Attack of the Techno Psycho

After Miwa agreed to stop pushing herself too hard, things got back to normal in the Hamato home. They had not encountered any of the Foot Clan ninjas since Bradford and Xever, but still kept up their training just in case and also continued to find more evidence that could help them find the Kraang and rescue April's dad. The latter proved to be a more difficult task as the Kraang did not leave a lot of clues.

Today, the kids were heading out to a military junkyard to collect parts for Donnie to use in his inventions. They had told their parents that they were going to see April, but that was a lie; Yoshi and Shen had forbidden them from going to junkyards of any kind because it is not safe and they could get arrested for trespassing. As much as they disliked lying to their parents, the kids did not see any other way to get the parts that Donnie needed.

"I don't like this," said Mikey, upon arrival at the junkyard, "We're gonna get arrested."

"No we won't," Donnie said, sounding like it was no big deal, "I sneak in here all the time and I've never been caught once. Just remember your ninja stealth and everything will be fine."

The kids snuck around until they came to an opening in the gate that Donnie used to secretly enter the junkyard. Once they all were inside, the kids started looking around for anything that might have working parts for Donnie's projects. Together, they each started filling their backpacks with old computer parts. Suddenly, Donnie felt something on the ground under his foot. He looked down and found a fascinating looking chip. Feeling like he could have use of the chip, Donnie picked it up and put it in his pocket. After that, he and the others continued rummaging for parts.

Once all of their bags were full, the kids snuck out of the junkyard and headed for home. Upon arrival, the kids went down to the lair to drop off the parts that they had gathered. Unfortunately, their parents were waiting there and they looked furious.

"Hi, Mother. Hi, Father," said Leo, "What's going on?"

"Your mother called April's aunt to remind you that Michelangelo has a doctor's appointment today," Yoshi said, sounding as furious as he looked, "However, according to her, you had not been there at all."

The kids froze in fear as it seemed their secret was out.

"So, where were you, really?" asked Shen.

The teens all struggled to find an answer to give their parents. Suddenly, Mikey got so nervous that he dropped his bag and the parts he collected fell out. Yoshi and Shen saw everything that Mikey had dropped and realized where their children had gone.

"You went to a junkyard?" Shen asked.

"Well, Donnie needed parts," said Raph.

"What did we tell you about going to a junkyard?" Yoshi asked.

"Some of the parts Donnie needed are really expensive," said Leo, "And others can't be bought at any stores."

Yoshi kept his furious face and said, "You all deliberately disobeyed both your mother and me! Not only that, but you lied to us! You are all grounded for a week!"

The teens looked shocked at what their father said to them.

"That means no hanging out with friends, no video games, no cell phones, no computer, no listening to music, and straight home after school," said Shen, "Drop those bags and come back to the house with us."

The teens groaned and dropped their bags on the floor. They started to follow their parents when Mikey got an idea.

"On the bright side, we'll have plenty of time to catch up on some Mega Rangers," said Mikey.

"Not to mention Space Heroes," Leo added.

"Not that dumb show," Raph groaned.

Suddenly, Shen turned around and said, "Oh, I almost forgot, no T.V."

"Ugh!" Mikey whined.

The next day after school, the Hamato teens met up to walk home together. Four of them were already outside the school, now they were waiting on Donnie. During the wait, Raph was pacing back and forth, still peeved about having to go straight home instead of hanging out with Casey and his other friends.

"I can't believe we have to avoid our friends for a whole week!" Raph snapped, kicking a trashcan.

"Don't you think we're upset about the whole thing too?" asked Miwa, "But what choice do we have?"

Finally, Donnie came running out of the school with a smile on his face.

"Guys! Guys!" Donnie called, coming to a stop in front of his siblings, "You wanna see what I made?"

"See, this is how bored I am," said Raph to his other siblings. He then turned to his immediate younger brother and said, "Yes, Donnie, show us what you made."

Donnie chose to ignore Raph's insult from before and said, "Okay, you remember when we went scrounging around the military junkyard the other day?"

"Yeah," Raph flatly said, "That's how we got grounded."

Donnie cleared his throat and continued, "Well, I used some of the parts that I was able to bring home to make this." Donnie reached into his backpack and pulled out a circular device with square, arrow, and round buttons on it. "It just so happens to be the most advanced music player in the world."

"Whoa," said his siblings in unison as the stared at the device. And Leo looked at Donnie and asked, "Where did you find the time to make it?"

"During lunch," said Donnie, "So, who wants to try it? I already downloaded some songs onto it."

"I do!" said Mikey, "Toss me the nin-pod!"

Donnie raised an eyebrow and asked, "Nin-pod?"

Mikey nodded and said, "Ninja. Pod. Nin-pod. I am so good at naming stuff."

"Mikey, it's Donnie's invention. Let him name it," said Miwa.

"Actually, I kinda like that name for it," said Donnie, "Nin-pod it is."

Donnie then handed the newly named nin-pod over to Mikey. Mikey in turn plugged his ear buds into the music player and stuck the ear buds into his ears. He pressed the button to play the music that Donnie had downloaded onto the music player, and then, suddenly, Mikey screamed in pain.

"What's wrong?" Donnie asked in panic.

"It hurts!" Mikey screamed.

"You idiot! Your piece of junk is probably melting Mikey's brain right now!" Raph snapped angrily at Donnie.

"Worse! It's playing polka!" Mikey screamed, making his siblings frown in annoyance, "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

Donnie rolled his eyes at his younger brother and pressed a button to skip to the next song. Mikey smiled at the sound of funky music. He was so into the music that he could not help but get up and dance to it. The sight was enough to make the others laugh. And then they all walked home together.

Later that night, Raph got out of bed, changed into his regular clothes, grabbed his skateboard, helmet and padding, and snuck out of his and Leo's room.

He was nearly at the back door when he heard a familiar voice say in a whisper, "Where do think you're going?"

Raph jumped in surprise and swiftly turned around to see his brothers and sister standing just a few inches away from him. The one who spoke up was Leo, and he did not look pleased, nor did Miwa. Donnie and Mikey on the other hand looked confused about why their big brother was out of his room in the middle of the night.

Seeing that he was caught, Raph sighed and whispered, "I'm going to find a skate spot."

"Skate spot? Awesome!" Mikey whispered in excitement, "I'll come too!"

"Raph!" Leo hissed, "We're grounded!"

"I don't care," said Raph, "If I don't do something, I'm gonna go nuts."

"What are mother and father gonna say?" Leo asked.

"Father is going to say, 'I don't know what's going on, Shen. They snuck out while we were asleep'," said Raph, doing a poor impression of their father, "And then mother will respond, 'Okay, Yoshi,' and then go back to sleep."

Miwa crossed her arms across her chest and said, "Oh yeah, very mature."

Leo then stepped forward and said, "But I'm the leader. And as your leader, I say no one's going."

Suddenly, Mikey came out dressed in his outside clothes and padding holding his skateboard in his arms and joined Raph, who smiled that his little brother were joining him.

He smirked at Leo and said, "Well, we're going anyway. The rest of you can either come along or you can stay here and be bored for the rest of the night."

Miwa, Leo, and Donnie thought about the choices. While they disliked the idea of sneaking out of the house while they were grounded, they disliked being cooped up even more. Finally, they made their decision.

"I'll go with you," said Donnie.

"Me too," said Leo, "As your leader. To lead you... away... from bad stuff."

"Me too," said Miwa, "Because I'm the oldest and it's my job to watch you."

"Cool," said Raph, "Now gear up and come with us."

Miwa, Leo, and Donnie rolled their eyes at Raph and left to change into their clothes and padding and grab their boards. Mikey went back to his room as well and got the nin-pod So he could listen to music while he skateboards.

After Miwa, Leo, and Donnie came out of their rooms in their skating clothes and holding their boards, Miwa got right in Raph's face and said, "If we get in more trouble, I promise you, little brother, that you will face my wrath!"

"Duly noted," said Raph, feeling slightly nervous.

And with that, they all snuck quietly towards the back door. Donnie stopped at one point to turn off the burglar alarm so it would not go off while they were sneaking out. Once they were all outside, Donnie reset the alarm with an app on his phone to prevent robberies. And then they all took off into the night.

As the teens jumped from building to building, Mikey was having the time of his life skateboarding and listening to music on the new player.

"Yo, Donnie, thanks for all the new songs!" Mikey called to his older twin.

"Huh?" Donnie asked, "What new songs?"

"The songs on the nin-pod!" Mikey called again, "There's so many it's hard to count!"

"What?!" Donnie asked, "I only downloaded a few songs! Let me see that thing!"

"Sure thing!" said Mikey, and then he tossed the nin-pod to Donnie.

Donnie caught the music player and looked closely at it. Upon inspection, Donnie found many songs on the music player that were not there before. Not only that, but the nin-pod was still downloading new ones by itself.

"Holy cow!" said Donnie, "This thing has thousands of songs on it and it keeps downloading new ones every second!"

"So?" Raph asked.

"So, I didn't program it to do that," said Donnie. And then something occurred to him, "It must be that chip!"

"Chip?" Miwa asked, "What chip?"

"I put a chip in it that I found in the military junkyard," said Donnie, "I think that might be what's upgrading the nin-pod."

"Who cares what it is? It's awesome!" Mikey cheered into the night.

Miwa was about to question Donnie about the chip he used in the nin-pod further, but Leo interrupted by saying, "Will you guys keep it down?! We're ninjas. We move swiftly and, most importantly, silently."

"Uh, Leo, you might wanna..." Miwa started to say, but Leo cut her off.

"I mean it, sis!" Leo snapped, "We need to be quiet'"

"I know ninjas are quiet," said Miwa, "But you're heading right for... "

"Then you should know to keep it down!" said Leo.

Suddenly, Leo screamed as he fell off of the roof and straight through the glass roof of another building. Leo found himself running along several large wooden crates and into a bee hive. Finally, he ran out the window and tumbled down the fire escape until he landed in a pile of trash.

His siblings rushed to check on him and found no serious injuries. There were a few bruises here and there, but nothing to worry about. Good thing he had his skate gear on, or it could have been worse.

"I was trying to tell you to watch out for that drop," said Miwa.

"Guess I should've been paying attention," said Leo.

Mikey was about to make a joke when he saw something that made him ask, "Who's that guy?"

The others looked in the direction Mikey was looking and saw a man in makeshift battle armor walking down the street. He did not seem to notice the teens as he walked past the alley they were hiding in.

"I don't know," said Raph, "But he needs a beat down."

"Hang on, Raph," said Leo, stopping his brother, "We don't know that he's doing anything wrong. For all we know, he could be on his way to... church... or a book club meeting."

Miwa shot her younger twin an annoyed look and said, "Really, Leo? In powered battle armor?"

Leo glared at his older sister and said, "Look, the point is, we can't just jump any random person we see just because of how they're dressed. Here's what we'll do, we'll tail him and find out what he's up to. If it turns out he is doing something wrong, we'll stop him."

The others nodded in agreement and quietly followed the man in armor. They followed him all the way to the back of an office building and watched him use a flamethrower to try to melt the lock. Deciding that the man needed to be stopped, Leo led his siblings and snuck up behind the man.

When the man's flamethrower died on him, he tried to forcibly pry open the still locked door. The sight was enough to make them feel a little bad for the guy.

"This is kinda sad," said Donnie.

"Yeah, I don't know if we should pound him or buy him an ice cream cone," said Mikey.

Not wanting to waste time, Leo stepped forward and said, "Halt, villain!" Which got the man to stop what he was doing.

"Halt villain?" Raph asked, "When did we start talking like that?"

"We're heroes," said Leo, "That's how heroes talk."

"Yeah, on cartoons," said Miwa.

"Prepare to face the wrath of my powered..." The man started to say. But when he turned to face his opponents, he was surprised, "What the-? You're just a bunch of kids!"

"Oh, we're more than just a bunch of kids," said Leo, and then he struck a heroic pose and declared, "We're the Champions of Justice!"

Raph smacked himself in the forehead and said, "Sometimes you embarrass me."

"Never mind that," said Miwa, "Let's get him."

The teens nodded and charged at the man in armor. Mikey stopped for a second only to put away the nin-pod, and then he joined in as well.

The man tried to punch Leo, but he dodged and tripped his opponent. Donnie took the chance to pull some wires from the battle armor, just in case there were hidden weapons. The man was about to hit back when Miwa tripped him and caused him to stumble backwards into a window and set off the alarm. The kids freaked out about the cops coming and quickly moved to grab the man. Raph opened the dumpster and signaled for his siblings to throw him in.

"Do we have to?" Donnie asked, "The whole dumpster thing kind of gives me grade school flashbacks."

"Think of it this way, little brother, he was trying to break into that building, which is a crime," said Leo, "We're not bullying a helpless kid, we're stopping a criminal."

"I guess when you put it that way it's alright," said Donnie, stilling not liking throwing someone into the trash.

Together, Miwa, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey picked the man up and threw him in the dumpster and closed it just he threatened to get revenge. The teens quickly escaped just before the police showed up and ran straight home.

Upon arrival at the antique store, Donnie turned off the burglar alarm and waited until everyone was inside before turning it back on. They all snuck quietly through the house to head for their rooms.

"Oh boy, that was close," Miwa whispered. She looked at her watch and saw the time, "And look, it's 2 am!"

"And both mother and father are still asleep," Mikey whispered, "This is epic!"

"It's not epic!" said Leo, "What we did was both reckless and stupid!"

"I agree," said Miwa, "We are not doing that again."

"I don't see what the big deal is," said Raph with a shrug, "We got out and stomped a sleaze ball."

"And that was a one-time thing," said Leo, "Come on, We better get to bed and try to get at least some sleep before school."

Obeying their brother, Raph, Miwa, Donnie, and Mikey all went to their rooms and changed into their pajamas. As he and Donnie were getting ready to sleep, Mikey noticed the whole in his pants pocket and the missing music player. He inwardly started to panic as he thought about how Donnie might react if he found out he lost it. What he did not know was that back at the scene of the fight, a certain someone else found and it and figured out how to use it to his advantage.

The next day in Roosevelt High School, a teacher by the name of Mr. Andrews was giving a lesson on the Trojan war when he suddenly heard snoring in the classroom. Everyone turned their heads and saw Raphael Kurama sleeping with his hand rested on his cheek. Mr. Andrews walked over to Raph's desk with a thick book in hand. Once he was right in front of Raph's desk Mr. Andrews lifted the book up and slammed it hard on the desk. The result was a bang loud enough to wake the dead, or a sleeping teenager.

Raph almost instantly out of his seat and screamed, "Mutants!"

Next thing Raph knew, everyone else in class was laughing at him and he looked up to see his teacher looking furiously at him. Raph now felt quite embarrassed.

"Do I bore you, Raphael?" Mr. Andrews asked.

"Well, kinda," said Raph.

In response, Mr. Andrews glared at Raph and said, "Very well, smart-aleck, you can go to the principal's office instead."

Raph frowned at the suggestion, but then stood up from his desk and headed towards the door. As he walked down the hall, Raph cursed in his head about his teacher being a jerk. When he finally reached the principal's office Raph opened the door and was greeted by quite the surprise, all four of his siblings were already there.

"You guys are here too?"

"Yeah," said Leo.

"Fell asleep in class?" Raph asked, taking a seat next to Mikey.

"Yup," said Mikey.

"Same here," said Raph.

The principal looked sternly at the teens and said, "I must I'm very disappointed in you five. You should all be ashamed of yourselves."

In response, the five teens looked down in shame.

The principal sighed and added, "To be honest, this kind of behavior is no surprise when it comes to Raphael and Michelangelo. But, Miwa, Leonardo, and Donatello, I'm surprised at you. Especially you, Donatello, a modeled student like you falling asleep in class. It's just not like you."

"We're sorry, sir," said Leo, "None of us slept very last night."

The principal thought for a minute, and then told the teens, "Alright, I'll let you all off with a warning this time. But if it ever happens again, I may have to call your parents."

"Again, we're sorry," said Leo.

"You don't have to worry," said Miwa.

"It'll be fine," said Raph, with a yawn.

"It won't happen again," said Donnie, tiredly.

Mikey let out a yawn and almost fell out of his chair. Thankfully, his siblings were there to catch him and wake him up. Mikey instantly smiled widely at the principal, hoping that would show how innocent he was.

"Good," said the principal, "Now, why don't you all get back to class?"

The teens all nodded in agreement and left the office to go back to their classes. The whole way back, they were counting their blessings that the principal did not call their parents.

After school, the Hamato teens headed home to do their homework and train. Upon arrival at the antique store, the kids had to enter through the back door so as not to get in the way of their mother and the costumers. Yoshi had already gone down to the lair earlier, so the teens had the place to themselves.

While everyone was doing their homework, Mikey got bored, so he reached for the remote to turn on the TV and watch something.

He almost had it when Leo snapped, "Mikey! Mother said no TV! We're grounded!"

Mikey simply rolled his eyes and said, "What mother and father don't know can't hurt us."

Miwa grabbed the remote first and said, "Alright, but it has to be news or history."

"Aww man!" Mikey whined, "That stuff's boring!"

"You might like it if you give it a chance," said Donnie.

Miwa then pressed the button on the remote to turn the TV on. Once she turned it onto the Channel 6 news, she and her brothers listened to the anchor talk about current events. And then his tone changed to startled.

"We just received breaking news about a maniac in a robot suit on a rampage!" said the anchor, getting the attention of the teens. "Here's some shocking footage of the robot suit man viciously attacking the TCRI office complex in Brooklyn."

The screen changed from the news room to a video of a robot attacking an office and frightening innocent workers. When the robot turned around, the teens were shocked to see the man that they had beaten up the night before.

"I will have my revenge!" the robot suit man declared.

"Who-who are you?" a man asked.

"You'll never know," said robot suit man, in a scary voice, "I'm the thing that haunts your nightmares! I'm the nameless shadow who-"

Before he could finish, the man who had asked who he was and asked, "Baxter?"

"No," said the robot suit man.

"Baxter Stockman?" the man asked again.

"No," robot suit man repeated, trying to deny his true identity.

The other man crawled out from under his desk, smiling, and called to his coworkers, "Hey, everybody, it's Baxter Stockman!"

Raph tried hard not to laugh at the name. "Baxter Stockman? What kind of name is that?"

Back to the video, a voice off camera asked Baxter Stockman, "Is this because I fired you?"

"That copy machine was already broken when-" Baxter started to say, and changed his voice and said, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Leo simply raised an eyebrow and asked, "How did he upgrade his armor so fast? We just fought this guy last night and his armor didn't even compare to the ones we see in video games."

On the TV, Stockman continued his rampage. As he attacked, Miwa noticed that there was something familiar on his armors chest area and told Leo to quickly rewind the show. Leo did so and paused the shot Miwa told him to. It was a close up of the armor and on the chest area was what looked like the nin-pod.

"Hey!" said Raph, "That looks like the nin-pod! How did he get ahold of that?"

Mikey scratched the back of his head and said, "I might've dropped that during the fight."

"What?!" Donnie asked, "How do you drop something like that and not realize it?"

"It's not my fault!" said Mikey, "What do you think I just left it there on purpose?"

Donnie got really mad and was about to say something back, but Leo got in the way and said, "Calm down, you two. This isn't helping."

"Leo's right," said Raph, "Besides, something's not adding up. How does the nin-pod being attached to the armor have anything to do with the upgrades?"

Miwa thought back to last night and remembered that Donnie mentioned something about a chip. Donnie meanwhile got the sense that he might soon be in trouble and started sneaking away.

"You know, Donnie started telling me that he put a chip in the nin-pod," said Miwa. She then noticed Donnie trying to sneak away and called, "Hamato Donatello, you stop right there. Explain to our brothers what you did to the nin-pod."

Donnie gulped and told the family, "When we were scrounging around the military junkyard, I found an advanced A.I. microchip made from self-esembled chain-lengthed copolymers. I put it in the nin-pod."

Ralph's eyes widened in shock and he shouted, "Are you telling us that you put a piece of military technology into a music player?! What were you thinking?!"

Donnie looked down in shame and said, "I didn't think some nutcase was gonna use it for evil."

"So, let me get this straight," said Leo, "The A.I. chip is upgrading Stockman's armor the same way it upgraded the nin-pod?"

"Yes," said Donnie, "And if it keeps going, there's no telling how powerful he'll get."

Leo then turned to the others and said, "Guys, this has gone way too far. We have to tell father what happened. Maybe he can help somehow."

"Are you kidding, Leo?" Raph asked, "Do you know what he'll do if he finds out that we turned some wakko into a super villain? We need to take care of this ourselves."

"Raph's right," said Donnie, "We have to track Stockman down and get the nin-pod back. After all, we beat him once, surely we can beat again."

Miwa, Leo, and Mikey thought about what their brothers said and then agreed that they were right. They agreed to go their training and then sneak out later that night to find Stockman and the nin-pod.

Later, after Shen and Yoshi went to sleep, the teens snuck out of the house the same way they did the night before only this time they stopped by the lair to gear up before searching for Stockman's hideout. Using their tracking skills, the ninja teens were able to track Stockman to an old abandoned building. Upon arrival, they saw Stockman in his armor talking to himself and trying to come up with a good villain name; unfortunately, all of his choices were very ridiculous. It took all of their ninja training to keep from laughing at him while they quietly surrounded him.

They got closer and closer until, finally, Mikey could no longer hold in his laughter and started snickering at Stockman. This caused Stockman to look up in surprise and find himself surrounded by ninjas.

"Who the heck are you?" Stockman asked, "And what are you doing here?"

"Nobody wants to hurt you, Stockman," said Leo, with Raph side noting that he did, "We just want the thing in the center of your armor."

"Just hand it over and you won't get hurt," said Miwa.

"Give up my source of power? And get beat up and thrown in a dumpster again?" said Stockman, "I don't think so."

Donnie glared at Stockman and snapped, "It's not your source of power, it's my creation! And it's not supposed to be used that way!"

Stockman simply smirked at the ninja teens and said, "Well, it's mine now. If you want this, you'll have to take it from me."

Raph then whipped out his sais and said, "Sounds good to me."

Raph charged ahead and attempted to kick Stockman in the face, only for Stockman to punch him really hard with his robot fist. The blow was so powerful that Raph was sent flying backwards into the wall. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey attempted to surround Stockman and attack him at the same time while Miwa tended to the fallen Raph. Mikey and Donnie each attacked from either side of Stockman, only he saw them coming and knocked them both into the wall. Leo managed to slice of both of Stockman's robot arms, unfortunately they grew right back. Part of the sliced snuck up behind Leo and clamped itself onto his head.

As Leo ran around with the robot part on his head, Miwa glared at Stockman and yelled, "Hey! You can't do that to Ryu!"

She then charged at Stockman with her tanto sword at the ready, knowing that her tessen might not cut it this time; unfortunately, Stockman that coming and grabbed Mikey. He then held him up like in front of himself a shield. He gave Miwa a look as if he was daring her to attack him while he was holding Mikey. Miwa growled at Stockman while looking for a way to strike him without hurting Mikey. She also had to worry about Leo, who's robot head was shooting lasers at Raph and Donnie.

"We'll handle Ryu!" Raph called, "You save Naoto!"

With that, he and Donnie led Leo away leaving Miwa to save Mikey from Stockman. Miwa used her agility to dodge Stockman's attacks, but could not get a blow in because every time she tried he would hold Mikey in front of her like a shield.

It was no better for Raph and Donnie who had to dodge lasers. Finally, Donnie got the idea to use a big sheet of glass to reflect the laser fire back at the robot on Leo's head, freeing their brother.

Stockman, meanwhile, was having fun messing with Miwa by using Mikey as his shield against her attacks. It was looking hopeless for her and Mikey until Leo charged Stockman from behind and made him drop Mikey. Luckily, Raph caught Mikey in midair and they both landed safely on the ground. Miwa smiled at her brothers rejoining her and then glared at Stockman. All five teens charged at Stockman at once while he in turn charged back.

The next thing the teens knew, Stockman had them all in his robot hand. He laughed as he walked outside holding the teens. He found a dumpster and smiled as he slammed the ninja teens inside; it was becoming hard for Donnie to not have a flashback to fifth grade right now. The teens all looked up at Stockman, who smiled in triumph as he started to taunt them.

"Little fools!" Stockman declared, "Did you really think you could defeat me?"

"Well, yeah," said Mikey.

"What's wrong with you?!" Miwa snapped, "What kind of nutcase uses a kid as a human shield?!"

"And where do you get off terrorizing people?!" Leo added, "They did nothing to deserve that!"

Stockman looked angrily at the ninja teens in the dumpster after Leo said that. "Nothing? You really think they did nothing?! They deserved everything they got for the way they treated me! They laughed at me and treated me like a nobody!" Stockman angrily yelled, "All my life people have laughed at me and treated me like I was nothing. The other kids in school, my coworkers, even the woman who fixes the copy machine. How was I supposed to know you don't pour toner in the top?!"

Hearing Stockman's story was almost made the teens pity him. Not enough to overlook the fact that he scared a bunch of people and tried to kill them. It also made Donnie wonder if he would have turned out like that if he did not have his family.

"But when they behold the power of this suit, they won't be laughing anymore," Stockman added with a wicked smile, "They'll tremble in terror!"

Suddenly, Stockman's suit glowed red and grew at a rapid pace. The teens all watched with their eyes widened in fear as the suit grew in size and weaponry.

"Wh-what's happening?" Leo asked, looking at Donnie for some kind of answer.

"Stockman and the nin-pod," Donnie said, his voice filled with fear, "They're merging. They're becoming one single entity."

"The Stockman-pod," Mikey said, giving Stockman a new nickname.

Once the transformation was complete, Stockman's suit now looked bigger and more monstrous than it did before. Seeing that they could not beat him the way they were now, the ninja teens frantically jumped out of the dumpster and ran for their lives. Stockman was not willing to let them get away so easily and chased after them to destroy them.

"Stockman-pod's right on top of us!" Mikey screamed.

"Stop calling him that! That's a stupid name!" Raph snapped.

"Guys, split up!" said Leo, "He can't chase all of us!"

"No way!" said Mikey, "He's gonna follow me!"

"Why would he follow you?" Leo asked.

"They always follow me!" said Mikey.

"Stop being paranoid and run!" yelled Miwa.

"Alright, break!" yelled Leo.

On Leo's order, each of the team broke formation. First Raph ran into an alley, Donnie ran into the next one and Leo ran into the third, leaving Miwa and Mikey. The two found a fork in the road and split up in either direction. Stockman was just about to chase after Mikey when Miwa got his attention, so he chased after her. Mikey saw this and tried to think of a way to save his sister until he spotted a passing pizza delivery boy. Mikey took the pizza from the delivery bot and headed straight for Stockman. Stockamn was right on top of Miwa when Mikey appeared in front of her, took the pizzas out of the boxes and threw them in Stockman's face. Stockman removed the pizzas from his face but growled when he found Mikey and Miwa gone along with the other ninjas.

After finally escaping Stockman, the ninja teens trecked back to the lair to remove their gear and patch up their wounds. They thought they were in the clear until they were greeted by their waiting parents.

"Ah! Father! Mother!" said Leo in surprise.

"And where have you been?" Yoshi asked, "You were all supposed to be in bed."

"Here," Raph lied, "We couldn't sleep so we decided to train."

"How did you get so hurt?" Yoshi asked.

"Happened during training," said Miwa, "We must've gotten a little too rough."

"You're story sounds quite convincing," said Shen, to the relief of the ninja teens. Then her expression changed and she added, "Except for the fact that you usually train in gi's and not in full ninja gear."

The ninja teens froze when realized that their story would not work. They tried to think of another story to tell their parents, but nothing they came up with made sense. Finally, they had no choice but to tell the truth. So, they told their parents everything from sneaking out all the way to their escape that very night.

"Very resourceful using food as a weapon, Michelangelo," said Yoshi, "But I am still very disappointed in you all. The first rule of being a ninja is do no harm! Unless you mean to do harm, then do lots of harm!"

"More importantly, you lied to us and disobeyed us again," said Shen.

"You're right," said Leo, "I guess we did make a mess of things."

"And that's why we have to fix this," said Raph.

"I agree," said Yoshi, "You must stop this Stockman fellow before his vengeful rampage causes irreversible damage."

"But how?" Miwa asked, "He's so powerful."

"And he keeps getting stronger by the minute," said Donnie.

"I could smash his face!" said Raph, pounding his fist.

"Brute force is not answer," said Yoshi, "You must rely on your ninja training."

"I hate burst your bubble, father, but ninjas never had go up against guys in armor," said Mikey.

"Yes they did," said Miwa, "Remember the stories? Ninjas have fought men in armor many times; just not powered by technology."

"Even so, what the ninjas did in the old days might be helpful now," said Leo, then looked back at his father and asked, "What was their secret?"

"They understood that you do fight the armor, you might the man inside," Yoshi explained.

From that information, the teens started forming a plan to defeat Stockman. They just hoped that it would work.

The teens waited on top of a roof for Stockman to show up. Leo was positive that his plan would work. The others were just hoping nobody would get hurt.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Donnie asked.

"Remember what we were told. Don't fight the armor fight the guy inside," said Leo, "And can't think of any better way to fight Stockman while he's inside his armor."

"Yeah, but still-" Donnie started say until Mikey caught site of something in the distance.

"Here he comes!" Mikey called, "Operation Sting is a go!"

Leo smirked and said, "Perfect. Mikey, get into position and jump in on my signal."

"You got, captain," said Mikey, and then he leapt towards the nearby warehouse.

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea," said Donnie.

Raph simply shrugged and said, "Ah, you worry too much." Then he turned to the street and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Hey, Stinkman! Come and get us, you scrawny pea-brain!"

Stockman heard Raph and growled in anger. He looked over and saw the ninjas from earlier waving at him from a rooftop in the distance. The sight of them made him roar and charge towards them at full speed. The ninja teens unsheathed their weapons for battle. Stockman slammed his robot fist on the roof to crush the teens, but they jumped out of the way just in time. Suddenly, he opened a new compartment in his armor and revealed several missiles loaded and ready to launch.

Leo's eyes widened in shock and he screamed, "Hit the deck!"

On Leo's order, the team dove in several directions to avoid the missiles just they were launched. Raph tried to get Stockman from behind, but Stockman knocked him down at the last second. Miwa tried only to be met with a similar result. Leo and Donnie attempted to attack at the same time, only to be knocked over the side of the building. They that they might fall to their deaths, but Raph managed to save them at the last second. After Raph pulled Leo and Donnie up, Miwa joined them to check on them and then Stockman cornered them at the edge.

As he loomed over the ninja teens, Stockman laughed and asked, "Any last words?"

Leo looked up at Stockman and boldly said, "Just one. Bee's!"

Stockman raised an eyebrow and asked, "Bee's?"

"Bee's!" yelled a new voice.

Stockman turned around just in time to see Mikey zip lining down a telephone wire holding a huge bee hive in him hand. Before Stockman could escape, Mikey threw the hive right at Stockman's face and the bee's got inside of the armor and stung Stockman. Once the bee hive was removed, Stockman's face was covered in stings. Other than being all stung, he appeared to be well enough.

Taking advantage of Stockman's puffed up state, the teens took turns delivering a powerful blow to his armor. Once he was finally down, Leo walked right up to Stockman's chest, stabbed the nin-pod, and pulled it out. The result was the armor glowed red and then the glow stopped, signifying that the armor was now useless.

Stockman climbed out of the armor weakly and was greeted by five angry ninja teens.

Donnie looked over at Raph and said, "I guess he's not allergic to bee stings."

"And you were worried he was," said Raph.

"You were actually worried about me?" Stockman asked.

Donnie looked at Stockman and said, "Don't misunderstand me. It's just against my nature to kill."

Leo then looked down at Stockman and said, "But that doesn't mean we're not entitled to a little payback."

"And I know just the way," said Raph.

The ninja teens then grabbed Stockman and threw him in the nearest dumpster. They closed the lid and laughed all the way back home.

Back at home, Yoshi and sat down and listened as their children told them how their mission went. Once they finished, Yoshi was very pleased.

"I am very proud of you all, my children," said Yoshi, "You showed great wisdom and skill in defeating Stockman."

"And you saved many innocent people," said Shen, "And for that, I am proud as well."

"Does this mean we're not grounded anymore?" Leo asked.

Yoshi and Shen looked at each other and Yoshi said, "Yes."

The teens smiled until Shen added, "After you all clean up the dojo."

The teens groaned but got up to do what they were told. As they started removing the rugs from the dojo so they could clean them, the teens made a vow to never try to sneak out while grounded again.

Author's Note: So, what'd you folks think? Worth that wait? Be honest.