Episode 16: Rise of the Technodrome – Part 3

Bishop, Ethan, and Jess bolted across New York city. After having spent every day walking and running through the sewers, Ethan was beginning to feel that he was physically fit. He could run without getting tired. He had yet to master running without worrying constantly in his mind though. For a horrifying moment, Ethan wondered if they were going to mutate her as well and she would run off like Sam had. This quickened his pace, but didn't give him enough energy to pass up Bishop who was at a constant sprint.

At long last they reached the edge of the New York bay and the Statue of Liberty was in clear sight in front of them. "We will need to take one of these boats." Bishop said, pointing. Ethan hadn't even noticed, but a line of white, motor-run boats were sitting on the side of the water, bobbing along the small waves that cascaded into the edge of the bay.

"Don't those belong to someone?" Jess asked nervously as Bishop unhesitatingly stepped into one of the boats and started the engine. Ethan didn't see any keys, so he had literally no idea how that happened, but he figured it was best not to question him.

Ethan then climbed in after Bishop who had his hand on the steering wheel. "If we have to steal a boat to save the planet, I think I can live with that." Ethan said, although he was thinking a lot more about Kaela than he was about Earth at the time.

Jess nodded and then climbed into the boat after Ethan. "Good point." She then turned to Bishop and patted his shoulder, making a loud metallic noise. "We are ready when you are Bishop."

The suited man sat down in the seat and a moment later, they were speeding across the waves towards where – Ethan had no idea.

Once the strange cords hit Kaela's skin, she felt she had gone blind and like liquid magma was being spilled into her mind. She wasn't sure if she screamed or not because it felt like someone had pressed the mute button on her mind. She could see flashes of images spreading across her eyes that would bounce about before becoming more solid. She could see Master Hamato and the dojo which made her heart break. She could see days of laughing in school when Ethan and Jess were both normal and could spend more time with her. Flashes of training in the backyard under the tree with the stream moving slowly past them spliced in between scattered images of Shredder and the mutagen.

For a moment it felt like Kaela had vanished into some strange, nightmare. But when she moved she felt her wrists and arms bump the metal of her restraints and she realized that she was still in the same location. Nausea began to creep into her stomach and she tried to ignore it and close her eyes, but if she did, that didn't make the horrible images stop. At long last they were beginning to slow. Images of the Black Hole Generator appeared and Kaela realized that her dreams were being projected – the ones that Kraang Prime wanted. She desperately shoved with her mind, wishing them to disappear, wanting them to be swept under a rug that Kraang Prime couldn't find.

She wasn't so lucky.

Her mental pushing did literally nothing but tire her out.

She could hear Kraang Prime humming under his breath as if he were analyzing the images of the Black Hole Generator. Then it switched to images of the Triceratons gathered around it in Washington Square. Things seemed to suddenly run in reverse. Kraang Prime is trying to figure out how they got there with that weapon. Kaela thought as images reversed. But then she was seeing things that even she hadn't seen before. She could see the Technodrome above the waves of the New York bay, bearing down on the city.

Another moment and a strange cone was in the sky – almost like an upside down volcano floating in the air and after a second of staring at that strange image, a blast of amber burst from the bottom and hit the Technodrome, blowing it to a thousand fiery bits as it crashed back into the waves.

Like being pulled out from water after nearly drowning, Kaela gasped for air and found herself staring at Kraang Prime again. She was sweating, the droplets cascading from her forehead and she felt her heart beating painfully in her chest. It was like she had just run a thousand miles. "The Triceratons!?" Kraang Prime yelled, his eyes wide and huge with anger and fear. He opened his disgusting maw and clenched his fangs together, his whole brainy body trembling in the giant metal container that he sat in. "Kraang cannot be stopped by foolish dinosaur aliens!" He yelled to nobody in particular. Kaela had gone back to putting her finger nails into any groove she could find and prying. There were very few.

Suddenly another voice that Kaela recognized immediately blared over some kind of intercome. "Oh my bloated one – the Technodrome is ready to launch! I rule!" Kraang Sub-Prime Kaela thought with misery and exasperation. There was no way she was going to get out of this horrifying Kraang ship.

Suddenly Kaela felt herself moving upward, the stretcher she was on was rising into the air and the ceiling above split open to reveal a new room. One that was filled with fans that looked more like blades, spinning around and around. A control panel sat on a large pedestal of a platform and a screen floated across from it. Kraang Prime's containment had risen with her and the bloated monster alien slid from his metal home onto the platform with a disgusting, slimy squish.

The whole Technodrome began to shake and slowly, Kaela could feel ascent again, only this time, it wasn't her prison of a stretcher – it was the whole Technodrome ascending up through the water towards the surface. Kraang Prime grinned at Kaela. "Kraang will use your unique power to destroy your world and rebuild it for Kraang!"

Well, this isn't good. Kaela thought.

"So, is there a reason we stopped the boat in the middle of the ocean?" Jess asked curiously. Bishop had stalled their white boat in the middle of the water, just a few yard away from Lady Liberty. Ethan wasn't really sure how far though – he had never been very good at estimating anything. He looked around curiously.

As soon as the hum of the ship's engine died down, Bishop stood up from his chair and pointed to the water solemnly. "The Technodrome is –." He stopped speaking when a rumbling began to sound from below them. Ethan and Jess peeked over the edge of the boat at the water. Emerging from the water was a huge shadow,like some massive sea serpent that was going to come out and devour them. Then the usual Kraang colored pink began to glow and then spires emerged from the water.

They were right over the Technodrome.

"Hang on." Bishop instructed.

"To what?" Ethan cried back, looking around him for anything that could possibly save them from sliding off the boat. The rumbling continued underneath them and stupidly Ethan decided to grab the edge, not sure if that was going to do anything or not.

They began to lift up from the water as the top of the Technodrome split through the water, making waves crash around them. They were rocking backward and the boat began to slid and tip. "Jump!" Bishop commanded as he himself leaped from the boat and slammed into the roof of the Technodrome.

"C'mon!" Ethan grabbed Jess' hand and together flipped up rather ungracefully over the side of the boat as it fell down the side of the Technodrome, pin balling through the spires and then crashing into the water below, vanishing among the waves as they continued to ascend into the sky. Ethan slammed his claws into the metal to keep from falling.

Jess began to slip and grappled at the metal until she was able to pierce it with her own claws, taking Ethan's example. They slid only a few inches but then were able to come to stand still on the side of the huge Kraang ship. They were still rising and the sound of water cascading in waterfalls down below them told Ethan that they were in fully in the air.

Bishop had straightened again. "Follow me. I know where they will likely have your sister." Ethan nervously got to his feet, trying not to look down over the edge of the dome to see how far up they were. He reached out and grabbed Jess' hand (paw?) and together they began to slowly scale the side of the Technodrome after Bishop who moved as swiftly as if they were still on the flat streets of New York.

Once he reached the top, he pointed down and suddenly his hand retracted and the barrel of a black Kraang gun appeared. He fired precisely and pink fire burst from the spot he had shot. Ethan and Jess flinched and then eagerly, Ethan looked down into the hole that Bishop had just blasted into the roof of the Technodrome. Below he could see they were in some sort of main engine room. Blades like fans were spinning around a central pole. A platform sat in between them and Ethan could see Kraang Prime, Sub-Prime and –

"Kaela." Jess hissed under her breath. Kaela was hooked up to a large metal stretcher, but Ethan was just happy to see that she had not been mutated into anything. Sub-Prime appeared to be hooking wires up to the stretcher. "We need to get down there before something happens to her." Jess said.

Sub-Prime reached over and snatched up what looked like a long syringe with pink fluid inside it. "Now all we have to do is infuse you with some of our own Kraang DNA." he said grinning as he turned in his big Herma bot.

"No time. Let's go." Ethan and Jess lunged down, Bishop following behind them wordlessly.

They landed together in front of Sub-Prime and Kraang Prime and Ethan spun his naginata, tossing the tails of his bandanna behind him with a whip of his head. "Back off our sister you over chewed wad of gum."

"Mutants?" Kraang Prime hissed., his voice echoing in the room. He was larger from in front of him than from above, Ethan noticed. He was a massive Kraang. "Destroy them!"

Sub-Prime lunged to attack, but Bishop landed atop him, flattening him to the ground.

"Bishop!?" Sub-Prime shrieked. "You filthy, swindling Kraang!"

"I am an Utrom, just as you once were brother. Or should I call you sub-sub-prime."

"Don't call me that! I hate that!"

Ethan lunged forward with Jess, and slammed his naginata's butt into Kraang Prime's face. He shrieked and thrashed, but without a robot suit, he had nowhere to go. Jess flashed her kama but didn't get the chance to sink those pointed weapons into Kraang Prime.

An army of Kraang droids appeared at the door and began firing.

"Guys!" Kaela screamed. "Get me out of this death trap please!"

Ethan and Jess turned to dodge a volley of laser beams. "Working on it!" Ethan called back to her. The droids were closing in on them, their wide pink eyes staring, their weapons firing in rapid succession.

Sub-Prime wrenched Bishop off of him and he landed expertly, spinning in his classy black shoes and straightening again and fixing the sunglasses on his nose. Sub-Prime sneered and brandished one of his buzz saws that sprouted from in between Herma's fingers. In his other hand, he clasped the syringe. His hand began to extend towards Kaela.

Slashing his weapon through one of the droids, Ethan turned to see that Kaela was about to get stabbed. She struggled against her restraints but there was no way that she was going to break through those. Ethan made to move to Kaela but the huge, pulsating Prime blocked his way and grinned. "The end of your world . . . begins!" he hissed.

"JESS!" Ethan yelled.

She turned her fox face towards Ethan and saw him pointing at Kaela. The syringe was inches from her. Jess shoved her claws into her belt, but she was out of shurikans. Groaning she turned and sprinted towards Kaela. She dived over Kraang Prime who shrieked in fury. "STOP HER! STOP HER!"

Jess landed on Sub-Prime's arm and slashed the syringe. The glass exploded and the pink liquid doused Jess's fur, mouth and eyes. She fell backward and yelled, wiping at her face with her paws. She could feel the liquid leaking into her mouth, her eyes, her skin. Her mind felt like it was on fire.

"Jessica!" Bishop yelled.

"Stupid girl!" Sub-Prime snapped.

"You will pay for that Knight." Bishop burst forward and slammed his feet into Sub-Prime's chest and he fell backward, yelling in fury. He powered his gun, his buzz saw retracting and aimed for Bishop's face, but the Utrom was much quicker. He darted forward and wrenched the barrel upward. With a blast, one of the fan blades snapped in half and spun through the air, slamming over the doorway and cutting off the regime of Kraang droids.

Ethan turned in surprise as he slashed through a final Kraang, the pulsing blob in the middle shrieking and fleeing. "Thanks, Bishop!"

He ran to Kaela and hit his weapon against the restraints. A few more hits and they fell away. She slumped out and groaned. "Want this?" Ethan pulled out her ribbon dart and placed it in her hands. Kaela smiled at him and wrapped her fingers around it.

Jess slowly got to her feet. "I feel horrible." she said, grasping at her head. "Like, the worst headache I've ever gotten."

"Perhaps now is not the time to discuss the DNA of the Kraang." Bishop said, standing next to them.

Kraang Prime and Sub-Prime were glaring at them from across the platform. "All of you will die here." Kraang Prime said, his fangs showing through his pink blubbery lips.

"No thanks." Ethan replied without missing a beat.

Before any shot could be fired, or anyone could attack, the screen behind Kraang Prime flickered on and they all went silent. Kraang Prime spun himself around to get a better look. The image of a Triceraton appeared on the screen. One that Ethan immediately recognized from all the dreams they had had.

He had a metal maw, as if some of it had been ripped off and needed to be patched up. One of his eyes was white, likely blinded from the same fight that destroyed his mouth. "Greetings sub-species of Earth." he said gravely. "I am Captain Mozar, leader of the Triceraton army." Ethan, Jess and Kaela exchanged worried looks. "Let it be known that your earth has been infected with Kraang, a hideous alien life form. We will rid your planet of these hideous aliens. Unfortunately, your earth will be destroyed in the process. Thank you and have a nice day." The image flickered out.

"The – the Triceratons?" Kraang Prime whispered. It was the first time that Ethan had heard panic from this monster. As the screen changed to a view of just outside the Technodrome, Ethan could see a strange cone like ship appearing from above them on the horizon. A dome of amber light was at its peak.

"We must get out immediately." Bishop said. "Follow me." He ran forward towards the blocked door. Ethan, Jess, and Kaela followed after him. Ethan looked back, ready to block an attack, but Kraang Prime seemed preoccupied with the oncoming attack of the Triceratons.

"They are powering up their weapons!" Sub-Prime cried. He turned and with a growl he lifted his arm and blasted a beam at them. Bishop turned and threw them all to the ground, saving them from being blown apart. The fan blocking the door shattered into a thousand pieces and Kraang droids were thrown in every direction.

Bishop straightened up again.

Ethan groaned, rubbing his head that had smacked the metal ground hard. "Thank you for allowing our escape, Sub-Prime!" Bishop then grabbed Ethan by the hand and lifted him up. The four booked it for the doors and ran out into the hallway.

"Where are we going, Bishop?" Ethan shouted.

"We will escape in one of the Stealth Ships." Bishop replied.

Kaela looked at Jess and Ethan, each one at a time. "This is freaking crazy!" She said. The sound of crunching metal sounded down the long gleaming hallway and Ethan turned as they ran to see that Sub-Prime had made his way out of the room and was going after them.

"I hope these stealth ships are close!" Ethan yelled nervously as their enemy clunked down after them. Bishop made a hard left and brought them around a corner. It looked like a dead end at first, but Bishop quickly punched in a few numbers and the doors slid open to reveal a huge, gray warehouse. Lines of stealth ships stood in rows. Bishop didn't even blink but immediately went for the nearest one. A control panel appeared near the bottom, as if from mid air, glowing the usual pink and Bishop began to type in numbers.

The three turned back to see Sub-Prime had just turned the corner. "Bishop!" Kaela shouted nervously. "Our favorite psychopath is coming!"

A few more brief beeps and the platform slid open for them to escape in. "We are running out of time." Bishop said with his usual sense of authoritative calm. Ethan and his sisters quickly ran into the stealth ship. The platform closed behind them, just as Sub-Prime entered the room. Ethan waited to feel the impact of one of his laser beams, but when he looked out from the glass, he could see that the robot was retracting back into the Herma form and running towards another stealth ship.

He was escaping, not chasing.

Bishop powered up the stealth ship and the hanger doors opened to show blue sky and deep waters below them. The stealth ship rose, like a UFO into the air and blasted out of the hanger doors. Ethan continued to watch as Sub-Prime blasted off after them, but he was done chasing. He was going further out to sea. A second later, he winked away either from going too far for Ethan's red panda eyes to see, or because he went to another dimension – Ethan wasn't sure.

As they drew further away, Ethan could now see clearly the full Technodrome. A little smoke was rising near the top, likely where Bishop had blasted a hole. Ethan looked back, but the Utrom was busy piloting the ship. Jess and Kaela stood next to him and they hugged each other for a moment. Ethan could feel Jess' soft white fur on the side of his face, Kaela's hair on his other. "Are you feeling okay Jess?" Ethan asked. "That DNA stuff splashed you."

"I still have a headache, but I think I'll be fine." Jess replied.

Ethan then turned to Kaela as they separated. "What were they trying to do to you?"

Kaela's smile faded away. "They grabbed my memories first to see what was going to happen in the future. They like, hijacked our dreams or something. Then, they said I had unique power they were going to use to attack New York."

"Weird." Ethan said quietly.

Kaela nodded, "And I have a bad feeling I know what comes next." She glanced out at the window and Ethan and Jess followed suit. They could now see the huge upside down cone in the air. It was levitating several hundred feet above the Technodrome and when Ethan looked closer, he could see that the bottom half had extended and an orange glow was appearing at the bottom.

It oddly looked like a giant gun.

Ethan's mouth dropped open before it all happened.

The light burst from the bottom of the Triceraton ship and impacted with the top of the Technodrome. A moment later, the whole globe exploded. Metal and fire blasted in every direction and slowly what was left of the giant Kraang sphere fell back into the water of New York, vanishing into the waves.

"Wow." Jess said quietly, awe struck. The three stood together in horror at what had just happened, not sure whether to celebrate or sorrow. "You weren't kidding when you said they had a lot of fire power." Jess said to Bishop, turning to look at him.

"I'm afraid things are only about to get worse." Bishop replied, pointing back out at the window.

The three turned to look. Three triangular pyramid like ships had appeared from the ship. They had strings on them, as if doused in neon paint, glowing gold, and each string tied around a machine that was all too familiar.

The Black Hole Generator.

"Oh no." Kaela whispered.

"What are we going to do?" Jess asked hopelessly.

Ethan tried to gulp down his dread. "Looks like we are going to have to stop that thing without the turtles." he said.