animegamefanatic - Thanks. I'm glad that you like it. And yes. The boys are protective of their sisters. Especially their little sister Arcee. Not overprotective, but protective nonetheless.
Author's note: I've added some elements (or more like some speaking lines) from the second issue of TMNT mirage comic books to make this chapter more tensed.
=Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003=
=A Better Mousetrap Part 4=
"LET'S TURTLEIZE THEM!" all eight turtles shouted at the same time as they charged forward to fight Stockman's eight the giant Mousers.
However, the turtles soon found out that giant robots gave them even bigger challenge than what they did realize.
The robots immediately began firing from their Mouser-head-like hand's eyes the deadly laser beams at the turtles, forcing the turtles to scatter to the different directions and try to defend themselves.
One of the giant Mousers went after Leo and fired its deadly laser beams at him relentlessly. Leo moved towards one of the room's columns, flipping over and rolling under of the stray laser beams and managed to avoid them, till he reached to the column.
The giant robot cornered the turtle in blue against the column, snarling at him before it shot its stretching Mouser-head hands forward towards Leo to grab him. The Mouser also opened its hands' serrated jaws, revealing the series of big buzz saws inside with which the robot was about to saw Leo in half from the waist.
"YAH!" The turtle in blue yelled before dodging the Mouser's hands, narrowly avoiding them as their serrated jaws locked around of the column before withdrawing back, tearing off a large chunk of the column with it.
Leo hid behind the damaged column and remained there for cover while the Mouser kept shooting out its hands towards him, laying hard blows on the column and tearing it apart piece by piece.
Elsewhere, Mary attacked one of the giant Mousers, spinning her Naginata rapidly over her head.
The Mouser, however, countered to Mary' attack by opening its box-like head's jaws and began firing out several missiles at her.
Even though she has never faced the missiles before, Mary hurriedly jumped out of the way of each missile before they hit her and exploded one by one behind of her shell-back, though out of luck she managed to slice one missile in half with her Naginata, but she never slowed down her pace.
Mary eventually switched the positions of her hands on her weapon's shaft right beneath of its blade before she struck its blunt end to the ground. Then she jumped off the ground and pole-vaulted herself high into the air... and just in time as the next two missiles hit to her current spot and exploded.
Spinning her Naginata in her hands while flying/falling towards the giant Mouser, Mary lifted her weapon over her head in attempt to slice the Mouser's head in half with it, until she was suddenly ambushed from her left by third giant Mouser that violently punched her off the air with one of its Mouser-head hands it had shot towards her, sending Mary flying aside.
The turtle in turquoise landed with the hard thud on the floor and, due to the sheer force of the giant Mouser's punch, rolled roughly along the ground for some meters before the rolling finally came to stop, leaving from the pain moaning turtle in turquoise lying on her stomach to the ground.
Fourth Mouser went after Mikey, jumping off the ground and landing heavily in front of him.
"AHHHH!" Mikey screamed girly at the sight of the robot in front of him.
The Mouser then partially straightened up and raised its arms up, before pulling them down and bashing them hard against the ground in attempt to crush Mikey. The Mouser's jawed arms left a two deep dents to the ground, but Mikey had managed to avoid them just in time by leaping forward and between of the Mouser's legs, landing on his stomach to the ground behind the robot. However, the robot turned around and started firing its lasers at Mikey, but missed as the turtle in orange hurriedly rolled out of the away.
Two other Mousers joined in and together they cornered Mikey. And once they got Mikey trapped, all three robots began firing their lasers at the turtle in orange from every direction. Mikey put everything in the game and started using the various mixed Hip-Hop and Ninjutsu's dodging movements to avoid getting hit by the Mousers' lasers. The turtle in orange managed just and just narrowly evade every laser beam fired at him from six Mouser-head-like arms' eyes from three directions.
Elsewhere, Dom, Louie and Donnie were teaming up to fight one of the giant Mousers, apparently cornering it against the wall.
Both Louie and Dom were fending off the giant Mouser's arms' snapping giant jaws, attempting to cause some damage to them by whacking them with their weapons repeatedly. However, these Mouser's durability was proven to be too strong as they couldn't even damage the robot's jawed arms' metallic surface with Louie's blades or Dom's wooden weapons. Donnie, meanwhile, attempted to cripple the Mouser by whacking with his Bo-staff one of its mechanical leg's mechanisms, though the robot ignored Donnie's attempts to harm it as its full attention was in dueling with Louie and Dom. Dom then jumped on one of the robot's arms and whacked its box-shaped head as hard as he could with his Tonfas... though that didn't cause much of the noticeable damage on the robot.
Suddenly, the Mouser turned to face Louie, ignoring Dom's and Donnie's futile attempts to bring it down.
At first, the robot fired its deadly lasers at Louie, which Louie dodged by flipping backwards several times, before he landed back on his feet a short distance from the robot.
"Okay, Mr. Mouser! No more Mr. Nice-guy!" Louie shouted as he quickly switched one of his Butterfly Swords to one of his Manriki-Gusari, and spinning it wildly above his head with one hand, the turtle in black charged towards the Mouser.
Once getting close enough, Louie swung his Manriki-Gusari towards the Mouser and managed to whack the robot-monster to the head for a couple-three times with the weight in the end of the chain, though even that didn't cause much damage on the robot, save for the couple of dents with the size of the baseball ball. On the fourth attempt to whack the robot again, the giant robotic monster stretched out one of its arms with its serrated jaws open and locked them around of the chain. And after that, the Mouser revealed to Louie that it had a secret weapon hidden inside of its hand's jaws: A hidden head-sized electric tasers with which the Mouser sent an electric shock into Louie via the chain of his weapon.(1)
"ARGH! AHHHH! AGHHHH!" Louie cried in pain as he felt a quite forceful stinging surging through his body from a quite painful electric shock from the Mouser's hidden tasers - depending on how many of them was hidden inside of the Mouser's hand and that how many volts of electricity each taser had.
Both Dom and Donnie backed away from the Mouser, with their eyes widen from shock at seeing their brother getting electrocuted.
"LOUIE!" they both cried!
While still holding Louie's Manriki-Gusari's chain in its arms' jaws, the robot then straightened up and pulled its hands high in the air, yanking from the electric shok dazed Louie violently off the ground and sent him flying into the air.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Louie screamed as he flew across the air, until the turtle in black crashed through of the nearby catwalks' protective glass dome with his shell-back ahead, landing quite roughly onto the catwalk afterwards.
The Mouser then turned its attention to Donnie and Dom as they charged at the Mouser together.
However, as the turtle-brothers leaped in the air to attack the Mouser, the robot suddenly bent its legs and went into a sitting-like position .
The Mouser then spread its arms wide and straightened them in both directions, before its upper body began surprisingly spin around, and so did its straightened arms, which rotated wildly around of the robot like the windmill's wings and their rotating pace kept increasing slowly but certainly to the high speed.
Donnie and Dom unfortunately ended up in the way of the Mouser's rotating arms and both turtles were brutally whacked off the air and sent flying across the hall like a pair of baseball balls sent into flying by a batsman with his bat.
Elsewhere, two other Mousers were chasing Raph, firing their laser beams after the turtle in red as the ninja ran across the hall to avoid getting shot by the laser beams.
Leo noticed Raph being in peril, but was unable to help him due to being still pinned down by the giant Mouser's unceasing rounds of the killer-laser beams and rapidly repeating punches from its Mouser-head hands. Not to mention about its hands' serrated jaws and buzz saws inside of them keeping tearing apart the column to the point that they had nearly managed to tear it off the ground... thus very soon leaving Leo without the cover.
When one of its hands flew past him after missing the column and punching the wall behind it instead, leaving a deep dent into it, in the mixture of the desperation, instincts and his urging need to help his brothers and sisters, Leo swung his Katana down onto the robot's arm and cut it off, hoping that this would at least buy some time to get out of here and rush to his family's aid. However, that didn't stop the Mouser from resuming its attack on his hideout. Even with one arm less, the robot still managed to keep Leo pinned down.
"SHIT!" Leo cursed while pressing himself against the column again.
Suddenly, several arrows flew down from the catwalk above and hit the Mouser to the head at each round. Of course the arrows didn't cause much of the damage save for small scratches and tiny finger tip-sized dents, but they at least turned the Mouser's attention away from Leo to someone on the catwalk.
Daring to peek out from behind of the column, Leo looked up to the catwalk to see who had turned the Mouser's attention away from him.
He saw Arcee: The turtle in pink had climbed onto the catwalk during the fight and broke through of the glass dome right above of the column behind of which Leo was covering from the giant Mouser. Arcee had also witnessed Raph being in trouble and Leo being unable to help him due to his own robotic opponent having him pinned down, so the turtle in pink had decided to give her blue brother a little assist.
"Go, Leo! I take this from here!" Arcee shouted as she swiftly put the arrow after another into her Yumi bow's string before shooting them one by one at the Mouser.
With Mouser and its weapons going after Arcee, Leo was finally able to jump out from behind of the column and rush to his family's aid.
First, with his Katanas in hands, Leo headed with hurry to where Raph was about to get cornered by the same two Mousers that had been chasing him across the hall, and prepared to kill him with their lasers.
"RAPH! HEADS UP!" Leo let out as the fearless leader jumped between his brother and the Mousers, lifting his Katanas up into X as one of the Mousers fired it's laser beams at the turtles, hitting the flat sides of Leo's Katanas. However, the turtle in blue's blades managed to deflect the deadly laser beams back, sending them towards other Mouser right at the moment when it opened its head's lid to reveal the full load of missiles and prepared to fire them at the turtles.
The Mouser's head exploded shortly after the beams hit the missiles, thus taking this Mouser out for good.
However, the first Mouser let out the high-pitched roar at Leo and Raph and prepared to attack them again.
"OUT OF MY WAY, GUYS!" Raph and Leo suddenly heard Dom's voice shouting at them from behind them.
Both turtles turned around to see the turtle in white flipping backwards, alternately onto his hands and then onto his legs, as he attempted to get away from the chasing Mouser, which was right on his heels and fired at him its deadly laser beams. Both turtles in red and white were forced to move out of their brother's way to avoid his pursuer's lethal laser beams as they ran past them.
Both turtles looked with wide eyes as they saw that Dom was going straight towards of their Mouser's incoming rain of missiles.
"DOM! LOOK OUT!" Leo cried in attempt to warn Dom about the peril he was heading into.
But Dom didn't hear his brother's warnings in his hurry. He just kept flipping backwards to get away from the Mouser. However, the robot suddenly stopped in tracks, ceasing its pursue on the turtle in white, and instead prepared to shoot its hands towards Dom to grab him into a deadly grasp between of their jaws.
Without even noticing this, Dom flipped onto the top of the Mouser's head's opened lid and kept going along its back all the way to its "tail" before he jumped completely off the robot's back.
However, Dom's landing onto the Mouser's head also caused the robot to lift its head slightly up right at the moment as it fired its missiles out from its mouth. And at the same time as the robot fired its
And at the same time, the other Mouser that pursued Dom shot its hands, with their jaws open, towards both the giant Mouser and the turtles in blue and red, who were still standing in between of two robots.
"RAPH! GET DOWN!" Leo shouted as both turtles threw themselves to the ground to avoid the Mousers' arms and missiles as they flew over them.
The Mouser that pursued Dom was instantly blown into pieces by the missiles, while its hands' jaws closed around of the missile-firing Mouser's head and its left "shoulder". The electric tasers inside of the robot's arms gave to the Mouser doubled dose of the electric shock, which caused its circuits to blow up, thus shutting it down. And as the electric shock died down, a smoky and sparking piece of scrapped metal and machinery toppled over to the ground, with the other Mouser's hands still latched on it.
Meanwhile, Arcee was still firing her arrows down at the giant Mouser from the catwalk, until she had only few of them left.
The Mouser them opened its head's lid and fired three missiles towards Arcee, forcing the turtle in pink to jump off the catwalk immediately before the missiles both hit the catwalk, right above of the severely damaged column. The ensuing explosion tore much of the catwalk off, and causing the column to be separated from the rest of the catwalk.
As Arcee landed to the ground in front of the damaged column, the Mouser then shot one of its arms towards her in attempt to capture her between of its jaws. Arcee, however, managed to avoid Mouser's incoming hand's jaws and the ensuing electric shock by jumping out of its way. Missing the turtle in pink, the Mouser's hand's jaws ended up to lock around of the damaged part of the column before being pulled back, and thus tearing a large chunk off the column at the same time.
Due to the ensuing damage, the weight of the detached top part of the column was too much for it to bear, and it soon began to tilt forward. Before long, the column eventually snapped off from the damaged part and fell directly onto the giant Mouser, crushing it totally under of the falling column's weight.
Meanwhile, on the catwalk's floor, Louie was slowly recovering from the earlier electric shock and the air flight through the catwalk's glass dome.
"Agh!" the turtle in black groaned slightly from the pain he was feeling from both the impact and from the several small but bleeding cuts in his arms, legs, cheeks and topside of its chest.
"Ow, why that was so easy for Benjamin Franklin?" Louie muttered as he slowly got up from the catwalk's floor. (1)
Suddenly, the Mouser that had hurled him onto this catwalk then jumped onto the the catwalk, smashing through the glass dome as it landed right in front of the turtle in black.
Louie quickly jumped onto his feet and prepared to defend himself against the robotic beast. However, he quickly noticed that the most of his Manriki-Gusari's chain as well as its weight were gone. It probably snapped off in the Mouser's arm's jaws when it hurled him up here, leaving only a arm-length portion of it left.
Louie had also dropped both his Butterfly Swords that were now lying on the hall's floor, too far away from his reach.
So the only weapon he had now in hands was his another intact Manriki-Gusari.
The robot then proceeded by performing the same trick it had performed on Dom and Donnie earlier: it spread its arms wide and straight to the sides and began to spin its upper body and arms wildly around again. The giant Mouser's spinning hands smashed more of the catwalk's glass dome, sending shards of glass flying everywhere, and tore the gap to the catwalk's floor between of the turtle and robot. Louie had to cover his face with his arms to protect them from the flying shards of glass. And when the turtle in black dared to peek to look at the robot, he saw that the robot had opened the lid of its head, aiming its fresh load of missiles at Louie.
"Shit!" Louie cursed and threw himself to the floor as the robot fired its missiles which, however, flew over the turtle and hit to the catwalk behind him. The explosion blew a large portion of the catwalk away and trapped Louie to the remains of the catwalk that luckily was right on top of the column beneath.
The Mouser then stood tall and lifted its arms up as well, preparing to smash them down on Louie to crush him.
"GUYS! A LITTLE HELP HERE!" Michelangelo's rather desperate voice cried for help.
Mikey's cry caught Louie's attention, and the turtle in black turned to Mikey's direction to see what was going on. Louie eyes went wide as he saw that his brother was still surrounded and pinned down by three giant Mousers, that were all firing their laser beams at him. Mikey kept performing mixed Hip Hop and Ninjutsu movements to dodge the laser beams as best as he could, but who knows how long Mikey will be able to continue this before obvious exhaustion makes him to make a one single erroneous move and gets shot - maybe even killed if the shot hits right home - by the deadly beams.
Quickly forming the plan to help his brother, Louie grabbed his remaining Manriki-Gusari from his belt and jumped off the catwalk, just as the giant Mouser pulled its jawed hands hard down to the spot where the turtle in black had stood a moment ago, crushing the spot.
"COME TO GET ME, YOU PIECE OF TIN!" Louie dared the Mouser, as he tossed his weapon's chain at one of the mechanical clawed cranes hanging from the the ceiling of the hall and managed to wrap the chain loosely around of it twice. And once that was done, Louie swung by the chain across the air of the hall like Tarzan as he headed towards Mikey and the three Mousers.
And the Mouser on the catwalk immediately jumped off the catwalk and after Louie.
As Louie's weapon's chain eventually slipped off from around the crane, the turtle in black abandoned the chain and began to fall down and towards one of the three Mousers with the falling pace, before he landed onto the robot's back.
Then he turned back to the Mouser as it came falling down towards him.
"YOO-HOO! OVER HERE!" Louie shouted at Mouser as it raised its jawed hands up and prepared to pull them down to crush Louie again.
Louie then jumped off the Mouser's back a couple seconds before the falling Mouser landed heavily onto the same Mouser's back, crushing it under of its feet and weight. And immediately after landing, Mouser pulled its hands down and smashed the already crushed Mouser's head with them.
Donnie then pole vaulted with his staff onto the back of another Mouser as it kept firing its lasers at his family. Donnie then took his staff in both hands and whacked with it the robot to the left side of its head as hard as he could, causing the robot to turn slightly to the right and to aim its laser weaponry at the other two remaining Mousers that were still trying to kill Mikey and Louie. Couple shots from its Mouser-head hands' eyes destroyed both Mousers one by one.
"OH, RIGHT, DONNIE!" Louie let out. cheering at his brainy brother while waving his recovered Butterfly Swords in the air.
"HA HAA!" Raph laughed.
"WAY TO GO, BRO!" Dom cheered for Donnie.
"YEAH!" Leo cheered, waving his Katana in the air.
As Mary and Arcee hurriedly helped from the non-stop Hip Hopping and dodging slightly exhausted Mikey to get away from the remaining giant Mouser Donnie was riding on, the brainy turtle in purple then turned his focus to the metallic hatch that was in the backside of the robot's upper body. He opened it to reveal the robot's inner machinery.
"MARY! YOUR NAGINATA!" Donnie called, reaching out his hand towards Mary, who nodded back and pulled out her weapon from the back.
"CATCH, BRO!" Mary called back as she tossed her Naginata to Donnie, who snatched it from the air and immediately struck its blade deep into the Mouser's machinery, severely damaging it.
The damage Donnie caused the robot to malfunction which led it to go into berserk. Donnie jumped off the robot's back as it began to turn uncontrollably from side to side, wave its arms up and down or spin them wildly around, straightened up and squatted down, made a couple-three heavy jumps and even shot its jawed hands and laser beams into random directions. However, the robot's short-lived rampage ended when it eventually shorted out, which also destroyed it.
And when the last remaining Mouser was destroyed, the turtles regrouped and sprinted towards Stockman's control room.
However, Stockman activated a couple from the ceiling hanging mechanical arms with the laser cannons and started immediately fire at the turtles.
Leo, Mary, Mikey, Arcee, Donnie and Dom instantly sprinted for cover as the killer-laser beams hit near of them, but Raph and Louie continued forward and acrobatically made their way through of the rain of the laser blasts to the column right bellow of Stockman's control room... where they were out of the mad scientist's sight and aim.
Quickly coming up with a plan, Raph turned to the others who were taking cover from the laser blasts.
"Mikey! Arcee! Slingshot!" Raph called.
Mikey and Arcee nodded and jumped out from their hiding spot.
Running across the hall and through of the laser beams, the turtles in orange and pink made their way to Raph and Louie as the turtles in red and black stretched out and linked their hands together for Mikey and Arcee to jump onto them, so that they could boost them up and towards the control room, just like with the slingshot.
Mikey and Arcee jumped onto their brothers' linked hands and jumped upwards at the same moment as the turtles in red and black gave them a strong boost up that sent them into an upright flight towards the control room. Mikey reached up first and landed in front of the control room's glass window, right in front of Stockman who gasped in shock and panic at the sight of the giant turtle right behind of the glass like the boogeyman that was lurking behind of the child's room's window.
"Knock, knock!" Mikey jokingly called as the turtle in orange breached through the window with one of his Nunchucks.
Mikey then bowed down to make room for Arcee, who grabbed from Mikey's shell and somersaulted herself along her brother's shell through a broken window before shooting both her legs forward and towards Stockman, kicking him straight in the chest and knocking the mad scientist to the floor.
Mikey and Arcee then hopped onto the control room's floor, before they were joined by Mary and Leo who climbed through the hole in the glass window into the room.
"Your reign of terror is over, Stockman!" Leo declared with a deep voice as he moved his blade's tip dangerously close of Stockman's throat.
"You been practicin' that?" Mikey asked, amused of his older brother's attempt to mimic the movie's heroes after defeating the bad guys.
"You liked it?" Leo asked with the smile.
"What about this then?" Mary challenged as she walked a couple steps forward while spinning her Naginata in her right hand. Then, with the lightning swift move, Mary swung her spear in an arch from below towards stockman's chest as if with the intention to run him through, making the scientist flinch and cry out in fright. However, Mary did halt her weapon when its blade's tip was a few inches away from the mad scientist's chest.
"Your tyranny and path of madness has come to and end, Baxter Stockman! Say your prayer, villain!" the turtle in turquoise let out with the heroic-sounding deep voice, while keeping the tip of her Naginata's blade held just above of Stockman's heart, silently warning him not to make any bold move or else...
Mikey showed up his thumps at Mary to praise her, definitely liking her own movie line.
"Nice one, sister." Arcee laughed.
"Yeah. Even I liked it." Leo praised with the impressed smile.
"Thanks." Mary said, flattered.
They were soon joined by Raph, Louie, Donnie and Dom.
"I can't believe the famous engineer and scientist, Dr. Baxter Stockman, could turn out to be a bad guy!" Donnie said, sounding like the big ex-fan, who had just found out the shocking truth about his idol and thus became both depressed and filled with anger and the feeling of betrayal. "Why did you turn your impressive technology for such of evil doings, Stockman?" the turtle in purple inquired.
However, Stockman couldn't answer... he was still too shocked and bewildered of the sight of clearly eight on two legs walking and talking humanoid turtles in front of him for the first time.
"How do you know my name?! WHO OR WHAT ARE YOU?!" Stockman asked frantically.
"Let us say... the poor victims and angry protesters of your doings, and who have come to put an end to your evil." Dom said strictly.
"With an old friend of yours, Stockman." Arcee added.
"An old friend of mine? Who?" Stockman asked, confused.
With the knowing smirk, Arcee pointed her finger over Stockman to the doors of the elevator at the back of the control room. The doors then opened, revealing April on the other side of the doors.
"I bet you didn't expect of seeing me ever again. Did you?" April asked smugly as Stockman turned around.
April?! You're still alive?!" Stockman gasped in surprise.
"And kicking!" April added as she stepped into the control room.
"But... but... I sent entire battalion of Mousers after you! You can't be alive! That's impossible!" Stockman cried in confusion, while slowly crawling towards his control panels.
"As impossible as the very existence of on two legs walking and talking giant turtles, huh?!" Mary snarled, raising her Naginata's blade towards Stockman's face.
"Yeah! And she's still among the living, no thanks to you, creep! Your Mousers would have killed her if it wasn't for us!" Raph snarled, hurling his Sais one by one at Stockman, missing only an inch of his left leg and his right hand. Raph grinned with pleasure as Stockman gasped in horror at each barely missed throw.
"And that's not all of it! We know that your work is connected with the bank robberies and homicidal murders this morning. And this whole facility contains more than enough evidence to lock you up for years, Dr. Stockman." April stated. "The cops are already on they way here, so don't try anything!"
However, Stockman managed to pull himself together long enough to turn to his controls and quickly pressed one of the buttons, before Raph grabbed him by the collar of his lab coat and pinned him roughly against the panel table.
"YOU HEARD THE LADY! DON'T TRY ANYTHING, CREEP!" Raph snarled dangerously, as he placed the tip of his Sai against Stockman's throat.
However, Stockman shot at the turtle a mocking grin.
"HAH! Too late, freak!" Stockman scoffed.
Suddenly, all of them heard the loud and repeating ominous sound of alarm or something... which had started right after Stockman had pressed the button.
"What have you done, you villain?!" Dom demanded.
"Backup plan, freak. I've locked in the self-destruct program and I called all the Mousers back from their latest mission. Every Mouser in this facility and city will now follow this new program. They'll be here any second and they won't stop... until they have torn every one of you into pieces. And there will be nothing left of you than a piles of shredded flesh and bone." Stockman threatened maliciously.
"Geez! This guy seriously gives me shivers!" Arcee admitted as she felt shivers running along her skin.
"Leo! Should we just kill him?" Raph asked hopefully while still holding Stockman still.
"Just make sure that he won't try anything crazy!" Leo said. "If that what Stockman said is true, we need to do something to it and QUICK!"
Leo then turned to April. "April! What do we do?"
"I have to shut the whole system down." April said as she hurriedly took Stockman's seat and put in a stake all her concentration, scientific skills and knowledge to find a way to shut everything down.
"How are you gonna do it?" Arcee questioned.
"I was the one who helped in the Mousers' program. Maybe I can find a way to somehow cancel this self-destruct program." April explained as she tapped the buttons.
"I'll help you, April. I'm familiar with some computer system. Maybe we can come up with something together" Donnie said, offering his help as he moved to the control panels alongside April.
"You're all dead already! Do you hear that?" Stockman asked tauntingly.
The rest of the turtles peeked down and they noticed, much to their shock, that every single one "evolved" Mouser in this facility had came to life and gathering into the large horde beneath the control room. And to add the insult to injury, countless doors opened up everywhere and the vast legions of Mousers marched into the hall and towards the control room. Soon, their number reached to the point that they covered the floor in the entire facility.
"Oh, shell! Just like the army of termites coming after the one piece of edible wood. Or the army of ants after the last piece of sugar. Or..." Louie gulped as he observed their deadful situation.
"We know that all too well, Louie!" Dom snapped in irritation.
"How many actually are there?! A four thousand?" Mary asked as she looked down at the army of Mousers.
"Wrong, freak! Forty thousand individuals, actually." Stockman corrected with the mocking sneer.
"SHUT UP!" Raph threatened, pressing the tip of Sai even harder against Stockman's throat.
"Forty thousand?! You gotta be kidding me?! That's fifty times larger number than the last time!" Mary cried in shock.
Soon, the Mouser horde started to climb the ladders leading to the control room and along the columns holding the catwalks up.
"Um... April? Donnie?" Leo stuttered.
"Now's the time!" Mary said, urging April to keep hurry.
"I'm trying! But none of these controls are responding! His fail-safes include an electrical overload that burned out a lot of these circuits." April replied, slowly starting to panic.
"Ugh! This Stockman is mentally sick, but still a brilliant guy!" Donnie said in disgust and haste. "How about forming up a quick virus-program that would infect the system and shut it down?" the brainy turtle suggested.
"No! Not enough time. It would take a days to write such of virus program. And we got only minutes. In worst case, seconds." April replied frantically.
"ANY OTHER IDEAS, BRAINIAC?!" Raph demanded, turning his narrowed eyes away from Stockman and to his brother and April.
However, this turned out to be a careless mistake that Stockman noticed and quickly seized the opportunity.
Stockman head-butted Raph to his right temple, catching him by surprise and causing the turtle in red to let go of his coat and remove his Sai from his throat as the stumbled backwards from the impact.
"OUT OF MY WAY, FREAKS!" Stockman snapped, as he caught Leo by surprise by sending a kick to his right side, sending him falling over Mary and Mikey. Stockman then shoved Raph out of his way and into Louie and Dom's arms before making the break for it, running towards still open elevator.
"OH, NO YOU DON'T!" Arcee cried as she took out the arrow - her last arrow - and placed it into her Yumi's bow's string. The turtle in pink then quickly lifted her bow up and took the aim at the fleeing Stockman's back. Then Arcee pulled the string back before she then sent the arrow into flight.
Though Arcee had intended to either pin Stockman by his coat's sleeve to the wall cut his escape short or then to shoot the warning shot so that it would deliberately miss Stockman with the close all, but her aim had been made too hastily and that she had released her arrow too soon in her hurry to try to prevent Stockman from escaping, that poorly made settings did not guarantee the desired result.
And so, Arcee's arrow hit home: Stockman's left shoulder.
"AGH!" the mad scientist gasped in pain and instinctively grabbed from his wounded shoulder as he slammed with his right shoulder ahead against the wall next to the elevator. Stockman panted heavily as the waves of pain ran through of his body one after the other, all the while his white lab coat was quickly stained by the crimson blood that bled out from the wound behind of his left shoulder, where Arcee's arrow was still stuck.
However, through of pain, Stockman created a mocking grin on his face as he turned to the turtle in pink with the bow... and instantly noticed the empty quiver on her shell.
"If that was your last arrow, you just blew your chance, freak!" Stockman sneered, before the wounded scientist struggled to make his way into the elevator, where he turned around to give to the turtles the mocking farewell.
"Farewell, freaks! Have a nice play time with my pets for the last time! Oh, and Miss O'Neil? You should have never match the wits with Dr. Baxter Stockman!" Stockman boasted with the smirk as the doors of the elevator started to close, sealing his getaway.
The turtles hurriedly jumped on their feet and rushed after Stockman.
"HE'S GETTING AWAY!" Mikey shouted as he rushed after the madman - Arcee close behind - in attempt to catch him. However, Mikey and Arcee were too late as the doors of the elevator closed on them and the elevator rose upwards, heading back to the surface.
"Damned!" Arcee cursed as he bashed her fists the elevators doors in anger.
"HURRY UP! LET'S GO! WE MAY STILL CATCH HIM IF WE KEEP HURRY!" Mary shouted hurriedly and eager to go after Stockman.
"NO! Let that coward go! We got a bigger problems right now!" Raph said as he pointed at the catwalks.
The catwalks leading in and off the control room were swarming with incoming Mousers.
"EVERYBODY! FORM THE PROTECTIVE CIRCLE AROUND APRIL AND DONNIE... AND BE READY FOR EVERYTHING!" Leo ordered.
The turtles quickly retreated back into the control room and, with their weapons in hands, formed the protective circle around of Donnie and April as the two still worked with the controls. Leo and Mary were guarding the right flank, Raph and Louie took over the frontal, Mikey and Dom took over the left flank and the side of the ladders while Arcee served as Donnie's and April's last defense if the defensive circle was broken through.
With their foreheads covered by the sweat and their breathing tensed, Donnie and April kept working with the shutdown of the system.
Donnie then came up with something. "Wait for a minute! April? Stockman mentioned in the press conference about Mousers' functions being controlled by a wireless connection to the remote mother computer, but how these Mousers are really controlled... by radio?"
"Yes. The mother computer's instructions are beamed to each individual's radio receiver." April confirmed.
"Can you shut down the power? That would stop transmitter from broadcasting the mother computer's orders to the Mousers." Donnie inquired.
"Of course! The transmitter is the part of this system. I will try!" April told him with a new hope and started to check it out.
Meanwhile, the large number of Mousers were starting to fill overly and eventually even forcefully squeeze themselves into the control room, pushing and cornering April and turtles against the control panels and blocking with their numbers every possible way to escape from here. The horde of killer robots was coming so close that they eventually forced the turtles to squeeze against each other, shoulder to shoulder, to avoid their deadly jaws, while leaving them with far too little room to move.
"We cannot fight them all! There's too many of them and such of small cramped space is not perfect place to make our last stand!" Mary informed.
"Now I know how pigs feel being in a cramped overcrowded pens before the slaughter!" Louie stated when he found it hard to move while being squeezed between of Raph and Mikey.
"Way to lift the mood, bro!" Dom said sarcastically. "Though instead of the pigs, it's turtles waiting for that slaughter!"
"I hope that you guys come up with something and fast, otherwise we're gonna die fighting!" Raph urged, though ready to fight to the death if have to.
"Actually, I do not want to die at all!" Mikey squeaked in protest.
The situation didn't look good in the control tables.
"Oh no! This program is set to shut the power off starting with least essential systems!" April informed frantically.
"You mean...?" Donnie asked."
"Yes! The Mousers' radio transmitter will be the last to shut them down. We do not have that much time!" April explained, in the very edge of panic when she started to feel that they had already ran out the ideas and time.
"Don't panic, April! Take a deep breath and try again! If there's something else - anything - you can do, THEN DO IT!" Donnie urged, trying his hardest to keep his own cool.
However, Raph was now certain that they were already doomed.
"This is it! It's been fun with you, guys." Raph said, as his way to say farewell.
"Even with me, Bro?" Mikey asked, hoping that Raph meant him as well.
"You too, Mikey... especially you." Raph said with the brotherly grin.
"You know guys, I never believed were gonna die like this." Arcee gulped. "Anyway, it's been nice to know you all."
The Mousers were now within range of the turtle's hand.
That's it then. It was time to make the last stand.
"TURTLES! PREPARE TO DIE WITH HONOR!" Leo declared.
As the first Mousers in the frontal line of the horde were closer enough to the turtles legs and reached out their Mouser-headed arms' jaws to have a good, forceful and rather painful grip from the turtles ankles, the turtles raised their weapons over their heads.
"HAI...!" the turtles let out in unison as they prepared to bring their weapons down to destroy the first individuals.
Until suddenly...
ZURROOUUNNNN! ZURROOUUNNNN! ZURROOUUNNNN! ZURROOUUNNNN!
Much to the turtles surprise and confuse, the Mousers suddenly stopped in their tracks, which was followed by a loud "ZURROOUUNNNN!" noise coming out from each and every individual in the control room and facility.
And then, there was a deep silence in the room.
With the puzzled looks on their faces, the turtles looked around, still holding their weapons up and ready while trying to figure out that what just happened.
"What happened?" Mary eventually asked, breaking the silence after five minutes while staring at the Mousers in confusion.
"Are they shut?" Arcee asked as well.
Leo, out of curiosity, turned his Katana's blade upside down and tapped with its blade the head of one of the Mousers for a couple times to see does the individual react to it in any way. However, the Mouser didn't budge, meaning one thing only.
"Yep. Shut... and down." Leo declared with the smirk.
After letting out the sighs of relief, the turtles began to cheer at their narrowly gained victory over Stockman's army of Mousers.
"WHOO-HOO!" Arcee cheered.
"OH, YEAH!" Louie let out.
"ALRIGHT!" Raph cheered, waving his arms up.
"AWESOME!" Mary let out, waving her Naginata over her head.
"HIGH-THREE, BRO!" Mikey said to Leo, and the turtles in blue and orange high-threed with each other.
"Good job, April!" Donnie congratulated.
"Whoa! That was the close call." Dom said, sweeping the sweat off his head.
"Well? They're not so bad after all when being shutdown!" Raph mocked as he kicked one individual out of the control room for fun.
"Ha! Losers!" Mikey teased as he picked one of the deactivated Mousers up.
However, April pleaded the turtles to listen.
"Uh, guys? Guys? I gotta tell you... I actually wasn't able to shut them down." April confessed.
"What are you talking about? They look pretty shut down to me." Mikey said while holding the Mouser in his arms like the pet.
However, Dom noticed something happening to the Mousers which worried him.
"Wait for minute? Why their eyes started to glow red all of the sudden?" the turtle in white questioned, referring that each Mouser's eye had suddenly turned into red, before the turtle in white turned to April for answers. "What did you exactly do, April?"
Everybody turned their eyes on April, waiting for answers.
"The only way to shut down all of them was by initiating their overload sequence." April explained.
This was proven correct when each Mouser in entire facility started to ominously "Beep! Beep!" repeatedly and the smoke started to come out from their jaws.
Mikey immediately realized what April was meaning and instantly dropped the smoking Mouser to the floor.
"In other words..." Mikey said nervously before groaning. "Ohh! Please, don't tell me that were in middle of something-I-don't-want-to-know." the turtle in orange added.
"That we're standing in middle of the ticking mega time bomb?!" Louie finished for Mikey.
"Hey! What did I just say, Louie?! I said...! Ugh! You know what? Never mind." Mikey groaned, before yelling frantically. "LET'S JUST GET THE SHELL OUT OF HERE!"
"EVERYBODY! RUN! BACK TO THE CORRIDOR!" Leo ordered.
The turtles then jumped through of the breach of the glass window and down to the floor of the facility, with Donnie carrying April in bridal style in his arms as he jumped the turtles and April hurried out of the facility and into the corridor.
During of their getaway, the Mousers' beeping started to repeat even faster and the smoking increased, hinting that the overloading started to reach to the very critical level.
The turtles and April ran down the corridor as fast as they could while searching for the air vent in order to escape from the building through the conditioning duct.
And right at the moment when they actually found one...
KA-BOOOOM!
A deep and thunderous sound ran through of the whole building as the ticking mega time bomb' left in the Mouser-facility was detonated.
The turtles and April came to a halt as the corridor began suddenly to shake violently due to the enormous power of the explosion, making it look like a corridor, as well as the whole building was caught in the grip of a sudden earthquake. The shaking caused the turtles and April to lose their balance and all nine were thrown over to the floor of the corridor.
The shaking also caused the severe damage to the corridor, as its walls began to crack open from multiple places and the ceiling partially caved in, dropping a lot of debris onto the turtles and April (Donnie threw himself over April to protect the girl from the falling debris with his own shell). The shaking also took out the corridor lights and darkness descended on the badly damaged corridor in seconds.
As soon as the explosion began to subside, the corridor ceased shaking. And as it did, the turtles and April began to dig themselves out from under of the fallen debris. Everybody was moaning and groaning, but with the exception of a few bruises, no one was fortunately seriously injured.
"Everybody okay?" Leo called.
Everyone shouted "I'm good!" one by one, letting their older brother know they were okay. Everyone else except Louie and Dom.
"Ugh! I think I hit my head to something." Louie moaned, rubbing his head.
"You did! My head!" Dom chided, rubbing his own head.
"Should we ask Master Splinter to include to our training 'how to act when an earthquake hits'?" Mikey suggested.
However, before anyone could let out their comments to Mikey's suggestion while recovering from the rubble, the corridor was slowly starting to get illuminated enough for the turtles to see beyond of the beaks of their noses. However, that light did not come from the corridor lights as they were all out.
"What's happening? Where does that light come from?" Dom asked worriedly.
"Looks like the explosion caused the fire to get on the loose." Raph stated, pointing to the direction they'd just came from.
Following Raph's pointed finger, the others saw that the wall on the opposite side of the corner began to reflect a fiery light that kept increasing even brighter... as if there was indeed fire on the loose somewhere around the corner.
However, to add the insult to injury, the turtles and April noticed that the air of the corridor was filled with an odd yet strong smell.
"Hey? Do you smell that too?" Arcee asked as she felt that tingling smell in his nostrils.
"And why does it smell like burnt?" Louie added, feeling the odd burning sensation in his nostrils as he sniffed in the air.
"Please, don't tell me what it is, because I don't even want to know." Mikey pleaded nervously.
Donnie took a couple sniffs of the air, until the look of horror fell on his face!
"It's the gas!" Donnie gasped upon realization. "The battle with Stockman's big Mousers must have caused a serious gas leak somewhere in the Mouser-facility, and it has already spread to these corridors and rooms!"
The other turtles and April gasped at these news.
"And the detonation of Stockman's Mouser army must have ignited the released gas and cause a gas explosion right after the first one." April added worriedly.
"And now the fire follows the gas streams everywhere the gas has already reached! Including this corridor!" Donnie finished with the dread in his voice.
"AGH!" Arcee screamed. "And we are right on its line of fire!"
"Aaaaagghh! Why does everybody have to always say something what I do not even want to hear!" Mikey whined loudly, waving his hands in the air in frustration.
Raph was, like always, first to shut Mikey up with the slap to the back of his head.
"OW! Hey!" Mikey whined in annoyance, rubbing the back of his head.
"We've got now bigger worries than to listen your whines, Mikey!" Raph chided irritably.
Both of them were then slapped to the backs of their heads by Dom.
"OW!" They both yelped, before shooting daggers at their brother.
"And we have no time for your childishness, bros!" Dom chided. "We have to get out of here and quickly, before the fire reaches us AND WE END UP AS BAKED TURTLES!
"DOM IS RIGHT! EVERYBODY INTO CONDITIONING DUCT! HURRY!" Leo ordered.
With that, Raph hurriedly grabbed to the air vent with both hands and, driven by their perilous situation and haste, tore the vent off the wall.
As the fiery glow reflecting from the wall opposite side of the corner grew even brighter and the gas-filled air began to heat up even hotter, indicating that the time was quickly running out, the turtles hurriedly helped April to go first into the conditioning duct before the turtles followed her into the duct one by one.
Luckily for the turtles and April, unlike their earlier trip through the duct when they broke into the building, this duct leading from the ground floor of the building to the sewer tunnel wasn't as long. So by moving fast, the turtles managed to create a sufficiently long distance between them and the air vent of the corridor.
But they weren't safe yet, as the smell of the gas was still strong, even here in the air duct, meaning that the air duct was too in danger to be engulfed by the flames.
They almost made it back to the sewers, when the gas in the corridor was ignited and and the wall of fire swept through the corridor, burning everything in its path. And as it passed the open air vent, the fire followed the gas stream into the air duct.
"MOVE! IT'S RIGHT ON OUR HEELS!" Donnie urged, feeling from behind fast approaching heat wave on his neck.
Not needing to be told twice, the turtles and April picked up the pace.
Finally, the heroes managed to reach to the very same sewer tunnel from where they had broke into the Stocktronics, but the smell of the gas felt strong even here, meaning that the gas has already reached into the sewer tunnels beneath the building.
After they all came out of the duct through the hole, they saw the same fiery glow reflecting brightly from the sides of the inside of the duct. The fire was very close and reaching them, and they did not have time to get behind the corner of the side tunnel for cover.
And with no other opinion left...
"EVERYBODY! DIVE INTO THE WATER!" Leo exclaimed.
A few seconds before the gas-filled air duct exploded into flames, the turtles and April took a deep yet quick breath and and dived one by one into the sewer (that was deep enough for them to dive below the surface). Leo, Donnie and April were the first ones to dive in. Then Mary, Dom and Arcee dived in. Mikey, Raph and Louie were the last ones dive. The turtles in orange, red and black disappeared underwater just before the gas exploded and the fire swept through the tunnel.
Holding their breath, the turtles and April remained underwater, waiting until the gas had completely burned out.
It took roughly over five to ten minutes before the gas explosion finally subsided and the flames went out, allowing the turtles and April to finally surface to gasp for breath. The tunnel's air, however, was still quite hot after the gas explosion and the hot air burned their lungs slightly, making them cough a little.
After resurfacing and wiping the water off their eyes, the turtles and April saw what kind of damage that pretty big fiery explosion had done to this tunnel
After surfacing and wiping the water off their eyes, the turtles and April took a look around to see what kind of damage the fire explosion had left to the tunnel: The tunnel itself had not suffered much damage - save for the burnt and blackened bricks on the tunnel's walls and ceiling - but the fire explosion had tore the duct leading into the building off the wall, and it was lying at the foot of the wall scorched and from a few places slightly melted from the heat.
"Whoa! That was a close call... again." Louie commented as the turtle in black hopped out of the water onto the sidewalk, followed by others.
"Yeah, bro."Mikey agreed with the smirk. "Now that's what I'll call the 'MOTHER OF ALL THE EXPLOSIONS!'." the orange turtle cheered loudly and raised his fist high in the air, before he punched the water surface with it.
"Seriously, Mikey?! You think it was fun that we almost ended up to become a baked turtles?!" Dom exclaimed in annoyance while helping Donnie to get soaking wet April out of the water and onto the sidewalk. "You should instead cheer for the fact that we managed to get out of there alive just in time."
"Oh, yeah! That too!" the turtle in orange added sheepishly as he hopped onto the sidewalk.
"Well, at least we were lucky to avoid that kind of fate." Mary stated, as the turtle in turquoise climbed out of the water to the sidewalk and turned around to help Arcee out of the water.
"But how many others were not spared from it?" Arcee asked softly, as she lifted her head up to the ceiling of the tunnel and wondering what kind of consequences their handwork had left behind, beside the damage caused by both the explosions inside the building.
While they did manage to save New York from the terror of Stockman and his Mousers, it had presumably and unfortunately demanded a price for it. A large number of security personnel and other workers working under Stockman's pay may have died in the Mouser-facility's explosion, and probably even more people had died in the following devastation. They either died in the collapsing rooms and corridors during of the building's violent shaking or burned alive when the leaked gas caught fire as a result of the detonation of the Mouser army and the ensuing fire engulfed everything and everyone from a large area.
Anguished, Arcee let out the mournful sigh. Her eyes started to get wet from tears and a saddened and guilty expression began to slowly form on her face. She didn't know about the others but at least she felt her own conscience knocking in the back of her head, especially now when they - including her - had just gotten on their shoulders a heavy burden of possibly large amount of loss of lives. The turtle in pink felt ashamed of herself and guilty for the deaths of all those poor people who were working under Stockman, and who possibly weren't even aware of their employer's true colors, making her feel even worse.
Arcee tried to fight back her tears the best she could. But when Leo, who had notticed his sister's anguished look, came from behind next to his little sister and put his hand on her left shoulder to comfort her. Her big brother's comforting touch caused her to lose to her tears. Arcee then lowered her head down and closed her eyes tightly, letting a few tears escape between her eyelids and run down her cheeks till they fell off from her chin. That's when Arcee officially started crying.
"It's okay, Arcee. Come here." Leo said with the gentle and comforting voice, prompting the turtle in pink to turn around and cry into her big brother's shoulder.
"What have we done, Leo?" Arcee asked with the broken voice from her big brother, as the guilt was eating her up inside. "All those people. They're dead. They're dead... because of us."
"I share your feelings of this, Arcee. I do feel the same about the consequences of our attempts to bring down Stockman. We all do." Leo said sympathetically, looking quickly at everyone around him, who looked at their little sister sympathetically and nodded to Leo in agreement of what they felt about this. Even Raph did, though he did hid it well.
"But we did what we had to do to stop him. There's nothing what we could have done for them... and there's nothing what we can do for them right now. But at least all those who survived are now in the hands of the authorities." Leo assured.
"Yeah, sis. They're in the good hands once the police and fire department get here." Louie told her.
"Besides, all those who died, their deaths are technically not entirely our fault but Stockman's." Donnie said encouragingly. "He was the one who triggered that self-destruct program in the first place and we were forced to resort to the last option or otherwise there would have been no end to his Mousers' rampage."
Mikey then put his hands on Arcee's shoulders. "Yeah, sis. So our side of the scale weighs less than what Stockman does. But we at least have no qualms in admitting our own mistakes, and... Ow! Ow! Owowowowowowowowowow!" Mikey yelped, as Raph pulled on the turtle in orange's mask's tails.
"You're not helping, Mikey!" Raph chided.
"And just for you to know, Arcee, I'm sorry for my own part in it." April cut in, sharing Arcee's feel of guilty. "If there had been another way to stop them, I would have used it without hesitation. But they were all just out of the reach, so that what I did was unfortunately the only way how I could've stopped them."
"But nobody blames you for that, April." Dom assured as the turtle in white put his hand onto April's shoulder to comfort her. "At least we don't. You did what you had to do and that's that."
"Yeah. We all did what we had to do. And we did the best we could to end this." Mary added.
"So it's all on Stockman and not on us." Leo said as he turned back to his still sobbing sister. "At least I want you to think about it in that way, little sister. It's not easy to think it that way, but you just have to try so it does not remain on your shoulders. Can you at least try that, Arcee?" the turtle in blue asked gently.
Arcee, while trying her best to put herself together, forced herself to lift her head up to look at Leo in the eyes. Leo gave his little sister an assuring smile with the encouraging nod. Arcee then went through everything in her mind what her family had told her. The turtle in pink pondered their words for a moment, before she then nodded to them. Still sad but slightly relieved too.
"Okay. I'll dry." she whispered, wiping the tears off her eyes.
Leo patted Arcee's shoulder gently a couple of times, giving her a fraternal and warm smile before he turned around.
"Now, c'mon everybody. We better to get out of here before the whole area is swarming with the authorities to take the manner of situation into their own hands." the turtle in blue said and, gently leading Arcee away, began to make his way down to the tunnel.
Following Leo and Arcee, the rest of the turtles and April then headed towards the lair, leaving Stockman's ruined Stocktronics-building behind.
15-20 MINUTES EARLIER
After making his way up to the ground-level floors of his building, Stockman, with Arcee's arrow still stuck in his left shoulder, quickly searched for the nearest back door and stepped out through it into the streets. After slamming the door shut, Stockman collapsed against it with his right shoulder in pain.
"Agh!" he gasped in pain, gritting his teeth as he clutched to his wounded shoulder. "Curse on that archer freak! Ngh!"
Although the pain in his shoulder had not yet eased, Stockman forced himself back upright, before he then turned around and made the break for it towards the nearby alleys.
"But ..." he added, laughing smugly to himself despite the pain. "By morning, there will be nothing left of those fools but a pile of mutilated corpses! meaning, I've won!"
Stockman let out the mad laugh of triumph. "He he he he he he ha ha ha ha ha haa! How foolish for them to think that they could have stopped the famous Dr. Baxter Sto-!"
Stockman's triumphant boasting was cut short when he suddenly bumped into a large and hulking figure, which caused him to fall over to the ground.
"AGH!" Stockman winched as he fell right onto his wounded shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Stockman rose to a sitting position and clutched to his wounded shoulder again, before he opened his eyes and looked up to see to what or who he had just bumped into.
Stockman, however, wasn't surprised but rather annoyed of seeing who was standing before him.
"Oh, you two!" the mad scientist snarled.
There was two figures standing in front of him. One was, as said before, large and hulking and he wore a black pants, sleeveless shirt and shoes. He had a blonde hair, which he had tied into a long ponytail behind of his head. He had a very muscular arms and big hands with a thick fingers, with which he looked like capable to crush the skull with ease. He also had the Purple Dragons' tattoo that reached from the back of his right hand to his right shoulder. He also had in his right arm the tattoo of the trident-shaped symbol of the ninjas the turtles had met about week ago.(2)
Next to him was standing shorter figure, a ninja, that was slender by build and had characteristic features of a woman. She had a black ninja suit with V-neckline with the collar but no sleeves and she had armored vest on top of her black suit. Her exposed arms were wrapped with the black bandages and wore the wrist guards and she had the same golden ninja symbol on her chest. She had X-shaped scabbards tied in her back, in which she was carrying two long Katanas with blood-red-toned two-handed handles, which were wrapped with the black bindings, with two long black straps, in which was branded the line of the red ninja symbols on both sides, hanging from the tips of the Katanas handles. She also had two two smaller scabbards tied on the sides of her waist, in which she was keeping the pair of Tanto-swords.
The female ninja wasn't wearing her mask on her face this time, revealing her face. She was a beautiful woman with the amber eyes and black chin-length shiny hair, which covered much of her face from the left side.(3) Her face were narrow, smooth and stoic, yet they were hardened into a deep frown as her murderous and ice-cold glare landed on Stockman.
"What do you want, Jennika?(4) And why did you brought that muscle-brained overgrown ape with you?" Stockman snarled.
The large muscular man growled after being insulted by Stockman, before Jennika went down to business.
"Dr. Stockman. We're here..." Jennika began with the icy voice, until she saw the arrow stuck in Stockman's shoulder, much to her bewilderment. "Is that... an arrow... stuck in your shoulder?"
"Yes! Of course it is!" Stockman spat, as if the question was rhetorical... which in fact was. "Even the most insignificant and imbecilic person like you must see it!"
Narrowing her eyes while glaring dangerously at the mad scientist for his insult, Jennika began to slowly walk around Stockman like the beast circling its prey and waiting to strike. Even though Stockman glared venomously back, Jennika's presence - with the large and muscular man backing her up - caused the scientist to shed several drops of sweat out of nervousness.
"I can see it, alright..." Jennika snarled as she moved behind of Stockman's left shoulder, before she reached out and wrapped her left hand's fingers around the arrow.
"Now I DON'T!" she added before she suddenly yanked the arrow out of Stockman's shoulder, not too gently though.
"AHHH!" Stockman gasped as the wave of pain rushed through of his body, making him to fall onto his knees and clutch his wounded shoulder even harder. "Bitch!" the scientist snarled through of gritted teeth.
Eyeing the bloody arrow in her hand almost curiously, Jennika moved back to her place in front of the muscular man. "Now, back to business. Me and my bodyguard here came to see if there was any trouble."
"Trouble? Oh, no, my dear Jennika. Everything is proceeding exactly as I planned." Stockman lied assuringly as he stood up, still clutching to his shoulder.
"Is that so?" Jennika said sarcastically. "Then why do we find you out here? Outside of your lab? Running like mad? With the arrow stuck in your shoulder?"
"Well... uh..." Stockman murmured, trying to find his words. Until Jennika continued.
"We happened to detect a security breach in Strocktronics less than an hour ago. And you failed to answer to the call and report about it."
"I did?" Stockman asked, bewildered, before he pulled himself together so that he could explain himself. "Well, see here now dear, I was a little busy with something I had to take care of."
"Does it include this arrow?" Jennika questioned, showing Stockman the arrow in her hand. "Because this couldn't end up on your shoulder by itself. I take it you were attacked in your lair, huh?"
"Now right about that..." Stockman began...
KA-BOOOOM!
The scientist was suddenly cut off by the sudden thunderous sound from underground that shook both the ground beneath their feet and the building next to shaking caused both Stockman and Jennika to wobble around, trying to maintain their balance, unlike the big muscular man who stood still, despite the shaking.
Soon after, there were fire explosions. The windows of the rooms from at least two floors above them exploded into flames, forcing both Stockman and Jennika to protect their heads from flaming debris and shards of glass with their hands. The door that Stockman had come out of, was forcibly torn off its hinges by the fiery explosion that bursted its way through. The flames of the explosion also forced their way up the sewers through the manhole covers and threw them out of place.
Stockman looked at the events around him in horror... and in panic, because now he could not longer explain this simply. As he turned back to Jennika, he saw that she was staring at him coldly.
"I knew it." she said icily, breaking the arrow shaft with her hand. Jennika then quickly looked around to see if there was any witnesses. And when there wasn't any, she turned back to her bodyguard. "Hun! Grab on this piece of shit and follow me. He has a lot to explain about this... to a master!"
As Jennika turned around and walked away, the large muscular man, named Hun, then grabbed Stockman by the collar and pulled him bodily off the ground, not caring a bit if his rough handling made Stockman to grit his teeth in pain from his left shoulder.
Hun then pulled Stockman closer of his face. "Now... why don't you make like a good little boy and come with us willingly, or this ' muscle-brained ape' may get a little too rough-handed with your well-being!" he sneered with the sadistic smirk.
Stockman then tried to break free from Hun's grip but without avail, as Hun was too strong for him.
"Let me go, you brainless muscle-bound idiot! Let me go! I said... Let...me...go!" he demanded furiously, but Hun, caring not about Stockman's insults or struggled to get free, turned around and followed Jennika to the dark alley, carrying the mad scientist off like the rag doll.
###
Next morning after having the well-deserved rest for the remainder of the last night, the turtles, April and Splinter had all gathered to the lair's entertainment zone to watch the morning's news about the last night's events and to celebrate their first big victory with tea in Japanese cups and the plate full of biscuits.
Now-ruined Stocktronics was showed in every TV screens, surrounded by a large amount of fire trucks, ambulances and police cars. While the police kept the civilians and news reporters out of the way, dozens of firefighters were extinguishing several fires while some of them helped surviving but injured workers out of the building. The hospital people placed the survivors on a numerous stretchers before loading them into the ambulances, so that they could be taken to the hospital for treatment.
"The authorities are completely perplexed by the destruction of the Stocktronics building and the sudden disappearance of Dr. Baxter Stockman, who has been declared wanted on suspicion of numerous bank robberies, based on information obtained from an unknown call last night and evidence found inside of a burned building this morning." A female news reporter said in TV.
"Well, Stockman got away this time, but at least we saved the remaining banks of New York from that madman." Louie stated.
"And thanks to our now luck-kicking turtle-luck, we do not need to hear anything about those Mousers ever again." Raph stated.
Everybody agreed with the turtle in the red with the "Yeah!" cheer.
"As much as I love machines and technology, those Mousers really gave me some creeps!" Donnie admitted.
After hearing this, a mischievous smile formed on Louie's lips before the turtle in black moved hus hand behind of his shell-back.
"Is that so, brother?" the black turtle asked slyly as he pulled out the slightly battered Mouser's head - which he had taken from one individual at the Mouser facility just before the explosion. The black turtle put Mouser's head in his hand like a glove puppet and moved it closer to Donnie's head from behind.
"Hmmm, nerdy turtle. Yummy, yummy, yummy!" Louie said with the lowered high-pitched voice while making with his fingers the Mouser's head's jaws to snap loudly at every 'yummy' word. Three loud metallic snaps of the Mouser's jaws uncomfortably close of Donnie's right cheek was enough to make Donnie jump in surprise.
"AGH!" the brainy turtle in purple squealed in fright, while Louie and the other turtles - except Dom, who just shook his head - and April laughed amused by this mischievous prank.
"Real mature, Louie!" Donnie said, unamused by Louie's prank. "Where did you even get that thing anyway?" he added, referring at the Mouser head in Louie's hand.
"I just decided to take it as a small trophy and souvenir from Stockman's lab before his robo-army blew to kingdom come. Besides, it shall serve as a first item for my new special collection after I lost my first one back in our old lair." Louie explained with the shrug.
"Whatever." Donnie replied with the irritated eye-roll.
The mention of Stockman made Arcee, who was now in a better mood after a good night's rest, to ask something out of curiosity. "Do you guys think our paths will cross with Stockman's again in the near future? I'm just curious because he kinda managed to get away."
It was, in fact, an issue that each turtle pondered about.
"Good question, sister." Donnie responded with the finger under of his chin.
"Oh, we'll meet him again, sister, but not for a long time, I hope." Dom said assuringly.
"And when we do, he's not gonna get away that easily. Mark my word." Raph blared, punching his palm with his fist.
Master Splinter then turned to April to ask her something. "What are you going to do now, Miss O'Neil. You're now most definitely out of a job."
April instantly went silent as she hesitated with the words. In fact, after losing her job in Stocktronics, April didn't know what to do next.
"Well, I'm... I'm not exactly sure." She admitted.
The turtles then turned to April.
"Don't worry, April. You'll find something for yourself eventually." Dom said with encouraging tone.
"Yeah. And you won't be alone." Leo assured.
"We will help you to get on your feet, April." Donnie promised.
"It's the least we can do, since it was... sort of... our fault you lost this job." Arcee reasoned, recalling how their 'interference' in Stockman's Mouser's 'field test' back in their old lair about week ago and April finding it out - which had ironically led her to finding out of Stockman's evil plans - had cost her her job and nearly her very life.
"Take that as the offer from the new best friends of yours... or should I say, from your new green brother- and sister-figures. If that's fine to you." Louie offered.
April was deeply touched by this.
"You guys. You've all been... well... really wonderful. And by "guys"... I guess I'm meaning an eight big green talking turtles." April started, before she turned to the Master Splinter. "And a giant talking rat." April added, placing her hand on his shoulder, earning a warm smile from the old rat master
The mutant ninjas were touched by April's words equally deeply as she was by theirs.
"Guys! A TOAST... TO OUR NEW HOME!" Mary declared, and held her Japanese cup filled with tea out and above of the table.
And one by one, the turtles followed the suit.
"TOAST TO OUR FIRST HUMAN ALLY, APRIL O'NEIL!" Donnie declared.
"TOAST TO OUR NEW LIFE!" Arcee declared.
"TOAST TO THE TEA AND BISCUITS!" Mikey declared.
"TOAST TO OUR VERY FIRST BIG VICTORY!" Louie declared.
"TOAST TO THE DOWNFALL OF STOCKMAN!" Raph declared.
"TOAST TO NEVER LAYING EYE ON THOSE MOUSERS AGAIN" April declared, Joining the turtles.
"TOAST TO OUR FAMILY!" Dom Declared.
"AND TOAST TO OUR NEW TEAM!" Leo declared.
Turtles and April then clinked their cups together before they lifted all together their cups up to the air.
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES AND APRIL O'NEIL FOREVER!" All cheered in unison
###
Elsewhere, in the blue skyscraper with a red ninja symbol on its side and inside of the red Japanese style palace on top of the building, Stockman, with his left shoulder patched up and his left arm hanging in the arm sling, paced around in the middle of the throne room, casually explaining the events at Stocktronics last night to Hun, Jennika, and the ominous man in a white robe sitting behind a wooden table.
"So, as any fool can see, the whole thing was simply a... uh... a minor setback." Stockman explained to the man behind the table, as he slowly reached out for the gauntlet with the pair of metal claws in it and picked it up from the table, putting it into his left hand.
"But with your continued funding, the search can continue immediately. I'll be back at work... Monday morning." Stockman added, adjusting his glasses with his right hand.
Having heard enough, the man behind the table stood up and glared Stockman with a huge frown on his face.
"Yes. You will... after you've paid the price for failure, Dr. Stockman." the man snarled, pointing his gauntlet's claws at the scientist.
Stockman gasped, now really worried and backed away from the man. However, he ended up to bump into Hun who was standing right behind of his back. Without the second thought, Hun grabbed Stockman by his collar again and began dragging him out of the throne room and towards his upcoming punishment.
"Hey! No! Where are you taking me!" Stockman panicked before he turned back to the man. "Tell him to let me go at once or you'll all regret this! N...no! No! Noo!"
After Hun had taken Stockman away, the man turned to Jennika, who turned to face him and bowed to him respectfully.
"I funded his whole operation, and all that was left in the hand was just a one quarter of all the fundings he promised in return. Even I can't believe how everything could've gone wrong in the first place." the man hummed angrily, as he began to pace around behind his table.
"Master? If I may something about this?" Jennika requested.
Even though the man did not looked back at her, he gave a slight nod as a sign of permission.
"On our way back here, Stockman kept arguing nonstop that this was not his fault but some green reptilian freaks that sabotaged the whole Mouser-operation." the female ninja explained.
His lieutenant's mention about some 'green reptilian freaks' prompted the man to cease his pacing around and turn his head slightly towards Jennika. With the quirked eyebrow, the man said nothing but silently asked Jennika that what she was talking about.
Getting her master's silent message, Jennika continued. "Stockman also mentioned them calling themselves 'the turtles'. A 5'2 feet tall, on two legs walking and talking humanoid turtles. And according to Stockman's description of them, they're ninjas. Carrying the ninja weapons and wearing Iga-bakama Ninja pants and eight individual ninja masks: One blue, one turquoise, one purple, one white, one red, one black, one pink and one orange. And oddly enough, this description is similar to the description John gave about the attackers who took his and his men armored car about week ago."
The man began to think hard about his lieutenant's portrayal of these strange attackers.
"Was Stockman sure of what he saw?" the man inquired, though he didn't sound quite convinced.
"That's what he jabbered non stop during our way back." Jennika confirmed.
Then man then turned fully to Jennika and stood tall in front of her, casting a strongly suspicious glare down on his lieutenant.
"I find that hard to believe, lieutenant. How do I know that this isn't the doings of some bunch of local hooligans dressed in freak-costumes." the man sneered.
Jennika, however, nodded in understanding. "That's exactly what I thought at first, master, until we recovered this."
With that, Jennika clapped her hands together for a couple times, and after a moment the man stepped out of the shadows and walked towards the two of them.
A man, who looked like a technician, was wearing a dark ash-gray suit with the ninja symbol branded to the left side of his chest. He also had the high tech gear, which included the device strapped around of his head and over his eyes. It had a spherical device in place of the man's right eye with three small and one large camera-like lens.
The technician knelt down before the man and Jennika. "We have the image you requested for the master to see, mistress Jennika." the technician said.
"Excellent." Jennika said. "Bring it here."
The technician then stood up and pressed the button on the remote he had with him, which made the projector screen come down. Then another technician with a similar suit and equipment as the first one came into the room, rolling in front of him a projector that had a severed and battered head of the Mouser attached to it.
"We salvaged this from the ruins of Stocktronics before the authorities could have it." Jennika began to explain, referring to Mouser's head. "And when our technicians analyzed it, they found the image this Mouser's optic recorded lastly before it was destroyed. And what the picture revealed to us... was astounding." she finished, astonishment in her voice.
"Show me then." the man demanded.
Jennika nodded and clicked her fingers at the technician operating the projector, who turned it on.
The man, Jennika and the technicians then turned to the screen as the projector projected the picture onto the screen.
The man's eyes widened slightly with a little surprise when he saw the hazy thermal images of eight humanoid turtles and the female human among them. All of them were posing their individual combat postures and held up their weapons while standing in triangular formation: Three of them, the ones carrying a pair of Sai daggers, a pair of Katana and a spear from Naginata, stood on the left. Another three, the ones carrying the pair of Butterfly swords, pair of Nunchucks and the pair of Tonfas, stood on the right. And the other two, the ones carrying the Bo staff and the Yumi bow and arrow, stood behind the other six, along with the woman.
Then, his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"So, these are the ones responsible." he snarled darkly, before he then lunged forward and, first horizontally and then vertically, sliced the projector screen open with his gauntlet's claws.
Jennika then approached her master cautiously, though keeping a small distance between them until he calmed down a bit.
"Shall I launch a manhunt to hunt down these creatures, master?" she suggested, waiting for her master's orders.
The man then turned around to face Jennika. "No. We don't know anything about these creatures, and I don't have time to hunt them down." he snarled.
"Then what shall we do, master?" Jennika asked.
"We leave these creatures alone and keep a low profile... for now. If we're lucky, these creatures won't interfere with our operations in the future." the man instructed calmly, before his tone switched into the murderous one. "But if they do... they will pay for it... with their lives!" he finished, holding his gauntlet's claws up slightly.
The End.
TRIVIA
- This is the the first longest chapter of my story.
- As said above, there are added elements (speaking lines) taken from the second issue of the TMNT mirage comics to add some tension.
(1) - Lorenzo getting shocked with electricity and then complaining about it being easier for Benjamin Franklin is a reference to the said man of science's 'Kite experiment.'
(2) - Hun has no scars in his cheek in this fanfic.
(3) - My female oc character's face and hairstyle are based on Karai's face and hairstyle from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2007 film.
(4) - The name "Jennika" for my oc character is taken from TMNT IDW character Jennika, who was former human and member of the Foot Clan, now mutant ninja turtle and the member of Splinter Clan.