The Way of Invisibility
"You remember those old movies where a detective wakes up from being knocked out cold? They always tend to say the same thing."
Raph started waking up, feeling dizzy, so he shook off the feeling before seeing that he was strapped to some kind of dissection table.
"Where am I?" Raph asked aloud before trying to break out of his bindings, which didn't work.
"It may not be original, but you can't blame him for saying that, because he has no idea where he is. All he did know is that it wasn't somewhere nice."
He looked around, seeing a dark room and a window, behind it being a certain scientist in his control room.
"Hey, where's Casey?" Raph asked, as the last thing he recalled was fighting against some punks with Casey.
He then got blinded by a light suddenly turning on, shining right at him before growling upon seeing that a buzzsaw and a pair of prongs moved towards him.
"And it's clear someone wants to dissect him."
Within the skyscraper, Hun stood in front of his master, looking at the infrared image of Alex and the Turtles.
"Gecko warriors, karate frogs, turtle costume freaks, and a human brat alongside them!" Hun snarled, scrunching up the image.
Snickering came from behind him, courtesy of Baxter Stockman, who now sported glasses with black lens over his left eye to cover the punishment he got for his failure with the Mousers.
"Is this a field report or a fantasy novel?" He remarked as he took the image from Hun, which was then slapped out of his hands by the Japanese man.
"Fool!" He spat angrily. "Was it fantasy that destroyed your Mouser robots, Dr. Stockman?" Stockman fell back in fright as the man then dashed over to Hun. "Was it fantasy that took back the Sword of Tengu from your Foot soldiers?" He then walked past Hun. "These ninjas are too skilled to be mere street thugs."
"Maybe they're working for your old enemies." Hun suggested, making his master fold his arms, considering the possibility.
"Ah, more likely a top secret government experiment that escaped." Stockman scoffed, getting back up and with the image in his hands again.
The man dashed at him and lifted him up by the collar of his lab coat, making him drop the image.
"I am not interested in theories!" He snapped at him before throwing him towards Hun. "I want answers." He then sat back down. "You two will work together, find these creatures and the boy, learn their secrets, destroy them if necessary."
As all this was going on, down in the lair, Splinter prepared a new training session for his sons. He placed a large number of bamboo poles together and had his sons and himself stand on top of some. He then had candles placed around them and lit them all.
"My sons, tonight our training shall focus on combining two essential disciplines, the way of balance…" He said, clapping his hands, which shut off the light in the lair, the only source of light being from the candles. "...and the way of invisibility."
"Dude, you put in the clapper?" Mikey asked Donnie eagerly as they all crouched.
Splinter hopped over to Mikey, whacking his hand with his walking stick.
"Ow!" Mikey whined, rubbing his hand.
"Michelangelo, the way of invisibility also includes the way of silence." Splinter sternly pointed out. "I suggest you employ both if you wish to avoid my walking stick."
He then flipped his way on the bamboo poles towards Leo, swiping at his legs, though Leo flipped over his walking stick and landed on two poles.
Donnie jumped and tried to kick Splinter, who ducked, and Donnie ended up landing on a pole.
Alex silently made his way towards Splinter, not making a sound and then swiped his leg towards his sensei, who just barely avoided getting hit and then tried to whip Alex with his tail, but Alex grabbed it, remembering that tip from weeks ago the night they saved April, and threw Splinter away, the mutant rat landing on a pole, very impressed.
Raph ran along some poles before launching himself in the air, yelling as he did so, trying to kick Splinter, but he missed as Splinter leaned back. Raph ended up landing on a pole with one foot.
Mikey flipped on some poles until he stopped for a second and crouched. He realised Splinter was close and his brothers were distant from him. So he ended up clapping his hands, turning the lair's lights on.
"Peek-a-boo. I see you." Mikey grinned, seeing that Splinter was in front of him. Splinter then tried to strike Mikey with his walking stick, but Mikey caught it with his hand, though this threw him off balance, especially when Splinter pulled it out of Mikey's grasp, making him fall, though he grabbed onto the pole before he could land on the floor.
"Hey, don't I at least get points for creativity?" Mikey asked as Splinter landed on another pole.
"A creative mind must be balanced by a disciplined body." Splinter replied as Mikey climbed up the pole. Splinter then clapped to turn the lights back off. "We must learn stillness and alertness, for they are the only defence against the unexpected."
Unnoticed by them all, the door to the elevator leading up to the warehouse opened up and there stood Casey Jones, fully decked out in his vigilante get up. He entered the lair blindly because of how dark it was, looking around.
"Hey, guys?" Casey called out as he walked backwards right into the bamboo poles, which all fell over, knocking Alex, the Turtles and Splinter to the floor, yelling as they did so.
"Uh-oh." Casey muttered as the five brothers moaned.
Splinter, though, glanced over to Casey, assuming he was some random intruder and launched himself at him, pouncing on him and pinning him to the floor with his walking stick.
"Master Splinter, no!" Leo shouted as he and his brothers ran to him and Casey, Alex clapping the lights back on. "He's okay!"
"Sensei, this is Casey, the nutca - uh, the guy we told you about." Donnie said, avoiding calling Casey a nutcase in fear of offending him.
"You remember, the igilante-vay?" Mikey said, talking around saying vigilante.
"We figured it'd be okay to give him access to the lair, you know, for emergencies and stuff." Raph explained.
"Plus, April has access to the lair, might as well let Casey have access, too." Alex finished as Splinter got off of Casey, feeling a bit foolish.
"Please, forgive my rash action." Splinter apologised with a bow as Mikey and Donnie helped Casey up on his feet.
"No problemo." Casey replied as he took his mask off and got Splinter's walking stick pointed at his face as a warning.
"Although next time, you would be wise to heed the ancient Japanese proverb: phone first!" Splinter told him sternly before he started picking up the bamboo poles, leaving Alex confused, as he knew that it wasn't an ancient Japanese proverb.
Raph gave Casey a thumbs up before the latter got a good look at the lair.
"Whoa!" He gasped, very impressed. "Raph, your crib's even more awesome than you said."
He then kicked one of the poles, which made Splinter shake his head while his sons jogged up to Casey.
"You didn't come all the way down here for the nickel tour." Raph said. "What's the 411 street side?"
"Graffiti, it's everywhere, all over town." Casey explained, walking past the five.
"And I speak for everyone in the room when I say, duh." Mikey said as the brothers all looked at each other confused.
"Yeah, I mean, we're New Yorkers, Case, we've seen graffiti before." Alex added.
"Uh-uh, not this kind!" Casey replied, showing the five a photograph he took earlier of some graffiti that depicted what is clearly the Sword of Tengu skewering the five, shocking them. "I think somebody's trying to send you a message."
"Blech! Talk about getting the point." Mikey said in disgust.
"Do all the tags look like this?" Leo asked.
"Some are a little more graphic." Casey replied gravely before he noticed the Sword of Tengu behind the brothers. "Hey, cool sword. Looks just like the one in the graffiti."
He pushed past Donnie and Mikey to go and pick it up.
"Casey, no!" Donnie warned him, but was too late.
Casey grabbed the sword, only to get shocked and thrown across the lair into a shelf full of books, some falling out, and Casey growled in pain as he held his head.
"Remind me, whose idea was it to invite him down here?" Donnie asked Raph as Alex and Leo pushed past them to help Casey.
All of them, including Splinter, helped Casey up on his feet.
"I thank you for this information, Mr. Jones, but now we must return to our training." Splinter told him as he led him towards the elevator.
"Wait…" Casey stopped, pulling his arm out of Splinter's grip. "...don't you guys want to put the smack down on the scum who did this?"
"Well, yeah, but it smells way too much like a setup." Mikey pointed out as he looked at the photo more closely.
"Someone's just trying to get under our shells, and skin in Alex's case." Donnie suspected, making sure Alex was included, earning him a pat on the arm from his human brother. "Why should we stoop to their level?"
"But this is a matter of honour." Casey replied, pulling out a baseball bat and hitting it against an open palm. "What about all that bushy-doo-doo stuff you guys always talk about?"
"It's pronounced Bushido, Casey." Alex coolly corrected him.
"Which has nothing to do with payback for a bunch of nasty wall doodles." Leo added, wagging a finger at Casey.
"I'm sorry, Case, I gotta go with my brothers on this one." Raph said apologetically.
"Oh, man." Casey groaned as he put his bat away and headed for the elevator, only to stop when he noticed the TVs and couch. "Say!"
He walked over there as Leo pointed at him, looking at Donnie, who shrugged.
Casey soon sat on the couch, grabbed a slice of pizza and grabbed the remote.
"So what's on the tube?" He said as he turned a TV on and then took his first bite of pizza. Meanwhile, the five brothers all looked at him, already regretting bringing him to the lair.
Back in the skyscraper, Hun and Stockman stood before their master again, who sat behind his table.
"While your oversized lackey wastes time and effort with the pointless scribblings of street thugs, I have created something useful to intercept your amphibious and human pests." Stockman bragged before turning and pointing at two ninjas that stood far behind them. But these ninjas were unlike the ones Alex and the Turtles fought against in the past, as they had orange high tech lenses and also bore a button on their chests with the foot symbol on it. "I give you the Foot Tech ninjas."
The two ninjas bowed before each jumping to either side of the large room.
"My brilliantly designed cyber armour…" One of them leapt at the other, who spun and axe kicked him in the chest, launching him back across the room into a pillar, bending it. "...enhances their physical abilities, giving them increased strength…" the ninja flipped onto his feet within less than a second and jumped to fight the other. "...speed…" the other made a roundhouse kick, which was dodged when the ninja jumped back. "...and stealth capabilities."
The ninja jumped back to fight, but the other ninja pressed the button on his chest, turning invisible. The one that's visible landed where they stood, not making impact and looked around before he was hit in the back.
He spun around and punched, making impact and the invisible ninja was knocked into a torch pole, which fell over, spreading fire on the floor.
"And all thanks to the technology I was able to glean from a tiny sample of this unusual artefact you dragged up from the East River." Stockman continued, standing in front of the display case that held the suit that was pulled out of the river, now cleaned up and without any seaweed covering it. "If you had any sense, you'd allow me to study the entire thing."
Hun grabbed him by the shoulder and carried him back towards their master, groaning in pain and repeating "Ow!" over and over.
"First things first, Dr. Stockman. Bring me the creatures and the boy." The man reminded him as Hun put Stockman down.
"Just keep this behemoth out of my way and my Foot Tech ninjas will deliver the goods. I guarantee it." Stockman snapped, pointing a finger at him, making the man stand up and walk up to him.
"You have already paid the price for failing me once. Do not fail me a second time." He warned him, making Stockman graze his fingers underneath the scars from when the man slashed his left eye out.
In the lair, Mikey now sat beside Casey on a long chair as Casey continued watching TV and eating the pizza.
Mikey tried to grab the last slice for himself, but Casey ripped it out of his hand for himself.
"Huh?" Mikey whimpered as Casey scarfed the slice down within seconds.
"We need to get him out of here." Alex whispered to Leo, who nodded in agreement. Casey already overstayed his welcome.
And so, as Casey searched through Mikey's DVD collection, thankfully never even getting close to Alex's (which is full of samurai films, as well as epics like Gladiator and even the already released films in the Lord of the Rings trilogy), Leo grabbed the remote and turned the TV off, faking a yawn.
"Sure is getting late." Leo told Casey, who was oblivious to what he said.
"Yeah, you should go home and get some sleep." Alex added, Casey still oblivious.
"These the only DVDs you got?" Casey complained to Mikey as he held two of them in his hands.
"Yeah, in fact, why don't you borrow some and bring them back?" Mikey replied as he got up, wanting Casey out of the lair as much as Alex and Leo.
"That's okay. I'll just watch them here." Casey told him as he walked over to a desk full of computers that had a DVD player.
The three watched as Casey pressed the stop button, thinking it was the eject button for some reason.
"Come on. Eject, eject!" He snapped at the player. "You useless piece -"
He then slammed his foot on the DVD player, breaking it.
"CASEY!" Alex raged as Mikey screamed in horror while Leo cringed.
"Uh… think your player's broken." Casey gulped.
"Uh, no problem. I'll fix it… in the morning." Donnie sighed, so fed up with him as he worked on a device by his lab, also clearly wanting him to leave the lair.
"What'cha working on?" Casey asked as he approached Donnie.
"Uh, boring stuff. Really, really boring stuff." Donnie tried to discourage him, hiding what he was working on from Casey, who was becoming very nosey right now.
With that, Casey then turned to Raph, who was working out with his punching bag.
"Hey, Raph, let's wrestle!" He called out before tackling Raph to the floor, where they rolled around.
"Let go, bonehead!" Raph growled as they knocked over a candle holder, which irked Splinter so much that he shook his head, as he was trying to meditate.
"No way, dipstick." Casey retorted as Raph's brothers all gathered together and watched on.
"Puke brain."
"Geek."
"Dweeb."
"You dork."
They just kept rolling around the floor until Splinter slammed his walking stick next to their heads.
"Raphael!" He barked before taking a breath to calm down. "Normally I discourage excursions to the surface, but I think it wise for you to take our guest for a breath of fresh air." As he said all this, his sons all joined his side.
"Topside? I'm all over it." Raph grinned at the idea as he got up.
"Booyah!" Casey cheered, liking the idea and so he and Raph ran for the elevator.
"Come on, you maniac." Raph taunted.
"Maniac? Who're you calling a maniac?" Casey questioned as he grabbed his golf bag and his mask.
As they ran off, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief that Casey had finally left the lair.
"And that's how they defeated The Thing That Wouldn't Leave." Mikey noted, speaking like he was the voice from a trailer for an old horror film.
Topside, Raph and Casey made their way through the various rooftops, sometimes flipping for flair.
"Nimrod." Raph called Casey, as the two continued their taunting of each other.
"Lightweight!"
"Gack face!"
When they landed to take a breather, Casey heard something coming from nearby.
"Spray paint?" He questioned, knowing that sound too well.
"Spray paint? What kind of lame trash talk is that?" Raph said, unaware of the sound.
"No, listen." Casey told him, pointing in the direction behind him towards an alleyway.
They looked down and saw three Purple Dragons. One of them, the one with spiky blue hair, acted as lookout while the other two, one with ginger hair and the other with spiky red hair were spray painting the wall with a Purple Dragon about to devour four turtles and a human.
They finished their work as Raph and Casey jumped across to the building opposite them before jumping down into the alley, catching the three by surprise.
"Hi! We're the neighbourhood clean and green." Raph greeted the Purple Dragons, making the redhead grab two baseball bats and the ginger a chain. "Doing our part to stamp out taggers."
Ginger charged at Raph, swinging the chain at him, but Raph ducked and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying.
"Dude, you're totally stealing my act." Casey said with offence as he faced against the redhead, who charged at him, trying to whack him on the head with both bats, but Casey dodged his swings with ease.
Meanwhile, the blue haired Dragon ran off to hide behind a dumpster and made a call on his phone.
"We got one." He grinned before it dropped when Raph grabbed him and threw him at the wall, landing upside down.
Casey was blocking redhead with one of his own bats and then he side kicked him, knocking him down as Raph knocked down ginger.
"Piece of cake." Casey bragged.
"Don't be so sure." Raph said as he noticed two Foot Tech ninjas on the rooftop ahead of them. "Phone boy called for backup and here it comes."
The two ninjas leapt off the roof and landed on either side of the street and approached Raph and Casey.
"Whoa, those things aren't human." Casey observed, since those jumps would've easily broken bones if a human attempted that.
"In case you haven't noticed, neither am I." Raph pointed out as he twirled a sai.
The two then charged at the ninjas, who pressed the buttons on their chests, turning invisible.
"Where'd they go?" Casey asked as he and Raph stopped, shocked by this recent development.
Then they were suddenly hit and got launched right at some scaffolding.
"They must have some kind of, what do you call it? Cloaking device." Raph guessed as he and Casey got back on their feet.
"Cloaking device? What are they, Klingons?" Casey questioned.
Just then, one of the ninjas stepped through puddles of water towards Raph, who tried to make a jump on him, but he grabbed him around the waist.
Raph tried to get out of his grip as Casey ran for one of the spray cans and sprayed where the ninja was, now being partly outlined thanks to the paint. Now that he had a visual, Casey swung his hockey stick at the ninja, knocking one of his lenses off and making him let go of Raph.
He approached Casey and blocked another swing of his hockey stick, snapping it.
"Uh-oh." Casey muttered before he and Raph were launched into the scaffolding, which collapsed on top of them.
With them knocked out, the Foot Tech ninjas became visible and pulled out the Raph and Casey, who were now unconscious.
"Target apprehended." The one dragging Raph sneered.
"What about him?" The one that was spray painted asked of Casey.
"Just leave him to us." The blue haired Purple Dragon said as he and his fellow Dragons were now awake and wanted payback against Casey. And so the ninjas left Casey and carried on with Raph, who was carried on the shoulder, as the Purple Dragons surrounded Casey. "It's payback time."
They raised their weapons, ready to strike, when Casey suddenly awoke.
"PSYCH!" He shouted before spraying them in their faces with the spray cans.
As they got blinded and were coughing, Casey ran for it, grabbing the lens he knocked off the ninja as well.
Later, Raph woke up strapped to a dissection table in some kind of chamber, a light beaming down directly above him.
"Oh, where am I?" He asked before two robotic prongs poked his plastron. "Hey, watch where you're poking those things! When I get out of here, I'm gonna -"
"This is some nice steel." Hun said as he appeared from the dark, examining one of Raph's sais. "How about telling me who gave them to you?"
"Yo momma." Raph retorted, resulting in his sais being thrust onto the table on either side of his head.
"I'm sorry. I didn't quite hear you." Hun said sarcastically as he pulled them out one by one and then threw them onto a table where Raph's Shell-cell was placed, Hun grabbing it.
"You know, I get a little clumsy when people don't answer my questions." Hun said before squishing the Shell-cell with his index finger and thumb. He then put it back on the table, giving Raph a clear sight of his tattoo on his left arm.
"Hey, nice tat. Purple Dragon or just some big ugly chicken?" He joked.
In response, Hun grabbed the top of Raph's head and held the light close to his face.
"Let's start with just exactly what kind of freak are you anyway?" Hun asked, earning a glare from Raph.
Back in the lair, after Casey and Raph left, Splinter continued the training session and his sons all manoeuvred on the bamboo poles.
They were so focused on their training that they didn't notice the elevator opening with Casey entering the lair, covered in bruises and clutching his chest. He stumbled until he ended up knocking over the poles before falling face first to the floor.
"Huh?" Donnie muttered, opening an eye before he, his brothers and Splinter lost their balance and fell to the floor, the candles all snuffing out.
Splinter clapped his hands to turn the lair's lights back on and they all saw Casey.
"You can almost set your watch by this guy." Mikey commented as they got up and Leo helped Casey to sit up.
"Casey, what happened?" Leo asked as they noticed all the bruises that covered his body.
"Where's Raphael?" Splinter asked with concern as Casey lifted his mask off his face.
"The invisible ninjas took him." Casey replied, making Alex, Mikey and Donnie look at each other in disbelief.
"Invisible ninjas, huh? This story wouldn't involve Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny by any chance?" Mikey smirked.
"Yeah, you'll have to use more than words to convince us, Casey." Alex nodded in agreement with Mikey.
"I got proof!" Casey replied as Leo helped him up on his feet and pulled out the lens he grabbed, which Donnie took to examine through a magnifying glass.
"Ooh! Some kind of optical device. Heavy duty hardware." Donnie said with curiosity and with an impressed voice. Leo, meanwhile, was trying to call Raph, unaware of what happened to his Shell-cell.
"Raph's not answering his Shell-cell." He told everyone.
Hearing this made Casey grab a wooden stool and yell in anger as he threw it, smashing behind Splinter on the floor.
"This is all my fault!" Casey moaned in guilt.
"Don't worry, I installed tracking chips in all the Shell-cells, just in case." Donnie tried reassuring him as he looked at his tracker, yet he didn't pick up on anything. "Interesting. Not picking up a signal."
"Ah, we'll never find him!" Casey shouted as he was able to kick the couch before doing the same to the coffee table.
"I may be able to calibrate the scanner to trace a comm signal from your invisible ninjas." Donnie replied as Casey continued destroying furniture, his latest victim being a wooden chair.
"Well, hurry up because at this rate, we won't have any furniture." Alex urged Donnie.
Back with Raph, he's been uncooperative with Hun, which is starting to get on his nerves.
"We've been over this again and again, freak. I'm only gonna ask you this one more time." Hun snarled before pointing the light into Raph's face. "Who do you work for? How long have you been on this planet? What is the level of your technology?"
As this interrogation is going on, Stockman watches from within a control room through a window.
"Planet? Technology?" Raph questioned, not even having the slightest clue of why Hun was asking such questions. It's like he thought Raph was something else entirely. "Boy, are you barking up the wrong shell."
"Answer me!" Hun snapped, smacking the top of the dissection table, making Raph rock back and forth for a second or two.
"Come to think of it, who do you work for? I mean, you look way too dumb to be in charge of all this." Raph said as he started loosening the strap around his right wrist.
"Your choice." Hun said, having had enough and grabbed the buzzsaw. "You can talk or you can let your DNA do the talking for you. Now is there something you want to tell me?"
Raph was able to free his hand from the strap as Hun placed the buzzsaw directly in front of his face.
"Just this!" He snapped as he punched Hun in the stomach and then grabbed an oxygen mask, shoving it right onto Hun's face. "Sweet dreams, lard butt!"
Hun started coughing and ran off as it seemed he was getting dizzy.
Meanwhile, Raph grabbed the buzzsaw and used it on the straps to cut himself free.
"Don'll kill me if I leave this." He said as he grabbed his sais and ruined Shell-cell.
He made his way out by kicking a door open, shocked to find that he was onboard a barge ship in the middle of the harbour in close proximity to the Statue of Liberty.
Its fog horn went off as he walked to the railing.
"Good thing turtles are amphibious." Raph said gratefully before diving right into the water and swam for shore.
Back inside the ship, Stockman burst in on Hun, fuming.
"You fool! I was this close to obtaining a DNA sample and you let him escape!" He snapped at him, but Hun smirked.
"Precisely, I let him escape to lead us to the others." Hun replied, as it was all an act. "Even as we speak, a squad of Foot Tech ninjas are trailing the creature."
He spoke truthfully, as Raph had just managed to climb out of the river and onto a pier. He ran his way off, being followed by a set of water footprints.
"So now it's all up to your invisible boys." Hun told Stockman, who turned so that his back was facing the large blonde. "Better hope they don't blow it."
Stockman grazed under his scars again, now growing more worried he'll receive another punishment if things go wrong for him.
Back in the lair, Donnie finally managed to get a signal on the scanner.
"I'm getting a signal. It's Raph!" He told everyone.
"Whoo-hoo!" Casey cheered, accidentally smashing a lightbulb over Donnie with his hockey stick.
"This guy's bad news even when there's good news." Mikey commented to the others quietly as Splinter shook his head, Leo facepalmed and Alex sighed through his nose.
"It's faint, but at least we got a blip we can follow." Donnie explained before more blips showed up. "Make that several blips."
"Those must be the invisible ninjas." Alex frowned with concern as Splinter placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Raphael may not even be aware he is being followed." He realised.
"Which means we gotta find him before he brings in some seriously unwanted houseguests." Leo frowned with determination before everyone glanced over at Casey.
"We already got one of those." Mikey remarked.
"So, uh, how do we stop something we can't see?" Casey asked a significant question, ignoring what was implied.
"Already got that one covered." Donnie grinned as he grabbed some goggles that he worked on. "Turtle vision heat sensor goggles. After all, an invisible body is still a warm body."
He put a pair on and handed the rest to Casey and his brothers, who all put them on.
"Nice work, Donnie." Alex praised his tech savvy brother.
"Thank you." Donnie bowed.
"Let's go." Leo told everyone.
"It's a good look for you." Mikey joked about Casey, as he put his goggles on over his hockey mask.
Up on the streets, the Battle Shell, driven by Mikey, was making its way through the city.
"We're gonna have to split up." Leo said through the comms on the goggles' headsets. "Mike and Casey…"
"Quit it!" Mikey told Casey off, who was beating the dashboard like it was some instrument.
"...you cover above ground."
Meanwhile, in the sewers, Alex, Leo and Donnie were riding the Sewer Glider, following the scanner.
"Me. Alex and Don will cover below." Leo finished through the comms.
Elsewhere in the sewers, Raph was running his way down a tunnel, panting as he did so, as he hasn't stopped since escaping from the barge ship.
He turned left, still unaware that he's being followed by the invisible Foot Tech ninjas.
Soon, Raph found himself in a drainage system, stopping to catch his breath as he looked down at the whirlpool below.
As he did this, high up in the shadows, Alex, Leo and Donnie watched through their goggles to see nine Foot Tech ninjas approaching Raph from behind.
"I spy with my turtle eye some goons that need a good bapping." Donnie said, making the three wield their weapons and jump onto a lampshade, then the bridge before diving towards Raph, who noticed their appearance.
"Hey." He called out in relief before noticing they were ready to fight. "Huh?"
"Banzai!" The three declared in unison before kicking some Foot Tech ninjas away from Raph, which left him confused, since he can't see them.
The three then each kicked another ninja away.
"Uh, guys, what are you -?"
"Ever hear about the one about the invisible ninjas?" Donnie asked with a grin.
The three saw the ninjas they knocked back, along with their buddies, who all charged at them and started spinning them before they could make a move and then threw them in the air, screaming, before they crashed, groaning in pain.
"Hey, did I mention that these guys were really strong, too?" Casey said as he and Mikey showed up.
"That would've helped, bonehead." Alex gritted through his teeth as he, Leo and Donnie got up on their feet.
They all watched as Raph was trying to fight the Foot Tech ninjas, but since they stayed invisible, he kept missing them and they just abused him.
"Come on! Show yourself you lousy -" Raph snarled before he got punched in both the face and the crotch, making him dizzy and woozy for a moment.
"Think we should give him a hand?" Mikey asked his brothers, who nodded in agreement before they charged in to help.
Meanwhile, Casey took out his golf club and prepared to swing some mud.
"Fore!" He shouted as he swung some mud, which hit two of the ninjas, making them visible for Raph to deal with them.
"Ah. Much better." Raph sighed before split kicking the ninjas away before wiping his hands.
Alex flipped and ducked away from a Foot Tech ninja that was trying to take him down, being a bit too fast for him. Soon, he slashed his katana at the ninja, being able to cut their right forearm off before spin kicking him in the face, knocking him down.
Mikey took his nunchucks out and spun them as a couple other ninjas approached.
"Now you see 'em." He remarked before whacking them in the face, knocking them down. "Now you don't."
"Their cloaking controls look to be somewhere around the chest plate." Donnie told Leo as they fought a couple of ninjas, Raph watching on in confusion.
"You mean here"? Leo asked as he leapt and slashed at the chests of the two ninjas, causing their buttons to spark and malfunction, making them visible.
Donnie then whacked them, being knocked into a puddle of water, causing them to short circuit.
"Can I call 'em or what?" Donnie smirked as he, Leo and Raph gathered together.
"So I guess that's that." Raph concluded, pulling his sais out.
However, they heard Casey screaming, so they looked and saw that he was held over the whirlpool by the bridge, thanks to a Foot Tech ninja, who became visible when the three spotted Casey, holding him by his golf bag.
"Drop your weapons and surrender." The ninja sneered as his fellow ninjas came up behind the three, trapping them by the edge. "My grip is loosening, I suggest you drop your weapons now."
"Don't do it guys, I'm not worth it!" Casey told the turtle trio.
"You know, he's got a point." Donnie told Raph and Leo. They may consider Casey a pain, but he's still their friend.
"You're starting to sound like Mikey, Don." Leo said before the three dropped their weapons.
But then Raph realised something.
"Hey, where is Mikey? And Alex?" He asked, scratching his head.
But then he looked up and found the pair silently moving along a pipe above the ninja and Casey.
"The way of balance and the way of invisibility." Mikey quoted before he and Alex jumped off the pipe.
The ninja turned his head just as Mikey was close enough to kick him in the face, knocking him into the whirlpool while Alex reached and caught Casey by the hand, pulling him up with Mikey's aid.
"Time to give these punks a lesson." Alex smirked before the three jumped down and faced the ninjas behind Leo, Raph and Donnie, who grabbed their weapons and joined them.
As Casey pulled out a baseball bat, the six charged with battle cries and knocked the remaining ninjas into the whirlpool within a few seconds.
Casey put his bat away and looked down at the whirlpool, seeing that the ninjas had been swept away.
"Thanks guys, I owe ya." He said gratefully as he took his goggles off and joined the brothers, the four who wore goggles taking them off as well.
"We take cash, personal checks and most major credit cards." Mikey remarked as he and Alex high threed/fived.
"Man, I'm beat." Casey groaned in exhaustion. "Maybe I should just crash at you guys' place tonight."
The five all had looks of utter horror, not wanting to endure a second round of Casey overstaying his welcome.
"No!" Leo exclaimed, freaking out for a moment before calming down and placing a hand on Casey's shoulder. "I mean, nothing beats the comfort of sleeping in your own bed." Leo then laughed nervously.
"We'll give you a ride. Have you home in no time." Donnie added, joining Leo's side.
"Carry you up the stairs, tuck you in. Heck, we'll even tell you a bedtime story." Mikey added as he helped them escort Casey away.
"I think Splinter had the right idea about phoning up first before arriving." Alex whispered to Raph as they followed their brothers and Casey.
"Yep." Raph nodded.
Later that night, in the skyscraper, Stockman and Hun informed their master of what happened, with the Foot Tech ninjas, all having endured damage from the whirlpool, standing behind the pair.
Safe to say their master was furious as he paced back and forth in front of them.
"Another operation marred by the sickening stench of defeat!" He growled as he stopped, his back facing them. "No doubt you are both well aware of my extremely limited tolerance for failure."
"It was his fault!" Stockman blamed Hun, trying to shift the blame away from himself. "This bumbling oaf let the creature escape!"
The man grabbed him and lifted him off his feet.
"The plan was sound. And yet your creations failed to, as you put it, deliver the goods." The man pointed out how he still has a part to play in this failure before throwing him to the floor and gesturing to the Foot Tech ninjas to take him away.
"Wait, where are you taking me?" Stockman asked as a couple of them grabbed his arms and dragged him towards the doors. "Take your hands off me!" Hun watched on with a smirk, glad that he isn't getting punished, though he should. "I made you! I am your creator!" The doors then closed on them once they left the room.
"What did you learn from your interrogation?" Hun's master asked him.
"I worked over a lot of tough guys in my day. I'm telling you, these turtles and the boy never even heard of your enemies, let alone work for them." Hun explained, surprising his master.
"Hmm, then perhaps they can be useful to me when the time comes to confront those enemies." He said, walking towards a window.
Elsewhere in a large, dark chamber, a man with blue hair, sunglasses and a long trench coat, wearing a golden necklace of a face similar to the one on the pommel of the Sword of Tengu, walked out of the shadows and faced three individuals that sat in rather odd looking seats.
From the man's left to right, there sat a woman with short hair and glasses, an elderly slim man dressed in red, including a hat, and a chubby gentleman with facial hair. All three had the same light blue hair and eyes.
"Masters, it is true. Our enemy has discovered our presence in this city." The man informed the three.
"And what of the four -" The woman said.
"- mutant creatures -" The elderly man said in the same voice.
"- and the boy?" The chubby man finished.
"Still an unknown factor." The man answered. "We need more information."
"Learn all you can about them." The woman instructed.
"If they pose no threat -" The elderly man continued.
" - do not engage them." The chubby man finished.
"But if they are in the employ of our enemy -" The woman started a new instruction.
" - take the necessary steps -" The chubby man continued.
" - to neutralise them." All three said in unison.
The man bowed before walking into the shadows and exited the room, where he was greeted by a woman who stood in the shadows of the hallway.
"What is it?" He asked her.
"That boy must be him. It has to be." She insisted.
"How can you be so sure?" The man asked the woman.
"Because I made sure he'd be kept safe, away from this life until now." The woman replied, sadness creeping in her voice. "And he'd never work for our enemy."
"Let's hope that's true, if it is him." The man said before they headed off.
The two were unaware that someone else was listening in, someone who hid silently in the shadows, flicking a tail.
So, who's this woman and that other individual at the end of the chapter? Just wait. Answers will come.