Chapter 23: Storm Clouds

There was no one to meet the Foot dignitaries when they touched down at JFK. Getting through immigration with a minimum of fuss, they were soon ensconced in the waiting car and rushed to their destination. Concealed behind the blacked out windows, the shadowy figures did not talk among themselves – there was no need.

The doors slid open, and the new leader of the Foot in New York hurried into the disused warehouse without troubling to wait for her escort, the young Japanese men in dark suits hurrying to catch up. She stopped in the middle of the vast space, and waited.

She was young, not very tall and slender of build. Only a fool, however, would have underestimated her for any of those reasons.

On the other side of the warehouse, a set of double doors opened and were held by two Foot ninja as a trolley was pushed through. The trolley, the huge body lying on it covered by a sheet, was pushed toward the young woman, a lab-coated figure scurrying beside it.

The doctor was a shambolic figure – pale, unkempt, unshaven, greasy hair hanging lank, the glint of madness in his eyes. He grinned at the sight of the arrival, and offered his hand. It was ignored, but not with any disdain. The young Japanese woman showed no emotion at all.

"My lady..." began the leading ninja. "This is Doctor Ar"-

-"What is the condition of the patient?" she asked in flawless, unaccented, English.

The doctor grinned again, and her nose wrinkled slightly in distaste at the unpleasant odor of his rank breath. He snapped his fingers and gestured to the accompanying ninja and they started rolling the sheet down away from the patient's head and shoulders. Although they knew what they would see, all present took a sharp breath as the body was revealed.

"The patient is still human, as far as I can tell without a more detailed investigation..." The doctor watched the lady's face for any reaction to his words, and although she was clearly listening there was still no emotion. "He is of normal proportions again, and his armor has resized itself accordingly – Odd, that, and inexplicable. The helmet has totally fused to his face. It could perhaps be removed, but I'm not sure that's a good idea."

The lady stepped forward and leaned over the imposing figure lying on the trolley. "I am here, my lord..." she said quietly. Even she was startled when the eyes suddenly snapped open and focused on her. The dark eyes were fiercely intelligent, cold and totally without pity.

"It's alive..." The doctor grinned again and looked round as though he expected them to laugh.

"Welcome back, Lord Shredder..." the lady began, and lowered her eyes before adding quietly "Father..."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Day of the Rat

Rated OK: Basically fine for all the family, except for scenes of peril and violence and sequences involving hordes of squirming raaaaats! Uuuuuuuuggggghhhrrr!

All characters and events portrayed in this story are fictional, but frankly if you need to be told that...

Original motion picture soundtrack not available for... uh, contractual reasons.

Read the novelization... Um, right here.

NOTE: If even one person out there somewhere checks IMDB to see if this movie actually exists, I will feel my work here is done.

Where Are They Now?

Miss Henrietta McWilliams went on to marry the hulking mutant turtle known as Stanley and they adopted several cats and a Shih Tzu called Frank. They divorced after 3 years, citing irreconcilable differences and the "Troughton rule". You can sometimes see her shouting at people in Central Park.

Todd lives a very boring life in suburbia with his wife and two children. Coincidentally, he also has a dog - a Labrador, not a Shih Tzu - called Frank. As well as his day job, something in marketing, he runs an internet forum called The Sidekicks club, with his fellow moderators Dan Pennington and Keno.

Matt is fine. Further details classified.

Jake is also fine. See Matt for details.

Freddy isn't doing so well. That's no secret.

Bryan Bryant continued to serve the city of New York well for many years after the defeat of the Rat King, and was a key figure in the reorganization of New York's infrastructure. As for whether the Rat King ever emerged from his mind again, those details are classified...

Irma Langinstein remains at WRTL Channel 3 to this day, having worked her way up from assistant to April O'Neil to secretary to the news manager and, via a brief foray in front of the camera, the various stages of management to her present position of Managing Director; a role in which she has been highly successful. There is far more detail – too much, possibly – in her official biography, Attack of the 5'2" Woman.

Irma is married to the former model turned celebrity chef Hugo Rolandville and they have three children; Donatello, Avril and the youngest, Leoraphgelo Splinter, who plans to change his name as soon as he reaches 21 and can access his trust fund.

April Harriet O'Neil continued her successful career at Channel 3 for some years after the Rat King incident, uncovering conspiracies, cover-ups and full-blown plots to destroy New York and, on more than one occasion, the entire world. She has traveled into the past, the future, alternative realities and, according to an unsubstantiated rumor, once went somewhere quite dull where no one threatened her in any way. The latter incident, questionably sourced, may be apocryphal.

In the course of her adventures, many of them involving the Turtles, April has been kidnapped - by the Foot Clan, medieval warlords, mobsters, witch-hunters, the Foot Clan, rogue mutants, the Foot Clan again - no less than eighteen times. After about thirteen of those, she realized that Splinter had been sincere in his offer to train her in martial arts and after that the kidnappings were successful far less often.

Splinter enjoyed a long and happy retirement living under New York. Even after he had finished training them, his sage advice helped the Turtles through some of their greatest challenges. Occasionally, he judged the time right for another funny without even once denting his authority or credibility.

Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo had many more adventures. They keep having them. Good.