Chapter 7: Droming Out
The Technodrome arose from beneath the surface after a long time underground on practically no energy. Shredder cackled at the newfound power of the mobile fortress. April tried to drive from the Minimizer brought from Dimension X, but the news van overturned. While her seat belt kept her from injury, the doors of the van were jammed. "The door won't open!" she cried. Her life was in peril as the Technodrome barreled her way.
"At last," Shredder cheered. "Our day of triumph is upon us! Now to crush the puny citizens of Earth!" April got on the Turtle Comm.
"Leonardo!" she pleaded. "Donatello! Anyone, help!" Inside the Technodrome, Ash and Pikachu were with Leonardo and Raphael surrounded by Jessie, Rocksteady and a fleet of many Foot Soldiers. Brock, Michelangelo and Donatello struggled with Krang, Bebop, James and Meowth. Ash took the Turtle Comm from Leonardo to address the reporter.
"April, has the Technodrome surfaced?" he asked.
"Yes!" she confirmed. "And it's heading my way with the shrunken army bases along the path!" Hearing April's plea, Jessie laughed to the situation.
"Well now, twerp," she sneered. "That woman will be flatter than a pancake if you don't hand over Pikachu. Besides, she's much too old for you anyway." Leonardo didn't believe Jessie's demand.
"You're not the one in charge, Jessie!" he called her out. Ash looked up and saw something that he thought could help. He grabbed Pikachu and hurled him high into the air.
"Use Thunderbolt!" he commanded. Pikachu fired Thunderbolt, but a blue blob-like creature with a black tail emerged before it began to glow red. The Thunderbolt struck, but bounced back at Pikachu. However, he was still flying as the Thunderbolt struck a giant claw. It spun around.
"Duck!" shouted Leonardo. They made their dive to the ground when the claw swept the group, destroying the Foot Soldiers and knocking Rocksteady and Jessie over. Debris from the large fleet scattered among the other few. Through squinted eyes and blocky arms, the blob-like creature gawked to what happened while looking like a standing tall light bulb.
"Wobbuffet, what was that for!?" snapped Jessie. The blob-like creature shrugged its arms.
"30 Foot Soldiers down in one shot," awed Leonardo. "Not bad…"
"She says April is too old for us?" grinned Raphael to Jessie. "At least she's an adult unlike the two of you!" Ash and Pikachu whistled to the insult.
"Let's get going!" urged Leonardo. He raced away with Raphael, Ash and Pikachu following. Meanwhile, Brock, Michelangelo and Donatello had to find a way to turn the tables on Krang and his team.
"You know, Krang could use an extra hand on those Turtles," Brock suggested. Michelangelo groaned to Brock's betrayal.
"Dude, I thought you're on our side!" he complained. Bebop thought about the idea.
"Yeah, ya not as feisty as dem Toitles," he agreed as he handed the rope to James. Brock slightly nodded to Donatello.
"Perhaps now," James started. "We can get Pikachu and leave you in the hands of the ninja." Brock had a grin.
"You know, we're not exactly in the same world," he pointed out. James blinked before Brock yanked the rope and James over to Bebop, knocking them both over. Freed, Brock undid the lasso.
"Hey, youse can't assault Trainers!" snapped Meowth.
"Look at the bright side, Meowth," Brock sneered. "At least I'm protecting my friends. Lombre, Water Gun!" He threw his Pokéball and released Lombre who sprayed a stream of water, striking Krang's mech.
"Not the robot!" he cried. One flail bumped Meowth off of Krang and one more flail bashed him unconscious. The attack loosened his grip on Donatello and Michelangelo.
"Way to go, Brock!" cheered Donatello. Krang shook off the watery attack and switched the balls and chain for what looked like pistons.
"Well, if you're going to be cheeky," he snarled. "Let me mash them down… PERMANENTLY!" Brock turned to see Bebop stand.
"Now, you and dose shellbrains are destroyed!" he roared. He charged at Brock as Donatello and Michelangelo leaped to Krang's back with Meowth watching.
"Bebop, don't!" they shouted. At the last second, Brock sidestepped as Bebop missed him, and Donatello threw his Bo. It tangled Bebop's feet, having him flip uncontrollably into Krang with Michelangelo behind the mech. The warthog slammed into the robot, the momentum reaching Michelangelo.
"Now to turn you guys on your heads!" he grunted as he flipped Krang and Bebop over, knocking the gang member out. Donatello gathered his Bo as Brock knelt to Krang who seemed annoyed.
"Being with my friend for so long," he teased. "I've learned to think outside the box, unlike you." Krang gawked to the mockery.
"You're just full of ways to get on my nerves," he snarled. Donatello opened the side of the mech and messed with the wires.
"And speaking of the box," he grinned. "Let's see what these wires do." Krang began to fear what Donatello was doing to the mech.
"Oh no…" he gulped and repeated. Suddenly, the mech had gone haywire and began to bounce around, gyrating and spinning around without any control. Krang yelped to the suit out of control.
"Whoa, those are some sweet breakdancing moves!" joked Michelangelo.
"Speaking of breaking, we need to break away from this!" urged Brock. He and the Turtles bailed on Krang as Leonardo got on the Turtle Comm.
"Guys, the Technodrome has surfaced and April is in trouble," Leonardo reported. "Let's regroup back at the entrance." Donatello got on the Turtle Comm.
"Got it, Leonardo!" he agreed. With the forces weakened, Team Rocket struggled to help Shredder out. Speaking of out, the Turtles and Trainers emerged from the entrance where they saw the news van overturned.
"April!" gasped Brock. Michelangelo also spotted the shrunken bases.
"If we don't move fast," he realized. "April and those army bases will be flatter than pancakes!" Ash looked up, finding the Minimizer.
"Guys, up there!" he alerted. Seeing the Minimizer, Donatello had a guess.
"That must be what shrunk the army bases!" he figured. Brock came up with a plan.
"Ash and I can get to April!" he plotted. "You guys can stop that saucer!"
"And I saw a pair of missiles that can get us there!" pointed Leonardo. They saw two large missiles that had an eye at the front of each.
"Eye see what you mean," Raphael joked. Donatello, Brock and Pikachu jumped on one missile while the others got on the second. They rocketed through the skies where the Minimizer tried to shoot the two down, but the missiles were too fast.
"I hate to end up smaller than Pikachu again!" gulped Ash. Seeing the Minimizer, Donatello guided the missile above the contraption where the Turtles leaped off of the weapon to the Minimizer. Ash, Brock and Pikachu saw the news van with Brock gritting.
"If we don't get April out of there, she's done for!" he warned. Ash had a lasso of his own with it tied to the missile.
"Get in close, Brock!" he urged. "I'll rope her out!" Brock turned to see Ash spinning the rope.
"We only have one shot at this!"
"And I've been the now-or-never trainer, what's your point!?" They raced to April to tried to collect herself.
"It's okay, April," she told herself. "The Turtles rescue you at the last minute…" Ash threw the lasso before it hooked onto a steel latch in the back of the van. The missile pulled with enough torque to free the van from the ground, flipping once onto the wheels as Pikachu severed the rope with a glowing tail. The van rolled for a few yards before Ash, Brock and Pikachu abandoned the missile to crash and explode far away. They rushed back to the van as April undid her seatbelt.
"April!" shouted Ash. April stumbled and pushed herself up with the side of the van.
"Thank goodness that you're okay!" awed Brock.
"That makes all three of us," April sighed. "But what about the Turtles!?" Pikachu looked up from April's shoulder. The Turtles saw the van flipping, knowing Ash and Brock saved April.
"Righteous!" cheered Michelangelo. "April's in the clear!" Raphael looked up to the Minimizer before the Technodrome.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he noticed.
"I'm way ahead of you, Raphael!" understood Donatello as he opened a control board and messed with the dials. "Let's see…" Ash saw the bases, but he and the others on the ground were too far away to reach them. Leonardo knew time wasn't long for the bases.
"Donatello!" he urged. Finally, Donatello saw something that would work.
"I think I found it!" he yelped as he spun a knob. The beam that shrunken the bases now struck the Technodrome.
"All right!" cheered Michelangelo. "Now, we can give the Technodrome a taste of their own medicine!" Inside, James worked on rewiring Krang's suit with Shredder, Rocksteady, Bebop, Jessie and Meowth watching.
"You're not so bad with gadgetry," Krang complimented.
"Well, Jessie, Meowth and I assembled many contraptions to get Pikachu," James briefed on the background. "And this is nothing I can't do alone."
"At least two of you are useful in making sure things work," Shredder sighed.
"But I enjoyed seeing Krang bust some sweet dance moves," Rocksteady snickered.
"Da only ting dat needs busting is dem twoips when we're ready to attack," Meowth groaned… before the power went out. Everyone looked around.
"Uh, what's happenin'?" wondered Bebop. Krang gasped to the reason.
"Those Turtles!" he snarled. "They have the Minimizer!" The beam from the Minimizer shrunk the Technodrome down to Pikachu's size. "Oh no… we're shrinking!" Krang repeated with a higher pitch in his voice.
"We did it!" cheered Leonardo. "We shrunk the Technodrome!" That's when the Minimizer began to lose power. Quickly, Michelangelo climbed on top of the Minimizer as it fell with the Turtles hanging on. Ash quickly had to act.
"Swellow, help us!" he called forth. Swellow popped out of its ball and reached the Minimizer's underbelly. It lifted the front of the Minimizer as Michelangelo weighed the back of it.
"Ash really cares about us if his bird's got the power!" gulped Raphael. Seeing a possible safe landing, Leonardo turned to his brothers.
"Swellow, disengage when we jump!" he ordered. The Turtles released from the Minimizer and Swellow slowed himself down to let the saucer crash in the plain.
"I believe it's safe to say that Ash is no birdbrain in what he can do," Raphael scoffed. Swellow cawed in agreement. Ash followed the miniature Technodrome while hearing Shredder and Krang argue about the plan backfiring.
"So, what can we do with the Tykenodrome?" he teased. Raphael and April burst out laughing to the mock.
"Tykenodrome!" she repeated. "That's awesome!"
"Who pays for your lines!?" chortled Raphael. "He needs more money!"
"Well, let's first get this out of the way,"Ash suggested before kicking the Technodrome down the hole it came from. Everyone else watched.
"So much for Shredder's reign on Earth," Leonardo sighed.
"At least they're back where they came from," Michelangelo acknowledged. Everyone walked away from the hole, but they didn't know what continued in the pit with a large hole from Ash's kick.
"Now I know what a needle in a haystack feels like," James whined.
"I feel tinier dan a Diglett," Meowth cried.
"This is what I get for sticking with you when you wanted me to be a big man!" argued Shredder.
"Do something with that big brain of yours!" demanded Jessie.
"Relax, all of you!" snapped Krang. "I designed the Minimizer and I can undo the effects of its rays!" He used the robot to pull a lever down. The Technodrome began to grow back up. Donatello found a large rifle-like gun and offered it to April.
"Get this gizmo to the army, April," he instructed as the other Turtles worked on the van to see if it could still run. "With the modifications I made to it, they should be able to restore all of the bases back to normal."
"Sure thing, Donatello," April agreed. Brock was behind the wheel when Leonardo gave a thumb up. Brock turned the key and the van started.
"There we go!" smiled Brock. He stepped out of the driver's seat as Ash opened the back of the van. That's when there was a rumbling. Everyone felt and turned to it, thinking the boulders would crush them.
"Look out!" sheuted April. The rain of Earth created a pile on top of the Turtles, Trainers, April and the news van. Shredder cackled as the Technodrome resurfaced and started their conquest again.
"PIKACHU!" cried Team Rocket, believing Pikachu was crushed by the Earth. With the heroes under the rubble and the Technodrome back on the surface, Earth is in trouble.
TO BE CONTINUED…
(Happy Pokémon Day!)