Chapter 46: An Explosive Reveal
Ash, Buffy and Pikachu were in trouble. After disposing of Team Rocket, rather literally, Shredder shrunk them down. They were thrown into a cage, trapped. "Now, you will remain in this state until you give me the formula!" argued Shredder. Buffy got to her feet and stood by Ash.
"I'd rather die than break my grandfather's promise!" she shouted, her voice highly squeaky.
"And that will fall on him should it happen!" goaded Shredder, pointing to Ash. The trainer and Mouse Pokémon furrowed their brows when Krang entered, but he had a different pair of mechanical legs while he was confined into a dome.
"Shredder, what is the progress of the rocket fuel's formula?" he questioned. Buffy gawked and hid in fear behind Ash.
"This obnoxious brat has destroyed the brainalyzer!" pointed Shredder. "I couldn't get one piece of information out of her!" Krang turned his body to Ash and Pikachu, who stood to protect him and Buffy.
"I can see why if those two came after her," he pondered. Ash decided to make fun of Krang once more.
"Well, well, if it isn't my brother from another stomach," he teased. "Did your mechanical body need maintenance?" Krang didn't appreciate the mockery.
"Oh, ha ha!" he sarcastically laughed. "I'm actually surprised that you'd save a brat like her." Ash had a shy laugh from that.
"Well, actually… she chose me. In fact, I enjoyed the time and we're starting to go steady… or we could be if we weren't caged up." That made Krang realize the occasion.
"Oh… Of course, I have suspected Shredder of going after that reporter for the same reason." The named individual shook his head.
"Let's stay on topic, Krang," he declined. "Besides, Miss O'Neil is a lure for those wretched Turtles." Krang didn't believe Oroku's plotting.
"I'm sure that's all it is…" he mocked before the two left.
"Ash, what the heck was that… that thing!?" she gulped.
"An alien who lost his body and lives as only a brain of the operation," Ash briefed. "And Shredder teamed up with him to conquer Earth."
"I'd rather be with the Turtles over that!" cried Buffy. She came over to the cage door. "Those goofbags chose a mouse cage. It doesn't work on people." She reached through the cage and opened the door on the other side.
"You'd think Shredder had a trap more elaborate." All three walked out of the cage. "Knowing the Technodrome, we'll need to find the Transport Room." As they proceeded, Brock and the Turtles were trying to repair the Trans-Dimensional Portal that was used to bring Ash, Vernon, April, Raphael, Michelangelo and Pikachu from Dimension X before.
"I know Ash will do anything to protect Buffy," Brock mentioned. "But we don't know how long they'll last before we get to them."
"Even then, I doubt this will work again," Donatello warned. "It's malfunctioned plenty of times that there's a lot of damage to it." Donatello flipped the switch. Sparks emitted before it exploded. Everyone was away when the machine blew up.
"Case in point…" shrugged Raphael. Leonardo sat down, flustered in defeat.
"I hate to say it," he mulled. "But this is one time we cannot save anyone." Michelangelo grabbed Leonardo by the shoulder with a serious snarl.
"Get your head out of your shell, Leonardo!" he stammered. "We will not fail our fellow Turtle and the dudette! Do you hear me!?" The other Turtles seem surprised at hearing Michelangelo's urgency.
"And he's usually the mellow one," Raphael gulped. Suddenly…
"Turtles!" shouted Ash. All turned to find a monitor by the machine starting to clear up.
"ASH!" the Turtles cheered.
"Is Buffy okay?" asked Michelangelo.
"We're fine for now," Ash assured. "She helped with getting the Trans-Dimensional communicator to work."
"That's impressive!" awed Donatello. "I can see why Michelangelo likes her since Shellhammer Chemicals is a scientific company." Michelangelo giggled to the thought. "Alright, here's what to do: turn the big red knob to 27. After that, push the big blue slider down all the way." Ash nodded before he and Buffy turned the red dial to 27. Then, Pikachu used Iron Tail to knock the slider to the lowest setting. The portal opened once again.
"Nice work!" complimented Brock. "Come through and we'll close it." Ash took a deep breath about the issue.
"There's a tiny problem about it," Buffy admitted. The Turtles looked perplexed before they proceeded through the portal. When they looked again, they saw Ash, Buffy and Pikachu in their tiny forms.
"Emphasis on tiny!" gawked Raphael. "What happened?"
"Shredder shrunk us and won't turn us back until I give them the formula," Buffy briefed.
"It was a ray gun, something Shredder gave his mutants and Team Rocket to find Buffy," Ash informed.
"Don't worry," Leonardo assured. "We'll make sure you're all back to regular size." They entered another room where they saw the shrink gun on a table.
"I think I found it!" alerted Raphael. Doors slide open from adjacent walls. Foot Solders appeared. "We got company!" Seeing only a handful of Foot Soldiers, Michelangelo scoffed.
"No problemo!" he reassured. "There's like ten of them." More doors opened and more Foot Soldiers emerged. Michelangelo's cheery demeanor vanished. "Uh, make it 60…" Groans came from the other Turtles.
"Why do the odds turn on us at the last second?" wondered Raphael. Out of nowhere, Shredder emerged with Krang back in his suit. Shredder grabbed Ash and Buffy who yelped.
"Glad the recharge wasn't such a haphazard ordeal," Krang sighed.
"You didn't think you'd get away that easily, did you?" scoffed Shredder. "I've watched your operation… and if you don't tell me about the formula in five seconds, your friends will be destroyed." One look behind Shredder made Ash grin.
"Let me POUND that to you!" he ordered. Out of nowhere, Grovyle emerged and smashed the vine into Shredder's back, causing him to fumble Ash and Buffy. The force launched the rogue ninja into the Foot Soldiers, causing a pile of broken bot parts. Grovyle caught Ash and Buffy in his claws.
"Either he lied, or he was focused more on me," Buffy joked as the Wood Gecko Pokémon put the two down on the nearby panel and joined the Turtles. Krang seemed taken aback by Shredder being launched.
"How did we not see that coming?" he gulped.
"You forget how strategic Pokémon Trainers can be," Brock replied. "Ash is one of the most unpredictable to face with how he thinks outside the box… something you might need to do at times." A heavy snarl came from the disembodied tyrant.
"I'm outside of my real body for crying out loud!" argued Krang. "What choice do I have!?" Shredder recovered to where he pulled on another lever, this one emitting a sound wave. It bothered the Turtles.
"Oh no!" gawked Brock as more Foot Soldiers entered.
"Now, let's try this again since I'm emitting a radio wave that only works on mutants," Shredder explained. "What is the formula? If you don't answer, your steady will be sliced to ribbons!" Giving in, Buffy panicked.
"Okay, don't hurt Ash!" she surrendered. "The fuel is just ordinary liquid hydrogen rocket fuel with two special ingredients: sulfur and charcoal." The ingredients made Shredder awe.
"That's brilliant!" he awed. "And as luck would have it, we have them in the storage compartments!" He threw Buffy before dashing out. Unaffected by the radio waves, Grovyle spat Bullet Seed. The Foot Soldiers dodged the attack.
"And he says I need to think outside the box," he mulled as he left the room while Shredder returned.
"Foot Soldiers, destroy them!" he ordered. He left as the Foot Soldiers charged.
"Brock, get the shrink ray!" ordered Leonardo. Brock reached the shrink ray.
"Grovyle, turn off the machine!" commanded Ash. Grovyle reached the lever and lifted it, stopping the machine. The radio waves stopped, and the Turtles recovered.
"That feels better," Donatello sighed. They armed themselves.
"Turtles, fight with honor!" roared Leonardo. They started to attack as Brock aimed the shrink ray at Ash and Pikachu.
"It's time to grow up!" teased Brock. He fired the gun, a beam striking the two. Ash and Pikachu were restored back to their original sizes.
"Thanks, Brock!" praised Ash.
"Now for Buffy…" started Brock before Buffy saw something.
"Hold on," she voiced. Brock, Ash and Pikachu wondered to what Buffy found. "Take me to the intercom!" Ash had an idea of Buffy's plan. He carried his girl to the intercom before she tangled with wires and connected circuits, a buzz of high frequency ringing through the Technodrome. It got to Shredder, Krang, Rocksteady and Bebop.
"That brat!" scolded Shredder.
"Shrinking her was the dumbest thing to do!" With Grovyle's help, the Turtles were able to destroy the Foot Soldiers. Brock used the gun and struck Buffy, returning her to her normal size.
"Alright, let's boogie!" cheered Michelangelo. The Turtles agreed and everyone filed out of the room through the portal, but not before Pikachu used Quick Attack to spin the dial and was last out of the room as the portal shut down. Watching, Krang believed that Buffy's purpose was done.
"Looks like Miss Shellhammer has left," he viewed.
"Good riddance," Shredder mulled. "We got what we needed from her. Hopefully, it'll be the last time I see her." After their stint in the Technodrome, the heroes returned to the Shellhammer Estate.
"Well, we got you back home safe and sound," Donatello said.
"Yeah, but I did have a blast with everything that happened," Buffy smiled.
"We do provide a lot of fun to everyone," Michelangelo giggled.
"Still, I wish you didn't break Torrance's promise," Leonardo mulled. Ash laughed to the claim. "Ash, you were right there when she gave Shredder the formula!"
"Actually, she didn't break her promise," Ash denied. "When we started to come out of the sewers, Buffy told me that the formula she told Oroku was a common recipe for their firework fuel." Back at the Technodrome, the sulfur and charcoal were inserted to the propulsion unit underneath the fortress. In the control room, Krang prepared for the attack on Earth.
"Now to launch this planetoid to Earth!" he prepared.
"All Foot Soldiers and mutants, report in the Technodrome!" warned Shredder. Everyone on the asteroid returned inside as a fuse was lit. Seeing how short the fuse was getting, Krang began the countdown.
"5…" he started. "4… 3… 2… 1…"
"Ignition!" That's when fireworks shot out of the unit. The asteroid began to spin wildly. Everyone, including Rocksteady and Bebop, held on for dear life. After a minute, the asteroid stopped upside-down while the fortress somehow clung on. Everyone reeled from the vertigo-inducing spin. "That insufferable brat! Look what she's done!"
"Forget her! We have bigger problems, like righting this planetoid so that we don't fall into any void!" Back at the estate, Ash nodded to what happened.
"And that's when you also grabbed blueprints to a new Trans-Dimensional Portal?" awed Raphael before he laughed. "I'm more afraid of you than Shred-Head!"
"That's for certain!" snickered Brock. "If it goes well, we can return home back to May and Max."
"Well, I hope not too soon," Buffy smiled. Everyone agreed as Ash started taking Buffy home. "Hey, Ash… Back in that fortress, when you came to my rescue… did you really mean what you said back there?" Ash blinked in wonder.
"About what?" he asked.
"You know…" Cheeks on Buffy's face started to blush. "That you loved me." Recalling when the brainalyzer was destroyed, Ash admired her ability to outwit Shredder.
"Oh… that. Buffy, I never lie… so yeah, I did mean it. Buffy Shellhammer, I really do love you… and you know what? I'm not ashamed about it at all." The confession made Buffy smile.
"Good! In that case…" Suddenly, Buffy jumped into Ash's arms. Her body was in one arm and her legs were in the other. She kicked off her white shoes which flew at the Turtles before Leonardo and Pikachu caught them."
"Whoa!" Quickly, Buffy removed Ash's cap and held his chin up with a sly smile.
"My hero!" She kissed Ash's face repeatedly while Ash did his best to stay up. Brock watched on with a grin while Michelangelo teared up in defeat.
"Well, it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all," he mulled.
"Yeah, Canto XXVII wouldn't agree with you," Donatello reminded.
"Besides, it's easy to see that Buffy, a human, loves Ash, another human," Raphael pointed out. "Not a Turtle like yourself." Proving Raphael's point, Buffy gave her last kiss to Ash's lips. Ash took the kiss blissfully, his eyes closed.
"On the other hand, there's always Kala," Leonardo pointed out. Michelangelo just shook his head. As Ash received love from the Shellhammer, the same thing can't be said for Team Rocket. They found themselves in the hall of what looked like a prison.
"Well, that landing could've gone better," Jessie muttered.
"And the twerp made a clean getaway," James added.
"What else ta do afta some doity work?" finished Meowth. Suddenly, armored humanoid aliens surrounded Team Rocket.
"Wait, what's going on!?" cried Jessie. A bigger humanoid green alien approached wearing the same armor.
"Well, well, well…" he voiced. "Looks like a break-in! It won't fly in this prison!" Jessie stood up and faced the larger humanoid.
"Look, buster!" she screeched. "We're not breaking into anything! We were launched from the Technodrome and-"
"Technodrome!?" He hoisted Jessie by the shirt collar. "You must be working for that tyrant, Krang!"
"Well, he kinda put us to work afta we sneaked inta it," Meowth tried to plea.
"It doesn't matter!" the humanoid dismissed. You will be held in this facility for helping a warmonger for the next 500 years!" Team Rocket gasped.
"You can't do that to us!" yelled Jessie. "We never had a trial, let alone a fair one!"
"I am the trial judge, jury and executioner here!" he refused. "Men, take them in!"
"YES, SIR!" the others obeyed. They took Team Rocket into the dungeon. Hopefully, they serve their sentences.
TO BE CONTINUED...