Episode 16: Rise of the Technodrome – Part 1

Kaela found it incredibly difficult to concentrate on imaginary numbers when very real alien invasions seemed imminent. As Mrs. Thompson continued to blab on, pointing at the board with her old gnarled finger, all Kaela could think about was what had happened over the last few days. Black Hole Weapon dreams – the Triceraton that had almost signaled his armada to blow them to bits – the army of technodromes they had delayed – and Sam's mutation and disappearance. It was enough to give one a headache. Suddenly passing math class didn't seem as important.

"You okay, Kaela? You don't look so good."

Turning in her seat, Kaela found one of her new friends, Noel, was looking at her with concern. Her brow was furrowed, her short hair danced along the nape of her neck and her bright colored eyes were obviously looking at her with apprehension. Kaela quickly mustered a smile, "Oh you know. Life is just been a little crazy with Jess and Ethan moving and er – some other things you categorize under crazy." School had been lonely with her siblings having to spend their time in the sewers below, so Kaela was happy that Noel, a quieter shorter girl had reached out to her at lunch a week back.

"That was incredibly vague." Noel whispered back, turning back to her notes and pretending to be busy as Mrs. Thompson shot them a suspicious glance before rattling on about algebraic formulas. "But I get it, I mean – we haven't even hung out or anything yet." she continued, her pencil lead scratching against the paper in front of her. "And speaking of which, we really should hang out sometime." Noel looked back up from her paper with a smile.

"Yes, please." Kaela shot back, feeling relief flood over her. Hanging out sounded nice and stress relieving which is exactly what she needed in her life.

The bell rang loudly, reverberating off the walls and Mrs. Thompson tried some finishing statements about homework, but kids were already headed out the door to lunch. Noel shoved her notebook into her backpack. "Do you like Narcissist King?" Noel asked inquisitively.

"I love Narcissist King!" Kaela squealed. "It's so funny!"

"Me too!" Noel cried back, her face splitting into a grin.

"I'm thinking a Narcissist King marathon is needed."

"I'm down."

They stepped out of the classroom together and began to walk down the long hallway lined with lockers and chatting kids grabbing their lunch bags and boxes, rattling on about the show together as they went and their favorite parts.

As they to the cafeteria together, Kaela felt the merciful relief of the burden vanishing from her mind. For a few blissful moments she was just another teenager chatting about her favorite TV show with a good friend.

The intercom buzzed: Kaela Hamato, if you could please come to the gym. Kaela Hamato if you could please come to the gym.

That moment died.

Noel gave her a curious look. "What was that all about?"

Kaela shrugged, "I have no idea. I can meet you in the cafeteria in a second."

"No way!" Noel quickly said back with a smile. "I'll come with you."

"Okay." Kaela agreed with a shrug.

The two walked down the hallway together towards the gym. The hallways were empty in this general direction. Everyone was more interested in their food, and ever since the Purple Dragon attack, the school had been rather touchy about kids playing spots in the gym rather than outside. Kaela and Noel reached the large double doors and pushed them open.

Although the lights were off, the room was still filled with light from the giant hole that still had not been repaired in the corner where the Purple Dragons had blown it up. Instead, a large sheet of plastic had been taped over it. "There's nobody here." Noel said suspiciously. Kaela immediately felt her chest seize up and she unzipped her backpack, ready to grab her ribbon dart, but then a figure appeared.

"Hi, Herma." Noel said.

The girl had purple streaks in her hair, a plaid skirt on and her usual horn rimmed glasses. For a split second, Kaela felt tremendous relief, but then she remembered that the last time she had seen that face, it had been perched a top Sub-Prime's giant gleaming body. And a second figure joined her from behind.

Mrs. Campbell.

"Noel. Run." Kaela said quietly under her breath.

Noel gave Kaela an odd look as if she hadn't quite heard what she had said. "What?"

"Run!"

With a blast of steam and the sound of grinding gears, Herma's legs and arms split into two, the head rotating upward until it towered over them, the chrome of Kraang metal glowing in the sunlight that filtered through the plastic.

Noel screamed, her hand over her mouth and fell backward, losing her balance both emotionally and physically. "W-what is that?" She screamed pointing at Sub-Prime who had appeared in the center of the Herma bot, his usual pointy grin spread across his face, his one eye dialing and extending with the scopes on the end.

"Well, well, it looks like you brought a little friend with you." he laughed.

Kaela ripped out the ribbon dart from her backpack and flung the bag across the floor where it slid by the bleachers. She unraveled it and spun it between her fingers, standing in front of her new friend to block her from any possible attacks.

Noel slowly got to her knees. "K-Kaela. I think you owe me an explanation."

"If we live through this," Kaela said. "For sure."

Ethan and Jess had long since given up on finding the turtles. Over the last few days, Ethan had finally called it quits. They had been searching the sewers for weeks and not a single clue had appeared. Jess was sitting on the couch, reading one of her books again. Not feeling like he could focus on anything but trying to solve all of the problems they had – and finding no way to solve it by looking any longer – Ethan had retired to meditating.

His knees he had underneath him in seiza form, his eyes closed, his hands together in front of him, his breathing as steady as he could possibly get it. Yet still, he found his mind wandering from the vague images of the Black Hole dreams to the equally odd remembrances of a very green Japan and a woman reach out to him. On occasion, guilty flashes of Sam falling out of the mutagen tank and then shattering through the glass roof of the building would appear.

"Ethan!"

Jess' voice and tone immediately shook him from his already weak meditation session and he quickly got to his feet. He wobbled out of the dojo. His legs felt like they had been strapped with iron. How long was I in seiza? He grimaced as he pulled open the sliding doors.

Jess was standing near the couch, kama's in hand, but they were slack at her side. Next to her was a Kraang droid dressed as a man with a pair of black sunglasses. Ethan would recognize those anywhere.

"Bishop?" Ethan asked with uncertainty.

"Hello again, Ethan and Jessica." he said in his usual authoritative voice. "I have come with grim news."

Because we haven't had enough of that already. Ethan thought to himself. But nevertheless, he crossed the room and stood next to Jess, arms folded against his black and red patterned chest. "Alright, what's going on?"

Bishop gave them one very serious look (although his face was always serious) and said, "The Triceratons are coming."

"What?" Ethan asked, not wanting to believe it. "But, Kaela blew that beacon to bits!"

"No." Bishop replied grimly, "They are coming. And they are carrying enough fire power to destroy the entire solar system."

"Ugh!" Jess cried, "I swear, these last few months have been the worst thing ever!"

"The news gets worse." Bishop continued. "The Kraang have finally fixed the Technodrome and are about to invade once more. Ethan slapped his hand over his face and slid it down his face, his claws raking through the red and white fur. "If the Triceratons arrive when the Technodrome rises, they will hone in on this planet and vaporize it."

"I can tell that these Triceratons don't really like the Kraang." Jess said looking over at Ethan with a frown on her fox face. "Remember how Sergeant Zog messed the Kraang up?"

Bishop nodded affirmatively, putting his arms behind his back. "For millenia the two species have fought over Dimension X. The Kraang used their intelligence to battle their foe while the Triceratons relied on brute strength and cunning. It seemed the Triceratons would win, but the Kraang used the most powerful weapon in the universe a Black Hole Generator that wiped out the Triceratons entire planet. Only a single Triceraton fleet survived. They vowed vengeance. The battle may have ended but the war has not. It still raises across Dimension X."

Ethan and Jess stared at each other with mouths wide open. "Did you say 'Black Hole Generator?'" Jess asked weakly, looking back at Bishop. He nodded but did not speak another word.

"You know what this means right?" Jess said looking back at Ethan nervously.

Ethan nodded. "It means that everything we have been dreaming about is going to happen."

Bishop obviously didn't understand what they said, but he turned, his face showing that he meant business. "Now, shall we begin?" he asked, adjusting his sunglasses.

Kaela dived out of the way and Noel shrieked and jump behind a pair of bleachers as a violent blast of pink blew a hole in the floor. Kaela could feel the heat rush over her face. Could you have picked a worse time to come? She thought to herself. This is so, so, so bad! She jumped again, throwing herself against the hard brick wall as a pair of rockets burst on either side of her. Mrs. Campbell had pulled out her elbow rockets again.

"Come on out, you stupid ninja!" Sub-Prime snapped, "I'm gonna make you pay for messing with the Kraang." He was powering up again, his sneering face staring at her, the scopes retracting back towards his face. "Say bye!" He fired another burst of pink.

Kaela slid across the floor, throwing herself down against the ground and swung her ribbon dart. It wrapped around Mrs. Campbell's leg and she wrenched, both righting herself to her feet and throwing the elbow rocket firing monster to the ground with a shriek. "Noel! Get out of here!" Kaela shouted. Noel emerged from the benches and sprinted across the room, but she didn't stop at the double doors.

Sub-Prime's buzz saws had come out and Kaela narrowly missed an accelerated slash from them that would have made her an legless wonder. Noel had made it just past the door to the fire alarm. With a tug of defiance, the alarms went off. Water poured down on them and the red alert lights in the school began to spin, the horn going off in rapid succession. "You filthy – ." Sub-Prime fired a rocket at Noel and swiped at Kaela again with his other arm. She slammed the buzz saw out of the air with her dart just as Noel shrieked and dived to the floor, hands over her head, the wall exploding behind her to reveal the hallway full of screaming and running kids.

Sub-Prime moved across the room towards Noel.

"NO!" Kaela jumped forward to stop him, but Mrs. Campbell had stood up and turned to glare at her with red, glowing eyes, her hands twisting back out to reveal her elbow rockets, aimed right at her. "Get out of my way!" Kaela jumped forward and jammed the ribbon dart into one of Mrs. Campbell's eye sockets.

The robot screamed and Kaela wrenched her weapon back out and with a sweeping crescent kick, sent her old teacher to the ground with a metallic clang. She sprinted towards Sub-Prime but it was already too late. The horror movie worthy Herma bot had reached down and although Noel had attempted to kick the hand viciously away, the Kraang still managed to pick her up and point the barrel of his weapon at her face.

Kaela froze in her tracks, skidding herself to a halt in front of the towering villain. "Don't move another step!" Sub-Prime warned, baring his rows of sharp teeth, his eye in his usual glare, the other still spinning excitedly. "Now, drop your puny weapon!"

Groaning under her breath, but knowing that she had no other choice, Kaela dropped the ribbon dart to the ground. Noel was trembling. She looked terrified out of her mind, her eyes wide, sweat dripping from her flushed face. ""Good!" Sub-Prime said with a large amount of satisfaction on his face and words. "Now, come a little closer."

Kaela did not like the sound of that, but she nevertheless complied, her eyes only leaving Sub-Prime for a few moments to look up at Noel who was whimpering under her breath and on occasion would struggle to get out of the metal grip of the Herma bot. She inched her way up to Sub-Prime until she was only about a foot away from the hideous blob. She half considered just punching him in the face, but worried that by doing so, he would blow Noel's face off, so she kept quiet and glared at the pink brain. "Good. Now, say good night!" For a horrifying second, Kaela feared that he was going to fire and kill Noel anyway, but then his huge gun of a hand came crashing down on top of her.

The pain that split from the top of her head was agony and she fell on her knees and then toppled over onto her back. She could see the ceiling of the gym – although it spun and came in and out of focus. She groaned and slowly her eyes slid closed as she heard Noel drop to the ground next to her. The last words she heard as Sub-Prime reached down to grab her was, "I'm taking you home with me." Then all of her senses fell into black.