Chapter 20: Public Enemy Nos. 1-4

- "The ninja turtles are enemies of the people... They must be apprehended on sight. Killed if necessary." The Rat King's message might have been broadcast across the entire city, but one man in particular was the intended recipient.

Chief Sterns felt rather than saw all eyes in the Crisis Control Room turn to him. He paused, but only for a moment, then he picked up the phone. "All units..."

Michelangelo turned from the TV. "OK... Does this mean we get to be on America's Most Wanted...?"

"I really think we should start getting ourselves out of here..." Raphael fretted.

"That's it, Leo... The truck's loaded..." Donatello slammed down the phone and turned to the others purposefully. Leonardo jumped down from the bench he had been perched on.

"OK, guys... Let's go."

The Foot Clan's junkyard base was in fortress mode, with their entire strength, however meager compared to the glory days of Master Shredder, recalled and standing to arms. All approaches were watched, all entrances guarded... Now, not even a rat could get in or out unchallenged.

Jake was on guard duty, the kind nobody wanted - Thanks, Freddy - and as he clambered up and over the piles of junk surrounding the yard, instead of outward he found himself glancing more and more at what was going on below... He watched as their van approached and was allowed through the heavily guarded perimeter. Settling there, he crouched down to observe as the rear doors were thrown open and several Foot ninja emerged.

Not just them... Jake started, surprise only one of a number of decidedly mixed emotions, as April O'Neil was lifted bodily out of the back of the vehicle and set down on her feet. Even at this distance, she was easily recognizable in her black leather, yellow T-shirt visible under the unzipped jacket. Her hands were held behind her, most likely tied. They urgently hurried her to the workshop, handling her a little too roughly for Jake's liking, and the doors were closed and barred as sentries took up positions outside.

With a limited view of the large window facing into the yard, Jake tried but failed to see what was happening inside. Setting his jaw determinedly, he stood up and made his way around to get a better look.

The Rat King took the opportunity to receive the reports of his legions of rats all over the city and beyond. Letting his mind wander onto a different plane, he relaxed and breathed out slowly, giving himself over to the bewildering array of sensory inputs. Then he sifted them, choosing to exclude all but the most relevant, whittling down and down and down...

The Turtles, hurrying to execute their desperate plan... He felt their determination, the pain they all kept submerged, the loss... Their sensei was gone, and they had no time to mourn him, or even to properly acknowledge his absence...

Chief Sterns, his mind thoroughly subjugated, going about his new duties not even questioning for whose benefit he was really working now...

April O'Neil, once again imprisoned by the Foot Clan, apparently resigned to her plight and reluctantly cooperating with being tied up again. Lawrence Hynten would have felt something like pity, but this Rat King experienced nothing like that... Had he lost something with the death of his old self, or perhaps gained a new perspective...?

-Nephew...

A brief image flashed before him, overriding all the others and snapping him out of the meditative state, back into the mundane reality of the waste land and the abandoned Channel 3 outside broadcast... A face. A familiar face. Lawrence Hynten - The Rat King. No... he was the Rat King. He, and no other...!

The Rat King wiped the sheen of sweat from Bryan Bryant's ashen face.

Yeah, there she was, he could just see her head and shoulders... As well as April, Jake could see the two Foot ninja guards standing watch over her. Oh yeah... Remembering he had them, he pulled out the small binoculars from the pouch attached to his belt and, making sure first he wasn't being watched, took a closer look.

Her face was turned away, toward the back of the workshop, but as he watched April turned her head - Dark hair spilled from her shoulder to reveal tell-tale loops of rope taut against the black leather of her jacket, and also visible now was the silver strip of tape over her mouth. Obviously armed guards and barred doors just weren't enough... Why had he ever joined an outfit like this...?

Yeah... And why did he keep wondering that when he knew the answer better than anyone?

As they walked down the long corridor, Michelangelo watched while Donatello clipped a strange-looking device to his belt. "Hey... What's that...?"

"Surprise, Mikey..."

"HEY...!" They turned to see a group of uniformed cops run in at the far end of the corridor and start chasing them, guns drawn.

"What gives...?" demanded Raphael.

A bullet impacted on the wall near them, gouging chips of plaster that impacted on Leonardo's shell. "I knew it wouldn't last," said Michelangelo philosophically. "Them being nice to us," he added in explanation.

"Got a plan, Leo?" asked Donatello.

"Run sound good?" Leonardo led the way. "Motor pool, guys...! And let's hope they're not there waiting for us!"

"I heard you almost let her escape," said Freddy casually as he and Matt walked around the yard and slowed as they approached the workshop once again being used as a makeshift prison. Ignoring the sentries, he turned to look at Matt in an unsettling way that could just as easily be light-hearted or deadly serious.

Matt chose to take the reproach lightly, and replied in an amused tone. "Well, you know how it is, some fool got careless..."

"There was never any danger..."

On the other side of the doors, April could just faintly hear their conversation, and that last statement made her eyes narrow in pained annoyance... as if she didn't have enough to be annoyed about already. Back to square one, she thought unhappily. No, scratch that... Back to square minus ten! Everything she had been through, just to be landed back here!

Fingers cautiously exploring the coarse rope around her wrists, she looked up at the Foot ninja guards stationed either side of her and tilted her head first toward one guard and then the other, eyes wide and pleading mournfully as though aiming to make them feel bad for her... Some hope. Why did they have to tie her quite so tight...? Why did they have to tie her at all?

Oh yeah, they didn't. It was just that the Foot tended not to recruit nice people... Then the concerned look on Jake's guileless face came to mind, and it occurred to April that even when they did it was so weird you almost wished they hadn't.

From the shadows, the rat watched, unseen, the occasional flicker of glistening eyes the only thing that could have betrayed its presence if anybody had been looking. As if concerned that might happen, it moved back further into hiding.

"Mmmmfff," April moaned softly through the duct-tape, still somewhat doe-eyed. The two guards looked at each other briefly, although what they expected to see in the other's faces, hidden beneath the masks, was anybody's guess. A little more brightly, as if trying to start a conversation, she went on. "Mmm-mmmmmm-mff...? Mmmfff...?"

She gave up on that, not even sure what it was she was trying to achieve. Nobody, friend or foe, was going to be releasing her anytime soon, if at all. If the Foot had their way, and the odds most likely favored that, she would remain like this for the rest of her life, which was likely to be a very short time once she served her purpose as Turtle bait. April tried her best to stay calm, and resisted the temptation to start crying at how hopeless the situation appeared to be - That was not her at all.

"Do we even need her any more...?" As Freddy and Matt started talking again, she turned her head and listened carefully. They really were speaking far too quietly for her liking.

At Matt's question, Freddy tilted his head a little, with the beginnings of a trademark smirk. "Does that mean you think we should let her go, or...?"

Matt drew back. "What I think doesn't matter."

Freddy let the smirk loose. "And what about young Jake?"

Matt paused for a moment. "He'll follow orders. I promise you that."

"We got a call," Freddy said abruptly. When Matt looked bemused at that, he added "From Japan. They're sending someone. Flight's already left Tokyo. He'll be here tomorrow, early..."

Matt exhaled slowly. He didn't talk for a good few seconds. "New boss? He knows what's happening?"

Freddy nodded. "Most of it. Wants the Turtles alive."

"But our... ally is gonna kill them..."

"I certainly wouldn't be selling them life insurance right now."

Matt smiled faintly. "OK. That could be a problem, if you want this new boss to leave you in command here."

"That could be a problem if I want him to leave me alive here." Freddy had a faraway look for a moment. "You know, the Turtles didn't bring down the Shredder totally alone. What if there was someone else I could hand over…?"

April was startled as her chair was dragged away from the doors, the guards embarrassed at having realized so late she was listening to the conversation outside - Anxious to appear more alert, one of them checked again that her ropes were secure.

She tried to listen again, with a sinking feeling like whatever was being discussed on the other side of those doors somehow concerned her - Why that gave her such a strong sense of foreboding, she wasn't sure, but it really did.

The Turtles were squeezed into the cab of a large truck, driven at speed and with some skill by Donatello. Their destination – the junk yard. The entire city might be out to get them, but one way or another there was definitely going to be a reckoning.

"Hey, it's a good thing that rat guy's mojo doesn't work on us," mused Donatello. "Otherwise we'd be trying to arrest ourselves right now..."

"Just when I was getting used to being welcome up here..." said Raphael with regret.

"Why don't we have a truck...?" pondered Michelangelo. "We need a truck. Or a van... How cool would that be…?"

"Yeah, Mike..." said Raphael sarcastically. "Maybe we could put a giant Turtle symbol on it, and maybe the Chief could shine a big light in the sky when he needs us... Or more likely now, shoot us..."

"Raph..." cautioned Leonardo, but didn't press the matter.

"Yeah...!" Michelangelo responded, enthusiastically. "You know what, Raph, you're full of great ideas right now..."

"You got that bit right..."

"Uh, sorry to be pedantic..." offered Donatello, "but we sort of do have a truck. This one..."

Sirens. Urgent-sounding police sirens. Getting closer. The Turtles looked at each other. Uh-oh.

"Anybody know any short-cuts…?" asked Donatello.

The Rat King left the camera set up unattended in the no man's land of the disused housing blocks and walked out into the massive landfill site. The Foot's junkyard was at the other side, a mile or so away. The wind picked up, but the place was otherwise quiet and calm. Perfect for his needs.

He had to concentrate. All across the city, his rats had taken up their planned positions. The people under his influence mostly stood back and let them. The city was his. Before long, work on mutating the rats could begin again, this time without resistance. First, though, the Turtles had to be dealt with...

"What can I say...?" Freddy playfully taunted. "You keep trying to leave us... We're gonna take it personally." He paced slowly around the interior of the workshop, before spinning on his heel. "You think you know what's going to happen, don't you...? I can tell."

Despite her resolve not to give Freddy any response to work with, April couldn't help glancing at him briefly. The two Foot ninja guards stood impassively either side of her chair, ignoring their superior's tormenting of their unfortunate prisoner as something above their pay grade - Not that the Foot were paid, as such. Even now, more out of habit than anything else, April's bound hands were busy behind her, working to get free - to no avail.

"Yeah, I saw that," he continued, smirking cruelly, "That hope right there. This is only for a little while, right...? Your friends are coming here, they're on their way...? They'll turn up, they'll defeat me, and they'll rescue you, right...?"

"M-mfff...!" April confirmed, riled into a response and immediately regretting it. She tensed, anticipating at any moment the tape being yanked from her mouth so she could offer a clearer reply for his amusement. Then it became clear - no answer was required, just upsetting her was the whole point.

"Wrong," he said abruptly. "A lot of things might or might not happen here soon, but whatever else... I'm talking worst-case scenario for us... I've made sure you won't be getting freed." April met his gaze again, a little curious, and this time she clearly found it tough to look quite so defiant. "There isn't going to be any rescue for you, April... Sorry."

"Mm-mmmmmmfff, mmmfff-!" April suggested angrily through the tape, chair and ropes creaking as she tried to lean forward. One of the guards placed a restraining hand on her shoulder, as if that was necessary, and she closed her eyes in despair. "Mmmf...!"

"Well, I didn't want you getting your hopes up..." Freddy said, amused. "That would just be mean."

Chief Sterns walked briskly down the stairs of the Municipal Building and out to his car, grim-faced. The building had been searched. They were no longer there. Worse still, the truck was missing. The truck containing the M-

-"Chief!" a voice yelled. "Chief Sterns…!" Irma came running, Todd half-running half-limping behind her.

"What...?" he said irritably. That headache was back, and he felt weirdly confused like he was half-asleep or something. Now he had to get a migraine.

"Have you seen the Turtles...? They said they would be here..."

"Yes" Sterns replied, suddenly very serious and intense. "They did. You have any idea where they are now...?" He stepped close to Irma, intimidatingly close.

"Uh... No..." she replied, looking at his chin. "You OK, Chief? You don't seem..."

"Fine." He clicked his fingers. "Get these two into cells. I'll want to talk to them later once we got the Turtles dealt with."

"What...?!" Irma found herself grabbed by the accompanying cops and bustled away, as did Todd. Every time she thought she had a handle on what was going on...

Freddy walked along the line of Foot ninja, fully-dressed and armed for combat. Some fidgeted nervously as he passed them, betraying their youth and lack of experience. He had to admit they were a motley bunch now, a shadow of the force commanded by Master Shredder just a few weeks ago.

"You're trained. You're ready..." he told them. "Now, let's see what you can do..." The one of them pointed toward the gates of the yard, and Freddy knew what he would see. He was smiling even before he found himself confronting the Turtles.

Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo spread out as they passed through the gate and entered the yard. Weapons ready. Contained and alert for the slightest sign of a trap.

"You got my little message then...?" Freddy asked.

"Just let April go, and we'll be on our way." Leonardo didn't even make eye contact, as though to underline how little he thought of this particular opponent after confronting the Shredder twice. His gaze swept over the Foot ninja, not too impressed with them either. "We don't wanna have to hurt you guys..."

"Not too much anyways," added Raphael.

"What...? Just like that...? What kind of negotiations are these...?"

"Huh…?" Leonardo was genuinely confused.

"Look at it this way..." said Freddy. "The Foot Clan is here to stay. So are you. We recognize that. I think we owe it to ourselves to stop this senseless conflict and come to some form of arrangement. I mean, what is this all about…? A feud between two people who are both dead...?"

"Can I break some heads, Leo...?" Raphael urged. "Can I, huh…? Can I... Can I…?"

"I'm with Raph," said Michelangelo.

"This is a trick, Leo," was Donatello's contribution.

"I don't blame your advisers for being suspicious," Freddy conceded. "But what do you think…? Leo..."

Leonardo considered that, carefully and for a good few seconds. "OK..." For the first time, he looked Freddy in the eye, and again he said, very precisely, "Just let April go, and we'll be on our way."

The Rat King felt a twinge of angst. Something unforeseen, unexpected... A presence crossed the threshold of his awareness, and then it was gone... What…?

No...!

Bryan Bryant made a break for freedom at that moment, and though the Rat King easily subdued his feeble effort to regain control of his body it distracted him and threw him off-balance for a few precious moments. No. As a host, Bryan was nowhere near as suitable as his uncle Lawrence had been. He was a temporary expedient at best. For now, however, he would have to do.

"You know," Leonardo began, moving in on Freddy slowly, "If you'd wanted to be friends, apart from all the other stuff you've done, I mean forgetting all that, kidnapping our actual friend as bait is not the best way to get on our good side."

"Watch it, Leo," Donatello warned. "He's trying to bait us..."

"Wait just a minute..." Michelangelo was confused. "First April's the bait, now we're being baited... Could somebody just decide who the heck is the bait here and who isn't...?"

"Mikey, c'mon..." Donatello said incredulously. Sometimes he really didn't know when his brother was actually for real. "It's a metaphor... You know, like with the fishing...? The little worms."

Something about Freddy changed. He appeared slyer, if that was possible. "Is that what you think?"

"Is what what we think?" Leonardo demanded irritably.

"April's not the bait..." said Freddy.

"Who is the bait?" pondered Michelangelo. "I'm not the bait, am I?" As the others looked at him curiously, he added "Hey... Way to make a guy paranoid."

"Stop with the tricks, OK," said Raphael, getting more menacing looking by the second. "Just hand her"-

-"I was the bait!" Freddy laughed. "And you're all on the hook... Now!"

One of the Foot ninja dived for a strategically-placed barrel and set off a waiting flare gun, firing into the sky where the flare shone and fizzed for several seconds. They all paused. "Was that it...?" asked Raphael, unimpressed.

The Turtles sprang into action, and a fight broke out. The Foot ninja fought desperately, knowing they were outmatched even if they had superior numbers. The Turtles, knowing this, had fun with it.

"Hey, Raph!" yelled Donatello, seeing his brother's aggressiveness. "Don't rush. You know you should chew your food..." Turning to the ninja he was fighting effortlessly he said "Yeah... That's right. We eat people. Bet ya didn't know that..." Knocking the man on the head and jumping over his unconscious form he added, "That joke never gets old."

Looking over at Michelangelo's exploits, he commented "That's great, Mikey... You know, we almost never see you use those 'chuks anymore. Why is that...?"

Freddy made for the open manhole into the tunnel below, and stopped short as Whiskers jumped out and blocked his way. Leonardo ran across and blocked his only other potential escape route.

"Check and mate," said Leonardo grimly. "Now..."

At that moment, Whiskers became dizzy and cried out in confusion. He fell over.

"You OK, Whisk...?" asked Donatello.

"Whisk...?" demanded Raphael, appalled. "Give the guy some dignity, Don."

Whiskers seemed to recover and looked round them, perplexed. "He... He is near..." he said cryptically.

With attention off him, Freddy took the opportunity and ran across and vanished through a gap in the fence. The Turtles took a few moments to notice.

"Leo... He's getting away... You want me to go after him...?"

"No, Mikey..." replied Leonardo. "Let him go. He's spent..."

"See ya!" called Raphael after Freddy.

"Wouldn't wanna be ya!" added Donatello. The others laughed.

"Yeah..." Michelangelo mused. "You know, guys, that dude makes me kinda miss the Shredder. You know what I mean…?"

"Weirdly, I think I do," replied Leonardo. "Are we forgetting anything, guys...?"

They thought about it carefully. "Maybe..." said Raphael. "It's been a tiring day, Leo. Anything in mind…?" They all figured it out at once.

"APRIL...!"

Leonardo nodded patiently.

"Over here, guys...!" suggested Donatello. He led the way to the doors of the workshop. "I bet she's in here!"

Grinning, Michelangelo helped Donatello wrestle the doors open. "Honey... We're-!" The first to see inside, he abruptly stopped, confused, and his shoulders slumped.

The others peered in. The interior was gloomy and cluttered, but it was clear enough what wasn't in there. As their eyes got accustomed to the lack of light, they saw the chair in the middle of the floor strewn high with discarded coils of rope.

"Home..." Donatello finished Michelangelo's quip for him with a downbeat tone.

"Great..." said Raphael. "Great...!" he said again.

"Bogus," said Leonardo.

"Bogus squared," added Donatello.

"Where'd she go…?" pondered Michelangelo quietly.

"There's nothing he can do!" Jake argued earnestly.

Driving the van, Matt continued to look unimpressed. "He could have the others kill you," he pointed out calmly.

"Would you do it? If you had to...? Kill me?"

Matt didn't blink. "Maybe. If I had no choice."

Jake preferred to pretend that hadn't been the answer. "It's the right thing to do. Just let her go!"

In the back of the van, where Jake and Matt's conversation was inaudible thanks to the noise of the engine, some more masked Foot ninja sat in a row along the bench seats. April lay along their laps, clutched tightly, still with her wrists and ankles tied and her mouth taped.

Her eyes were closed, but even though she was largely spared the buffeting caused by the vehicle's rickety suspension, April wasn't asleep. With no hope of escape, and little chance of rescue, she was just trying to conserve her energy... For what, she didn't know, she just couldn't bring herself to totally give up.

The conversation in the cab continued. "Yeah, I know you got yourself a little crush on Miss O'Neil back there," said Matt. "Everybody knows that... Fine, so long as you don't let it make you do something stupid."

"Or something smart, for the first time in my life."

"Seriously," said Matt, exasperated, "Sorry to break this to you, but we're the Foot. We won't be saving the day, and you're not gonna get the girl... Why is she worth the risk? Is it just the pretty face...? Is it the career woman thing...? The sassy put downs...? The tight leather pants...? All those things...? What?" He paused for a moment. "Listen to me," he said, calmer. "You obey orders... That's how the Foot works. You wanted to join! More than I ever did!"

"Things were different then."

"Yeah... Simpler. Now they're more complicated. Deal with it."

Leonardo immediately took the lead, refusing to let anyone descend into blame and recrimination, self or otherwise. He went straight to Whiskers. "Do you know where they might have taken her...? I mean, you got some kind of link... We just need somewhere to start looking..."

Raphael turned away, angry, as Whiskers sorrowfully shook his head. "Great…! Just great!"

"Well..." Leonardo continued, shooting an annoyed glare at Raphael, "If you do think of anything, just let us know, OK...?"

"Whiskers... wants to help."

"Sure..." said Raphael bitterly. "Everybody wants to help. I bet that really means a lot to April right now!"

"Guys... I kinda wish we hadn't let that Freddy creep go," said Michelangelo. Prodding the chair-back, he picked up one of the coils of rope that April had till so recently been tied with. Finding a loose end, he peered closely at the small label attached to it. "Made in Japan," he read aloud, and shrugged. "Figures." He turned to the others, looking lost. "April... She's still with those guys," he said. "We gotta help her."

Leonardo looked at him wearily, eyes hooded. "Yeah, Mikey... The thought had occurred." He stopped short of being too scathing with his brother, not just because it wouldn't help the situation but because he understood how upset Mikey was - Not only at April's plight, but not being able to help her right now. Anyone who thought that Michelangelo's generally carefree and flippant demeanor meant he was insensitive really didn't know him very well.

"Guys...!" warned Donatello, who had been keeping watch. "We got company."

The Rat King entered the yard. A different Rat King, but the Turtles had seen so much weird stuff in association with this guy, they took that in their stride.

"Hi..." said Raphael. "Back for a rematch?"

"No" the Rat King replied. "Back for... seconds."

Donatello turned to Leonardo. "This guy gets it... The tone. That's all I'm sayin'." Ignoring him, Leonardo stepped forward.

"We got a friend to rescue," he announced. "You really don't wanna get in our way this time."

The Rat King spoke to Whiskers. "My servant... You have been missed."

"Not your servant," Whiskers assured him, which seemed to amuse his would-be master.

"Hey," said Raphael. "You mess with our pal, you mess with us... So, come and get messed."

"Maybe this guy knows how we can find April..." Michelangelo considered.

"Your little minds... How do you exist in something so small...?" The Rat King, eyes closed, stayed where he was as they advanced on him, weapons ready.

It was as if a dam had burst. The rats erupted through the gates and across the fence, a multitude of them. More than they had yet seen concentrated in one place. The Turtles turned, to find more rats coming up from the tunnel through the open manhole.

They were trapped.

Next: Freddy devotes his life to charitable causes, April gets rescued and the Turtles become human. No, wait… None of those things happen.