Hello my lovely readers! So sorry for the two year absence, things happened but fortunately I'm back with a new chapter! Enjoy ;)
We finally got settled into our new home. Outside, we could hear the rain making its way into the sewers. Mikey was putting together his new entertainment system, while I was helping our father to sew the new training dummy. Donnie was welding some things around the lair to keep it stable. Leo and Raph had went back to our old lair to see if they could salvage anything from our old rooms.
"What's the matter Mikey? Can't decide what to watch?" Donnie asked him.
"I need more power captain. The turtle cave must be set for maximum entertainment potential" answered Mikey as he plugged two very powerful cords together.
I face palmed because with the way he was connecting things, I wouldn't be surprised if the power went out. "Nice going Mikey. You probably blacked out all of New York City" I stated sarcastically much to his annoyance while he turned on what I had dubbed the TV with too many screens.
"Turtle cave? That is so lame" Besides, in case you haven't noticed, our sister isn't a turtle. Donnie said to our goofy brother.
Mikey decided to get snarky so he asked Donnie, "What would you call our new digs? The Shellter?"
Donnie looked around and then answered, "Uh, how about the Sewer of Solitude?"
"Terrapin station?" Mikey suggested.
"The School for Gifted Reptiles and their Magical Sister?" Donnie suggested back.
I cleared my throat at that, "What happened to Master Splinter? He's not reptile, in case you haven't noticed" but Mikey was on a roll so he ignored all sense, "The Hall of NinJustice?" he suggested again. "Why don't you guys just write a book with those titles? This is our home, that's what we should call it" I interrupted because this was starting to get annoying.
Master Splinter, finally getting annoyed cleared his throat and then my brothers stopped to listen. As he got up he said, "Your sister is correct. We will call this place home."
My two brothers looked at each other while Mikey said, "Catchy".
After that, my father asked us about the two that went back to the old lair, "Now what is keeping Leonardo and Raphael?"
"Don't worry Master Splinter. They went to get the last of our things from the old lair" I answered before Mikey could say anything. That turtle could talk your ear off. He glared at me in annoyance while I just shrugged at him.
"The way the new sewer slider is performing, they should be back any minute" Donnie added while tinkering with the dino-bot he had found still intact. As he was working on it, one of the circuits fried in a spark of electricity, leaving a look of bewilderment on my brother's face.
"That's assuming they even left yet Donnie" I told him.
"Yeah, it's not like I don't know that Gwen" he answered with slight annoyance lacing his voice.
At the old lair… Leonardo was seen picking up whatever items he could find amidst the rubble, one of the things that he picked up was a canister of some sort. The last item he found was the blanket that their father had found their sister in, and much to his surprise, he found a silver ring with a green-heart shaped gem tucked inside. He decided he would give it Master Splinter when he and Raph got back to the new lair.
"Our home for 15 years and this is all that's left" Leo stated sadly while he loaded the rest of the things onto the vehicle that Donatello had made. "When I find out who built those home-wrecking-robo-roaches…" stated Raphael while he punched the last support beam in the old lair, small pieced of rubble fell and the whole place shook. Leo looked in concern before telling his brother, "Raph, come on. Let's not trash this place any more than it already is". They boarded their vehicle and made their way back to the new lair.
"Now remember, Don and Gwen said the accelerator hasn't been calibrated yet. So take it nice and slowwwww!" screeched Leonardo as Raphael didn't take any heed to Leonardo's warning.
"Yeehaww!" shouted Raphael as he sped up with every turn. 'I'd call this a successful field test, wouldn't you Leo?" Raph asked Leo who appeared to enjoy the fast ride. "Yeehaww!" they both shouted simultaneously.
New Lair… Donnie and I were trying to figure out how the robot worked when Master Splinter approached us with a worried saying, "Even though it is inactive, that thing still makes me uneasy, Donatello, Gwendolyn".
Donnie answered Master Splinter like the true tech-geek he was, "This is state-of-the-art robotics, Sensei. Brilliant work. I just gotta know what makes it tick".
I elbowed my older brother discreetly, before reassuring my father, "Don't worry Master Splinter, if we can figure how they work, then we can find out how to stop them from ever coming back".
Before he could answer me, Leo and Raph came back with the last of our things.
Leo jumped out of the sewer slider, "Hey good news Mikey. Your DVD collection survived" my brother told him as he threw the box to Mikey.
"Master Splinter, could I talk to you for a second?" Leonardo asked him.
"What is it, my son?" he asked Leonardo.
"I found the blanket that you found Gwen in and I saw this ring in it" he said while holding out the sliver ring with the heart-shaped gem out of view from his sister.
"Ah yes. I too saw this the night I found your sister. I will give it to her as soon as I can. I do not want her to be upset" responded Master Splinter, knowing Gwen, when she got upset, she stayed deathly quiet, even more so than she usually was.
"Awesome!" Let's throw in something light on story and heavy on gory. Because the video monolith is ready to rock and roll" interrupted Michelangelo as he turned the TV on
"Mikey, the last time you watched a horror movie, you wouldn't stop screaming at everything and you wouldn't even turn the lights off anywhere" Gwen reminded him while rolling her eyes at the thought of that memory.
The news came on and the anchorwoman started talking about some sort of science institute and the name of its CEO, Dr. Baxter Stockman came up.
Mikey being his good old self decided that the news was boring but Donnie stopped him from changing the channel by saying, "Wait. I wanna see this".
As we watched Dr. Stockman explain the rat problem of New York City, much to our horror, we saw the same robots that had destroyed our old home being shown on the screen. The robots were apparently called Mousers.
"I can't believe the famous Baxter Stockman would try to pass of these killer robots as a good thing" Donnie stated angrily.
"Well, he probably has a hidden agenda, just like every other so-called scientist" I responded to Donnie's statement.
"And what's up with those glasses?" Mikey mocked using the head of the Mouser as a puppet.
Suddenly, Raph destroyed one of the screens that Mikey had worked so hard to put together while saying, "I say we head over to Stocktronics and kick some serious shell!"
I glared at the back of his head in annoyance at his temperamental outburst and used a little bit of my magic to repair the screen so Mikey wouldn't complain like a small child later.
"Wow sis, your magic is like reversing time" Mikey complimented as the shards of glass slowly flew back into the screen, making it good as new.
"It's not a problem Mikey. If you have all the pieces, then it doesn't take long before the object in question is fixed" I explained as he gave me a turtle-sized hug.
Master Splinter saw that Raph was about to head off so he blocked his path and warned him, "Absolutely not!" And then he wacked my brother on the head with his walking stick to make sure the point got across. And then proceeded to grill him about us going out to the surface because he was still angry with us for being seen and causing trouble. My brothers even told him what the Purple Dragons had said to me, so he was even more protective of me as usual and barely let me out of the lair, unless I really needed to go. I wasn't one for arguing, so I didn't say anything when Master Splinter informed me of that.
"Your last venture to the surface was a disaster. Even your sister was not spared from the foolishness of the surface dwellers. You can ill afford to be seen by more humans" Master Splinter lectured us as he gave us his 'death' glare.
Just then, Baxter Stockman started talking about how his lab assistant April O'Neil would release rats into some sort of simulation chamber, which looked like a large open maze. He then proceeded to bring a Mouser over and release it into the same chamber. The Mouser found the first rat and proceeded to get rid of it, if you catch my drift. We all looked at the screen in disgust and that's where Mikey had to make an insensitive comment.
"Man I would sure hate to be a rat in this town" Mikey stated and then realized he'd said something insensitive, "Oh sorry Sensei" he apologized sheepishly.
At Stocktronics laboratory, an ecstatic April O'Neil was happily watching the TV interview that she and her boss gave together all while gushing to him, "This is so great! My friends, and my family, will finally see I really do work with the Baxter Stockman."
"You flatter me Miss O'Neil. I like that" he responded arrogantly. Suddenly, a sound from the computer was heard, indicating something about the Mousers.
"Oh that's strange. I was running a routine diagnostic check, half the Mouser prototypes aren't even transmitting. It's like they just vanished" April stated to her boss.
"I'm sure it's nothing, April. Probably just a computer glitch" he responded uneasily. "I'll have a systems tech go over it in the morning" he tried to assure her.
"What if the Mousers have been tampered with? We should go over all their transmission backups" April stated seemingly ignoring her boss.
"That won't be necessary April" he responded with much more force than he had intended.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm expecting an important call from a very significant financial backer" he finished snidely.
April watched her boss leave hurriedly as if he was hiding a terrible secret.
At the new lair, my brothers and I were training with our father. We had all surrounded him and he told us to attack him, which by the way, wasn't very successful. As soon as we tried to land an attack, he would knock us back. If we were knocked to the ground, then we were out.
"Do not lean with your shoulders, Donatello" chastised Master Splinter as used the momentum from Donnie's attack to push him back to where he was standing before.
Leo tried to attack him from behind but Master Splinter was faster, "Faster on your counter-attack Leonardo" he said while knocking Leo to the ground.
"Hiyaaah!" Mikey tried and failed to attack Master Splinter. He was also thrown down onto the ground, this was starting to get painful to watch. "Mind your footwork, Michelangelo" said Master Splinter.
I did a flip into the air and tried to distract Master Splinter by throwing one of my tessen at him and then using my momentum and other tessen to land a blow but he saw through my plan and used my own weapon to knock me down. "Never show the enemy that they can use your own weapon against you" chastised my father.
Raph tried a head-on attack with Master Splinter, but he knocked Raph's sais out of his hand with his walking stick. It was pretty clear that Raph was distracted and our father seemed to notice it as well. "You are distracted Raphael. You must learn to focus your attacks." noticed Master Splinter as he pinned Raph to the wall of our new dojo.
"I'd like to focus my attention on that Stockman guy! Why can't we just go topside and show him a little mean and green?" Raph asked Master Splinter angrily.
"Because I forbid it" stated Master Splinter while looking at all of us sternly while walking away, probably to get some sleep. "We will resume your training in the morning" he stated before closing the doors behind him.
"We will resume your training in the morning" Mikey mocked, copying Master Splinter.
"He probably heard that Mikey" I informed my brother. I was right because a few seconds later, Master Splinter said, "I heard that".
"Busted!" Donnie and I said simultaneously while we laughed at the look on Mikey's face.
Raph either wasn't in the mood for games or he really wanted to go topside because he said angrily, "I'd like to bust a few heads!"
Mikey interrupted his rant, "Chill bro. We don't need no stinkin surface world. We got late movies, top 10 video countdown, BMX sports highlights, some really weird Korean language soap opera…"
"Or you could give me a hand with these Mouser parts. If I can get one working, we can trace it back to its source and find out what Stockman's really using them for" Donnie interrupted Mikey's droning.
Mikey responded lazily, "Why don't you ask Gwen to help you? You both geek out over tech anyway".
"You mean the same way you geek out over comic books Mikey?" I responded while smirking at him.
"Hey! My comics are much better than all those dusty parts that you and Donnie like to play with" was his seemingly intelligent response.
I ignored Mikey in favor of helping Donnie figure out how the Mouser worked and how we were going to reassemble it. You see, when I was younger, I was too shy to talk to any of my brothers, but when I saw Donnie working with tools and parts, I was interested. So I asked him to teach me how things worked. Ever since then, Donnie and I had developed a special bond over technology and such. I had a special bond over different things with each of my brothers and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
Raph yawned while telling us, "I'm gonna rack".
We all stared at each other in disbelief as Raph walked away to supposedly go to bed.
"Since when does Raph turn in so early?" Leo asked suspiciously while we all looked at each other.
"He's going to sneak out as soon as we go to bed because he wants to beat up Dr. Stockman" I replied.
"He's going to get busted and Sensei gonna hang him by his shell!" Mikey stated dramatically.
I face palmed before returning my attention to the Mouser in front of me and Donnie.
"Well, whatever he does, I'm sure Leo's probably going to catch him" I muttered to myself under my breath.
Back at Stocktronics Laboratory… "The Mouser's will be ready when I decide they're ready. Our first field test was…" states Dr. Stockman to a dark figure on a video screen before he is interrupted by the same dark figure, "A complete failure. I do not tolerate failure!" stated the dark figure harshly.
"Which is why you'd make a lousy scientist. The test was supposed to expose any possible design flaws. As a result, I've already upgraded the Mouser's for greater durability and I assure you, they will perform flawlessly for the next phase".
"They had better Dr. Stockman. For your sake" stated the dark figure harshly, all while outside of the door stood none other than April O'Neil, listening to the schemes of her boss and gasping at what she had heard.
Mikey was fast asleep, loudly snoring while the television droned on and I had decided to take a short nap because Donnie and I had figured out how the Mouser worked. All he had to do was put it back together. My brother Raph thought he was being sneaky as he silently came out of his room and made his way down, but his footsteps woke me up. I silently followed behind him while he snuck past Mikey. I didn't have to wait long for Raph to get caught because Leo was standing in the shadows, blocking Raph's path.
"Midnight stroll?" questioned Leo suspiciously with his arms crossed.
"Outta my way Leo" stated Raph harshly.
"Master Splinter said we stay put" Leo replied with equal harshness lacing his voice.
"Look, I'll go through you if I have to!" Raph yelled.
"I'd like to see you try, hothead" Leo stated calmly as both of my idiotic brothers took battle stances.
"Careful what you wish for Splinter Junior" taunted Raph as he tackled my oldest brother.
When they started rolling around, I knew I had to break up the fight before they woke up Master Splinter. I used my power to create wind to separate and pin them against the wall and they weren't happy about it in the slightest.
"Hey! What gives G? I was gonna teach him a lesson!" Raph yelled at me in annoyance.
"Just out me down so I can teach Raph some manners and respect" Leo stated as irritatingly calm as ever.
I rolled my eyes at their statements and then answered, "First of all, I will not put any of you nitwits down until you promise me that you won't try to kill each other. And secondly, if you want to track down Dr. Stockman, then stop making so much noise or Master Splinter is going to wake up and we are all going to get in major trouble".
"Alright, fine. I won't fight" Raph stated grudgingly.
I knew I didn't have to make Leo promise because he only attacked Raph when he attacked Leo first. I let go of the wind and put my brothers down. Suddenly, the Mouser that Donnie and I worked on ran past us into the tunnels ahead.
"Hey, guys, Gwen and I finally got one of the Mousers working" Donnie stated proudly while he and Mikey chased after it.
"Come on! He's faster than he looks" urged Mikey as he and Donnie went after the Mouser.
I face palmed because I knew we were all going to be in serious trouble with Master Splinter when he found out that we disobeyed his orders so I told my two brothers that were standing next to me, "Leo, Raph, you guys go on and catch up with Mikey and Donnie. I'll stay here with Master Splinter and try to calm him down before you guys get back".
They both nodded because they knew I was good at convincing our father on certain things.
"Be careful guys" I told them as they left.
Leo and Raph ran ahead and I heard Leo groan to himself, "Master Splinter is so going to kill us".
As usual, I knew Master Splinter was going to wake up as soon as the raging idiots left.
"My daughter, where are your brothers?" he asked me with a stern and angry look on his face while I internally shivered before responding, "Uh, well, Donnie and I finally figured out how the Mouser worked so he let it loose in the tunnels and the four of them went after it".
"I see" was all Master Splinter said while he looked deep in thought before he told me, "You should go after your brothers, my daughter. Who knows what kind of trouble they will end up finding themselves in."
"Alright Master Splinter. I'll be back with them as soon as I can" I responded while running down the same path my brothers had. Too worried to watch where I was running to, I bumped into something, or rather someone.
"Gwen?!" My brother Leonardo asked.
"Leo! I'm so glad I found you guys. Master Splinter is really angry. He sent me to find you".
"I hate to break it to ya sis, but we might have a lead on these cockroaches".
"Mikey's right. If we can find the source, then we can destroy them" answered my genius brother.
"Alright. But I'm coming with you" I answered firmly.
"Fine by me" Leonardo answered.
As we trekked along the tunnels in the sewer, Raphael turned to us and declared, "When I get my hands on that metal menace, I'm gonna grind him into little bot burgers!"
'Easy Raph, we still gotta keep him in one piece" Donnie answered.
"Knowing Raph, he'll break it anyways" I joked.
"What makes you think we'll even find the little blender butt?" Mikey asked mockingly.
"I think he left us a few clues" Leo answered pointing to the half-eaten tunnel ways. We followed the path of destruction that the Mouser had left behind, not knowing what we'd find later.
At Stocktronics Laboratories, April O'Neil headed towards Baxter Stockman's mainframe computer, the one that produced the Mousers and their programming, not realizing she'd triggered the silent alarm.
"Rat problem my eye. What are you really up to Stockman?"
"Now that, Ms. O'Neil, would be telling" answered the man in question as he suddenly appeared behind April.
"Suffice it to say, my army of Mousers will make me a very rich and powerful man".
"But… aren't you already a rich and powerful man?"
"Ah, Ms. O'Neil, so brilliant, yet so naïve. I will truly miss working with you".
"What?! You mean, I'm fired?!"
"In a manner of speaking" he answered smirking as a giant robotic hand grabbed April and deposited her on the assembly line where thousands of Mousers stood to attention.
"I'm afraid I can't let you live, Ms. O'Neil. You've seen far too much already. Let's just say I have trust issues" he stated as the Mousers began to power on.
My brothers and I climbed through the hole that the Mouser had created by eating through the tunnel wall.
"There!" Donnie pointed to the suspect in question, the Mouser.
Raphael charged, wanting to take the Mouser down, but reacting quite quickly, I used my powers to grab him before he got crushed by the oncoming subway.
"Woah. Robo-Houdini" Mikey exclaimed in awe.
"Wrong. Robo-hitchhiker" Leo corrected as he pointed to the Mouser whose mouth was clamped on the back of the subway car.
"That thing is making it hard for us to follow it".
"No kiddin G" Raph responded sarcastically.
"We'll never catch him now".
Ignoring Mikey, Raphael said, "Two can play at that game".
"What are you going to do? Hitchhike on a subway car?"
My brother didn't bother to answer as he jumped onto another oncoming subway train.
"What a maniac" Leonardo said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Yeah. Wait for us!" Donnie exclaimed.
The rest of us jumped onto the train, not wanting to be left behind. And also not wanting Raph to break the robot before we could get answers. The Mouser jumped off after a few minutes, and we followed suite, running after the robot like cheetahs after their prey.
April O'Neil was not a fighter, but in this moment, she had to become one. Otherwise it wasn't just her career on the line, but her life as well. Grasping the first weapon she could get her hand on, she tugged the fire extinguisher out from its place in the metal walls. Pointing the nozzle towards the robots, she exclaimed, "Keep back! I know how to use this!" spraying the robots until she ran out of the liquid inside. This proved ineffective however, and the robots continued their programming, to destroy her until she was no more. She swung the extinguisher like a hammer and slammed it down on one of the Mousers, destroying it. But where there was one gone, thousands more were in its place. Attempting to swing the fire extinguisher once more, she was thwarted by a Mouser, who grabbed the extinguisher from her hands in its metal mouth and destroyed it. Now, the fear in her heart was real, now April O'Neil was truly scared. She ran screaming for her life, hoping she'd make it out alive.
"You can run Ms. O'Neil, but you can't hide!" taunted Stockman as she ran out of the laboratory, opening the door to the sewers, the smoke from the extinguisher hiding her for now. Not knowing which way to go, she fell straight into the sewer water and began running for dear life. She kept running until she came to a junction with three tunnels, "Which way out?" she asked herself aloud. In the end, she ran into a random area of the sewer, the Mousers ever so close behind her.
My brothers and I chased the Mouser to an area filled with pipes and lots of sewer water.
Mikey spotted another Mouser and very obviously pointed it out, "Woah, who invited him?"
"I got it!" Raph exclaimed throwing a shuriken at the robot's head. The shuriken sliced through the Mouser and it seemingly fell down. Mikey and Raph high-fived one another in victory.
"Uh, guys, you might want to look at it again" I said nervously.
The Mouser got up again and growled at us.
"This is not good guys" Leo said.
"Neither is that. Those chrome domes are a lot tougher than the last batch" Donnie said worriedly.
"There's a lot more of em too!" Raph said.
We all readied our weapons because in a few moments, we would be surrounded by metal robots with killer jaws.
"Great! Just great!" Raph exclaimed as we began our assault on the monstrous Mousers. Raph and Leo stabbed as many of the robots as they could, while Mikey, Donnie, and I hit and destroyed as many as we could. The battle lasted for quite a bit, and while we were in the midst of battle Donnie gushed over the robots, "These mousers are incredible. The servo-mechanics, the circuitry, the articulation!"
"Geez Donnie. Why don't you just marry one already?"
"If Donnie marries one of those things, I am not becoming its sister-in-law" I joked.
"Don't worry Gwen, I'm sure Donnie wouldn't do that to you" Mikey joked back.
"Guys focus. The only way to stop them is to slice their heads off" Leo informed us.
"Well ain't that great news, for the turtles with blades" Mikey said sarcastically since none of us asides from Leonardo had blades.
"Drive em this way! We'll slice em and dice em!" Raph said throwing the Mousers towards Leo who sliced their heads off as soon as they were tossed his way. We all grouped together and began a major assault on the Mousers as they still kept coming towards us. Finally after attacking continuously, we destroyed all but one Mouser.
"Great job guys! Make sure you leave one…" Donnie trailed off as Raph smashed the remaining Mouser.
"Well, I guess we can't find the source now" I stated.
April ran and ran from the Mousers until she finally fell down, hitting a boarded up part of the sewers. She tried prying the board off to no avail, screaming and closing her eyes, preparing for an inevitable end. Just before the Mousers could finish her off however, they were destroyed by Gwen and Donnie, who had heard her screams and followed the sound to the area which she was in now.
Opening her eyes after hearing sounds of the robots being destroyed, she looked around to see pieces of the Mousers around her and five shadowy figures standing in front.
"Oh, oh thank you, thank you so much. You saved my, my-"
But before she could finish, Mikey had to interrupt, ultimately revealing himself to her, "Hey! How ya doin'?"
She promptly passed out, and that's when I smacked the back of his head, "Nice going Mikey. Instead of letting me handle it, you had to show yourself to her".
Ignoring me, he picked April up and asked us with a goofy grin on his face, "Hey, so can I keep her?"
We all collectively groaned. "Master Splinter is going to kill us" I said as we trekked home, hoping to avoid our father's wrath.