I don't think that I ever thanked you properly in my last chapter. So – THANK YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING! I've never before gotten 100 reviews for the same story, I just stared at the screen open-mouthed for several seconds when I noticed, and then I screamed right out – well, I screamed as good as possible, since I had a cold and a sore throat. Thank you all so much! I am forever in your debt!

I know that we aren't supposed to respond to reviews in the actual story, but this is an exception: I got a review from "Anonymous" who told me that I've made a mistake – Raphael is older than Donatello. He or she told me that it's a fact, not his or her opinion. I've never seen any facts concerning the subject, and my personal opinion is that Don is the older one. So, Anonymous, I appreciate that you pointed out my possible mistake, (bows to Anonymous) but Don's older than Raph in this story. K?

Disclaimer: Nope, they're not mine.

Chapter 12: Stuff that happens on a boat, part 1

Foot Elite number 3 frowned. "Let me see if I've understood this right, master… You want us to get into that little boat and row after the big ship?"

"Exactly! Admit it, none of you could ever have come up with that!"

Hun and Foot Elite looked at each other and shrugged. Shredder was right – he was the only one who would come up with that.

Foot Elite number 2 cleared his throat. "It seems like a good plan, master…"

"A good plan?" Shredder raised his eyebrows. "It's not a good plan. It's a perfect plan! It's brilliant and excellent! It's the Plan with a big P!"

"Yes, but what if we can't keep up with the ship?"

"What do you mean, 'what if we can't keep up'? We've got Hun, for crying out loud. He's got muscles for ten people. He can row circles around that ship."

Hun coughed nervously. "Well, normally I could, master, but I sprained my wrist the other day when I fell down the stairs three floors."

"Why on Earth did you fall?"

"I was running, master, and I tripped."

"That wasn't very smart. Did your mum never tell you not to run around in skyscrapers?"

"She sure did, master, but I was on my way to get more strawberry ice cream for you. You demanded I hurry."

Shredder looked thoughtful. "You're right, Hun. I remember now. Well, you should have been more careful. You could've spilled my ice cream when falling down the stairs."

"Yes, master."

Saki started pacing back and forth, dragging Prince Albert after him in the pink leash. "So, Hun's sprained his wrist and cannot row. Curses! My wonderful plan has failed before it even was put into action."

"We could hide in some boxes that'll get carried onboard," Foot Elite number 4 suggested.

Saki waved his hand. "Don't be an idiot, number 4, that's a stupid plan. Mine, on the other hand, is brilliant. We'll hide in some boxes that'll get carried onboard! Hah!"

Foot Elite blinked. Foot Elite number 4 blinked twice.

Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael and Splinter were hiding under a life boat turned upside-down. They had successfully gotten aboard, but couldn't start looking for Donatello straight away – they had to come up with a strategy first.

"My sons, we will search for your brother in teams. I will go with Raphael, and Michelangelo with Leonardo."

"Is it really safe to leave Leo with only Mikey to protect 'im, Sensei?" Raph smirked. "Since Don managed to knock 'im out in the sewers without any ninjitsu knowledge whatsoever, I don't wanna think 'bout what Don could do to Leo now."

Splinter smacked Raph's head with his cane. "Do not make fun of your brother, Raphael. It is not his fault that he was taken off guard and knocked unconscious."

You could see on Raphael that he wanted to say: "Taken off guard? He's a freakin' ninja, for Christ's sake! He's not supposed to let anything take 'im off guard!" But he decided not to object anymore – Splinter's cane was pretty hard, after all.

So, they did what their Sensei wanted ad split up in teams. Leo and Mikey searched the port side, while Splinter and Raph took the starboard side (the one facing the dock).

"And remember, my sons, we must hurry," the old rat said. "The ship may leave any minute. We got to find Donatello and get off the boat before it is too late."

Leo bowed deeply, as the suck up he was. "We will hurry, Sensei. And we'll keep contact via shell-cell."

They went their separate ways.

As you may remember, Don had found a door marked "Cargo space. No admittance except on business". It was locked, but with a little help from a piece of pizza (with pepperoni and extra cheese) pressed into the keyhole, he managed to open it anyway. He walked down a staircase, opened another door, and found himself in the largest area he had ever seen – or at least the largest area he could remember ever seeing, which might not be the same thing. It held hundreds of containers, put in straight lines and stacked on top of one another.

"Jösses…" (1) he gaped. Then he got curious. "Jag undrar vad som finns i containrarna?" (2) He went up to the container nearest to him and read on the consignment note. "'Mjukdjur, 1200.' Hmm… Jag gillar mjukdjur. Undrar vad för sort det är?" (3) He tried to open the door on the container, but it was locked. He frowned, and looked around after something that could help him in this moment of need. On the wall of the gigantic room, there was a red button behind a piece of thick glass. A sign over it said "Vid brand, krossa glaset". Below, there was the same text in English: "In case of fire, break the glass". Beside the sign, there hung an axe.

Donatello smirked.

"Mikey, what are you doing?" Leo asked. His younger brother had been making sniffing noises for the past ten minutes.

"I'm…" (sniff) "… trying…" (sniff) "… to catch the smell of pizza." (sniff sniff)

Leo tilted his head. "You are what?"

"Well, Donnie…" (sniff) "… did take the pizza leftovers with him." (sniff sniff) "If anyone would be able to…" (sniff) "… find him by smelling the pizza, it would be me."

His oldest brother just looked at him for a moment. "You know what, you do have a point there. I don't even know why I asked."

They had started looking for their brother at the stern and worked themselves against the stem. They had checked behind benches, under life boats and even behind some of the chimneys, but no trace of Donnie.

"He must have found some way to get inside," Leo sighed. "And this is a big boat, I think it's a combined passenger ship and cargo ship. Searching the deck was hard enough. Considering that Don may be inside… I don't want to think about it."

"Look at it from the bright side, Leo –" Mikey put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "– they might have some food in there!"

Leonardo glared at him. "You know, if that was supposed to cheer me up, it didn't work."

Michelangelo shrugged. "It was worth a try."

"I guess we have to go in." Leo picked up his shell-cell. "But we better call Raph and Master Splinter first." He pushed one of the buttons and held the phone to his ear. A moment later, there was a clicking sound, and then Raph's grumpy voice.

"Raph here. Who is it?"

"It's me, Leo."

"Ah, it's you." Raph didn't sound excessively happy. "What do ya want?"

"Is master Splinter there?"

"Yeah, here he is." There was a scuffling sound, and then Splinter's voice:

"What is it, Leonardo?"

"We haven't found Don yet, so we thought that we should go in and look for him inside."

"That sounds like a good idea. Raphael and I have not found anything either, so it might be possible that we join you inside soon."

"Yes, master Splinter," Leo said and bowed, even though his Sensei wasn't even there (doesn't he make you want to puke?). Mikey shook his head and mumbled: "Okay, now he's just going too far."

Stefan sighed and wiped his forehead. To pry those six boxes onto the fork-lift truck had been harder than expected. But now he had managed to get all of them onboard and down into the cargo space. He frowned. The boxes were supposed to be filled with vegetables, but they seemed a lot heavier.

A horrible suspicion popped up in Stefan's brain.

He cautiously walked up to the nearest box and knocked on it three times. Nothing happened. Stefan let out a breath he didn't know that he'd been holding, and turned around to leave, when he suddenly heard a scuffling sound from inside of the box. Slowly, he turned back to the box.

"Eh…" he started, but was interrupted when the side of the box was suddenly kicked out by a foot clad in red bandages (AN: At least I think the Elite's foot clothing looks like that…), and one of the guys which had accompanied the madman in the freaky armour stepped out.

He brushed off some lettuce from his shoulders and his hat, and cast a look at Stefan with creepy eyes that were glowing red. Apparently, Stefan wasn't interesting enough, because the figure didn't seem to care about the fact that he was there. He brought out a big scary double edged sword out of nowhere, and started to pry open the other boxes. Soon, he was joined by his three comrades and the giant man with the ponytail and tattoos.

When they opened the last box, the 'really bad guy who planned world domination in his free time and beat up people for fun' – Stefan could remember that he had presented himself as such – tumbled out.

"That's about time!" he hissed at Foot Elite and Hun. "You should always let your boss out first. He's the best and the coolest."

"Yes, master", they bowed.

Shredder scowled and did his best to get rid of small parts of carrots, corn and red and yellow paprika, which got stuck at several places on his armour. "And someone put the box upside-down, so I've practically been standing on my head for half an hour! What is it with people and not reading 'Fragile, this side up'-signs?" Suddenly, he spotted Stefan. "You! You're the one who wouldn't let me come aboard!"

Stefan frowned, and decided to talk some sense into this loony. "Sir, it is against the law to sneak aboard hidden in boxes. And you must pay for the vegetables that you have destroyed."

"Hah! I am the Shredder, and I do not need to pay for anything! Bwahahahaha!"

"I don't care if you are Marilyn Monroe, you must still pay for the vegetables… and for the ticket. I guess you still don't have one."

"Oh, so you're being cheeky, eh? I'll teach you what happens if you mess with me! You'll see who's the man!" He stretched out his right hand. "Rock, paper, scissors. Best of three. No one has ever beaten me before!"

Stefan stared first at the Shredder's face, then at his hand, and then at the face again. "… What…?"

The crazy man in the armour waved his hand again. "C'mon, just do it!"

Stefan sighed, and stretched out his hand.

Hun counted down. "One, two, th–"

CRASH!

They all jumped at the sound of something breaking loudly a bit further away. Shredder forgot all about the rock, paper, scissors tournament, rushed away and looked behind a corner. What he saw made his eyes widen.

"The turtle! C'mon, Prince Albert!"

No sign of the guinea pig.

"Prince Albert?"

Slowly, realization dawned on Shredder.

"OH NO! I HAVE LOST PRINCE ALBERT!"

You can see some great fanart from this story in the Art Work-section at Stealthy Stories! Drop by there! And don't forget about the question thread!

1. Geez…

2. I wonder what's in those containers?

3. 'Stuffed animals, 1200.' Hmm… I like stuffed animals. Wonder what kind it is?