April awoke the following morning to find Holly already up, a pot of coffee was brewed and there was toast, bacon, and eggs already out on the counter top.
"Good morning." Said Holly piece of toast in her hand.
"What's all this?" April asked. Gesturing to breakfast.
"Oh, I woke up pretty early today." Holly said touching her ribs lightly.
April had almost forgotten that Holly had been hurt yesterday. They had stayed up talking about what they had discovered and sending random texts to the turtles. It had probably been about three in the morning when they had finally collapsed into bed.
"Does it still hurt?" April nodded at her side. Holly pulled up her night shirt and pulled down the bandages, an angry looking bruise had formed over her ribs. It was only about the size of a tennis ball, but it looked tender.
"You know, it looks worse than it feels." Holly said, poking her side gently. "I'll be fine."
The girls finished up their breakfast, washed the dishes, and put them away. They took turns showering and changing into clean clothes, then they sent out texts to their favorite mutant boys to see if they were awake yet. Michelangelo answered first, so the girls decided to walk over to give the rest of the guys a chance to wake up. They grabbed a bag of spare workout clothes and a spare towel each, although Holly doubted she would be taking a dip today, and they set off.
Donnie had been texting April and Holly late last night, he had gone to sleep with his phone on his pillow and had had the best dream. It was a shame he had to wake up sometimes. Donnie had a feeling that Holly was trying to help him out a little in the "April" department, but he wasn't absolutely sure. She was always trying to get April to sit next to him by taking the only other free seat first. But then again, she usually ended up sitting by Raph, and Donnie knew that Raph was perfectly fine with this arrangement.
Donatello rolled over in his bed and decided it was probably time to get up, he didn't need to hear Leo yelling at him to get his shell into the training room. He walked out of his room and into the kitchen only to find that April and Holly were already there, and they had breakfast.
"What's going on? Am I still sleeping?" He eyed them suspiciously.
"What? No." April laughed at the look on his face. "I got a good breakfast today, so we figured we would bring you guys something special too." She held a plate of bacon and eggs up to him. "I saved you some since Mikey has eaten most of it already." April shot him an evil eye over her shoulder.
"What? It's really good." Mikey said looking glum. He wanted more of this delicious thing called bacon.
"Well, aren't you a lucky boy." Holly said pulling a hidden bag out of nowhere, it had two more pounds of bacon in it. She started cooking it right away knowing that Mikey was hovering over her shoulder waiting for more. Leonardo had yet to emerge from his room, although Mikey had knocked on his door and gotten a response. Raph was still out for the count. Apparently Mikey had knocked on his door too since he was normally the last one to wake up, and all he had gotten was some groaning and a soft thud on the other side of the door.
"I might be able to wake him up." Holly grabbed a plate full of fresh bacon out of the kitchen and walked over to Raphs door. She then sat down and placed the plate on the floor, and began to waft the smell of fresh bacon under his door.
It didn't take very long, Raph could smell something... Something delicious, and he was starving. He rolled off the bed and dragged himself to his door. He pulled it open and was greeted with Hollys' face about six inches from his own.
"Hi!" she said, a little louder than necessary.
"Blahh!" He yelled and fell over backwards, his eyes were wide and he stared up at the girl from the floor unable to say anything.
"Want some breakfast?" She said, laughter starting to bubble out of her.
"Dude! You should see the look on your face." Mikey was almost doubled over because he was laughing so hard. "She got you good!"
Raph looked embarrassed, Holly was sure if it had been Mikey to prank him, he would have pounced and punched until he felt better. Raph would just have to suck it up this time, it would be a good learning experience for him.
Holly held out her free hand to Raph, the least she could do was help him up since she had just put a dent in his pride. "Come on tough guy, I saved you some bacon." she smiled and winked at him.
"How are you this perky this early?" He took her hand and let her pull him back to his feet.
"I took a whole bunch of pain killers to morning." She grinned at him, but handed over the plate of bacon.
"Oh, that's right, How are you doing?" They moved toward the kitchen, and Raph headed straight for the coffee. Mikey grabbed the unattended plate of bacon and started to eat as much as he could.
"I'm alright, it's really not as bad as it looks. Its just a bruise." Holly rolled up her shirt to show the boys that she really was OK. "It just needed ice."
Mikey moved closer and crouched down getting a better look at the bruise. "Donnie said you got hurt. Is it still sore?" Mikey moved to poke her. Holly was quicker though, she smacked his hand away just before his big green finger touched her skin.
"Of course it's still sore. But only if I move weird or someone touches it." She hastily rolled down her top again, removing the temptation for Mikey to try poking her again.
Raph shook his head and smiled behind his mug. Unfortunately, he looked over at April and Donnie who were wearing matching smug grins, they looked at each other, then back at Raph. He just narrowed his eyes at them, trying to tell them that they were just as bad as he was without actually saying anything.
Leonardo had finally decided to join the others for breakfast. It looked like he hadn't slept at all that night and when he did finally emerge from his room, he didn't even say hello until he had had a full cup of coffee and was working on a second.
"No offense, but you look worse than I do." Holly greeted him once he was more awake.
"I appreciate that, really. How are your ribs?" He croaked back.
"I'll be fine, why do you look so bad?" She gestured at the bags under his blue face mask.
"I couldn't sleep, I was trying to figure out our next step now that we know what's going on." Sometimes Leo took his role a little too seriously, but that was what made him a great leader.
"Yeah, I hear you. We were up for a few hours doing the same thing." April sympathized.
"I suggest we do our training to wake up and clear our heads. Then we can discuss what we are going to do and when." Donatello reasoned. Everyone agreed.
Splinter didn't go easy on them, the boys sparred against each other while the girls did more strength training and worked on their form. Holly tried to do the sit-ups, but she just couldn't do more than a few without her ribs aching. Master Splinter didn't seem to mind that she had to do a few at a time, at least she was trying.
After training was over and everyone was clean and refreshed, the turtle brothers and the human girls sat around their kitchen table discussing their next move. It was already decided that Holly and April would have to sit this one out, they just weren't ready to deal with the Purple Dragons directly.
"I think we need to stop production of the mousers without drawing attention to ourselves. That way Stockman and the dragons won't know for sure who is responsible." Leo suggested.
"Why don't we just go in and knock a few heads together." Raph punched one hand into the other for added effect.
"Not every problem needs to be solved with violence Raph." Leo looked at his brother. "And you don't need to show off for anyone either." Leo just grinned shooting a knowing glance at Holly, he would pay for that later but sometimes Raph just needed bringing back down to earth.
Raph nearly choked. He was going to kick Leo's butt later, as soon as Holly was gone. He just folded his arms and sulked for the rest of the meeting. Holly smirked, she almost felt bad for Raphael. Almost.
"Ok, but how do we get past the Purple Dragons without being seen? You know they're always skulking around the factory." Donnie spoke up.
"We'll need a distraction, it needs to be noisy and flashy but it can't be associated with us." Leo said scratching his chin.
April and Holly looked at each other, maybe they could be of help after all. "We can get you fire crackers and throw them outside the entrance to the cookie factory." April blurted out excitedly.
"Where are you guys going to get firecrackers from?" Leo asked skeptically.
"China town always has them, and they're cheap." Holly replied.
"It should work." Donnie said, "But I don't think you girls should get involved, we don't want them to think you're associating with us."
"But it will take all four of you to make sure Stockman can't keep producing mousers, and they'll just think we're a couple of kids making trouble." April continued
"We can wear disguises, if we dress like hoodlums they won't even think twice about us being anything but trouble makers." Holly added. The turtles looked at each other, they really didn't want to get the girls involved in this. No one said anything for a few minutes. April was determined, she knew she could do this and she wanted to help.
"Alright, fine. But as soon as you see any Purple Dragons you get out of there. We might not be available to help you out if you get in trouble." Leo said.
"Speak for yourself." Raph muttered.
"April and I will get firecrackers and well grab some of my sparer hoodies and sweatpants." Holly summarized, holding back another smirk. "When are you guys going to do this?"
"Tonight." Leo said definitively.
"We'd better get going then." Holly stood and April followed suit. They moved out of the kitchen and scooped up their bags before heading to the exit.
"See you later!" Donnie shouted after them.
"Bye." Both girls replied and hurried out of the lair.
Raph was still annoyed. "I wasn't trying to impress anyone." He said to Leo, still sulking.
"Yeah right dude. Your acting as bad as Donnie does around April." Mikey interrupted.
"Hey!" Donnie yelled, he punched Mikey in the shoulder for good measure.
Raph just stomped off, he didn't want to admit that there was the tiniest possibility he might maybe have some actual feelings for the girl in the glasses, but he couldn't deny it either. If Mikey could tell then he really must be acting strange. He stomped into the training room and punched the dummy a few times, he felt a little better now.
"Raphael," Master Splinter walked slowly up to his son. "What seems to be troubling you?" Raph didn't say anything, it sounded so stupid when he said it out loud. "Your brothers are teasing you about your feelings for Holly, aren't they?" Splinter guessed, not that it was a challenge. Again, the turtle in red remained silent. "There is no shame in these feelings my son, and caring for someone is not weakness."
"What does it matter how I feel? It's not like I, or any of us, could ever actually have a relationship with anyone, Donatello may still be deluded but I'm not." Raph finally put all his thoughts and fears into those few sentences, his heart tightened in his chest painfully. Was that something he wanted? He had never thought about it before.
"Donatello is not deluded, he is hopeful, and there is nothing wrong with that either." Splinter added hastily seeing the look on Raphael's face. "I think you underestimate the power of love. Even though it takes work, it can be one of the most rewarding parts of life. My only regret from my life as a man is that I let my pride get in the way of my heart." Master Splinter turned to leave, he knew Raphael had to sort some things out in his head before he would be ready to try talking again.
"Thank you, father." Splinter heard from across the room. He just smiled to himself, Raphael could be so sensitive sometimes.
The girls returned to the lair a couple of hours later. It had taken them longer to acquire the firecrackers than they had initially thought as the guy who ran the shop wouldn't sell to them. They eventually had resorted to bribing a senior from their school who they happened to spot nearby to help them out.
It was almost eight-thirty at night and the sun was just setting on the surface. The girls changed into their disguises and started laughing at each other. Holly had on a baseball cap and a big gray hoodie with the hood pulled up over her face. She had on a black pair of sweat pants that she had had to roll up a few times to get them to fit properly. April was dressed in a similar manner. She had on a navy hoodie with white stripes down the sleeves and matching pants.
The last thing Holly had decided to change about her appearance was to ditch her glasses for the night. She had grabbed one of her pairs of contacts and decided now was a good time to put them in, she didn't want to worry about breaking her glasses if she had to run for it. If she fell over with contacts in it wouldn't do any harm.
The turtles looked at the two teenage girls, and if they hadn't known better, would have sworn they were thugs. Leo gave them a quick once over to make sure they didn't have anything sticking out that would give away who they were.
"April, make sure your hair is tucked in properly." He said to the redhead, her hair could easily be picked up against her dark clothes and that could give away her true identity. "OK I think we're ready. Where's Raph?"
"I'm here, chill out." Raph walked out of the training room, slotting his Sai into his belt. "Whoa." He stopped for the briefest moment to look at Holly. He had seen her take off her glasses to clean them, but she looked so different. Her eyes were bright and focused, and so very big. Holly raised an eyebrow at him.
"So? Are we ready to go?" April stared at Raph waiting for him to come back to them.
"Yeah, let's do this." Raph snapped back to himself like nothing had happened and charged out of the entrance. Everyone raced after him and off into the night.
The turtle boys were positioned on the roofs or buildings surrounding the fortune cookie factory. Leo was standing right above the girls and was waiting to give them the signal that they were ready. Once he saw that the others were in position, he whistled to the girls on the street. April and Holly were waiting in a side alley just out of view of the fortune cookie factory. They heard the signal and nodded to each other, they lit as many of the firecrackers as they could and hurled them around the corner at a couple of goons standing guard right in front of the factory.
The two meatheads hopped around as the firecrackers popped and flashed at their feet. The men jumped around flailing their arms from the shock, but they soon recovered and started hunting for the source. They saw two scruffy-looking teens throwing firecrackers at them from around the corner. The first goon yelled into the factory for backup while the second good stalked straight for the kids.
April and Holly threw a few more firecrackers before they started running, they knew that the two oafs at the door would follow them, but they needed to get as many of the dragons outside as possible. They saw one of the men open the factory door and yell inside for some help while the other started towards them. "Quick, throw the rest then let's go." April hissed. The two girls hurled the last few strips directly at the two guards, then turned on their heels and ran. They couldn't stick around to find out if the guys made it inside, if they were caught their cover would be blown and Leo would never let them in on a plan again.
They ran as fast as they could through the back streets in no particular direction. They couldn't head to either the lair or Aprils place just in case the Purple Dragons followed them all the way back to either place. The girls ran around corner after corner and eventually found a good place to hide so they could strip off their sweaters and stroll out onto the street in the more feminine clothes they had on underneath.
Leo hopped over to the roof next to the factory and stood next to Raphael. They watched as the girls took off at full speed with a handful of Purple Dragon members in hot pursuit. Leo put a reassuring hand on Raph's shoulder, then turned and hopped onto the roof of the factory. Donnie and Mikey were already by one of the skylights waiting to go.
"They'll be fine, let's get this over with." Leo whispered to his other worried brother in purple. They lowered themselves onto the steel girders that ran the length of the ceiling and made their way to the upper level of the warehouse. They dropped down behind some crates and peeked out to make sure the coast was clear. It looked like Stockman and the rest of the gang members were busy making sure there wasn't a gunfight going on outside, the last thing they needed was the cops to come and raid the place. There was enough stolen merchandise hidden here to get the whole group locked up for a long time.
Leo darted out from behind the crates and over to what would be offices, inside was another Mouser unit on a workbench with a few old computers running alongside it. There was also a couch and a cot in the room, but that was it. The rest of the large workspace was filled with boxed full of hard drives, processors, and motherboards.
Donnie dashed out and crept into the office room, he moved instantly to the computer network and began tapping keys on the keyboards. He pulled out his phone and a USB cord and plugged it into the front of the tower. He had created a virus that he was going to attach to Stockman's files, if he tried to access ,or recover them at all, he would have a complete system failure.
Leo pointed to the file cabinets and Mikey instantly started pulling out papers and tearing them to pieces. Raph waited outside the room hidden so he had a view of the group of men on the lower level. They didn't have long, the men were starting to lose interest in the commotion and were starting to move back from the doors.
"Let's go already." Raph hissed at his brothers.
"These things take time." replied Donnie, "You just have to be patient."
"There has to be a faster way?" Leo asked his technologically inclined brother.
"Just give me a moment, aside from stealing the hard drive this is the most effective way to shut him down." Donnie said.
This was stupid, Stockman was already climbing the stairs, and they were going to be caught no matter what. Raph groaned in frustration, he slapped his forehead with his palm and dragged it down his face. The least he could do was give Donnie more time to make sure this guy was out of commission.
Raph leaped out of his hiding place, he stood with one Sai in each hand right at the top if the stairs. "Sorry buddy, but we're just going to have to shut you down."
"What are you doing?" Was all Stockman could manage, until he looked up at his office and saw more of the things tearing up his life's work. "Hey! Stop that!" He turned towards the Purple dragon members who were still in the building. "Stop those things or you don't get paid!"
Paid, that was a word the gang was familiar with. As soon as they turned around and saw the turtles they paused, they had dealt with those freaks before, and gotten their butts whopped more than once. But when it came down to it, they would at least try so they could possibly get paid rather than give up and certainly not get paid.
The Purple Dragon members charged up the stairs past the stunned computer genius.
"Now we're talking!" Raph yelled and charged right back.
"Oh lord. Mikey, let's go!" Leo yelled back at his goofy little brother.
"Alright!" The two boys charged out of the room, leaving Donnie to finish destroying Stockmans files.
The three ninja boys dipped and dived around the flailing arms of the gang members. The odds were not in their favor, three fully trained ninjas against a room full of color-coordinated goons who weren't smart enough to graduate high school? You had to feel sorry for the gang members.
Raph took out all of his frustration on the poor unsuspecting men in front of him, he punched one of the guys in the gut with the hilt of his weapon, and he dropped to the floor gasping for air. Another was tossed over the railing and landed on top of two other halfwits. Raph dodged a fist and gave the offending brute a swift upper-cut. As he followed through with his punch, Raph span and kicked another advancing goon down the stairs into three other guys. He let a smile play across his face, he really did love this sometimes.
Leo sprang over the railing and down onto the conveyor belt on the factory floor. He swung his swords around as he assessed how many gang members they were dealing with. Raph seemed to be having plenty of fun on the stairs, so all he had to take care of were the few idiots on the floor. One of them came at him with a chain, he blocked the chain as it swished towards his face and sliced clean through it. As his sword came back around he flung the chain back at the guy who had just tried to hit him with it, the chain made a sickly thudding noise as it caught the guy in the chest.
Mikey followed Leo over the railing and started swinging wildly with his nun-chucks. He smacked a couple of guys in the face as the continuous motion of his weapon kept it spinning around and around. He ran off around the floor of the factory to come up behind the guys who were going for Raph. They just didn't have a chance, with the aggressive turtle in front of them and the excitable one behind there was nowhere to go. Within a few minutes, most of the purple dragons were lying on the floor groaning. The few who were still on their feet didn't seem to want to do anything anymore. They just stood waiting for something to happen.
Stockman was stunned, there were three huge, what looked like terrapins running around beating up his lackeys. There was a fourth one fiddling around with his computer, he had to stop him before he ruined everything. He ran up the stairs past the angry-looking one and burst through the door to his office, Stockman surveyed the damage. His paperwork was lying in tatty pieces all over the floor, and he saw an upload bar on his screen. It was almost full. Whatever that turtle creature was doing, he had to stop it before it was too late.
Donatello heard someone behind him, he turned to see Baxter Stockman in the doorway clearly distraught that his work had been destroyed. But they couldn't risk the Mousers being released into the sewers.
"I wouldn't even bother trying to stop me." Donnie said to the man, pulling his Bo staff off his back. Apparently, the mad scientist didn't want to listen as he charged into the room, his little Afro bouncing on top of his head comically. Donnie rolled around the unskilled man and gave him a good shove away from the computers.
Stockman fell face first into his grubby couch. He clearly wasn't up to taking on this thing by himself so maybe it was time to call in the cavalry. There were some perks to working on the shady side of the law.
Donnie watched stockman from across the room, he had seemed to realize he couldn't do anything but he didn't look defeated, in fact he looked like he was forming a plan. He didn't like that, if Stockman had a backup plan this could all turn very bad, very quickly.
Stockman pulled a hand-held device out of his breast pocket, it didn't look like a cell phone so he wasn't going to call anyone. However, it did have an ominous big red button on the face plate. In typical bad-guy form, Stockman gave Donnie a vicious smile and dramatically pressed the button.
There was a distinct rumbling sound coming from one end of the factory. The three turtle boys on the lower floor looked around at the source of the sound. Side by side garage doors were sliding up on an automatic winch. Behind the doors was row upon row of shiny new Mouser units, their armor bodies glinted in the fluorescent lighting.
"Donnie?" Leo called, "What are those doing there?" the few Purple Dragon members who were still in the factory started running. They had already seen what those nasty little things could do and they weren't about to stick around.
"Looks like you're too late." Stockman said softly. He drew a little canister out of his jacket and sprayed Donnie before running out of the door. He then headed for the stairs only to find his way blocked by the remaining three turtles, they just made it too easy. Stockman sprayed the same red mist on the other, then vaulted over the railing to the factory floor. He hopped up on the conveyor and just laughed.
"You really like to go through the whole mad scientist bit, don't you?" Mikey said to the cackling maniac.
"What did you just spray on us?" Donatello asked
"It's a radioactive isotope that the Mousers are programmed to hunt, and destroy." Stockman answered. He pressed another button on his hand-held remote control and a hundred little robots purred to life. The red sensors on the front of the bots blinked on and a disturbing amount of movement started towards the turtle boys. A mechanical growling reached their ears, which was responded to be a whole chorus of the same cringe-worthy screech.
All of the bots launched themselves out of the garages and at the turtle at full speed, and at first, the boys battered and smashed their way through as many of the monsters as they could but soon they were being overrun and had to retreat back up to the roof.
"We can't keep fighting those things like this. We'll exhaust ourselves." panted Leo once they were back outside.
"Yeah but we can keep running either, and those things will follow us until this isotope wears off." Donnie snapped.
"Can't we just, like, wash it off?" Mikey offered hopefully.
"If I had made it, no. So I'm guessing that stockman was smart enough to do the same." Donnie replied.
The still night was punctured by the high-pitched sound of a woman screaming. The turtles looked at each other and rushed to the side of the building, the Mousers had crashed through the front of the factory and were spilling onto the city streets. People were running in every direction that was away from the mechanical beasts, they chewed their way through benches and street signs always keeping a mechanical eye on their targets.
"This is bad." Raph muttered more to himself than anyone. A metallic screech rang out directly behind the turtles. They turned to see a lone Mouser sneaking towards them. "How did that get up here?" Raph threw a shuriken at it, it sank deep into the sensor and the robot keeled over and shut down. The four turtles let out a sigh, only to inhale it back in a moment later. More and more of the Mouser units had found their way onto the roof top.
"What do we do Leo?" Mikey yelled, shaking his leader in exaggerated desperation.
"We have to run." No one waited to be told twice. They all took off over the rooftops as quickly as they could. The Mousers on street level turned and followed the turtles, more screaming was heard as more and more people caught sight of the miniature army rushing through the streets.
April and Holly had made a clean get-away and they were feeling quite proud of themselves. They had ditched their baggy boy clothes in a dumpster and had revealed jeans and tank tops that hugged their curves. April's hair was back in its usual pony, while Holly had elected for a messy bun since she had had to hide it under the hat earlier.
They were walking the streets surrounding the fortune cookie factory, they wanted to make sure the turtles had escaped unscathed. They had been separated for about thirty minutes now and they were starting to worry. It shouldn't have taken this long.
"We should do another lap around the block, and if we still don't find them we should climb up to the roof of one of the buildings." April suggested.
"Alright, let's go around the next block over though, we've already walked that way a few times. We'll draw attention to ourselves if we go there again." Holly had been keeping tabs on where they had gone more than just a few times.
April nodded, and the girls set off. They had made it to the end of the block they were on when a woman behind them screamed. They turned to see what on earth was going on, and there was a battalion of Mousers advancing onto the streets.
"I thought they weren't operational yet?" April grabbed Hollys' arm.
"They weren't supposed to be." Holly said, eyes wide in shock. The Mousers started chewing on anything that was in their way. People were scattering everywhere, clearing off the streets as fast as they could.
Without warning, the Mousers turned and started directly at the girls. "Run!" April shouted, and they both tore off down the street.
"What the hell are they doing?" Holly shouted, "This doesn't make sense, they were supposed to hunt rats, not people.
"I don't know, but we need to get out of their way." April turned down an alley, hopped onto a trash can, up onto a dumpster, and launched herself at a fire escape. She scrambled up as fast as she could making room for Holly to do the same. Unfortunately, Holly was not as coordinated as her friend, and she tripped over the curb stumbling and crashing into the trash can. She rolled and got back to her feet and continued along the alley.
"Get to the roof and find the guys, I'll find another way up." she shouted as she continued running. The Mousers were close behind her.
April scrambled as fast as she could up to the roof, and when she reached it she pulled out her phone. She punched the speed dial and her phone instantly started ringing. A clearly running Donnie answered the other line.
"Hey April, I can't really talk right now." he panted into the speaker.
"What the hell is going on? The Mousers are running around in the streets." April cut him off.
"Yeah, they're after us." Donnie explained simply.
"How do we stop them?" April asked simply.
"Uhm." Was all Donnie offered. April felt a chill go through here body, if he didn't know what to do they really were in trouble. "Where are you? Are you safe?" Donnie asked.
"I'm fine for now, I'm on the roof. But Holly is a klutz and missed the jump. She's still on the street." April started searching the alleys around the building she was on, the Mousers were gone but there was no sign of Holly. April, braved a look over the edge of the building, before she hurled herself across the gap onto the building next to her. She tucked and rolled to avoid injury and put the phone back up to her ear. "Where are you guys?"
"Were a few buildings away, I can see you from here." April started searching frantically, she spotted the boys leaping from building to building with a swarm of Mousers following close behind them. So, the Mousers could climb. That wasn't good.
April hung up on Donnie and waved to him, the turtle boys made their way over to her along the roof-tops, smacking any Mousers that got too close to them.
"So I'm guessing things didn't go as planned?" April asked.
"Not exactly." admitted Donnie. "Stockman sprayed us with ions that the Mousers are designed to find. We can't go home until we take care of this."
"Right, so does anyone have a plan yet?" April got right to the point. They didn't have time to waste here.
"The only way to stop them is to either destroy the Mousers or wait for the ions to deteriorate." Donnie said. "Since waiting for the isotopes could take days, I think total destruction is our best option."
"And how are we going to do that exactly?" Raph asked, stabbing through three Mouser units with one strike.
"Ha! You made a Mouser kebab." Mikey pointed.
"Knock it off Mikey." Leo snapped, "We don't have time for fooling around."
"Can't we just drown them? They can't be water-proof." April offered.
"I don't think so, if they're going to be brought down it will be with an EMP or some kind of electric charge." Donnie shook his head, this was hopeless. "Have you heard from Holly?" He asked.
April shook her head, she had no idea where Holly was. "I just hope she found somewhere safe to hide out."
"Well let's get going, we need to keep moving until we have a plan." Leo motioned for the rest of the turtles to follow him.
Donnie threw April onto his back, "Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride." She just nodded.
As they leaped across the roof-tops, with the Mousers still on their trail, the little group kept bouncing ideas off one another. They couldn't just create an electromagnetic pulse out of thin air, so the next best thing was to create an artificial one. They kept moving, until Raph skidded to a stop and pointed to the other side of the road.
"I found Holly." He announced, he couldn't help but laugh at her situation. She had managed to climb onto a phone booth and was swinging at the Mousers with what looked like a crow-bar. She was holding them off fairly well until they started eating through the base of the booth. As it tipped, she launched herself at some awning over a storefront. She landed on it bouncing slightly and scrambled over to a drain pipe that she could climb up to the roof. Once she hauled herself to the roof she looked down at the street and let out a sigh.
"You look like you're doing well." Raph shouted to her across the street.
"Better than you apparently." she pointed at the Mousers that were advancing across their rooftop. The turtles and April looked at where she was pointing, they couldn't keep running like this, they needed to stop these things once and for all. Holly looked around, at this rate they would be Mouser meat before midnight. "Donnie, got any ideas?"
"Electrocution." Was all he could shout back, they were fighting off another wave of robots.
"What about that?" She shouted back.
He turned to her, and saw her eyeing up a fire hydrant. If they could get all the Mousers into a puddle of water and zap it with electricity it should overload their system. He turned back to his brothers and April, "Quick, get them all down to the street."
Holly grabbed her crowbar, she needed to get back down to the street to try and open the fire hydrant. Great, she had just made it off the street. She jumped onto a fire escape and started climbing.
Donatello grabbed April and hurled himself and the girl over the ledge of the building, the two fell a short distance until Donnie's spare hand grabbed onto a telephone line and they slid over to the other buildings. April was deposited onto the awning Holly had landed on earlier, while the tallest turtle continued down to street level drawing the Mousers nearer and nearer. The rest of the turtles followed him down and soon they were standing back to back in the middle of a sea of killer robots.
Holly couldn't find anything to open the fire hydrant with, it's not like there was a hardware store nearby. She had her crowbar, but that wouldn't be much good, she needed a wrench. She dashed out from the alleyway she was in to see the turtle boys in the street surrounded on all sides, she was out of time. She dashed out and rammed the crowbar into the valve on the front of the hydrant, but nothing happened.
"Any time now." Raph yelled at her, stabbing and kicking any Mouser that tried to chomp on his foot.
Holly looked around, the only thing tough enough to break the valve off was the Mousers, but they wouldn't do it voluntarily. Holly had an idea. She smacked one of the Mousers that was near her over its head with her crow bar, it turned around and screeched at her.
"Come and get me." She stared the little beast down, it pounced at her aiming for her knees. Just as the Mouser leaped, Holly flung herself sideways out of the line of fire. The Mousers hydraulic jaws clamped down on the valve of the fire hydrant, and instantly the back-pressure blew the bot halfway across the street. A wave of cold water hit the tarmac and spread out under the feet of the Mousers and the turtles.
"Now what?" Asked Mikey.
"Get ready to jump." Leo threw his sword up and it severed a couple of power lines that were swinging above the street. As the wires swung towards the floor, the ninja boys jumped onto anything that was up and out of the forming lake. Raph picked Holly up off the floor and threw her over his shoulder, he jumped onto the concrete base of a street light just a second before an electrical discharge spread across all the wet surfaces. The Mousers screeched as their circuits got fried, their red sensors all blinking out one at a time.
The turtles and two girls just looked at each other, Donnie had climbed up to where April was and they were making their way back up to the rooftops. Raph shifted Holly onto his shell, they were going to have to climb the light post to get to the roof from where they were.
"Hold on tight, OK?" Raph said over his shoulder. Holly just nodded grimly. She was beat, this had been another troublesome night. Raph hopped up and grabbed onto the lights horizontal beam, he swung himself and his passenger up and then jumped over to the nearest building. The gang gathered on the roof, the sound of sirens could be heard from a few blocks away.
"It's time to go guys, are we good to go back to the lair Donnie?" Leo didn't want to lead those things down to their home. This encounter had wiped his team out and they needed rest.
"We should be good, I doubt Stockman has any more ready to go right now. And the ions probably only have a half-life of about an hour. Any longer and they could be cancerous." Donnie reassured his leader.
"Let's get back below ground before the sirens get here." No one argued, even Raph kept his mouth shut for once. This had not been the best day, they had nearly been eaten by robots and it had taken all their resources to finally beat the little beasties.
Everyone got back to the lair and collapsed onto the couches. Holly took her contacts out and rubbed her eyes vigorously. April was lying face down groaning into the soft fabric. Mikey and Donnie were leaning against each other with matching looks of relief on their faces. Leo looked around, that was a disaster, it couldn't have gone much worse. Well, it could have gone worse, they had all made it home safely after all.
"Look on the bright side guys." He said to the room, "At least we destroyed all the Mousers."
"Oh yeah, we destroyed something that wasn't even supposed to be functioning at all. That's great news." Raph gave his brother a sarcastic thumbs up.
"I know it wasn't ideal, but we can't beat ourselves up about a few slip-ups." Leo reassured his team. A chorus of groans was all he got for a response. "How about we just watch some TV?" Leo grabbed the remote and found a spot to sit, he flipped through the channels until they found an old movie they all agreed on. Mikey quickly hopped up and grabbed some pizza and sodas for everyone with help from Raph.
Holly had scooted over to make room for Raph and Mikey on the couch. April had sat up to make extra room but she was getting tired and her head kept rolling from side to side. Holly was tired too, she was just going to rest her eyes for a while before she had to go home.
Raph felt something bump his shoulder, he looked over to see Hollys head resting against his shoulder, she was breathing softly and her hair had fallen out of its bun and over her face. He didn't really know what to do, he didn't want to move her in case she woke up but she couldn't be very comfortable leaning against him. He shifted uncomfortably, but she just mumbled something in her sleep and leaned in closer. She draped an arm over his, he was glad that everyone else was preoccupied since he was definitely blushing. He chanced a glance over at Donnie, he was watching the two of them enviously.
"What do I do?" Raph mouthed silently.
"Nothing, just relax." Donnie mouthed back. April had passed out and was laying on the section of the couch in between her and Holly. How he wished she had fallen the other way. Donatello had been waiting for the kind of opportunity Raph had right now, and Raph looked so uncomfortable. If it were him and April, he would brush her hair out of her face and put an arm around her shoulders pulling her in closer. And yet Raph was sitting rigid as stone looking awkward.
After an hour, Raph decided that he should probably try and wake Holly up. She hadn't moved much since she fell asleep on him, she just fidgeted until he had turned slightly and her head had come to rest on his plastron. He had his arm up on the back of the couch behind her and had started nodding off too until he had been disturbed by Mikey and Leo snickering with each other at his expense. If Holly hadn't been using him as a big green pillow he would have punched them, but then again, if she wasn't using him as a big green pillow, they wouldn't have anything to snicker at.
Raph tried to sit up straighter again, but Holly groaned in protest. He grasped her shoulders and pushed her into a seated position. "Holly, wake up." He spoke softly so as not to startle her. She just groaned again. "Holly?"
"I'll do it later." Holly mumbled. Raph shook his head, looks like they were having house guests tonight. He set her down softly on the couch and stretched, it was time to go to bed himself. Before he did though, he fetched a couple of spare pillows and blankets for the girls. He threw one set at Donnie and the two boys made sure their girls were warm and comfy.
Before he went to his room, Donnie leaned over April and brushed her hair out of her face. She smiled in her sleep and nuzzled his hand as it brushed over her skin. He couldn't help but smile himself, he looked up at Raph who was watching him. He smiled smugly and gestured that Raph might want to try the same thing.
Raphael looked down at the girl now sleeping soundly on the couch, he couldn't believe how easily Donnie had just interacted with April, like it was nothing. He just couldn't do it, sure it had been nice relaxing with her on the sofa, but that had been accidental. He had never been very affectionate, and it didn't feel right to pretend to be just because of a girl. If she really liked him, it wouldn't matter that he wasn't a hopeless romantic, that was Donatello. Instead of following his brother's lead, he just shrugged and walked to his bedroom door. If he needed to show his more sensitive side, it would be to her face, not to her sleeping frame on their family's couch.