= Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 =
= A Better Mousetrap Part 2 =
Later on that day, the turtles and Splinter were doing the training session in their new lair's Dōjō.
With their weapons in their hands and held up, all eight turtles surrounded their rat master from all eight directions and prepared themselves to attack him. They silently eyed Master Splinter from the tips of his ears to his toes, trying to anticipate his techniques and trying to come up with the best and effective techniques to get pass his defenses.
Donnie made the first move. The turtle in purple leaped to attack from the upper level of the floor and swung his Bo-staff at Master Splinter but he blocked the brainy turtle's attack with his own staff. Donnie then turned around and, falling on one knee, tried to hit his father again from below, only for Master Splinter to block it again. Donnie then attempted to get up to switch the position for third attack, but Splinter moved faster by spinning around and whacking his brainy son in the shell with his staff, sending Donnie aside.
"Do not lea with your shoulders, Donatello."
Leonardo, alongside Louie, attacked Splinter together from two directions by leaping forward and across the air towards their master. Both the turtles in blue and black had lifted their Katanas and Butterfly swords over their heads and ready for the heavy strike. However, when they were about to pull their swords down on the old rat master with "HYAH!" cries, Master Splinter turned swiftly around and sent with one super fast and powerful swing of his staff both turtles in blue and black flying away from him and to the other side of the Dōjō. Both then landed on their shells to the ground and slid a little bit further away before skidding to stop.
"Faster on your counter-attack, Leonardo. And do not rely too much on the thought that your adversary cannot fight two opponents at the same time, Lorenzo."
Splinter's ear then flicked before the old rat master then bowed his head down just in time as Arcee was about to lunge at him and slice him with her Tessens. However, because Master Splinter dodged the turtle in pink's strike so swiftly, Arcee ended up to slice the empty air and flying over her father's head. Through of the flip in the air, Arcee then landed onto her shell to the floor and then somersaulted back on her feet before she turned back to her master.
"Do not breath too hard. It'll reveal your presence, Artemisia."
Mary then leaped to attack and struck her Naginata's blade in between of two slightly loose stone-plates on the floor, before she leaped into the air and swung herself around on her weapon's staff in attempt to deliver a horizontal kick on Splinter with her together attached legs. However, her attack came from a little too high than what it was intended to be and she missed her Sensei. The old rat master did not need to lean back too much to avoid a horizontal attack by his daughter. And before Mary got the second chance, Splinter wrapped his tail around of her Naginata, just above of the blade, before he swiftly pulled it off from between of the plates, causing Mary to fall onto her side to the ground.
"Note the opponent's size, Marietta. Both small or tall ones'."
Mikey attacked next by swinging his Nunchucks wildly at Splinter's head, only to miss him. He was given no time to counter before Splinter swiftly swept his legs off from under him with his staff, sending Mikey flying over to the floor.
"Mind your footwork, Michelangelo."
Dom then attacked Splinter on his turn and swung both his Tonfas at him. However, his two-four attacks were noticeably not hard nor even fast enough as Splinter blocked them almost too easily with his staff. After that, Splinter counterattacked with double times faster and harder attacks, forcing the surprised turtle in white to fall back and go into the defense mode in which he barely managed to block Splinters' from both side alternately incoming attacks. Dom even tried to create the distance between him and Splinter, but Splinter in response spun himself around that his tail swept Dom's legs off from under him, making him to land on his stomach to the floor.
"Do not hesitate that much in the close-combat, Domenico. In the battle, there's one rule only: It's either you or your opponent. You have to strike harder and faster and remember not to create a long distance between you and your opponent. A distance will be sometimes a treacherous enemy who will turn against you."
Raph then charged in at last, swinging his Sais at Splinter, who dodged his attack by flipping on his staff before bouncing over Raph's head and landing behind the turtle in red's shell-back. Raph then turned around and threw both his Sais one by one at Splinter, only for the rat master to knock them both aside with ease. With his son disarmed, Sensei moved towards Raph and pushed him back with his staff, pinning the turtle in red against one of the pillars.
"You're distracted, Raphael" Splinter said to his hotheaded son, realizing that he had let his emotions to get best of him.
And it was not just Raph, who was distracted.
They were all distracted.
None of his children had paid a full focus in their training like they usually did.
Splinter suspected correctly that his children's minds were still preoccupied with the Stocktronics press conference earlier, which now affected negatively to both their concentration and the progress of their training, much to Splinter's frustration.
"You must learn to focus on your attacks." Splinter advised Raph before he released his son.
"Well, I'd like to focus my attack on that Stockman-guy!" Raph snarled, shaking his fist in anger.
The turtle in red just couldn't accept the fact that Stockman would get away with destroying their childhood home so easily. He desired the payback against Stockman more than anything, so he rushed in front of Splinter to confront him about his earlier idea of going after Stockman.
"I asked this once, Sensei. I asked it twice and now I'm gonna ask it for a third time. Why can't we just go to topside and show him a little mean-in-green?" the turtle in red asked, hoping that Splinter would change his mind about not going.
"Because I forbid it!" Splinter replied strictly, much to Raph's disappointment.
Splinter then walked past his moping son and retired to his room, which doors opened automatically as he entered in.
"We will resume your training in the morning once your minds are clear." Splinter said as he disappeared into his room and left the turtles to the main chamber.
Once Splinter was out of the earshot, Mikey couldn't resist the temptation any longer.
"Ha! 'We will resume your training in the morning once our minds are clear.'" The turtle in orange mockingly mimicked Splinter's words in deepened voice while standing in a hunched posture - just like Splinter - and pretending to be learning on a invisibly staff.
However...
"I heard that! Double-time for you, Michelangelo!" Splinter informed from his room, much to the turtles surprise.
"Busted!" Donnie teased his younger brother, whom felt awkward right now.
"OOOO'OOOOOOH! Michelangelo, is in very very big, T-R-O-U-B-L-E! "(1) Mary and Arcee teased their embarrassed little brother with the singing voices while holding from each others hands and dancing/hopping a circle, embarrassing Mikey even more and making the rest of the turtles around them to burst into laughter.
"Real mature, guys. Real mature." Mikey muttered sarcastically.
However, Raph wasn't in a mood of laughter. The turtle in red was still moping over Splinter's strict order to stay put and he really wanted to vent his frustration into something.
"Speaking of busting... I'd love to bust a few heads!" Raph said as he smacked his fist into his palm.
"Chill, Bro. We do not need anything from the stinky surface-world." Mikey said as he headed to the entertainment zone and hopped onto the couch. "We already got here the late movies, top 10 video countdown, BNX third highlights and some really weird Korean language Soap Opera." Mikey listed off as he put the TVs on to watch something from various screens at the same time.
"Yeah! We have now a whole night to do what we want to: To watch the late movies like Mikey just suggested, listen to something relaxing music, have a good snacks from our vending machines, everything we can do to entertain ourselves." Arcee said as she and Mary joined Mikey at the entertainment zone
Donnie, however, headed back to his workbench with the Mouser-parts and his tools.
"Or... you could give a hand with these Mouser-parts." Donnie said, as he put the goggles on and lit a blowtorch before starting to work with the parts.
"What exactly are you doing with them, Donnie? Trying to reach to Stockman's level with the skills and intellect of yours?" Louie asked.
"Well, you guessed partially correct, dear bro. I'm actually kinda interested to match my own skills and intelligence with Stockman's. But that's not the real reason why I am doing this. You see, Stockman didn't tell in the press conference anything about the Mousers' ability to chew their way through of stone and cement like they did back in our old lair. And the sewers are still the property of the city, and the property damage isn't above of the law. So, if I can get even one of these Mousers working and reprogram it, we can trace it back to its original source and find out that what Stockman is really using them for." Donnie explained.
"Alright, works for me." Louie said as he headed towards their bathroom. "Now if you excuse me, I'm intent to take the hot shower to wash the sweat off me."
Raph then let out the short yawn. "I'm beat. I'm going to my hammock." the turtle in red said as he retired to his room.
Only Leo and Dom were left to the place.
Leo - who was sitting on the edge of the upper level of the floor - had taken a note to Raph's short yawn and quickly-made retreat to his room to sleep. The turtle in blue eyed his brother as he made his way to his room with curiosity and suspicion. Dom, who was leaning on the edge next to him, noticed the same thing as well.
"Weird, isn't it? Practice wasn't even exhausting, and yet he claims to be that beat." Dom whispered to Leo. The turtle in blue nodded in agreement.
"Tell me about it, bro. Since when does... Raph... turn in so early?" Leo asked from both himself and Dom.
###
Later, Mikey, Arcee and Louie, who had some time ago departed from the shower and joined with the others to watch something from TV, had all fallen asleep to the couch and sun lounger. Mary, meanwhile, was meditating in middle of the bridge with her legs crossed and eyes closed. The turtle in turquoise breathed calmly inside and out, not allowing even a smallest noise to break her deep concentration. And Donnie had his full focus on his project of repairing and reprogramming the Mouser.
The lair was dead silent.
However, when everyone was either asleep, occupied in their own affairs, or otherwise just out of sight, Raph quietly emerged out of his room and jumped down.
The turtle in red was so filled with the vengeance against Stockman that he gave in to his natural rebellious side and attempted to sneak out of the lair to go after Stockman on his own, totally disobeying Master Splinter's prohibition to leave the lair.
However, he didn't reach far from the doorway until he ran into two figures hiding patiently in the tunnels' shadows.
"Just like we thought." One of them said suddenly, much to Raph's surprise as the turtle in red skidded to stop.
The figures then moved out of the shadows to stand on the opposite side of Raph, revealing themselves as Leo and Dom. Leo had put his hands over his hips while Dom had crossed his own arms in front of him. Both of them were giving their rebellious brother a deep frown of disapproval.
"Trying to sneak out to midnight stroll once the eye avoids?" The turtle in blue questioned sarcastically, even though he already knew the reason
"And how does this justify your so-called "turn in earlier", bro?" Dom questioned with the lecturing voice.
However, Raph was not in the mood to listen his brothers' lectures.
"Out of my way, Leo and Dom." Raph demanded, but the turtles in white and blue held their grounds.
"We cannot let you go, Raph! We cannot let you to get yourself killed because of your stubbornness and rebelliousness." Dom stated.
"Besides, Master Splinter said 'we stay put!'" Leo added strictly.
"Don't you two push your luck with me! Now, get out of my way, or else!" Raph threatened his brothers with the pointed finger.
Both Leo and Dom scoffed at this, unaffected.
"Oh! Puh-leeze, Raphael! Spare us from your petty threats." Leo dismissed as if he was bored.
"Compared to Splinter's own threats, your own sounds downright ridiculous." Dom stated.
Raph then lost his patience, which was known to be extremely short in his case, and took an offensive stand that told both Leo and Dom that Raph was going to get past them by force... even though he was outnumbered by two-on-one.
"Look, I'll go through of both of you, if I have to!" Raph threatened, provoking Leo and Dom to take a defensive stance of their own.
"I'd love to see you trying, hothead! Let's see if you can get through both of us!" Leo challenged.
"You shall not pass, Raphaelrog." Dom added dramatically.(2)
"Careful what you wish for, Splinter Jr. and green beardless travesty of Gandalf the White!"(2) Raph countered back before the turtle in red suddenly lunged at his brothers.
Raph pushed Leo aside before he went after Dom. He knew that Dom wasn't the team's strongest fighter compared to him or Leo or Mary, due to him favoring more peaceful and diplomatic terms rather than blind violence he tried to avoid. And so, using Dom's lack of physical strength and hesitation and unwillingness to use the "unnecessary" violence as his advantage against him, Raph tackled the surprised turtle in white over and pinned him down to the ground rather easily.
However, Leo was a bit harder piece to swallow, even if he had momentarily caught his older big brother by surprise. After pinning Dom down, Raph attempted to make a run for it into the tunnel, but Leo quickly prevented him from doing so by tackling his hot-headed brother from his left flank and knocked him over to the ground. Two brothers then started to wrestle fiercely with each other while rolling in the ground like the fighting children. Eventually, Leo managed to pin his brother down and struggled to keep him down.
However, their wrestling was interrupted by the repeating sound of Tick-Tick. And shortly after, to the three wrestling turtles' surprise, the repaired Mouser ran out of their lair and headed into the tunnels.
The turtles looked at the Mouser with the dumbfounded looks on their faces.
"Whatta...? Where did that came from?" Dom questioned.
And then, they saw Donnie, Mikey, Louie, Mary and Arcee rushing out of the lair as well.
"Hey guys! I got one working!" Donnie said.
"Now it's probably heading back to its source as Donnie said!" Louie added.
"Now on your feet and come on! It's faster than it looks!" Mikey added.
The five turtles passed their struggling brothers and rushed after the Mouser to the tunnels.
"Why do I have such of bad feeling about this whole "follow-the-Mouser"-plan?" Dom asked from himself, before he quickly got up from the ground and rushed after his brothers and sisters.
Raph then turned to Leo. "So, you're just gonna let that Mouser roam free or what?" The turtle in red questioned his big brother with the teasing tone.
"I'm more worried about Master Splinter when he finds out we're gone. And once he does, he's SO going to kill us!" Leo said, voicing his worry about the consequences of disobeying Splinter's prohibition as he got up and rushed after everybody else.
He quickly stopped and looked back at Raph. "Well? You coming or what?" Leo asked rhetorically, as he already knew the answer, before rushing after others.
"If you insist." Raph scoffed, before bouncing up from the ground and hurrying after his brothers and sisters.
###
The turtles followed the Mouser through the sewer tunnel, until it stepped onto the pipe that led into the large drainage junction. It was a big, round and high room, where the water poured out from various pipes and tunnels above and bellow the pipe the Mouser and the turtles were walking along, and fell down to the bottom of the room, where the pouring water masses created a huge whirlpool. The Mouser walked the pipe that along with many other pipes served as a catwalk to cross the whirlpool, and the turtles followed it one-by-one - Mikey in the head, then Dom and Donnie, Mary and Arcee in the middle, then Leo and Louie and Raph in the end of the line.
"Watch your steps here, guys. Not good to end up as turtle soup." Leo cautioned as the turtles followed the Mouser's path.
The Mouser ended up to the dead-end wall once it reached to the opposite side of the room at the end of the pipe.
But suddenly, as if coming up with some sort of idea on its own, the robot sunk its legs claws into the wall and started to climb up the wall, surprising the turtles as they humped into each other at the end of the pipe.
"It can climb now?!" Dom questioned.
"Whatta resourceful little critter." Donnie commented.
"Stockman probably forgot to inform that they also can climb along the walls." Louie guessed.
"You're telling me, bro." Mary said.
"So what do we do now? We're in the dead end." Raph said.
"We follow its suit." Leo responded, as he took out from his belt's pockets the pair of climbing hooks called Shuko-spikes, which he put on his hands. "Like the Master Splinter always says, "A ninja is always prepared"."
"I thought that was the Boy Scouts." Mikey responded as he put his own climbing hooks in his hands.
"Well, what do you know, Mikey. Maybe there's something in common between the Boy Scouts and the ninjas after all." Arcee commented.
"Very funny, guys." Mary said sarcastically. "Now let's go!" The turtle in turquoise added as she turned to the wall.
Mikey was about to go on, until Dom grabbed him from his shoulder, making him to halt.
"Ladies first." Dom offered as he and Mikey moved out of the girls' way and motioned Donnie to do the same... or at least that much as they could without slipping off the pipe and ending up falling down into the whirlpool.
"Why thank you, bro" Mary, feeling flattered, thanked Dom for being such of gentleman... or turtle.
Mary and Arcee went in first. The sisters embed their Shuko-spikes in the wall and pulled themselves up along the wall by using both hands alternately, while using their feet to push themselves up.
Mikey and Donnie went in next.
Leo and Dom followed soon after.
And Raph and Louie followed them last.
They needed to keep up, because the Mouser had a quite head start and it was already far above of them. So the turtles picked up the pace in climbing in order to close the distance between them and the robot, or at least to get closer enough so that they wouldn't lose it.
Mikey started groaning in slowly but certainly coming exhaustion in the halfway of the climbing.
"Next time, let's leave the wall crawling to the dude in the blue-red tights." Mikey complained to his brothers while climbing.
"You read way too many comic books, Mikey." Leo responded, annoyed.
The turtles climbed a pretty high. So high that they began to wonder that how much further they needed to climb after the robot.
Fortunately for them, the Mouser's climb ended to the next large round pipe on its way and it entered to inside.
Mary and Arcee reached to the pipe first and climbed in. Once in there, the turtle girls turned around and started immediately to help their brothers to get into the pipe, telling each pair of their brothers to go ahead after the robot.
And once Mary and Arcee had helped the last turtle (Raphael) to get into the pipe, the turtle girls got up, turned around and followed their brothers into the tunnel.
As they followed the Mouser deeper into the tunnel, where was several pipes going along the walls and the ceiling of the tunnel, Mikey turned into the brainy turtle, as something came up to his mind that got him slightly worried.
"Just curious, Don. What's to stop old turbo jaws from munching up another 6.2 on the Richter scale?" Mikey questioned as he kept running after the Mouser.
"And... what's to stop this individual from tearing the flesh off our bones like its predecessors and successors?" Arcee questioned, equally worriedly.
"Don't worry. Before I turned it on, I shut down its jaw servos. Now it can't even chew through a stick of gum." Donnie assured with the broad grin on his face, proud of himself.
However, Donnie was surprisingly proved wrong when the Mouser suddenly halted next to the some pipes and began to chew its way through of them and wall behind them as well, surprising the turtles completely.
"You were saying?" Raph said sarcastically.
""Not even stick of gum" eh? Are you kidding me?! It's chewing its way through of the wall nonetheless!" Arcee snapped.
Donnie was as surprised as everybody else. Maybe even more than what the others. The sudden behavior of this individual was totally opposite to his recent declaration... not to mention of his reprogramming on it when he rebuilt it.
"Bu-bu-but! I'm-I'm sure I did shut it down!" Donnie said in disbelief.
"Well, its Donatello 0. Stockman 1." Louie replied sarcastically.
"Aww... Donnie's finally lost his techno mojo. Sad really." Mikey joked.
Dom then moved in and smacked both Mikey and Louie in the backs of their head for making fun of Donnie.
"Ow!" Mikey yelped in pain.
"Ouch! Hey!" Louie complained, rubbing the sore back of his head with his hand as he turned to glare at Dom, who ignored his brother's scowl.
"If you really did shut it down, then have you any theory of this, Donnie?" Dom asked as he turned to the brainy turtle.
"Well... it must have some kind of security override routine or..." Donnie theorized, until he was rudely cut short by Louie.
"Whatever! It has already dug its way deep into the wall. We gotta go after it before we lose it!" the turtle in black exclaimed.
"Oh, right!" Donnie said, snapping out of his thoughts. "Louie's right. We cannot afford of losing it. Come on!"
Donnie began to lead the group into the Mouser-made tunnel, until he suddenly stopped in front of it and looked up.
"Oh no!" Donnie said, noticing something very bad.
The rest of the turtles froze still. It's never a good thing when somebody says "Oh no".
"Now what?" Dom questioned.
"What it is, Donnie?" Leo asked from his brainy brother.
"If I'm not mistaken, that's a serious water main hanging right over our heads." Donnie responded, as he worriedly pointed up at the large thick pipe right above of the turtles heads, which was leaking and, to make the matters even worse, cracking ominously.
"So?" Raph asked, sounding not as worried as Donatello.
"SO... our little Mouser-friend just ate through the pipe's supports!" Donnie explained with even more worried tone as he pointed at the supports he mentioned.
The water main pipe's supports were gone, eaten by the Mouser!
And now, without the supports to hold it up, the weight of the huge masses of water inside the water main was bending the giant pipe downwards from the middle!
The cracks began to spread around the water main pipe and more and more water began to leak out from the cracks, worsening the situation every second.
"It's gonna BREAK!" Mary shouted.
"INCOMING!" Leo exclaimed.
The pipe eventually gave in and split in half, releasing a huge amount of water into the tunnel. The turtles were instantly caught by the massive flood that carried them all the way to the end of the tunnel they had climbed in a minutes ago, until the flood flushed them out of the tunnel into the drainage junction!
"HOLY SHELL!" All eight turtles screamed from the top of their lungs as they started to fall down and straight towards the whirlpool waiting for them in the bottom of the room.
However, thinking fast, Donnie hatched the plan to rescue the entire team. The brainy turtle quickly pulled his Bo-staff from his shell-back and swung it with one hand over one of the pipes, before he quickly grabbed with his free hand from the another end of the staff, cutting short his fall and ending up to to hang on there.
"GUYS! GRAB ON!" Donnie shouted.
One by one, Dom, Mary, Leo, Louie, Arcee, Raph and Mikey grabbed from each others feet, remaining to hang there right above of the whirlpool.
"Good thinking, Donnie! But did you hatch the spare plan as well? I don't think your staff can hold the weight of all eight of us for long." Dom questioned.
"I'm thinking such of all of time! Just give me time!" Donnie said back.
Suddenly, they heard the cracking sound above of them. They all raised their heads and looked up at the pipe on which they were all hanging. The pipe too was starting to crack from one spot, hinting that the pipe wouldn't withstand the weight of all eight turtles for long.
"It's not gonna hold us all!" Mary informed worriedly.
"Great! Just great! A good old turtle-luck kicked us again!" Louie responded sarcastically in Raph's style.
"Mind to think a little bit faster, Donnie?" Dom urged.
"You're not helping, bro!" Donnie retorted. "But if you guys want to come up with something yourself to get all of us out of this, then please! Be my guess!" The brainy turtle in purple suggested sarcastically in irritation.
As if taking a heed from Don's sarcastic propose, each turtle started to hurriedly go through various ideas in their heads to come up with some sort of plan to escape from this situation before this pipe could broke and drop all of them into the whirlpool.
"Ugh! Mikey! "You have gained some weight again, haven't you?" Arcee complained, feeling her legs being torn off/nearly dislocated when there was two male turtles hanging from them. "Maybe you should seriously reconsider that diet I suggested to you days earlier and leave the junk food aside, okay?"(3)
"No deal, Arcee! I'm never giving up from pizza, hot-dogs, burgers, milk-shake, potato chips, pistachio nuts, soda pop, green jelly, cream cupcakes nor doughnuts so easily!" Mikey shot back.(3)
"OW! Can you at least watch where you point your Shuko-spikes, Mikey?!" Raph complained as he painfully felt Mikey's Shuko-spikes digging into his ankles.
"Oh, Just keep your shell on, Raph! I got an idea! FOLLOW MY SUIT AND LET GO ON MY MARK!" Mikey ordered, as he began to sway himself and the others back and forward.
The others, without even questioning his motives to this plan, started to follow the turtle in orange's example. Except for Leo and Dom, who were uncertain about this plan.
"READY?! ONE..." Mikey informed as he started to count.
The turtles, save for Leo and Dom, kept swinging Mikey even higher.
The turtle in blue started to immediately protest Mikey's plan.
"MIKEY! WAIT!" Leo shouted, but his words fell to the deaf ears.
"TWO!" Mikey shouted.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR SHELL, BRO?!" Dom questioned.
The pipe above of them cracked even more, and was only few inches away from breaking completely off.
"MIKEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Leo tried again...
"THREE-EEEEEE!" Mikey shouted as he let go off Raph's ankles.
And as the pipe broke off, Raph followed Miey's suit and let go off Arcee's ankles, with Arcee letting go off Louie's ankles. Then Louie let go off Leo's ankles and Leo - seeing no other choice - followed his brothers' and sister's suit and let go off Mary ankles and Mary let go off Dom's ankles. Dom - seeing no alternate choice neither - let go off Donnie's ankles and Donnie let go of one end of his staff.
One by one, the turtles fell into the waterfall of the sewer water but managed to land safely with their Shuko-spikes into the wall behind of the waterfall.
Soaked turtles breathed rapidly from a sudden burst of adrenaline after their narrow survival from their first perilous moment in the sewers. After a short while , their breathing had stabilized more calmer on its own, leaving the turtles relieved that they were still alive.
"Guys! Everybody okay?" Donnie asked for his brothers' and sister's well-being.
"I'm good." Leo said.
"I'm good." Mikey replied.
"I'm fine." Dom replied.
"One pieces." Arcee informed.
"With ya." Louie said.
"No worry." Mary said.
They all turned to look at Raph, who hadn't yet responded, until he spat out the mouthful of sewer water he had caught into his mouth when falling through of the waterfall, much to their disgust.
"Eww!" Arcee grimaced in disgust.
"Gross!" Mikey gagged.
"Peachy." the turtle in the red grumbled.
"Lucky that we still had these Shukos in our hands. I don't want to even think what could have happened to us if we had taken them off before that flood." Arcee gulped, staring down at the whirlpool below.
"You said it, sister." Mary agreed.
"It was my plan all along." Mikey boasted with the grin.
"Good thinking, Mikey! Maybe not so shell-for-brains as in the picture you usually give of yourself." Louie said with the teasing smirk.
"Pleasure to..." Mikey started to say, flattered, until the turtle in orange realized what Louie had just said. "HEY!"
"Guys! No time for this! We gotta keep going before that Mouser reaches beyond of our reach!" Leo said to his siblings.
Nodding to their leader-figure, the turtles resumed climbing along the wall again and headed back towards still flooding tunnel's entrance above them.
###
Upon reaching the tunnel entrance, the turtles noticed that although it was still flooding, the water had dropped down enough to allow the turtles to crawl back into the tunnel from above of the entrance.
Although the flow of the flood water wasn't as wild as it had been after the water main was breached and did not fill the entire tunnel in the same way, the water level still rose to chest level and the flow was still strong enough to take teenager mutant ninja turtle away with it. This forced the turtles to advance along the tunnel's ceiling's pipes to avoid strong currents of still flooding water.
Eventually, they arrived back to where the whole accident had begun. And after passing a broken water main, the turtles one by one dropped down from the ceiling and landed in a crouched stances onto a dry sidewalk, that had luckily remained above of the flood.
"Donnie, I'm starting to have a second thoughts about your blasted little tin toy after it nearly killed us all." Dom said strictly, as the turtles stood up.
"Speak for yourself, Dom. When I get my hands on that little metal menace, I'm gonna grind him into little bot-burgers!" Raph snarled as he took off his Shukos.
"Easy, guys. We still got to keep him in one piece so that we can track its source." Donnie reminded, calming down Dom and Raph, as he and rest of the turtles removed their own Shukos from their hands and placed them back into the pockets of their belts.
"Well, first we gotta track Mr. reborn robot-cockroach down before we can resume the tracking down its source." Louie pointed out.
"What makes you think that we even find that little blender bud?" Mikey questioned.
"Mikey's right there." Mary agreed with Mikey. "That flood gave it a really long head start, and it can be anywhere at the moment."
"Maybe, but I think he left us a little clues." Leo answered, pointing with his thump at the breach in the wall, which the Mouser had done earlier.
"Just like Hansel and Gretel with the little pebbles and bread crumbs." Arcee said, remembering that one from the children story that Master Splinter had once read to them when they were children.
"Hah! Tracking down that little metal muncher is easier than you think, Mikey. Let's roll then, shall we?" Louie suggested, before the turtle in black with eager yet almost reckless attitude sprinted into the breached hole and quickly disappeared into the shadows. He was shortly after followed by his brothers and sisters, as they hurried to catch up with their brother and the Mouser.
To be continued
TRIVIA
(1) - Reference to the almost similar moment from Ice Age 4, where Manny and Sid tease Diego for his crush to Shira.
(2) - Reference to the epic battle between Balrog and Gandalf from the Fellowship of the Ring.
(3) - That was inspired by the scene from the movie Atlantis 2: Milo's Return, when the heroes were hanging from the cliff side and the branch of root above of the chasm.
= Audrey: "You could lay off the eclairs, you know."
= Mole: "I cannot help it. It's the creme filling."