Yoshi stared at Draxum intensely, "We do not need to do this Draxum, I do not wish to fight you, make this easy on the both of us and surrender," he told Draxum.
"Perfect, if you do not want to fight me, then taking you down will be easy," Draxum cackled before dashing towards Yoshi.
Before Draxum could even punch him, Yoshi guarded himself, allowing him to endure Draxum's punch. Yoshi then let his guard down so that he could deliver a barrage of punches to Draxum's chest, causing Draxum to get pushed back a little.
"I no longer like fighting, and I'd prefer to avoid any situation that might lead to a fight," Yoshi admitted. "However, if it means that I can free the children that you have captured and bring them to safety, then I'll fight you with all my might," he told Draxum, before delivering a mid-air roundhouse kick to Draxum's face.
Before Yoshi could land on the floor after kicking Draxum, he grabbed onto Yoshi's leg and threw him into the table that had the beaker filled with mutagen inside. Once Yoshi crashed into the table, the beaker fell over Yoshi's head, causing orange ooze to spill onto him.
"Ew, this is so slimy and disgusting!," Yoshi exclaimed while trying to wipe the ooze off his head and clothes with his hands.
"No, my mutagen, that took me ten years to concoct!" Draxum yelled in anger and frustration.
"Ha, sucks to be you!," Yoshi chuckled before Draxum dashed over to him and lifted him up by the neck.
"Ten years of hard work and research, down the drain because of you!," Draxum yelled at Yoshi.
"To be fair, it was you who threw me into the mutagen," Yoshi rasped, causing Draxum to tighten the grip that he had on Yoshi's neck.
"You're lucky that I need you alive to recreate my mutagen, otherwise I would kill you on the spot."
Since he was focused on Yoshi's neck, Draxum didn't notice that Yoshi had reached into his pocket for a smoke bomb before it was too late to stop him. Yoshi threw the smoke bomb in Draxum's face, causing Draxum to let go of Yoshi.
"What kind of weirdo keeps smoke bombs in his pocket?," Draxum coughed.
"A weirdo that was trained in the art of ninjutsu, that's who," Yoshi answered.
While Draxum was blindly flailing around and coughing up smoke, Yoshi tried breaking Dewey's chains, causing cracks to form in the chains. Before he could break Dewey free, Muninn and Huginn, who had been hiding in the shadows due to being scared of Yoshi, had decided to be brave and swooped in and attack Yoshi. As Muninn got closer to Yoshi and was about to claw at him, Yoshi quickly held Dewey's chains to his chest. Once Muninn got close enough to Yoshi's face, Yoshi brought the chains to his face, causing Muninn to slash the chains instead of Yoshi's face. Due to how sharp Muninn's claws were, the chains broke and Dewey fell to the floor, finally free from his imprisonment.
"Alright, one kid is free, just two more to go," Yoshi muttered to himself before grabbing Huey's chains as Huginn drew closer to him.
As Huginn was about to claw Yoshi's face, he brought the chains up to his face, causing Huginn to claw slice through the chains, freeing Huey.
"You just saw me block your friends attack and yet you decide to swoop in and attack me the same way your friend did; you must be the stupid one, correct?," Yoshi taunted the gargoyle.
"Actually, they are both equally stupid," Draxum clarified, before dashing towards Yoshi and lifting him up by his face. "Muninn, Huginn, make yourself useful and hold onto Yoshi's arm so that he won't try anything again."
Immediately after Draxum gave his order, Muninn and Huginn grabbed onto both his arms and wrapped their bodies around each arm. Once he knew he could not move his arms, Yoshi started chuckling, which had annoyed Draxum.
"What's so funny; I have you in my clutches, I have prevented you from fighting, and soon I will imprison you, why are you laughing?," Draxum asked in frustration.
Yoshi stopped chuckling so that he could answer Draxum, "You see, what I find funny, is that you are preventing me from using my arms so that I cannot attack you, yet, you did not think to do the same for my legs," he explained, his voice muffled due to Draxum holding his face.
Once Yoshi finished his explanation, he delivered a hard, swift kick to Draxum's hip, causing Draxum to yelp in pain and let Yoshi go. Quickly, he hit his arms against Draxum, causing Muninn and Huginn to let go due to them not wanting to be the cause of their master's pain. Before Draxum could react, Yoshi delivered another swift kick, this time to Draxum's face, causing Draxum's helmet to fly off, revealing his bony face, maroon skin, and his long maroon hair.
"You impressed me once again, no one has ever knocked off my helmet in combat. That being said, I grow tired of this, so let's end this, shall we?," Draxum suggested, before kneeling and placing the palms of his hands on the ground.
Suddenly, gigantic vines started to emit from the ground around Draxum and began to wrap around Yoshi.
"Okay, this might prove to be a bit difficult to avoid," Yoshi admitted before moving out of the way of the vines.
Everytime Yoshi dodged one vine, another vine would come up from behind him and try to wrap itself around him.
"I can't keep this up, if I don't think of a way to stop these vines, then I'll end getting captured again," Yoshi mumbled to himself.
As he continued to dodge the vines, Muninn and Huginn flew in front of Yoshi and were going to attack him, but just as they were about to claw his face, all of the vines wrapped around them, preventing them from moving. As the vines were preoccupied with Draxum's minions, Yoshi quickly dashed over to Draxum before Draxum could make the vines capture Yoshi. Before Draxum could even react, Yoshi punched Draxum across the face with all his might, and since Draxum was no longer protected by his helmet, Yoshi ended up knocking out Draxum. Since Draxum had been knocked unconscious, the vines started to disappear, causing Muninn and Huginn to be set free. Yoshi made his way over to Muninn and Huginn, held them up by their tails, and glared hard and angrily at them, causing them to start shaking.
"Listen and listen well, one of you is going to use your claws to slash through the chains of the kid wearing the green hoodie. Then, you are going to let me and the kids leave without giving me any problems, and if not, then I'm going to cause you way more pain then I caused your master, is that understood?," Yoshi threatened, causing the small gargoyles to nod their heads quickly.
After they agreed to his conditions, Yoshi let Muninn and Huginn go, causing them to fall to the ground. Quickly, Muninn flew over to Louie and slashed through his chains, which had freed him and caused his unconscious body to fall face flat on the ground.
Huginn got off the ground and quickly flew into another room before returning with a rat in a cage. Yoshi was confused as to why Huginn had brought a rat, "Uh, why did you go and bring a rat; did Draxum imprison it so that he could use it for experiments?," he asked.
Huginn shook his head, "No, he's my pet rat, Draxum got him for me so that I could have someone to play with aside from Muninn," he explained. "I thought you might have wanted him."
Huginn's explanation had just confused Yoshi even more, "Why would I want your pet rat?," Yoshi asked.
"I thought that you might want him since he was imprisoned in the lab, just like those kids," Huginn explained.
Yoshi facepalmed, "I do not care that you have a pet rat in your lab, I only wanted to save those children because they are kids who have their lives ahead of them; rats are stupid, disgusting creatures who bite people and eat food off the ground, I do not care what happens to him."
"Oh, okay then, if that's how you feel," Huginn accepted. Suddenly, an idea came to Huginn, "Hey, do you want to pet my rat?"
"No, why would I want to pet your disgusting rat?," Yoshi asked in disgust.
"Come on, I just know that you'll love him once you pet him, please?," Huginn begged.
Muninn flew over to them in order to back up Huginn, "Yeah, he's right, I used to hate that rat as well, but once I petted him, I ended up loving him the little guy."
"I do not have time for this foolishness, I am taking the children and then I'm leaving," Yoshi declared before making his way to his children.
"Aw, you aren't even giving him a chance, come on dude. Oh, I know, I'll let him out of his cage so that he can greet you, then you'll see how great he is," Huginn decided before opening up the rat's cage.
Yoshi had not listened to what Huginn had said, but if he had, he would have probably been able to prevent the rat from biting him. "Ow, stupid rat, do you see why I don't like rats that-," before Yoshi could finish his rant about rats, an unbearable pain had started pulsating throughout his entire body. Yoshi got on his knees and started screaming in pain, causing Muninn and Huginn to get scared and wanting to leave.
"Oh, would you look at the time; I guess we should take Draxum and go, come on Muninn," Huginn told Muninn before they grabbed both of Draxum's shoulders and, surprisingly, lifted Draxum out of the lab.
Yoshi continued to scream as the feathers on his face and his entire body began to molt, being replaced by grey fur. His small duck tail had transformed into a pink, long rat tail, his hands had changed into rat paws, his bill had begun deteriorating and was replaced with a long rat nose, and rat ears had started growing from the sides of his head. Once the pain had disappeared, Yoshi had looked at his hands, which were now rat paws before looking around the room in fear. He had spotted what he was looking for in the back of the lab, a mirror, and ran over to it so that he could get a good look at himself. Once he reached the mirror, Yoshi stared at himself in shock and sadness; he had become a giant mutant rat, the only part of him that had not disappeared was his long, black hair.
"The mutagen, it transformed me into this, this, ugly, disgusting rat!," Yoshi yelled in anger before punching and breaking the mirror. He looked down at his paws as tears started to fall down his cheeks, "I will never be able to go back to my old life, I will forever be alone, living as a freak."
Yoshi's attention turned to the three boys that were passed out on the floor before wiping his eyes and making his way over to them. He picked up Huey and Louie and put them over his back, and then picked up Dewey before making his way out of the laboratory.
"Do not worry young one, I will bring you and your brothers to a safe place. I just hope that once you wake up, you will be able to tolerate my hideous, new look," Yoshi whispered to an unconscious Dewey as started heading to his safe haven.
Once Dewey woke up, he noticed that he had been sleeping on a bed in a dark room with his brothers right beside him, peacefully sleeping.
"What the heck, weren't we chained up in a laboratory, where are we now?," Dewey questioned. Wanting to finally go home, Dewey got up off the bed and started shaking his brothers, "Louie, Huey, you guys gotta wake up so that we can get out of here."
Louie and Hewey slowly opened their eyes before they both sat up on the bed.
"What the heck Dewey, why did you have to go and wake me up; I was dreaming about inheriting all of Uncle Scrooge's money and finally starting Louie Incorporated. I was this close to signing a deal that would have quadrupled my stocks, now I'll never be able to swim in my own money," Louie complained.
"It was a dream Louie, it's not like you were actually going to swim in money," Huey pointed out, much to Louie's dismay.
"Why must you always ruin things for me?," Louie complained.
Before Huey could respond to Louie, he noticed the room that he and his brothers were in, and looked at his brothers in confusion.
"Uh, weren't we chained up in a laboratory by a monster? Not that I want to be chained up and experimented on, but where the heck are we?," Huey questioned.
"I don't know, and I don't want to know, what I do know is that we have got to get out of here just in case that monster guy comes back," Dewey told Huey as he made his way over to the door.
Before Dewey could open the door, the doorknob had started turning before the door opened up, revealing a giant grey rat with black hair wearing a long, brown kimono.
"Ahhhh, giant rat monster, stay away from us!," Louie yelled before throwing a pillow at the giant rat.
Yoshi caught the pillow in his hand before staring at Louie with a deadpan expression on his face.
"Seriously, what did you think was going to happen, I was going to get by the pillow and double over in pain?," Yoshi asked in a monotone voice.
"Who are you, where are we, what do you want with us?!," Louie cried, scared of what the rat would do to him.
Yoshi was hesitant to answer his question, 'What do I do, I can't tell them the truth, I am too ashamed,' he thought to himself. 'The only way I can avoid telling the truth is by forging a new identity; it's not like I have a choice anyways, I can ever go back to my old life.'
Louie looked at Yoshi in fear, while Dewey and Huey looked at him expectantly, so Yoshi quickly thought of a new identity for himself before telling it to the triplets.
"My name is, uh, Splinter, and I, uh, used to be a common sewer rat before Baron Draxum mutated me into a humanoid rat," Yoshi lied. "He forced me to train in the ways of ninjutsu so that I could be a general for his mutant army, and if I did not train, he, uh, he would refuse to feed me and he would abuse me. I truly hate that man, from the bottom of my heart," he said that last part with malice in his voice.
Huey and Louie did not know who Yoshi was talking about, "Who's Baron Draxum?," they both asked.
"He's that blue monster that poured that ooze on us," Dewey explained.
Both Huey and Louie mouthed, "oh, yeah," in realization before Huey started eyeing Yoshi suspiciously.
"Alright, let's say that we do believe that story, you still haven't told us how we got here, or where here is for that matter," Huey pointed out.
Yoshi was starting to get anxious from the questions he was being asked, luckily for Yoshi though, he had been taught how to not convey his emotions in tense situations.
"You are inside my bedroom inside my secret lair located in the sewers underneath the town of Duckburg. Admittedly, this place was an abandoned movie set, but I spruced it up a bit, and made it into a home for me," Yoshi explained.
Now it was Louie who was suspicious of the rat, "You said that you were mutated and trained by Draxum so that you could be part of this mutant army that he's trying to put together, right? How do we know that you're not working for him, and that this isn't part of some evil scheme?," he questioned.
"I assure you, I would never work for that monster, like I told you before, I hate him," Yoshi promised.
Huey continued to eye him suspiciously before his expression softened, "You seem to hold a lot of genuine hatred towards Draxum; I believe your story, however I do have a few questions that I hope you can answer for me," he inquired.
"Of course, ask me anything," Yoshi complied, relieved that his lies and half-truths were actually working.
"How were you able to escape from Draxum, and how did we get here?," Huey asked, referring to Yoshi's lair.
"One day, I decided I had enough with Draxum's abuse, so in order to get my independence, I ended up going toe to toe with Draxum; I barely escaped with my life, I had won the fight by knocking out Draxum, but not without receiving many cuts and bruises," Yoshi lied.
Yoshi stayed silent for a few seconds so that he could think up another lie, causing Huey to misinterpret that as Yoshi not wanting to continue because Yoshi's past seemed painful.
"I'm sorry I'm forcing you to remember those traumatic events," Huey apologized, sadness and guilt clear in his voice.
"No, no, it's quite alright young one, I, uh, I just needed to collect myself really quick, I'm fine," Yoshi reassured, feeling a bit guilty for making Huey feel bad for him, especially since he was lying to the red clad duck.
"As for how you got here, that's quite simple," Yoshi began, wanting to change the subject so that Huey would stop feeling guilty. "Over the years, I became more and more fearful that Draxum would one day find me and kill me. One day, by one day I mean today, I couldn't handle living in fear of Draxum any longer, so I decided that I would go to Draxum's laboratory and end him once and for all."
The triplets stared wide eyed at Yoshi due to what he had revealed, "Wait, you were going to kill Draxum?!," Dewey asked in shock.
"It is not something that I am proud of, but I was driven so insane by the thought that Draxum would find me, that I felt that I had to kill him," Yoshi lied, guilt clear in his voice.
Yoshi began to feel horrible for even thinking about killing someone, but then he remembered that he was lying about that and stopped feeling guilty. 'Dang, my lies are starting to become so good that even I'm starting to believe them,' he thought to himself.
"Anyways, once I made my way inside his lab, I saw not Draxum, but three muscular children passed out on the floor. I didn't know why you boys were there and I didn't care; I had decided to take you boys to my lair before Draxum could come back and do whatever he had planned for you guys, and that is how you three got here," Yoshi finished, impressed with himself for coming up with that story on the spot.
Huey and Dewey seemed convinced by Yoshi's story, but Louie wasn't, 'I don't know what, but something about that story feels off,' Louie thought to himself. 'It's obvious that he's not lying about hating Draxum, but the way he sounded when he began to tell his story was uneasy, almost like he was making something up.'
Before Louie could voice his suspicions, Huey had something to ask the rat, "Wait, did you say something about a mutant army?"
Yoshi nodded his head, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did," he confirmed. "You see, Baron Draxum is a yo-kai who wants to take over the world. He plans to do it by mutating humans with a concoction he made called mutagen; once he mutates enough humans, he plans to train them so that they could become soldiers for his mutant army,"
A sudden realization came to Dewey, "Didn't Draxum call the orange goop that he poured on us mutagen?," he asked his brothers.
Huey and Louie's eyes widened in shock at the revelation, "You're right Dewey," Louie confirmed. "He did pour that orange goop on us right before we all passed out."
"That must explain why our muscles became more developed; Draxum mutated us and planned to make us into his mutant soldiers," Huey realized.
"Wait a minute, there was someone else in the lab that was chained to the wall," Dewey recalled.
"Oh, yeah, the guy with the black feathers and the weird outfit, I think Draxum called him Yoshi," Louie remembered.
"Draxum used that guy's blood to perfect his mutagen; Splinter, did you happen to see the man that Louie described in the lab?," Huey asked, a bit distressed.
"Uh, nope, I didn't see any man with a weird outfit, just saw you three and no one else," Yoshi told Huey, somewhat nervous.
Louie stared at him suspiciously, 'He's doing it again, he's obviously not telling us something, the question is, what?, he thought to himself.
Once again, before he could share his suspicions, Huey once again had something to say.
"If he wasn't in the lab with us, then that must mean that Draxum took Yoshi so that he could create more mutagen," Huey concluded.
"Something isn't adding up here, why did he take Yoshi and not us, especially since he was planning to train us to become soldiers for his army?," Louie questioned.
"Now that you mention it, that is pretty bizarre; why go through all the work of capturing and mutating us just to abandon his lab and leave us in there?," Huey inquired.
Yoshi started getting nervous from all the questions being asked; if they kept questioning the validity of Yoshi's story, they might find out that he's lying, which would lead to him having to reveal who he was. Luckily for Yoshi, however, Dewey didn't seem to care about the authenticity of his story.
"Who cares about why Draxum didn't take us, what we should be worrying about is the fact that he's planning to make an army of mutants and take over the world!," Dewey exclaimed.
Louie was unimpressed with this new threat, "Oh please, we've faced monsters, an invasion from the Moon, and an evil organization out to kill us; I'm not saying Draxum isn't a threat, but we've dealt with way worse than him."
"You fool!," Yoshi yelled at Louie, causing Louie to get scared. "Do not think so lightly of your enemy! Baron Draxum is a yo-kai; yo-kai are mysterious creatures who are capable of using powerful mystic abilities from birth that are capable of destroying cities! If you underestimate him, even for a second, then it will lead to your demise!"
"Alright, then what do we do?!," Huey asked, concern in his voice. "How do we beat a monster that we don't know when he'll strike, has mystical powers that are capable of destroying our town, and is capable of creating an army of mutants?!'
"It took Draxum years to gather the ingredients needed to create the mutagen, so assuming he used his only batch on you three, I would say you three have at least five years before he strikes," Yoshi somewhat lied. From what Draxum told him, it took ten years to create the mutagen, and since Yoshi had the last of the mutagen dumped on him, he guessed that it would take at least five years to recreate the mutagen in its incomplete form due to Draxum already knowing how to make it.
"The only way that you could beat him is by learning ninjutsu," Yoshi began explaining. "A creature like Draxum cannot be easily beaten in typical hand to hand combat, but if you use the shadows to your advantage, you can swiftly and quietly take down Draxum before he can even attack you."
"That's good to know and all, but how are we going to find someone who can teach us ninjutsu?! It's an ancient art that very few people know, finding someone to teach us will take forever!," Huey exclaimed.
"Also, learning ninjutsu would probably take a lot of time and effort to learn, which I am not a fan of," Louie added.
"Huey, isn't the answer obvious?," Dewey asked, ignoring Louie's remark. "Splinter knows ninjutsu, so he can teach us how to be ninjas, right Splinter?!," he asked, excited by the possibility of becoming a ninja.
"No, I have no desire to teach you boys anything," Yoshi admitted.
Dewey looked shocked by Yoshi's answer, "What, you know all these super cool ninja moves that could help us beat Draxum but you refuse to teach us them, why?!," he asked, outraged.
"Look, all my life I have had to fight, and I am sick of it; all I want to do now is lay down on my bed and relax until my life ends," he told the boys as he made his way over to his bed before laying down.
"Come on, you said it yourself, Draxum could be powerful enough to destroy Duckburg. Are you seriously willing to let Duckburg and possibly the world get taken over because you don't want to train us?," Dewey asked.
Yoshi began to get annoyed, "Look, I told you before that I do not wish to fight-."
"Then don't fight, just teach us!," Dewey interrupted.
"Dewey's right, wow that is weird to say, if we don't stop Draxum, then the world is in big trouble. Please Splinter, we're begging you, teach us the ways of ninjutsu!," Huey pleaded.
Yoshi seemed uncertain on what to do, until Louie decided to put his two cents in, "As much as I want to not go through training, I'd like to point out that if Draxum takes over the world, you'll might never be able to lay down and relax on your bed again."
"Alright, you've convinced me. For the next three years, I will train you in the art of ninjutsu," Yoshi relented.
Yoshi's agreement to train them caused Huey and Dewey to cheer while Louie booed due to having to be trained for three years.
"However," Yoshi interrupted their cheers and jeering. "There are conditions that you must adhere to, is that understood?"
"If it means that I can become a super cool ninja, then I'll do whatever you say," Dewey accepted.
"We'll listen to whatever you say," Huey agreed.
"Yeah, what they said," Louie consented, not really interested in being trained.
"Alright, my first condition is to not tell anyone about Draxum, me, or the training you are to receive," Yoshi decided.
"Why can't we tell anyone anything?," Dewey asked.
"The first reason is that I do not want anyone to find out about me, I fear that the world will view me as a freak if they knew about my existence," Yoshi explained. "The second and final reason is that if Draxum found out that people knew about his plan, he might not even try to recreate the mutagen, and try to take over Duckburg without his army."
"That makes sense, but do we have to keep it a secret from everyone?," Huey asked. "I don't really feel comfortable keeping secrets from my family."
"Yes, from everyone, that is one of my conditions, take it or leave it," Yoshi answered strictly.
Huey was hesitant but reluctantly nodded his head in agreement, "Fine, we agree to your first condition, right guys?" Dewey and Louie nodded their heads in acceptance.
"Good, now my second condition is that all three of you must take your training seriously; if I see one of you slacking off, then all three of you will stop receiving training from me, understood?"
Huey and Dewey eyed their youngest brother suspiciously before Louie rolled his eyes and sighed deeply.
"Fine, we all agree with your second condition as well," Louie agreed in an exasperated tone.
Yoshi nodded his head in approval, "Alright, now my final condition is that you must listen to everything I say no matter how silly or bizarre my instructions may sound, agreed?"
"We accept your conditions," Dewey consented, wanting Yoshi to agree to teach them.
Yoshi stared at three boys for a few seconds before they stared back at him expectantly; he sighed heavily before holding his left hand up in surrender.
"Alright, I give, I give, I'll teach you boys in the way of the ninja," Yoshi begrudgingly accepted, much to Huey and Dewey's delight. "I now pronounce you all genin, or beginner ninjas."
Huey and Dewey started to jump around and cheer while Louie was looking through his phone. As Yoshi looked at the three boys in front of him, he couldn't help but smile slightly and think to himself, 'These boys sure are rowdy, just like me when I was child. Maybe teaching them won't be so bad after all.'
Thus began the tale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Ducks.
Deep below the town of Duckburg was an underground city where yo-kai lived. Walking down the streets of this underground city was Baron Draxum with a cloak covering him, with his minions Huginn and Muninn flying right beside him.
"Uh, boss, what are we going to do now that your only batch of mutagen is gone?," Huginn asked.
"It's quite simple underling, I will once again gather the ingredients needed to create the mutagen and get another sample of Hamato Yoshi's blood to perfect it," Draxum declared. "Once I recreate my mutagen, I will create my army of mutants and take over the overworld before they have the chance to destroy the yo-kai!,"
"Won't that take a long time though?," Muninn asked Draxum a question this time.
"It might take a couple of years, but you know what they say, patience is a virtue. Besides, now that I know how to make the mutagen, all I need to worry about is getting the ingredients," Draxum explained before dawning a sinister smile. "Just you wait you filthy humans, your day of reckoning will surely come."
Alright, hey guys, Phoenix here, and I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter of "Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Ducks." Next chapter will be called "Great Detective Webby." Make sure to review and give me your honest criticisms, hope you enjoyed, and until next time, later!