Inspired by and mostly just following, from 1987 Splinter's, perspective the episode "A Thing About Rats." So, I own nothing.

Splinter laid himself down in the bed in the room April had ushered him into. It was extremely comfortable. He was sure Raphael would have some quippy phrase to describe how quickly he fell asleep in it. Therefore, it felt like an instant later when April's hands were shaking him and voice speaking, "Splinter, Splinter, wake up!"

He sat up and looked at her seeing her face had gone rather pale. "What's the matter, April?"

She put a hand to her chest and then gestured toward the door to the rest of her abode. "I think something's trying to eat this apartment!" She then ran out that door and to the one into the hallway of the apartment building. He heard a chorus of familiar chomping sounds coming from it, though there were far more than last time. Upon seeing the sight that must go along with the sound, she said "Sorry, you must have the wrong apartment!" Then she shut the door.

He feared, though, they did not. April backed up to stand beside him, he stepped forward to do the same for her. Then he spoke in his battle-voice as his students used to call it. "We must arm ourselves."

April looked to him at his command with a true, before-battle face brows drawn together, chin raised, and eyes squinted. What they had at the ready seemed to be a frying pan and rolling pin. He let her have both of them as they ran from the kitchen, where there wasn't much room to maneuver, into her living room, which had more room to swing and kick in. Perhaps they had a chance, though, with all the sounds he was hearing …

The little machines burst through the door and came toward them. There were many, many more than there had been before, dozens upon dozens, perhaps over a hundred, perhaps more than two hundred. April fought pretty well. He thought maybe she'd had some training before. Sadly, after she hit one of their metallic attackers with her frying pan it simply hung there weighing and slowing her down some.

They could hit about two to four in quick succession. More than a dozen were coming though, far more. He turned his head to the courageous woman beside him before the flood he heard coming could attack. "I fear we're about to join our ancestors, April."

It was a gentle way of pointing out their closing in fate. He hoped she also heard his apology in it. She only answered with just a slight heightening and wavering in her voice. "It's been nice knowing you, Splinter."

Ah. She was a true warrior. He was proud to die beside her. He only wondered what would happen to his turtles now.

Then the glass doors behind them broke and they came in, his turtles, his students. They began hacking and smashing through the machines as they had in their own home. Soon the newest assault by the machines was ended and they were waiting for the next, when shuddering sounds came from both the ceiling above and the floor below, and then the walls around them as well. Donatello looked up. "I don't like the sound of that one bit."

Leonardo was a good leader. He'd made the right decision of declaring him thus. The blue-clad turtle immediately said, "The ropes!"

And they all ran to the ropes his students had swung in by to their rescue. Each turtle grabbed a rope. April grabbed a hold of Raphael. He grabbed the shell of Donatello and they swung out and away from the structure. As the building entirely collapsed, April declared, "Boy, they sure don't build them like they used to!"

He was now even more glad he'd heard no other people in the building at all as he and his turtles entered and spent time in it that night. Raphael interrupted his gloomy thoughts to say, while holding up April, while he himself was being held up by his grappling rope attached to a construction crane, as all of theirs were, "Well, what are we hanging around here for? Let's go find the Shredder!"

. . .

Soon, they were all in a van his students said they'd taken from Baxter Stockman which he felt somewhat bad about. But, he did not order them to stop and step out of it to walk due to the crumbled building behind him and possibility of more buildings, but filled with people, crumbling soon. Donatello said the equipment in the van could help them somehow.

They were on their way to a thankfully, seemingly abandoned mansion Baxter Stockman had said Shredder and the control center for the mousers were in. That was the name the man had given his machines apparently. It didn't make him any less nervous.

They arrived. The place did indeed look abandoned. Its paint was peeling. Its massive lawn seemed unkept. And it looked mostly dark, but he could well imagine Saki hiding in there while putting into action his schemes. Donatello said, "Here's the mansion just like Stockman said."

He turned and began to make his way past all the equipment Donatello had spoken of and to the double doors in the back. Behind him he heard Raphael ask, "So, what do we do now?"

Donatello began answering beyond the doors he'd stopped in front of. "With the equipment in this van, I can make this thing powerful enough to control all the mousers." The doors opened before him and he saw it was April who had opened them for him. His student, Donatello, continued his thinking out loud. "But it won't do any good unless we shut down the master control in that old dump." He glanced toward the house his student spoke of again. "Somebody's going to have to go in there and put it out of commission."

Perhaps that somebody should be him. He did have the most experience with stealth missions and Saki. And the "mousers" very name let alone all their actions, thus far, had shown they were sent after him specifically. So, he felt responsible for all the damage they had done. His old student still seemed obsessed with his demise.

Before he suggested this though, he heard Raphael say, "Come on troops, lets do it." He went to stand between the van and sidewalk to stand at attention like the soldiers he was imitating. Raphael had liked to mockingly imitate others ever since he was young. Still, Splinter felt a swell of pride in his chest.

To his own shock, Michelangelo spoke next approaching the rigid Raphael. "Hang on!" He first slapped his hand onto Raphael's shell then moved it to grip Raphael's shoulder and by it turn him around to face him. Michelangelo then put his face near Raphael's in a conspiratorial manner while pointing his big green finger toward the other turtle's chest. "One turtle would have a better chance than three!"

To his almost surprise and far less pride, Raphael slapped a turned away Michelangelo on the shell in return before also gripping his shoulder and pulling him close a moment. "Well, have fun! Drop us a line if anything interesting happens."

Michelangelo's face fell at the red-clad turtle's words. He pulled away and took a step nearer their enemy's hideout while saying, "You could have talked me out of it, you know?"

Raphael rolled his eyes as Michelangelo walked away. Splinter thought about stopping his student, but he didn't want to "discourage" him. He was also right. Stealth missions often worked best when done by only one. He just wasn't sure that one should have been Michelangelo.

Nonetheless, he watched Michelangelo do a seemingly decent job of approaching the house in a circular manner obviously looking for a less obvious entrance than the front door. He was proud of this. However, once he lost sight of his student a lot of time went by.

At one point, April glanced at her watch. He gave her a scowl. She shrugged her shoulders. Good stealth often took time. One had to realize this. It didn't mean Michelangelo had been caught. They should be patient and wait for him to come out and tell them the master control was damaged. His ears were pointed toward the building waiting for some sound to indicate this.

Then a wave of mousers came up behind them. Raphael commented on this crisis in his usual way. "Oh swell, another thousand mouths to feed!"

Donatello began pressing a button on a remote with only one button on it. "I just hope Michelangelo managed to shut down the Master Control."

Apparently not. The machines did not respond to anything Donatello did. Soon, his students, April O'Neil, and he were backing up to put their backs to the van to guard at least that way to their most vulnerable areas.

His red-clad student spoke again. "That Michelangelo, remind me to give him a stern talking to." Then he heard his student gulp before continuing. "If we survive this."

He and his students climbed up on top of the van to get away from the mousers, but it didn't look like they were anywhere close to being shut down. This begged the question, what happened to Michelangelo? Splinter feared the worse. A mass of these mousers surrounded the van before them several machines deep. Raphael said, "I'd say this was hopeless, but that's too optimistic."

Then, as one, all the mousers froze. April O'Neil raised her arms to the sky proclaiming. "Michelangelo did it!"

What do you think?

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes