Chapter 11: Shell Shock

Regrettable. The loss of Splinter was quite regrettable. The Rat King sat in silence for a moment.

He searched with his thoughts. He had his rats in the vicinity search. Wherever the sensei's body had landed, none of them were within range. That in itself was strange. In New York, no one was ever very far from one of the Rat King's servants.

He dismissed such concerns, and stood. There was no time to lose if he was to take the next steps in his plan. Not for nothing had he monitored the Turtles' fight with their master so closely.

If the Turtles had ever imagined what their reaction might be to an event like this, the reality was probably very different. They stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity. They walked to the edge, and looked down into the dimming street below. They could see no sign of Master Splinter anywhere down there, but that didn't mean he wasn't there.

They hung around on the rooftop for a few minutes longer. They didn't talk to each other. When it had finally gotten dark enough, Leonardo led the way back down the fire escape. They descended quickly, and began to search for Splinter's body.

His trap was baited - now Tatsu prepared to spring it. Out in the yard, he put the younger members of the Foot Clan through their paces as the older ones looked on in amusement. They drilled and trained endlessly. They fought each other in groups, and fought each other singly.

Now they would fight him.

Tatsu stood alone, stick at the ready. At his urging, the young ninja would come at him one at a time, some of them cautiously, nervously, some of them with bravado, and all of them would fall.

Some he tripped - the lucky ones. One he felled with a light blow to the stomach that drove the breath out of the young student's body. He swept the legs out from under another. Another, a light blow to the throat that left him fighting for breath. The only part of their bodies he spared from this punishment was their heads. He needed them alert. A lot of their best people had deserted after their last confrontation with the Turtles, and Tatsu was determined they would be ready for the next and final one.

At the end of this, Tatsu was the only one standing – his students lay or sat on the ground around him, looking up at their brutal teacher. Had they passed or failed? One day they would learn the lesson he sought to teach them. An appreciation of his single fundamental rule.

There are no rules.

Even inside the workshop, right at the back next to the bench grinder, the sounds of training could be heard. Jake and Matt, busy though they were sharpening one cutting edge after another, found themselves cringing at the sound of a body hitting the ground or the slap of Tatsu's stick on soft flesh. It was a relief to switch the machine on and drown the sounds out.

Jake strolled across the workshop carrying a bundle of freshly sharpened weapons, and deposited them into a re-purposed umbrella stand several feet behind April's chair. She was still tied up, and on Tatsu's cruel orders she was going to stay that way. The two dozen or so young men and boys who comprised what was left of the Foot Clan in New York weren't normally given to feelings of sympathy, but even some of them felt a little sorry for their very pretty and not remotely threatening prisoner.

Some more than others.

On his way back, Jake stopped uncertainly as a familiar qualm troubled him. As far as he was concerned, keeping April tied and gagged was pointlessly cruel, but then... That was kind of the Foot's MO... That had been OK, once... Or maybe it was just OK when-

-"Mmmff...?!" April demanded irately through the duct-tape, and Jake guessed that probably meant What...?! OK - Quit staring.

He headed back towards Matt at the bench and distractedly watched him work for a few seconds. "Don't you even feel a little bit bad for her?" he said at last. The machine was switched on, and only Matt could hear him. "She doesn't deserve this."

Matt frowned as he turned over the sword blade he was working on. "She's an enemy of the Foot Clan. Her and those Turtle things killed Master Shredder."

"That's what Tatsu says," Jake said stubbornly. "I don't remember her being there that day."

April heard a quick snatch of conversation as the machine was momentarily powered down. - "Yeah...? You try telling him he's wrong... Let me know how that goes..." The context was a mystery, but she was thinking about something else anyway...

With some difficulty, she glanced back, even though the coils of rope pinioning her shoulders were so tight she had to painfully crane her neck to do so... A few feet away - the umbrella stand. A glance over at the bench - they were talking to each other. Neither was looking at her...

Worth a try, O'Neil. Time to stop feeling sorry for yourself...

Using the noise of their machine to cover the sound, April shifted from side to side and rocked the chair a little... She looked down. Although her feet were tied, she was able to push with the toes of her boots against the floor and by combining that with the rocking, she managed to move a little closer to the umbrella stand.

"What will happen to her?" Jake tried to make the question sound casual.

"When the Turtles are dealt with...?" Matt shrugged. "Dunno." He snorted, then half-smiled as a thought occurred to him. "Ever heard the expression concrete shoes?" he mused.

"Huh?"

"Just pass me the next one." Matt sighed. "You're sweet on her, that's your problem. You always gotta watch the news when it's April O'Neil..." Neither of them noticed as April continued to move her chair inch by painstaking inch closer to the umbrella stand.

"So what if I am. Life's gotta be about more than fighting," Jake said sullenly, and Matt looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

Almost there. I can nearly reach... With some effort, not to mention pain, April could just reach the edge of some kind of bladed weapon with her fingertips - Any of the Turtles could no doubt have told her what it was called, but right now she didn't care...

Just a little further... She nudged the chair back just enough.

"Deep," said Matt. "All I'm saying is, you're lucky we're friends. 'Cause if we weren't you'd be in real trouble right now."

"Awww, I'm touched."

April feverishly tried to scrape the coarse rope binding her hands up and down the edge of the blade - It felt like every muscle in her body was stretched taut, but she was so restricted she could barely manage to move half an inch each way - Plus, she couldn't even see what she was doing... This was going to take forever, and one of them could look over at any moment...

"You will be. With Master Tatsu's sword. At about one hundred mph."

This isn't going to work, April realized. Why had she ever thought this would work? Even if she could cut through the rope around her wrists, what then...? She wouldn't even be able to raise her arms, let alone untie her feet...! Determined, however, she kept going. Escaping was no longer her hope, or even the point - Just doing something to resist the Foot was enough...

"And all I'm saying is, if we could talk to her I bet"-

-"Hey, don't even think about taking the tape off her mouth. Master Tatsu"-

-"Haven't you finished that yet?" A masked Foot ninja stood in the doorway, and Jake and Matt's heads snapped round to him, guiltily.

April held very still. Would this one notice she had moved?

"Just about done," said Matt, testing the edge of the blade he was working on. It was good enough. "Actually, we are done."

"Come with me. Master Tatsu has finished with the others. Your turn. Show him what you can do." April could tell, even through the mask, that this one was smiling. Partly from the tone of his voice, partly because it was a voice she recognized. She had seen that smile, and the thought of it now made her skin crawl. Freddy.

Just for a moment, she thought she would get away with it and was poised to continue her efforts. Then, as Jake and Matt moved past him, not exactly eager to get outside, Freddy's attention turned to her. Her heart sank, again - It was doing that a lot lately.

He walked across, leaned over and inspected April's ropes - A little bit frayed by their contact with the blade, but still more than secure. He moved behind her, and a few seconds later he reappeared having picked up the stand full of weapons. He let her register that, and she was certain he was smirking behind the mask, and then he took it with him out of the workshop.

She sat very still, not even trusting herself to react. Well, I knew it was a long shot... April tried to shrug, and realized indignantly the painfully confining ropes wouldn't even let her do that!

Freddy put the umbrella stand down and immediately forgot about it, moving over to Jake and Matt purposefully. They were standing a few yards away from the workshop looking a little confused, as they realized Master Tatsu was nowhere to be seen. The other ninja were slowly recovering from the damage Tatsu had inflicted on them – checking for broken bones, flexing tired muscles, stretching...

Jake and Matt allowed Freddy to take them aside. "So, what was that about?" Matt did the talking, as per the never spoken but firmly understood agreement at the center of his association with Jake.

Freddy smiled, thin-lipped, trustworthy as a fox in a hen house. "What? I need an excuse to talk to my friends?"

"In the Foot Clan, we don't have friends," Matt replied automatically.

"But, since I have got you two here..." Freddy stepped closer and between them, so their faces were near enough for him to speak to them in barely a whisper. "You know what this was all for?" Neither of them were going to help him out - they waited for him to spell it out for them.

Freddy sighed faintly. "He's tired of waiting. He's going to take out a patrol and get the Turtles' attention, try and lead them back here. Bold, huh?" When they said nothing, he continued. "Some might even say, brave."

"Get to the point."

"You really want a leader who's brave?" Freddy snarled. "Wouldn't you rather stay alive, and maybe even, I don't know... Win...?"

There it was. Jake and Matt exchanged glances. There might even be a good point there somewhere.

"How can he not be there, Leo...?!"

"Why are you-?" Leonardo stopped his bad-tempered response there, and rubbed the top of his head. "Sorry, Raph. Let's just head back. If Master Splinter is OK, that's where he'll go. Right?"

"And April...?"

They stopped. For the second time that day, the Turtles found their way barred in the sewer tunnels. This time, instead of Splinter the obstacle was a man, a figure of tremendous presence despite his not particularly imposing stature. Finally, they were faced with their main adversary. Somehow, they knew it.

The three of them drew their weapons.

"Nothing to say?" the Rat King inquired.

"What is there to say?" Leonardo's voice was subdued, expressionless.

"We're the Turtles. You're the bad guy," said Raphael with a little more anger. "I think we all know what we gotta do."

"So be it." The Rat King waited as Michelangelo and Raphael moved round, trying to outflank him. A difficult maneuver in the confined space of the tunnel. Leonardo stayed in front, advancing slowly with his swords pointed straight ahead.

Michelangelo was the first to strike, and somehow, incredibly, the Rat King caught his nunchuks in a tight grip and pulled him off balance, slamming him into the wall with a kick.

Raphael was next. One sai swiped at the Rat King's head to distract him, while the other went low. The Rat King ignored the feint, and blocked the genuine strike. An elbow in the face sent Raphael into the wall after Michelangelo. His strength was overwhelming despite his wiry frame.

"Just us." Leonardo stepped forward grimly, but with great care. He wasn't going to be taken out so easily. The Rat King retreated before him, and smiled.

"You might do better to see to your brothers. I did try not to injure them, but they may still be hurt."

"Yeah," replied Leonardo. "You know where we can get any bandages around here?"

His opponent laughed. "This has gone on long enough."

"I think we're on the same wavelength," Leonardo said, still advancing as the Rat King retreated slowly. Something brushed against his foot, and he looked down. "What the-?"

A rat. No, not a rat. Several rats. Leonardo quickly lost count. They climbed up his legs, and no amount of swiping at them with his sword deterred them. Soon, they were everywhere and as he thrashed around trying to shake them off they enveloped him.

In the last moments before his vision was blocked Leo saw that Raphael and Michelangelo were in the same situation on the ground.

The Rat King watched as his three opponents were totally engulfed by wave after wave of his rat servants, and soon the only evidence of their existence was their shape picked out in the legions of rats. Those Turtle-shaped bumps moved down the tunnel, carried by a stream of rodents, unable to move and certainly unable to escape.

Calmly, the Rat King followed.

Next: Michelangelo chokes, Leonardo brings home a stray and Todd thinks it's easy being green…