Chapter 3: Attack of the Mousers
A very wise frog once said 'it's not easy being green', but believe me he didn't know the half of it. In the past forty-eight hours my brothers, lil sis, and I have been attacked by killer robots, had our home caved in on us, and had a serious butt-kicking ninja battle with some deadly ninja assassins. We made a shell-raising escape in an armored car, found a new place to live —"This is beyond awesome," Michelangelo's voice echoed in the chamber — and were attacked by even more killer robots. — A woman's scream filled the tunnel as she was surrounded by the Mousers before they were destroyed. — Oh, and we also managed to perform our very first ninja rescue. This is the closest any of us has ever been to a human being. — The turtle leaned down and asked, "How ya' doing?" to the human — And it raises one very big question. — "Can we keep her?" The turtle turned to ask his siblings.
Isabella honestly felt anxious about bringing a whole new person into their new home, let alone a human. It didn't help that she was tired from not having slept that much at all. Her eyes tried to remain on the auburn-haired woman but nothing happened. Everything was silent, everyone else was waiting for her to wake up. It all looked so unnerving. The gecko nearly nodded off in the armchair, leaning back into it before a voice finally broke the silence. "Oh man, what a dream. Turtles fighting robots." Isabella opened her eyes to see the human woman on the couch lift her head off the spare pillow.
Her green eyes were groggy and she still sounded exhausted. "Did I fall asleep watching TV again? That was the..." She was suddenly more alert when her eyes saw the four turtles taking up the majority of her view. "weirdest thing ... I've ever seen." The one in orange had a broad grin across his face (beak?) and he winked, clicking his tongue at her. The human however was still in shock, looking around the place. Where was she? This definitely wasn't her home. She turned back ahead when one of the turtles, the same dark teal one in orange came forward. "Hi!" He chirped. However, instead of greeting back, she jumped up and screamed. He screamed in shock as well, but thankfully it was short. He panted softly, waving his hands in front of him. "Please don't do that." He set a hand on the chest part of the plastron, nearly clutching onto it while trying to stop his racing heart from the sudden sense of panic. "I almost jumped out of my shell."
The human however didn't hear his words and instead was too intensely focused on his hand. "It has... three fingers." She pulled the spare pillow from the side and covered her head, trying to convince herself that the situation wasn't real while her eyes were squeezed shut. "I'm asleep, I'm asleep, I'm asleep, I'm asleep." She continued chanting while Donny spoke up, "This isn't going very well." Mikey turned to the older yellowish-olive green slider. "Hey, come on! We don't have much practice talking to humans. It's gonna take a little time."
"I'm asleep, I'm asleep." The woman paused for a moment to look up, hoping for any change but nothing had happened. She curled the pillow around her head entirely, letting out a muffled "I'm so asleep." Once more, she continued chanting. Mikey felt his face drop a bit before he shook his head and yawned. "Man, she's making me sleepy." Isabella gave a sort of look at him before finally getting up off the armchair with a huff. The human hadn't noticed her yet due to her brothers' more hulking forms compared to her lithe build. "Sis, where.." Donny asked lowly to the gecko. The gecko merely swayed her tail a bit and clicked at him, annoyed and tired. He backed off. "I didn't want to be the one to do it, but I see I've got to be now." She hissed lowly and went on.
The human still had her face covered while Isabella went past her and the others, heading to the sliding doors of Splinter's room. "Master Splinter..?" She asked for him. The dark-furred marten rat on the inside turned upon hearing her voice. Odd, she wouldn't come forward so often. Something was wrong. "Come in, my daughter." He replied so softly. "What has happened?" The rodent asked the little lizard who stood before him, shuffling softly on her feet back and forth. "I'm sorry to interrupt anything, master, but.. the guys and I.. got ourselves into a mess." His eyes opened and he looked up to her. "I know you said we shouldn't be seen by any more humans but.." Suddenly the rat was much more alert with his hair standing on end. "It's going to be a little hard with an actual human in here." Isabella nearly recoiled upon a low hiss of his own. "Where?" He stood up, picking his walking stick up.
"Out there on the couch. She's not bad. It's just.. a set of circumstances that kinda led us here." The gecko knew his immediate thought was danger and she couldn't blame him, especially for how his ears ended up the way they did with a small bit of his ear so easily sliced away. She shuddered at the memory. "Hmm," he hummed, calming himself down a bit before he could rush out. "She's not bad? I'll be the judge of that." He still sounded skeptical but was much more calm than before. Isabella was relieved.
While Isabella was speaking to Splinter in his room, the turtles still occupied the woman. Raph finally walked up to her and poked her on the shoulder. "Hey you." He sounded rough in grabbing her attention. April picked the pillow up off her head and looked over at him, "What?" She still sounded skittish, something that reminded Raph of Isabella way back then in their childhood years. He pushed the thought aside and focused on the situation at hand. "What do you know about those Mouser robot things?" The redhead hugged the pillow and calmed down a bit more before finally giving a real, actual answer to them. "Well, first I thought they were for cleaning up the city's rat problem, but then I got suspicious when Dr. Stockman said," she halted her words, "Oh no, I'm talking to it."
"What?" Leo chided in. "I'm talking to it. To you!" She freaked out for a moment before trying to rationalize the whole situation, "Okay April, you are talking to a giant, three-fingered turtle. The only logical explanation is that you're dreaming. So everything's okay." She waved her hand, "Hello." At the very least, she appeared calmer than before. "Hello, April... How are you doing?" Leo spoke slowly and carefully to not freak her out once more. "Oh, I'm fine. Everything's absolutely great." She giggled hysterically before gasping at a new figure approaching before her, or rather two new figures and nearly curled into herself. "Then perhaps you are ready to answer some questions." The rat mutate came closer in front of her while a lizard was left between the turtles in blue and purple.
"You... you're a... and a.." April stuttered for a moment before finally passing out, leaning back on the couch. Leo's hands went to the sides of his face, out of slight frustration over this. "You sure have a way with the ladies, Master Splinter." Donny made a jab at the older rat who gave a glance at him with furrowed brows. "Now what do we do?" The yellowish-olive green Cumberland slider worried. "Let's nudge her," Leo suggested. Mikey defected from the group surrounding the front of the couch and walked to the table, grabbing his music player. "I'll snap her out of it," Raph grumbled. "Raphael, no!" Splinter, however, stopped him from what he was trying to do. The dark teal green turtle in orange sat down on a foldable lawn chair. "Aww, somebody get me when she wakes up." He notified everyone else and pulled his headphones on before playing his music.
Isabella let out a sigh and headed away from the situation as well. "Isa, why'd you have to grab Splinter?" Raph grumbled at her. "You think a whole human was going to go unnoticed to a rat who had experiences with different humans?" She retorted. "Now, can we all not surround her front so closely? She literally woke up and the first thing she sees is us crowding her. I mean, I get we rescued her from a life-or-death situation but that doesn't help this right now. She was already freaking out over being in an unfamiliar place before bonehead over there," Isabella pointed to the dark teal green turtle who was now jamming on his headphones and not aware of the attention on him, "decided to freak her out more by saying anything. Do you guys even get where I'm going with this?" She ranted to the three turtles and one rat. The other three Cumberland sliders decided to back up while the black marten rat gave a hum, keeping his gaze on the human, still wary of her but understanding as well. "Hmm.. you do have an excellent point, Isabella." He pointed out, shooting his eyes to Raphael who was frustrated but nodded and kept his distance from April as well.
"Good. I'm going to go doze off now. I hadn't slept for a while," Isabella yawned. Leo nearly broke his neck to look at her with a stern face. "Isa, you know better." He already sounded like a mini Splinter with his scolding, having a hand on his hip and waving the other one with a pointed finger at her. "You were supposed to rest. We can't have a second Donny walking around." Donny looked at him and gave an offended, "Hey!" Isabella gave a huff, "You don't have to scold me. I know." She griped at him. "I got her." Raph swept an arm on Isa and picked her up with little effort. "Hey! I can get up the stairs just fine!" She barked. "Says the same lizard who once fell asleep sticking to the wall before dropping."
Isabella gave an irritated set of clicks while she got thrown over his shoulder. The dark green Cumberland slider in red rolled his eyes and carried her up to her room. There was a smirk across his beak and he chuckled. Isa suddenly shot up. "No... no no no no. Ah!" She yelped and suddenly felt air rush past her form before feeling her bedding cushion her landing. The turtle just chuckled at the lizard laying flat on her back. "There. Now get to napping, gecko girl." He snapped in a playful tone before getting a pillow to his face. "Oof. Hey!" He growled softly. The gecko just huffed back at him and rolled over, curling in. "Don't forget to grab me when April's up."
"Yeah, yeah." He grumbled back at the leopard gecko and tossed the pillow, watching it land on top of her head. She just accepted her fate and put an arm over it. It took a little over a moment before her breathing finally steadied and slowed down, exhaustion finally taking her out, and Raphael left once she settled in. Oh Kami, he's gotta set someone else to get Isa. She was hissy when she was tired and he hated that so much. That's not even counting the weird dreams she got now and then. Hopefully, it's just a power nap this time and no one had to worry about her snapping at anyone.
The sun was shining far above them. It was nice, spring weather up on the streets of New York. A bank was rather semi-busy today. Some people cash in checks, some dreading to close up accounts due to personal reasons and others going through the motions. A man approaches the bank teller with cash in hand. He handed it over and watched as she counted. Barely a few shuffles into counting, they hear it and paused everything. There was a banging noise that greatly resembled the sound of marching, but there was no parade. Or at least, not a normal one.
The sounds came from inside the vault. The building itself began to quake along with the banging, making everyone unsteady on their feet and they had to brace themselves. "What is that?" A blonde-haired woman yelled above the banging noises, before running out of the bank. People began to scream and flee in panic, running out of the building and into the streets. The closest buildings by the bank felt the effects of whatever was causing the quaking and people from those buildings proceeded to leave as well.
Inside the vault, the floor cracked, breaking apart and rubble exploded everywhere, sending rocks and dust flying. The dust covered the cameras' view, but the camera was able to capture little glowing lights in the cloud. Many lights came out from the hole and they moved about, spreading all around the room. The bank manager was watching the cameras from his monitor on the desk. His face mostly showed confusion. It was just a lovely day moments ago. "What in the world..." He scratched his head with a finger to show how flabbergasted he was. He didn't bother staying much longer and went to get authorities, where he didn't catch the sight of a Mouser bot getting the camera in its mouth and presumably crushing and eating on it.
The Mousers traversed all over the vault, climbing on the lock boxes before pulling them out and dropping them for their comrades on the ground. They were swift in ripping open the box and quickly ate the contents inside. The good Doctor Stockman watched in delight at his creations doing what he ordered them to. He laughed, "These security measures are pitiful. An insult. Nothing can stand in the way of my consummate genius." He set his hands together, interlocking his fingers while he watched his Mousers with a sense of pride.
Meanwhile, rattling alarms rang outside and two police cars arrived on the scene with their tires screeching to a halt in front of the building. Two policemen came out of the vehicles and went ahead, jumping back a bit when they saw people rushing out of the revolving door. It spun for a moment before the younger policeman set a hand on the surface of one door and pushed through while the other, much older officer followed him in. The bank manager rushed to them with a sense of urgency. "This way, please! Something's happening in the vault!" He pointed to the vault and led them to the massive vault door. He punched in a code and the door unlocked, leaving him and the other two men to open up the door inwards.
They stepped into the room where all valuables would be. It was a mess of broken lock boxes that were ripped apart, rubble everywhere, and various types of dollar bills fluttering to the ground. There was a massive hole in the ground but it wasn't wide enough for a person to go through. What they didn't know was that there was no person and they'd never know who or what did this in broad daylight. The robbers were gone without much of a trace left behind.
"Someone's got to get the little lizard." The turtle in red huffed. April roused awake a bit ago and she watched the turtles bicker softly. "And that's gotta be me. Why?" The one in purple placed a hand on his chest in a sassy manner. "Because you're the one with the five-and-a-half-foot stick. That'll be some distance between you and lil sis that way she doesn't snap at you." Red pointed out. The yellowish-olive green turtle in purple was about to argue back at him. The Kelly green turtle in blue appeared back from their kitchen, careful of the teacup in his three-fingered hand, and gently handed it over to the auburn-haired woman. He turned to the other two. "I'll get her. Raph, you go get Mikey. He needs his own wake-up call and you're the best at it." He redirected the dark green turtle's attention to the "Mikey" character sitting across the room on a foldable lawn chair and jamming to whatever was playing on his headphones.
The Kelly green turtle in blue left and headed up the stairs to what April presumed to be their sister's room. 'It seems their sis could probably be scary when tired,' April thought. 'Then again who wouldn't be upset over waking up?' She wouldn't blame the girl. She, herself had her bad mornings so she had no room to judge.
Leo made it up the stairs and gently pushed the dark curtains aside, feeling the thick, velvety texture of the deep blue material. They reminded him of something from the theaters, but of course, not as heavy. He noted mentally before being brought out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of shuffling. His kelp-colored eyes snapped over to the leopard gecko's mattress where her form was beginning to scurry a bit. "Sh-" He stopped himself from letting loose any swears. He'd never hear the end of it from any of his siblings if he let it slip out.
The Cumberland slider rushed in with the curtains flying past his form. "Isa." He gently tried to rouse her awake. The leopard gecko could barely respond, instead letting out a groan. "Isa, wake up. It's just a dream." He grabbed her by the sides of her arms, shaking her gently. The gecko finally responded with her eyes opening and a breath shakily being brought in. "Same one again?" He asked with a slightly raised eye ridge. Isabella looked rather confused for a moment, still trying to wake up from what was a nap before grumbling. "I'll take that as a yes," Leo concluded, letting go of her arms and giving a sigh of relief that she hadn't snapped at him this time. He still remembers the bite on Splinter's hand and how the marten rat stiffened, letting her realize what she did for a moment before the lizard pulled back and apologized. It was some sort of habit that stirred now and again, probably something from the life before them. Leo shook his head, not wanting to think of that possibility.
"What happened?" Isabella asked, sitting up and stretching out. "April woke up a bit ago and we kinda didn't want to start anything without you there." Leo summarized for her. Isabella loosened her mask for a moment, rubbing her eyes a bit before putting it back on. "Alright. Lead the way, big blue." He gave a huff at her and left the room, letting the curtain drag across his side a bit. The gecko followed him out, arranging her belt to fit her kusarigama.
Raphael had his eyes set on Leo while he climbed up the stairs before he headed over to Mikey lounging back on the lawn chair with his headphones on and his hand tapping along to the music on the chest part of his plastron. "Hey." He tried to grab the younger turtle's attention for a moment but Mikey was still blissfully ignorant of his brother. The dark green Cumberland leaned down to the other and raised his voice to where his ear would be while thumping his hand on top of his head, "Hey, Earth to Mikey."
"Ow! Wh~at?" The dark teal turtle in orange sounded dramatic as usual. Raphael stopped himself from rolling his eyes at him and notified Mikey. "She woke up. Leo made her some tea and she's ready to consider we might be real." Mikey gave a thumbs-up and smiled. "Awesomely radical dude." He admits that he sounded like someone from the 80s. "Ha, you keep talking like that and she's gonna pass out again." Raph pointed a finger at him and walked away from him, receiving a dirty look from the younger turtle. "Hey." Mikey sounded offended.
The auburn-haired woman sat up on the couch, blowing on the steam off the hot cup of tea she was handed moments ago and taking a sip before looking over to the first turtle person she's seen from before. "So~o, you okay now?" He asked softly, dragging out the o a bit. "Yes, thanks. I've decided this is either a very long dream that I keep not waking up from or it's the weirdest thing that ever happened to me." She concluded, sounding a little more downtrodden at the notion of it obviously being the latter. "Young woman," She sat up when the dark-furred rat in the chair in front of her gently called for her attention, "we have something most important to discuss."
"What?" She asked, still surprised at how serious he looked, and yet his voice was so soft. "We have never revealed ourselves to the upper world. You have placed us all in grave danger." He waved his hand across the room, motioning to the reptiles all in the room. The Kelly green turtle on the rat's right-hand side looked up to him. "But Master Splinter, she was in trouble and we helped her." Splinter gave him a glance with a neutral expression just as his other son joined in. "Yeah, aren't you always teaching us to do the right thing?" He looked over to Raphael who had his arms crossed, looking serious like himself but his voice just as soft while he backed up his brother.
The rat's eyebrows furrowed and his whiskers twitched while he spoke, "As you grow older, you will learn there are many ways to 'do the right thing'." He caught sight of his youngest child nearly recoiling at the idea of what he could've meant and sighed, looking down with a worried expression. "But there is no going back. I'm afraid we find ourselves at your mercy." He bowed his head, hunching his back slightly, and shut his eyes to avoid having them widen instinctively. His mouth tightened while his ears were alert. He tried hard not to show that he was nervous but the posture of his body betrayed him. Most humans might not know of the rat's body language but this human before him wasn't most humans because most humans would've already sought a chance to hurt any of them or run.
Despite how he tried to sound calm, she could tell there was a sense of nervousness in his voice. "Oh, I would never tell anybody. I mean, who would believe me?" She answered back with her arms spread out for a moment while sounding just as nervous as him if not more so, which honestly the mutants in the room couldn't blame her for it. "She's got a point." The yellowish-olive green turtle seated on the arm of the couch spoke up before Mikey jumped in. "Yeah, we're unbelievable." He struck a few poses while the dark green turtle came up behind him and set his hands on his hips. "Geez, where's your off switch?"
"Seriously, I promise." April set a hand on her chest, sounding genuine. The rat had to see this himself. He grabbed his walking stick and pulled his legs out from under him, getting off the chair and going straight to her. He kneels, meeting her gaze. Hmm, the last time he got this close to a human he remembered their expression. It was one of terror. He could still sometimes feel the phantom sting of his ears from that encounter. Now, he couldn't blame anyone for feeling that had he been in their place, but he wasn't and that human from the past had put one of his pack, his family in danger when his children were still considered pups to his rat mind. To Splinter, endangering his children was something he could never accept, let alone forgive anyone for.
This human, however, didn't have an expression of terror or felt a need for violence. He gave a soft sniff, gauging her emotions by scent, and found she was calm. Nervous but calm. His fur settled down and his body loosened up, no longer feeling the need to retreat. His mouth was no longer pulled tight and his whiskers settled. The woman stared back at him, watching his posture change slightly. Relief washed over the rodent and he finally spoke up to respond. "I believe you." His eyes looked over to see his eldest son, Leonardo coming beside him. "Is this another lesson, Master Splinter? How to sense the truth?" Isabella wanted to roll her eyes at the turtle's eagerness to learn from the rat. He had always been that way. Splinter almost wanted to let out a small chuckle at him but instead, he smiled. "No. This is called trusting your gut." His ears picked up the sound of a soft giggle coming from his gecko daughter. "So," April got his attention back. "if I'm keeping your secret, what exactly is it? Who are you people, uh, turtles, uh, whatever?" Isabella chuckled again, not blaming her for noticing the majority of turtles in the home. "It's alright. We get it."
The black, more like dark grey, marten rat sat himself back down in front of her, settling his legs underneath him once more. "I have memories, memories of when I used to be what you might call normal." Splinter can still recall the former feral self that he once was a decade and a half ago. A life of when he was once a mere rat among the streets. "I remember a day that started like any other, but ended changing the course of many lives." He remembered walking on all fours out of a massive box and sniffing around for any scraps before he squeaked and turned to leave the alleyway, sniffing and looking around. He remembered looking up to see the massive humans standing around street corners and waiting for the lights to change. "I witnessed an accident. A young boy carried a glass jar with four pet, infant turtles. An old, blind man was crossing the street, when he was almost run down by a large truck."
He remembered how the horns of the truck with bold letters on the side blared to his sensitive ears and how an older boy ran to the old man, jostling the young boy, who drops the glass jar, which breaks. The four turtles landed in the water that headed to a storm drain while the older boy pushed the man out of the way of the truck. "As the truck swerved, a metal canister bounced out of the back." He remembered watching the young owner of the turtles reaching down for them but got out of the way of the canister. There was another boy, one with blue hair on his head, trying to reach for them too and his friend, a boy with dark hair was witnessing the accident, trying to gain his attention. The turtle infants had slipped down the storm drain, far away from the boys' reach, and the canister followed them down.
"It smashed open, releasing a glowing ooze, which covered their bodies. I took pity, gathering them up in a coffee can." He recalls how he picked one of them with the tail pinched between his fingers. That turtle, perhaps the one he'd eventually call Michelangelo, shook his body and got the glowing green ooze on his snout before he wiped it off with his other paw. "I took them to my burrow." His burrow was in an unused sewer tunnel, packed with dried grass he had collected over time. He shoveled the grass aside to set the little baby turtles to hide underneath it before he too buried himself into the dried grass as well, curling up near the turtles and falling asleep. He was exhausted from hauling them to his burrow and spending more time than he would ever admit just figuring out how to pull a can up to his home.
"The next morning," A poke on his nose made him twitch it and his whiskers before he opened his eyes to a shocking revelation. "I awoke to find the four had doubled in size. The ooze had affected their growth. It changed me also, making me larger, and more intelligent." He still thinks about his first thoughts when he looked at his new massive hand compared to the tiny paw it once was. "They followed me everywhere, except above ground." He went exploring with a new set of eyes for the first time. While he was grateful for the intellect, he also knew it was a burden he had to bear, just as much as it was theirs. He looked back to the quadruplet of turtles trailing after him while he walked on two legs for the longest while now. "I knew the people of the surface would not understand. We are so different. I was amazed by their dexterity." Behind him, one of the turtles mimicked his movements by walking on two legs as well, but only for a short moment before stumbling back down on all fours. "But even so, I was not prepared for what happened one day."
His ears suddenly picked up a new noise, no, a new voice, coming from behind him. "Splin~ter." He remembered very vividly the feeling he had when he stumbled to a stop, turning around to see the baby turtle smiling up at him as if he had no idea what he said that made the rat so surprised. "They actually spoke! My name!" Splinter honestly should've known better. The rat did tell them who he was the first time he ever figured out how to put words together. He didn't think they'd understand across species but that moment when the infant said his name changed everything. "Soon they all were speaking." He remembered fondly of them switching between their noises he could barely translate and words he only ever began memorizing from listening to the humans and to finally understanding his master's voice in his memories and dreams.
"Intelligence followed soon after." And time flew by so quickly, years turned into a blur. He remembered the day the old burrow became too small and they moved to another place, fitting the four turtles and one rat. "Realizing that the world above is sometimes a dangerous place, I began teaching them ninjitsu, the secret arts of stealth and power, and all that I knew of this world. From a battered book on Renaissance art that I fished out of the storm drain, I chose names for each of them." He looked over to the turtles, mentioning them by their names and properly introducing them, "Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo," All of the turtles stood to the sense of pride at their names and the rat turned his head over to the small leopard gecko who was giving a soft, polite smile at April, "and last and certainly never the least, Isabella. Together, they are..." Splinter felt a smile creep up along his snout as he watched his sons join together with their hands giving a high three. "Turtles forever."
Isabella rolled her eyes. "You guys really worked hard on that, didn't you?" She asked, leaning on the side of the chair and trying to make it seem like she didn't miss it the first time. Donny chuckled, "We'll workshop it, sis." Mikey walked over to April and leaned on the back of the couch. "Or something like that, that we all yell at once." Raph sat on the opposite side of April. "First rule, ignore Mikey, your life will be much easier." He had a smirk on his beak, but Mikey either didn't notice or cared too much with a smile on his beak before he got up and walked away. "So we have remained in secret. And that is our story."
"But how did you know martial arts?" April asked before motioning her arm in Isabella's direction, "And where does Isabella come from?" The rat stood up with his walking stick and held it before himself while in front of April. "That is a story for another time. As for Isabella, when the turtles were just boys they had found her in hiding. Her origin evades me, but she has been with us since that day." He spoke so softly, being delicate around the subject of his daughter. It still troubles him that he doesn't know of her past nor what causes her dreams to be so troubling every now and then. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard his youngest son speak up. "Hey guys, look at this!"
He turned his head around, seeing Michelangelo standing in front of the array of televisions. One of them being turned on. "And the police are completely baffled by this daring bank robbery boldly executed in broad daylight. If anyone has any information, the police urge you to call the crime stoppers hotline." The newscaster spoke, showing footage of a bank and inside it, the vault's interior was a mess of rubble, torn apart lock boxes, and a massive hole in the ground. Mikey shook his head at all of it. "So, anybody wanna take a wild guess what did this?" He asked, nearly sarcastically while the TV has shown a close-up image of some very familiar Mouser footprints dug into the ground.
"This must be what I heard Dr. Stockman talking about. He's got the Mousers robbing banks." April got up close to the television, looking at the footprints carefully while her hands were behind her back before turning to the mutants in the room and moving one of her hands on her hip. "What do ya' know about this Stockman guy?" Raphael asked, leaning forward and setting a hand on the arm of the couch, looking ready to jump up. "He's a genius." She praised at first before her voice went to a different tone, "He's also nuts. I used to work for him, but when I got suspicious, he turned the Mousers on me. Luckily I ran into you guys." Leo turned from April to the others in the room. "He destroyed our old lair." He specified, mostly to Raphael who had been waiting since the Mousers' first appearance to put the hurt on the maker of those machines. "Must have been one of his Mouser test runs." April sneered. "But, that was our home." Mikey sounded so hurt. The majority of their memories were lost to the old lair's rubble while parts of it stood on its last legs, awaiting the day they'd crumble. "Now he's graduated to banks," Donny added. Isa decided to interject, "Nah, he was going from robbery to murder. Who knows what would've happened to April if we hadn't been there in time." That made the human shudder at the idea, but she was quick to shake it off.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Raph stood up and unsheathed his sais, spinning them around before crossing them over his face. "I say we shut down Mouser Central, permanently." Mikey crossed his arms and chuckled, leaning over to April. "I just love those action movie lines. You write those yourself?" He left her while she went into thought, putting a hand on her chin, before speaking up. "It won't be easy. Stocktronics is rigged with the latest, up-to-the-minute security tech." She crossed her arms over her chest. Isabella raised an eye ridge of her own. 'She barely knows us for a day and already she wants to help us out.' She thought. 'Of course, we did save her and all that so maybe this shouldn't be so surprising for her to want justice.'
Mikey scoffed playfully. "Tch. Bring it on. Allow me to introduce our very own secret weapon." He set his hands on Donny, showing him off. "The techno turtle himself, Donatello! Take a bow, Don." The yellowish-olive green turtle chuckled nervously, looking embarrassed. "Aw, cut it out." He brushed his younger brother off. April had to take a seat on the chair, putting her hands together. "It's an insane idea." She started, "Then again, according to Splinter here, you guys started out as four standard-issue pet turtles in the wrong place at the wrong freakin' time. I mean, jeez, I'm talking to a quartet of turtles who wind up mutated thanks to some unknown gunk, get adopted by a sewer rat who gives them names he pulled out from an old book, found a little lizard along the way, and spends the next decade training them as ninjas! So, who knows what's "normal" anymore."
"Can we go, please?" Raph punctuated every word in his request, practically oozing excitement. Mikey gave a classic grin. "For the record, that's Raph being normal." Raphael paid no mind to him. He was busy being so antsy to finally get his hands on Stockman the most and of course, no one blamed him for it.
The doors slid apart and the Mouser bots marched, single file and in unison, into the factory. They all stopped and spilled the stolen merchandise by the load before continuing through the factory, leaving to fulfill their mission. Stockman watched as they marched with a grin. "Excellent. Excellent! The world, as they say, is my oyster, and aren't the pearls lovely?" He clapped his hands together, prideful of his work. The light on the console began to blink incessantly and his grin was switched to an annoyed expression. "Urggh! What?" He pressed the button, finally turning off the light and hearing the voice on the other end. "Dr. Stockman." The voice of his employer greeted. However, Baxter was not there for pleasantries. "Make it quick, I'm very busy." He sat down and crossed his arms.
"I am contacting you to verify that you are fulfilling your end of our bargain and that you are on schedule." He listened to the message and sneered back at the caller, "I will not stand for any more of this idiotic interrogation. I've advanced the Mousers to the next stage and they are securing the funds from the banks as you requested. Can you grasp that simple concept?" He stood up, squeezing his fists. Annoyance was definitely not the right word. Frustration maybe. "Do not presume too much, Dr. Stockman. The price for failure will be quite... extreme." He slammed his fists down before angrily punching the button and ending the call. "Imbecile." He shook his fist and sat down, crossing his arms and letting out a huff, watching for the Mousers to finish their work.
The quintet of reptiles followed after the human woman who was leading them back to Stocktronics through the tunnels. They rounded the corner and April suddenly raised a hand to halt them, hearing some beeping noise. Donny turned to the others and shushed his siblings. The auburn-haired woman pointed to the source of the noise. It was a device mounted on the wall. She ducked under it and opened the cover just before Donny extracted some wires. "Alarms in the sewers? Is this guy paranoid or what?" Mikey poked fun. "Will you shut it?" Raphael hissed to hush him. Mikey just grinned. "I'm just saying." He shrugged.
"Could April and I have some quiet?" Donny looked over his shoulder to his siblings, pinching the wire between his fingers and gently pulling it out of the wall. "This is delicate work." He turned his attention back to the device. Mikey put a hand on his chest, "Ooh, April and I." He set his hands together before doing a typing motion, "This is delicate work." He teased, crossing his arms. "Gimme a break." Isabella shoved him aside. "Stop it." She spoke in a hushed tone. Mikey gave a quiet but dramatic gasp at her shoving before Raph had enough and grabbed his beak. "She said stop it, alright?" Mikey let out a grumble back at the older. "Fine."
In the hallways of Stocktronics, two guards were patrolling, aware of their surroundings but not aware enough for after they passed by, the grate on the wall swung open. "Is this the place?" Raph's voice asked softly. "There's a computer terminal in that lab." The redhead pointed to the door. "Get me in and I can create blank spots in the security system to get you through to Dr. Stockman's main lab." Raph grinned, "Don't look now, but we already got a blank spot right here." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to Mikey's direction who looked offended. "Hey!" Isabella chuckled at that.
Raphael grasped the top of the opening and swings his way out, landing quietly in the corridor. The last thing he needs is to make the guards turn around and it all be over right before anything begins. He glanced around, making sure the coast was clear, and turned around to help April out of the spacious air duct. He set her down and immediately went over to the door that was labeled Lab A, checking the door by jiggling the handle and finding it was locked before he pulled out his sai. He looked over to April with a cocky expression then proceeded to pick the lock on the door, concentrating with his tongue sticking out and everything.
It finally unlocked and he grinned in satisfaction, opening the door and flipping into the lab, followed by Leo and the others. "For a place so big, it's awfully empty." Isabella pointed out. "Stockman never really liked strangers," April offered back, running straight to the control console in the room and sitting down, already typing away. "Okay, I'm in." She looked over to the reptiles behind her. "I'm blanking the cameras along that corridor at ten-second intervals, so you've got to keep moving." The turtles and lizard looked at each other, already knowing what to do. April turned back to the terminal. "We'll be right back," Leo replied. "Good luck." April glanced behind her again, only to see that the ninjas had, well, vanished. " Hey, these guys are good." She admitted out loud.
Meanwhile, the five rushed down the corridor, running past every camera and underneath every other ceiling light that was spaced out every few feet. It didn't take them long to get to the door of the main lab. The doors split apart and it was all dark inside. The five pulled their weapons out, armed and ready before silently walking into the massive room. "This is too quiet," Leo stated out the obvious. "Uh, guys? My turtle sense is tingling." Mikey worried. Isa was about to roll her eyes at his obvious comic reference but that was interrupted by the door suddenly slamming shut behind them. They all jerked around, looking back and they were in complete darkness for a moment.
The lights turned on and it was revealed that the room they were in was a factory and Stockman was above them in an observation area. He pushed a button and his voice spoke through the intercom. "Intruders? Here to steal my secrets? You'll leave here with nothing," His voice no longer was heard through the intercom, "not even your lives." He looked down at the heat sensor image of them on the screen. Five figures on the screen. Four of them were bulky-shaped while one was slim but an extra appendage waved slowly behind them. Whatever they were, they definitely were not human-shaped. "What on Earth are you?" He held his glasses at the slight revelation but then rubbed his hands together and grinned with a hum. "Hmm. I suppose I'll have to dissect you to find out." He pressed a button, making the robotic arms come out of their sleep mode and down from the ceiling with all of them pointed right at the intruders.
The five reptiles huddled together while one of the arms lit up a red dot, getting brighter and charging up its laser before shooting. The five mutants split apart to avoid that one, but two more arms arrived and fired lasers as well. The turtles and lizard scattered, leaping out of the way of the lasers. Leo flipped himself back up on his feet and watched as one arm rotated around and fired yet another laser, making him jump out of the way and hide behind a pillar. Isabella outran the rapid fire of lasers, drifting on her feet before getting snatched to the side by the eldest turtle who grabbed her by the side of her uwagi and both of them hid behind the pillar. Meanwhile, Mikey was still out in the open, having leaped away and rolled. Yet another mechanical arm turned around and rapidly fired some lasers at him. Mikey was quick with his acrobatics to avoid getting shot.
Two lasers track after Raphael. Isabella was certain that one of those lasers was after her before they redirected to the turtle in red, which didn't make her feel too good about it. The dark green Cumberland slider ran past the pillar his two other siblings were behind and Leo took notice of a third arm turning its aim on an unsuspecting Raph. He pulled out his swords and immediately ran out, not caring too much for his own safety. "Raph! Heads up!" The Kelly green turtle darted out in front of Raph, crossing his swords and luckily catching the blast on them just in time. It redirected back to its origin and blew up the mechanical arm.
Donatello took in his surroundings before finally putting himself into action. He ran across the floor and stuck his staff down, using it as a pole vault and leaping onto one of the robotic appendages. With his body weight suddenly against it, he forced it to turn to the other arms, firing at the other two and destroying them. Raph and Leo cheered at him. "Ah ha! Ah ha!" Donny pulled open a control panel and this time, he didn't put care into a device as he had with the alarm or the first Mouser he got his hands on. No, he stuck his hand inside and yanked out a bundle of wire, tearing them apart. He quickly jumped down just as the arm began spinning, smoke coming out of the control panel, and a few seconds later after he landed, it exploded.
The five mutants ran straight to the observation room and Stockman. Donny swept his staff off the ground and into his hand while he followed closely after his brothers and sister. In the room, Stockman looked down at them and muttered, "Impossible." No one should be able to get past his defenses. He used a control stick on the console, aiming another arm and firing a laser at them. Raphael flipped on his hands to dodge the shots, getting out of the way by hiding directly underneath Stockman. 'No way, he'd shoot himself.' He figured. Raphael looked over to the others and called out, "Mikey! Slingshot!" The turtle in orange smiled, excited as if he waited for a moment like this to come, and ran to Raphael who had his hands clasped together. Raph acted as a springboard and launched him up to the window of the observation room.
Mikey landed on the ledge in front of the glass window pane. The man behind the glass gasped and stepped back a bit. The massive turtle in front of him used a pair of nunchucks to smash the glass. Shards of the shattered window flew everywhere and Stockman falls over on his back. The other four mutants had climbed their way into the room, joining the dark teal turtle. Leo jumped down, standing beside Mikey. "Your reign of terror is over, Stockman." He pointed his sword at the man on the ground. The younger turtle grinned and grasped his shoulder. "You been practicing that?" Leo turned his head to him and smiled, "You like it?"
Stockman looked around him in shock, seeing four large turtles who resembled mostly like Cumberland Sliders and a clothed lizard looking like a leopard gecko with strange sectoral heterochromia. "What are you?" He tried to hold back his scared tone but failed. Doors slid open behind him and he heard a voice. "They're with me." He turned to one hand holding him up, looking over and seeing the all too familiar red-headed woman. "April! You're alive!" A tone of surprise left the man. "And kicking," April walked forward, making Stockman almost scramble backward until he reached his chair. " I've got enough evidence to put you away for years, Dr. Stockman." She accused.
Stockman, however, wasn't planning on making that easy. He reached out and pressed a button, causing an alarm to go off, and for the dark green turtle in red to grab him by the front and pin him against the control console. "That's enough!" He hissed with a heavy breath, baring his teeth and frowning at him. The doctor just looked cocky, not even worried at the predicament he was in. "Ha! Too late. I've recalled the Mouser hoard from their latest mission. They'll be here any second. They'll tear you to pieces." He grinned at them. 'Oh, April was right to call him crazy.' Isa thought. "April..." Leo looked over to the auburn-haired woman who rushed over to the control panel. "I'll have to shut the whole system down." She responded. "I'll help," Don offered, getting beside her.
"You're doomed. Listen." Baxter just kept his grin, whispering now. All was quiet for a moment before suddenly there was the sound of marching growing closer. Isabella looked over through the window, seeing the factory door open up and a legion of Mousers arrived, heading straight towards them. Leo and Mikey looked down the ladder from the observation room to see a group of Mousers that continued to grow into an army. Some of them began climbing, heading up to their target. "April now's the time." Leo's voice was urgent. April was typing as fast as she could but every combination she had was denied. "Ah, the system isn't responding." Her voice sounded even more panicked than Leo's. She looked over to Donatello, who began typing away. Raphael was watching his three siblings looking out, not noticing the good Doctor Stockman slipping away.
He only noticed when the man spoke up from inside the elevator. "You should never have matched wits with me." He grinned and pressed the button, the elevator doors shut and it zoomed far away back to the upper levels. Mikey ran to the elevator, in a fruitless attempt. "He's getting away!" He yelled. "Let him go, we've got bigger problems," Raphael told him. Isa was surprised at him. Raph was the one who wanted his hands on Stockman most of all, especially after he destroyed their old home with his Mousers. Her surprise was thrown out when she turned to see Mousers walking from the other corridor and began smashing through the windows. The bots flowed into the observation room and pushed the mutants up against the wall, surrounding them entirely. "At least we'll go out fighting," Raph added.
"Actually, I don't wanna go out at all." Mikey backed up, hiding a little bit behind Raph. "Yeah, I have so many places to go, so many sights to see. Mikey was not on my list." Isabella jabbed at him with a small grin. "Hey," Mikey barked. "It's not working!" April panicked, typing as much as she could. "Keep trying!" Donny urged her on, still trying to help out on his computer. "This is it. It's been fun guys." Raph took a stance with the others. "Even me, Raph?" Mikey grinned over to his older brother. The dark green Cumberland slider looked over to him with a grin of his own. "Even you, Mikey. Especially you."
April typed frantically, looking back to the Mousers reaching to them. She didn't want to resort to this but she had no choice now. She pressed a button and in response, all the Mousers froze in standby. Yellow lights that once stayed constant were now flashing on top of their heads while their jaws were stuck in position. The gecko watched as Leonardo tapped the snout of a Mouser with one of his swords. No response came from it. No biting on his sword, nothing. Leo looked over to the others and smiled. Everyone in there cheered. Everyone except April.
"Good job, April! I've never seen anything like that." Don complimented. Mikey snatched up one of the Mousers. "Hah, loser!" April turned around to them at a quick pace and Isabella felt something drop inside to her stomach. "Um, guys, guys! I wasn't able to shut them down." The gecko looked over to Mikey who held the Mouser in his hand. "They look pretty shut down to me." He knocked on the snout of the Mouser, not noticing the red blinking light on its dome. April however did notice. "The only way I could stop them was by initiating an overload sequence." Just when she finished her sentence, smoke began billowing out of their mouths and alarms began going off.
Mikey dropped the Mouser to the ground where it lay on its side, now having its jaw opened a bit and more smoke kept pouring out. "In other words... let's get out of here!" He yelled and ran out of the observation room through the broken window, leaping out and landing on the factory floor. Leo and Raph followed after him before Isa leaped out as well. The dark green turtle had his arms out, catching her and steadying the lizard on her feet before they caught up to Mikey and Leo. Don landed from the observation room, holding April in his arms before setting her down, grasping her hand, pulling her along, and making a beeline to the exit.
The beeps rapidly went on along with the blinking lights on their domes. The Mousers twitched until finally they all froze and alarms went silent. It didn't remain quiet very long for a loud explosion followed after. The observation room blew apart, glass flew everywhere and the factory was set ablaze. Smoke filled the room and the laboratory and factory didn't stand a chance on the explosions happening.
Far above ground, Stockman was running through the corridors of the shaky building with a smug grin on his face. "Ha, ha, I've got them, I've got them all." He chuckled before colliding with something. He looked up, scared for a moment before his face switched to a scowl. "You." He growled up at the long-haired blonde man towering over him. An eastern dragon tattoo spiraled around his left arm and on his right shoulder was a red, three-toed claw insignia that Stockman recognized as his employer's symbol. "What do you want, Hun?"
"Trouble, Dr. Stockman?" A deep baritone voice responded. The building was quaking with parts of it falling all around them. Stockman tried to act casual, not wanting to get into a worse situation. "Trouble? No, no, everything is proceeding exactly as I planned." He rose to his feet, dusting himself off before stumbling upon the effects of an explosion rocking the ground beneath his feet. He looked back with wide eyes. What did that girl and those creatures do? He wondered. He didn't get to wonder for long when he saw a massive hand grab him by the coat and pull him up off his feet to meet Hun's eyes by force. "Perhaps you'd like to explain this plan to the Master." Baxter began struggling in his grip while Hun kept him at arm's length. "Ngh, let me go, you brainless, musclebound idiot. Let me go. Let me go." Hun continued to ignore him, carrying him out of the building and taking him back to their master.
The journey home felt so much shorter when the excitement finally died down a bit. The televisions were all on the news where a newswoman spoke. "And the authorities are completely perplexed by the destruction of the Stocktronics building and sudden disappearance of Dr. Baxter Stockman." Splinter looked up from his chair to April. "What will you do now, Miss O'Neil? You are most definitely out of a job." He pointed a finger out before setting his hand back down. "I'm not exactly sure." April shrugged a bit with uncertainty in her voice. Donny came up to her, holding a cup in one hand. "We'll help you get back on your feet." He offered with a smile. "You guys, you've all been, well, great. And by guys, I guess I mean four big, green, talking turtles, a leopard gecko lady, and a giant talking rat."
"Here's to the new team!" Donny announced. Leo held his cup out and the others followed, lifting them with a cheer. Isabella smiled along with them before taking a seat on the couch. "Hey, Isa. What's up?" She nearly jumped at Mikey's voice, nearly reminiscent of their first meeting. "I just... I still can't stop this feeling of familiarity with Stockman. I can't stop it and I don't like it." She admitted. "What do you mean?" April added in. Isa just shook her head. "It's just the whole scientist aesthetic he's got going on. Keeps giving me the creeps." The tip of her tail flicked. "Well, since you guys are helping me. I think I can help you," April replied, "Stockman did dabble a small bit into biology, but I don't know if he'd resort to making giant animal people like you all. Maybe he's got associates who would though." Isa sat up, setting her elbows on her thighs. "You think so?"
"Yeah. I'll help you find answers however I can." She smiled. The gecko gave a smile in return and nodded. "That'd be nice." Memories from before the turtles were always foggy. She would barely catch details that made sense. She kept her smile, letting out a barely audible sigh to not catch April's attention again. Her brothers and father noticed and felt her sentiment. Someday... Someday, Isabella will know her own origin.
It was night above ground and on the top floor of Saki's Palace was a small but crucial meeting. The good doctor Stockman paced back and forth while he went on with the explanation. "So as any fool can see, the whole thing was simply a," He looked up at Hun before turning to meet the other man's face, "uh, minor setback." The older man listened to him, putting a hand on the tekkō-kagi gauntlet sitting on their pedestal before pulling them out. "With your continued funding, the research can continue immediately. I'll be back at work, oh, Monday morning." Baxter wasn't too worried, looking at his hand and holding up his glasses with a courteous smile.
Hun had his arms crossed and it was clear that he wasn't having any of it. He looked up to their Master and watched as he stood up with the bladed gauntlet armed worn on his left hand. Hun knew what that meant. He learned what it meant after working with him for years now. His master stood up from his sitting position almost fluidly and pointed the claws at him. "You must pay the price for failure, Dr. Stockman."
The smile on Stockman's face dropped and his eyebrows rose. He hadn't expected this. He felt a large person behind him and looked back to see Hun who grabbed him by the coat and dragged him out, quickly and efficiently. This definitely wasn't the first time he'd done this. Stockman struggled against his hold. "No! Where are you taking me? You'll regret this. N– No!" He yelled while he was dragged out of the room. The man watched as the two left and in his peripheral, he caught a shape of a body and let out a hum. "Hmm."
Barely a second later, one of his followers appeared. A Foot Technician entered from the shadows and kneels in front of him. Wires stuck out from the back of his head connected to a tank on his lower back and a tool belt around his waist. "We have the image you requested, Master." The cybernetic eye rotated on the metal visor when he looked up. More than likely taking note of the tekkō-kagi gauntlet armed on his master. He stood up and pressed a button on his belt and a view screen lowered. A second Foot Technician came out, rolling a projector hooked to the head of a Mouser bot they salvaged.
"So, the last remaining image the Mouser optics recorded." The older man turned to the view the light comes on and the image is projected. There, it was a body heat signature of five beings. Four of them were too rounded and bulky to be human and one had an extra appendage, a tail perhaps, coming out. He stared at it for a moment before baring his teeth. "These are the ones responsible." He sneered and made a move, leaping up to the view screen and giving a slice with a growl. It tore apart and the lower half of the screen fell while the light on the projector turned off. It wasn't the cleanest slice he'd done. He raised his tekkō-kagi and it glinted in the lighting. He needed them sharpened. Just in case he had to pull them out for use ever again.
Author's Note: Well, not too much has been happening in life as of recently. I'm still anticipating the TMNT OC Competition on Tumblr and the blog released brackets for round one, showing who's in. Isabella hasn't appeared yet but I'm hopeful. Just let the person/people behind the blog take their time. I'll still be excited for this.
So, I'm sure you've noticed that I've been calling the boys Cumberland Sliders. I mostly did this because one, they don't retract into their shell, two, red-eared sliders are still popular to this day so I can imagine a kid not knowing what they were and taking them anyway, and three, I figured they were Cumberland Sliders due to the color of their shell. Yes, this means they have stripes on them. Not sure about the dark splotches that'd be on their plastron but we'll figure out designs later.
Also, I did not expect this chapter to have been pumped out so soon. I thought I'd take longer, but then I have to remind myself that the more chapters I write out, the closer I am to the Space Arc, more OCs, and lore and I'm so excited for the Space Arc the most.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, please go ahead and leave a comment and a vote. It would make my days a lot better. I'll see you guys next time.