Days later, Robyn had left and so had Augie. They had gone to see the rest of April's family.
In the lair, Don had started to show signs of catching a cold. His head felt alright, it was just a stuffy nose. At least, at first, and then there were some bouts of nausea too. Don took some medicines to try to relieve the symptoms.
When Randall came down to help him work on the new truck some more, he noticed that Don wasn't feeling too well. He would help him out the best he could. The family depended on Don to keep them safe with his doctoring skills and mechanical skills.
Mikey was beginning to feel like Randall was spending so much time with Don that he almost didn't matter anymore to him. But when Don started getting sick, there was concern right there. But he still had to ask Randall eventually.
Randall was sworn to secrecy about the new truck on its way to being made. He knew that Mikey was curious about what was being made in the lab. He would snap at the youngest turtle to not go snooping around in the lab right now. It wasn't his business.
"Randall, how come you never spend time with me anymore?" Mikey asked sadly.
"Don needs my help with the surprise coming up real soon, and with the new weapons you guys are gonna use against those freak creatures out there. And because Don is getting sick. He needs the extra help, Mike. I'm sorry. We can hang out later." Randall explained.
Mikey always hated the 'later' answer. It usually meant they would forget and not hang out.
As much as Randall had to decline Mikey's offers to hang out like before, it was just that with getting the new lair up and running to be safe enough, there was just so much to do around this much bigger lair. He wished Mikey had more of a real balance of when to work and when to act like a child. He acted like a child too much and demanded so much from his family as if he was a child still.
…
With Don and Randall having worked on the new armor and weapons for their battle against the alien mutation animals, they were up and ready a lot sooner than if Don had worked on them alone. Tonight, was the premiere using of the weapons.
Raph picked a weapon that was like an extension of himself. A grasper of sorts. He also had electrified cuffs.
Leo had a shot firing one, called the Snare Shooter. It could fire nets and darts, depending on what it was loaded with.
Don also had a snare that he called the Capture Snare. It could grasp things with it and it could electrify a victim. He also wore a pack on his back that could freeze smaller specimens. He also had a tracker on his right wrist, and a spotter transmitter that he would wear over his right eye; it was like a magnifying glass.
Mikey had his own range of weapons too, including nets and tranquilizers.
Leatherhead had helped design the tranquilizers, along with Don and Randall.
Randall had been happy to help design these new weapons and armor, but he didn't know how much of a help he would really be against these freaky creatures. He wanted to just be more of a backup and upgrade helper this time. This was just one fight he was preferring to stay out of.
If there was one rule about battling any of the creatures they would encounter, now that they knew more about them, what had caused it to happen, was that they just couldn't be splattering the ooze from inside the creatures. That was how it spread.
Ever since the night of when they first encountered the roaches and the one that had slashed Don's leg, they hadn't seen any sign of the man roach.
While the turtles went out 'monster hunting,' Randall stayed behind to work on the new truck. It was almost done enough that it would be making its debut maybe in a few weeks, so it had to be ready.
The guys were ready to give these weapons a try. The first creatures they came across tonight were apparently mutant toads, but as toads lost their tails after they were done developing from tadpoles, somehow, these mutant toads had long tails again. They were still able to jump long distances and use their long tongues. It was in one of the train subway areas.
Raph wanted so much to use his sais on these suckers so bad. He was backing up from the one that had chosen to try to eat him. "Okay, Ugly. Down, boy." Raph said, keeping the toad at a distance. "That's it, that's a good mutant toad." He kept his Clasper in front of him, but the toad then whacked him in the face with its tail, knocking him back onto his shell.
Raph growled just as the toad tried to leap onto him. He got the mutant toad into the Clasper. "I said, Stay!" The toad tried to impale him with its tongue. "You know, this would be a whole lot easier if I could just use my sais on these slime balls." he proclaimed.
Mikey's toad kept on wanting to chase him.
Leo used his Snare Shooter to fire stun shots at the toads and then he tranked them. Don then grasped one of the toads from getting at Leo, he gave a shout out to Raph, "Sorry, Raph! You know how toxic these outbreak bugs are!" He slammed the toads unconscious and tranked them.
"Yeah, I know. Trap 'em and trank 'em!" Raph answered. He slammed his toad and tranked him too, but behind him, Mikey was still having trouble getting a hold on his toad.
"Well, somebody grab the tranq!" Mikey cried out.
Don tried to stop the toad from still continuing to chase Mikey. "I got him!" The toad then pulled him right behind him though. Don screamed in terror that he wasn't able to stop this thing.
"Uh, Donny, I think he's got you." Raph remarked.
"Hold on, Don. Mikey's coming!" Mikey was willing to help his brother, but then, he spotted a train coming. He tried running for one of the walls, but the same toad that had been after him got in his way. He jumped the other way toward the walls and the toad went after him. Don was still being dragged behind him.
Don screamed as he saw the train coming and he couldn't stop this toad. But Leo was in just the right place. He sliced the rope with his katana and quickly pulled Don up while covering their ears, as the train's wheels on the rails were loud up close.
The train passed real fast, then Don turned to Leo, "Good timing, Leo. Thanks." he said with a smile. Leo then helped him to his feet.
"I think that's enough monster hunting for one day." Leo declared. "Let's go."
All the turtles jumped out of that station before the next train came along.
…
Out west, in Bishop's lab, Stockman had finished making his new body, though Bishop didn't know that yet.
Stockman had wanted to have a body for so long ever since the Shredder and Hun had taken his original from him. If everyone else had one, why couldn't he? And with Bishop proving it could be done to get a new one, he wasn't willing to wait.
Bishop was still demanding of him to concentrate on the plague at hand instead of the new body issue. He might have unleashed the outbreak, but at least he was willing to want to put it right. But he needed his associates to be thinking the same as him on it, which Stockman wasn't at the moment.
When Stockman finally showed Bishop that his new cloned body was ready, he got himself ready and transferred his consciousness into the new body. While he was still out, he had a flashback to his past, of when he experimented with a bug and pots and pans, and his mother coming home to him.
His mother had always been proud of him for being a science prodigy. She had even bought him his first chemistry set. But she also often had to work so hard for the two of them to live in the house they lived in and to have food on the table. He had always loved her too, because she had supported his love of science.
Soon, Stockman came out of it and woke up. When he was out of the chamber, he saw he had what looked like his old body! But there were definitely modifications to this one compared to his original human body. It was also twice as strong.
Bishop was still concerned that he had rushed things, not thinking it all through, but Stockman assured him it was all fine.
Stockman was glad to have a new body again and just wanted to do things that any normal human could do, including feeling a breeze outside, or eating a big meal.
While sleeping, he had another dream, but about his mom visiting him in the lab. She told him she was proud of him, but also told him to patch up his finger, as it was looking wounded.
He woke up and saw his mom's spirit had been right. The skin was peeling apart!
Over the next few weeks, Stockman did tests on his finger, his whole left arm even, and eventually pounded it back on. The new body didn't feel pain quite as much. He had tried to study his arm and couldn't find much wrong with it, but the process had just been too rushed.
Stockman's new body, in the end, made him look like a composed corpse. Then, he began to think on who was really responsible for his misery.
He knew the turtles had been partly to blame, as they were the ones that destroyed his plans for the Shredder, and more times than one at that, and that had brought the Shredder's wrath down on him multiple times. But, before the turtles, there was the one who had first brought the turtles into his life in the first place. It was his former assistant, April!
"She is the one and she will pay!" Stockman yelled angrily.
Stockman boarded one of Bishop's helicopters and he took off for New York. He knew where April lived too.
…..
Once he got to New York, he landed the chopper close to where Stock Tronics used to be, where he and April had first worked together. He went to April's house from there. He broke through the door in the back downstairs, then he went upstairs to her back door.
Randall was currently at the turtles' lair while April and Casey were having a lovely evening just relaxing on the couch, watching TV.
Someone started pounding on the door, rather furiously. It was a constant knock.
Casey and April were surprised they had company. "I'll get it." Casey said. He got up and went to the door. "Geez, I'm comin', I'm comin.'" Who had to be so rude to be pounding like that?
Then, the door was smashed in and Casey was thrown onto his back. "Casey!" April cried out and rushed to his side. They both looked up and in stepped a cyborg Baxter Stockman!
Stockman had a gun in one hand. "Hello, Ms. O'Neil. We have some catching up to do." he greeted. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Back where this all started." Then he shot her with a tranquilizer dart in the left shoulder.
She pulled it out, but it took effect right away. "April!" Casey said in a worried tone.
Then he charged at Stockman, ready to punch him.
Stockman grabbed his fist and took hold of his arm and slammed Casey into the wall, knocking him out. Then he went over to April and picked her up. "Come, April, dear. You have an appointment regarding retribution!" He laughed as he slung her over his shoulder and carried her out of the apartment.
….
Down in the lair, Don had summoned his brothers to the lab. This had been one thing being designed and seen only by his and Randall's eyes for a long time. It was now ready!
"So, what's the big surprise already?" Raph asked.
"Finally, after months of work, I give you, the new Battle Shell!" Don announced. Randall pulled the sheet off the truck.
At first glance, it looked more like a moving truck. It even read 'Tortuga Bros Moving, Since 1984.' The other three turtles weren't exactly impressed with it right off.
"Where? Inside the moving van?" Mikey demanded.
"No. It is the moving van." Don replied. He was proud of this truck.
Mikey almost couldn't understand how Randall had gotten to be a part of building this thing, and had gone along with it.
"Uh, I know you've been under the weather lately, bro, but come on." Raph stated.
"Perhaps a small demonstration." Don said. He pressed a button on a remote in his hand.
A panel on the side lifted. "Multi-function side panels." Don said, it had rockets on it.
Up above, the top lid rose out, revealing some cannons. "Ion charged laser cannons." Randall smiled. And up on the very top, another weapon rose up, "Concussion blasters."
And a satellite came up on the back of the top. "And a tracking system that's connected to our mainframe, security systems, and shell cell!" Don exclaimed proudly. Then there was a ringing. "Which, as you can hear, works perfectly."
Don did the honors of answering the phone, "Hello?"
It was Casey on the line, "Guys, it's Stockman! He's back, and he's taken April!"
The others all heard that too. "Hang tight, Casey. We're on our way!" Leo replied. They all then filed into the truck. Don drove it. Randall was up front while Leo, Mike, and Raph rode in the back and they picked up Casey.
Casey had his mask and golf bag ready when he climbed in. He was holding his left arm in pain. "So what happened, Casey?" Raph asked.
"He just busted in, knocked me out, and when I woke up, they were gone. All I remember is he said something about them going back to where this all started." Casey reflected.
There was a hole in between the back and front of the truck. Don and Randall heard him too. Randall didn't understand that part, but he was sure the turtles did. "Where it all started?" he asked.
"Stock Tronics." Leo replied. "The lab where he and April first worked together. It has to be."
Now Randall understood, even though he had never been there before, but he would now if it meant saving April.
"I'm on it!" Don said and floored the gas to get there.
…
Stockman had gotten April to Stock Tronics. He pried open some doors that no longer worked on their own because no one was operating them. The whole place was real run down as it was no longer in business.
"Now, Ms. O'Neil. Time to pay for what you've done. You ruined my life! You ruined my work for the Shredder! You brought those turtles into my life! Because of you, I have been torn apart! Well, Ms. O'Neil, now it's your turn to go to pieces!" Stockman carried April into the room and he hotwired the electricity to come on. She was still unconscious.
When the light came on in the room, Stockman had another flashback, one of when his mother was lying in bed, dying. He laid April on the floor and went over.
Several moments later, April began to wake up. What she saw in front of her looked bizarre. This new Stockman cyborg was holding a big wire in his hands and crying while leaning on a flatbed dash. "Mama!" he said sadly.
Stockman had been told all his life by his mom, "The sky's the limit for you, Baxter." It had been a real tragedy when his mom had died on him while he was so young. She had been his main supporter.
Then, Stockman turned back to April, seeing her there on the floor. He stood up. "Ah, good you're here early today, Ms. O'Neil. We have a lot of work to do." He was in another flashback memory of when he was first introducing the Mousers and their connections. He also saw April as his former assistant rather than his prisoner.
The new Battle Shell pulled up outside and they went in another way. The guys all knew they had to get up there in a hurry, before Stockman did something horrible to April. They made it to some automatic doors.
"Let her go, Stockman!" Leo demanded.
"April?" Baxter looked once, then blinked again, seeing one April as his assistant, to the one of right now, that was his prisoner, with Casey, the turtles, and Randall standing around her.
To all of them, this Stockman was real beyond creepy looking. He looked like a rotted corpse.
"You betrayed me!" Stockman exclaimed. He started advancing on them.
"Get out of here, April!" Don shouted. She went to run while the guys were going to deal with Stockman.
"No! She can't leave! I forbid it!" Stockman shouted.
April ran out the doors the guys had come in. The guys all had weapons ready.
"You asked for it, Dr. Stockman-stein!" Mikey yelled at the cyborg. He kept advancing at them.
The guys all charged at him, but he tore a hole in the floor, tearing it apart, sending them all into the walls, knocking the wind out of them.
"Stay out of my way! She ruined my life! Now she must pay!" Stockman roared and threw a piece of machinery through a window. "April. April!" he called for her.
April had run a little distance away and was close to the pier. She could hear him calling for her, then she saw the transporter on the rope. It would take her across the river. She ran for it.
The guys all recovered enough and got up and tried to follow that maniac. They got out of the building. "Which way did they go?" Casey demanded. There was also a copter sitting right next to the building.
Randall knew he could track them.
"We should split up." Mikey suggested.
"No. Better yet, search from above." Don suggested. They all got into the copter. Don drove it too.
"Can you get her scent, Randall?" Leo asked.
"Of course." Randall replied and he did just that by tasting the air. He pointed which way and Don followed his directions.
Meanwhile, April was alone on the transporter, and thought she was safe. She let out a sigh of relief, hoping Stockman wouldn't find her there. But then, there was a shaking. She looked out the back and saw her worst nightmare. "No!" she cried out.
Stockman was using the bars as like monkey bars, moving along to where she was. The transporter was shaken and April fell over. The cyborg man tore a hole in the ceiling. "Going somewhere, Ms. O'Neil?!" he asked evilly.
Why couldn't he just leave her alone? He was a lunatic! She screamed in terror.
Stockman made a bigger hole.
Don flew the copter low so Randall could keep tracking. Randall pointed to the transporter in the air. "There, that's where she is!"
"On the guandula!" Mikey added.
Don flew the copter upwards.
Stockman jumped down into the cockpit with April. She took a defensive stance.
"Stay away from me, Dr. Stockman!" she ordered and gave a back kick at his jaw, knocking it off, but left it hanging by some flesh.
Stockman reconnected his jaw. "You've been a really naughty girl." Then a light shown down on him. He looked up.
The copter's side panel opened up. Casey had a rope attached to him, "I'm coming, April! Goongala!" He jumped down and right onto Stockman.
Casey began to tie the rope to Stockman. Stockman threw him off to the other side. Casey held the rope steady. It now let Raph, Mikey, Leo and Randall go down. Randall held on to Leo's shell as he rode him down. He trusted him now.
The three turtles got down into the cockpit. Randall jumped off on top, ready to pull April up.
"You alright, April?" Leo asked.
"I am now." she declared happily. The three turtles then gave her a hand up. Randall took her hands and pulled while they pushed her up. She did jump out as well to make it easier on Randall too.
"Go, April! Climb!" Mikey shouted.
Stockman wasn't going to allow the woman to escape. He struggled and broke the rope on him. The rope was now hanging from the copter. He beat the turtles aside, and Casey. He got out.
April and Randall began climbing the bar connecting it to the bars above that the guandula moved along.
"Oh no you don't, April." Stockman grabbed her left ankle. She lost her grip and screamed as she fell. She landed on her back. She looked at the maniac in front of her. "You have a date with a dissection table." he proclaimed.
Randall growled. "Hey, Doc! How about a second opinion?!" He jumped down on top of Stockman's back, knocking him onto his front.
The turtles now had their chance to get out and surrounded him. They also attacked him and kicked him back into the hole, where Casey was. He got a hold of his legs and pulled him down. Then he climbed out with Mike and Raph's help.
"Let's get out of here!" Leo ordered.
They all began climbing the bars. April was last.
Stockman still wasn't letting her go. He started to tear apart the connector on the guandula. The turtles and Randall had taken a hold of the rope first. Casey was last, as he was her boyfriend. They could feel the shaking. April was having a hard time holding on.
"April, hold on, babe." Casey said, but she fell back down with the enemy. The rope lifted Casey away.
The guandula was getting ready to fall loose now. Stockman approached April again. "Now, we can finally set things right." he growled at her.
"Dr. Stockman, please don't do this. Can't you remember when your work helped people? When it was about the science? You were a brilliant man. The sky was the limit for you." April explained. Stockman stopped advancing at her words. Then he once again saw his mom before him instead of April.
"Mama?"
"The sky was the limit. You were such a good boy. You had so much potential. What happened to you, Baby Doll?" His mama asked.
April went on, "You were someone I admired; someone I respected. And you can be again."
The guandula continued to pull apart. Stockman was realizing his mistake. April went up to him to try to calm him, and to not hurt her. She was finding out his mind was in a haze, as he kept calling her his mom.
"Mama, it's not safe. You have to get off of here, Mama." Stockman said.
"April!" Casey called out and he tried to get his girlfriend back.
Stockman lifted April up to the man who was trying to save her. April took Casey's hand.
"Hurry, Mama!" Stockman said.
The guandula's bar finally broke, as it couldn't take anymore pressure. Stockman screamed as he and the guandula fell into the river.
April hugged Casey in relief. Casey shook his head as he and April were pulled up to the copter.
"That guy was nuts." Randall scoffed.
"Man, you really think that's the end of Stockman?" Mikey asked.
"We have seen him come back from worse." Leo replied. "Only time will tell."
"Well, I say good riddance! That psycho's given us nothin' but grief from the moment we met him!" Raph exclaimed with his arms crossed.
"I don't know. He did give us this neat chopper." Don said from the front. The others glanced to their pilot, "Sort of. Now, if I can just find a place to park it."
It was true. They knew that Don would come up with something. Don headed back to Stock Tronics to where Raph, Casey, and April got off and drove the truck back home to their place first before driving back to the sewer.
Don found a spot on a building at the moment to park the chopper. Then, he and Randall, Leo, and Mikey all went back to the lair for the night.
This had been one weird night. They all had some good bruises, but at least April was safe.
April was more than grateful that all the guys, even Randall, had been willing to put their lives on the line to help her. She wasn't in grave danger as often as they were, but she was happy they would help her out when it was her turn.
April and Casey went back to her apartment to spend more time together. Randall had gone back to the lair with the turtles.
Don began looking for a place around the lair where he would be able to stash the new helicopter. He found a place on the backside of his lab. He would get to work on it tomorrow to store it after he got some rest.
Randall stayed the night, but went back to April's the next day to see how she was doing. She was fine, if a little shaken yet. The guys had known better than to leave out the front way to go after her because of the ninjas that were still monitoring her house.
After staying at her home for a few days to take a break from working at the turtles' lair, he went back again to see how far Don had gotten. He had started to make a landing platform and to make it rise as well. He had come a long way in just a few short days, but the sooner he got the chopper down here, the better.
"It looks like you've done a good job." Randall complimented.
"Thanks. It's going to be magnificent!" Don said proudly.
The lizard noticed that Donatello seemed a lot happier these days. But, at the same time, his allergies seemed to be getting worse. And it didn't matter what cold or flu medicine he took, he just wasn't getting better.
The others just figured the cold had to work its way through his system, letting his body fight it off. It was still winter too, after all.
Randall took this night off of working with Don since he was doing so well working on the platform. He took this night to go hang out with Mikey, as he had been meaning to. They challenged each other to a video game. They battled it out for the highest scores the rest of the evening.
The names for the weapons fighting the mutant toads came from the deleted scenes from the shows. They were such unique special weapons the guys were using to fight the mutants. I wondered if they had titles to them, and found them.
Hope everyone is still enjoying this story.