April was walking home with her arms laden with bags, her aunt had sent her out to pick up some take-out since she didn't feel like cooking. She was about four blocks away when a group of men dressed in black came out of one of the alleys up ahead of her. They were busy punching each other in the arm to really notice her, however, one of them nudged the others, and matching grins spread along their faces.
April tried to ignore them, but they blocked her way. "Excuse me." She said looking at each of them closely in case she had to pick them out of a lineup later. They just snickered and refused to yield.
"Empty your pockets girly." One of the men said, cracking his knuckles.
"I don't have any money you know." She lowered her bags to the floor slowly and fished out her phone and the little change she had from her jean shorts. She held it out for the goons to see. "This is all I have."
"Well take it, and your dinner too." Two of the creeps grabbed her belongings, while the other two jerks shoved her to the ground. They all laughed and carried on past her.
"You really shouldn't pick on helpless girls you know." April recognized that voice, it was enough to put a smile on her face.
"Yeah, they're our favorite people to save." another voice piped up from the dark alley beside the little group of men.
"Oh yeah and what are you gonna' do about it." Asked one of the more stupid gang members.
Two of the turtle boys hopped out of the shadows, one was tall and lanky, the other shorter with a speckled face. Both wore matching grins as they stood facing the group of Purple dragon members.
"Hey it's the turtles!" The same idiot yelled, "Quick, someone call the boss."
"Don't bother," Another, more seasoned gang member replied. "Trust me, let's just get out of here."
"Ah ah ah, drop her stuff." Mikey waggled one finger at them.
None of the gang members moved, they just stared the two green teens down in silence, they didn't want to go back to the hide out empty-handed, the boss would be pissed. Instead, they gripped onto her phone and bags tighter.
"Alright, we'll do this the hard way." Donatello said. He thrust the end of his Bo staff into the gut of one the biggest, stupidest looking one. Mikey popped up and onto the shoulders of a stunned purple dragon member, he was even more stunned when one end of Mikey's nunchuck clocked him in the head. As the big oaf fell, Mikey jumped and dove over another gang member and took him out by the legs with a quick side swipe.
The last guy was smarter than the rest, he tried running down the street clutching the cellphone and pocket change he had taken from the red-headed girl. Donnie and Mikey looked at each other with a smirk, Mikey flicked the extending chain out and hooked the escaping man around the legs. Mikey dragged the man back by the ankles, and he and Donnie just looked down on him while he tried to cower pitifully on the floor.
"Here, here, just take it. It's not worth it." He covered his head with his hands, just in case the mutants decided to hurt him some more.
Donnie just snatched Aprils' phone out of the trembling mans' hand, "Just get out of here." All four of the men scrambled to get away from the turtles.
April chuckled from behind Donnie, "That was perfect timing."
"Here you go, I hope it didn't get busted in the struggle." Donnie said handing April her phone.
"It's no big deal, it's just a phone." April frowned slightly, "What are you guys doing here?"
"Making sure the locals are safe." Donnie winked at her.
"Well, thanks. I had better get home though, I'll see you guys...Holly?" April saw the other girl come dashing down the street towards her. She looked a little ruffled and she was wearing pajama pants. "Is everything ok?"
"Yeah, its fine. Leo and Raph are, hopefully, destroying a Mouser unit." Holly said.
"How do you know that?" April bent down to pick up the bag of take-out.
"Stockman and Fong got on the elevator with me so I figured I'd make sure they weren't up to anything. Oh, and I was hoping I could hang with you for a while, your place is closer than mine." Holly gave a cheeky smile.
"Yeah that's fine, here you can carry this." April handed Holly the bag
"Where did Leo and Raph say they were heading?" Donnie asked
"They were following Fong last I saw them, they're probably heading back to the factory since that's where he's going." Holly informed them.
"Aright, we'll head that way now." Donnie said, "All of us will stop by later to let you know what happens."
"Later girls." Mikey said. Donnie just waved before they took off after their big brothers.
"Come on, my aunt will be worried if I don't get home soon." The girls started walking, luckily they were only a few blocks away from Aprils' house.
Donatello and Michelangelo made their way across the city, the factory wasn't that far from where they had bumped into April so it only took a few minutes to get there. However, when they did arrive there was no sign of Leo or Raph.
"Maybe they're just not here yet." Mikey offered as he peeked over the ledge at the factory. Most of the Purple Dragon members were no longer there, the few they had managed to stop had probably gone home with their pride battered and bruised.
"Weren't they supposed to be following Fong?" Donnie reminded himself.
"Yeah, why?" Mikey asked.
"Isn't that him?" Donnie pointed down to a man who had just come around the corner at the end of the ally. He was carrying a big duffel bag and kept checking behind himself nervously.
"Let's go." Mikey said and launched himself over the ledge to the street below. Donnie sighed but followed him down.
The unsuspecting Fong jumped when the two ninja turtles landed in front of him. He clutched the duffel bag closer since now he was on his own. "Back off weirdoes." He yelled, sounding much braver than he felt.
"Weirdoes? You should check a mirror sometime." Mikey replied, laughing at his own snappy comeback.
Donnie rolled his eyes at his little brother, he could be a moron sometimes. "Just had over the bag and we won't have to hurt you."
"No way! The other two didn't get it and neither will you." Fong bolted for the factory door. Donnie and Mikey rushed after him. They burst through the door onto the pitch-black factory floor, Fong was nowhere to be seen. The two teens blinked, trying to get their eyes to adjust to the sudden darkness, they exchanged a glance and set off into the factory together.
Leo and Raph had managed to get back to the factory without running into Dog Pound again, they hadn't managed to catch up to Fong though, so they assumed he must be inside already. They climbed back into the factory using the same skylight they had been the last two times they were here, hopefully, the Purple Dragons wouldn't realize this was how they were getting in, or they might try and weld the windows shut.
It was almost completely black inside the factory, the only light came from the mandatory exit signs, and the dull grey light coming in through the grubby windows of the skylight. Leo could see movement on the lower floor, one of them had to be Fong and hopefully, the others were Donnie and Mikey.
Donatello knew he had to find the light controls, he moved through the maze of conveyor belts and heavy machinery looking for a control panel. He heard Mikey stub his toe on something, he was cursing and was hopping around bumping into things making a whole lot of noise. So much for a stealthy approach.
Raph had made his way over to the railing of the upper level of the factory, he could see the shadow of something moving below him. He knew it wasn't Mikey, he was on the other side of the room bumping into boxes and chains. It was providing a great distraction. He silently moved until he was directly above the person and launched himself at them.
"Get off me!" Fong yelled.
"Got you now, you think you're so smart, don't you?" Raph clung to the squirming man, he was still a little annoyed at the fact that he had gotten the better of them earlier.
"You'll pay for this." Fong fought as best as he could, but he was scrawny compared to the creature who held him. There was no way he could overpower Raph.
"Quit whining, now where did you put the Mouser?" Leo dropped down next to his brother and poked Fong sharply in the shoulder.
"You won't find it, and I won't tell." Fong said bravely.
"Stop being so melodramatic, and Donnie could we get some lights in here?" Leo looked around trying to spy his intelligent brother through the darkness.
"I'm working on it." Donnie's voice came back from Leo's left. Leo shook his head into the darkness, this was getting silly.
A huge crashing noise came from above the boys' heads, the skylight had been ripped out completely and a huge hulking figure had jumped down into the factory. The city lights poured into the grubby factory throwing highlights onto all the metal surfaces. Dog pound dropped down between Raph and Leo swinging wildly in the half-light, Raph had to let go of Fong to brace for the huge forearm that was rushing towards his abdomen. He flew across the factory and smashed into the far wall. Raph slid down the wall with a groan, rubbing his head when he got to the bottom.
"The lights, Donnie the lights!" Leo yelled ducking under Dog Pounds other arm.
Donatello searched frantically for the switch on the control panels in front of him. His fingers finally closed around something that felt like a light switch, so he flipped it up. Fluorescent bulbs flickered on in hanging fixtures, they glowed softly as they warmed up, steadily getting brighter with each passing moment.
Mikey and Leo were dodging and weaving keeping Dog Pound busy, they danced just out of reach so that the mutant dog had to keep swinging wildly while chasing them around the floor. Donnie spied Fong crawling beneath one of the conveyor belts trying to look inconspicuous. Donnie grabbed the pathetic man by the lapels and hoisted him out from under the belt.
"I'm only going to ask once, where is the bag?" Donnie glared at Fong, he was getting tired of these games. Fong just pointed at a row of lockers lining one wall of the factory with a trembling finger. Donatello dragged the scrawny twig over to the lockers and raised an eyebrow at him. Mikey flew through the air behind them, wailing and flailing all the way.
Fong opened one of the lockers and pulled out the black duffle bag. Donnie snatched it away and opened it up, the shiny exoskeleton of the Mouser glinted from out of the black fabric.
"I got it guys," Donnie yelled to his brothers with a smile. His face fell when he saw the mess his brothers were in, they were getting swatted like flies. "You guys, let's go."
Leo turned to see Donnie holding the bag with the robot in it. He and the other two turtles broke away from Dog pound and dashed back up to the destroyed skylight. Dog pound didn't follow them, he just looked around for Fong who was still cowering on the floor. He shot the sniveling man a disgusted look, he hated how pathetic these men were.
After making a few false turns, in case they were being followed, the turtle boys started to make their way over to Aprils apartment. Donnie had the Mouser on his back as they made their way over the rooftops, and was surprised to see the girls already waiting for them on top of Aprils place.
"Hey did you guys get it?" April asked eagerly.
"You had better believe it." Donnie said happily. April gave Donnie an unexpected hug which he returned willingly. When she let go of him she high-fived Mikey and the other two turtles in turn.
"You guys are awesome." She laughed as Mikey flexed both his muscled and his ego.
"Nice work," Holly heard a voice at her side. Raph had slid in just behind her and was speaking quietly.
"Thanks." She replied. "It was lucky I was in the elevator when I was."
"Yeah, but didn't you have time to change before you ran out of the house?" Raph pointed at her pajama pants, he just now noticed they had a popular children's cartoon character all over them.
"Shut up." she punched him in the arm, "And no, I didn't. If I would have changed I would have lost that creepy Fong dude." She folded her arms and leaned to one side.
"We had probably better go, we need to destroy that thing before we can go home." Leo said.
"What? You can't do that. Think of what we could learn from this thing." Donnie protested.
"Like what?" Raph asked, "How good Stockman is at soldering?"
"Oh, nice burn." Raph and Holly fist-bumped.
"No. But I can use it to see exactly where he is getting his components from and then I can use that information to keep tabs on if he's building more robots." Donnie looked smug.
"I don't know dude," Mikey looked skeptical, "The regular Mousers were bad enough, imagine how bad a super Mouser will be."
"It's fine, this one doesn't even have a chip in it. It can't function fully without one." Donnie was determined, he knew he could gain valuable information in the mouser unit.
"But it can still function?" Leo asked.
"It can turn on, but without the processing chip it can't do anything."
"Are you sure Donnie?" April asked, she wanted to believe him.
"Holly heard Stockman say he was going to put the chip in tomorrow, right?" he turned to her looking for support.
"Technically, yes." She replied hesitantly.
"So what's the big deal? I'll take it apart as I study it, it will be just as destroyed as if we smashed it, but we could learn something about our enemy at the same time." He was getting desperate, and there was a hint of it in his tone.
Leo sighed, Donnie was giving him the same puppy dog look Mikey always used, although it wasn't quite as well-practiced. "Alright, but you make sure it's out of commission, or I'll let Raph have it."
"Deal." Donnie was ecstatic.
The turtle boys bade the girls a good night, and made sure they were safely back in Aprils' bedroom before turning to head home themselves. Once there Donnie unloaded the Mouser onto one of his many work-benches and immediately started making notes and taking measurements of the little robot in front of him. After many hours of work, he started getting sleepy and so decided to continue his work in the morning.
As the turtle slept, a red led light started blinking in the darkness. A mechanical iris buzzed to life on the two legged machine and auto-focused in the dark.
