Chapter 9: Rendezvous with Irma

"OK. Two priorities," said Leonardo. "Rescue April. Find Master Splinter, see what's going on."

"April's gotta be first," said Raphael. "Splinter would agree, you know he would." He drew a sai and tested the point carefully. "I might have a way of finding out where they've taken her."

"I dunno, Raph, if Splinter wanted us back here enough to call off that big test of his"-

-"You think we should leave April with the Foot? Yeah, great plan, Donny, I bet she'll be just fine. I guarantee, they're having coffee and cupcakes right now, I bet she's having a swell time."

"I didn't say that," said Donatello, genuinely hurt.

"Look," Leo cut in. "Donny's lost his bo. He goes back for a spare, finds Splinter... The rest of us locate April, the four of us meet up and rescue her."

"Leo-!" Raph might have been about to say something scathing, but the look on Leo's face stopped him.

"Look, guys, I gotta be honest, any of you have a better plan, I wanna hear it. I really do."

The others nodded, and Raphael even looked a little ashamed. "I, uh... Leo, y'know"- He stopped as Leo put a hand on his shoulder.

-"I know, Raph. We all want the same thing here. To help our... family. That's what's at stake... We're all on the same side." Leo had found the perfect way to unite his brothers - They all nodded.

"Bring her over!"

April had to clamber awkwardly over the rough ground of the yard to avoid stumbling as she was pushed forward. One good thing, she thought - One only. No Shredder. Looked like Leo was right about that, but the ominous-looking Tatsu wasn't much less scary.

"Master Tatsu welcomes you, Miss O'Neil." That was the one standing on Tatsu's right, masked like the others, his voice strangely familiar...

"Hi…!" Smiling nervously, April was glad her voice didn't let her down and alert them to how scared she really was. "He must be a really quiet talker. I didn't hear anything."

"The Foot Clan is an ancient organization. Its protocol is complex, and often strange to outsiders." Freddy took off his mask and smiled at her, cold-eyed. "I speak for Master Tatsu." He gestured toward her. "From reporter to spy... I thought I did better at the whole spy thing."

"Freddy," April acknowledged. "Long time no see. But y'know, not nearly long enough."

He kept the smile, but the eyes narrowed a little. "And I thought we were friends."

"I thought you had a future, Freddy. So much for that." His smile broadened in response to that, but the eyes stayed cold. "So... Anyway..." April shifted uncomfortably, and threw a brief glance at the menacing figure of Tatsu. "Why have I been brought here?"

"We would really like to talk to the remaining members of the Hamato clan," said Freddy, his voice mellow and reasonable-sounding. "And we thought you might be able to help us do that."

It took a couple of seconds for April to catch on. "The Turtles? You want to talk to the Turtles?" She couldn't conceal her astonishment at this. "That's talk, not fight…? Since when?"

He shrugged. "Things change."

"Yeah…" April was tired of this, and decided to cut through it. "But I'm a hostage, right? It's just, something here is definitely giving me that vibe." She impatiently moved forward a couple of paces toward them and turned to show them the rope binding her wrists. "Maybe it's this...! The whole tied up thing…? Kinda cramping my style!" Hands gripped her shoulders, pulling her back, and she shot an annoyed glance behind her, wriggling in the Foot ninja's grip.

Freddy glanced sidelong at Tatsu, but he just stood there, arms folded over his chest, giving away little. "You prefer to be straightforward," he began. "That's OK. But beware"- He stopped as Tatsu leaned closer and said a few terse words, too quiet for April to hear. She got the impression he was as tired of this as she was. "Master Tatsu offers you a bargain," Freddy said at last. "You can cooperate, help us bring about a... meeting of our two clans. Or we may have to be more straightforward too. Which is it to be?"

April glanced apprehensively around the assembled Foot ninja, then her expression hardened - As if she would ever betray her friends! "Hey, you know what?" she replied defiantly, "I'm a straightforward kinda girl!"

Freddy shrugged wistfully, as if to say Don't blame me. Tatsu said nothing. Under his menacing glare, April felt a lot less certain of her stance... It had sounded great in her head. "Hey, look, sorry if I've offended you," she said to Tatsu, hopefully adding, "I should just leave right away, huh?"

There was a brief pause, then Tatsu barked another guttural command, and April was pulled back to make way as he strode away across the yard, then she was turned and purposefully hurried in the direction of the workshop. "Hey, wait, OK!" she called desperately, alarmed by their urgency."This is the way out, right...? Guys...?!"

Freddy watched the rest gradually drift away, noting he wasn't the only one to hang back - one of the ninja dawdled and only started moving when his neighbor gave him a shove. His eyes narrowed, but the look of faint amusement remained.

The group of Foot ninja roughly escorted April through the wide doorway into the gloomy workshop, and immediately got busy - One kept a tight grip on her at first but soon let go in order to help the others, so she stood taking the place in, grimacing slightly. "Aaahhh, nice place...!" she said with a brittle cheerfulness. "Looks like this is gonna be pretty secure, huh?"

Turning to the exit, she found one of them in her way, and smiled warily before turning back. "If you're gonna lock me up in here, guess maybe you can untie my hands now?" Seeing what they were preparing, her face fell as they brought over a rickety wooden chair and coils of rope. No, they weren't going to be untying her hands... quite the opposite!

"Oh... OK, really, you don't have to go to this sort of trouble just for me!" April tried to back off, but was quickly grabbed, shoved over and down onto the chair. Slinging ropes around her, they worked quickly and efficiently, tying knots with practiced ease. No no no... This didn't fit with her plans at all - It was about now she was supposed to be escaping from here. "Is this really necessary?!" she cried. A loop of rope was yanked cruelly tight, making her flinch. "-Ow!"

Hearing someone approach from her other side, April turned her head - and barely had time for a brief yelp of dismay as a strip of duct-tape was pressed over her mouth.

"There you are," Donatello muttered, pulling his spare bo from a battered cabinet in the Turtle's lair. "Master?!" he called. "Master, it's Donatello... Are you here?" Something fell, and he turned, finding the intruder halfway through a sprint toward the exit - she actually had one foot raised in the air.

Despite his confusion, Don smiled. "I thought only cartoon people ran like that!"

Irma gaped at him, trying to speak. He stepped forward to catch her, assuming he had another fainter on his hands, but her frightened squeal stopped him. He shielded where his ears would be if he had any. "Ow!"

Irma seemed to recover a little, and felt bold enough to ask this apparition a question. "Uh... Are you a Renaissance boy?"

Taken aback, Don just stared.

"What are you?" Irma asked in awe. "I mean, obviously, you're one of those Ninja Turtles, but I really thought that was some kind of hoax or publicity stunt or something. I mean, I work in the media, so obviously I'm not going to just automatically fall for these things." She took a breath. "So, are you a random mutation, or a genetic splice, or some kind of experiment that broke out of a lab"-

-"No. But that happens more than you'd think."

"Do you... eat people?" she asked nervously, moving to put his work bench between them.

"Only if there isn't anything else," he replied. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding," he hurriedly assured as she took an alarmed step back and nearly fell. "We eat pizza."

Irma looked almost reassured.

"People pizza," he added, and hurried forward as she fell back away from him. "I'm still kidding!"

"Awright, Benny...!" Raphael threw the tall figure against the wall. "Start talkin'!" The dazed Benny, a shifty-looking man in his thirties with a tiny hat perched on his head, looked askance at his assailant.

Leonardo and Michelangelo watched, and Mikey looked at Leo questioningly. Leo just shrugged, and turned again to make sure no one else was nearby. He wanted the four of them to be unobserved in the alley while Raph conducted his questioning.

"Jeez..." Benny, sometimes known as Benny the Ball despite his lanky frame, for reasons Raphael did know but wished he didn't, was only now beginning to come to terms with what was happening. "Give me time, wilya? Till five minutes ago, I thought you were just some short dude who liked long coats and big hats, now I find out you're some kind of circus freak. Y'think y'know people."

"I ain't got time for that, Benny. In fact, me and my brothers are a little behind schedule, so we don't have much time for anything. We certainly don't have time for conversation. Or niceties. Am I getting' clearer? Scream out if you understand."

"OK, OK!"

"Where are they, Benny? Where are the Foot these days?"

After a short intermission the Foot ninja had gathered in the workshop to continue their council of war. Off to the side, April was now very thoroughly tied up, and very thoroughly upset about it. Tugging against the ropes binding her to the rickety wooden chair, she irrationally tipped her head as if she could somehow dislodge the tape on her mouth.

I'm not going to panic, I'm not going to panic, I'm going to get out of this somehow... Her hands were busy behind her, urgently trying to loosen the rope around her wrists - trying and getting nowhere, fast. What would the Turtles do? They would... undermine the threat with humor, before using their amazing ninja skills to affect an escape...

OK... That's real helpful!

"What do you think he's going to do?" Jake pondered, insisting on talking however much Matt tried to discourage it.

Matt's reply was quiet. To an observer it would look like he wasn't speaking at all. "Maybe if you shut up and listen he'll tell us."

Jake was craning his neck to see past the others at the quietly suffering April. "What about her?"

"Never mind her."

Tatsu strode aross the yard at a measured pace, and the low murmuring of conversation died as he approached. He stood silent and still as a statue for a long moment, indifferent to the forlornly accusing look April directed at him in her misery.

"Master Shredder is gone." Tatsu's eyes flitted around the workshop as he spoke, gauging the reaction. No need to demand quiet from the others, his presence alone did that."Killed by the... sewer vermin. We will avenge him… They will be drawn here. To free our prisoner. All escape blocked. Trapped. Like rats."

One ninja raised his hand hesitantly, and almost lowered it before one of his neighbors forced it high again. Tatsu noticed that. This question was from them all. "Master, I, forgive me - that is..." He tailed off nervously as Tatsu waited with uncharacteristic patience. "What if we... I mean, if Master Shredder couldn't beat these Turtles...?" The man bowed low, fearing an outburst of violence from his volatile master.

"You are right to think this," said Tatsu, and many of them started in surprise. "These Turtles, we will not beat them with... stratagems, or making more freaks like them. We will beat them with numbers. With strength." Raising his hands, he held them far apart. "They are weak... They care for her." A glance toward April, and her eyes widened in alarm. "That will be their death!" he announced, clapping his hands together with tremendous force and a sound that seemed to make the workshop shake.

"Mmmff!"

April's startled gasp, muffled by the duct-tape, made Tatsu look back at her sharply. For a second, no more than that, he smiled faintly, before turning away.

"So, your hands are tied, is that what you're saying?"

"No, it's not what I'm saying. At least, not exactly." New York's Deputy Mayor met Chief Sterns' steady look with what he felt was a suitably resolute one of his own and hoped for the best. Really, no one was coming out of this little informal meeting well.

Sterns got up off his chair in front of the DM's desk and paced around. "Look at it from my POV, will ya? The rats are a public order issue, so if we can't deal with it I get it right here." He pointed at his own neck. "But the sewers, that's your area."

"Chief, I get what you're saying, believe me. No one wants an end to this business as much as me." He added dutifully, "Uh, except, of course, for the Mayor himself."

"Is this is a budget thing?" Sterns spared a glance for the third attendee, hidden behind piles of documents, doing his best to unfold a huge map of the sewers - Bryan Bryant, noticing he was being watched, froze. Sterns winked, and if anything, that just made Bryan feel more uncertain in this company. A sheep and two sharks.

"Well, it's true that this is kinda late in the fiscal year for any big new undertakings," said the Deputy Mayor, talking fast. "A little close to the elections too, as I'm sure you appreciate. But there's something else... Look, this is kinda embarrassing."

"Go on."

"Well, performing regular maintenance down there, it's dangerous, but not... It's just, my people, at least some of 'em, a few of 'em"-

-"Spill."

"Years ago, a guy went missing down there... Some of the guys we still got, they knew him pretty well. They say they've seen him down there. They're, uh, saying it's... haunted."

Sterns raised an incredulous eyebrow, and shared a look with Bryan, cynical on his part, wary on Bryan's, and sat down again. "Y'know," he mused, "I'm not saying I hold with that. But...You hear stories, we all hear 'em... And this business with the rats, plus the sheer size of all those tunnels down there..." He took a corner of the giant map from Bryan and glanced down at it. "It kinda makes me start to wonder what else could be living down there."

Irma and Donatello had finally gotten past their initial misunderstandings and were sitting in the subway car, a rapid exchange of information just drawing to a close. It was lucky they were both fast talkers.

"Fire extinguishers!" Irma cut in, interrupting Donatello. He moved back a little in surprise.

"You're right," he confirmed. "It catalyzed the reaction and the two mutants reverted to their natural form. You're good."

"Junior grade chemistry stuff," she dismissed.

"OK," he conceded, a little annoyed. "So you're April's new assistant?"

"Yeah..." Irma replied, unable to keep from showing how much that pleased her. "You know, I just left college, didn't know what I wanted to do, and I turned on the TV and I saw her - she's only a little bit older than me - just demolish this creep of a guy about to get away with this major fraud. She tricked him into confessing live on TV. How cool is that?"

"Yeah." Donatello nodded. "That guy got off. Technicality."

"Oh," said Irma, dispirited. "But it's the principle."

"Hey, no argument from me. April is - I suppose she's kind of like... a sister to us." He looked faintly troubled for a moment. "Except maybe Michelangelo."

"Where's she got to?" asked Irma. "She was supposed to meet me this afternoon."

"Yeah." Donatello looked pained, and said all that followed in a rush. "She's... April's been kidnapped. My brothers are out there finding her right now, then the four of us meet at her apartment then we go in and get her out." It seemed like he was reassuring himself as much as Irma.

"Oh no," Irma shivered. "Poor April. When do we meet the others?"

"Hey, wait a minute. Who said anything about?"- The look on Irma's face cut him off. He accepted it - he had company.

A Foot Ninja swiftly checked April's bindings were secure - They really were, as she could have assured him if it wasn't for the tape on her mouth, and painfully tight - before departing after the others, closing and barring the doors. As he left, she got a glimpse of the sentries posted outside whose job it was to make sure she stayed held captive in this makeshift prison. "Mmmmmf!" she complained at them through her gag.

Now she wasn't being watched, April tugged against the ropes and allowed herself a tape-muffled sob of dismay as they refused to give even slightly. How was she ever supposed to get out of this...? Oh yeah, she realized, heart sinking even further. She wasn't.

"I hate to think of leavin' her there, Leo," Raphael fretted as he followed his brothers down the ladder into the tunnel.

"I know, me too, but I want all four of us together. You know this is a trap."

"OK, fearsome leader, not arguing with you. But I don't have to like it."

"In a few hours, us, April, Splinter, we'll be together, laughing about this..." Leonardo tailed off. They had come to a junction in the tunnel, a set of steps leading to a platform and another tunnel. To their delighted surprise, Master Splinter stood watching them.

Raphael started forward, then stopped. Looked at the others. Splinter's face gazed at them blankly, without recognition, his stance alert, ready to fight. Something about this situation was wrong. Surely... they weren't about to have to defend themselves? Against their own sensei?

Master...?" Leonardo stepped forward, Splinter's eyes moving to follow him, still without recognition. "It's us."

Raphael shook his head. "Guys... There's This is some kind of a trap. Let's just grab him and get outta here."

Michelangelo lolloped forward like an overgrown puppy. "OK, master. Don't you move. I'm coming up there." He climbed up towards Splinter, and their sensei slowly walked over to meet him. As Michelangelo reached the same level, he held out a hand and the Turtle took it automatically. He yelped as Splinter twisted his wrist and propelled him with an extended foot out into mid-air. Splinter watched expressionlessly as Michelangelo hit the ground like a very surprised stone and lay there on his back, dazed.

"Guys... Did Master Splinter ever mention if he had an evil twin?"

"What's going on here...?" Leonardo walked over to the fallen Michelangelo to help him get off his back, and was stopped abruptly as a shuriken clanged off a pipe far too near to his head for comfort. All three Turtles gaped as Splinter flipped over the safety rail and climbed smoothly down to their level to stand confronting them.

Splinter extended his arms in an unmistakable gesture of challenge.

Next: Shells are broken, the Turtles hit the heights and Splinter confronts Leatherhead...