Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
After getting her father back, April was finally starting to feel like her life was finally back to normal, well normal for her anyway. So in keeping with her feelings of normal, she invited Casey to join her for a slice of pizza. Ordinarily the teenage vigilante would love any chance he had to spend time with the redhead, unfortunately it wasn't the one on one time he was hoping for.
Turns out they had a guest for lunch, April's friend Irma. A nerdy gothic dressed girl with short purple hair, and red oval shaped glasses. She had just recently transferred to their school and quickly befriended April, as they were both considered far from normal, and April was just happy to have a friend in the city, her own age that she could talk about girl stuff with.
"I know they said that pizza was gluten free but I definitely tasted gluten" Irma complained, as they left the shop.
"Thanks for joining us on our date Irma" Casey said sarcastically, wheeling his bike along. "We really needed a chaperone."
"Anything I can do to help" she replied, ignoring or perhaps ignorant of Casey's attitude.
"Um, who said this was a date, Casey?" April asked, smirking flirtatiously at the boy.
Casey smiled, his mood improving from the look in April's eyes. Only for his mood to take a nose dive as a rat runs past them, causing him to flinch in fear, much to Irma's amusement.
"I can't believe someone as big as you, is afraid of a little rat" Irma teased.
The reason for the rat's panic revealed itself as a cat appeared soon after.
"And I can't believe that rat was afraid of this adorable little kitty" said April, picking up and cuddling the animal.
"I mean rats are relatively harmless" Irma continued. "They also share many similarities to humans, which is why they're used in many scientific experiments."
"Does she ever shut up?" Casey complained to April, but she wasn't really listening instead focusing on the cat.
"Aww kitty doesn't have any tags" she said sadly. "We can't just leave her here."
"Don't look at me, I'm more of a rat person" said Irma.
Seeing an opportunity to escape, Casey offered to help April find a home for the cat, suggesting a certain group of friends of theirs. April liking the idea, hopped onto the back of Casey's bike as he happily started to pedal away from who he considered a purple haired nightmare.
One of these days I'll find out where April keeps disappearing too Irma thought to herself, as April and Casey left.
So occupied with her thoughts, the purple haired girl failed to notice the large figure creeping ever closer until it was too late.
Down in the lair's dojo Harry, Mikey, Donnie, and Raph, sat on the sidelines watching as Master Splinter was about to use Leonardo to demonstrate their latest lesson: Blind Fighting.
Now Splinter knew that Harry had used the tactic as a defense against the Basilisk even if he was mostly just relying on what he remembered of the chamber's layout and Riddle's outbursts to survive rather than actually sense the creature's movements. So he had a feeling Harry most of all would appreciate the techniques proper use.
"I don't know Master Splinter this doesn't seem fair" Leo said uncomfortably.
"I assure you it isn't" said Splinter, tying a blindfold over his eyes, standing casually with his hands folded behind his back, waiting patiently for his eldest son to attack.
Seeing that Splinter wasn't about to stop the demonstration, Leo drew one of his swords and attacked, hitting only air as Splinter fluidly stepped around his sword, vanishing from sight, reappearing behind him, still standing casually.
Harry and the others couldn't help but laugh as Leo failed to hit a blindfolded man.
Perhaps I spoke to soon Splinter thought to himself, rethinking his assumptions about Harry, clearly his experience in the chamber left him with the wrong impressions.
Leo glared at his brothers, annoyed by their laughing as Splinter started to circle the floor.
"Blind fighting is more than honing your other senses" Splinter explained. "It is about perception and giving the illusion of control."
Believing the sound of his steps gave away his attack, Leo drawing his second sword leapt into the air.
Sensing his movements, Splinter bent backwards, allowing Leonardo's swords to pass harmlessly over him.
"You may think you have the upper hand in the situation..."
Landing, Leo continued his assault swinging his swords in every angle hoping at this point to at least graze Splinter, but the ninja master seemed to read his every move, before vanishing once more from the blue clad turtle's sight.
Reappearing behind him, Splinter grabbed hold of Leo's wrist, trapping his arm.
"But you do not." Next thing Leo knew he was disarmed and was eating some dirt as he landed face first on the dojo's floor, and the blind folded Splinter was standing triumphantly.
And his brothers of course relished in the chance to poke fun at Leo's defeat.
"Wipe out" Donnie taunted.
"Looks like someone needs a shower" said Mikey.
"Burn" Harry laughed.
"How's that floor tasting Lame-o-nardo" Raph jeered.
Their laughing came to an abrupt end as Splinter suddenly appeared behind them and smacked them upside the head with the flat of one Leo's swords.
"It is not hard to sense loudmouths" said Splinter, tapping the sword lazily against his shoulder.
Suddenly Splinter is struck with a painful headache, unnoticed by his sons he removes his blindfold revealing that his brown eyes have changed into a sinister red as unnatural anger comes over him.
"Sensei are you ok?" asked Harry, finally noticing something seemed to be bothering his father.
"You will all…!" Splinter snapped, raising the sword overhead as he loomed over the now nervous Harry, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey. But then just as quickly as it came, Splinter's random anger vanished, causing him to drop the sword.
"Master Splinter are you alright?" asked Leo, as their father fell to his knees mentally exhausted.
"I am sorry my sons…this…something is wrong. I must meditate on this. We will continue this training another time."
Though concerned the brothers thought it best to trust Splinter's judgement and left their father alone in the dojo to meditate.
Since training had ended early Donnie decided this was the perfect time to do some work in his lab, with Harry acting as his assistant. It was just like old times for them as Hogwarts had taken up a lot of his youngest brother's time. Sure Harry didn't always understand him but Donnie always appreciated the effort and liked having someone that valued his work.
Unfortunately, Mikey had decided to tag along. While normally not that big a deal, the orange clad turtle had decided it was a good idea to eat a quadruple scoop ice cream cone in the lab while Donnie was running some experiments with some recently acquired mutagen.
"So I wonder what got into Master Splint-argh!" Mikey screamed, flailing around, splashing ice cream all over the work bench. "Brain freeze!"
"Mikey, do you have to bring that in here?" said Harry, handing Donnie a flask of chemicals.
"Seriously Mikey, you're making a mess" Donnie complained, accepting the flask from Harry. "Keep your ice cream away from our experiment."
But Mikey didn't seem to be listening and just continued to lick at his frozen treat. As Donnie and Harry turned away to run through some of the purple turtle's calculations for their new mutagenic based medicine, neither of them noticed Mikey accidentally knocking off the top of his cone into a beaker of mutagen.
Mikey was freaking out afraid to face an angry Donnie and Harry, thankfully the perfect distraction had just arrived.
"Hey guys, what's up" said April, walking into the lab.
"April" Donnie smiled, always happy to see his crush. The turtle's grin dropped once he saw that she wasn't alone. "And Casey."
"Donatello" Casey said plainly.
"I came to see if you guys could look after this" said April, holding up the cat they had found.
"Aww, he's so cute" Mikey gushed, taking the cat from April, bringing it over to the lab bench where the cat started licking at the turtle's discarded ice cream. "Can we keep her?"
"You know Master Splinter is a rat" said Donnie. "And there's Hedwig too."
"Yeah what if that cat goes nuts and attacks them" said Casey. "It'd be a rat bird combo; she could feed off them for months."
"What is wrong with you?" said Harry, finding it offensive that Casey would imagine such a thing.
While the others were busy distracted with Casey, Mikey turned his attention back to the cat just in time to see her lap up the batch of mutagen he had dropped his ice cream in.
The effect was immediate as the ooze caused the cat's body to melt into a puddle of ice cream.
"What have I done" Mikey said regretfully, but then a meowing caught his attention.
Despite being made of ice cream the cat was actually still very much alive.
"Everything ok, Mikey?" asked April, finding it odd that the orange turtle was so quiet.
"Yeah it's cold…err…I mean cool. Cool like ice cream. Ice cream's cold. Ok bye."
Mikey, grabbing hold of the new mutant rushed out of the lab before anyone could notice what he'd done.
"Ok, that was weird even for Mikey" said Harry.
Mikey rushed to the kitchen as there was only one place for a cat made entirely of ice cream.
"Don't worry my little friend this will keep you from melting" said Mikey, placing the mutated cat inside the freezer. "Until I use my scientific genius to figure something out."
Deciding she liked the strange turtle the cat stretched her neck out and licked Mikey's nose, leaving behind a bit of ice cream, that he promptly licked.
"Hmmm you taste so good my little Ice Cream Kitty" the turtle said affectionately, hugging himself in delight as he leaned further into the freezer for a few more licks.
This was the strange display that Harry and the others found waiting for them.
"Um, why is Mikey making out with your fridge?" asked Harry, not really expecting an answer.
"Michelangelo" Hedwig called.
Spooked by his family's sudden appearance, Mikey hurriedly slammed the freezer door and turned to them with a panicked look in his eyes.
"Michelangelo" Hedwig said carefully. "Is something the matter?"
"Ah, no I'm good. I swear I didn't do anything" Mikey said frantically.
By this point everyone was staring at Mikey with suspicion, Hedwig was about to press the issue when they were distracted by Splinter walking into the kitchen, clutching his head in pain.
"Sensei are you ok?" asked Harry.
"Need ice for my head" said Splinter, approaching the fridge. "and possibly a cheese-sicle."
"You can't do that" Mikey said desperately, standing between Splinter and the freezer. "No Sensei!"
"No? You tell me no!" Once again Splinter felt an uncharacteristic rage overwhelm him, his eyes took on a sinister red glow, as he viciously knocked Mikey away from the fridge.
The family watched in stunned horror as Splinter suddenly started chasing Mikey around the room, snarling like a feral animal.
"This is not helping my whole rat thing" Casey said fearfully, taking cover underneath the table.
Afraid of what he'd do to Mikey Hedwig, Raph, Leo, and Harry were left with no choice but to dogpile Splinter. But the ninja master was too strong, easily breaking out from beneath them.
"I have what I came for" Splinter said suddenly, much to the others' confusion. "Soon New York and the world will be mine!"
Splinter then dropped to the ground, mentally exhausted as the foreign presence left his mind.
"Sensei are you ok?" asked Leo, as their father struggled to pull himself together.
"No Leonardo" said Splinter. "I'm afraid the Rat King has returned."
The family moved into the living room to allow Splinter to rest and hopefully find some indication of what the mad scientist once known as Dr. Falco, was planning. It didn't take long to find a news report about just that. Up on the surface the entire city was under siege from giant rats, the rodents were causing untold panic and destruction as they snatched innocent people off the streets.
"Giant rats. Giant rats" Casey said horrified, falling back into the couch.
"Maybe you should sit this one out, Casey" said April.
"We could really use your help, Sensei" said Leo, turning to Splinter. "Last time you took that creep out with one punch."
"Last time was different, Leonardo" said Splinter. "The Rat King has grown too powerful. I do not fear for myself but for what he could force me to do."
Splinter hadn't forgotten how Falco had almost succeeding in using him to kill his sons. He refused to risk that happening again.
"Then maybe we should call in some magical backup" suggested Mikey.
"No good" said Harry. "They're all probably spread out all over the place by now."
The battles under the school during the Chamber of Secrets incident did in fact end up dealing some structural damage, coupled with the fact they were left without a Defense Professor and a dead student (who cares it was just Draco). Dumbledore had the term close early, sending all the students home to their families, making it a lot harder for Harry to just randomly pop in and borrow his friends for an unknown amount of time.
"Then we work with what we got" said Leo.
Up on the surface, the Rat King stood upon a rooftop, laughing at the destruction his creations have caused.
"The human species is coming to an end" he declared, speaking to a white rat he keeps balanced on his shoulder. "It's time for the next phase in evolution. Rodents shall rule!"
Suddenly the giant rats stopped their attack to sniff the air, confused as to what could be distracting his subjects the Rat King scanned the streets, his blood boiling once he spotted his hated enemies driving through the streets.
With Falco waging war on the city, our heroes were forced to improvise: tying a block of cheese to Mikey's head Raph, Donnie, and April would drive through the city with him strung up behind them on his skateboard, acting as bait.
"Why do I have to wear the cheese?!" Mikey yelled.
"We have to lead them away and your awesome at being bait" said Raph, as the giant rats started to follow after them.
Coming up behind them were Casey on his bike, and Harry riding his broom. The situation had gotten so bad that even Hedwig had come out fight, each doing their part to lead the giant rats away from the people.
"This is the worst thing ever!" Casey complained, hitting a rat with his hockey stick as he rode past, getting the giant rodent to chase after him.
"Stop whining" said Harry, ramming into the rats so they'd go after him.
"We just need to focus on getting them away from here" said Hedwig, using the rats natural fear of predators to herd them like cattle. "Oh no!" she gasped.
Ahead of the patrol buggy the rats had flipped over several cars, making a barricade and with more of the deadly vermin coming up behind them, Donnie couldn't risk turning the cart around.
"Sorry I'm late" said Leo, driving the Shell Raiser through an alley coming out in front of the buggy, using the battering ram to break through the barricade.
Down in the dojo, Splinter has returned to his meditation trying to build his mental defenses against the Rat King's control. But this didn't stop Falco from tormenting him with visions of what his rabid creations were doing to the people of New York.
"Revel in madness my brother" the Rat King's voice echoed, from inside Splinter's mind. Sending him images of himself attacking innocents as one of the Rat King's loyal solders. "There is room for you in my new world."
"NO! Get out of my head!" Splinter cried, clutching at his head in pain."
"It doesn't matter. You already belong to me. You just don't know it yet." The Rat King's presence faded from Splinter's mind but he knew it wouldn't be over until the madman was stopped.
Through tormenting Splinter, the Rat King redirected his mental powers to directing his rats, it was time to put an end to his enemies' feeble attempt to stop him.
The first was Hedwig, the Rat King need to show his subjects that together not even the dreaded owl need to be feared.
Directing one of his rats onto the roof tops, he had it leap down on top of the owl mutant, it's considerable weight forcing her out of the sky landing painfully on the roof of the Shell Raiser.
"Hedwig!" Harry cried in concern. "Leo, Hedwig's down."
"I see her" said Leo, deploying the Shell Raiser cannon, swiveling it around to knock the giant rat of their mother figure.
"Thank you, Leonardo" said Hedwig, entering the vehicle, clutching her now broken wing.
"Are you going to be ok?"
"Nothing that a little rest won't solve. Now hurry the buggy's in danger!"
Hedwig was right, on the monitor Leo could see a giant rat had managed to get on top of the patrol buggy. The giant rat was snapping at them eager to get at the cheese still strapped to Mikey's head, the only thing stopping it was Raph punching it in the jaw, as Donnie swerved out of control into the side of a building.
"Hang on guys" said Leo, firing the Shell Raiser cannon, knocking the rat off the buggy with a giant ball of garbage.
With more rats moving to go after the downed patrol buggy, Leo positioned the Shell Raiser to provide cover fire. But this only left them vulnerable as the giant rats swarmed the armored van, and knocked it onto its side.
"We're in trouble" said Hedwig.
"I've got you" said Harry, swooping in on his broom, throwing fire balls at the rats, as he took up position to defend the Shell Raiser, "Casey it's on you!"
"R-Right no problem" said Casey, now pedaling faster than ever. With the rats getting ever closer, the teenaged vigilante thought it a good time to show off his bike's modifications, deploying a pack of marbles behind him, tripping up the deadly rodents.
As more rats came up ahead of him, Casey switched to his improvised offensive weaponry, mainly fireworks and the classic aerosol + lighter combination (improvised flamethrower) to clear his path.
"No rat messes with Casey Jones!" Casey declared, as he cleared through a pack of rats.
Suddenly Casey was knocked off his bike as another giant rat came out from around a corner, taking him by surprise. The masked teen fought desperately as the rat started to drag him away, but the rodent's grip was too strong.
Watching from his rooftop perch, the Rat King had decided the first attack was a success.
"Caligula, come to me!" he cried, summoning a giant rat to his side to act as his steed. "Come my brothers! Commodus! Nero! The rest of you, back to the lair! We have enough humans."
The now up and running patrol buggy rushed down the street hoping to rescue Casey they were too late and could only watch as a giant rat stuffed him dragged him away into the sewers.
"Hey are you ok?" asked a voice.
Casey opened his eyes and to his displeasure he was locked in a cage with Irma.
"I'm fine miss" said Casey, speaking in a deeper tone lest she figure out his identity. "Where are we?"
"In the sewers. We're prisoners of the Rat King."
Casey looked around counting about a dozen cages filled with innocent people, but could find no way for them to escape and to his frustration his cellphone had been destroyed during his capture, meaning he couldn't call his friends for help.
"Greetings my esteemed guests" said the Rat King, entering the chamber. "There's no need to fear. I will not hurt you, that I promise."
"Let us out you freak!" said Casey.
"All in good time. These were simple ordinary rats until I transformed them with my special mutagenic growth serum. But these were not the soldiers, I was looking for. I have just unlocked the secrets of the ultimate army: Rat People. And you my friends will become that army!"
The people gasped in terror as the Rat King declared they'd be used as subjects for the mad scientist's experiments.
"The Rat King peered into my mind, to see what makes me unique" said Splinter, as the family gathered back in the lair. "With that knowledge he will create an army of rat people."
"We have to stop him, Sensei" said Raph.
"I told you, he is too powerful…even for me."
"But Master Splinter, if there's one time we could use your help it's now" said Leo.
"Enough!" Splinter bellowed. "I will not put you in danger again!"
"We believe in you, Sensei" said April. "We need your help and so does Casey."
While Splinter was glad they all had such faith in him, he didn't not share their confidence. The Rat King had already once used him to nearly destroy his family. Who's to say he wouldn't succeed this time.
For his family's safety, Splinter refused to fight and would wait out the danger in his room. However, Hedwig had something to say about that.
"Splinter, the boys and April have left to go after the Rat King" said Hedwig, entering Splinter's room. "Are you seriously going to let them face him alone."
"The boys have proven themselves to be formidable warriors, time and again" Splinter argued. "I would simply be putting them at risk."
"This is different and you know it. There are billions of rats in the city and those giants are strong. You're their father and your sons need you."
April and the brothers managed to track the giant rats back to the Rat King's lair.
"Look there's Casey, he's alive" said April, point to his cage but he wasn't alone. "and Irma?"
"April, you and Harry have to free them" said Donnie. "We can't let the humans see us."
They were about to move in when suddenly someone put a hand on Leo's shoulder. Turning to face the newcomer, April and the brothers were glad to see that Master Splinter had come to fight.
"It is time the Rat King is dethroned" he declared.
"I knew you wouldn't let us down" said Leo.
"If I should lose control, you do what you have to do" said Splinter.
"Nothing's going to go wrong" said Mikey, leaning over cooler. "because I've got my super-secret weapon."
"Mikey, what's with the cooler?" asked Harry.
"Just my super-secret weapon."
That didn't really tell Harry anything but he didn't get the chance to ask more as it was time to get to work. Silently they each moved into position around the chamber, keeping to the shadows.
Leo took aim and was about to take the Rat King out with his kunai, when suddenly Splinter grabbed hold of his wrist, taking the blade from him as Falco's laughter began to echo around the chamber.
"You're mine now, Splinter" he laughed. "Now destroy your sons one by one."
Twisting Leo's arm, Splinter had his eldest held at knife point, fighting to drive the blade into Leo's throat.
"Forget that Rat King!" Mikey yelled, throwing his cooler at the villain. "Ice Cream Kitty away!"
Ice Cream Kitty flew out of the cooler landing on top of the Rat King, swiping at the mad scientist's face. Distracted by the frozen feline, Falco couldn't focus his powers freeing Splinter from his control.
"Is that April's cat?" Donnie questioned.
"Absolutely not" Mikey denied.
Seeing that he had lost the advantage, the Rat King knocked Ice Cream Kitty off of him and made a run for it. Splinter determined to finish things moved to follow, trusting his family to finish the rest.
With his brothers holding off the giant rats, Harry and April made their way over to the cages controls, lowering them down to the floor.
"Yes finally free" Casey cheered, once Harry popped open his cage.
"April, how did you find us?" asked Irma, shoving Casey aside as she ran up to her friend. "Did you follow the trail of rat droppings? It has a unique aroma of…."
"Not now Irma!" April and Casey snapped, silencing the girl.
"Let's free the others" said Harry, and Casey hurriedly followed after him. "So that's Irma?"
"Yeah" Casey groaned. "She's supper annoying."
"Normally I like to give people a chance but yeah I got to admit she's annoying."
"Finally someone gets it."
Truly this could be the start of a beautiful friendship between Harry and Casey.
Splinter followed the Rat King deeper into the tunnels, following him into an old broken section under the city, dangerous platforms litter the area like ruins perhaps relics from New York's early development.
The Rat King and Splinter moved through the area, jumping from platform to platform.
"You run like a coward, when not in control" said Splinter, catching up to the king.
"Who says I'm not in control" said the Rat King. "Fall!"
Falco summoned a hoard of rats, knocking Splinter off his platform. The ninja master just managed to save himself, grabbing onto an old sewer pipe.
"No I will not let you escape this time" Splinter vowed. Summoning up his strength, Splinter pulled himself up onto the pipe, using it as a jumping off point he started leaping from any foothold he could find, as closed the distance between himself and the Rat King.
Eventually they platforms came to an end, Falco had nowhere left to run and Splinter was determined to make sure his threat was ended.
Falco tried to take hold of Splinter's mind but the ninja master but to his shock the ninja master would not allow himself to be controlled again.
"It is over" Splinter declared, flipping into the air, he came at Falco with an axe kick, only for the Rat King to side step the attack.
Undeterred, Splinter kept up his assault come at his nemesis with a series of kicks and punches, his timing was perfect and yet Falco, who lacked any training or fighting experience managed to evade his every move.
Sidestepping a jab, the Rat King countered and landing a solid blow to Splinter's gut, knocking back.
"That's right… Bow before your master, rat." the Rat King sneered "There is nothing you can do that I can't see coming"
And that's when Splinter realized what was happening. The Rat King used rats as his eyes, including himself but especially the ever present white rat on his shoulder.
"So…. You still think you are in control of this situation." Splinter lunged forward, knocking the white rat off Falco's shoulder.
"Aristotle!" he cried, as the rat was sent falling into the abyss below. "You'll pay for that! I can still see through your eyes!"
But Splinter was prepared for that, holding up a familiar blindfold the Rat King now realized that during his last attack Splinter had stolen the cloth from him.
"How about," Splinter tied the cloth around his eyes, plunging the Rat King into darkness. "now?"
Without any rats to act as his eyes Falco was stumbling through dark.
"Control is an illusion"
But while the Rat King was helpless without his eyes, Splinter was not. The ninja master knocked Falco off balance with an elbow to the back, following up with a leg sweep. Not allowing Falco to fall just yet, Splinter kicked him into the air, knocking him back down with an axe kick, slamming him painfully into the ground.
"Where are you?!" Falco screamed, but as Splinter continued to speak it was as if he was everywhere.
"It can be even more blinding than the inability to see."
Falco swung wildly in a desperate attempt to hit Splinter, instead all he felt was himself falling.
"It can send you over the edge…." Splinter ripped the blindfold off, turning away as he began to return to his family, the last of Falco's screams echoed out from bellow. "Goodbye, my king."
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