animegamefanatic: That's how I intended Tatsu's character to be in my story. He may defeat the turtles easily, but his arrogance proves to be his downfall in the wrong place at the wrong time. And this won't be the only time when Tatsu will be reminded about his two earlier defeats in the hands of the turtles.
= TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2003 =
= THE SHREDDER STRIKES PART 2. PART 3.=
As the fire kept spreading, the building kept collapsing more. Much of the rooftop had already collapsed and now the walls were cracking and crumbling down.
The roof kept collapsing and the fire spread towards still intact corner of the roof, where the Shredder and his ninjas, and Leo in their grasps, were still standing, threatening everybody's lives. None of them moved the muscle, even though they knew that they couldn't stand there as the roof was soon to collapse from under of their feet.
"BAH! THIS CHANGES NOTHING!" the Shredder scoffed, unfazed by the fire and the building crumbling down under their feet. The evil Foot Lord turned back to Leo still determined to kill him. "YOU WILL DIE BEFORE ME, LEONARDO!" he bellowed before he raised his Katana over his head again in attempt to once more kill Leo.
However, before he could lay a finishing blow on the turtle in blue...
"IT'S VICE VERSA, SHREDDER! VICE VERSA! I'LL ASSURE YOU THAT!" yelled the sudden and defiant high-pitched voice, which caught everybody's attention and halted the Shredder from laying a killing blow on Leo.
Just then, Mary suddenly appeared from the flames, still holding the haft of her broken Naginata in her hand. The turtle in turquoise landed onto the Shredder's back, slightly knocking him forward before she jumped in the air again.
Mary performed the Cork Screw flip while spinning her her Naginata's haft wildly around before she started to fall downwards and towards the space between the Shredder, Leo and the Foot Ninja. Before she could hit the roof, Mary struck one end of her Naginata's haft against the ground and grabbed with both hands from another end.
Naginata's haft bent down as Mary swung herself upwards and towards Shredder from below, with her feet pressed together and pointed forward. The turtle in turquoise let out a high-pitched "HAIIIIIIII-YA!" battle-cry as she kicked the surprised Shredder in the chest with both feet at the same time as she pole-vaulted herself in upwards in the air.
Not only did Mary's kick knock the surprised Shredder off his feet, but it also sent him off the roof and falling a long way into the burning furnace of the building.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!" the evil Foot Lord cried as he fell into the building, where he disappeared amongst of the heat and flames.(1)
Letting go of her now useless Naginata's haft, Mary flipped backwards in the air for a couple-three times before she began to fall back to the corner of the rooftop, but not before the turtle in turquoise snatched the Shredder's sword from the air, which the Shredder had dropped from his hands after she had kicked him into the building.
Mary then hit on her feet to the roof, with her shell-back turned to the Foot Ninja and Leo, all watching her with astounded and dumbstruck looks on their faces, presumably because of the stunt the turtle in turquoise had just done to the Shredder.
"LEO! DUCK!" Mary yelled as she raised her from the Shredder claimed sword up and ready to strike.
Leo, snapping out of his stunned state and realizing quickly what Mary was up to, quickly bent down as Mary turned to the Ninjas, who were still holding Leo by his arms, and swung the Katana in horizontal arch towards them. The ninjas failed to react to the incoming blow as fast as Leo did until it was too late for them as the blade already made contact.
There was the swift whistling sound as the bladeflew through air, before it was followed by the sickening sound of metal cutting through of the flesh, which was afterwards followed by a throaty gasp, agonizing scream and two splashing thuds before Mary was done.
And after she was done, the gore of her actions were clear.
The pure-white bladed Katana, the master Toshi Kurahawa's masterpiece, was stained with the fresh blood, as Mary had cut the heads of two ninjas on Leo's right clean off their shoulders, before turning to the other two ninjas on Leo's left, slitting one ninja's throat open and slashing the fourth and last ninja across his face.
The two headless ninjas' arms went instantly limp and fell off from around of Leo's right arm, before the ninjas themselves fell limply onto their knees and then over to the roof, while the third mortally wounded ninja let go of Leo and clutched to his abundantly bleeding throat with his hands, gasping and struggling for breath as he was slowly choking on his own blood. Facing the slow and painful death, the ninja fell on his knees and then onto his side to the rooftop. It didn't take long before the ninja let out his final gasps for breath before he eventually succumbed to his wounds and passed away. The fourth ninja, who had received a nasty gash on the right side of his face from Mary's Katana, with the blood staining his destroyed ninja mask and the whole right side of his face, screamed from the top of his lungs in agony as he let go of Leo's arm and fell on his side to the roof, before he pressed his both hands over his wound. He was left to lie there, rolling on the roof and moaning in misery and agony.
Paying no attention to the ninjas, Mary quickly rushed to her brother's side to check if he was alright.
"Leo? Are you alright?" she asked worriedly.
Leaning on his knees with his hands while taking deep breaths, Leo was very relieved that he was still alive, even though it was too close for comfort. The turtle in blue eyed momentarily the result of Mary's work: The bodies of the four ninjas in each side of him, before he eventually stood upright to face her sister's worried look on her face.
"Yeah. I'm alright, Mary." Leo confirmed with the thankful nod, before the turtle in blue turned to look in front of them both. "But we are not yet out of the woods."
Mary turned around and saw what Leo meant. They were loosing the space and foothold with the rapid pace as the as the roof around of the still intact corner kept crumbling and the wall of fire kept closing in and pushing the turtles in blue and turquoise closer to the edge of the rooftop.
They had no way to escape from approaching flames. They were about to end up to become literally fried turtles.
However, just when the turtles were about to get engulfed by the fires and burn to death, the remaining portion of the corner of the roof suddenly crumbled beneath their feet and sent them falling off the edge to the streets down bellow.
"AAHHHHHH!" Leo yelled during the fall.
"AAAHHHHHHH!" Mary screamed while falling down with Leo.
After the long fall, both the turtles crashed onto the car bellow: Leo on his shell onto the rooftop of the car and Mary on her chest onto its front hood, leaving a deep dents onto the car with the cracked side windows and windscreen.
Elsewhere, as the building kept crumbling, Donnie was still battling with one Foot Nija in the other side of the rooftop. Just before Donnie was about to deliver to the ninja a finishing kick into his chest, the fiery crack suddenly opened between of them and the flames that aroused from the open crack separated Donnie and the ninja from each other. Not long after that, the ninja's side instantly crumbled down under his feet and the screaming ninja fell into his fiery death.
"WOW!" Donnie yelped in surprise as he witnessed the enemy ninja's fiery demise and then jumped away from the crumbling edge of the crack to avoid himself from falling into the building and experiencing the ninja's fate.
"DONNIE!" Dom cried, as the turtle in white suddenly appeared to behind of the brainy turtle and grabbed from his shoulder, gaining his attention. "WE GOTTA MOVE! HURRY!"
Giving his brother a nod, Donnie and Dom rushed away from the flames towards the edge of the roof, that was starting to crumble down as well. The turtles in white and purple leaped off the edge just when it started to collapse under their feet. As they started to fall down, Dom managed to grab from the nearby lamppost in attempt to cut his fall short and managed to grab from Donnie's free hand's wrist to prevent him from falling down as well.
However, the large portion of the collapsing building's wall suddenly flew against the lamppost, causing it to bent from the middle and knocking it off from its post. The sudden jolt of the bending lamppost caught the turtles in white and purple by surprise and yanked them violently upwards.
"AGH!" Dom cried in pain as the sudden jolt yanked his arm, with which he was holding from the lamppost, forcefully backwards, causing the turtle in white to lose his grasp from the lamppost and then both of them fell down and landed pretty roughly to the road bellow.(2)
Elsewhere, Raph, having survived from being thrown into the fire though not without some burns in his skin, attempted to escape from the collapsing rooftop himself.
However, the edge of the roof he was running along at the moment suddenly crumbled under his feet and caused the turtle in red to fall off the collapsing edge, landing with the pained grunt into another open dumpster bin, which lid then slammed close from the impact of his landing. And not a moment too soon as the burning debris of the building fell onto the bin and bounced off it, leaving a deep dent to the lid but saving Raph from being crushed by it.
Arcee was meanwhile trying to escape from the burning rooftop by running along the edge of the roof as it kept collapsing right behind of her heels.
However, all of the sudden, two Shredder's Foot Ninja emerged from amongst of the flames in Arcee's way. Neither the turtle in pink or the ninjas saw each other coming due to all of them trying to somehow escape the flames of the burning building, until they eventually ran into each other.
The ninjas collided with Arcee and accidentally knocked her and themselves off the edge and all three began falling down.
"OH, SHEEEEEEEELL!" Arcee screamed as she fell down with the ninjas.
The turtle-luck was on Arcee's side, however, as the turtle in pink landed onto the wooden cote of the building that cut her falling short, though she still rolled down along the cote, till she fell off its edge and landed to the asphalt. The ninjas, however, weren't as lucky as Arcee was, as there was nothing that could have cut they falling short before falling onto the asphalt and having their limbs and backs broken in the rough landing.
Back in Donnie's and Dom's side, both the turtles moaned from the pain of their rough landing. Donnie rubbed his head with his hands, while Dom attempted to stand up so that he could help his brother up. However, the turtle in white suddenly winced from pain as he tried to move his left arm, with which he had took a hold from the lamppost.
"Agh! My arm! It probably got sprained from that jolt. Ugh!" Dom moaned as he winced again.(2)
"Then we better have Arcee to look at it." Donnie said, as he got up and helped his brother on his feet, before he looked around, searching for his sister and brothers but couldn't see them. "Where is Arcee? Where are the others?"
"I don't know. I didn't saw what came to them when the building collapsed." Dom said. "But let's hope they managed to escape just like we did."
The turtles' attentions were then caught by a distant voice and it was calling for help from nearby. The voice was mixed with the crumbling sound of the collapsing building but it was still hearable enough.
"Hello?! Arcee?! Guys?! Anybody?! Little help in here?!" the voice called.
"What was that?" Dom asked from Donnie.
"Someone's calling for help." Donnie replied. "Sounds like someone is in trouble."
"Some civilian, who was caught by the debris of the collapsing building?" Dom guessed.
"I'm not sure because no one seemed to even be out and about at this time of night." Donnie said. "Besides, that voice sounds somewhat familiar." the turtle in purple added.
"Then we better check it out." Dom suggested.
Donnie couldn't agree more, and wasting no time, the turtles in purple and white immediately headed towards the calls for help to see what was the situation of the unfortunate person and to see could they help him.
And when Donnie and Dom reached there, they realized immediately who was calling for help.
It was Michelangelo, alive yet downed.
Mikey was lying on the pile of the blue garbage bags, which had probably softened his landing after falling down from the rooftop, while he was trying to lift with the pained grunts the fallen debris of the building that had fallen over his left leg, trapping it under it.
Dom almost groaned at the sight. "Why is it always you who end up into troubles like this, Mikey?! We can't take you anywhere!" the turtle in white exclaimed.
"Hey! A little sympathy for the guy who is down, Dom!" Mikey retorted, a little annoyed of his brother's apparent lack of concern for his well-being. "Besides, you try to move when the building all of the sudden jumps out and attacks you!"
"Alright, alright, point taken, little brother. I was just being sarcastic." Dom admitted.
"Well, duh!" Mikey said dryly.
"Guys! Knock it off! This is not place nor time for the arguments!" Donnie scolded his brothers, before he turned to Mikey. "Let's get you out of there, little brother."
The brainy turtle then put his Bo under the bottom of the rubble and then lifted it up, while Dom crouched down next to Mikey and wrapped his good right arm around of his little brother and pulled him out from under of the rubble.
"Are you alright, Mikey." the turtle in white asked, softly this time as he put Mikey down to sit.
"OW!" Mikey winched as he moved his left leg that had been trapped under of the debris. "I think I hurt my ankle."
"Duh." Donnie sighted, before he helped Mikey off the ground. "Come on, bro. I'll help you." he said, as he wrapped his arm around of his brother and lifted his left arm over his shoulders, and giving him his Bo-staff as a walking stick.
The turtles in white, orange and purple then moved away from the burning building as more and more rubble began to fall off the building and down onto the streets.
The three turtles had just managed to reach to the turning, until Mikey peeked over of his left shoulder and saw something happening behind of them.
"Uh, guys?" he gulped.
The turtles then turned around to look behind them and saw exactly what Mikey was seeing.
"Oh, shell." Dom muttered.
"Uh-oh." Donnie gulped.
The turtles saw the Shredder himself, as the evil Foot Lord suddenly appeared from amongst of the flames and stepped out through the open doorway of the burning building, alive, completely unfazed by the extreme heat around him and his armor had not received even a single sign of damage caused by the fire. Only his cape had suffered the heavy damage, as it flew in the night wind, tattered and burnt in many places. His glowing red eyes, the spikes in his Kabuto-helmet and his torn and still burning cape made him to look just like demon while while his silhouetted figure stood against the wall of flames.
"I can't believe my own eyes!" Dom gasped, completely baffled of what he was seeing. "That guy's still alive?!"
The turtle in white might have seen Mary kicking the Shredder into the burning building before it collapsed, leading Dom to assume that their enemy had burned to death. However, he was left dumbfounded from the shock when he realized that the Shredder was still alive.
"Please, tell me I'm not seeing what I'm seeing." Mikey asked hopefully.
"I wish I could, Mikey. I really wish I could."
"Come on, guys. We better get out of here before we're detected." Dom ushered.
As the three turtles hurried from the scene, hoping to get far away from the Shredder as possible, all from the recent battle survived Foot Ninja appeared from everywhere and gathered around of their master and all of them knelt down before him.
Soon, they were accompanied by a whole new fresh army of Foot Ninja, that appeared before their master from the various dark alleyways (luckily not from the one where Donnie, Mikey and Dom had just entered while making their escape) and from every nearby buildings' rooftops. This new army was three or even four times larger than what the Shredder's was when he faced off the turtles on the rooftop of his burning building. Most of this new army were a standard Foot Soldiers, while few dozen of them were Large Foot Ninja. These fresh reinforcements were led, by none other than one of the Shredder's trusted lieutenants, Jennika herself.
The masked Kunoichi ran up to the Shredder with the ninja troops behind her, and then she bowed before the Shredder in respect.
"Master." Jennika began, as she stood up to face the Shredder. "I brought the reinforcements here as you requested. But the turtles... it seems like they have got away."
"Then spread around and find them!" Shredder commanded his ninjas. "They cannot be far. Do not allow them to escape."
Suddenly, the Foot army heard the sirens of both the fire engines and the police cars, which were approaching fast. Somebody had probably alerted them about the burning building in middle of the town and now they were on their way here to put out the fire.
"Authorities!" Jennika gasped.
The Shredder growled in frustration, before he turned back to his army.
"Foot Ninja! Disappear! Report to me when you find them!" he ordered, before he raised his TekkÅ-kagi claws up and snarled the last words with venomous and murderous voice as if swearing an blood-oath. "I want to slaughter those turtles myself!"
"You heard the master!" Jennike said as she turned to the army. "Split into the groups and search the whole area! Find the turtles! GO!"
And with that, the Shredder, Jennika and all the Foot Soldiers scattered around, running away and disappearing into the shadows just before the police and firefighters showed up around of the burning building.
###
As ordered, the ninjas divided into the teams of two-ten ninjas and began their relentless man-hunt on the turtles.
Elsewhere, Leo and Mary were still hiding behind of from their landing damaged car. They attempted to leave, but they instantly moved back behind of the car as two ninjas jumped over the vehicle. When they were gone, both the turtles in blue and turquoise peeked from behind of the vehicle to see if the coast was clear.
They soon spotted the group of three ninjas emerging from behind of the corner of the burning building. Fortunately for them, the ninjas didn't turn to their direction, because if they had done so, they would've instantly spotted the hiding turtles. Instead, the trio moved into the next alley and disappeared to the shadows.
It became clear for Leo and Mary that the Foot was hunting them.
"Great. They've started a man-hunt on us." Mary complained in whisper.
"Then we need to leave. Get a far away from here as possible. And most importantly, we have to stick to the shadows and go in stealth mode." Leo said as he picked up his Katanas from the road and moved away from car and the burning.
Marry followed her brother close behind, still holding the master Toshi Kurahawa's recently from the blood cleaned Katana in her hand. For now, the sword had to serve her as a substitute to her lost Naginata, though she had to carry it in her hand all of time because Louie still had its scabbard in his possession.
Even though Mary was more skilled in wielding Naginata than Katana, she just had to improvise and use the Katana for now... at least until she gets a weapon that naturally fits to her. She hoped that at least one of the Shredder's ninjas was armed with Naginata that she can "borrow".(3)
However, the turtle in turquoise was plagued by another thought more than her lost weapon and the need for a replacement.
"But what about Raph, Don, Mikey, Dom, Louie and Arcee? They're all still out there! We need to find them! We have to regroup!" Mary argued, deeply worried for the rest of her brothers and sister as she followed Leo to the nearby subway staircase.
"I know, Mary. And don't worry. We'll find them." Leo said as he put his swords away and jumped over the rod fence, landing onto the subway stairs and Mary followed the suit by flipping over them, landing next to Leo. "But right now, getting out of here and sticking in the shadows is our top priority..."
Leo and Mary then peeked through of the rod fence, seeing three ninjas having appeared to the road. They had spotted the dents in the car's roof and front hood and stopped to investigate the damages.
"Because we won't be much good help for our brothers and sister if those guys find us first." Leo explained to his sister.
Mary seemed to get her brother's point. "Yes. Better alive rather than dead." the turtle in turquoise said.
"Exactly, sis. Now, let's go." Leo urged and the two ninja turtles stepped away into the shadows.
###
In other side of the building. the patrol of five ninjas landed on their feet to the alleyway, right next of the dumpster pin with the dents in its lid, but the ninjas didn't paid to it much of the notice. They quickly searched the area for any mutant ninja turtles. And when they didn't saw them, three of them moved to the one direction while the rest two moved to another direction to resume searching.
And when they were gone, Raph carefully lifted the lid up and peeked outside to make sure that it was all clear and safe to come out.
In fact, the turtle in red had impatiently waited for this opportunity for three past patrols already... and for the good reason.
"About time they consider this alley clear. Eww! I'm almost hoping that those Foot goons would just kill me already, because if they don't, the stink of this dumpster will! Sheesh!" Raph muttered to himself in utter disgust.
The turtle in red then pulled the lid open and then hopped out of the bin, after which he put the lid carefully back down in order to keep a low profile. After that, the turtle in red moved away from the dumpster, though he quickly noticed that he has a banana peel on his right shoulder. With the slight snort in disgust, Raph flicked it away and went to search for his missing family members.
###
Elsewhere, Arcee was carefully peeking from behind of the corner of the alley's entrance, where she'd been hiding for some time, to see if the coast was clear so she could move to the next alley and hide from the Foot in the shadows and away from this place.
However, every time she peeked out from the alley, she had to almost immediately pull back behind the corner when the Foot patrol appeared and passed her hiding spot either a short distance away, a pretty close, very closem and even dangerously close of the alley's entrance, nearly right next to her, putting the turtle in pink in dangerously close to be discovered by the Foot.
After ninth group of five ninjas, including a couple of groups of nine and one group of even eleven ninjas had passed the alley, Arcee leaned even harder against the valley's wall and let out the defeated sigh. The turtle in pink was very disheartened by the vast numbers of the ninjas. She had already counted the numbers of the passed Foot patrols together, reaching to seventy-five ninjas.
"Does the Shredder really need an entire army of ninjas to hunt us down?" she muttered to herself.
The turtle in pink was very anxious about her dreadful situation: She had been separated from her brothers and sister when the building had collapsed, and she had no idea if her family was alive or dead, and now there were both the Shredder and an entire army of ninjas hunting her and the others. Although the situation seemed hopeless, Arcee tried her best to hold on to the hope that her family had managed to escape both the fire and the Foot.
The only dilemma was that she needed to find them somehow, which would not be easy: They could be anywhere and yet this block and possibly the other surrounding squares were swarmed with Shredder's minions.
However, she just had to try.
The turtle in pink dared to peek one more time from behind the corner to see if the way was clear now. The road appeared to be empty but she waited for 5-10 minutes just to be sure that the ninjas truly had gone.
No one was seen and no one didn't appear for the 5-10 minutes. The coast was apparently clear.
Arcee then seized the opportunity and moved out of the alley, heading to the next nearest alleyway as fast as she could in case if there still was a lone Foot patrols.
However, just as Arcee was about to enter the alleyway and run past of the large dumpster bin that was standing right at this alleyway's entrance, she instantly stopped in her tracks when she caught the low moaning voice from nearby, telling her that there was somebody near.
Arcee's doctor instincts made her to assume that someone was in need of help, so she quickly located the origin of the moaning voice, which came from behind the dumpster bin next to her.
However, unsure whether it was someone civilian, who had been caught and wounded by the falling debris of the burning and crumbling building, or one of the Shredder's in the battle wounded Foot Ninja, Arcee cautiously approached the corner of the dumpster bin in order to check who was moaning behind it.
Arcee then cautiously peeked around the corner of the dumpster bin, and what she saw there made her skip a heartbeat from shock and horror.
"LOUIE!" she gasped.
Louie was lying still against the dumpster bin, with his head hanging limply on his shoulders, his eyes closed and his arms resting on his laps: his left hand was limply clutching to his busted right arm, after it was brutally bashed against the Shredder's knee and broken during the battle on the rooftop. The turtle in black looked like a complete mess, covered in numerous dirt stains, sticky candy wrappers, dumped rotting leftovers and peels (such as banana peels), but also dozens of nasty-looking, bleeding cuts and black-and-blue bruises he'd received in the battle. The area around his mouth also looked messy because he had probably thrown up not long ago ago or something. He also had his Manriki-gusaris, or what was left of them anyway, resting on his lap while his scabbards for his Butterfly swords, as well as the scabbard of Toshi Kurahawa's Katana, were empty.(4)
"No..." Arcee whispered with horror of Louie's condition and dead-like stillness, as her shaking hands rose over her mouth. Believing that her brother was either already dead or in the verge of death, Arcee fell on her knees to the ground, unable to move because of her shock and unable to let out a sound out of her mouth due to the feeling of anxiety in her throat. The tears soon started to run out of her eyes and down along her cheeks, as the turtle in pink's head fell into her hands and was about to sob miserably of the loss of her brother.
However, she was soon snapped out of it when she heard Louie starting to cough uncontrollably and her head jumped back up in shock. The turtle in pink stared at Louie with wide eyes and saw him making a slight but feeble movements and letting out a silent moans between of coughs.
Louie was still alive, albeit on the edge of unconsciousness, but he was going to live.
Louie, as if having either heard in his half-conscious state the faint yet familiar female voice calling his name or sensing that someone was standing next to him, slowly and weakly lifted his head up to the direction of the voice and opened his eyes slightly to see who it was. His vision was slightly blurry, but he was able to distinguish the unmistakable distinct features of the mutant turtle and the color of the bandana over the head.
"Arcee?" he said weakly and in whisper.
Gasping out in deep relief that Louie was still alive, and letting the tears of joy run down along her ceeks, Arcee immediately rushed to her wounder brother's side.
"I'm here, Louie. Take it easy." Arcee said soothingly, before she went into a doctor mode and began to check on Louie's injuries. "How are you feeling, brother?"
"Like a shit." Louie spat bitterly, that was followed by another fit of coughing. "Falling off the roof wasn't nothing, but that tin bastard had to do his trick on me."
Louie took his left hand off from his right arm, showing her the damage the Shredder had done to it.
The turtle in black's right arm was noticeably swollen from the damaged area between the hand and the elbow, and the mossy green color of the swollen area had taken slightly darker shade, looking like the bruise. To further note, the arm also seemed to have slightly bent downwards in 5-10 degree angle from the middle. Even one glance on it was enough to tell Arcee that the arm was broken.
"What that monster did to you?" the turtle in pink whispered quietly.
Luckily the broken limbs weren't strange thing to her, as she had treated them many times before in the past, though most of them have been just a small fractures or sprains.
As a self-taught doctor, Arcee would've liked to inspect the injury further and closely to see what type of fracture his brother had suffered, only if they weren't this dangerously close of the Shredder's burning warehouse and with an antire army of Foot Ninja hunting for them. She needed more secured place where she could treat Louie's arm properly. But right now, she needed to get her brother far away from here as possible, before they are detected.
But first, knowing that finding the more secure place would take time and not daring to leave Louie's busted arm unattended, she needed to immobilize it.
Luckily she came prepared for the cases such as this. Even if this trip to deliver the Shredder Leo's answer was only supposed to be the quick trip here and then straight back home, Arcee wouldn't never even dare to leave the Lair without her first aid kit behind or else she'll be darned. She picked from her trustworthy first aid kit strapped in her belt two large pieces of white cloth, several bandages and one chilled ice pack. Turtle luck seemed to be favoring her tonight as she spotted a broken piece of board nearby, which suited well for the task in the hand. She picked the board from the ground, swept all the possible dirt off it and then turned back to Louie.(5)
"I'm gonna lift your arm up a little bit, so that I can get this board under it and tie your arm in it to keep it still. Then I'll put it into the sling." the turtle in pink instructed.
Not in the mood to protest, Louie just nodded to her sister in "do whatever you must" manner.
Nodding to her brother, Arcee went to work. While holding the board in her right hand, ready to move it underneath of Louie's arm, Arcee moved her left hand and wrist carefully underneath of Louie's right arm, before she started to lift it upwards slowly and carefully as she could.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Careful with the arm, sis!" Louie winced in pain.
"Sorry." Arcee apologized as she continued lifting his arm gentler.
Once Louie's arm was high enough, Arcee quickly moved the board under of the arm before she gently put it onto the board. Arcee then picked a couple-three bandages and used them to and used them to tie Louie's arm onto the board, tight enough to keep the arm as still as possible but not to cause anymore pain in Louie's arm, before she took her ice pack and one of the large pieces of the cloth into her hands, wrapped the cloth around of the pack and then gently laid it onto the swollen area of Louie's arm before tying it onto it. Louie winced slightly at the feeling of the cold in the swollen area of his busted arm, until the turtle in black breathes in slow and relaxed mannerm getting quickly accustomed to the cold, which reduces some of the pain and swelling in his arm.
"To limit swelling and help relieve pain." Arcee explained briefly.
With that done, Arcee took the remaining piece of cloth in her hand, put its larger part under of Louie's arm and the board, moved one end of the cloth over Louie's right shoulder and another one under of his left arm pit and then knotted the ends together behind of Louie's back, tight enough to keep both the hand-made sling in place and Louie's arm in still.
"That should do for now." Arcee said after she was finished, before she moved to her brother's left side and knelt down on one knee. "Come on, Louie. We'll be out of here. You think you can walk?"
"Guess so, though a little help would be good." Louie said, shaking his head to get as much of still remaining dizziness out of his head as possible.
"Then I'll help you. Lift your left arm over my shoulders so that I can help you up on your feet... and try to keep your arm as immobilized as possible to save it from further damage." Arcee said.
Following his sister's instructions, Louie lifted his left arm over Arcee's shoulders while the turtle in pink wrapped her right arm around her brother's shell-back and left side. And after taking a tight grip from her brother, Arcee then stood up and started to lift Louie off the ground.
Due to Louie's still weakened state and the fact that she herself wasn't physically as strong as some of her brothers were, Arcee grunted and gritted her teeth from effort to get her brother up to his feet. Louie, even if weak and still a little dizzy but out of sheer willpower, tried his best to help both himself and his sister to get himself up and back on his feet.
Getting up from the ground wasn't pleasant for Louie, as for a couple times his weakened state and dizziness got better of his willpower and caused the turtle in black to loose his footing and nearly fall over to the ground again, if it wasn't for Arcee to take a firm hold of him to prevent her brother from falling over.
Eventually, with the doubled efforts, Arcee finally managed to get Louie up on his feet, though the turtle in black had to lean on his sister due to his still dizzined state, even if he tried to shake it out of his head.
Getting up from the ground wasn't pleasant for Louie's sore arm and still dizzy state, but he did try to with Arcee's help to stand on his feet and shake his dizziness away from his head.
"Okay. Slowly at start and one step at the time, brother. Now let's go." Arcee said, as she and Louie then moved deeper into the alley and its shadows.
###
Meanwhile, in another part of the town, Donnie, Mikey and Dom kept walking down the street.
Their progress was slow due to Mikey's injured ankle. The turtle in orange groaned in pain at every limped step they took. Luckily for them, there was nobody around at this time of the night, so they were free to walk on the street level. The only problem was the Foot that was still out there hunting them and Donnie was the only one to defend all three of them properly. The three turtles were actually very lucky that they've not run into any Foot ever since they left the Shredder's burning warehouse.
"Nngh! Nngh! Uh! Ah! Ow!" Mikey groaned. "D-Donnie, Dom, we need to go back. The others might need us." he said in between of pained grunts, reminding the turtles in purple and white about their missing siblings.
"I-I-I know, but you're in no condition to fight, Mikey, and neither is Dom with his sprained arm." Donnie argued back.
"Besides, you're our top priority now, Mikey. We'll get your ankle wrapped up first and then we'll start look for the others." Dom added as he walked alongside Donnie and Mikey.
"Yeah. Let's hope they can make it until we get you in shape." Donnie said as the three brothers kept walking.
"Oh! My ankle's aching!" Mikey groaned again in pain. "Where's Arcee when you need her most? She's the doctor in the family."
"You tell me, little brother. I feel like my arm is in fire." Dom groaned, as he gritted his teeth in another slight but unpleasant pain wave in his arm
"Don't worry, guys. I might not be as skilled in the medical treatment as Arcee is, but I'll do the best I can for both of you. And once we find Arcee she can check on you both and patch your injuries properly." Donnie said.
###
Elsewhere, Leo and Mary had managed to get far away from the Shredder's warehouse that they assumed it was safe for them to split up and search the blocks for the others, though both still stayed within the shadows to avoid being detected any Foot patrol that may have reached this far from the warehouse.
When the sibling's agreed search period had expired, Leo moved swiftly with stealth down the alleyway as he headed to the meeting place, which was on the street at the end of this alleyway. The turtle in blue finally arrived to the entrance of the alleyway and emerged from the shadows down to the streets and the meeting place. Luckily for him and Mary once she gets here, some of this street's lampposts were off and the street was dark enough to hide him out of the eyes of both potential pedestrians and enemy ninjas, which was the main reason why the turtles in blue and turquoise had chosen this street as their meeting place.
Mary was not seen anywhere on the street, which meant that Leo had either arrived early or else Mary herself was late... or worse, caught by the Foot.
Be that as it may, Leo was not going to take any risks of being detected by the Foot in the open regardless of the darkness of the night and hid back in the alley to wait for his sister to return... and hope that nothing ill hadn't befallen on his sister.
10-15 minutes passed over the agreed time when they were supposed to meet here, and Leo was about to get anxious of Mary's absence.
Luckily, before Leo got in his head an idea to go out there to look for Mary, the turtle in turquoise suddenly appeared out of the darkness of another alley across the street, before she ran quickly across the street to her brother.
"Sorry, I'm late, Leo. I was forced to hide for a little while as the Foot patrol came down the alley I was in." Mary explained.
"It's okay. No sweat." Leo assured, before the turtle in blue went straight to the point. "Did you find any one from that block?"
"I'm sorry, Leo, I found no one from that block." Mary said regretfully. "How about you? Any luck in there?"
"As far as the good old turtle-luck can provide, no trace of them." Leo said.
Mary let out the sigh of frustration at their had failed to find the others.
"Blasted!" Mary swore. "Already three blocks searched through and not even a trace of them and all these blasted Foot Ninja swarming all over the place. How are we ever gonna find them from these Foot-swarmed blocks? They could be anywhere." the turtle in turquoise said anxiously.
"Keep your cool, Mary." Leo said, before he put his arm on his sister's shoulder to calm her down and comfort her. "They might be hiding in the shadows as well, to avoid being detected by the Foot. They're way more smarter to hide than to remain out in the open. So don't worry. We'll find them eventually." he added.
Though still worried for the others, especially his little sister Arcee, Mary nodded at her brother.
"I hope so." the turtle in turquoise said.
Suddenly, their sixth ninja instincts kicked in as the turtles sensed someone coming both down the alley used by Leo and from the rooftops of the nearby buildings
"HIDE!" Leo and Mary exclaimed in whisper to each other in unison.
Said and done, both the turtles in blue and turquoise jumped up and towards the top of the lamppost that was standing next to them. Then they grabbed from the metal frame and swung themselves onto the top of the lamppost, where they crouched down to make themselves as invisible as possible.
Right after hiding on top of the lamppost, four Foot Ninja emerged quickly from the shadows of the alleyway and down to the streets, while they were reinforced by the three Foot Ninja more that descended down along the nearby fire escape before landing onto the street. And to make the matters even worse, eight more ninjas appeared from the alleyway Mary had came out a moment ago and they joined forces with already arrived group of seven ninjas, making it fifteen ninjas.
The Foot then spread out and began to search through the street and all nearby alleyways, while Leo and Mary were observing them from above.
Leo growled slightly, while Mary frowned down at the ninjas.
"As if they got nothing better things to do." the turtle in turquoise muttered sarcastically.
###
In another part of the town, one Foot patrol was running ran down the empty streets while another patrol was running along the rooftops above, before some ninjas from both the ground level and the rooftops split up from the main groups into every alleyway to search them through for the turtles while the rest moved on.
However, all the ninjas that had departed from the main groups didn't find any trace of the turtles, so they kept moving on. Some of them ran out of the alley to rejoin the main group in the street level while some headed on to the opposite direction and kept searching in the smaller groups or alone.
In one certain alley, however, after the couple ninjas from the ground level patrol and one ninja from the rooftop patrol had searched through their alley and kept moving on, they hurriedly and indifferently ran past the dumpster bin that was standing behind the corner of the entrance, with the pile of black and blue garbage sacks piled to its one side.
Once the ninjas were gone, the top part of the garbage sack pile was cautiously toppled over, revealing Arcee and Louie, who had hidden themselves beneath the sacks to escape from being detected by the passing Foot patrols. Arcee then helped Louie back up to his feet before both turtles in pink and black quickly hurried to the direction where the ninjas had come from.
While running and hiding from the ninjas, Louie had recovered enough to stand and somewhat walk with his own feet, and he had also got his head a little clearer now. However, because the turtle in black hadn't yet fully recovered from his body and head... less from his busted arm, he was still relying on Arcee's help to keep himself on his feet while the two were on the run from the ninjas.
However, that didn't stop him from being his old self.
"Arcee? We have to go back for the others..." Louie said, reminding his sister for their missing siblings, until his voice that used to sound concerned for the well-being of their siblings suddenly turned father venomous and vengeful. "And to settle more than just one score with that metallic spiky scarecrow. He'll be sorry once I get my hands on him! Really sorry indeed, mark my word!"
"You want to go back there for the others, or because of the Shredder, so that you can get even with him for what he did to your arm, and end up getting yourself into even worse shape than this?" Arcee asked from her brother rhetorically.
Arcee was not interested in waiting for her brother's answer, because she already knew it.
"Not gonna happen, bro! Not by the long shot! Not before we got your arm fixed up and until we find the others."
"But Arcee...!" Louie whined.
"No buts, Lorenzo! As a doctor here, I'm in charge now, and you're my patient and you're gonna do exactly as I tell you to do. So if you have nothing else to speak about except your foolish suicidal vendetta against the Shredder for breaking your arm... or causing you to lose your Butterfly swords... or even wounding your pride... you can just keep your mouth shut. Or so help me and I'll gag it myself!" Arcee swore impatiently.
Louie was taken aback by Arcee's sudden outburst. As the youngest, calmest and the most gentlest turtle in the family, Arcee very rarely lost her temper, if at all, and is generally very calm and patient, though somewhat strict when treating her patients, and usually uses friendly sarcasm if something annoys her in serious moments. But now her unusual and rather angry outburst towards her brother's stubborness and complaining his wounded pride was as surprising as the normally level-headed and stoic Leo's own outburst yesterday back in the lair.
Though frustrated, Louie let out the sigh in defeat and bregrudgingly decided to cooperate with his doctor-sister.
"Sheesh! So much for the calm and patient little sister." Louie muttered sarcastically under his breath.
Arcee, however, heard her brother and rolled her eyes with the frustrated sigh.
"Sheesh! Now I think I'm starting to understand Dom a little better." the turtle in pink muttered under her breath.
###
Elsewhere, Dom, Donnie and Mikey had just arrived to the next alleyway, above which was hanging several clotheslines full of the laundry of the people living in these houses. The turtles walked down the alley for a moment till they stopped behind of the dumpster bin that was standing in the middle of the alley.
All three turtles were beat, especially Donnie for having to carry Mikey all the way from the Shredder's warehouse to here. And same was with Mikey, as limping a long way through with the injured ankle had taken its toll on him too.
"Let's rest here for a second." Donnie suggested tiredly.
"Works for me. Nngh! Even my ankle is begging me to stop." Mikey whined miserably.
"Agreed." Dom said, before he gritted his teeth again. The sprained area in his arm was starting to swell up and the pain slightly increased.
"But not for long. I know that we're exhausted but we just need to keep moving. If we did manage to make it here, no doubt the Foot has extended its search up to here too." Dom said, as the turtle in white was about to sit down and lean against the dumpster bin.
Donnie was just about to lift Mikey's arm from his shoulders and help him to sit down so that he could check Mikey's ankle and see what he could do, until something caught his attention from the corner of his right eye and he turned to see what was it, only to immediately gasp in shock.
"Oh, no! You were saying, bro!" Donnie said to Dom in whisper, fear and panic in his voice.
"What is it, Donnie?" Dom asked, as he stood back up to see what Donnie had just saw. "Oh, shell!" he muttered, eyes going wide from the shock as well.
The three turtles saw the Shredder standing with two ninjas at the other end of the alleyway and they appeared to be about to enter the alley to search it through.
"It's the Shredder!" Donnie whispered in panic as the Shredder and his men began to walk towards them.
"And some of his little friends. Look!" Mikey said as he pointed to the other end of the alley, from where was approaching five ninjas more.
They were surrounded... and like served on the plate to the Foot.
"Great! Out of the fry pan and into the fire! Good old turtle-luck is not in our favor tonight." Dom muttered in annoyance and anguish at their situation.
As the Shredder and the Foot Ninja kept approaching them from both sides, the three turtles desperately looked around, looking for whatever way of escape from this alley before the Foot would be upon them. However, there was no way out of the alley and showing up and making the stand against the enemy that was superior by numbers and in strength was definitely out of the question.
As a last attempt to find the way out of here before they're discovered and slaughtered where they were standing, Dom looked up and spotted the fire-escape hanging on the building's wall just above of their heads. And its lower level's ladders were low enough that they would reach them by jumping for it.
Dom then got an idea.
"Donnie! Mikey! The fire-escape! Quickly!" the turtle in white whispered, pointing his finger up at the ladders.
Don and Mikey followed the direction indicated by Dom's finger by looking up and noticed the fire-escape as well. Realizing what Dom was up to the turtles in purple and orange quickly looked back at Dom, giving their brother a knowing and determined nod. And then, while still holding from Mikey, Donnie jumped up towards the fire-escape and managed to grab onto the lower ladders with his free hand before the brainy turtle and Mikey began to silently climb up it to safety, with Dom following them close behind.
The turtles managed to get high enough before the Shredder, his men and the other Foot patrol met each other in middle of the alley, right next of the dumpster bin, behind of which the turtles were hiding a moment ago.
"Anything?" Shredder asked from the ninja standing in front of the recently arrived patrol, who was assumed to be in charge of this patrol.
"Nothing, master. The turtles are not in here." the ninja said, bowing his head down to his master.
Shredder growled in growning anger, impatience and frustration for their lack of success in finding the turtles, even though this and all the neighboring blocks were sealed off and swarmed by his vast army of ninjas.
"They must be in here somewhere. Keep searching!" the evil Foot Lord ordered harshly. The ninjas bowed to their master before they split up into two groups and moved to the both ends of the alley to resume their search for the turtles.
Little did they know that Donnie and Dom were observing them from above at the window of the bathroom, where they were hiding from the Foot. And once the Shredder and the ninjas were gone, the turtles in white and purple went back inside.
"They're gone for now." Dom informed to Mikey, as the turtle in orange was sitting on the side of the bathtub.
Dom then remained in watch at the window, in case if the ninjas would come back, while Donnie turned his attention in Mikey's ankle.
"Argh! My ankle is KILLING me!" Mikey groaned in pain as he rested his ankle over his right knee. The turtle in orange then let out the defeated sigh before he turned to his brothers. "Leave me here, guys, I'm only slowing you down." he said miserably ... even though there was a bit of dramatic tone in his voice.
"You watch way too much movies, Mikey." Dom retorted, slightly annoyed that Mikey couldn't keep his dramatic side under control, not even in the serious situations like this.
"Yeah. Can that noise, Mikey." Donnie said as he stepped to the nearby cabinet, opened it and began to search it through. "It's just the sprained ankle. We need to wrap it properly until we find Arcee."
Finding nothing useful from the cabinet Donnie turned to the rest of the room and bstarted to think what he could use from the bathroom to Mikey's ankle. His eyes then met the a pair of light brown stockings that were hanging from the shower rail right in front of him. After thinking it for a moment, Donnie clicked his fingers with the knowing smirk on his face as he got an idea.
"Perfect." he said to himself, as he took the stockings off the rail and began to wrap them tightly around of Mikey's sprained ankle.
Dom didn't know whether he should be approval or disapproval of this, as taking the stockings for Mikey's ankle just like that was close of stealing, and their coming into the apartment through of the window could be counted as unlawful trespass or even a burglary, even though the window wasn't even shutted. However, the turtle in white decided just this once to give it a slack for Mikey's ankle's sake and for the sake of their own survival from this man-hunt by the Foot.
"Let's just hope that whoever lives in here doesn't mind of the missing pair of stockings." the turtle in white muttered to himself.
While Donnie was wrapping Mikey's ankle, the turtle in orange suddenly spotted a back scrub.
"Well, while you're doing that, I'll just brush my long flowing locks." he joked with the laugh, as he began rub it against his head.
Donnie paid a look at his goofy brother after he had finished bandaging Mikey's ankle. "Nice." he muttered sarcastically, unamused.
Dom groaned in annoyance from the window. "Ugh, make the turtle-soup out of me!" Can't you shell-for-brains be without of goofing around just for one...?"
Dom was cut short when the door of the bathroom suddenly creaked open and the seven-year old red-haired boy entered into the bathroom while rubbing his eyes sleepily, catching the turtles off guard. However, after a couple of steps, the boy stopped and was instantly awake once he saw Mikey, Dom and Donnie right in front of him.
The boy's mouth fell in bewilderment as he kept staring at the turtles with his widened eyes.
Mikey chuckled nervously. "Well, this is awkward." he muttered.
Dom decided to use his diplomatic skills, hoping that it could turn the situation in a completely different direction before it took a turn for the worse and not-right-now-wanted direction. He moved away from the window and held his good hand out towards the boy in calming down manner. "Alright, kid, take it easy now. This may be pretty weird but nothing happens to you, I assure you. Just stay where you are and be quiet so nothing ill-considered happens. Okay?" he said with the nervous smile.
Donnie backed his brother up by raising his finger to his lips and shushed, hoping that the boy would get the message.
Boy kept staring at the turtles motionlessly for a moment, until...
"MOM! MOM! THERE'S THREE GIANT TURTLES IN THE BATHROOM AND ONE OF THEM'S GOT YOUR STOCKINGS IN HIS LEG!" the boy cried as he turned around and ran out of the bathroom, calling for his mother.
Both Mikey and Donnie chuckled nervously, while Dom merely groaned, rolled his eyes and shook his head in annoyance.
"UGH, SHELL! WHY DOESN'T DIPLOMACY EVER WORK?!" the turtle in white exclaimed, frustrated.
"Can't worry about it now, bro! Let's go!" Donnie said, as both he, Dom and Mikey quickly rushed out of the window and to the fire-escape, almost not caring if there was more of the Shredder's ninjas waiting for them.
The turtles had just managed to get out when the boy came back, pulling his mother with him from the hand.
"SEE, MOM?! SEE?!" the boy cried as they entered to the bathroom.
However, as the boy and his mother looked into the bathroom, they saw no sight of Mikey, Dom nor Donnie. The bathroom was empty.
The boy's mother folded her arms as she looked down at her son. "You've been watching way too much movies, honey." she told her son in annoyance.
"But..." the boy started, puzzled that the turtles had disappeared so quickly after he had seen them with his own eyes a moment ago. "They were right here. I swear it." the boy swore, though his mother's face remained unchanged.
As this was going on inside the bathroom, the three turtles outside had moved away from the fire-escape by swinging along the clothesline, heading to the other side of the alley.
"Maybe the boy's mom is right. He'd been watching way too much movies." Mikey said, having eavesdropped what the boy's mother had said to her son, as he kept following Dom close behind.
"Speak for yourself, Mikey!" Dom snapped in annoyance, as the turtle in while moved along the clothesline with one hand and with his legs wrapped around of it.
"But I just got a one question: Whose ingenious idea was to go into that inhabited apartment in the first place?!" the turtle in white exclaimed.
"YOURS!" both Mikey and Donnie shot back as they kept swinging.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TRIVIA
1) = I think that served as my own way to perfectly explain how Shredder had ended up inside of his burning building before walking out unharmed by the flames or heat, thus shocking both Mikey and Donnie in the canon story.
2) = I based Dom's sprained-arm injury to the similar manner how I got my own right arm badly sprained one and half years ago after slipping on the slippery stairs. I know well how Dom must have felt to have right arm busted.
3) = First time when Mary is forced to fight with different weapon than with her naturally fitting Naginata-spear, which got destroyed in the previous chapter, though the weapons happens to be master Toshi Kurahawa's sword.
4) = This is the first time when Louie has lost the Butterfly swords, his primary weapons.
5) = I originally planned that Arcee had forgotten her first aid kit back in the Lair, or that she had left it on purpose, believing she wouldn't need it on their quick trip to deliver Leo's answer to the Shredder before heading straight back home. However, in the end I decided to change it, because even though Arcee is the youngest turtle in the family along with Mikey, it felt wrong and out of character to make her as absent-minded as Mikey is sometimes. And so in the end, to keep Arcee as a responsible and somewhat professional self-taught doctor in her family, I added her first aid kit in the scene where she finds wounded Louie. I guess that change came from my opinion that Arcee cares about her family too much that she doesn't even dare to leave her first aid kit behind whenever she leaves the Lair for the surface. After all, you can't never know whenever you suddenly and accidentally hurt yourself when you step out through your home's door.