A few days later, they all packed up again and moved back to the city. Everyone was so happy to be home.
April had been concerned about her shop, of burglars breaking in and taking things while she had been gone. But then, that's why she had put away the most valuable items from being seen in the window while she had been gone, to try to diffuse burglars a bit more since those greedy thugs were more after money and jewelry things. Her shop was in tip top condition and no damages.
Randall was glad to get back to his home in the basement. Everything was as he left it. Now he could be away from Leo's grumpiness a lot more, but he would still be there as needed.
The turtles and Splinter were glad to be home again. Aside from Leo's injuries that had made them go up to the farmhouse, it had been nice to get away from the noises and pollution, and fighting here in the city.
Casey was also glad to go back to his apartment too. He even needed time away from his friends too, even as much as he loved them as adopted brothers and father.
It was about two weeks later that Leo came to Casey's apartment and asked him if he wanted to take down some thugs, because of so many news reports of thefts going on that seemed out of the ordinary. Only to find out that it was none other than the Purple Dragons themselves.
The Dragons had been wanting high tech weapons aboard a train shipment this night, and even got a good surprise from some spider-like mutant creature that had secretly been on the shipment that had belonged to Agent Bishop, and Bishop had been seen that night trying to recapture his creature.
Bishop did want to capture Leonardo, but he never succeeded. His creature was more important to recapture. He had been told by the President himself that his funding was about to be stopped, especially if there was an incident involving any of his creatures.
The creature did almost remind Leo of the boss that he had met in Randall's world, Waternoose. Leo had eluded Bishop this night and he returned home after the fight with some bruises, but otherwise, he was just fine. His brothers and father were glad that he had gone out to let off some steam and he hadn't gone alone, at least to fight the Purple Dragons.
The Purple Dragons may not have been led by Hun anymore, but Dragon Face was wanting his gang to move up in the world as being thought of as more than mere street thugs. He was wanting them to have higher power in the city.
Casey had been real happy to help Leo take on the Purple Dragons. Aside from Hun, their group had done nothing but cause trouble in all the years since they had invented their name. He wanted that no good gang to be stopped at all costs. Casey wouldn't stand by and let innocents get hurt, and that's why he went with the turtles so well, even if he had some boneheaded moves sometimes.
Don later told the story to Randall, and hearing about the spider mutant instantly made him have a flashback of his former boss. It almost sounded like that Bishop wanted to create monsters for himself to study and torture.
Little had they known that the spider mutant had once been an ordinary human man, a navy seal. He had been happily married with a wife and son, and he had just wanted so desperately to get back to them. Bishop had been a friend to him, or so he had thought, and he had betrayed him. At least he had made sure the evil Bishop wasn't going to get him back.
….
A few days later after the incident with the Purple Dragons and the spider mutant, Casey came by the lair after he had worked all day and was ready to hang out with his friends. He had a special place in mind to take and show them.
Leo thought of it more as an opportunity to get out and see if it was worth training at. He had been training when Casey had come down to the lair and interrupted him.
Casey managed to talk even Leo into going to the special place that he remembered going to as a kid after school.
Randall had been there with Mikey, playing some video games. He was all in for seeing this place too, as he wanted to see another place close to, but outside the city that would be kind enough to him and his friends where they could walk about and do what they wished. Little did he know it was going to be anything but that.
Once everyone had their weapons, Randall included, they all piled into the Battle Shell and Don drove them out to where Casey told them to go. When they got there, it was something to behold at first glance. It had a few buildings that had long ago been abandoned.
"So, what do you guys think?" Casey asked.
"Wow. I didn't think there were any burgs like this around here anymore." Don was amazed at how it looked.
"Let's get training. We're losing daylight." Leo ordered firmly.
"Yes Sir, Master Leo." Raph mocked him.
"I know I'm ready to play this game." Mikey laughed. Randall smirked. He was always ready for a game of anything.
"So, what is this screwy game called again?" Casey asked.
"It's called Stealth Hunter. Yours truly is a stealth master." Mikey said happily. "And I am the Battle Nexus Champion!"
"Imagine 'Capture the Flag,' but doing it ninja style." Don explained simply. "Mikey will be wearing a bandana that we have to take from him. So far, none of us has ever been able to hold onto it for more than fifteen minutes."
Mikey grabbed the pale yellow bandana and ran off laughing. "Hey!" Raph yelped.
"You guys gotta catch me now!" Mikey laughed.
His brothers let him get a 30 second head start. "Anyone want to leave the Battle Nexus Champion to play here by himself?" Raph asked.
"And miss a chance to tag Mikey? You gotta be kiddin.'" Casey held his bat in his hand, smiling. He wanted to nail Mikey good just as his brothers did.
"You understand what we are going to do, right, Randall?" Raph asked.
"Oh yeah." Randall got a sly grin on his face. He rubbed his hands together. He was so looking forward to this. He just loved playing games when he was in the mood for it, and right now was one of those times. And from the look of this place, they had time to do it and without being seen.
Little did they know that they were being watched from a distance. A creepy, mummy- like figure. He had his own ideas about these trespassers. After the last encounter, which was at Bishop's lab when he had kidnapped Splinter over a year ago, when the explosions started and destroyed the lab, it had made the tube get lost in the sewers and it washed him downstream to here, this usual empty place. He only had rats for company.
As this mummy man eyed the visitors, he had a hungry look in his eye. A desire for revenge for invading his home. This once called the Slayer was now the Rat King.
Mikey was running good around the place, hoping he could keep ahead of his bros. They would have started chasing him down by now.
The others all split up to go look for Mikey. It would have been the easiest for Randall to find Mikey with his newfound sense of smell, the same way he had found Leo when he needed rescuing. But before they had split up, Leo told him that he needed to try to find him the regular way first. He was trying to keep it fair for everyone.
Randall did as he was told. He tried to find his crazy friend with his usual vision at the moment. He would save his scent tracker version of finding if it called for it.
Everyone ran around the area, looking for Mikey, to take his bandana. They began to split up. Raph didn't want to look for Casey too if he got lost.
Mikey was running ahead of them, saying things in a goofy manner. He was also secretly being watched and followed.
Leo wasn't the most happiest to be doing this.
Raph was very impatient with his little brother. He began to feel a presence behind him, and just when he thought he had Mikey, he grabbed at nothing but thin air. "Keep messing around, Mikey, and I might have to start playing rough!" Raph growled.
Mikey had found a hiding place close to a door. Then, the door slammed open, hard and had made an indent in the wall. He was glad he wasn't right there.
"Come out, come out wherever you are." Casey said.
Mikey giggled a bit and started sneaking out the door. In a low whispery voice, Mikey joked, "You don't know the power of the dark side, Casey Jones." he quoted from the Star Wars movies. Then he stepped on a creaky part of the floor.
Casey heard that creak and he turned, seeing Mikey behind him. "Hey!"
"Eep!" Mikey said and ran, trying to avoid being tagged.
"Get back here!" Casey chased Mikey.
Mikey got outside and then jumped to the second level. When Casey got out there, he didn't see Mikey anywhere. "I know that was you, Mikey. Michelangelo! Weasly turtle." He complained.
Leo was a little ways over from Casey, seeing him come out, but Leo was also seeing something else. Something that wasn't Mikey. He glared angrily. He charged up to that floor after getting a jump up from a broken brick wall. He broke through the window and pulled his katanas. Don appeared and the shadowy figure had vanished.
"Take it easy on the windows, Leo. It's just an exercise." Don said.
"I thought I saw something. Something that wasn't Michelangelo." Leo growled. "It was just right here."
Then they both heard Raphael's voice outside. "Oh, that is the worst hiding spot ever." Don and Leo left the spot and went to go investigate what Raph had found. Casey and Randall had heard him as well and came over as well.
There were some bricks wiggling, like there was something underneath it. "Come out now, Mikey." Raph said.
"That is just sad." Casey said.
"And unsanitary." Don added.
"And I didn't even use my sense of smell to find you." Randall said.
"Game over, Mikey, come on out." Raph said, and he gave a kick to the bricks. It made a whole bunch of rats come out from underneath them, making Casey and Randall flinch out of the way.
They all saw that it was rats and not Mikey under there, which meant that Mikey was still off somewhere trying to hide and stay ahead of them.
"I think we found your ghost, Leo." Don said.
"Maybe." Leo said reluctantly.
"He's still somewhere else then." Randall said.
"Keep looking." Leo ordered.
They all went in search of him again.
Meanwhile, Mikey had just come into another building trying to hide. He was panting a bit. "Okay, so they're getting closer. No biggie. The record's still at least fifteen minutes." He said as he checked his shell cell to see how long it had been, and he was surprised at how such a short time it had been since he started. "Three and a half." he moaned.
He began running again and as he was distracted, something in a shadowy form ran in front of him super fast, making him stop. He looked around.
"Leo? Raph? You guys know I'm supposed to be the shadow hunter here right? Guys?" Mikey asked nervously. He still sensed a presence. He took out his nunchukus. "Anyone there?"
He heard what sounded like a piece of board moving, and after he had asked the question, he didn't hear the form drop behind him in time, and he was hit hard on the back on his head, making him drop his weapons and go down, unconscious.
The Rat King carried Mikey to his warehouse area and he put the turtle on a board with shackles on it. He tied Mikey's arms and legs down and waited for him to wake up.
It didn't take Mikey to come to long after that. His vision was blurry when he first opened his eyes, but he could see someone standing in front of him. It looked like a giant mummy man.
He jumped a little, making him say, "Who the shell are you?"
The mummy man just let out an evil laugh. Mikey laughed a little along with him. "No. Seriously, dude."
The Rat King didn't say anything, but he plunged his fingers into the board instead, trying to get a scare out of his hostage. Then rats starting appearing all over the place.
If this guy was trying to scare him, it was working. Mikey was worried about what was going to happen. Then the man took his fingers out and began walking away. Just as he was out of the room, Mikey wanted to know what would happen next. "Um, creepy psycho guy…"
The rats continued to gather.
Raph, Don, Leo, Casey and Randall all came to a stop. They had split up to find him once again.
"Anything?" Raph asked.
"Nothing." Leo replied.
"I almost had him!" Casey said.
"Nothing either." Don said too.
"I could find him." Randall said.
"We know you could. We just wanted this to be a fair game, Randall. If it comes down to it, then you can use it." Don said.
"You wanna bet that he cheated? Probably back in the Battle Shell playing vid games right now." Casey proclaimed.
"It's not right!" Leo shouted.
"Take it easy, Master Leo. Casey's just joking." Raph said.
"Not that. We're being followed." Leo exclaimed. He had sensed it.
Randall tasted the air. "Yes, come to think of it, we are."
Then there was a growl in the air. "Mikey?" Casey asked in apprehension.
A loud, evil laugh sounded out. "That ain't Mikey." Raph cleared that up, though they all knew Mikey's voice well.
"But who is it?" Don asked.
"The voice sounds familiar." Leo said.
Then, a mummy man jumped down in front of them, surprising them all. He laughed in their faces a bit, then began to run.
"Don't let him get away!" Leo demanded, and they all gave chase.
…
Back in the warehouse, the rats were hungrily approaching the bound turtle.
"Focus, Mikey, focus. Block out the rats. The hungry, turtle eating rats." he couldn't help but cry out in fear. He began to struggle. He couldn't break the ones on his wrists, but his ankle shackles broke. It set him free enough to move.
Rats dropped down onto the board.
"So, you wanna go for a ride, do ya? We'll see about that. Everyone, off the Mikey train!" Mikey ran backwards into a wall, making the board shatter and his bonds on his wrists break. He was free. But the rats kept coming. They jumped onto his shoulders. "Get offa me!"
…..
The Rat King continued to lead the others somewhere. They kept on giving chase.
"He's baiting us!" Leo pointed out.
Don was beside him, adding, "Like rats in a maze."
Raph was catching up and starting to pass his two brothers. "Yeah, well, I ain't no lab rat."
The man got to a fire escape and started to climb. Raph got to it first. He climbed up first. The others got there and followed, though Randall took to the wall with his gecko-like fingers and toes.
Raph up top first and saw the mummy man waiting for him. Randall came up behind him, joined by the others. Then the man took to smaller shed on top of it and Raph threw his sais at him, hoping to catch him. But then he jumped off the building, doing a spinning motion.
"Whoa. Should he be able to do that?" Casey asked.
"By all human measures, no." Don replied.
Raph went and got his sais out of the shed. "Not making me feel any better, bro."
They continued to follow the maniac. They all jumped down to the ground, Randall climbing down the wall a ways then jumping down. They waited for him. But down on the ground, they didn't see the maniac anywhere.
"We lost him." Raph said.
Then there was a yelling roar from the creature man. He was just ahead in a big silo-like building. He went into it, just menacing the guys to follow him some more.
Leo took the bait and ran in first. Then the others heard Mikey's voice, making them stop. "Get them off!" Then Mikey burst out of a basement. "Get 'em offa me!"
He came over to his brothers and friends. "Mikey!" They all said happily to see him. Raph looked back at Leo, who was still going into the silo. "Hey, Leo! We found- aw shell."
There was more evil laughing and the others went in too to make sure Leo wasn't going to be in any trouble. When they got into the silo, they all looked up at the maniac, who was standing on the top of the place, looking down on them. He kept on laughing evilly.
"Not him again." Mikey said.
"Again?" Don questioned him.
"That's the freakwad who tied me up and tried to feed me to the rats." Mikey explained.
The Rat King then pulled a rope and the doors closed behind his hostages.
There were multiple holes in the walls and eyes were beginning to appear, along with the chittering of rats. Then they started coming out of the holes, looking hungrily at their prey.
"They're only rats. How bad can this be?" Casey asked.
"Uh, Casey." Mikey whimpered in fear and pointed down to the ground, where some bones lay. That made them all realize these were no ordinary rats they were dealing with. Rats didn't normally attack humans and turtles, and lizards.
"Let's try the door." Raph said. He and Mikey tried to open the door, and it wouldn't open. "It's a no go." Mikey said.
"Get away from the walls." Leo ordered.
The rats began to crawl at them in great numbers.
They all took out their weapons, preparing to defend themselves. The rats attacked.
"Ugly little suckers, ain't ya?" Raph said to the ones in his sais.
"Nice rodents. Did I mention my sensei is a rat? Any relatives with us today?" Mikey tried to ask, but none responded to him, only tried to make a meal of him.
They all began to hit the rats away, or slice them away.
"There must be hundreds. We'll never be able to take them out at this rate." Don assumed.
"We don't have to! We just have to show them we're not a meal that's worth the trouble!" Leo shouted, and sliced viciously at the ground, making the rats back off.
"Turtle is off the menu!" Raph kicked one on the way out as the rats began to go back into the walls. They were all a little relieved for the moment when the rats were gone, but then, the man up above shouted, "NOOOOO!"
They all looked up.
The Rat King wasn't going to let this go so easily. He jumped down in front of them.
The group of friends took battle stances. Leo charged him first. The man grabbed his wrists and flipped him onto his stomach.
"Goongala!" Casey called out before the Rat King grabbed a hold of him while Raph charged next, which got him a good hard kick in the stomach. The Rat King picked up Casey and threw him into Don and Mikey.
Randall tried next since he was the only one standing. He had his tonfas ready. He was ready to strike him in the head, but the creature man jumped to the wall real fast, avoiding the lizard. Randall growled up at him.
The man jumped down again, behind Randall, and Leo took a swipe at his feet, hoping to knock him down. Randall turned and tried to swipe at him too, but he punched the lizard in the ribs, knocking him over.
The others were regaining their feet. "What's the deal with this freak?" Casey demanded.
"I don't know. I feel like I've seen these moves before." Leo answered.
Randall got up again and joined his friends. Then the man jumped down again and started fighting again. He got them all down. Then the rats started coming back in.
Raphael looked overhead and saw a large crack in the wall. "The rats are coming back in!" Leo shouted.
"Then it's time we busted out!" Raph agreed. He charged angrily.
Mikey looked up in time and saw his hotheaded brother charging what he thought was him, but he got out of the way and Raph broke through the wall instead. Then they started to clean the dust off of himself.
Mikey came out first, with the others right behind him. "Good going, bro. I always said you were as thick as a brick."
Raph growled. "What happened to Ugly?"
The Rat King glared down on them again, and laughed some more. Then he jumped across the building.
"When is this idiot going to give us a break?" Randall asked. He rubbed his lower ribs where he had been kicked.
"He has some sweet moves." Mikey pointed out.
"I've had enough of this madness!" Leo said angrily, and he threw some shurikens up at the maniac above them.
The Rat King deflected them away, but one of them landed on the building, making it crack and he lost his footing, making him fall through the roof since the building's support was long gone.
They all heard a crash below. Leo started walking away. "It's over." But there was a crash through the wall. Leo turned to face him.
The mummy man just stood there. He had a shuriken on his right shoulder.
Leo took out his katanas, ready for a fight.
The man noticed the shuriken on his shoulder and took it off, examining it. He began to have flashbacks of some short memories, none of them pleasant. Of his creation and beatings.
Leo finally had to make the first move since his enemy wasn't going to. He hit him several times. "What's wrong with you?!" he yelled.
Eventually, the Rat King fought back. He threw a board at him, which caught him in the stomach, knocking him down, but Leo was on his feet again real quick.
The Rat King began to run again, with Leo following. The others followed them as well. The silo wall continued to crack.
The man and lead turtle jumped through a glass window. When the others got in there, Leo was ready for a fight. "Leo!" Raph called out.
"Stay back! He's mine!" Leo growled at his brothers. Then he took a battle stance, ready to take on the freak of nature before him.
Leo and the Rat King went on to fight one heck of a fight.
"If Leo goes down, I'm the first one in there." Raph said.
"But we don't know the limit of his strengths. Even with the six of us." Don said.
"Right now, I'd say Leo's got more than one monster to work out of his system." Raph said, seeing how his older brother was getting a lot of hits, punches, and kicks into their enemy.
Randall was watching the scene too, and he knew what Raph meant when he had said the word 'monster.' He knew that Leo was having a hard time right now in his own mind. He was wanting revenge on what had happened to him some months ago, that was for sure, and every enemy that encountered him had to face his wrath. Even Randall's hatred for his own rivals so long ago took a back seat to this.
Soon, Leo and the man were at a stalemate for a few moments. Then the man backed into the shadows and he seemed to have vanished. Leo looked around, warily. In an instant, the man came out from above and attacked again. This time, he had a chain in his hands.
The man threw the chains at Leo and they caught his swords. Leo had to keep him from pulling his swords away. He put a foot on the chain and got his swords undone. Then there was a loud cracking noise.
Leo saw the broken silo coming down. "Guys, get out of the way!" He called out and he even jumped onto the Rat King. "Look out!"
The silo crashed down into the building and crashed through the floor, showing all the rats that were in the basement. There was a big floor space left, Leo on one side and one for the Rat King.
Mikey almost stepped into the new hole in the floor. "Watch your step, Mikey." Don said, keeping him from making a false move. "Whoa! Rat central!"
Randall had never seen so many rats in his life. He had never really noticed the rats of New York all that much, other than Splinter. He saw them here and there, but just ignored them.
They all looked over at Leo and the enemy. What was going to happen next?
Raph just wanted the fight to end with this freak. "Leo, let's go!" he called over to his brother.
This time, Leo listened. He put his katanas away and he jumped back over to his brothers.
But the Rat King wasn't about to let them go so easily. He jumped over too, landing on Leo, determined to give his rats a meal. The floor collapsed after he jumped off.
"Look out!" Casey cried out.
The weight of the man threw Leo off balance and he almost fell of the side. He cried out as Raph grabbed his right hand. Mike and Don and Casey held onto Raph to make sure he didn't go over with them.
Randall grabbed onto Leo's left hand and pulled while wrapping his tail around Don's right arm. With all their help and strength, they pulled Leo and his enemy up again, but then, Leo gave a good hard kick to the gut and the Rat King fell to his doom.
The rats devoured the maniac under their eyes.
Mikey made a yuck noise, then they all left the building. They were all ready to get out of there. The turtles all jumped the fence, but this side had barbed wire on top. Casey threw his bag over while he crawled under, with Randall following him on all eights. He dusted himself off as he stood up. Randall grinned as he stood up.
Then Mikey made a realization. "Hey, I still got the bandana on. It's been what? Forty five minutes easy. I am the greatest stealth hunter ever!" he laughed.
Raph was irritated after what they all went through. He grabbed the bandana off and whacked Mikey on the shoulder with it. "Hey!" Mikey yelped, rubbing it.
Then they all left the area. They just wanted to get the shell out of there. They didn't know or care about the fate of their enemy. In their minds, he deserved what he got. But he was still alive.
They had all gotten out with just a few minor bruises this night. They hoped they would never see that maniac again.