A Better Mousetrap
It was a very rainy night in New York, to the point that the rain water flowed into the sewers, where things seemed quiet.
That was until a couple of rats next to a wall heard a sound from the other side of it and ran off in time to avoid a bipedal metal robot smashing through the wall with its head.
"This metal critter may not look like much, but that thing can chomp its way through steel and concrete just as much as Mikey through a whole pizza."
It then burst into the sewer and chased after the rats.
Elsewhere in the sewers, the five brothers all ran their way through, as they were chasing after it.
"A bunch of these things called Mousers decided to trash our old lair and nearly ate our sensei for lunch."
The five all stopped when they reached an intersection of various tunnels in the sewers, wondering where to go.
But then they all heard a bloodcurdling scream from a woman elsewhere. Donnie pointed in the direction he believed the scream came from and they all started running again.
It turns out that a red haired woman that wore a purple t-shirt, which revealed her midriff, and jeans and shoes was trapped up against a boarded up entrance to a tunnel by five of these Mousers.
"There was one thing on my mind when looking at these infernal robots."
The Mousers were closing in on the woman when one of them turned around and there stood Alex and the Turtles, all with their weapons ready.
"That one thing is payback."
All of the Mousers turned towards Alex and the Turtles, one of them snapping its dentures at them.
Mikey had just finished setting up the last of the many TVs, of different sizes, that he and his family got for their new home, sitting on top of the ladder he was using.
It has been a few days since that encounter with those robots that destroyed their old lair and the brothers had to go up in the streets, encountering the Purple Dragons and a group of ninjas, which still leaves them perplexed.
Behind Mikey was a carpet, a coffee table, a chair, pillows for those that want to sit on the floor and a couch, where Splinter sat, sewing up a training dummy. Alex just got back from stocking the kitchen with food, having gone shopping earlier in the day. And he made himself a quick ham sandwich.
"What's the matter, Mikey?" Donnie asked from high up in the lair, where he was using a blowtorch on a pipe, attached to a rig that uses a rope and with goggles on to protect his eyes. "Can't decide what to watch?"
He then lowered himself down after he turned the blowtorch off and took the goggles off.
"I need more power, Captain!" Mikey retorted with a Scottish accent as he grabbed a couple of plugs and then returned to his normal accent. "The Turtle Cave must be set for maximum entertainment potential."
He connected the two plugs, unknowingly shutting off the power of the city block above them. He then took the remote and turned on all the TVs, which played a loud and bright feedback, making Mikey turn them all off with a groan.
"Turtle Cave?" Donnie repeated as he walked up to Mikey. "That is so lame."
"Plus, resident human and rat, thank you very much." Alex said through a mouthful of his sandwich as he sat next to Splinter.
"Well, then, what would you call our new digs?" Mikey asked Donnie. "The Shellter?"
That suggestion made Alex cringe at how bad it was.
"Uh, how about the Sewer of Solitude?" Donnie suggested.
"Terrapin Station?"
"The School for Gifted Reptiles and Human?"
"The Hall of Ninjustice!"
Both Splinter and Alex looked at each other, exasperated at the pair and so to stop them from suggesting even more ridiculous names, the former cleared his throat, getting their attention.
"We will call this place… home." Splinter said as he stood and Alex finished his sandwich.
"Hmm, catchy." Mikey noted as Donnie nodded in agreement.
"At least it's better than you two ripping off comic book lairs." Alex stood as well as Splinter grinned.
"Now, what is keeping Leonardo and Raphael?" He asked as Donnie ran towards the bridge that was in the middle of the lair, over a lake that also had stepping stones, so that he could go to his work station, Mikey grabbed some pipes and Alex went off to finish up the last of the small discs that were to be embedded into the columns of the lair to make it easier to manoeuvre up and down the two levels.
"They just went to get the last of our stuff from the old lair." Mikey replied to Splinter's question as Donnie reached his work station, where he was working on parts of one of the robots they encountered a week ago.
"And the way the new Sewer Slider is performing, they should be back any minute now." Donnie added as he used a screwdriver on the robot's leg, causing it to spark, making his eyes widen.
At the old lair, which was still ruined and trashed, Leo grabbed a broken canister that had the letters 'TCRI' on the side, which was significant for him, his turtle brothers and Splinter, and made his way over to the Sewer Slider, where he and Raph packed up all that remained here.
"Our home, for fifteen years…." He sighed as he put the canister among everything else and tied it up to secure it all. "And this is all that's left."
Raph walked over to a wall, which had cracks in it, still bitter about what happened.
"When I find out who built those home wrecking robo-roaches…." Raph growled before he punched the wall, causing the cracks to grow and the room to shake.
"Raph, come on." Leo said to soothe him. "Let's not trash this place any more than it already is."
Leo hopped on top of the pile of stuff they grabbed from the old lair while Raph took up the driver's seat. Raph turned the vehicle on and then put his seat belt on before driving down the tunnel until the wheels lifted up by themselves, the vehicle now hovering over the ground.
"Now, remember, Don said the accelerator hasn't been calibrated yet, so take it nice and -" Raph ignored Leo, pulling the accelerator, making the Sewer Slider speed up to the point that the sewers were a blur. " - SLOW!"
"Yee-haw!" Raph cheered while Leo struggled to hold onto the surfboard that he sat on top of, doing a sideways loop around the tunnel.
"I'd call this a successful field test! Wouldn't you, Leo?" Raph said, to which Leo had to agree since it was going smoothly.
And so the two cheered as they continued their way through the sewers.
Back at the lair, Donnie was now examining the robot's head, his reflection staring back at him. He then noticed that Splinter and Alex walked up behind him.
"Even though it is inactive, that thing still makes me uneasy, Donatello." Splinter said.
"Same here. I don't even know why you're even bothering examining it, Donnie." Alex agreed with Splinter.
"Because this is state of the art robotics, Alex, brilliant work. I just gotta know what makes it tick." Donnie replied as he held the head up.
Just then, the headlights from the Sewer Slider beamed into the lair before the vehicle itself hovered in and then parked.
"Well? Did you find them?" Alex asked Leo as he ran up to him.
"You'll be happy to know that your Middle-Earth books and samurai collection are still good as new." Leo said as he handed Alex a box full of the various books he owned about Middle-Earth, naturally including The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and a collection of DVDs of samurai films. He is just obsessed with Middle-Earth and samurai films, Seven Samurai being his favourite film of all time.
"Thank goodness!" Alex shouted with joy as he went off to put them in his room.
"And Mikey, your DVD collection survived." Leo pulled out another box full of DVDs, spinning it like a basketball and then threw it at Mikey, who caught it with ease.
"Awesome. Let's throw in something light on story and heavy on gory, 'cause the video monolith is ready to rock and roll!" He said before he turned all the TVs on, which showed a news broadcast, which first showed the exterior of a large building.
"In a press conference today at StockTronics Incorporated, New York's leading new technology firm…" A female reporter said as Leo and Alex, having just got back from his room, joined up with Mikey in front of the TVs.
"Boring." Mikey yawned and was about to change channels when….
"Wait!" Donnie stopped him. "I want to see this."
The broadcast then cut to inside StockTronics, in a room where they saw a cameraman, an African American man with glasses and a woman with long red hair holding a box, all standing near what looked like a rat maze and something covered by a tarp.
"...founder and CEO, Dr. Baxter Stockman was on hand to unveil his latest innovation." The reporter continued before it then cut to the cameraman's angle, showing a mid shot of Stockman, who was cleaning his glasses.
"A wise man once said 'build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door'. I say, let the path beating begin! For I, Dr. Baxter Stockman, have designed the solution to the city's ever growing rat problem." He said, gesturing to whatever was covered by the tarp. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the ultimate expression of rodent termination technology, the StockTronic Mouser."
He moved the tarp to reveal one of the very robots that destroyed the family's old lair, shocking everyone as they all gathered around the TVs.
"I can't believe that the famous Baxter Stockman would try to pass off these killer robots as a good thing." Donnie said in disbelief, holding up the head of the Mouser he was examining, which was then grabbed by Mikey.
"Heh. And what's up with those glasses?" He said before using the Mouser head as though it were a puppet. "Dork city."
Raph growled as he pulled out his sais and smashed one of the TVs in anger, now finding out who made the Mousers.
"I say we head over to StockTronics and kick some serious shell." He then said, twirling his sais, ready to run off, but Splinter stopped him.
"Absolutely not." He told him off before whacking his head with his walking stick. "Your last venture to the surface was a disaster. You can ill afford to be seen by more humans."
"Sensei, the only reason it was even a disaster was because Raph decided to jump into the truck and not hide with the rest of us." Alex reminded him, making Raph glare at him. "Don't look at me like that, it's true."
Meanwhile, the news broadcast continued, now showing the red haired woman, who carried a cardboard box in her hands.
"My lab assistant, Ms. April O'Neil, will release several rats into the simulation chamber." Stockman said as April made her way to the rat maze. "April… proceed, my dear."
April then tipped the box for all of the rats inside to be in the maze. Then Stockman placed the Mouser by the entrance into the maze.
"Now observe the sheer genius of my Mouser in action." Stockman said as the Mouser activated and ran into the maze.
Eventually it came across a rat and let's just say that the sight was so gruesome that Alex had to look away as he gagged.
"Oh, man. I'd sure hate to be a rat in this town." Mikey admitted, making everyone glare at him, realising what he just said. "Huh! Oh, sorry, Sensei."
At the same time, at StockTronics, both Stockman and April watched the news broadcast in the lab.
"And the Mouser's search and retrieval functions are all ingeniously controlled by a remote mother computer." Stockman then said in the broadcast.
"Oh, this is so great!" April said, pointing at the monitor. "My friends, my family, will finally see I really do work with the Baxter Stockman."
"You flatter me, Ms. O'Neil. I like that." Stockman grinned before the monitor started beeping and showed a tally of all the Mousers.
"Oh, that's strange." April said, seeing that some Mousers weren't accounted for. "I was running a routine diagnostic check. Half the Mouser prototypes aren't even transmitting. It's like they just vanished."
"I'm sure it's nothing, April, probably just a computer glitch." Stockman said after clearing his throat, sounding a bit tense as April worked on the computer. "I'll have a systems tech go over it in the morning."
"But what if the Mousers have been tampered with?" April questioned, genuinely concerned. "We should go over all their transmission backups."
"That won't be necessary, April." Stockman shut that idea down as he placed a hand on April's shoulder. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm expecting an important call from a very significant financial backer."
He left the room through a door that opened automatically, leaving April to consider the fact that her boss was clearly hiding something from her, and she had to find out what that was.
In the lair, Splinter was surrounded by his sons, all with their weapons at the ready, as they were all in the middle of a training session.
The first to make a move against Splinter was Donnie, spinning his bo staff before launching himself at him, swinging his staff downwards at him, but was blocked by his walking stick.
As Donnie got to his knees from his landing, he swung his staff again, but was blocked once more, then when he tried to get up, Splinter struck his shell, knocking him back.
"Do not lead with your shoulders, Donatello." Splinter gave him an important tip.
Suddenly, Leo jumped at Splinter, swinging his twin katanas down at him, but before he could even make contact, Splinter swung his walking stick and launched Leo back, landing on his shell and skidding until he stopped.
"Faster on your counterattack Leonardo." Splinter advised.
Mikey then tried to hit Splinter by the head with one of his nunchucks, but Splinter ducked and swung his walking stick at Mikey's legs, making him spin until he crashed on the floor.
"Mind your footwork, Michelangelo." Splinter pointed out.
Then Alex charged in, swinging his katana so fast that Splinter was barely able to block it and then Alex made a low spin kick for Splinter's legs, but Splinter jumped in time. Alex then tried to hit Splinter with a fist as he swung his sword downwards, but Splinter leapt in the air and then used his tail to whip Alex's back, knocking him off balance and then Splinter swept him off his feet.
"Remember to be mindful of your opponent, Alexander." Splinter said, earning a thumbs up from a groaning Alex.
Finally, Raph charges in with a battle cry and swung one of his sais at Splinter, who jumps over him. Raph then swung his sais at him, but they're swatted away with ease and Raph just let Splinter pin him against a padded column.
"You are distracted, Raphael. You must learn to focus your attacks." Splinter suggested.
"I'd like to focus my attacks on that Stockman guy." Raph replied as he brushed dust off his shoulder and followed after Splinter, who was heading for his room. "Why can't we just go topside and show him a little mean and green?"
"Because I forbid it!" Splinter sternly reminded him, making Raph groan before continuing on to his room, which had a glass door that Donnie built, while the brothers all gathered up and put away their weapons. "We will resume your training in the morning."
The door opened automatically and closed when he entered his room.
"Huh. 'We will resume your training in the morning'." Mikey imitated.
"I heard that!" Splinter called him out, surprising all five brothers.
"Busted!" Donnie teased Mikey, embarrassing him, which made both Leo and Alex laugh.
"I'd like to bust a few heads." Raph muttered as he punched his hand.
"Chill, bro. We don't need no stinking surface world." Mikey said as he made it to the living area of the lair and turned on the TVs. "We got late movies, top ten video countdown, BMX vert highlights, some really weird Korean language soap opera."
Meanwhile, Donnie went to his work station and put on goggles before igniting his blowtorch.
"Or you could give me a hand with these Mouser parts." He said as he started working on its torso. "If I can get one working, we can trace it back to its source and find out what Stockman's really using them for."
Raph simply yawned in response, saying "Nah, I'm beat. I'm gonna rack." And then he walked off to his room.
"Since when does Raph turn in so early?" Leo asked Alex, who stood next to him, arms crossed.
"Isn't it obvious?" Alex replied with a raised eyebrow, having a good idea about what Raph was going to do.
Over at StockTronics, in his office, Stockman was in the middle of a video call on his desk with his 'client'.
"The Mousers will be ready when I decide they're ready. Our first field test was -"
"Was a complete failure." His 'client' cut him off, hiding in shadow. "I do not tolerate failure."
"Which is why you'd make a lousy scientist. The test was supposed to expose any possible design flaws. As a result, I've already upgraded the Mousers for greater durability, and I assure you they will perform flawlessly for the next phase of the plan." Stockman explained, unaware that April was right outside his office, listening in through the door.
"They had better, Dr. Stockman, for your sake." The 'client' warned him, leaving April worried about what all this means.
Back in the lair, Mikey eventually dozed off and was now asleep on the couch, snoring. Elsewhere, Donnie continued working on the Mouser.
Unknown to him, Raph exited his room quietly, jumping the floor below and running towards the entrance/exit of the lair, hoping to make his way to StockTronics.
However, as he entered the tunnel outside the lair, he stopped as both Alex and Leo stood, having been waiting for him to do this.
"Midnight stroll?" Leo asked Raph.
"Out of my way, you two." Raph demanded.
"Raph, going on your own against StockTronics isn't wise." Alex pointed out the lack of thought Raph put into his plan.
"Besides, Master Splinter said we stay put." Leo added.
"Look, I'll go through the both of you if I have to!" Raph snapped back, getting in a fighting stance.
"You sure you can even do that, hothead?" Alex asked as he and Leo also got into fighting stances.
"Let's find out, sword boy!" Raph retorted before he tackled the two to the ground and the three tossed and turned, fighting as though they were wrestlers.
But as both Leo and Alex beared down on Raph, they saw that the Mouser Donnie was working was now fully repaired and ran past them.
"Hey, guys, I got one working!" Donnie shouted as he and Mikey ran after the Mouser.
"Come on! He's faster than he looks!" Mikey told them and Alex instantly forgot about the fight with Raph and joined them in chasing after the Mouser.
"So you just gonna let that Mouser roam free?" Raph asked Leo, who now looked anxious.
"Master Splinter is so gonna kill us." He cringed before he got to his feet to follow his brothers, stopping for a moment to look back at Raph. "Well, you're coming or what?" He then continued on.
"If you insist." Raph scoffed before running to catch up with his older brother.
At StockTronics, April went back to the computer, making it seem like she was working as Stockman exited his office.
"Good night, April, dear. Try not to work too late. You know I don't like to pay overtime." He said before he made his way to another door.
"Good night, Dr. Stockman." April replied as Stockman reached the door, which opened automatically, revealing an elevator, then closed once he entered, having one last look at April.
Now that he was gone, April decided to enter his office to get answers to what she heard earlier.
She instantly ran for his desk and sat down, going through his computer.
"Now let's find out what kind of plan you've been cooking up with those Mousers, Dr. Stockman." She said.
April hacked her way through various files, finding nothing of significance until she came across a symbol of a three toed foot, the very same symbol that the ninjas who attacked Alex and Turtles a week ago.
"I've never seen that icon before." She confessed to herself before clicking on it with the computer's mouse.
She then heard a noise coming from behind the bookcase.
"Huh? What is…." She said as she saw it split open and reveal a secret elevator.
Down in the sewers, the Mouser continued on in the tunnels until it decided to run on a pipe in an area where water from the sewers fell into a large whirlpool below.
Alex and the Turtles went on the pipe one by one to continue chasing after the Mouser.
Watch your step here, guys. Don't want to end up as human and turtle soup." Leo told his brothers.
The Mouser reached a wall and ended up scaling up it with its feet, surprising the brothers just as they reached where it stood on the pipe.
"Resourceful little critter!" Donnie spat in annoyance.
"Now what?" Alex asked.
"Like Master Splinter says, a ninja is always prepared." Leo replied, pulling out a pair of shuko spikes from his belt, everyone else doing the same, so that they could climb after the Mouser.
"I thought that was the Boy Scouts." Mikey remarked, making Alex roll his eyes.
"Don't you ever shut up for even a second?" He asked.
Back with April, she approached the elevator slowly and with caution before she decided to enter.
Once she did, she pressed a button, causing the elevator to close and suddenly descend so fast that she was thrown off balance, relying on the handlebar behind her to stay on her feet.
She looked at a floor plan, seeing that she was headed somewhere directly beneath StockTronics.
Alex and the Turtles kept climbing up the wall after the Mouser, reaching high up to the point that Mikey was groaning from the constant climbing.
"Next time, let's leave the wall-crawling to the dude in the blue and red tights." He complained.
"You read way too many comic books." Leo retorted.
"I agree. Read a normal book for once." Alex sided with Leo.
Eventually, the Mouser reached a pipe that led into a tunnel and climbed its way in, Alex and the Turtles reaching it within seconds and continued chasing the Mouser down the tunnel.
"Just curious, Don. What's to stop old turbo jaws from munching up another six point two on the Richter scale?" Mikey asked Donnie.
"I shut down its jaw servos. It couldn't even chew through a stick of gum." Donnie said with confidence.
That confidence, though, was dampened when they all saw the Mouser stop by a bunch of pipes and start biting through them.
"You were saying?" Raph said to a speechless Donnie.
"But I - I'm sure I shut it down." Donnie said in defeat as Mikey walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Ah, Don's finally lost his techno mojo. Sad, really." He mocked, earning a whack to the back of his head by Alex. "Ow!"
"Leave Donnie alone. Baxter Stockman built these things, remember? So he must've put something in, just in case." Alex defended Donnie, who looked at his human brother gratefully.
"I think you may be right. He must've put in some kind of security override routine that I overlooked." Donnie pondered an explanation. "Come on!"
They were about to chase after the Mouser through the tunnel it made through the sewer wall, but stopped when Donnie saw water trickling down from a pipe above them.
"Oh, no." He said with worry.
"Is this bad, Donnie?" Alex asked, seeing that the pipe had cracks in it.
"If I'm not mistaken, that's a serious water main hanging right over our heads." Donnie said as the pipe started creaking, which by itself isn't a good sign.
"So?" Raph asked, not understanding how serious this was. But Alex did, having learned how the sewers worked from Donnie.
"That metal critter ate through the main's support pipes!" He explained as the cracks from the main grew in size, spreading as well.
"INCOMING!" Leo yelled and before they could run for a head start, the main burst and the five of them were swept up from the water that gushed out.
They all screamed as they now found themselves falling towards the whirlpool, having been launched out of the tunnel.
Donnie thought quickly and pulled out his bo staff, using it to hang on over a small pipe with both hands.
"Grab on!" He called out to his brothers.
Then Leo grabbed him by the ankles, followed by Raph, Alex and Mikey.
"Ow!" Alex shouted, as Mikey's shuko spikes started digging into his ankles. "Will you watch where you point your shuko spikes?"
"Oh, calm down, Alex! I got an idea!" Mikey replied as he started rocking back and forth.
"Mike, wait! What are you -?" Leo shouted, but stopped when Mikey let go of Alex's ankles and fell through a waterfall, followed by Alex, Raph, Leo and Donnie.
All five of them clinged onto the wall with their shuko spikes, now drenched in sewer water, which irked Alex, especially, since he wore clothes.
"Guys, you okay?" Donnie asked everyone right before Raph spat water out from his mouth.
"Peachy." He grumbled as Alex glared down at Mikey, who flinched when making eye contact.
"Do that again, Mikey, and I'll rip you out of your shell. Got it?" He warned him, making the orange clad turtle gulp, as he knew he meant it.
Back with April, the elevator finally reached its destination, suddenly stopping. She would've fallen if she didn't hold onto the handrail.
"Oh, finally." She said, as it took a while in the elevator.
It then opened and she walked out into a hallway with glass on either side of her, as well as above. She looked through the glass to see that many Mousers were on conveyor belts, being lowered by claw cranes onto platforms full of many more Mousers.
"I don't care how bad the city's rodent problem is. This is serious overkill." April said, shocked by all of this, pondering the chance that there's more to this than she was told.
She then continued down the hallway, unknowingly tripping a silent alarm in the process.
In the sewers, Alex and the Turtles were now back in the tunnel where the Mouser gave them the slip, now gushing with water from the burst water main. Raph grabbed hold of a pipe to swing himself onto the ground before Leo, Alex and Mikey landed, followed by Donnie.
"When I get my hands on that metal menace, I'm gonna grind him into little bot burgers." Raph swore as he took off his shuko spikes.
"Easy, Raph. We still gotta keep him in one piece." Donnie reminded him as he and the others took off their shuko spikes.
"What makes you think we'll even find the little blender butt?" Mikey then asked.
"It's pretty obvious, isn't it?" Alex asked, looking over at Leo.
"Yeah, he left us a few clues, after all." Leo said, pointing at the tunnel that the Mouser made.
With April, she came across a computer and started going through it to see if she could learn more.
"Rat problem, my eye. What are you really up to, Stockman?" She said aloud.
"Now, now, Ms. O'Neil." Stockman's voice said, making her gasp and turn to see him exit an elevator with his hands behind his back. "That would be telling. Suffice it to say my army of Mousers will make a very rich and powerful man."
As he spoke, he used a remote, which he hid behind his back, to move a claw crane behind April, as her back was turned to the window.
"But aren't you already a very rich and powerful man?" April questioned, oblivious to the window lowering itself open, courtesy of Stockman with his remote.
"Ah, Ms. O'Neil, so brilliant, yet so naive. I will truly miss working with you." Stockman replied with a malicious glint in his eyes.
"What? You mean I'm fired?" April gasped.
"In a manner of speaking." Stockman replied before pressing the remote, making the claw crane grab April and lift her towards one of the platforms full of Mousers, where it dropped her, ripping her lab coat in the process.
"I'm afraid I can't let you live, Ms. O'Neil." Stockman then said as he cracked his fingers. "You've seen far too much already, and…" He then started typing commands on his computer. "...well, let's just say I have trust issues."
As April stood, taking off her lab coat, all of the Mousers on the platform activated, roaring and spanning their dentures.
Back with Alex and the Turtles, they reached the end of the tunnel the Mouser made with its dentures, which opened up into the New York subway.
The five looked around for the metal menace until Donnie spotted it.
"There!" He cried out, pointing at it, as it walked on the other side of the tracks.
They started chasing after it, but Raph, laser focused on the Mouser, was oblivious to a train that was fast approaching.
"Look out!" Leo shouted as he and Alex pulled Raph back to avoid him being hit.
Once the train left, the five saw that the Mouser had vanished somehow.
"Where the shell did it go?" Alex asked. Leo looked at the train and got the answer.
"Hitching a ride." He said as they all saw it clamping its dentures on the end car of the train.
"We'll never catch him now!" Mikey whined as the train moved out of sight.
"Two can play that game." Raph noted as he saw another train approaching.
He waited until it sped past them and he jumped on top of the front car, using his sais to hang on, stabbing through the top of the vehicle.
"What a maniac!" Leo said in shock.
"Could give Tom Cruise a run for his money!" Alex added.
"Yeah." Donnie had to agree with them. "Hey, wait for us!"
The four all managed to get on the train, Mikey getting on via climbing on a slide gate.
The Mouser soon jumped off the train and ran off, which Raph noticed.
"There's our stop!" He shouted before he and his brothers all jumped off the train and walked up to another tunnel that the Mouser made.
April grew worried for her life before she noticed a fire extinguisher next to her. She grabbed it and aimed the nozzle at one of the Mousers.
"Keep back! I know how to use this!" She warned it.
It roared at her, making her shoot out the contents of the extinguisher, which had no effect on the Mouser.
It ran at her and by instinct, she swung the fire extinguisher down on it, smashing its head in.
"Hah!" She cheered as she put the fire extinguisher over her shoulder.
The rest of them then started swarming towards her. April swung the extinguisher at the one closest to her, which caught the extinguisher with its dentures, rupturing it to the point that a smokescreen was unleashed.
April ran from it until she turned back round and ran around the Mousers to a closed door.
"You can run, Ms. O'Neil, but you cannot hide from my Mousers." Stockman grinned with pure evil delight as April pulled a lever that opened the door, leading right into the sewers.
The smokescreen spilled out as April entered the sewers proper, falling to her knees in the water, but she got right back up and started running down the tunnel.
Soon, she reached a point that reached into various other tunnels.
"Which way out?" April groaned, noticing that the smokescreen followed her. "Which way out?"
Ultimately, she just ran into the one closest to her, hoping she could get away from the Mousers, which had just entered the sewers.
Elsewhere in the sewers, the Mouser Alex and the Turtles were chasing is now wandering around a large space where the sewer water was being funnelled.
The five had just arrived and spotted it and were then surprised to see that there was another one.
"Since when did the little critter invite a friend?" Alex asked his brothers when it noticed their presence and roared at them.
"I got it!" Raph told them as he threw a shuriken at the Mouser, slicing part of its head open. It fell to the ground, seemingly taken care of.
But when Raph and Mikey high threed, it got back up on its feet.
"This is not good, guys." Leo said concerningly as it snarled at them.
"Neither is that!" Donnie then said, seeing that there was a whole swarm of these new Mousers. "These chrome domes are a lot tougher than the last batch."
The Mousers then surrounded the five, all of whom now wielded their weapons.
"Yeah, and there's a lot more of 'em, too." Raph added.
"Stockman's been busy. Time to let his effort go to waste, don't you think?" Alex asked the other four, who all agreed.
And so all five of them launched themselves at the Mousers with battle cries.
Raph stabbed one from the top of its head, Mikey smashed another's head in, Leo decapitated two of them and Alex sliced one cleanly in half.
Meanwhile, Donnie pole vaulted on another, and then another before swinging his staff at a pair, crumbling them.
Raph flipped over another pair and smashed them with a sai and his feet.
Mikey wrapped one of his nunchucks around a Mouser that leapt at him and hit it against the floor. Then a pair came at him, whacking one when it jumped at him, sending it flying.
Alex swung his katana at one like a baseball bat, making it crash against a wall before stabbing another that came at him and then he charged before sliding and slicing four in a row.
"These Mousers are incredible! The servo mechanics! The circuitry! The articulation!" Donnie took a moment to marvel at the Mousers.
Raph stabbed another with both of his sais, perplexed by Donnie's admiration.
"Jeez, Donnie, why don't you just marry one already?" He remarked as he stabbed another that jumped at him, ripping its head off.
"Yeah, now's not the time to go geek mode." Alex sided with Raph as he stabbed a Mouser in its mouth and launched it at Leo, who sliced it into many pieces.
While Raph and Donnie were busy, Leo and Alex swiped their katanas at swarms of Mousers, taking them down quickly, realising how to deal with them with ease.
"Guys, the only way to stop them is to slice their heads off." Leo told the others.
"Well, ain't that great news… for the turtles and human with blades." Mikey retorted, considering he and Donnie don't have bladed weapons.
"Drive 'em this way!" Raph replied just as a Mouser clamped its dentures around one of his sais, which he threw towards Alex, who sliced it down the middle. "We'll slice and dice!"
All five brothers gathered together at the top of some stairs and got ready for the final wave of Mousers.
Donnie swung his staff, launching two Mousers in the air.
Mikey swung one of his nunchucks in the face of another Mouser.
Raph stabbed a couple with his sais, destroying them instantly.
And both Leo and Alex sliced a couple of Mousers together with their katanas.
The five didn't stop destroying the Mousers until there was only one left, piles of Mouser parts scattered all around them, reminiscent of the aftermath of a battle.
"Great job, guys. Just make sure we leave one -" Donnie was interrupted when Raph leapt at the remaining Mouser and stabbed its head with both sais before smashing it down with his foot. "- intact."
"So much for tracing them back to the source." Leo groaned.
"Thank you, Raph, for now making us chase the Mouser down be all for nothing. We've wasted our time." Alex said with mock sincerity, patting his shoulder before smacking the back of his head.
"Ow!" Raph whined.
Meanwhile, April kept running her way through the sewers, looking over her shoulder as she entered another tunnel, only to find that a couple of Mousers were in front of her.
She turned to run back in the direction she came, but there were three more Mousers, and so she ended up running down a tunnel to her left until she ended up tripping and fell in the water.
She crawled backwards until she was pressed up against a boarded up entrance into another tunnel. There was nowhere to run. She was cornered and the Mousers closed in on her, snapping their dentures and roaring at her, making her close her eyes and scream.
But nothing happened.
Instead, a bo staff knocked a Mouser that leapt towards April away. Then a sai smashed the second Mouser, the third getting decapitated by a nunchuck, the fourth sliced in half down the middle by a katana and the fifth being sliced into tiny pieces by another katana.
Hearing the commotion, Apri opened her eyes and saw the remains of the Mousers scattered all around her, her saviours standing some distance away, hiding in shadows, putting their weapons away and walking up to her.
"Oh. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much." She said, truly grateful to them. "You saved my - my -"
"Hey, how you doing?" One of her saviours said, revealing themselves to be Mikey.
The sight of him made April faint, especially after everything she just went through.
"Well done, Mikey, you just made the woman that used to work with Baxter Stockman faint because you revealed yourself." Alex berated the turtle.
"I only wanted to say hi. This is our first human excluding you." Mikey replied as he leaned in and carried April bridal style, turning to face his brothers. "Hey. So can we keep her?"
"She's not some stray, Mikey!" Alex continued berating him as they all looked at Mikey with annoyance.
In terms of how Alex fits in with Turtles in regards to age/maturity, he shares the same spot as Leo, being the oldest, even though they're all 15.
And most, maybe all of the opening narrations will be from Alex, to spice things up.