Chapter 40: Something Bugs…


It's a new day as the Turtles and Trainers were relaxing after their latest encounter with Shredder and Team Rocket. Michelangelo returned to the sewer with pizza, the box reading "PIZZA EMPORIUM." He threw his trench coat and fedora onto the "EXIT" sign. "It sure is nice to have nothing to do for a change," Donatello sighed in relief.

"You said it, dude," Michelangelo agreed as he put the pizza on the table. Ash and Brock looked on from the kitchen to seeing a mess in the Lair. Boxes strewn around, leftover pizza crusts. "Watching TV and scarfing pizza… Now that's what I call a fulfilled existence."

"Except, this place is a Swinub-sty," Ash mulled. "Serious, my room is a lot more organized than this place."

"And I've helped keep my siblings' rooms clean before you came around," Brock added. Torkoal took a slice.

"Turtles!" voiced Splinter. Hearing, the Turtles turned to their rat.

"Master Splinter?" they voiced.

"This room is a disgrace to ninja standards," he scorned. "I strongly suggest that it be tidied up at this time." Complying, the Turtles got to work and rushed to clean the place.

"That's more like it," Brock sneered. Splinter nodded and left. Dust filled the room from the rampant sweeping of brooms. Michelangelo got some of the dust in his nose and sneezed.

"I think I'm allergic to housecleaning," he complained.

"It's like my mom told me every time," Ash spoke. "'The more the place is clean, the less you have to do to clean it.'" Raphael laughed to Ash's reminder.

"Those are words that I find cleaner than Channel 6's news van," Raphael joked as he opened a closet. A cascade of soda cans rained down on him. He seemed bemused to the new mess. "Michelangelo, is this where you've been keeping your empty soda cans?"

"Well, I was saving 'em up for recycling," Michelangelo tried to explain.

"Not that I don't agree," Brock spoke. "But there are easier ways to do that." He helped Raphael back to his feet.

"I heard that," he agreed. That's when Donatello pushed in a mechanical Ninja Turtle.

"What's that?" wondered Ash.

"This is Metalhead," Donatello introduced. "Krang created him before we managed to override his controls. Now to just crank him up and do the dirty work." He flipped the switch up to "ON." "Okay, Metalhead… do your stuff!" Metalhead's arm became a vacuum and began sucking up the dust.

"Primo notion, Donatello!" cheered Michelangelo. Ash shook his head.

"You can already tell?" guessed Brock. Metalhead started to vacuum magazines and rugs, not just the dirt.

"Donatello, it's gone a little carried away!" gasped Raphael. Metalhead continued to suck everything that wasn't nailed down. Donatello grabbed the turtle shell rug that was almost in the vacuum bag. The rug ripped and Donatello rolled into the other Turtles. Metalhead vacuumed the shells off the Turtles.

"This dude cleans like a chrome tornado," Michelangelo mulled. Ash switched Metalhead off by pulling the switch down to "OFF."

"There," he sighed as Metalhead stopped moving. "It's just like pizzas: you can't shortcut the process." The Turtles groaned to the reminder.

"Next time, dudes…" started Michelangelo. "Let's just move to another sewer." Ash palmed his head, thinking they wouldn't learn. In the Technodrome, Krang poured chemicals into a cauldron. Shredder saw this and confronted Krang with Meowth jumping onto the control panel.

"Another vat of mutagen?" the former pupil guessed.

"I need to keep working until I manage to duplicate the original formula," Krang grunted.

"Ya've been working on so much mutagen, you should've had dat formula by now," Meowth muttered.

"That's for certain," Shredder agreed. "You've mixed so much mutagen that it floods Dimension X." The fly from the taffy factory flew at around Rocksteady before landing on his horn. He tried to swat it with both hands, but he smacked his snout. The fly flew off after Rocksteady moved from reeling on his self-inflicted injury and yelp. He pulled out a short wooden sword and tried to swat the fly out of the air. The fly was too elusive, and he fell in front of Jessie.

"Don't you think it's a little reckless to swing some lumber around?" she murmured.

"Well, do ya know how annoying flies are?" complained Rocksteady. "Tink of what it would do to ya hair." Jessie seemed in awe to Rocksteady's point.

"Finally, someone else worries about my good looks," she muttered under her breath. "Even if it comes from a mutant moron with an IQ lower than Krang's height." Bebop came in and pulled a pipe from a machine.

"Lemme help out!" he offered. He swung the pipe at the fly, but it still missed the fly. Instead, it struck Rocksteady in the tail. He crumpled from the pain. "Oops… I meant ta hit da fly." Rocksteady got up with a laser pistol.

"How about we toin it into a firefly!?" he shouted before shooting at the fly. The others ducked as pistol shots broke beakers, causing chemicals to fill the cauldron. It bubbled over and spilled on the ground.

"You mutton-headed mutants!" shouted Krang. "You've ruined that batch!" The fly landed and entered the batch of chemicals. Suddenly, it began to grow from the size of Bebop's fingernail to the size of the room.

"We might have a bit of a bug problem!" whined Meowth.

"Where did that huge fly come from!?" gawked Shredder. Bebop and Rocksteady tried to ease the fly despite its new size.

"N-Nice fly…" gulped Bebop. Krang opened the portal. The bright light caught the giant fly's attention, and it flew into it.

"What the heck was going on?" asked Jessie as Krang shut the portal down before checking the batch with a handheld device.

"It came from this," he suspected. "Those morons might have created a new mutagen." The analysis from the device seemed to have made Krang awe. "Fascinating… This new mutagen contains some very specific properties." He pulled a cup from out of nowhere and scooped a little from the new mutagen. He dripped some onto Meowth who swiped after getting some on him.

"What was dat for!?" he snarled. Seeing no change, Krang had a theory.

"Just as I suspected," he studied. "It only targets insects and arachnids in increasing its size." Shredder pondered to the discovery.

"This gives me a fantastic idea!" he sneered. "Learning from my time on Earth before our unscheduled move to Dimension X, insects outnumber people by a million to one."

"Did you just throw in a ratio to your idea?" muttered Jessie.

"He's not wrong," Krang defended. "It's a known fact." Meowth awed the research.

"This mutagen could be the weapon we need to finally conquer Earth," Shredder plotted as he turned to Bebop and Rocksteady. "And I have you dolts to thank for it – much as I hate to admit it."

"How about that," Jessie shrugged. "Your idiocy came in handy."

"Gee, I just love it when da boss gives us compliments," Bebop smiled. Back on the New York City streets, a bus unloaded passengers. One was a yellowish-green man with a facial disguise of glasses, fake nose and mustache while wearing a blue suit and flat top-hat.

"Wow, it's been a long time since my feet walked on the bright lights of the big city," he spoke with a Southern accent. Undoing his disguise, it was an anthropomorphic frog. "This sure is different from being back home in the Everglades." He found a hot dog vendor with flies buzzing around him and his cart.

"Hey, bud!" the vendor greeted. "I saw ya come off the bus. I bet ya hungry."

"I am, but I think I see what I want if it helps ya!" the anthropomorphic frog offered. He shot his tongue out of his mouth, stretching before it tagged a fly. He ate it before moving on to eat the other flies. The vendor freaked out. "Them city flies are good!" Flustered, the vendor groaned.

"That's it!" he mulled. "It's back to law school for me!" The anthropomorphic frog continued to journey around when people were running in a panic. They ran past him.

"Them city folk have strange habits," he blinked as a shadow passed overhead. He looked up, finding the giant fly that Bebop and Rocksteady mutated. Unlike the people, the frog became excited. "Boy, howdy! Jiminy, everything's bigger in the city!" He found a skyscraper and entered before using the elevator to reach the top floor, which was the roof. Finding the mutated fly, the frog prepared to take the fly by himself. "Here it comes…" He climbed a tower before the fly was in his range. "Tongue, don't fail me now!" He spat the tongue out and tagged the underbelly. Instead of eating the fly like the flies at the hot dog stand, the fly lifted the frog up into the sky. He dangled under the fly, literally clinging for his life. Back in the sewer, the Lair was clean, and Pikachu turned on the TV, April appearing.

"We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin," she started. "A gigantic housefly has been seen over midtown." The Turtles and Trainers blinked to the report.

"A housefly?" repeated Ash.

"I know, something about the report doesn't feel right," Leonardo pondered. "We need to check it out."

"We might need the blimp for this," Brock suggested. A little while later, they rode the Turtle Blimp through the air.

"I'm pretty sure Pikachu can blast it out of the air with a Thunderbolt," Ash plotted. Pikachu looked around before spotting the fly in the sky.

("Over there!") he pointed. Everyone turned to see the fly.

"Aren't we glad we didn't have Misty join us," Brock gulped. Only then did they also see the tongue underneath. They traced the tongue to the frog.

"Now there's something you don't see every day," Raphael gulped. One Turtle saw the frog a little closer, sensing that it's familiar.

"Isn't that Genghis Frog?" guessed Donatello.

"You mean, one of the Punk Frogs?" realized Brock.

"Yeah, and it looks like he bit off more than he can chew!" gulped Michelangelo. The blimp reached the fly and Genghis before the latter unlatched his tongue and fell into the group. After a few seconds to calm down, Genghis turned to the rest.

"Whew, ya sure have got some unusual insects in this here metropolis!" he chuckled.

"That's aptly put!" irked Brock. Ash had an idea.

"Pikachu, get ready to use Thunderbolt!" he prepped. Pikachu seemed ready to give the fly a shock.

"Wait!" gawked Donatello. "Thunderbolt might not do it!"

"We need something if you don't think Pikachu can zap that fly!" urged Leonardo. Looking around, Donatello spotted a building.

"There!" he pointed out. Looking, Raphael had an idea on the solution.

"The Golden Glow Maple Syrup Factory!" he read the name of the factory.

"Right!" realized Genghis. "Flies like them sticky sweet!"

"Okay, change of plans, Pikachu!" he urged. "Use Iron Tail on the valves!"

("I like this idea!") the Mouse Pokémon squeaked as he leaped and swung Iron Tail on the valve. A massive stream of syrup poured over the roof. Seeing the syrup made Michelangelo lick his lips.

"Wish I'd brought along about 50,000 pancakes," he teased.

"Sign me up for a massive breakfast myself!" joked Ash. The fly was attracted by the syrup and landed. It started on devouring the syrup and tried to fly, but the big bug was stuck. It wasn't moving.

"Brilliant!" cheered Brock.

"Now all we need is a giant, economy-sized fly swatter!" wished Leonardo.

"I've got a question," Donatello spoke up. "Where did this oversized house pest come from?"

"Well, it's definitely an Earth fly," Genghis assumed.

"So, maybe it was created?" guessed Ash.

"And I'm willing to bet pesos to pizzas that its creator's in Dimension X," Michelangelo concluded.

"No rest when Shredder and Krang are involved," Raphael shrugged. However, New York City won't be resting that easily with what Shredder and Team Rocket have planned.


TO BE CONTINUED...