Chapter 7: I Think his name was Baxter Stockman
Hey everyone I'm back with a new chapter. And just in time for the one-year anniversary of the day this story was created. And I am really proud of this story has come along so far. This story has 150 followers now! Thank you all for all your support! I hope you like what I have planned. Please Review and Enjoy.
We find ourselves at the Turtle's base as Splinter was trying to meditate.
"Guys guys get in your spots!" Mikey said interrupting him.
"This is the last time we're doing this!" Raph yells.
"You better not flip me this time." Donnie said.
"Ugh I ate too much cheese." Leo groans.
"Oh shut up!" Gio yells.
In the main room, Gio, Leo, Raph and Donnie were under a ramp where Mikey had his skateboard up.
"And now I will attempt the world record of jumping 3 mutant turtles and one human!" Mikey said.
"I can't believe he talked us into this." Raph growls.
"If he lands on us, he is dead." Gio growls.
"Booyakasha!" Mikey said coming down.
"What is going on in here?" Splinter said entering the room.
"Sensei!" Leo said as they stood up.
Screaming Mikey crashed into the others making them all fall at Splinter's feet.
"How many times have I told you not to skateboard in the lair?" Splinter asks.
"Uh none sensei." Mikey said.
"I shouldn't have to tell you!" Splinter snaps.
"You're right, Sensei. We definitely should have known better and we deserve to be punished. Eh some." Leo said.
"And what do you think would be a fitting punishment?" Splinter asks.
As Leo looks to his brothers they all looked away nervously.
"Uh maybe we clean up our mess?" Leo flinches. "And think about what we did?"
"Works for me." Gio said.
"Sounds good." Donnie said.
"Wouldn't wanna do much." Raph adds.
"No worries." Mikey said.
"What about being grounded for a week?" Splinter asks.
"Oh no that's not necessary." Gio said.
"Yeah I'm cool with thinking." Mikey said.
"Really don't trouble yourself." Raph said.
"Maybe next time." Donnie said.
"You're all grounded for a week!" Splinter declares.
Groaning Mikey's ramp collapsed making their mess even bigger.
"And just to make sure you learn your lesson. Four hours in the Hashi." Splinter orders.
"Not the Hashi!" Mikey screams as Splinter grabs them.
At Mt. Justice, the team was preparing for training with Black Canary.
"Anyone have any idea when the Turtles will show up?" Kid Flash asks.
"They should be here soon." Robin said when Kid Flash's phone rang.
"Oh speak of the devil that's them." Kid Flash said as the call was answered on screen.
"Hey guys." Gio said as his face appeared on screen.
"Hey Gio what's keeping you guys?" Kid Flash asks.
"Sorry we can't come. You see…we're kinda grounded for the next week." Gio admits getting their attention.
"Grounded? Heroes don't get grounded." Robin said.
"Yeah well we just did." Gio said.
"So you guys can't come?" Miss Martian asks.
"There's nothing we can do; we're grounded for a week. I'm lucky Splinter is allowing me to call you to explain this." Gio said as Artemis snickers.
"Wow to actually screw up so badly that you're not even allowed to be heroes? That's hilarious." Artemis said wanting to laugh.
"Oh shut the hell up!" Gio growls.
"Artemis don't make it worse." Miss Martian said.
"You guys made a commitment to this team. What if we need your help?" Robin asks.
"You'll have to convince Master Splinter yourself because we sure as hell can't." Gio said.
"Giovanni your 3 minutes are up! Hang up now or I will break that phone in half!" Splinter calls out.
Embarrassed Gio looks to Artemis who had a smirk on her face.
"Not one word." Gio said hanging up.
"Wow remind me not to get on Splinter's bad side." Superboy said walking over.
"What do we do?" Miss Martian asks.
"Splinter may be their trainer but he is also their father and as such we must respect his decision to discipline his children." Aqualad said making Robin sigh.
"I'll go talk to him after training." Robin said.
Artemis wanted to go, but for different reasons.
Back at the lair, Gio and the turtles were in the Hashi as a timer was going and all of them were groaning in pain.
Gio was doing the splits while his legs lined up on a board and bricks were on his head and arms which were stretching out in warrior pose.
Leo was doing the invisible chair while standing on cinderblocks and slowly trimming a bonsai tree.
Donnie and Raph were standing on a wobbly beam as they had to keep their balance and had to constantly twist their bodies in opposite directions passing each other a medicine ball.
And Mikey was standing on his toes while balancing on a wire with plates on his head, leg and shoulders.
"Whoa whoa." Mikey said trying to keep his balance.
"How much…longer?" Leo groans as Gio looked to the timer.
"Just a few more seconds." Gio groans as the hand reached the top and the timer dings allowing them to finally move.
"How does this get harder every time?" Donnie asks.
"Because Master Splinter keeps coming up with new ideas to torture us." Raph groans as they made their way out.
"I can't believe we're stuck down here for a whole week." Gio said.
"What do mean we? Splinter lets you leave." Raph said.
"Yeah to get food, but I have to ask April to follow me to make sure I don't try anything." Gio said.
"Ha! April's your babysitter." Mikey mocks when Gio threw his shield knocking him to the ground.
"Not another word out you. It's your fault we're even in this mess." Gio said.
"Yeah if you didn't want to do your stupid stunt we wouldn't be grounded." Leo said.
"You guys agreed to it." Mikey said.
"To shut you up so you would stop whining." Leo said when Donnie ran in.
"Guys, guys! You wanna see what I made?" Donnie asks in an excited tone.
"This is how bored I am. Yes, Donnie. I do." Raph said.
"Ok, ok, ok. Remember the other day I was scrounging in that military junkyard?" Donnie asks.
"No." They all said.
"Well, I found an incredibly advanced A.I. microchip, made from get this! Self-assembled chain-linked copolymers!" Donnie said.
"Any idea what he's talking about?" Leo whispers.
"Not even a little." Gio shook his head.
"That's my favorite kind of copolymer." Mikey said.
"Mine too! And I used it to make this. The most advanced music player in the world." Donnie said pulling out a high tech device. "So who wants to try it?"
"I do. Toss me the T-Pod." Mikey said excited.
"T-Pod?" Donnie asks.
"Turtle. Pod. Tpod. I am so good at naming stuff." Mikey said taking it.
Immediately the other 3 moves towards Donnie.
"Donnie I'm not sure this is a good idea." Gio said.
"You're really gonna plug an advanced piece of military technology directly into Mikey's head? What if it melts his brain?" Raph asks.
"It won't. And even if it did, who'd know the difference?" Donnie asks.
"Hmm good point." Gio shrugs.
As Mikey put the earbuds in and turned it on he let out an agonizing scream.
"What is it?!" Donnie asks worried.
"It's polka! Make it stop! Make it stop!" Mikey begs as Donnie changes the song to a hip hop song. "Thanks." As Mikey began dancing the other four look at him weirdly.
"That's it. I gotta get out of here." Raph said grabbing his skateboard.
"Where are you going? We're grounded." Leo said.
"I don't care. I gotta do something or I'm gonna go nuts. Let's find a skate spot." Raph suggests.
"Skate spot? I'm totally in." Mikey smiles.
"But what's Splinter gonna say? If I can't leave on my own you sure as hell can't." Gio said.
"He'll say I don't know what's going on, because they snuck out while I was asleep." Raph said mimicking Splinter.
"Real mature but Gio and I are the leaders." Leo said.
"Yeah so nobody's going." Gio glares.
"Well as your followers, we're going anyway." Raph said ignoring them.
"Well as your leaders…we're going with you." Leo said.
"We are?" Gio asks.
"Yes so we can stir them away from the bad stuff." Leo said with a not sure tone in his voice.
Gio was about to say something when Mikey let out a scream.
"What is it?" Gio asks worried
"It's back to polka! We've got to get some more tunes on this." Mikey whines.
"You know what. Screw it, I'm down with skating." Gio said yanking his hood over his head.
It was late at night as the 5 brothers were skating across the rooftops on their skateboards.
"Hey, Donnie! Thanks for all the new songs." Mikey calls out still listening to the TPod.
"Wait, what new songs?" Donnie asks.
"Keep it down." Leo shushes.
Skating next to Mikey, Donnie looks over to see what he meant.
"What the? It's got thousands of songs and it keeps downloading new ones every second." Donnie said amazed.
"So?" Raph asks.
"So. I didn't program it to do that. It's reconfiguring itself somehow. It must be the chip." Donnie realized.
"Whatever it is, it's awesome." Mikey said.
"Guys zip it. We're ninjas we move swiftly." Leo said.
"Uh Leo." Carapace points out.
"One second, and more importantly silently." Leo lectures.
"But Leo." Carapace calls out.
"What?" Leo asks but he was so distracted he didn't realize he ran off the roof and fell into a greenhouse. "Beehive!" Leo screams crashing out of it and tumbling down a fire escape and to the ground.
"Yeah…that's what I was trying to say." Carapace sighs
"Hey Leo that wasn't very silent." Raph mocks.
Recovering the 5 of them find a nice spot filled with rails and plenty of other places to skate one.
"Check it out." Raph said.
"Let's grind it." Mikey said eagerly.
However before they could skate, they heard a strange noise.
"What the heck is that?" Donnie asks.
Looking down they saw a man in silver armor walking down the street. This was Baxter Stockman.
"I don't know, but he needs a beat down." Raph said.
"Hold on, Raph, we don't know that he's gonna do anything wrong. He-He could be on his way to…church." Leo said.
"What kind of church lets you wear battle armor to it?" Carapace asks.
"An awesome one." Mikey said making Leo facepalm.
"Look, it's my call. I'm the leader, you're second in command. So I decided who gets a beatdown." Leo said when the man turns on a flamethrower trying to break into a room.
"So?" Raph asks.
"That guy needs a beatdown." Leo declares as they jumped down.
Down below the flamethrower ran out of juice much to the man's disappointment.
"Are you kidding me? Awww, come on." He groans trying to lift the shutter himself. "Stupid shutter."
"Wow that's just sad." Donnie said.
"Yeah, I don't know if we should pound him or buy him an ice cream cone." Mikey said.
"Halt villain!" Leo calls out drawing his sword and getting Stockman's attention.
"Halt Villian? When did we start talking like that?" Raph asks.
"We're heroes. Heroes talk like that." Leo said.
"I have not heard a single one of our friends ever talk like that." Carapace said.
"You will feel the power of my battle—" Stockman pauses seeing their appearances. "Holy cow you're turtles…well 4 turtles and weirdo dressed like one."
"You really wanna judge me when you look like a loser at a sci-fi convention?" Carapace asks.
"Yes! We are the Turtles of Justice!" Leo declares.
"Wow…just wow." Raph cringes.
"I am so glad no one else heard that." Carapace facepalms.
As Stockman charges towards them Carapace, Donnie and Raph draw their weapons as they charged with Leo.
"Wait!" Mikey yells as they stopped just before battle and looked to him.
Taking off his earbuds, Mikey puts the TPod away and draws his nunchaku. "Okay."
Leaping in Mikey joins them in battle and whacks Stockman in the head with his nunchucka.
Stockman tries to fight them off but the 5 Ninjas were able to avoid all his attacks with ease and nail him with their weapons trashing his suit.
As Donnie whacks him his suit malfunctions and Stockman's elbow goes through a window setting off the burglar alarm.
Cringing they had to get out and fast.
Opening a dumpster Raph gestures.
Turning to him all 5 grab him.
"NO! NO! NO! AH!" Stockman yells as they threw him in the dumpster. "You're not the first to ever throw me in the trash, but I swear that you will be the last—" Before he could finish they slammed the lid on him.
"Come on!" Mikey said as they made their escape before the cops showed up.
Making their way back home, the 5 of them sneak back in.
"We made it home." Raph smiles.
"Ssh. It's 2 am." Leo hushes.
"And Splinter's still asleep. This is epic." Mikey smiles.
"Not epic, mostly lucky." Gio said yanking his hood down.
"Oh stop worrying. We got out there and stomped a sleazeball. No problems whatsoever." Raph said.
However as Mikey felt around he cringed nervously realizing he lost the TPod.
Back in the alley Stockman groans in pain as he climbed out of the dumpster.
Looking down he noticed the TPod laying on the ground.
Picking it up, he hooks it up to his suit and suddenly it began to glow making him grin happily.
The next morning, Artemis and Robin arrive to try talking to Splinter.
"Ugh I always hate having to come down this way." Artemis said dealing with the smell.
"I hope Splinter is in a better mood than yesterday. We need them if Batman sends us on another mission." Robin said.
"Oh come on unless they do anything stupid. Our chances should be good." Artemis said.
Entering the dojo they saw the 5 of them moving around in a tired fashion.
"Knees higher, Leonardo! Extend, Michelangelo! Stick the landing Giovanni! Raphael, you call that a Koho Tenkai? Because I do not!" Splinter yells as Donnie crashes to the ground.
"Oof guess Splinter is still a little displeased." Artemis said.
"Well we need to get him pleased." Robin said before turning to him. "Uh Master Splinter."
"One minute." Splinter said holding a finger up not taking his eyes off his sons. "Yame!" Splinter calls out as the 5 of them lined up. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
"Something we wanna tell you? Nope." Mikey chuckles.
"You all seem tired." Splinter said.
"Us tired?" Gio said sarcastically.
"No way." Leo said.
"Wide awake." Donnie adds.
"Fresh as daises." Raph said as Mikey let out a yawn and laid down.
Narrowing their eyes Artemis could tell they were hiding something.
"So you would not object to a little randori?" Splinter asks grabbing a wooden sword.
"Uh…" Mikey gulps.
"Well." Gio cringed.
Raising it, Splinter attacked his sons making Robin and Artemis cringe as he gave them a savage beating.
" I hope you have learned, turtles, that truth isn't the only thing that hurts." Splinter said as they all groaned in pain.
After training all of them sat around as Robin and Artemis joined them.
"Wow your dad kicked wiped the floor with you guys." Robin said.
"Yep, Master Splinter is vicious." Leo said.
"So what were you guys doing?" Artemis asks.
"What? Uh we don't know what you're talking about." Leo said.
"You guys are not the best liars. Not to mention you were hardly moving like ninjas back there." Robin said.
Seeing that they were busted Gio let out a sigh.
"Alright fine we snuck out." Gio said.
"He put us in the Hashi again. Not to mention we were bored out our minds." Raph said.
"So was sneaking out worth getting your butts kicked?" Artemis smirks.
"Hmm a little." Gio admits.
As Leo walks to the TV and turns it on he smiles seeing his favorite show was on.
"Yes Transformers." Leo said sitting down.
"We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news." Carl said interrupting Leo's show.
"Oh man." Leo groans.
"We've received shocking footage of an assault on the T.C.R.I office complex in Brooklyn." He said as they showed Baxter wearing a super high tech suit.
"At last I shall have my revenge!" Stockman laughs evilly.
"Oh great another new villain." Robin said crossing his arms.
"W-Who are you?" A worker asks.
"You'll never know. I'm the thing that haunts your nightmares! I'm the nameless shadow who—"
"Baxter? Baxter Stockman?" A worker interrupts.
"No!" Stockman snaps.
"Hey, everybody! It's Baxter Stockman!" He calls out.
"I think his name is Baxter Stockman." Raph assumes as they continued to watch.
"Is this because I fired you?" The boss calls out.
"That copy machine was already broken when I- I mean, I don't know what you're talking about!" Stockman snaps.
"Wow, this guy is pathetic. Making a suit to get revenge on his boss who fired him?" Artemis asks pinching her nose.
"We trashed his suit yesterday, how did he upgrade it so fast?" Leo asks when the news freezes showing the TPod.
Glaring the other 4 brothers turned to Mikey.
"He has the TPod?!" Donnie glares.
"The what?" Robin asks.
"It's one of Donnie's inventions." Gio said.
"But then how did he get his hands on it?" Artemis asks.
"Oh, um, I might have dropped that during the fight." Mikey admits making everyone glare at him.
"You dropped it during the fight? Nice going Mikey!" Donnie snaps.
"It's your fault!" Mikey blames.
"How is it my fault?" Donnie asks.
"You know I can't be trusted with nice things." Mikey said making Donnie extremely pissed off.
"You are such an idiot." Artemis said.
"Tell us something we don't know for once." Gio said.
"So the A.I. chip is upgrading his armor the same way it upgraded the Tpod?" Leo asks.
"Where did you even get such an advanced piece of tech?" Robin asks.
"A military dumpster." Donnie admits.
"Donnie, military tech has some of the most dangerous experiments you can find. And you wanted to use it to make a music player?" Robin asks.
"I tried until Mikey lost it. And if it keeps going, there's no telling how powerful he'll get." Donnie said.
"We have to tell Master Splinter and the rest of the team about this." Leo said.
"Tell them what? That we turned some nutjob into a super villain? Do you know what he'll do to us for that? I mean, he pounded us into the ground just for being sleepy!" Raph reminds.
"And don't even get me started on what Batman might do to you." Robin said.
"Okay we gotta get that pod away from him." Gio said.
"Look, we beat Stockman once, we can beat him again. We track him down, grab the Tpod, and get back here before Splinter knows anything." Donnie said.
"If my opinion counts for anything, Donnie's right." Mikey said.
"It doesn't." Everyone said.
"Still in trouble?" Mikey asks.
"Oh yeah." Artemis glares.
"Robin can you help me track it?" Donnie asks.
"Advance piece of tech like that, easy." Robin said.
"Come on you." Raph said as, he, Leo, Robin and Donnie ran out.
"Always cleaning up Mikey's messes." Gio sighs.
"Why do you put up with him?" Artemis asks.
"Have a sibling and then talk to me. As big of a pain Mikey we'd never get rid of him. That's part of being family." Gio said putting his hood on and following his brothers.
"Most families anyway." Artemis mumbles running after them.
That night, in an old abandoned warehouse, Stockman was sitting alone trying to come up with a new name.
"I'm not Baxter Stockman. I am the Baxman! No, no, I am- I am the Suitinator. Aw, that's terrible. Captain Punch-You-Hard! Why is this so difficult?" Stockman asks as the 5 turtles and Artemis entered while Robin hid out of view to shut down the TPod.
Entering it Robin saw the code.
"Whoa Mikey wasn't kidding." Robin said seeing the advanced coding. "This might be difficult."
"I kinda like the Suitinator." Mikey said getting his attention.
"You guys?" Stockman gasps.
"Take it easy Stockman. Nobody wants to hurt you." Leo said.
"We don't?" Raph asks.
"We just want the TPod." Leo said.
"Give up my source of power? Why? So you can laugh at me again? Throw me in a dumpster?" Stockman asks.
"You guys didn't mention that." Artemis glares.
"He was trying to break in, we threw him in there so the cops wouldn't throw him in jail." Carapace said.
"Well did ever think that's where he should be?" Artemis said.
"Like you have the perfect hero record. I bet even you mess up." Carapace said.
"Oh great the Turtle copycat has a girlfriend." Stockman said.
"She's/ I'm not his girlfriend!" Both yelled at the same time.
"Save it for later. If this guy wants a beating, we'll give him one!" Raph said charging in.
Raising his arm, Stockman punches Raph sending him crashing into the wall.
As the others attacked Stockman held out his arms and they extended smashing Mikey and Donnie into the wall.
Drawing his swords, Leo leaps over Stockman's arm and slashes them off. However they instantly grew back.
"What the?" Leo said when the hands he chopped off leaped up and latched onto his face. "Get it off! Get it off!"
"Artemis shoot that stupid thing off his head!" Carapace yells.
"Try telling me something I don't know." Aiming her arrow she fires hitting the robot making it fall off Leo's head.
"Yes prepare to be shut down Stockman." Robin grins as he started hacking but just before he could the AI beeped causing the code to scramble. "What the?"
Robin tried to rehack but the code kept changing messing up Robin's concentration.
Inside Carpace dodges Stockman's arms while Artemis fires arrows at him.
"What is taking Robin? How long does it take to hack a suit?" Carapace asks.
"Stop whining and keep fighting." Artemis said.
Turning to them, Stockman raises his other arm and fired hitting both heroes at the same time.
Tumbling to the ground Carapace tries to get up when he suddenly feels something on his left arm.
"Huh?" Looking down he saw Stockman that the hand had turned into a large cuff that not covered his entire left hand, but that wasn't the worst part. It was also covering Artemis' right hand.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Artemis said standing up and inadvertently yanking Carapace up. "Get this stupid off me!"
"With pleasure!" Grabbing a tonfa Carapace whacks it as hard as he could but it wouldn't budge.
"Give me that." Grabbing his other tonfa, Artemis joins him in the whacking but even still it wouldn't budge.
Throwing his kusarigama, Mikey wraps the chain around Stockman.
"Gotcha." Mikey smirks.
Smirking Stockman breaks free and grabs Mikey.
As Leo, Raph and Donnie got up they saw Stockman spinning Mikey around like a nunchaku.
Brotherly instincts kicking in the three of them grabbed their weapons and attacked.
Spinning Mikey around he threw him sending Mikey smashing into Raph before fighting off Leo and Donnie.
"This stupid AI. It keeps changing the code." Robin seeing his friends needed help.
"Come on! Get up! He's beating up my brothers!" Carapace said pulling ahead.
"How am I supposed to fight without my arrows?" Artemis asks.
"Here's an idea, do what I say." Gio said yanking her in his direction.
"Ever hear of ladies first?" Artemis asks yanking him in her direction.
"You're not a lady. You're nothing but a pain." Carapace said pulling her.
"Oh please if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be trapped in the world's largest finger cuff!" Artemis said.
"Will you stop fighting and try helping?" Robin said jumping in.
Throwing his discs they explode upon contact making Stockman skid back.
Raising his arms, Stockman fires lasers but Robin swung out of the way but Stockman blasts the roof behind him making him tumble out of the warehouse.
Turning to Artemis and Carapace, Stockman fires a laser blasting both of them back.
As they fly out of the warehouse, the cuff bangs into a street light resulting in the two of them swinging around and smashing into each other lips first.
Eyes widening both were frozen in shock as they looked into the others eyes and for a few seconds they were speechless.
As Carapace looked at Artemis he was in shock, the girl who had been a pain in his side since day one and his lips were on hers.
Artemis was equally shocked, I mean that incident had her locking lips with sewer boy, the last boy on Earth she ever thought she would be interested in was kissing her. And surprisingly it wasn't as disgusting as she thought.
Separating both of them paused not sure what to say at first.
Snapping out of it they awed looks changed to glares.
"You son of a -I knew you were trying to make a move on me since day one." Artemis said disgustedly.
"Oh please that was the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted and I've eaten garbage." Carapace mocks.
"I bet raw sewage tastes better than that kiss." Artemis said.
"I can arrange that." He threatens.
However before they could continue arguing Stockman had beaten Gio's brothers and to add insult to injury threw them in a dumpster.
"Ha! Foolish turtles! Did you honesly think you could beat me?" Stockman asks.
"Well, yes." Donnie said when Robin threw a disk making Stockman tumble back.
"Alright Stockman what the hell? I've seen tons of psychos do tons of stupid things, you're evil because you got fired? How lame is that?" Robin asks.
"All my life, people have laughed at me. The other kids in school, my co-workers, the woman who fixes the copy machine! How was I supposed to know you don't pour toner in the top? But when they behold the power of this suit, they won't be laughing anymore! They'll tremble in terror!" Stockman said.
"Oh that's problem Robin. He's not doing it because he's evil he's doing it because he's a loser." Raph said.
"I'm not the loser! You are!" Stockman roars as the suit glowed causing him to grow bigger in size.
"What is going on?" Leo asks not liking this.
"Stockman and the TPod are merging…into one single entity." Donnie gasps.
"The Stockmanpod." Mikey names.
Running out from the back Artemis and Carapace arrive to see Robin jump down.
"Robin any chance you can finish hacking it right now?" Carapace asks.
"Even if I could I think we have a bigger issue." Robin sakd.
"Oh yeah what?" Artemis asks.
"Making your sure Carapace doesn't become an only child." Robin said.
"Sounds about right." Grabbing his shell shield, Carapace threw it at the dumpster making it roll out of the way just before the Stockmanpod could crush them.
"Run guys!" Carapace yells.
"Don't need to tell us twice!" Leo said the 4 turtles ran down the streets.
Growling the Stockmanpod turns to the three humans but Robin threw a smoke bomb at the last second allowing them to escape.
Chasing after the turtles the Stockmanpod gained on them.
"The Stockmanpod's right on top of us!" Mikey yells.
"Stop calling him that! That's a stupid name!" Raph yells.
"Split up! He can't follow all of us!" Leo orders.
"No way! He's gonna follow me!" Mikey said.
"Why would he follow you?" Leo asks.
"They always follow me." Mikey said.
"Stop being paranoid and just do it." Leo said as they all split up.
But to Mikey's horror the Stockmanpod continued after him.
"I told you he was gonna follow me!" Mikey yells as he scrambled up walls and through allies trying to lose him.
Panicking Mikey ran towards the street when he noticed the pizzaman pedaling on his bike.
"Pizza." Mikey smiles.
Leaping up, Mikey swipes the boxes from the bike and turns to face the Stockmanpod.
"I've got you now." Stockmanpod grins.
"Well I've got hot cheese!" Mikey yells throwing the pizzas at his face blinding him.
"Is that the best you—" Before he could finish, he realized that they all had escaped.
Making their way back into the lair all of them were walking in the dark.
"Shh quiet you're gonna wake him up." Leo said.
"I'm not making noise. Ssh." Mikey said.
"Oh will you guys shut up." Robin shushes.
"Gio keep up, you're falling behind." Donnie whispers.
"Easy for you to say you're not lugging an extra 150 lbs. attached to your arm." Gio whispers.
"I do not weigh that much you jerk!" Artemis snaps and suddenly the lights turn on revealing them and Master Splinter.
"Aaah! Sensei!" Leo yelps.
"And where have you been?" Splinter asks.
"Nowhere." Raph said.
"Then why are Artemis and Giovanni arms cuffed together?" Splinter points.
"Uh…trust exercise." Gio said.
"Yeah it's called how long I can stay in the same room with this jerk before I want to rip him apart." Artemis growls.
"Oh like you're such a joy yourself." Gio glares.
"Will you two quit the lovebird talk?" Raph said.
"We're not lovebirds!" Both of them snapped.
"So then why are the rest of you so hurt?" Splinter asks.
"Oh that's uh…well we were uh…" Leo starts.
"Hit." Raph starts.
"By a." Donnie continues.
"Bus?" Mikey finished making everyone glare at him.
"Hit by a bus?" Donnie asks.
"Well, what was I supposed to say? Meteor? Cow? Flying building?" Mikey asks.
"You know what forget it, this is too sad to bother covering up." Robin said.
"Tell me what happened. Now." Splinter orders.
Soon all of them were sitting in Splinter's dojo telling him what happened.
"And then I threw hot cheese in his face." Mikey finished.
"Very resourceful, Michelangelo. But I'm still highly 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." Splinter said.
"There's a lot of conflict in that statement right there." Robin whispers.
"You're right, Sensei. I guess we did make a mess of things." Leo said.
"And to make things worse we ended up dragging our friends into this." Gio sighs.
"So what do you think would be a fitting punishment?" Splinter asks.
"We need to clean up our mess." Leo said.
"Agreed, you must stop the Stockmanpod." Splinter agrees.
"But, Sensei, that guy's already kicked our shells. And now he's even more powerful. How are we supposed to stop him?" Donnie asks.
"I know, I'll hit him harder." Raph said.
"Oh yeah because that worked so well earlier." Robin said sarcastically.
Narrowing his eyes, Splinter looked at Robin for a few seconds before turning to the team.
"Brute force is not the answer. You will need to rely on your ninja training." Splinter said.
"Excuse me sensei but Ninjas have never gone up against guys in armor." Mikey said.
"Uh Mikey." Gio points to the painting behind Splinter showing ninjas battling samurai.
"Oh I mean Ninjas have always gone up against guys in armor." Mikey corrects.
"Nice save." Raph mocks.
"So Sensei, how did they beat him?" Leo asks.
"They went for the man, not the armor." Splinter said.
"But Sensei how are we supposed to go for the man when Artemis and I are stuck like this?" Gio asks as they raised the cuff.
"You two have been opposites for a while. For this to work you must put aside your differences and work together to free yourselves from this prison." Splinter said.
"Well then we better fix this." Leo said as they got up.
"Robin a word." Splinter said as he stayed behind. "Something else is on your mind. I sense a strong feeling of regret and failure."
"I should have been able to hack that device and shut it down. I do this stuff all the time but I couldn't do it in time." Robin said.
"Even the most experienced warriors will sometimes feel the sting of defeat." Splinter said.
"But that's the thing, I failed and we lost. Being a hero is where failure isn't an option. If Batman saw me mess up—"
"Batman is not here. I am." Splinter said walking up to him. "I can tell that you have been doing this for a long time, longer than the others in your group. Your experience is your greatest asset to the team."
"That's why failing is so hard. How could I mess up?" Robin frowns.
"True warriors can learn from their mistakes and you can too. If it's something you've done a million times." Splinter said.
"But how can I make sure I don't mess up again?" Robin asks as Splinter grabbed some wooden puzzle pieces and scattered them in front of Robin.
"The way I see it, you tackled it the wrong way. You tackled the problem as a whole and as a result you got distracted when it changed in front of you." Splinter said gesturing to the pile. "But if look at the problem in a smaller perspective you can notice things. Things you missed, things you know." Splinter grabs two pieces and aligns them together before looking for other pieces that fit. "And as you work your way out from the small things the bigger things fall together until finally…you solved it." Splinter opens his hand revealing the wooden puzzle in its complete form.
"Wow I never thought of it like that." Robin said impressed.
"Try it, you might surprise yourself." Splinter suggests.
Nodding Robin ran out after the others.
On the rooftops, Artemis had her bow out and Carapace was pulling the string holding the arrow.
"Okay how's this?" Carapace asks.
"Not bad, but give it a little slack." Artemis said.
"Are you sure it'll hit?" Carapace asks.
"My aim is the best, so if this misses it'll be because of you." Artemis smirks.
Looking at the smile on her face, Carapace couldn't help but blush slightly.
Even though that wasn't real that kiss was stuck in his head.
"Robin you sure you want another try at this?" Leo asks.
"Yeah I think I got it." Robin said.
"So what's the plan?" Donnie asks.
"Well it's like Splinter said, we go after the man not the armor." Carapace said.
"And one thing we know about bad guys, they love going after Mikey." Leo smiles.
"Guys!" Mikey screams running towards them. "Stockmanpod's got missles!"
Behind him 6 missiles flew towards them.
Scrambling all of them jumped out of the way as Mikey over a water tower and dangled from a wire.
From the smoke, the Stockmanpod stood right under Mikey.
Using this opening, Leo, Donnie and Raph threw chains pinning the Stockmanpod down.
"Ha! Who's trembling now?" Mikey mocks.
Breaking free, Stockmanpod grabs Mikey and throws him to the edge.
Scrambling the other turtles ran to grab him.
Bringing up his screen Robin looked at the alternating code and it was starting to confuse him.
"Focus on the smaller things." Robin said when he noticed a line in it. "Wait." Typing furiously Robin changed the code, and suddenly more lines became open to him. "Ha! Yes I'm back."
Hacking the suit, Stockmanpod tried to retaliate but for some reason his arms wouldn't move.
"What's going on? Why can't I move?" He asks confused.
"Simple. I hacked your suit and shut down your arms." Robin said making the turtles grin.
"You mean to tell us he can't hit us back?" Mikey asks.
"Nope." Robin smirks.
"But we can?" Raph asks.
"Oh yeah." Robin nods stepping back.
Gulping Stockmanpod sees the turtles crack their knuckles.
Charging in they attacked Stockmanpod with an endless barrage of punches, kicks and strikes from their weapons.
Delivering four powerful strikes they knocked Stockman towards the edge.
"Is that all you got?" Stockmanpod asks.
"Hardly." Leo smirks.
Hey Stockman!" Turning around he saw Artemis aiming her bow but at the end of her arrow was a beehive from the greenhouse Leo crashed into.
"Aim." Artemis said as Carapace pulled the string back. "Fire!"
Letting go the beehive flew towards Stockmanpod hitting him the face causing all the bees to swarm.
Screaming the Stockmanpod fell backward falling off the roof and crashing to the ground.
Appearing above him, Leo stabs the TPod causing the suit to shut down.
With the Stockmanpod shut down the cuff around Carapace and Artemis broke freeing their arms.
"Yes." Carapace smiles.
"Finally. I thought I was gonna be stuck in that thing forever." Artemis smiles.
"Uh you know you two can let go now." Mikey smirks.
Confused both looked down to see they were holding hands.
Blushing both quickly let go and turned in opposite directions.
"So what should we do about him?" Leo asks looking at Stockman.
"Uh you guys wanna call it a draw?" Stockman asks nervously.
"Hmm Raph what do you think?" Leo asks.
Smirking Raph grabs Stockman and threw him in the dumpster.
"Now it's a draw." Raph said.
Back in the Turtle lair, the 5 Turtles were sitting in front of Splinter with Artemis and Robin nearby.
"You all showed wisdom, teamwork and great skill in defeating the Stockmanpod. I am proud of you all." Splinter smiles turning to Robin.
"Thanks for earlier Master Splinter. I'll remember what you said to me." Robin said.
"Glad I could help." Splinter said tossing the puzzle to Robin who catches. "In case you ever need to be reminded."
"Does this mean we're not grounded anymore?" Leo asks.
"Yes." Splinter said making them all smile. "But first randori!" Splinter took out his wooden sword.
Screaming the 5 ran like their lives depended on it.
Looking at Artemis, Robin noticed that for the first time she wasn't laughing at Gio.
"Hey what's up with you?" Robin asks.
"They've been through enough pain. I'll let Turtle Boy have this one." Artemis said.
"Wow, you must be warming up to him. Guess being cuffed to him worked out." Robin said.
Freezing up Artemis remembers Gio kissing her on the lips.
As a soft blush appears on her face she quickly shook her head snapping out of it.
'No way that wasn't even a real kiss. It was an accident. There is no way I would ever consider him.' Artemis thought looking at him.