump under the bridge to find some items usable items to help in improving their lair.
In the same place had been built the small Shantytown, where was living the bunch of homeless people trying to survive on the streets. The homeless people that lived there didn't mind at all the turtles' presence in their home and neither of their strange appearance, because they either considered them as a friendly turtle-costumed guests or then they viewed them as what they were as well: unwanted outcasts from the society. Some of them had even made a good friends with the turtles and gladly allowed them to do whatever they wanted in their dump. In return, the turtles tried their best to ease the homeless' miserable and harsh life by giving them anything what they needed to to survive.
And this night wasn't any different.
Leo, Mary, Donnie, Dom, Raph, Louie and Arcee were going through the several garbage piles for still usable items, loading everything they found into the several shopping carts standing next to them.
Well, while majority of the turtles were working with the sweat running on their foreheads, Mikey was merely spending his time by skating all around of the dump, instead of helping his brothers and sisters.
"AAAAAAAALRIGHT! GREEN AND MEAN EXTREME BREED!" the turtle in orange cheered as he skated past of his hard-working brothers and sisters, who glared after their lazing brother in irritation.
The turtles, however, decided to cast this annoyance aside and get back to the work.
Donnie served as a foreman of this whole supply-run operation, requesting his brothers and sisters to show him every item they had found. The brainy turtle profesionalistily performed the quick but detailed first view and examination on the found item before giving his own opinion and final judgment: If the brainy turtle found the discovered items repairable and still useful for their original purposes or came up with a new purpose for them, they were all loaded in the carts. And if not, well, the discovered but useless item was disregarded.
"Hey, Donnie. Might these pipes help improving the lair somehow?" Arcee questioned, as she dug out the armful of some pipes, most of which, with the exception of rusty parts in some of them, looked like as if they could still be useful for their original use or for a completely new use.
Donnie looked over Arcee's discovery by every detail, before he looked up at his little sister with the positive answer promising smile on his face.
"As soon as we have removed all the rusty parts from some of them, they can offer whatever use either as a spare parts or even as a raw material, Arcee." the brainy turtle said. "So, load them in the carts, will ya?"
Arcee nodded and headed towards the shopping carts to load the pipes in them.
Raph then spoke up next, after the turtle in red had accidentally dipped his hand into the red slime under the junk and scooped some of it up with his hand. Raph gagged in disgust, not wanting to know what he had just touched.
"Ew! Ugh! Hey, Donnie, you don't want something so gross you don't want to even touch it, right?" the turtle in red asked while shaking the slime off his hand.
"If it's gonna improve the lair, we can use it." Donnie answered.
Mikey then flew over another garbage pile with his skateboard before falling down and towards Dom and Louie, as the turtle in white was carrying over his shoulder the sack full of still usable parts of the car engines - including the car's radio - and the turtle in black was carrying the Mark V diving helmet, which Donnie had found fit for renovation.
"OUTTA THE WAY!" Mikey let out before the turtle in orange on the board landed and crashed through of his unsuspecting brothers. While skating past them, Mikey pushed Dom out of his way, causing the turtle in white to accidentally drop his sack from his shoulder to the ground, and knocked Louie off his feet to the ground, causing the helmet to flew out of his hands into the air.
THE HELMET!" the turtle in black yelped as he saw the helmet falling towards the ground, so the turtle in black quickly jumped up to his feet and dived after the helmet, landing onto his stomach to the ground again. Louie slid along the ground with his one hand stretched out forward and towards the helmet in order to catch it, till he skidded to stop. Nonetheless, the turtle in black managed luckily to catch the falling object with his outstretched hand before it could hit the ground.
"Cotcha!" Louie exclaimed in relief.
"SORRY, GUYS!" Mikey apologized before skating away, leaving the turtles in white and black to murmur irritated after their brother.
"Careful with those items, guys. I need those parts and that diving helmet in one piece rather than damaged and battered." Donnie said with a lecturing voice.
"Blame Mikey for that, Donnie." Dom objected, lifting his sack over his shoulder again before helping Louie back to his feet. "Little brother could be much more useful if he'd just give his hand to help a little."
"Tell me about it, bro." Louie agreed. "He has done nothing but skating since we arrived here."
Raph nodded at this fact as well.
"Yeah! We're working hard and with sweat on our foreheads, and all what Mikey does is just lazing around. That's not fair!" the turtle in red said irritably.
"Dom, Louie and Raph. I know it's not fair, but would you three rather have Mikey happy, or Mikey bored?" Donnie pointed out, as Mikey skated past them with the amused laughter.
"And believe me, bros, Mikey complaining the boredom loudly and unceasingly is much less tolerable than Mikey lazing around." the brainy turtle added with the knowing smirk.
Raph, Dom and Louie shared the quick look with each other, before all three turtles nodded in agreement, getting Donnie's point... and definitely not wanting to experience Mikey's bored side.
Eventually, Mikey then skidded to stop in front of the large group of the homeless people. The turtle in orange then picked up his skate board from the ground before he was joined by his brothers and sisters after Donnie had called the supply run off for today.
"Hey, thanks for the shopping carts, guys." Donnie thanked the homeless group, as the group's apparent leader, an elderly African-American man with a grayish curly hair, torn trench coat, red scarf and red-green hat, stood up from his seat next to the campfire.
"I hope you found some useful items amidst the refuse, my green friends." the man said with a friendly tone.
"Sure we did, Professor Garey." Donnie replied with equally friendly tone. "Spare parts, raw material, and even a few objects capable to be refurbished for a new use."(2)
There were two homeless men sitting by the fire. One was shorter and slightly chubby. His blonde hair were curly and he was wearing a thick black-red jacket. The other homeless man sitting next to him was taller and thinner than his companion and he was wearing a red-gray sweater and red cap. The blonde eye eyed the turtles with the slight wariness.
"Look, Michael. Those guys in the big turtle suits are back." he said.
"Yep. In case you didn't notice already, Wayne, they have been here for a while now." the skinny tall guy, named Michael, told his friend named Wayne as he stoked the fire with the stick in his hand.
"You ever wonder why they dress up like that?" Wayne asked.
"Nope. Not quite, because to me they appear to be wearing no costumes at all." Michael answered.
The old man, the professor, Gregory by the name but either Garey or simply Professor by nickname, hinting that he may have once been a college or university teacher - took then sack from next to his seat and walked to the turtles.
"Here are some things we picked up for you." Professor Garey then took out the sack the old computer part and handed it to Donnie.
"An undamaged circuit board for you, Donatello." Garey then turned to Louie and took out the several packaging of action figures from the superhero, action and horror movies: such as Incredible Hulk, Batman, Zorro, He-Man, King Kong and T-Rex from 1933 film, Optimus Prime and Megatron from Transformers G1, Batman's Joker, Wonder Woman, Wolfman and Darth Vader of Star Wars.
"Here's for you a several action figures, Lorenzo. You told me last time that you have an interesting hobby of collecting action figures." Garey said as he handed the action figures to the turtle in black, who gratefully took them from him.
"Thanks, professor. Like I told you, my last collection of action figures got destroyed along with our old lair some time ago. I'm now trying to replace the lost members and items of my collection." Louie said, to which Garey nodded in understanding, before he turned to Mikey and took out the comic book and handed it over to Mikey.
"A near mint condition comic book for you, Michelangelo, my green lad. Last time you said that you're collecting them." Garey said.
"Thanks, professor." Mikey thanked with the nod.
Garey then turned to Arcee and took out the studio album from the sack and handed it to the turtle in pink.
"And for you, Artemisia, my dear. I have for you "This Is Me... Then" album, sung by Jennifer Lopez herself. Didn't you tell me last time that you idolize the particular singer?" Garey said with a warm smile.
"Oh, yeah! I do! Thank you, Garey." Arcee thanked and bowed slightly with the gratitude and respect.
Mary, Leo, Louie and Raph were meanwhile heading towards the back of the Battle Shell, until someone shouting caught Mary's attention.
"Mary! Mary! Mary! Mary! Mary! Mary! Mary!" cried a little girl as she rushed towards Mary with her arms up and excited smile on her face.
The little girl was about six to seven years old and she had a round cheeks, a chocolate-brown eyes and shoulder-length dirty-blond hair. She was dressed into a slightly torn and from few places patched green knee-length coat and she was wearing brown boots in her legs. Underneath of her coat, she was wearing an amber-colored shirt and miniskirt, leaving her legs exposed. She was wearing on her head a brown tam-o'-shanter hat with a black ribbon hanging from the back of it, along with the black brim and a brown pom-pom on the top of the hat. And finally, the girl was wearing the purple scarf around her neck. And whenever she was not wearing her hat, she was seen having a red hair-bow behind her left ear. (3)
"Well, hello, Olivia!" Mary said with the smile, turning to towards her running girl named Olivia and crouched down, before she scooped the little girl up in her arms. "Ohh! You have grown into a big girl! Nearly couldn't lift you off the ground!" the turtle in turquoise teased with the fake-heavy panting.
Olivia seemed to catch it. "Hey! I may be a big but I'm not that heavy!" she retorted with the fake-annoyance.
"Nope! You're even lighter than the feather, and plump like a peaches, even with the such of low rations here." Mary told her, before she playfully tapped Olivia on her tiny nose with her finger, making the little girl to giggle.
"Hey, stop it!" Olivia laughed as she shook Mary's hand away.
There was then laughter in the background, making both Mary and Olivia to turn turn towards the laughter.
They both saw a young and slender woman. She had a long dark brown/black hair and she was dressed into a purple shirt, blue pants and she wore on her head a blue and pink knit cap. Over her shirt, she was wearing a brown jacket. By her side was a young man, who had a brown hair - which he had tied into a pony tail behind of his head - and shaved face. He was dressed into a blue tank top shirt and dark blue pants, and he wore a gray jacket. The man was chewing the tooth pick in his mouth, which he moved alternatively from side to another side and back. Both of them smiled and chuckled as they walked towards Mary and Olivia.
"Like many times before when you and your siblings come here to visit us, Olivia is always rushing into your arms, Mary." the woman said with the happy smile.
"Maybe even more than what she does when we return from the supply runs." the man added while holding his hands in his jacket's pockets and switching the tooth pick in his mouth from side to another. "It makes me fear a little that she wants to replace us with you as her caretaker." he added with the joke.
Amused, Mary scoffed at the two people, who are revealed to be Olivia's parents, either by blood relation or mere adoption, which is unknown.
"Hmph! That's ridiculous, Jack and Ann! Of course she doesn't want to replace you with me?" Mary protested, before deciding to play along. "Or do you, little lady? You're not happy with your parents that you want me to take you away here and leave your dear parents behind to cry for the loss of you?" the turtle in turquoise teased.
Olivia giggled. "Of course, not! I can't leave here or leave them. This is my home and they are my family, just like other giant turtles are yours."
Mary then turned to the couple and gave Michael a knowing glance. "See, Jack? Nothing to worry about. Besides, I'm just fifteen. I am not even ready to be a mother just yet." she said in matter of fact, and with the belief that she would unlikely ever becoming one due to her and her siblings being the only existing mutant turtles in the entire world and the fact that they're brothers and sisters with each other.
"Point taken." Jack said back, as Ann, while shaking her head in amusement, walked towards Mary and her daughter in the turtle in turquoise's arms.
"Speaking of the low rations..." Ann started with the low voice, as Mary handed Olivia over to her and the young woman took her little girl into her arms. She kept her gaze in the ground, looking slightly upset. "It would be nice to have at least slightly bigger meals than usual. Yet we have to ration out whatever we have left. And our food supplies have almost ran out."
"Not the mention about the cold nights. Hrrr!" Jack added with the slight shivers and adjusted his jacket. "It's pretty awful to even try to sleep in the huts without a proper warming and with the shredded remains of the duvet covers. That's why spent a lot of pretty much sleepless nights around of the fire to keep ourselves at least somewhat warm and comfortable."
"I'm afraid that Michael is right." Professor Garey said from aside. "Even though we are used to this kind of life on the streets, there are still times when both experienced and inexperienced folk like us are put to the real test with little food and a lack of supplies. As you can see, our supply-runs haven't been very productive lately."
"Well, good that you mentioned that, professor!" Dom called from behind the Battle Shell, where he was with Leo and Raph taking something out from the Battle Shell. "Because we too have something we brought for you."
The rest of the turtles went to help them as professor Garey and some of the homeless people walked towards the Battle Shell to see what the turtles had brought for them.
As they walked side-by-side towards the Battle Shell, Olivia reached out from her mother's arms towards Mary, touching her right shoulder to gain her attention.
"Hey, Mary? Did you brought what I asked the last time you were here?" the little girl asked.
Mary tilted her head slightly to her right while staring down on Olivia in confusion, briefly not knowing or not remembering what Olivia was talking about. Only after a moment of recalling their previous visit at this shantytown, the turtle in turquoise snapped into a realization of what Olivia meant about.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah! I did! Oh, shell! How could've I forgot it! It is in the Battle Shell. I'll give it to you in the minute, okay?" Mary said, earning a nod from the little girl.
As Mary turned around to enter into the Battle Shell to help her siblings in taking out what the turtles had brought for the homeless people in return for letting them to gather supplies from the dump of their shanty town, Dom and Leo stepped out of the vehicle while carrying in their arms the bundles of blankets and clothes, while Raph and Arcee carried four-six bags full of food supplies: various canned food, sausage bags, candy bars, many bottles filled with the drinkable water, bags of bread, margarine, dried fruits and so on.
"Here, professor Garey. We brought for you a food supplies that should last for a week or two... along with some blankets, capes and warm clothes. They're little worn of course, but they should help you to keep yourself warm at cold nights." Dom said, as Donnie and Mary brought out of the Battle Shell more clothes and blankets while Louie brought more bags full of food supplies.
Dom and Leo then handed the blankets and clothes to Garey and to two other homeless old mem - One of them, named Ben, was with the bald top of the head but large gray and curly beard, and who had dressed into a patched gray trenchcoat and wore a blue cap over his head. And an another old man, named Billy, had a grayish hair and thick grayish eyebrows and he was dressed into a violet shirt, black pants and brown vest and he had a tribly-styled hat on his head. The other homeless people gathered around Garey, Ben and Billy to take their share of the turtles' offerings, not minding at all if some of the clothes and blankets were a little worn. After taking what they needed/could, the homeless people then gave their warm thanks and blessings to their generous green friends before departing with their share.
"Bless you, turtles. Such of generous and caring souls you are." Ann said gratefully, as she and Michael took from the bundle a large poncho blanket, which the family tied around each other and cuddled together for warmth.
"Worn of not, they will definitely come in handy in the cold nights." Jack added gratefully.
"Indeed. And as it is said: One man's refuse is the other man's treasure." Garey quoted.
"That's exactly what we believe when we're in the supply runs in the dumps." Donnie said, walking up to Garey and his brothers and sisters.
"Precisely, Donatello. You know, my friends, there is a theory that we are all recycled." Garey quoted.
At the fire, Wayne rolled his eyes at this while Michael indifferently kept stoking the fire.
"Another theory." Wayne muttered. "And that's the fifth one today."
"Yep. So?" Michael asked.
"Well, do you ever get tired of it when he comes up with another theory after the other, which logically make no sense?" Wayne asked from his friend.
"Sometimes." Michael answered and kept stoking the fire.
Back at the Battle Shell, Garey continued with his theory, as the turtles and some other homeless people - including Jack, Ann and Olivia - gathered around of him to listen.
"The Big Bang Theory says, that all matter has been exploding and imploding and then exploding again since the beginning of time. Even our very molecules are being recycled." Garey quoted while gesturing the starry night sky above of them.
"Ohh." Olivia gasped in her mother's arms as she looked up in the sky.
"Wow. Awesome." Mikey said with amazement.
Raph shot at Mikey a blank look. "Did you even get anything of that, 'cause I didn't?" Raph questioned.
Mikey responded this with the shrug and confused look on his face, which was enough to tell to Raph that he had not a clue about the whole thing.
"Nope. Not a clue." Mikey said simply.
Back at the fire, Wayne turned to his friend after listening Garey's theory. "See my point, Michael? Even those turtle-costumed people have no idea what the Old Man's talking about." he said.
"Yep. No sense at all." Michael said.
However, Donnie was somewhat impressed by Garey's theory. After all, he was a man - or turtle - of sience just like Garey was.
"You know? I just finished the book on the Big Bang. I'll bring it by later tommorrow night." Donnie suggested to Garey.
"Much obliged, Donatello. Much obliged." Garey thanked the brainy turtle.
Raph then peeked over his shoulder and saw Louie doing something that looked like counting, which got the turtle in red confused.
"What are you doing, Louie?" Raph questioned with the raised eye brown.
"Well, I just noticed something which I find pretty strange, Raph. This shantytown is pretty big, but the crowd is not big enough to fill even half of the shacks. Is it just me or are there a fewer of people here than usual?" the turtle in black explained with the suspicious tone.
Raph made the quick count on the homeless people as well, until he realized Lorenz's point.
"Yeah, Louie is actually right. Last time we visited here, there were more than three dozen people around, but now there's even less than half of you guys left. Where are the others?" the turtle in red questioned.
"Beats me, Raph." Wayne said. "A lot of guys have gone missing lately. Plus it's weird, they haven't even taken their stuff with them."
"Yep." Michael added. "They all went to the supply-runs in the city, and none has come back for days."
"Indeed." Jack added. "Three of our buddies, Ernie, Phil and Crystal went missing last night during the supply-run. We have heard nothing about them ever since."
"Yes." Ann added worriedly and clutched Olivia tighter in her arms. "Because of these strange disappearances we're wary of sending anymore people on the supply-runs in the city in fear of them going missing as well, hence the shortage of our food supplies and other stuff."
"I have a theory of that one too." Garey said as he turned to the turtles. The turtles, Jerry, Ann and Olivia and some other homeless turned back to him, while Wayne groaned silently and turned to his friend.
"Another one. You think seven theories are too much for one day already?" he whispered in slight annoyance to his friend.
"Don't know, don't care." Michael said indifferently and dismissively.
"So professor?" Louie started. "What is this whole people-going-missing-stuff about, if I may ask?"
"Excellent question, my boy. Amongst us the homeless people, there has been a rumor of a terrifying figure that hunts us in the dead of night. His name is whispered in fear. They call him... the Garbageman." Garey explained his theory to the turtles with the intimidating tone of voice as if his theory was supposed to be the ghost story.
The turtles were briefly speechless of the theory... until all of them burst into the hilarious laughter.
"I hate to ruin the atmosphere here, professor Garey, but we do not believe in the ghost stories any more." Dom deadpanned.
"Yeah! You almost had me going there. "The Garbageman"." Raph said with the sarcastic tone.
"Jeez. It going to be late. Got a roll, guys. See ya later." Louie said, before he, Dom and Raph started to push the shopping carts towards the Battle Shell.
The other turtles followed them right behind, though Donnie, and Mary, remained behind for a moment. The brainy turtle walked back to Garey and handed him one of his extra Shell Cells.
"Be sure to let me know if your friends show up or if any others disappear, Garey." Donnie advised.
"Very well, Donatello." Garey agreed and both he and the turtle in purple shook the hand.
While Donnie was speaking with Garey for a moment, Mary turned to Jack, Ann and Olivia. The turtle in turquoise was holding something in her hand which she had earlier brought out from the Battle Shell.
"And as for you, young lady, before I accidentally forget it again." Mary said with the smile, before she lifted the object in her hand up for Olivia to see what it was.
Much to Olivia's surprise, the object in Mary's hand was a hand-knitted plush doll.
When the turtles had last visited the shantytown, Olivia had requested Mary to bring her something the next time they came to visit. It was a small request for a small toy. And not just any toy, but some plush doll or something. The little girl had often complained about the boring life at the shantytown with no much of the "real toys" to play with. And the fact that she does not have friends of the same age here because she is an only child here, did not help at all. And even though Jack and Ann had sometimes taken her with them to the supply-runs in the city or to scavenge the refuse dumped near of their home to find some toys for her to play, most of the discovered toys were found broken, beyond repair and thus totally useless. One such of toy was a dumped dirty doll they had discovered some time ago, but it had its head and one of its arms and legs torn off, so it was useless.
Mary had back then offered to bring for Olivia something like that to spare her and her family from the fruitless search for the intact toys from amongst the broken ones. And once Olivia had made her request, Mary had gotten to work to find something to match Olivia's request.
During of her own search for the intact plush doll for Olivia, Mary had not been lucky neither. But unwilling to bring a disappointment to Olivia, Mary had done something what others might've believed to be extremely hard, maybe even impossible for the three- and big-fingered turtle like her.
If she couldn't find intact doll for Olivia, she had to do the one by herself.
Luckily to her, in addition of mastering Ninjutsu, Master Splinter was also a master at knitting training dolls. Her father had self-taught himself to knit dolls in order to create the practice dummies for her and her siblings to practice their ninjutsu skills during of their training. And Mary remembered well that Master Splinter had to repair every practice doll every time when it went broken due to her siblings either punching, kicking and even slashing them with the wooden and then real weapons hard enough to break them. However, her master didn't minded about that at all, because it was more important to him that they practiced their skills on the dummies continually harder and harder to prepare them for the real fights on the surface.
And so, after requesting her father to teach her to knit the dolls by herself, and after explaining what for she needed to master the same skill as he has, Master Splinter had taught Mary a hand-knitting for several weeks or months, until Mary had finally mastered the skill enough to make the plush doll for Olivia on her own.
And once she was finished, Mary had found that her work wasn't as perfect as Master Splinter's own work with the practice dummies (even though the pain reason was that as practice dummies, they didn't need much of detailing unlike Mary's own doll for Olivia). And when Mary had feared that her doll won't do well for Olivia and considered between of repeating her work all over again or simply but reluctantly giving up the whole thing, Master Splinter had told her that "Any object can be perfect if you look it from another point of view: your heart, not your eyes, even if the object before you doesn't look perfect from outside at first."
Mary had responded to her father's wisdom with the smile, as she had recalled that he had told those similar words to Mikey back then when they discovered their new Lair.
Mary's plush doll for Olivia was a plush turtle, with the design of the ordinary turtle, only with the longer limbs (with no fingers and toes) and head with the shape of humanoid turtle's head. Mary had also used a turquoise-colored thread to give her turtle doll the turquoise arm- and leg bands and the turquoise ninja mask around of the doll's most of the dolls had also the hair, Mary had considered of adding into her turtle doll the hair too, but had eventually dropped the whole idea, due to her wish to make the doll much like herself, and due to the fact she had no hair.
"Here, Olivia. I made you a Mary the Turtle doll, an imaginary of myself. It's not perfect by details, but I hope that you like it." Mary said and held the turtle doll closer of the little girl. Olivia stared with wide eyes at the doll in Mary's hand, before she slowly reached out her hands towards the doll and took it from Mary's hand.
Both Jack and Ann were surprised too by Mary's gift for their daughter.
"Well, what do you know." Jack laughed good-naturedly. "A doll-version of you, Mary."
"Did you do that by yourself?" Ann asked, delighted by the gift but also surprised of Mary being able to knit a doll with just three fingers, that were way bigger than the humans' own fingers.
Mary shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, I know, Ann. To a turtle with three fingers in each hand, the whole thing may sound really difficult, maybe even impossible task. But I had a good teacher who taught me knitting some stuff such as a practice dummies. Of course, learning to knit took its time, and knitting a doll itself required a lot of hard work, but eventually I got the doll finished. I just hope Olivia finds it fitting gift, because that was the best shot I got so far."
Ann nodded understandingly, before she turned to her daughter in her arms. "Well, sweetie? What do you think about Mary's gift for you? She spent a lot of time and did a lot of work to do that just for you? Don't let her down, sweetie."
Olivia eyed the Mary the Turtle turtle doll curiously, even switching her gazes alternatively to Mary and back to the doll, matching the looks of two turtles in front of her. Eventually, a sweet smile crept on the delighted little girl's lips and she hugged the doll tightly.
"IT'S WONDERFUL! I LOVE IT, MARY! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" the little girl squealed happily, hugging the doll even tighter.
Mary smiled, happy that her gift for Olivia indeed was perfect, before the turtle in turquoise playfully started grunting out loud as if she was caught in the crushing bearhug.
"Ugh!I happy... that you like it... Olivia, honey! But... would you mind to... let go a little bit?! I can't... breath!" Mary said with the mock-strained voice.
Olivia giggled and broke the hug with her doll.
"Thank you, Marietta, from my own part." Jack said, before jokingly adding. "You just gave our daughter an excuse to keep you here forever."
Mary laughed at this. "Well, I guess that in these times, with these recent disappearances of your people, the stress caused by your wariness and this boogeyman "Garbageman" on the loose, I think that doll will give her a little extra security... In addition to the protection she gets from you for two, of course."
Jack and Ann nodded at her with the smiles.
"Mary?" Donnie called from the Battle Shell after he had finished talking with Garey. "We're leaving!"
"I'll be there in the minute!" Mary called back over her shoulder, before she turned back to Jack, Ann and Olivia.
"Well, I guess that I should go with the others." Mary said, pointing with her thumb at the Battle Shell and was about to turn towards the truck to join with his brothers and sisters to the home journey only to turn back to the family she views as her friends. "I'll come back with Donnie to check on you guys later." she called to them.
"Then see ya later!" Jack called back, waving his hand up in goodbye.
"Goodbye, Mary! Safe home journey and blesses to all of you." Ann wished, waving at the turtle in turquoise with one hand.
"Bye, Marry! Come back soon! Thank you one more time for the doll!" Olivia waved, thanking Mary for one more time for her gift to her.
"You're welcome, Olivia! Be a good girl till the next time!" Mary called, as the turtle in turquoise waved her hand to the family one more time before she stepped inside the Battle Shell through the side door and slid it close.
Once everybody was in the Battle Shell, the turtles took off to the road, leaving the dumpsite behind.
However, on their way back to home, the turtles started to wonder of professor Garey's story of the one called the Garbageman.
"Garbageman, eh?" Dom scoffed with the skeptical voice while leaning against the back on his seat. "That was a bit silly, don't you think? There's a plenty of garbage men in this whole city. And only one thing what they are truly hunting are over-filled garbage cans and dumpsters from the streets and alleys."
"Well, yeah. That was majorly creepy like from some old horror movies." Mikey replied, as the turtle in orange was reading his new comic book he got from the professor.
"The homeless people do have a habit to pick a lot of ghost stories out of nowhere to just intimidate people and spend their own time. But don't forget that the streets of New York have their own dangers for the people who live on the streets. You know: Purple Dragons, other violent criminal gangs, gangsters, stray dogs and so on." Mary remarked.
"Yeah. Maybe someone wants to hurt them deliberately and they're both scared and cautious about it. What do you think, Donnie?" Arcee questioned.
"Well, whatever it is, if Garey is worried, we should take it seriously." Donnie said from the driver's seat.
"Seriously, huh? Guess that leaves Mikey out." Raph said sarcastically.
"What!" Mikey exclaimed in annoyance.
Little later in shantytown, all the homeless people, whose number reached in the number of seventeen, including Professor Garey, Michael, Wayne, Jack, Ann, Olivia, Billy and Ben, had gathered around the fire to listen Garey, who was giving them a lecture. Some of the people paid attention willingly and interested to hear what Garey had to say, while some of them seemed to be rather bored but listened to him anyway.
"...and so we see in conclusion that the space-time continuum is..." he was saying, until he was interrupted by the approaching sound of the engine.
"What is that?" he asked, confused, and turned towards the noise.
"Relax, Gregory. It's probably just another dumpster truck coming here to empty its container." Jack said, thinking that there was nothing to worry.
However, Jack's thoughts were quickly proved wrong when the flashing red lights hit all of them, alarming everybody.
"What on earth?!" Garey muttered.
All the homeless turned towards the direction of the lights, which was starting to get even more brighter and brighter as the source of the lights were getting even closer, blinding some of them and forcing the homeless to cover their eyes with their hands.
Olivia, who was sitting in Ann's arms, was starting to get scared by the ominous red lights and fearfully cuddled into her mother, while holding tight from her Mary the Turtle doll in her arms. Ann wrapped her arms protectively around of her daughter and Jack wrapped his own arms protectively around of both of them.
"Mommy? What is that?" Olivia asked, scared.
"I don't know, honey." Ann replied as she stood up from her seat, holding Mary in her arms.
As the lights were getting even brighter and the sound of the engine and the screeching tires were getting even louder, the homeless started by instincts to back away from around of the fire. Until suddenly...
"THERE! BEHIND OF THE FENCE!" one of the homeless cried in alarm, pointing to the direction of the lights and the sounds.
And as soon as the homeless man/woman had cried out, a huge and black garbage truck with the flashing red headlights forcefully rammed through of the fence, knocking it and the nearby trash piles down, and drove into the shantytown and towards the homeless people with the rapid speed.
"AHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" the panicking people screamed to each other and scattered to the different direction - only Garey remained there where he was, frozen in awe and fear at the sight of such of frightening vehicle.
As the homeless people scattered and ran screaming around, the garbage truck drove like the maniac towards the shantytown's huts and completely rammed and destroyed several of them. During of its rampage, the garbage truck crashed through of the pile of oil barrels, causing some of them to break open and spread oil everywhere. And when the leaked oil caught fire from the shantytown's fire, the whole shantytown and the dump site was in fire in the seconds.
The garbage truck kept wreaking havoc in the shantytown, destroying more huts, causing more fires and chasing the fleeing people relentlessly.
"IT'S HIM! IT'S THE GARBAGEMAN!" one fleeing homeless screamed.
Billy and three other homeless were fleeing towards the fence in one side of the dump site, while the garbage truck was chasing them. The first two homeless were capable to save themselves by climbing over the fence and jumping to the other side. As Billy and the other homeless man reached to the fence and started to climb it, the garbage truck skidded to stop behind them and brought out its mechanical claws towards the fleeing homeless people.
The third homeless man - who had orange hair and small mustaches and who was dressed into an olive-green shirt, grayish-green vest, blue pants with suspenders and brown knit cap - had already gotten on top of the fence and stretched his hand down to help Billy get onto the fence, because the latter was climbing at slower pace, no doubt due to his age. Billy had just reached to half-way of the fence, until the garbage truck's claws came down on them both and grabbed on them.
"AGHHH! NO!" Billy screamed.
"HEEEELLLLP!" the other homeless screamed.
The claws then lifted the two over of the garbage truck's container, which lid then slid open beneath Billy and the other homeless man. The claws dropped them both inside of the container, before the claws went back into their place and the truck resumed its hunting for the other homeless that haven't managed to get away.
The truck's driver then caught its sight on Ben and two other homeless. One of the other two homeless with Ben was a slightly chubby elder with the baldening top of the head and grayish hair and thick eyebrows. He was dressed into a torn green thick jacket, sand-brown shirt and dark-toned amber-colored patched pants and he was wearing a gray scarf around his neck and brown hat over his head. The other man was younger with the flame-like brown hair and chin-beard. He was dressed into a blue hoodie and brown shorts. The trio freaked out when the garbage truck started to stalk them.
"RUN! GO! GO! GO!" Ben quickly urged his companions to run and the trio quickly turned their tails and started running, while the garbage truck kept chasing them.
The truck drove next to the fleeing trio, just before the round lid on top of the truck opened and the tube emerged out from it. The tube's mouth curved in arch downwards and towards the fleeing Ben and his friends, who noticed the tube coming towards them but they kept running nonetheless.
The tube then started to suck the air inside of it with the huge power, which was enough to lift Ben and his friends off the ground as the tube sucked them inside of the tube. One by one, the trio disappeared screaming inside the tube, followed by three bulged shapes going along the tube inside of the container.
Then, the garbage truck targeted next Wayne and Michael, who ran through of some other huts, that were still intact, in the vain hope that it would slow the garbage truck down. However, the garbage truck simply rammed through of the huts as it followed the duo, completely destroying them.
"HURRY UP, MICHAEL! RUN!" Wayne screamed.
"YEP! YEP! YEP! I'M RUNNING! I'M RUNNING!" Michael shouted back.
However, Wayne suddenly tripped over and fell to the ground, causing Michael to stop and turn around to see his friend in the ground.
"WAYNE!" Michael shouted and crouched down to help his friend up, only for the two of them to turn around and see that the garbage truck was standing right behind them.
The claws then came out from the side of the truck and picked both Wayne and Michael up from the ground before they could get up and run away. The claws lifted the duo up over the container and dropped them in there.
Then, the garbage truck's next target... was Olivia!
Olivia had got separated from her parents during of the chaos. The little girl clutched to her Mary the Turtle doll tight while watching the chaos around of her in terror and frantically looking for her parents.
"MOMMY! DADDY!" the little girl cried in panic.
However, her calling for her parents only caught the garbage truck's driver's attention.
As the flashing red lights hit Olivia, the little girl turned around and saw in horror that the gigantic garbage truck was coming towards at her! Olivia gaped at the terrifying truck in sheer horror, before she turned around and ran away from it, crying in fear.
The garbage truck, as if taking a sadistic delight of the little girl's fear, loomed after her, while keeping the red lights targeted at her.
"MOMMY! MOMMY! DADDY! MARY! HELP! HELP ME!" Olivia cried from the top of her lungs as she kept running from the garbage truck.
Then, the tube emerged out from the truck's container's roof and loomed down towards Olivia in attempt to suck her inside of the container. Seeing it coming towards her, Olivia tried to run faster, but the tube's looming mouth kept approaching her slowly but certainly.
"OLIVIA!" a familiar voice then called and Olivia turned to its direction by instincts. To her relief, she saw Jack and Ann running towards her, determined to rescue their daughter.
"WE'RE COMING, OLIVIA!" Jack yelled as he rushed towards his daughter.
"HANG ON, HONEY! MOMMY'S COMING!" Ann shouted, stretching her hands towards her daughter to scoop her up in her arms and then take her away from here.
Olivia then started to run towards her parents, but she unfortunately got tripped over by some trash standing on her way that she didn't see it, which caused her to accidentally throw her Mary the Turtle doll away.
"Aah! Ugh!" Olivia grunted as she flew onto her stomach to the ground.
Seeing this, Jack and Ann picked up the pace to get to their daughter first before the garbage truck, who was standing right next to downed Olivia, with the off-turned tube hanging and swinging limply above of the little girl.
Olivia then got up to her knees and dusted some dirt off her clothes, before she noticed her doll missing and looked frantically around her to see where it went, almost ignoring behind of her back standing garbage truck and the tube swinging above of her.
"Where's my doll?! WHERE'S MY DOLL?!" she cried frantically and with determination, not wanting to leave behind Mary's gift to her.
And when she finally noticed her doll lying in the ground not far from her, Olivia got up and started to rush towards it to get it back.
"MY MARY THE TURTLE DOLL!" she cried.
However, before Olivia could reach to it, she was near-unexpectedly grabbed from behind and lifted off the ground by her mother.
"OLIVIA! LEAVE IT!" Ann told to her daughter.
"BUT I WANT MY DOLL BACK!" Olivia protested, struggling against her mother's grip to get free, so that she could get her doll back. However, despite her daughter's effort to get free, Ann refused to let her go.
"HONEY! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" Ann shouted and turned around to escape the garbage truck, until at the same time as Jack reached to his family.
"COME ON, YOU TWO! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, BEFORE...!" Jack shouted, until he was interrupted when he noticed the mouth of the tube, that was hanging just above of them, and had already started to suck the air around of them into the tube.
Realizing that there was no way they could escape from this anymore, especially after seeing Ben's and his two comrades' fates, Jack and Ann moved closer to each other and pulled each other into the wordless farewell-hug, with from fear crying Olivia in her mother's arms and between of her protective, loving and caring parents.
The family closed their eyes while clutching to each other, awaiting for their fate, whatever it was, together. Sucking the air inside with the maximum power, the tube's mouth lowered itself over the family's heads and the entire family was sucked inside the tube. The huge bulge then, containing all three people inside of it, went along the tube until it vanished to inside of the container.
After Jack, Olivia and Ann were inside of the container, the tube as pulled inside of the container and the garbage truck drove forward, driving over Olivia's Mary the Turtle doll, causing it to be partially destroyed and dirtied.
With everybody gone, either captured by the monstrous garbage truck like poor Wayne, Michael, Ben, Billy, Olivia, Jack, Ann and three others, or having managed to flee during the chaos, the garbage truck turned its attention to the very last person standing yet around... Professor Garey!
Garey had watched the chaos around him in utter horror and helpless to do anything to help those who were captured. But when the monstrous truck was coming for him next, Garey finally snapped out of it and turned around to flee from the truck, while whimpering in fear.
He eventually reached to the fence, but before he could start climbing it up to get to safety, the truck's red headlights' hit him from behind. Garey turned around to see the garbage truck standing right in front of him, cornering him against the fence and cutting all his possible escapes with its hydraulic arms.
Though trapped and terrified down to the core, Garey gathered at least some amount of his courage to stand defiantly up to the monster before him.
"WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU SHALL NOT HAVE ME, YOU BEHEMOTH!" he swore defiantly, while shaking his fist up. "YOU DEVIL! MONSTROUS ABOMINATION!"
Afterwards, the claws then went past him to either side, and then grabbed part of the fence off it before wrapping it around of Garey from behind and beneath like netting the fish. The claws then lifted Garey up and over the container before dropping him inside.
After the garbage truck had finished it destructive hunt and rampage in the ruined shantytown, it rammed through the fence and drove off into the night with its captives.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TRIVIA
1) I got an inspiration for the air and everything movable sucking tube object attached to the Garbageman's truck from the year 2000 movie The Grinch, where Grinch used the similar sucking tube to suck the presents (plus one cat) out of the houses via the chimney.
2) Because Professor had no name in the series, or we never heard his real name, I decided to give him one. My first choice was his voice actor, Greg Garey (who also voiced Hun in the series), but I eventually decided to name him Gregory, with Garey as the nickname, what the turtles use to addressing him.
3) The child characters, Olivia Flaversham from The Great Mouse Detective, and Rosy from Balto film worked as the inspirations by appearance and personality for my new OC character Olivia in this chapter, who is close friends with Mary here.