Chapter 4: Tell No Tales

THAT NIGHT:

"See you tomorrow, Miss O'Neil. Don't work too late." Stockman said as he left his office.

April nodded from her workstation, one eye tracking her boss.

And he's gone. Now, time to see what's really going on.

She rose up from her station, dashed over to Stockman's office, and sat down before her boss's private terminal.

"…left himself logged in…talk about a rookie mistake…" she muttered.

Her eyes scanned the screen as she went through Stockman's files, eventually focusing on an icon that looked like a stylized "足".

Let's see what this does.

April clicked, and a portion of the office wall slid away to reveal a hidden elevator.

"Curiouser and curiouser." she mumbled under her breath as she entered the elevator car.

A few minutes passed before the elevator reached its destination. As April stepped out, she was stunned by what she saw. Before her eyes was a colossal facility, apparently devoted to producing Mousers, if the machinery in the background was anything to go by.

Okay…this is getting weird. Not only are there more Mousers than needed to deal with the city's rat problem, something tells me they're not being made for other cities. What're you up to, Stockman?

A quick scan of her surroundings yielded a nearby computer console. In her rush to access it, April failed to notice a floor-level silent motion sensor.

Time to see what's really-

"Miss O'Neil."

The hairs on the back of April's neck rose up, and she practically jumped out of her skin.

"Doctor Stockman, you've got a lot of explaining to do. What's really going-"

Before she could finish her statement, April was grabbed by a mechanized arm.

"It's none of your concern. However, I'm afraid you've seen too much, and you know the saying 'loose lips sink ships'."

"Am I fired?"

"In a matter of speaking. Don't worry- I'll be sure to let your next of kin know that tragic workplace accidents happen and that they have my sympathies." Stockman sneered.

The arm flung April into a small bay filled with Mousers. And in that moment, she ran for her life.

"You can run, but you can't hide!"

As the horde of robots pursued her, April noticed a lever and pulled down. A panel of the wall slid away, and she ran into the city storm drains, the Mousers hot on her heels. Panic overtaking her mind, she ran deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, the whine of servo motors and snapping metallic jaws echoing through her ears.

Think I lost them…think I lost them…think I— she thought as she reached what she thought was safety.

It was at that moment when a duo of Mousers rounded the corner, prompting April to flee once again. The minute she tried to round another corner, she was met by another duo of Mousers. Running on sheer instinct, she bolted down a relatively straight tunnel…and promptly tripped and fell midway down it. As she backed away from the robots, she found the tunnel was a dead end. And in that moment, April screamed as one of them lunged in for the kill.

Suddenly, the Mouser was smashed by what looked like a wooden staff. Another was sliced, a third bashed by what seemed to be a nunchuck, and the fourth was cut in half. April looked up to see four large figures standing before her.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! You saved my…" she gasped.

The figures walked in closer. In the dim light of the storm drain, April noticed that they weren't quite normal.

"Hey! How ya doin'?" one of them asked.

The figure leaned in, giving April a good look at it. The being standing before her resembled a large humanoid turtle, wearing little but a weapons belt containing a set of nunchucks, elbow, knee, and wrist protection, and an orange bandana tied up as a headband. And in that moment, April fainted.

"…can we keep her?" the figure asked as he picked the unconscious April up in a bridal carry.