TMNT 2003 S1: Four Turtles More

by Fanficteller

Fifteen years have passed since the accident. Now, eight turtles, six brothers and two sisters, born as mutants in the sewers and trained as ninjas by a rat, are forced to leave their destroyed underground home and take the first step into a surface world where they face many adventures and meet new friends and foes, until they meet their toughest opponent ever, The Shredder.

44. The Shredder Strikes, Part 2, Part 4

CT311998: Indeed. Pretty ironic due to the fact that your Catharina and my Artemisia are the doctors of their respective universes' families.

animegamefanatic: Yep. Even I'm proud of myself that I changed that so. Despite her young age, Arcee, as a self-taught and somewhat professional doctor, is way too attentive to forget her first aid kit back home even if it is a small trip to the surface. After all, their everyday life is almost always fighting and someone could get hurt even in their regular sport fights. And yes. Due to her being the doctor, Arcee is also prone to the effects of the stress.

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Author's note: There's two hidden movie references during of this chapter. Good luck in finding them.

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= TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2003 =
= THE SHREDDER STRIKES PART 2. PART 4.=

Meanwhile, in another alleyway, a patrol of three ninjas walked down it 'till they reached to the dead end that was covered by the shadows. Two of them walked ahead while the third followed close behind.

Suddenly, something moved fast in the shadows behind the ninjas, causing the faintly whistling gust of wind that blew some torn newspapers off the ground. The quick yet quiet running steps, as well as a couple of in the ground standing cardboard coffee cups that got knocked over when the figure dashed past them, caught the ninjas' attention and they turned around to see what it was.

There was no one behind of them.

"What was that?" one of the ninjas asked in confusion.

"It moved so fast. I didn't see it." the second ninja next to first one spoke.

"Could it be one of the turtles?" the first one suggested.

"If so, then be on your guard, men. They're out there. They're stalking us." the third ninja said as he pulled out his Ninjato-sword and turned back to the entrance of the alley, while also keeping an eye on the fire-escapes on each wall and the edges of the rooftops above.

The two other ninjas also pulled out their swords and prepared to engage whoever was stalking them.

One of the ninjas then sniffed the air and caught something that really stung his nose, causing his face to recoil in disgust under of his mask, while the other one turned to him.

"Ugh! Something or someone around here really stinks!" the ninja complained in disgust.

"Don't look at me." the other ninja said, shaking his head.

Suddenly, both ninjas felt someone poking them on the tops of their heads with the finger tips.

"Doo-doo." someone teasingly said with the low voice from behind the ninjas' backs.

Both ninjas instantly turned around to face whoever was standing behind their backs, only to let a throaty gasps out of their mouths when they felt someone stabbing them through their chests with the narrow and cold steel-bladed weapons.

Their gasps weren't unheard by the third ninja not a further away from them.

"Huh? What is it? What's going on?" the ninja questioned as he turned around to face his comrades.

To his surprise, the ninja saw the shadowy figure standing between of his comrades, who slowly went limp and bent over onto the figures' arms, with the blood-covered tips of the sharp-tiped blades peeking out of their backs.

"Who's there?!" the third ninja demanded, leveling up his sword and aiming at the shadowy figure.

The shadowy figure then pushed two ninjas forward as he himself pulled his weapons out of them. The ninjas fell on their backs to the ground, with the stab wounds in their blood-covered stomaches. The figure then stepped out of the shadows, revealing himself as the Mutant Ninja Turtle with the red bandana, blood-stained twin-Sai in his hands and a mischievous and victorious smirk on his face.

"Turtle." Raph said with the smirk.

The ninjas eyes widened at the sight of Raphael standing over his now-dead comrades, but before he could react in any other way, Raph made his own move faster than the ninja did by throwing one of his Sai at him.

The Sai hit the ninja in the forehead and the weapon's narrow blade sunk deep into his head, stopping the ninja in place before he could've either move in to attack or turn around to escape from the alley to alert the other ninjas. As the blood began to spill onto the ninja's masked face from the fatal wound in his forehead, the ninjas arms fell limp and he dropped the sword to the ground, before his legs gave in and the ninja fell over to the ground, dead, and with Raph's Sai still stuck in his head.

After this victory over the ninjas, Raph recalled what the first two ninjas had said about "someone or something" smelling around here. Turning to the first two ninjas he had felled, the turtle in red sniffed both his armpits to see if the ninjas had talked about him.

After all, he had taken unwillingly the bath in the dumpster bin.

"Oh, come on, guys! I don't smell THAT bad. Do I?" he asked from himself.

Suddenly...

"OVER HERE! THERE'S ONE OF THEM!"

Raph turned around and saw that his way out of the alley was suddenly blocked by eleven new Foot Ninja, all having armed with the Ninjato-swords, though one was holding a Bo-staff, another one Yari-spear and the third one the pair of Kamas. They all approached Raph in the line in attempt to intimidate the turtle in red and force him to back away to the dead end of the alley, where they could easily trap and kill him.

However, though they did got him trapped, their attempts to intimidate had no effect on Raph. Instead, the turtle in red let out a deep sigh in frustration.

"Oh, whatta night." Raph sighed, before he raised his remaining Sai up and took the battle-ready pose, ready to dance for some more.

However, much to everybody's surprise, when the first ninja charged forward to attack Raph with his sword raised over his head and ready to bring it down on Raph's head, a new shadowy figure suddenly emerged from the shadows and dashed right past the ninja before he disappeared back into the shadows, but not before doing its trick. At the moment when the figure passed the ninja, he let out the throaty gasp as his throat was swiftly slit open. And as the figure disappeared into the shadows, the mortally wounded ninja fell limply and face first to the ground and remained there, dead.

Raph was as puzzled by this as the Foot Ninja before him, as he hadn't done even a single move.

At least both sides were fully aware that they weren't alone in his alley.

With the ninjas backs turned, out of the shadows flew couple of chains towards two ninjas in the group's left flank. The ninjas' let out a throary gasps when the chains all of the suddenly wrapped around of their necks, causing the surprised ninjas to drop their swords and grab from the chains in order to remove them from around their necks. However, the chains were suddenly pulled back and they dragged both ninjas off their feet to the ground and into the shadows. Their alarmed screams caused the other ninjas to turn around towards them, only to see a brief glimpse of them before they disappeared into the shadows. Once they had disappeared, there could be heard the sickly sounds of metal cutting through of flesh and the gasps and screams of agony, which lasted for a brief moment before they faded away.

As the voices and the sounds of the struggle died down, the rest of the ninjas started to feel very uneasy while staring into the shadows, holding their weapons up and ready for the next attack from this mysterious attacker.

One of the ninjas then took out the torch and aimed its light beam in the shadows where their comrades had been dragged, only to find a very brutal and bloody sight: There was no sign of the attacker, but their comrades were found lying dead in the pools of their own blood. One ninja was killed via decapitation and his blood-covered body's back was full of the brutal stab-wounds, while the other ninja's throat had been slit open and his bloody stomach was stabbed for multiple times. The ninjas stepped back from this gory sight, obviously now frightened.

"AGH!" the ninja with the torch suddenly gasped in agony as his head was hit with something, which caused his arms to drop down and dropped the torch from his hands to the ground, damaging it and turning the light off. The other ninjas gasped in shock and stepped back upon seeing that their comrade had got hit from the arrow, which had ran through of his head from its right side and came out its left side. The ninja then fell on his left side to the ground, dead.

Suddenly, the same shadowy figure moved out of the shadows again and attacked the group's right flank. Before the ninjas could either detect the attacker and react to the attack, it was already too late. The figure was already upon the one with the Bo-staff and violently knocked the ninja off his feet and sent him flying against the wall, knocking him out and breaking his staff from the middle.

Then the shadowy figure quickly snatched the broken pieces of the former staff from the ground and moved swiftly through the gap between of two ninjas, holding the sharp-tipped pieces up in the air and stabbing them in the ninjas' chests and leaving them there, before the figure disappeared within the shadows again. Both ninjas gasped in shock and surprise upon feeling the sharp-tipped pieces of former staff running through of their hearts, causing them to drop their swords from their hands before they looked down on the pieces of the staff stuck in their blood-stained chests, before they both fell limp and fell over to the ground, dead.

The remaining ninjas began to panic as they kept restlessly looking around for this shadowy figure, who had already taken over half of them down, even killed six of them with rather ease.

Suddenly, the figure leaped into the air from the shadows and flipped over the ninjas. Prepared this time, the ninjas attempted to take this figure down by throwing the Shurikens at it, but they missed while the figure flep/flipped through of the throwing stars' flying routes without getting a single scratch from them, not even from the few close calls, before the figure landed to the other side of the alley and vanished into the shadows again, leaving the five ninjas and Raph alone again.

After a moment, the shadowy figure appeared again and dashed from the shadowy towards the ninjas, running through of them before it grabbed two ninjas, the ones with Yari and Kamas, from their garbs and dragged them with him into the darkness. And just like with the previous two ninjas that were dragged into the shadows by the chains, out of the darkness came the serious of hard punches and the ninjas' cries and groans in pain after every punch. However, their cries soon ended into sickening sound of neck being snapped, followed by the pained groan, before there was heard the sound of blade cutting through the flesh, followed by the throaty gasp. Then there was two low sound of thuds as the ninjas bodies obviously fell over to the ground, and then nothing. Everything was quiet again.

And then, out of the shadows flew two rapidly upright spinning objects that struck into the ninja in front of the remaining through so quickly that he couldn't react in time. As the ninja was knocked off his feet by the flying objects and he fell on his back to the ground, both ninjas (Raph included) saw that their now-dead comrade was hit by their into the darkness dragged comrade's twin Kamas, one stuck in between of his eyes and one stuck in his blood-covered chest.

As the ninjas stared down on their fallen comrade in shock and panic, they didn't notice the shadowy figure landing from above behind of one unsuspecting ninja. The ninja then gasped out loud in pain as he felt the cold blade of the sword slashing across his back, cutting out his ninja garb's backside and leaving in his back two bleeding gashes. Alerted by his comrade's cries of agony, the remaining ninja turned around in time to see the blood-covered Katana emerging out from his comrade's chest, before the shadowy arm holting what looked like Tanto-knife appeared from behind of the ninja's right shoulder before it moved the blade in front of the dying ninja's throat and slit it open, before the Tanto-holding hand disappeared behind of the mortally wounded ninja's shoulder and the tip of the Katana was pulled back into his chest.

After his throat was slit open, the ninja let out the hoarse gasp in pain as the blood started to flow out of the slit wound and over his chest, causing him to grasp from his throat with his hands in desperate but vain attempt to stop the bleeding.

As the ninja was slowly choking on his own blood that both filled and started to come out from the corners of his mouth, he took a couple steps forward and held out his left hand towards the last ninja standing, pleading desperately for help, before his efforts proved too much to him. The ninja then went limp and fell to his knees and eventually onto his left side to the ground. He twitched lightly and let out the quiet hoarse gasps out of his mouth before he finally passed away.

The remaining ninja looked down at his dead comrade in growning fear and then he turned his gaze up to see his fellow ninja's killer, only to notice the empty spot where the attacker was standing behind of his comrade's back a moment ago. The attacker was most likely stalking him from the shadows.

Finally losing his nerve, the ninja threw his sword to the ground, turned around and started to run towards the entrance of the alley to get out of there. However, before he managed to get out, a Yari-spear that belonged to one of his now-dead comrades flew out of the darkness and towards the ninja's turned back, flying through of him and coming out of his chest, stained from blood. The ninja let out the pained grunt before his legs gave in under him and the dead ninja flew onto his side to the ground.

Now only Raph was left... with the shadowy figure, whoever it was, hiding in the shadoes of the alley.

Now clearly alarmed, the turtle in red started to retreat towards the alleyway's dead end's shadows step by step while cautiously looking around, trying to locate this shadowy figure from the shadows around of him. Even though this figure killed almost all of the Foot Ninja who had cornered him, Raph wasn't sure was it either friend or foe. With Shredder's lies and his true colors exposed, the turtles now had a bit of an issues in trusting strangers from now on.

Oddly, even though there were no ninjas left in the alley except him, this mysterious figure didn't reveal itself for the next 5-10 minutes, but Raph still sensed that it was still around here, likely stalking him.

"I know that you're still here!" Raph bellowed impatiently to whoever was hiding and stalking him within the shadows. "And I'm not afraid of you, so come out and face me you... you... who or whatever you are!" the turtle in red snarled in challenge.

However, while standing in front of the shadowy corner, little did Raph knew that the pair of gray hands suddenly appeared from behind of him. All of the sudden, they seized Raph by his shoulders with the firm grip.

"Huh?" Raph muttered, surprised when he felt someone grabbing him by his shoulder, before he pulled within the shadows before he could react.

"Huh? WHOA!" Raph let out as he vanished into the shadows.

Whoever was this mysterious figure that had killed the Foot soldiers and had now him capture, Raph wasn't willing to suffer the same fate, not without the fight at least. The turtle in red fiercely struggled against his captor's firm grip in order to get himself free, until his captor suddenly and somewhat easily released him. But Raph didn't care about it and growling angrily, the turtle in red turned around to face his captor face-to-face and fists raised up.

However, he gasped in surprise and instantly held himself back from attacking the figure once he realized who it really was.

"MASTER SPLINTER?!" Raph gasped.

"Shush! Quiet, Raphael. There's still a lots of Foot around here." Splinter shushed.

Raph took a quick look at his master, noticing small stains of blood in his brown robe, before the rat master turned to pick up his Katana from leaning against the wall and his Tanto lying on top of the garbage bin's lid. The turtle in red noticed that next to both bladed weapon was lying two white cloths, and each cloth had a crimson line running across one side. Knowing that it was blood, Raph turned and stared at his father with rather susprised and slightly disturbed look on his face.

"That... that was you, Sensei?" Raph questioned in whisper, taken aback upon realizing that it was his master and father who had killed those ninjas with rather brutal manner.

"I know what you're thinking, Raphael, but now is not time for that." Splinter said strictly before he changed the subject. "Now, where are your brothers and sisters?"

"The others, we got separated. I've been trying to find them but they could be anywhere, and with all these Foot goons around..." Raph snarled, but was cut short by Splinter.

"Then let's waste no time. Come! We must find them." Splinter said, picking his Katana and Tanto up and putting them back into their sheaths, before both he and Raph left from the alleyway to search for the rest of the family.

###

Elsewhere, Louie and Arcee had managed to find a safe place for a temporary respite from construction site that was closed for the night. The turtles in black and pink were hiding behind of the several portable WC's that were standing next to the open round spot in middle of the entire area.

There, Arcee had decided to have a closer look of Louie's arm, which is why she was forced to unty the hand-made sling's knot and the bandages that were supposed to keep Louie's arm still on the board.

"How does it look?" Louie asked.

"Ulna has taken a pretty bad hit. Gotta be Isolated Ulnar Shaft Fracture." Arcee declared after examining her brother's arm. "If you're lucky, bro, this could be treated in outpatients with plaster casts or arm braces. And if not, your arm might require the surgical treatment."

"How do you know? Was that just a theory?" Louie asked, slightly wincing again when Arcee put a new into a cloth wrapped cold ice pack onto his arm to keep reducing the pain and swelling in his arm and tied it in place with the bandages.

"For now, yes." Arcee simply answered. "Because I need to make an x-ray photo of your arm to be 100% sure of the nature of your injuries, before I can decide what kind of treatment it needs. So you better thank your luck if my findings do not result in your arm ending up to my operating table, bro. Hope you're not afraid of the pair of scalpels."

Louie stared at his sister with wide eyes. "Hey, wait! You're not actually serious about surgical treatment, aren't you sis?"

"It depends on the injury in your arm, Louie... Though by the looks of it, the latter alternative might be possible. But we shall see." Arcee said, as she started to tie the bandagaes back around of Louie's arm to keep it still on the board.

Louie's moss-green skin almost paled at the displeasing thought of his arm ending up with such treatment because of some fracture... even if, according to Arcee's words, it was the bad one.

"Encouraging words, sis." Louie said sarcastically. "And since when you've started to do such of operation stuff? Do you even have any clue how that's done?" the turtle in black asked, sounding skeptical of her sister's intention to execute a possible surgical operation on his busted arm, while trying to remain cool with his slightly nervous thoughts about the concept of the subject.

Arcee gave his brother a look. "Doubting my skills, eh? Not to brag about myself, but I spent ten years of my life of teaching myself about the surgical treatment, both human and animal. And I've spent that time well by gathering a lot of anesthetics, surgical supplies and other important equipment in case there will be such of cases like this one, though more than half of my stuff were lost with our old Lair." the turtle in pink explained, as she moved the handmade sling's ends over his right shoulder and under his left arm pit so that he could tie them into know behind her brother's shell-back.

"You got any experience of this at all? Were you dissecting dead corpses of the dogs dumped into the sewers while our backs were turned?" Louie asked, still skeptical of Arcee's skills while trying to somewhat lighten the mood with the joke.

Arcee immediately stopped tying the hand-made sling's ends together after hearing Louie's joke and instantly gagged at it.

"Ewww! Yuck! Louie! That's the most disgusting joke you've ever come up with!" Arcee said with disgusted grimace.

"First of; Of course not! I don't dissect the dead dogs' bodies. Besides, I hate the very reason why they're dumped in the sewers! I hate that stupid people from an illegal animal labs tend to dump in their cruel experiments dead animals in the sewers to cover up their illegal deeds from the public. And secondly; I haven't... actually... done any surgical treatment before, except to the practice dummy, because none of us has suffered such of serious fractures that may require such of treatment before." the turtle in pink said honestly.

"Great!" Louie muttered sarcastically under his breath, as Arcee finally tied the sling's ends together.

"There." the turtle in pink after she was finished and stepped back. "Now I guess that we should start to look for the others. This place is far enough from the Shredder's warehouse and this block seems to be free from Foot's search parties. Maybe the guys, or at least some of them, have managed to make it here."

Louie gazed down to his in Arcee's hand-made sling resting arm and for a second before letting out the sigh.

"If we end up in the fight with the Shredder's ninjas, this is definitely gonna limit my ability to fight, right?" Louie asked, lamenting the fact that all the work that required both hands, including surviving in the event of a fight, was now up to his good left hand. Of course, like all of his brothers and sisters, he was capable to wield the weapon in both hands, but he still preferred his right hand naturally.

"Yes, but hopefully we won't get ourselves into the fight at all. Your arm needs long rest and time to heal properly... either with or without the surgical treatment." Arcee said.

"I know." Louie added, dejectedly. "It's just... I just feel myself useless with one arm busted, and you being the only one of two of us who can fight properly. It's hard enough to look after others while trying to survive a fight himself, and even harder to fight properly when it comes to both your own and the life of the injured person who is unable to help!"

"Cheer up, bro. You won't feel yourself helpless after the proper treatment and few weeks of recovery and then your arm will be as good as new." Arcee said, trying to cheer up her dejected brother. "Besides, you do not need to worry about that, because we won't be caught in the fight if we keep sticking in the shadows and stay away from the Foot's eyes and reach."

Louie's dejected tone of voice and look on his face turned serious... or even challenging towards Arcee's opinion.

"Yeah, but what if we do?" Louie questioned dead seriously. "Even now they could be down on us, waiting for the right moment to strike like the predator stalking its prey. We would either be surrounded or pushed into a trap in a corner like the animals, which we literally are. In that case we would be forced to fight our way through of them and out of the corner. That would be easy for me if I didn't have a busted arm in the first place, and if I still had my Butterfly-swords... But not for you, because you don't have the guts to take a life from anyone, not even from the one who literally wants you dead."

Louie's words left Arcee visibly disturbed.

"Argh! "Don't you even dare to whine about that, Louie! You know that I hate killing. I hate that kind of violence and bloodshed. I'm barely managed to keep myself together back there while witnessing you guys taking the life after another." Arcee shot back, disturbed and disgusted by the very idea.

"Wakey-wakey, Arcee! What did you expect?!" Louie said, tapping his head with his left arm's middle finger.

"We're in a all-out-war with the Foot, not in some of our regular sports fights with the street thugs! What choice did we have in order to stay alive, sis?! It's either them or us and the hesitation will only get you killed. You can't survive from the war without casualties." Louie retorted.

"It still doesn't change what I think about the whole thing!" the turtle in pink shot back again.

"Then how about then after the Shredder has taken the life from one of us in front of your eyes? How about then indeed?" Louie teased, tilting his head slightly to the left and raising his brow, while giving his sister a mocking grin and eyeing her questionably, which disturbed Arcee even more.

"You have really dark sense of humor, you know that, bro." Arcee snarled with the narrowed eyes and accusing finger pointed down at the turtle in black.

"That's what I can do, sis." Louie said, his smirk never leaving his face.

Arcee grumbled in annoyance, before he crouched down next to her annoying big brother and lifted her left arm over her shoulders while wrapping her right arm around of his shell and left side, getting ready to help Louie off the ground.

"Laugh all you want, bro? But know this that you just got me reeaaaally tempted to the idea of just leaving you here. Who's laughing then when you indeed find yourself all by yourself from middle of the ring of Foot ninjas?" the turtle in pink shot back as she helped to lift Louie up and back on his feet.

"Oh! Puh-leeze! Do me a favor, Arcee." Louie said with the snicker, not taking his sister seriously.

"Gimme a break, will you?!" Arcee retorted, as the turtles in black and pink began to walk away from behind of the portable WC:s and head towards the exit of the construction work area. "Now let's just go look for the others and get out of here before any more Foot shows up."

However, as soon as Louie and Arcee stepped out from behind the last portable WC:s and walked in middle of the open spot, more than two dozen work lights of the construction site, which were mysteriously placed around of the spot, were suddenly turned on and pointed their bright lights at the surprised turtles' eyes, blinding them and stopping them dead in their tracks.

"AGH!" Arcee gasped in surprise and covered her eyes with her left arm.

"Whatta!" Louie gasped, confused, before closing his eyes and trying to turn them away from the light.

"Actually, we're already here, Kappa." the ominously familiar voice said from the shadows.

Slowly opening their eyes once they got somewhat accustomed to the bright lights, the turtles in black and pink turned towards the voice, only to find Tatsu standing there in the border of the round illuminated area, backed up by six Large Foot Ninja, two of which was carrying a large Bisentō-spears while the rest of them were armed with the Ninjato-swords, which long and broad blades resembled the design of the Chinese Dàdào-swords, unless they weren't actually wielding Dàdào-swords.

"TATSU!" Both Louie and Arcee gasped at the sight of their nemesis.

The ninja master seemed to be somewhat bruised and had a little scratches in his place faces, no doubt from his earlier fight with Louie, Mary and Raph and from his fall off the rooftop into the dumpster bin. However, he still maintained that sickening evil and sadistic grin on his hideously scarred face as he stared at Arcee and Louie in front of them.

"Welcome, Kappa! We've been waiting for you to come out of your hiding spot." the scarred ninja master sarcastically wished as he hold both his arms out and then spread them wide as if gesturing some other people around them, according to the word "them" he just let out of his mouth.

True to his words, many other figures started to move from within the shadow and to the border of the illuminated area, and soon Louie and Arcee found themselves surrounded by the group of over two dozen standard Foot Ninja. About half of them wielded Ninjato-swords, with four of them wielding single Tantos as an extra weapon along with their swords while other four wielded the pair of Tantos instead. Five of them wielded Bo-staves. One ninja wielded the double-bladed Naginata and three of them wielded Kusarigamas while spinning their chains wildly in one hand. The turtles in pink and black also spotted another two dozen ninjas stationed on top of the portable WC:s rooftops, on top of three nearby standing containers, a green one in one a clock, a light-yellow one in four a clock and the last red one in seven a clock, on top of a concrete truck parked near the spot and finally on the rooftop of the blue portable construction site cabin in ten a clock. Only few of the ninjas in high ground position seemed to carry the weapons in their hands, as majority of them were wielding Yumi-bows. All of them had already put the arrows in the strings and lifted their bows up, pulling the strings back tight and aiming their arrows at the turtles from each direction. All the archer-ninjas were now waiting for the orders from Tatsu to shoot the turtles in the spot, while keeping their bow's strings tensed and ready to release the arrows into flight.

"Oh, uh!" Arcee gulped, seeing this many ninjas whose numbers reached to roughly over four dozen, heavily outnumbering them.

""We won't be caught in the fight", eh?" Louie said sarcastically as he turned to Arcee. "Well, we already did, sis!"

Tatsu then walked towards the turtles in black and Pink.

"What a lucky coincidence that I ended up running into you in particular, black-banded Kappa." Tatsu said, sounding almost pleased, pointing his accusing finger at Louie. "You and your accursed red- and turquoise-banded Kappa humiliated me again! But now, I'm gonna take the pleasure in killing you and pink-banded Kappa as well."

"Yeah, sure you do, Scar-face." Louie said back tauntingly. "But can you please just kill me with your sword rather than with your blabber mouth or your very presence. You smell as bad as a trash can that I can barely breath in here! Whoa!" the turtle in black added with obvious grimace, waving his hand in front of his face like trying to wave the smell away.

Tatsu's bruised and scratched faces hardened into an angry glare and he growled in fury at Louie for mocking him. The ninja master then pulled out his own Katanas and pointed one at the two turtles.

"Foot Ninja! Kill them! Rip them from their shells!" he ordered.

The ninjas from all around of them then began to approach the turtles in black and pink, weapons ready. The two turtle siblings stood side by side in middle of the ring of ninjas and eyed both the ninjas and the surrounding area behind them, in case of any possible escape route out of here.

Arcee then took into account the tall fence that surrounded the whole area, while keeping the civilians away from a construction site. Arcee also noticed in nine a clock an open route that led out of this ambush and straight to the fence, which also wasn't too high for them to jump over it.

While eyeing the fence and the open route, the turtle in pink started to develope an escape plan in her mind: If she and Louie manage to break out of the ambush and make a break for the fence. they could jump over it to the other side and then head for any nearby dark alley. By moving quickly and with a bit of luck, they should manage to hide in the shadows long before Tatsu and his ninjas could catch up with them.

However, the turtle in pink turned her attention back to the ninjas, especially their archers and to the ones armed with the Kusarigamas, taking into account how these ones would make their escape difficult. Not impossible but difficult. If they started to run towards the fence, their archers might and will be able to kill them with their arrows long before they even reached to the fence, or the ones with Kusarigamas would easily cut their escape short with their chains. And another troubling question is: Where there more Foot Ninja waiting in ambush behind of the fence or within the alleyway

The plan seemed highly risky and dangerous, if not even a suicidal, but it seemed to be their only hope to escape from the construction site and put as much of distance between them and Foot as possible.

And whether there were more Foot waiting in ambush for them, it was the risk the turtle in pink was ready to take, if it meant to get away from here.

"Okay, Louie!" the turtle in pink whispered as she turned to her brother and tapped his left shoulder to get his attention. "I got an idea! Follow my lead and we will..."

However, she got no chance to finish her line when Louie suddenly spoke over her words with much louder voice.

"Follow your lead?!" Louie questioned out loud as she turned to Arcee.

Arcee grimaced in worry and fear that Louie's big mouth would help the ninjas to predict her escape plan and ruin it before she could've put it into motion.

"FOLLOW YOUR LEAD?!" Louie repeated, louder this time, before the turtle in black suddenly and pretty roughly grabbed from Arcee's arrow quiver's belt with his left hand and nearly lifted his sister off her feet from the ground while yelling at her face, much to Arcee's surprise and shock.

Arcee was surprised and even shocked by Louie's sudden and rather aggressive outburst, as well as his rough manhandling of her, leaving the turtle in pink staring at her big brother with stunned look in her widened eyes.

"I DID FOLLOW YOUR LEAD?!" Louie snarled through of his angrily gritted teeth

"But... I..." Arcee stuttered bewilderment.

Arcee was then taken aback when Louie lifted her closer to his face until the tips of their noses were only a few inches apart from each other. Then the turtle in black whispered something from the left corner of his mouth, which only Arcee was capable to hear.

"Do as I do!" Louie whispered.

"Huh?" Arcee muttered, confused and unsure did she heard right.

"Play along! Distract them!" Louie added, before giving Arcee a quick wink with his left eye.

It took 5-10 second from Arcee to realize what Louie was up to. While she didn't know that did Louie notice the potential escape route to the fence and that was he thinking exactly the same thing as she was, she made a quick calculation of Louie's plan - if you could call it a plan - and realized that it might give them both an element of surprise against the overwhelming odds and a bit more time to escape from the ambush in unexpected way.

And so, taking a deep frowm in her face and glaring up at her brother in order to hide her determination from the unsuspecting Foot, Arcee veeeery slowly tilted her head forward and then back, giving everybody else except to Louie an invisible nod as a sign that she got his message and was playing along.

Acknowledging this with the small nod of his own, Louie proceed by going back to his role.

"I DID FOLLOW YOUR LEAD AND LOOK WHERE IT GOT US! RIGHT IN MIDDLE OF THE FOOT!" Louie bellowed angrily, shaking Arcee by her quiver's belt briefly before tossing his sister away from him and in Tatsu's direction, making the turtle in pink stumble a bit before she managed to maintain her balance.

After regaining her balance, Arcee immediately began to play along with her brother while turning to Tatsu and the ninjas.

"Can you believe that, guys!" Arcee asked from them out loud while gesturing her hands towards Louie. "I saved his life! I brought him here to safety from the danger-zone, and from all of you, and this is how he thanks me!"

The ninjas were taken aback by the turtles' sudden strange behavior, that they stopped in their tracks and stared at the two in bewilderment. Even Tatsu was utterly puzzled by this.

"What are you...?" he murmured.

"No! No! No, dear sis! I never even asked anyone to save my life." Louie shot back, holding his good left hand up in denial. "You just happened to be there and dragged me forcibly away from there while I tried to tell you that we needed to go back for the others. But what did you say? What. Did. You. Say? If I remember right, you said something like "You want to go back because of the others or because of you wanting to get even with the Shredder for wounding your pride?!"" Louie accused, mockingly mimicking the high-pitched girly voice as he walked around of her.

"That's not true, bro!" Arcee shot back.

"It isn't?! Puh-leeze! Since when has my dear innocent little sister relied on LIES?!" Louie accused.

"Well, look who's talking!" Arcee shot back with the teasing smirk. "You mean the lies you told us while denying having anything between you and Angel. Eh, lover-boy?!"(1)

"I...!" Louie was about to say something back, until his eyes shot wide open at the realization of what Arcee had just said... and had even used the nickname Angel had given to him a while back. "Oooohhh! That was even sharper than your Tessens, little sister. I've already told you not to go in there." he added softly.(1)

The ninjas around them just kept staring in confusion at the two turtle siblings arguing with each other. Some of them exchanged the puzzled looks with one other while others rubbed their chins while wondering what the turtles were talking about.

Louie and Arcee kept arguing and throwing accusation at each other, not paying a mind for the Foot around them nor paying attention where they were going, even if they were walking straight towards Tatsu and his bodyguards. All the Large Foot-Ninja instantly moved out of the way, giving the turtles some space. Only Tatsu remained still as the two ninja turtles walked past the scarred ninja master without acknowledging his presence at all.

"But listen to me, you little peace-lover, we wouldn't be in this situation right now; standing in the middle of a construction site, arguing in the middle of a group of over four dozen ninjas and in front of Tatsu..." Louie listed, as Arcee turned her shell-back to her brother and folded her arms. "... If you just had GUTS to take a life even from one of these ninja-assholes!" Louie exclaimed and palm-struck his sister to the back of her head, prompting Arcee to turn around to confront her brother.

A twisted smile slowly formed on Tatsu's lips as he turned to witness the siblings' heated argument, which was slowly turning into a fight.

"Like I told you, I despise the violence! I loath killing! I hate it down to my core! But if you really love killing people like the sheep in the slaughter, then why don't you just kill him!" Arcee shouted, pointing her finger past Louie's head.

The turtle in black turned around to follow Arcee's finger and saw that it was pointing at one Foot-Ninja standing behind his shell-back. The ninja's head jumped up in surprise when he realized that Arcee was pointing at him while supposetly suggesting Louie to kill him, so he quickly took a step back away from the turtles.

"Or him!" Arcee added, turning her pointing finger at another ninja, who was taken aback by this as well.

"Or him!" Arcee said, turning her finger at the third ninja, who merely tilted his head slightly while staring at the turtles with the raised eyebrow.

"Or him!" Arcee said as she turned to the fourth ninja.

"Or him! Or him! Or him! Or him!" she kept going while pointing at the ninjas around them out of random.

"Here they are! All of them right on the plate for you! But if that's really what you want, then why are you still standing there AND NOT GOING TO HAVE YOUR FUN!" the turtle in pink shouted as she slapped Louie to the back of his head, harder than what Louie had palm-struck her earlier.

"Well, at this point I COULD HAVE ALREADY! I just I ain't in the mood of listening the nag-nags from the nag-nag SISTER LIKE YOU!" Louie shouted, turning around and bashing his forehead against Arcee's, while both brother and sister glared each other in the eyes. "You trying to be, to act and speak like Dom is really starting to be a thorn in my shell!"

"You ungrateful poor excuse of a turtle!" Arcee shot back, bashing her forehead harder against Louie's. "I should've just left you behind when I had the chance! Then we would've seen how well you can do alone with that broken arm of yours!" she added, pushing Louie roughly away from her before turning around and walked away.

"OH, SO MUCH FOR THAT SENSE OF DOCTOR OF YOURS, DOCTOR!" Louie shouted mockingly, prompting Arcee to turn back to her brother, but this time she gave him hard backhand slap in his right cheek with her right hand, knocking Louie's head to the left.

"Oh." Tatsu muttered, realizing that the verbal fight between the two turtles was taking the turn into physical fight, much to his amusement.

"YOU WON'T TALK TO ME LIKE THAT!" Arcee cried.

"ALRIGHT, LET'S NOT TALK THEN! AND WHY SHOULD I WHEN I CAN DO THIS?!" Louie shouted as he flicked the beak of his sister's snout with his left hand's finger.

AGH!" Arcee yelped.

"Ehh." Tatsu muttered again.

"ASKING FOR BLOOD FROM YOUR NOSE, EH?! AS YOU WISH!" Arcee retorted before she slapped Louie again... this time to his brother's right cheek with her right palm and harder than the last time, making the smacking sound to sound even louder upon impact.

"Ow." Tatsu muttered yet again.

"YOU CALL THAT A SLAP, SISTER?! YOU HIT LIKE THE GIRL!" Louie taunted, giving the small bitch-slap-like slap to the right corner of Arcee's mouth.

"Ouch." Tatsu winched, as his grin widened enough to expose his teeth and gums.

"HIT LIKE A GIRL?! ALRIGHT! HOW ABOUT THIS THEN?! Arcee shouted, grabbing from Louie's Butterfly swords' scabbards' belt with her right hand and then she gave him a hard punch to the face, which let out the crunching sound and knocked saliva out of his mouth.

"THEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE-HEE!" Tatsu snickered insanely, amused and unable to hold himself as he witnessed Louie and Arcee whacking each other.

"ALRIGHT! I'VE ENOUGH OF YOU!" Louie shouted.

"THEN LET'S FINISH THIS!" Arcee agreed.

"ONE...!" Louie shouted, pulling his left fist back for the punch.

"TWO...!" Arcee shouted, pulling her right fist back for the punch herself.

"Oh, uh." Tatsu muttered, preparing to see how the turtles would knock each other out in front of him.

"LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET'S..." Louie and Arcee said in unison, preparing to punch each other in the face. "...TURTLEIZE HIM!" the brother and sister let out their common battle-cry in unison as they unexpectedly turned their fists from each others' faces and towards Tatsu's.

Surprised by this, Tatsu didn't have time to react before Louie and Arcee's large three-fingered fists struck him in the face.

The combined force of their blows was enough to knock the ninja master off his feet and send him flying backwards - knocking a tooth or two out of his mouth in the process - until he crashed into four of his Large Foot Ninja, knocking them all off their feet and onto the ground.

All the other ninjas were taken aback by this sudden turn of the events, realizing that the whole argument and the physical fight between the turtles were all just the bluff.

"TURTLE POWER, BABY!" both Louie and Arcee then let out in unison, as Louie wrapped his good arm around of Arcee's right arm before the turtle in black started to swing his sister around and towards the ninjas, who were still frozen by the shock of the turtles' sudden yet sly surprise attack on Tatsu. Using her legs, Arcee started to kick the ninjas within her reach in the faces and stomaches, knocking out at least twelve ninjas with this technique.

"IT'S OUR CHANCE, LOUIE! LET'S GET OUT OF HERE! HEAD TO THE FENCE!" Arcee called after she landed on her feet to the ground.

Louie and Arcee then darted towards the fence while most of the ninjas were still recovering from the turtles' surprise attack they commited on Tatsu. However, the ninjas recovered faster that Arcee had hoped and they quickly reacted to the turtles' attempt to escape by jumping on their path in attempt to prevent them from escaping.

Also the ninja-archers in the high ground were quick enough to react to the turtles' attempt to escape by turning their Yumi-bows and their aims at them before they released the volley after the fleeing turtles.

As the arrows started to rain down upon Louie and Arcee, the turtles developes the quickly-thought techniques of their own to evade the arrows.

Louie was forced to do zix-zax movements to avoid the arrows from hitting him, and upon confronting few Foot Ninja, Louie flipped over the first ninja, then bowed his head down while moving from under of the ninja's attempted slash with his sword and then somersaulted through of the third ninja's legs before he continued onward, leaving all three ninjas under the deadly rain of arrows that unfortunately killed all of them

Arcee, however, drew out her both Tessens. She opened them and then turned around and swung first her right and then her left Tessens to her right and at the incoming arrows, slicing few of them in two from beneath of the arrow heads or from middle of the hafts and deflecting few others with her Tessens' flat sides like the shields. Arcee then swung her Tessens back to the left, slicing and deflecting more arrows, before she back-flipped onto her hands and then flipped back onto her feet to evade being hit by more arrows.

Meanwhile, the ninja with the double-bladed Naginata attacked Louie, spinning his weapon above his head and prepared to bring it down on Louie's head to kill. However, before he could hit him, a ninja with the pair of Tanto attacked Louie first from his right.

The ninja attempted first to slit Louie's throat with his left hand's Tanto, which Louie, however, managed to avoid by leaning his head backwards, missing the blade's tip with the couple inches. The ninja then thrusted his right hand's Tanto towards Louie in attempt to stab the turtle in black in the throat. However, he failed to hit his target as Louie quickly jumped to the left and out of the ninja's and his Tanto's way, causing the ninja to charge past him. After dodging the attacks, Louie moved behind the ninja's back and quickly wrapped his left arm over his shoulder and around his chest, before the turtle in black turned back to the first ninja with Naginata and threw his ninja towards him, with the intention of letting him take the hit for him. The Naginata-ninja didn't notice this coming in time before he brought his Naginata hard down.

"AAARGH!" the ninja cried in pain as Naginata-ninja's weapon's blade cut across his chest, leaving there a large bleeding gash, and ironically splitting the Foot symbol in his chest in two in the process.

The ninja with Naginata looked rather shocked of what he had just done, though not for the accidental murder of the fellow ninja instead of killing Louie like he had originally intended, but rather for slicing his clan's symbol in two (just like master Yoshi had done 15 years earlier), which appears to be the greatest offense in the Foot clan, no doubt.

"Oopsie!" Louie teased from behind the mortally wounded ninja's back, before he kicked his blood-stained limp body over to the ground, revealing himself to the Naginata-ninja. The ninja lifted his gaze up from his comrade's body into Louie, only to see that the turtle in black was holding one of the dead ninja's Tantos in his left hand by its blade.

Before the Naginata-ninja could react, Louie quickly threw the Tanto directly at the Ninja's head, hitting him in middle of his forehead.

"AGH!" the ninja gasped as Tanto's blade sunk into his head, and the impact caused his head to flung back. The ninja, who was already dead, dropped the Naginata from his hands and then fell onto his back to the ground.

Arcee, meanwhile, was running towards two Foot ninja, one armed with swords and one with Bo-staff. The sword-wielding ninja attacked first and sent the slice at the turtle in pink in hope to cut her in two from the middle, only for Arcee to duck it by jumping over the ninja's sword before she landed onto her shell and then somersaulted back to her feet, only to come to face to face with the second ninja with the Bo.

The ninja raised his staff up and then brought it down to strike Arcee with it, but Arcee quickly raised her arms up and crossed her wrists over her faces to shield them from incoming attack. After blocking the staff with her crossed wrists, Arcee pulled her arms back and sliced with both her Tessens the ninja's Bo in three pieces from the middle, leaving one end of the Bo in the ninja's hands.

The first ninja then turned around and raised his sword up in attempt to split the back of Arcee's head in two. However, sensing this coming, the turtle in pink quickly closed her right hand's Tessen and put it away, before she kicked with the back of her foot one of the pieces of the second ninja's destroyed Bo up from the ground and snatched it from the air into her hand.

Before the sword-ninja behind her was able to bring his blade down on Arcee, the turtle in pink spun around and blocked the ninja's sword with her left Tessen before she whacked him in the face twice with the piece of the staff, knocking him both over and out.

Arcee then threw the stick away and drew out her other Tessen, opening it and then turned back to the second ninja to finish him off. However, instead of backing away from her now that he was weaponless, the ninja picked the other end of his destroyed staff up from the ground, before he looked up at Arcee and, glaring at the turtle in pink coldly, narrowed his eyes in challenge.

The ninja then raised the ends of his former staff up and then brought them down with the hard jolt, after which two hidden blades came out of the end of each of them, turning the wooden sticks into short swords with two-handed wooden hilts without the guards.

Arcee's eyes shot briefly wide in surprise, before the turtle in pink narrowed her own eyes at the ninja, as this wasn't really a big surprise... especially after seeing the same trick back in the museum some time ago.

"Any chance you might be the same ninja with that "hidden-blades" trick back in the museum?" Arcee asked rhetorically.

The ninja, however, didn't answer Arcee's question. Instead, the ninja pulled his bladed sticks to his right before he lunged towards Arcee to attack.

Elsewhere, Louie had found his escape way blocked by two ninjas armed with the Kusarigamas. Both ninjas were spinning their weapons' chains rapidly for a moment before they tossed them at the turtle in black.

As the weights in the ends of the chains flew towards Louie, the turtle in black held out his good left hand out of instincts and 'snatched' the chains from the air by letting them wrap themselves around his arm. Louie then pulled his arm back in attempt to yank the chains out of the ninjas hands.

However, with his right arm busted and in no condition to be used in pulling the chains with his left, Louie couldn't keep his chained arm with himself for long with the ninjas began pulling from the chains together, slowly yet forcibly dragging stubbornly resisting turtle in black towards them, syep by step.

Louie gritted his teeth as the chains got painfully tighter around of his good arm. And it started to feel like his arm was getting ripped off from its place in their tug-o-war.

"You wanna dislocate my only good arm too?!" Louie snapped as he kept pulling his arm back while the ninjas kept pulling it back, and Louie along with it, by the chains.

As the ninjas eventually got Louie pulled close enough for them to strike him, the turtle in black saw in the corner of his right eye that the ninja-archers on top of the nearby standing concrete car were leveling up their Yumi-bows and aiming their next arrows at Arcee while her attention was in another Foot Ninja armed with the bladed sticks she was battling with, oblivious about the danger behind her shell.

Louie gasped with dread, but he couldn't go to help his little sister as long as he himself had his own hands - or one good hand - full with the troubles of her own. However, the turtle in black was still determined to help Arcee. First he needed to first get rid of the ninjas that were pulling him towards them by the chains before he could lend his help.

Louie started to think quickly while the ninja-archers began to pull their bows' strings back and prepared to release their arrows at Arcee, while his own ninjas raised their weapons' Kamas up for the lethal blow, until the turtle in black came up with the plan and then turned back to his ninjas.

"You want me to come to you, huh? Alright then! I'll come to you!" Louie shouted, before the turtle in black lunged forward and towards the ninjas.

Both ninjas were left surprised by this but neither were quick enough to react in time before Louie jumped at them with the front-flip and kicked them both in the chests, knocking them both off their feet and sent them flying against the wall of the container, knocking them out cold, and causing them to let go from the chains.

Louie then turned around back to the three ninja archers and saw them ready to release their strings to send their arrows into flight towards Arcee any second. Knowing that he can't reach to them in time to stop them from releasing their volley, Louie began again to think something quick. The turtle in red then stole the glance at the Kusarigamas chains that were still wrapped around his good arm and then he turned back to the ninja archers. He looked then down at the chains again and then back to the ninjas, before he looked again the chains, until an idea came into his mind.

Louie then untied the chains from around his arm before he began to spun them wildly over his head. And after spinning them for a moment...

"Hey! Robin Hoods! Catch!" Louie called out to the ninja-archers as he sent the spinning chains flying towards them one after the other.

The ninjas turned their attentions at Louie, only to see two horizontally spinning chains flying straight towards them. One of them caught two archers by their throats, pulling them off from the top of the concrete car. The second chain caught the remaining archer by his chest, knocking him off the truck as as well, but not before he released his bow's string and sent his arrow flying towards Arcee and the ninja she battled with.

Meanwhile, Arcee was not doing a very well with the ninja she was battling with. The ninja swung repeatedly and unceasingly his bladed sticks at her, which the turtle in pink just barely managed to evade. Each attack forced her to step backwards once or twice, before the ninja managed to land the kick in Arcee's guts, knocking her off her feet and onto her shell to the ground, though Arcee managed by somersaulting backwards onto her feet.

Arcee attempted to stand up, but the ninja charged at her again with his arms crossed before he pulled both his bladed sticks forward in attempt to either slash Arcee's throat open or cut off her head. However, he missed when Arcee bowed her head down and out of the blades' way.

This move, however, left the ninja's guard open perfectly for the counter-attack. And Arcee noticed this.

However, before the turtle in pink could do anything, an arrow flied suddenly out of nowhere and pierced through the ninja's forehead, knocking the ninja's head slightly back and causing him to let out the pained grunt. Arcee stared up at the ninja, eyes wide from the surprise and shock, as he began to slowly fall backwards before he thudded onto his back to the dirt in the ground, dead.

After the ninja was down, Arcee turned to the direction where the arrow had came from and saw that the ninja archers that were standing concrete car weren't there anymore. They were gone, save for the one that was lying on his stomach on the truck's hood, with the chains wrapped around him.

After seeing the chains, Arcee turned to Louie, who was still standing next to the truck, no longer struggling with the two ninjas who were pulling him to them by the chains tied around of his good arm as she had noticed earlier.

Putting two and two together, Arcee gave an disapproval scowl at her brother.

"HEY!" Arcee cried, definitely not liking the way how this ended.

Louie was slightly taken aback by this.

"Seesh! You're welcome, sis." Louie sarcastically retorted.

"GET THEM!" Tatsu's voice suddenly roared, snapping the two turtles out of it as they turned to look at Tatsu, who had by this point pulled himself off the ground and was approaching the turtles, with the most of the remaining ninjas behind him.

Arcee turned back to the fence and saw that the path was clear. This was their chance to escape from the construction site unopposed!

"Move, Louie! To the fence!" Arcee called as she turned around and sprinted towards the fence, with Louie following right behind of her heels.

The remaining ninja-archers then released their arrows at the fleeing turtles, though both Louie and Arcee managed to miraculously evade most of them by zigzaging around, though some of the arrows did fly very close past of their limbs and heads and some of them, despite the direct hit, just harmlessly bounced off their shells.

True to the point, the turtles in black and pink managed this time to get closer to the fence without being stopped and attacked by anymore Foot Ninja. However, soon the turtles found this to be a bit too easy, and that they sudden turn of luck to be too good to be true. Growing suspicious, Louie and Arcee started to look from left to right and back, searching with their eyes more attackers in hiding. But despite their suspicions, the turtles couldn't stop for long or not at all to have a closer look on every perfect hiding spot they either spotted or missed, due to seeing by peeking over their shoulders Tatsu and his ninjas in hot pursuit.

The turtles were now close enough to the fence to jump over it.

"JUMP!" both Louie and Arcee told to each other just before they jumped upwards in the air and flew towards the top of the fence.

"OH, NO YOU DON'T!" Tatsu growled and unpolitely snatched the Kusarigamas from two of his ninjas, before the scarred ninja master started to spin the chains wildly and widely in his hands, and then he tossed the chains towards Louie.

When Louie and Arcee were about to fly over the fence and then fall on the other side of it, Tatsu's Kusarigamas' chains suddenly wrapped around of the turtle in black's legs, surprising him.

"Whatta... WOW?!" Louie gasped, just before Tatsu roughly pulled the chains back, cutting Louie's flight short and causing the turtle in black to fall onto his stomach to the top of the fence, causing him to let out a pained grunt.

Alerted by Louie's surprised yelp, Arcee turned her head around to see what had happened and gasped in shock when she saw Louie on his stomach on top of the fence, with the chains wrapped around his legs, and the chains were held by none other than Tatsu himself. After a moment, Tatsu pulled the chains back again, causing Louie to slip off it and fall back to the construction site.

"LOUIE!" Arcee cried in worry.

"ARGH!" Louie let out in agony as he ended up falling onto his right side to the ground, causing him to hit his busted arm against the ground, which sent a new burning wave of pain to run over his body.

Louie then rolled along the ground away from the fence, gritting his teeth in pain while cluthing his good arm around his busted one, until the turtle in black was stopped by Tatsu, who put his right foot onto his chest, pinning Louie on his shell to the ground.

Before Arcee herself hit on her feet to the other side of the fence, she reached her left arm out and towards the top of the fence, determined to go back there to help her brother without hesitation. The turtle in pink managed to get the hold of the fence, before she swung in arc upwards and flung herself over the fence.

"I'M COMING, LOUIE! HANG ON, BRO!" Arcee cried during her flight back to the construction site's side, until she hit back on her feet to the ground.

However, soon after Arcee had drawn out her Tessens, opened them and prepared to charge towards Tatsu, her path was immediately blocked by two of Tatsu's Large Foot Ninja, who immediately leveled down their Bisentō-spears and held their broad and curved-edged blades pointed at Arcee's head.

"AGH! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! HEY! EASY WITH THE BLADES!" Arcee cried, badly startled of finding herself held at spear-point.

The ninjas then forcibly backed the turtle in pink against the fence and held their spears' blades at her throat, daring her to make any sudden move and she will be killed. Though reluctantly but seeing no other choice, Arcee dropped her Tessens to the ground and raised her hands up in surrender.

Tatsu smiled evilly and in satisfaction now that at least two of the turtles were captured.

"Bring the pink one here, and get this one up as well!" Tatsu commanded his warriors, as he himself took his foot off from Louie's chest, grimacing in disgust as he looked down on downed Louie.

Two Large Foot Ninja then roughly grabbed Louie by his arms and pulled him up from the ground, caring nothing if they rough handling caused the piercing pain in the turtle in black's busted arm, making him to howl in pain and grit his teeth tight together. Elsewhere, two other Large Foot Ninja walked past their comrades with Bisentōs and seized Arcee by her arms and roughly brought her from the fence and before Tatsu and his small army.

"Let me go! I said, let me go, you murderous savages!" Arcee demanded defiantly, while struggling the ninjas strong grips.

The ninjas then threw both Louie and Arcee onto their knees to the ground and before Tatsu, who first looked down at Louie with a scrutinizing look in his eyes before turning his gaze to Arcee and looking at her the same way for a moment. Then Tatsu turned to look at Louie again and then back to Arcee after a moment.

"I have to give it to you, Kappas." Tatsu started. "You did well by pulling your little trick through that even I fell for it. But..." he said, holding up one finger before he took a short break in his speech, during which the Large Foot Ninja grabbed both Louie and Arcee by the shoulders and pulled them up to stand straight on their knees. Two of the Large Foot Ninjas then held their Ninjato-swords blades over their throats, threatening to slit them open if they moved.

"But..." Tatsu continued, as he walked calmly next to Arcee, both she and Louie holding their breaths in tension while waiting for what was about to come. "I did take the enjoyment of watching you two fools bitch-slapping, whacking and punching each other, whether it was real or not."

Louie and Arcee exchanged a brief glances with each other before turning back to Tatsu, who turned his back to Arcee.

"So why not to do the same thing to both of you myself, and this time FOR REAL?!" Tatsu roared as he all of the sudden spun around and back-handed Arcee hard across her right cheek, knocking the turtle in pink's head to the left.

"HEY!" Louie snapped in shock and anger at Tatsu for hitting his sister and tried to intervene, only to be held still by the Large Foot Ninja. "Pick on someone your own size!" the turtle in black snarled angrily, but Tatsu ignored him.

"Ooh! That felt good! Really good!" Tatsu said, feeling somewhat satisfying tingle inside of him, while his men forcibly turned Arcee's head back towards their scarred master, revealing a rather nasty-looking bruise in Arcee's right cheek as the turtle in pink turned to face Tatsu again, with the glaring frown on her face.

When Tatsu saw the look on Arcee's face, he immediately took an offense of this. "But not as good as THIS DOES!" he let out, before the scarred ninja master hit Arcee again, this time by bitch-slapping her hard across her left cheek, knocking Arcee's head to the left.

Despite receiving a new and nearly hand-sized and -shaped stinging bruise to her left cheek, Arcee turned - or was turned - back to Tatsu with the same look on her face, though this time she was trying to fight back the tears of pain that were starting to form in her eyes, leaving Tatsu unsatisfied.

"HNGH Still not satisfied!" Tatsu snarled, starting to get a bit too agitated out of sheer frustration.

The scarred ninja master then came up with the excuses to vent up his frustration and dissatisfaction. "Not till my humiliating defeat while back at the docks has been properly answered for!" he roared, before he punched Arcee hard in the left side of her face, knocking both saliva and blood out of the turtle in pink's mouth.

"AS WELL AS MY DEFEAT BACK IN THE DRAINAGE JUNCTION!" the scarred ninja master roared before punching Arcee again, this time in the right side of her face.

Tatsu then started to angrily and in wild rage punch Arcee's faces repeatedly and alternatively with both fists again, again, again, again, again again and again... with each brutal punch getting even faster and even more harder than the previous one, causing Louie to wince in horror and anger at every crunching punch Tatsu laid on his sister. The turtle in black still tried to get free from the Large Foot Ninja's grasps so that he could help his sister, but the ninjas kept their hold on him firm.

"AND MY EARLIER DEFEAT TONIGHT!" Tatsu roared before finishing the job by kneeing Arcee in the face, knocking the turtle in pink's head back and causing some blood to spill out of both Arcee's mouth and her nostrils.

After having beaten Arcee enough, Tatsu backed away from turtle in pink as she hung her head down after the beating finally ceased. The scarred ninja master panted heavily from slight exhaustion as he tried to calm himself and regain his own composure. Tatsu even stared down at his bloodied hands, which were shaking from the exhaustion and the slight soreness after beating Arcee's faces multiple times.

Tatsu then turned to look at Arcee, hoping to see the results of his brutal beating in the turtle in pink: that was that spirit of defiance finally gone from her face.

For many times in his life while serving the Shredder and his cause, Tatsu has succeeded in breaking his countless victims' even toughest and most defiant defenses before knocking the fighting spirits out of them by personally and brutally beating them almost to the death.

And this time wasn't an exception. The scarred ninja master was dying to see how weak, utterly defeated and completely hopeless Arcee looked by the looks of her maimed face.

The latter part was proven true when the ninjas forced Arcee to face Tatsu again, revealing him her faces.

Arcee's faces indeed looked horrible after Tatsu's beating. Her cheeks were covered with the multiple nasty dark-green bruises. Her left cheek was left swollen, her left eye was black and almost swollen closed, her nostrills were bleeding and the area around her mouth was covered in blood, her lip was split in the right side of her mouth, there was a bleeding scratch in her right cheek and her blood-tinged saliva was pouring out of both corners of her mouth. Arcee coughed more blood and saliva out of her gapping mouth while breathing in and out rather rapidly and shakingly.

However, much to Tatsu's utter disappointment, Arcee had somehow managed to maintain the defiant look on her face and kept glaring up at the scarred ninja master with her welling eyes, even if she'd failed to hold back her tears that were pouring uncontrollably down along her bruised cheeks.

Tatsu nearly flew into another fit of rage upon disbelief of having failed

Seeing the disappointment and utter frustration in Tatsu's from rage hardened faces, Louie couldn't help with himself but to open his mouth to mock their enemy.

"Well, well, well. That gotta be soooooooooo embarrassing, Tatsu." Louie mocked. "Let that be the lesson that you cannot break the turtle's spirit."

"SILENCE!" Tatsu roared in rage, turning to Louie while drawing out his Katana, with which he slashed at Louie, aiming at his throat.

The slash wasn't well-aimed due to Tatsu's frustrated rage and missed Louie's throat by inces. However, instead of slitting Louie's throat open, Tatsu's sword ended up to cut loose one end of the hand-made sling that held Louie's busted arm up, causing Louie's arm to drop limply down but this also sent another pain wave to run through of Louie's arm.

"AGH! OW! OW! OW! OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!" Louie howled in agony and cringed in pain as he instinctively clutched to his arm with his good one.

"LOUIE!" Arcee gasped, alarmed at the sight of Louie's arm's sling being sliced loose by Tatsu.

Despite her injuries received from beating, Arcee tried out of her doctor-instincts to jump back up in order to tend her brother, forgetting that she was still being held still by the bunch of Foot Ninja, who quickly reminded her of this setback by forcing her back to her knees.

Angry for what Tatsu did, the turtle in pink turned back to the scarred ninja master to protest his actions. "Hey! Look what you did, Tatsu! Didn't you see that my brother needed that sling to keep his arm still after it got busted, thanks to your master?!"

Tatsu was about to turn back to Arcee to hit her again, definitely not in the mood to listen to anything what she had to say.

However, the scarred ninja master suddenly held back his attempted backhand slap just before his hand could struck Arcee in the right cheek, as he took into deep consideration both Arcee's words about her brother's injured arm and the turtle in pink's recent immedient reaction after he'd cut off Louie's sling and made him to cry in pain.

Tatsu then turned back to Louie, eyeing him carefully from head to toes - or technically from head to his knees - and did indeed notice the condition and the bent shape of Louie's right arm that was tied up to the board. Tatsu then turned back to Arcee as the turtle in pink still kept glaring up at him, though she did pay a momentarily lasting and noticeably worry-filled glances at Louie's direction. Then Tatsu turned back to Louie, seeing the turtle in black weakly cluthing to his bad arm while groaning silently through of his gritted teeth, with the deeply pained grimace on his face.

Then, the scarred ninja master's mouth twisted into an evil smirk, as some wicked idea came up to his head. Tatsu then let out an evil chuckle before he turned back to Arcee and crouched down in front of her, looking piercely in the turtle in pink's eyes.

"Let's play another game then, shall we?" the evil scarred ninja suggested teasingly, before his voice became deadly serious and demanding. "Where are the other Kappas? Where did you plan to regroup if the battle went awful for you? Answer me now!"

Arcee narrowed her eyes at the scar-faced ninja as soon as he had questioned her about their brothers' and sister's whereabouts and demanded her to answer them.

"I don't know where." Arcee eventually said, reluctantly but honestly. "But even if I did, I'd never tell you." she added defiantly, before the turtle in pink suddenly spat at Tatsu's face as an act of contempt she held for the scarred ninja.

Tatsu, however, remained steadily calm despite receiving a slightly reddened spit in his left cheek. Tatsu then let out a mumbled chuckle with the grin, before he started to not hid head to the turtle in pink while wiping the spit off his cheek with the back of his left hand.

"True words of the fools who try to protect their close ones from me. Well, that won't work on me, 'cause I have been there many times before." Tatsu dismissed as he stood up. "I know that you Kappas know where are the rest, and you will tell me where."

"Or what? What are you going to do? Slit our throats before or after you've got your answer, which you already did?" Arcee guessed rhetorically.

"No... BUT THIS!" Tatsu bellowed suddenly, before he spun around and kicked with his left foot Louie in the left cheek, sending his head flying to his left and knocking saliva out of the turtle in black's mouth. The following sickly loud crunching sound indicated that the force of Tatsu's kick was strong enough to almost dislocate Louie's lower jaw, making Arcee to wince and cringe in horror.

From the kick stunned Louie hung his head down while coughing both blood and saliva out of his mouth, as Tatsu, smirking evilly, walked behind of the turtle in black's shell-back, before he turned to one of his Large Foot Ninja warriors.

"Lift his arm up. The broken one." he instructed.

The Large Foot Ninja nodded and knelt down to grab Louie's right arm with both hands and started to lift it carelessly up, caring nothing if the rough movement of the broken arm caused Louie's head to snap upwards upon a new wave of pain in his arm and the turtle in black howled in agony again.

"AGH! OWOWOWOWOWOW!"

Arcee's eyes widened when she saw this. "HEY! What do you think you're doing! Don't you morons see that he has Isolated Ulnar Shaft Fracture that needs to be treated! You're only making it worse!" the turtle in pink exclaimed furiously.

Tatsu shrugged his shoulders indifferently as the Large Foot Ninja straightened Louie's arm, making the pained grimace on Louie's face harden even more!

"Well, that's exactly my point of this, Kappa." the scarred ninja master said simply, before he turned back to Arcee and pointed his left hand's finger at the turtle in pink. "Now tell me! Where are the others?!"

"Already told you!" Arcee exclaimed. "We don't know!"

Tatsu's faces hardened as he narrowed his eyes at the turtle in pink's answer. "LIAR!" he spat, before he brought his left arm hard down onto Louie's arm.

"AHHHH!" Louie whined in pain.

"STOP IT!" Arcee screamed, once again trying to move towards Louie till she was held still by the Foot soldiers. "I already told you, Tatsu! We don't know where our brothers and sister are! I swear it!" the turtle in pink said desperately.

"Wrong answer again, Kappa!" Tatsu dismissed and hit Louie's arm again, causing him to whine in pain again.

"AGHHH!"

"No! It's the truth!" Arcee insisted.

Tatsu turned back to Arcee, holding his accusing finger pointed at the turtle in pink.

"I know that you despicable creatures are lying to me! That's all what you're telling me here! Lies! Lies! Lies! Nothing but lies! You're nothing but dishonest and dishonorable creatures with the toxic tongues and treacherous minds! You're a bigger stain of shame in the whole history of the martial arts and honorable ninjas than what I thought!" the scarred ninja master said accusingly.

Arcee's blood started to boil in disbelief and fury upon hearing Tatsu's hypocrite speech about dishonesty, dishonor and the hypocrite comparison between of their respective sides. The turtle in pink couldn't then hold her own anger back anymore!

"SO SAYS THE RAT-BITTEN GUY, WHOSE MASTER IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE PERFECT EMBODIMENT OF A MAN OF DISHONOR, LIES AND TREACHERY!" Arcee roared, fighting against the grasp of her captors as she nearly lunged at Tatsu in anger.

"SILENCE, YOU INSOLENT CREATURE!" Tatsu roared, his face burning red and stone-hard from the rage. "You'll pay dearly for your insolence against our master, but first I'll grant you this one last chance to prove me wrong about your own so-called honesty and honor by telling me what I want to know: WHERE ARE THE REST?!"

"Screw you!" Arcee spat in disgust. "For the last time, I don't know and neither I'll tell you!"

Tatsu's gritted his teeth harder as his face reddened even more from his anger and frustration.

"FINE! We'll have it in your way!" he snarled, as he turned back to Louie to hurt him again! But before he did anything, the scarred ninja master turned his head back to Arcee, while the corners of his mouth curved into a sickening sadistic smile.

"You know, your constant defiance, lies and denial only give me more reason - and enjoyment - to hurt your brother even more." Tatsu stated, with the sadistic chuckle. "And this time, I will destroy every bone in his arm that he'll never use it again! EVER!"

Arcee could only stare helplessly and in desperation as Tatsu spun himself around and raised his right leg high up and over Louie's arm, ready to bring it hard down onto Louie's arm to destroy every bone in the arm's busted area with one strike.

"Oh, yes! Oh, yes! The sound of the crushed bones! The howl of pain! The cry of agony! The whine of suffering! All of them together... are music to my ears!" enthusiastic Tatsu said to himself with pride and pleasure, before he brought his leg down onto Louie's arm!

Arcee couldn't bring herself to watch this torture and turned her head away from the scene, while Louie braced himself for another wave of pain!

However, before Tatsu's leg could hit on Louie's arm...

"SHACK!"

"YEEEEAAAAOOOOWWWW! AAHHHHHH!"

The ear-piercing howl in pain and agony - that didn't come from Louie but from Tatsu himself - got everybody, both the turtles in black and pink and all the Foot Ninja around them, to turn to the scarred ninja master with mixed surprise and confusion, to see that what had just happened.

To the ninjas' surprise, and the turtles' delight, there was a third and dark-toned emerald-green turtle standing next to Tatsu, having appeared out of nowhere next to the scarred ninja master and had stabbed his Sai through of his leg's shin, with its bloody tip peeking out from top of the sin and the blood pouring out from both wounds onto the Sai-wielding hand.

"Couldn't agree more, Tatsu." Raph said with the smirk. "That's the music to MY ears!"

"RAPH!" Louie and Arcee let out, both glad to see their brother.

Raph then pulled his Sai out from Tatsu's leg, before he crouched down and spun around, sweeping Tatsu's left leg fom under him and causing the scarred ninja master to fall over to the ground, still whining in pain from his leg. With Tatsu out of the way, Raph jumped back up and turned to the Large Foot Ninja who was still holding from Louie's busted arm, stabbing him in the forehead with his left Sai. Then the turtle in red pulled his Sai out and swung it at next Large Foot Ninja, slitting the left side of his throat open and then stabbing his right side through the right eye of the third Large Foot Ninja, killing them all quickly.

Louie did not wanted to be left out of all the action and also wanting revenge upon the ninjas for torturing him. And so, stubbornly ignoring the still aching pain in his right arm, the turtle in black took from the fallen Large Foot Ninja his Ninjato-sword in his left hand and swung it horizontally to his left, cutting the legs off from the fourth Large Foot Ninja and slashing one standard Foot Ninja in his right leg, causing both from the pain howling ninjas to fall over to the ground.

When the Large Foot Ninja was down in the ground, Louie crawled towards him along the ground, dragging his busted arm with him while holding his bloody sword in his left hand. And once he reached to him, Louie stood up on his knees and over the crippled ninja, glaring down at him angrily. Then, the turtle in black raised his sword and began in the vengeful frenzy to hack the ninjas in the windmill-like manner again, again, again, again, again, again and again, hacking their bodies and heads into pieces and causing the blood to splatter around, including in Louie's face.

"KILL THEM! KILL THEM!" Tatsu roared, as the scarred ninja master had curled up on the ground and grabbed his wounded leg with both hands to stop the bleeding.

The remaining ninjas drew out their Ninjato-swords and other weapons and started to approach the turtles in red and black from all sides, while the two Large Foot Ninja, who were still holding Arcee on her knees in the ground, took out Tantos from the scabbard in their belts and prepared to slit Arcee's throat open.

However, before the ninjas could to anything to Arcee and attack the turtles in Red and Black, someone dashed through of the distracted ninjas, too fast for them to see him in the darkness, despite the light of the work lights. And as the figure moved through the ninjas, there could be heard the sound of steel cutting through of flesh before it was followed by the cry of agony.

(Slash!) "AHH!" (Slash!) "OHH!" (Slash!) "AGH!" (Slash!) "ARGH!" (Slash!) "NO!" (Slash!) "UGH!" (Slash!) "OW!" (Slash!) "UHH!" (Slash!) "YEOW!" (Slash!) "AH-OW!"

After every slash and after every cry of agony, all ten ninjas fell over to the ground, mortally wounded.

"Whatta...?" Arcee said in confusion as she saw the figure dashing towards the ninjas, killing them one by one, before it headed straight towards her and the ninjas who were still holding her down in the ground.

"UNHAND MY DAUGHTER IMMEDIATELY!" a familiar voice called angrily as the figure came into a sudden stop in front of Arcee and the ninjas, revealing himself as none else but Master Splinter, as the old rat master swung his blood-stained Katana at the two Large Foot Ninja

SHACK!

"ARGH!"

"URGH!"

The ninjas let go of Arcee's arms when their own hands fell limp and dropped down, allowing the turtle in pink to take a support from the ground with her hands. Suddenly, before Arcee could move, the ninjas' heads, whose bloodied necks were cut clear through, fell with the thud to both side of her, with the headless bodies falling over to their sides. The left Large Foot Ninja's head even rolled under of Arcee's head, with his empty and lifeless eyes staring up at the turtle in pink.

"AGH!" Arcee gasped in fright and fell back onto her butt, crawling away from the heads of her deceased captors.

Arcee then slowly lifted her head up and looked at her father, who was at the moment fighting against the Foot Ninja with his Katana.

Splinter was clashing his blade with individual Foot Ninja's own Ninjato-sword and Tessen with such of speed, pressing force and ferocity that it forced the ninja into a desperate defense mode and to back away from the old but more skilled rat master, though this granted an opening for five other Foot Ninja, one armed with the pair of Kamas, second one with staff, third one with Yari-spear, fourth one with the dual Ninjato-swords and the fifth one with Yumi-bow.

The ninja with Kamas tried to attack first, but before he could even lay a one single strike on the old rat master, Splinter, after clashing his Katana together with the first ninja's sword, released his right hand from his Katanas' hilt and drew out his Tanto before she slashed it at the ninjas' thighs, stopping him dead in this tracks. Splinter then slashed the ninja in the stomach three times, gutting him, before he slit the ninjas' throat open, killing him. Splinter then spun around to his right, moving with his Katana the ninja's sword to his left, before the old rat master turned back to the ninja with his sword held high up, before Splinter brought it down onto ninja's arms, cutting them clean off from the arms. The ninja let out a shocked and pained cry out of his mouth as he stared down at the bleeding stumps of his arms. Splinter then slashed his Katana across the ninja's chest, leaving there a long bleeding gash that ran across of the ninja's symbol in his chest, slicing it in half, before Splinter thursted his Tanto in the ninja's unprotected stomach, causing the cry in pain to escape from the ninja's mouth before he fell onto his knees to the ground. Splinter then finished the Ninja off by bringing his Katana down onto his head, cleaving half of it clear off with one swing. After the ninja fell over, Splinter switched his Katana into his right hand and his Tanto in his left hand.

The ninja with Yari then raised his spear over his head and threw it at Splinter, but Splinter surprisingly caught the spear with his sword and skillfully spun thwe weapon around of his Katanas' blade, before Splinter swung his Katana towards the ninja and sent the Yari flying back towards him. The ninja had no time to react before the spear flew into his face and pierced his head, knocking him off his feet to the ground and killing him. The ninja with Yumi-bow then loaded his weapon with one arrow before he leveled it up and pulled the string back, aiming the arrow at Splinter, while the ninja with the dual swords charged at the old rat master with his weapons held high up and ready for the lethal strike. However, before either ninja could lay a lethal blow on him, Splinter spun to his right and whipped his tail at the sword-ninja. But instead of whipping the ninja in the face with his tail, the end of the tail ended up to wrap itself tightly around the ninja's neck, causing him to drop his swords and let out a hoarse gasp as the tail clamped around his neck. The ninja grabbed to the tail with his hands in order to get it off, but before he could, Splinter spun around again, pulling the ninja off his feet with his tail and started to swing him around him in the air. After one swing, Splinter swung the ninja towards the ninja-archer, who was ready to fire the arrow at him, and crashed his ninja into his comrader before he could release the arrow, knocking them both over to the ground and onto each other.

Splinter then turned around to face the last Foot Ninja wielding the staff, as the ninja charged at him from behind and tried to swing his weapon at Splinter. However, the old rat master swung his Katana at the incoming staff and cut off its end, leaving there a sharp-angled tip, which surprised the ninja. After spinning around, Splinter turned his Katana upside down in his hand before he stabbed it backwards and through of the ninja's chest, before he began repeatedly stabbing the dying ninja in the stomach about seven times. Splinter then put his Ninjato away, grabbed to the staff with his free hand and pulled it off from the ninja's hands, before he pulled his Katana off the ninja and put it away, grabbing to the staff with both hands as he turned towards the previous ninjas he'd knocked down with his tail. Before he made his move, Splinter remained to wait patiently as the ninjas picked themselves up from the ground and picked up their weapons. And as soon as the ninjas turned back to face Splinter, the old rat master jumped into the air and dived down towards the ninjas before they could attack. Splinter then raised the staff over his head, pointing its sharp tip down at the ninjas. And as he hit to his feet down to the ground in front of the ninjas, Splinter stabbed the staff through of both ninjas' stomaches. Both ninjas gasped in agony upon being impaled by Splinter's borrowed staff, before they fell over to the ground, dead.(2)

As Splinter kept fighting the ninjas, killing most of them with ease though with brutality, Arcee stared at his father and his bloody rampage with her eyes wide from the utter shock, unable to believe what she was seeing him doing.

"Master Splinter?" Arcee let out in quiet and shocked whisper.

At this point, Tatsu had finally managed to get off the ground and onto his knees, even though his wounded leg and the unbearable pain in it made it both slow and laborious. Gritting his teeth in pain, Tatsu lifted his head up to see the status of the battle, only to be further dismayed to see that all the four dozen ninjas, including all of his Large Foot Ninja, were lying dead in the blood-stained ground, while blood-covered Raph and Louie, with the latter clutching to his broken arm with his good one, stood over the carnage while staring down on him with hate and contempt.

Tatsu then turned to look at the Master Splinter, as the old rat master stood next to the turtles while glaring down at the scarred ninja master with even deeper hatred and contempt than what the turtles did. Though having already used to the turtles from their previous encounters in the past months, Tatsu couldn't believe that he was seeing with his very own eyes a giant rat, clad in the Japanese robe, wielding the Ninjutsu-weapons, and had just single-handedly defeated and killed most of his Foot Soldiers... with the speed and skills that were much higher-leveled than what the turtles' own.

"I cannot believe it!" Tatsu gasped. "First the bunch of Kappa... and now we got one Nezumi!"

Splinter then walked through of the carnage and towards Tatsu, stopping right in front of him.

"Hattori Tatsu." Splinter started, spitting the name out of his mouth with contempt.

Tatsu was left surprised again when he heard Master Splinter addressing him by his name. "You know my name?"

"Yes." Splinter confirmed. "I know who you are, Tatsu. And I know where those scars you carry on your face came from. We met each other fifteen years ago in that fateful night at my beloved master's home, Hamato Yoshi. The very man of great power and honor, whose murder, that was committed by your master's, the Shredder's hand, you participated in. I was his pet rat back then, the very same rat who left his mark in your face all those years go."

Taken aback by Splinter's recall of the events fifteen years ago, Tatsu stared at the old rat master speechlessly as his hand raised slowly over the left side of his face to touch the scars he'd received from the rat that had attacked him years ago.

"So..." Tatsu said, as he eyes narrowed and the shocked look turned into a ice-cold glare. "It was you who left me scarred for life."

"To defend my master." Splinter said with the nod.

"That explains all the trouble we've had with these Kappa creatures of yours." Tatsu spat, putting two and two together. "And if you have come to finally get your revenge for your master, then you better to draw out your sword and finish this quickly. Kill me, Nezumi, if that's your intention!"

As if intenting to grant Tatsu his wish, Splinter drew out his Tanto and pointed its blade at Tatsu's face. However, Splinter made no move to take Tatsu's life.

"And to lower myself to the same level of dishonor as you and your master already have?! To slay the warrior who is defeated, wounded and utterly defenseless, even though the warrior in front of me is rather a dog with no honor?!" Splinter spat. "I overheard your hypocrite speech about "honor" of the Foot, while there is none!"

Splinter then tossed the Tanto in the air and snatched it by its blade, before he held the weapon towards Tatsu.

"But if there indeed is any honor in you as you claimed, Hattori Tatsu, then here is your chance to prove it by committing Seppuku. Yaritogete meiyo o torimodose!" Splinter demanded.(3) (4)

Tatsu stared at the blade offered to him by Splinter, and along with it a chance to prove to him if he is a man of his word and if there indeed is honor in the ninja who serves the Foot. However, grimacing in disgust, Tatsu raised his left hand and backhanded the blade out of Splinter's hand, thus discarding both the offer and the chance to prove his honor!(3)

"NEVER!" the scarred ninja master spat, before he reached for something in his back.(3)

"You're a coward to take the life, Nezumi! You hear me?! A COWARD!" Tatsu yelled, before he pulled out a thermobaric hand grenade! "But... if it is my fate to die here tonight, I will take all of you with me as well! This thermobaric grenade will wipe this place clean of all life! Both mine and yours!" the scarred ninja master added and moved to pull the bomb's pulling ring off.(3)

"WOW!" Louie gasped and stepped back hurriedly.

"INCOMING!" Raph let out as he stepped back as well.

However, Splinter, rather than running away, spun himself around again and swung his tail at the grenade in Tatsu's hand, whipping the bomb out of his hands - but not before the scarred ninja master had pulled the ring off it, igniting the weapon - and sending it flying to the other side of the construction area, near theconstruction site's unfinished building.

"KA-BOOOOMMMM!"

The explosive eventually exploded into a massive firestorm, which caused the the whole building to collapse into a large pile of rubble, and its pressure wave knocked down or threw away nearly everything up to the fences, including Tatsu, Splinter and the turtles.

"NO!" Tatsu let out after witnessing his easier way to kill both himself and the turtles and Splinter exploding far away from its original location.

Tatsu then noticed that the turtles were distracted by the pressure wave of the explosion, with the discarded Ninjato sword almost right within his reach. And so, as long as from the explosion recovering turtles' attention was away from him, this could grant him an opening to kill the turtles from behind before they would even know it.

Deciding to seize this opportunity, Tatsu started to crawl hurriedly towards the sword. And when he finally reached to it, Tatsu picked the sword up and started to pick himself up from the ground to go after the turtles while their shell-backs were still turned to him, almost forgetting that he had his right leg wounded by Raph's Sai.

However, he was quickly reminded about it when Splinter, moving in from behind the scarred ninja master, struck him in the wounded leg with his staff.

"ARGH!" Tatsu cried in pain and fell onto his knees to the ground, letting the sword to drop from his hands, as Splinter walked from behind his back in front of him.

"As I predicted, Tatsu. You fight without honor." Splinter angrily criticized. "And the warrior who lives without honor, shall die without honor."

Remembering those words as the last words of Hamato Yoshi before his death, Tatsu glared up at Splinter venomously, before the scarred ninja master swiftly picked up the sword again and tried to thurst it its blade into Splinter's stomach, only for Splinter to struck in one spot in Tatsu's arm with his own finger without even trying to move out of the sword's way, causing the arm to go limp in seconds. And to ensure that Tatsu will not do the same thing again with his other arm, Splinter poked him in the pressure point in his other arm with just a finger, causing Tatsu's other arm to go limp as well, leaving him utterly helpless now.

"But I will not sacrifice my honor on the dogs like you, Tatsu!" Splinter declared, readying himself to finish Tatsu off.

Splinter then struck Tatsu in the backside of the base of his neck in his left and then in his right. Then he poked the spot in between of his right shoulder and right side of the chest. Then he touched with his palm Tatsu in the face. Then Splinter touched one spot in Tatsu's chest with his knuckles, then another spot with the tips of his four fingers, and finally he poked him with his front finger in the place of Tatsu's heart. Every move was well-coordinated and well-placed that it left Tatsu's entire body limp and knocked him inconscious.(5)

Defeated and knocked out, Tatsu fell onto his stomach to the ground, leaving Splinter standing over him, victorious.

The turtles stared at their master with wide eyes, amazed by this move that effortlessly knocked Tatsu out cold.

"Wow!" Raph gasped.

"Master Splinter? That was AWES-OW!" Louie said as he was about to raise his hands up to cheer at their father, only to wince in pain again when his busted arm protested against such of rash movement with anothe wave of pain!

However, despite her brother just winced out loud in pain from his busted arm, Arcee, who was sitting on her butt in the ground next to her brothers, didn't react to this in any way and did nothing to get up to help Louie with his injury. She only remained still, staring blankly forward.

Splinter eventually turned away from Tatsu and rushed to his children. "Lorenzo? Raphael? Artemisia? Are you alright, my children?"

"Peechy." Raph said simply, brushing some dust off himself.

"Only then when I get my arm back in shape, then I will be alright." Louie said in complain through of his gritted teeth.

Splinter nodded, before the old rat master turned to Arcee. "Artemisia? Patch your brother's arm, quickly. That explosion might have drawn too much unwanted attention. We need to get out of here and find the rest of your brothers and your sister."

However, despite Master Splinter's orders, Arcee didn't move a muscle to do anything. Splinter noticed this, much to his and the others' confusion.

"Artemisia?" Splinter called out, but the turtle in pink still didn't react.

"Arcee?" Louie called, growing worried for his sister.

"Hello! Earth to Arcee!" Raph called, louder than what his brother and father. "Didn't you hear what Splinter said?! We need to get out of here! SO GET UP!"

"Raphael!" Splinter said sternly, silencing his hot-headed son, before the old rat master turned back to his daughter.

Splinter stepped closer of the turtle in pink, inspecting her with his eyes. The old rat master could tell that something was wrong with Arcee because she just sat quietly in still without reacting to their calling her by her name. Splinter then knelt next to his daughter, and even though Artemisia wasn't looking at him, the old rat master saw that there was the mixed shock, disbelief and distress in her eyes.

"Artemisia, my daughter? What is wrong with you?" Splinter asked gently as he put his hand over Artemisia's shoulder.

This managed to get Arcee's attention, as the turtle in pink turned to look at her father. However, much to Splinter's surprise, there was the same look in Arcee's eyes that can be seen in the eyes of the child whenever she is confronted by... an unknown stranger, that frightens her.

"Artemisia? Talk to me?" Splinter pleaded. "What is bothering you? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Arcee kept staring at Splinter silently for five minutes, then her eyes fell down down to her father's robes and then she lifted her eyes back to his face. The turtle in pink even winced at the sight of his hand resting on her shoulder and moved slightly away from her father's touch.

Splinter followed his daughter's gaze down to his robes, seeing that his robe was full of big and small fresh stains of blood. Splinter then looked at his hands and realized that they too were covered with the blood, hence why Arcee had winced in fright and moved away from his touch. And even though he couldn't see his face, Splinter could only guess that, judging by the look Arcee was giving him, his face was fovered with blood as well.

Arcee eventually opened her mouth to speak.

"You... you... you... k-killed them?" Arcee said with the whimper, slightly nodding her head to her left.

Splinter turned his own head to the direction where Arcee was nodding her head to see what his daughter was talking about. But when his eyes stopped at the few dead and mutilated corpses of the ninjas he'd killed during the fight, the old rat master understood what had got Arcee so upset

"Oh, I see now what has made you so upset." Splinter said softly.

"Why, father? Why did you do that?" Arcee asked softly. "I... I th-thought that you're... you're wa-way above of this... this... this awful st-stuff."

Splinter sighed deeply. He really couldn't blame Arcee for having a major issues with the concept of taking life from any living creature, both humans and animals. She has always considered killing and bloodshedding to be an abominable act, a rejection of all the innocence within the person, and a mixture of insanity and lack of morality.

To Arcee, seeing her brothers' and sister killing people, even though some of the said people are their enemies, was already disgusting and upsetting enough, but seeing someone, whom she loves as her father, whom she has always considered as a man - or a rat - of honor and who always values life without destroying it, and whom she has always thought to be above of such madness, committing a bloody and brutal murder before her eyes is quite another matter. Seeing her own father lowering himself to the same level where the Shredder had lowered himself already, when it comes to the killing people, was a spirit-crushing thought, which affected Arcee negatively.

Splinter was left worried that his youngest daughter won't never again look at him the same way she has always looked at him before this night. However, the old rat master wanted Arcee to understand a few certain things behind of his bloody deeds. Things that can still distinguish them from the Shredder's own ways. Things, with the help of which the one can still maintain their morality and innocence, despite the obvious and undenieable cruel nature of taking someone's life.

"Artemisia? Look at me." Splinter started and landed his hand over Arcee's right shoulder again, getting her attention. "I want you to understand that even though it may not look like it, killing is never easy for me either. But I did it only to protect my family, to protect you and your brothers. I would do that again, but only to keep all of you safe. There's no any other reason for me to do it but your safety."

"But..." Artemisia stuttered. "You've always taught us that the life is precious, even that of those we consider as our enemies."

"Yes." Splinter said with the nod.

"But that's just it. You still killed them all without the second thought... with such of murderous ferocity I've never seen in you before, father." Arcee pointed out, gesturing at the corpses of the Foot Ninja. "Won't that make any of us... or even you... no better than the monsters were fighting against?"

Splinter let out another sigh. "I would be lying to you if I told you that I didn't let my own emotions go over my head. Truth to be told, I did let my sorrow for the death of my beloved master, and my anger for the Shredder for taking him from me, to take the hold of myself and my actions."

"Oh! Isn't that just like Raph? He always lets his emotions get better of him, and when he does, he doesn't even think what he's doing." Louie remarked.

However, Louie's words inadvertently provoked non-too-pleased Raph to turn around to glare daggers at his brother while shaking his fist in front of Louie's face threateningly.

"Wowowowow! No hitting turtle with one arm busted!" Louie exclaimed, holding his goot arm up in submission.

"Raphael! Lorenzo!" Splinter snapped strictly as he jumped up to his feet and proceed to whack both turtles in red and black on top of their heads with one end of his own staff, making them both yelp in pain and raise their heads over their heads to sooth the pain away.

"Uhh... Well, look at the bright side, Master Splinter." Louie said while he rubbed his head with his left hand. "At least, you got a good reason enough for what you did, especially after what both the Foot and the Shredder did to you in the past."

"Good reason, maybe." Arcee murmured sadly, making everybody else to turn back to her. "But not good enough to encourage us to lower ourselves to the same level as the soulless and remorseless monsters like the Shredder. Besides, we should be more merciful towards any life instead of ruthlessly taking it away as if it is ours to take."

Splinter turned back to Artemisia, nodding his head in agreement. "You're right, Artemisia. We shouldn't"

Master Splinter then knelt back down next to still upset turtle in pink. "But listen, my daughter, When Master Yoshi was still alive, he used to say something about both taking a life and showing the mercy. I hope that this will help you at least find some balance with your opnions about them."

Artemisia looked at her master and father with keen ears, patiently waiting for what he had to say about what master Yoshi once used to say.

"My master once said that taking a life is like a splinter that gets under your skin and will bother you for the rest of your life." Splinter started. "The burden of taking a life is heavy and difficult to bear, but sometimes you just have to dirty your blade, only if there is no other choice or to protect and all those you care about."(6)

"And I also taught you another thing: That ending the life should always be a last resort."

"What about the mercy? What did master Yoshi said about the mercy?" Arcee questioned. "Wouldn't showing the mercy be much better choice than taking a life?"

"Yes... but in some cases no." Splinter said, making Arcee to rise her eyebrow in confusion of her father's words.

"Master Yoshi also said that the true warrior knows when is the right time to take the life and when to spare one." Splinter said. "And sometimes showing mercy to your foe might be rewarded in unexpected ways, but sometimes showing mercy may backfire with unpredictable consequences... especially when we're dealing with the people like Shredder... or Tatsu."

Never having thought that before, Arcee started to ponder her master's words seriously. It was already an unbelievable and even disturbing revelation that even showing mercy to your enemy has its dark side, if it could backfire to you later in your life. But, even though she hated to admit it to herself due to her anti-violence views, her father did had the point about the necessary to get your blade, as well as your own hands dirty if it meant to protect those she loved. The turtle in pink let out the defeated sigh and put her hand over her left temple.

"This... this is all too much for me to go through, father. I... I really don't want to hurt anyone, least to kill anyone, not even them." Arcee said honestly, gesturing the dead Foot Ninjas with her hand.

Both Raph and Louie were left puzzled by this.

"Even after everything they've done to Master Splinter?! To us?! Are you serious, Arcee?!" Louie exclaimed in disbelief!

"The Foot deserves all of this, sis! And the Shredder... he doesn't deserve any mercy for what he has done!" Raph exclaimed while angrily shaking his fists.

Master Splinter turned to his agitated sons and silenced them with the piercing glare. Both turtles in black and red fell quiet immediately once they saw their master glaring at them.

"I know that, guys! It's just..." Arcee snapped, before her voice softened again to the lower tone. "I'm just... worried. Worried that I might find myself in the situation where I must decide whether should I just get done with it or be merciful. It's not that I'm expecting myself to be rewarded for sparing my enemy's life. I just want to be a good person. But I also don't want everyone I care about to suffer because I showed mercy to the wrong guy. And then comes the killing the guy outright... (Hrrr!)... I just don't want that becoming my habit. I don't even know what to believe in anymore." Arcee lamented.

Arcee lowered her head down, looking again deeply downhearted due to the conflicted feelings inside of her mind and heart. Master Splinter reached out his hand and landed it on Arcee's shoulder again.

"Artemisia? I appreciate it that you want to follow the path with no violence and bloodshed. That's the path my master wanted to follow as well." Master Splinter said reassuringly. "You are already goo person, Artemisia, and nothing never changes that. But if ever you find yourself in the situation where you must decide between of ending the life or showing mercy, remember this: You must follow what your heart tells you to do. Don't listen to your conflicting opinions in your mind or it will lead you astray, just your heart, and you'll know that you'll make the right decision."

Hearing that, Arcee put her hand gently over the place of her own heart in her chest, pondering her master's words.

Once again, she had to admit it that her master was right about relying on opinions instead of your heart. Overloadig her mind by thinking too much of dirtying the hands with blood, the unpredictable consequences of showing mercy, either bad or good, and then worrying about herself and her family becoming too much like the those ones they're fighting against, did cause her head to ache unbearably. But if she relied on her heart more than her conflicted opinions in her mind if she ever found herself in such of situation like Master Splinter predicted, then maybe she would know which one would be the right decision... and for the right reasons.

Feeling at least somewhat better now, Arcee turned back to her father. "Well, if you say so, father... then maybe I do." the turtle in pink added with the smile.

"Good." Splinter said with the smile, pleased that his daughter had found at least some balance with her views.

Then Splinter's ears started to twitch as the sound of distant police and fire department's sirens began to ring in the air, The entire mutant family turned in the direction of the sirens, which kept getting closer and closer of their location as the ringing kept getting louder.

"Authorities!" Louie gasped.

"Quick! We need to disappear!" Splinter said as he jumped up to his feet, followed by Artemisia who quickly picked herself up from the ground. "Artemisia! Patch your brother's arm quickly, then we'll get out of here to look for the rest of your brothers and your sister."

"Already on it, Sensei!" Arcee said as the turtle in pink quickly took more bandages, a new white cloth and another ice pack out of her belt's first aid kit to make another sling around Louie's busted arm.

By the time the authorities, both police and the fire department, finally arrived to the construction site to investigate the destruction and put out the fires, the mutant family had already managed to sneak away of the construction site undetected and disappeared into the shadows, from where they resumed their search for their missing family members.

TO BE CONTINUED

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TRIVIA

1) = The other turtles have started to pick on Louie for his interraction with Angel back in "The Troubled Angel" chapters.

2) = First, I was planning to have Splinter to stab his borrowed staff through of the ninjas backs when they were still lying on the ground, until I decided to make him wait 'till they're back on their feet and ready to face him again. Though I made Splinter, as well as half of the turtles, to kill the Shredder's ninjas, it would still be out of the Splinter's honorable and noble character to just make him to kill those ninjas when they were unable to defend themselves. So I made my version of Splinter to kill only those enemies who are on their feet and capable to fight back. Like he said "You strike the defenseless/wounded warrior?! You have no honor!" to Shredder in the episode "The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 2."

3) = Splinter refusing to kill the defeated Tatsu, but offering him instead a chance to redeem himself and his honor by committing Sepukku, only for Tatsu to refuse out of pride and his attempt to kill himself and Splinter and the Turtles with him with the thermobaric grenade is the reference to the similar scene in the mirage comics, where the turtles refuse to kill the defeated Shredder and offer him instead a chance to redeem himself by committing Sepukku, only for the Shredder to refuse and tries to kill both himself and the turtles with the thermite grenade, only for Donnie to knock both the Shredder and the grenade off the rooftop to his first death. This is my way to increase how hypocritic and twisted views Tatsu has about honor and to prove further that he treasures his pride and his ego more than honor.

4) = "Yaritogete meiyo o torimodose!" means "Do it and regain your honor!"

5) = Splinter's nerve attack technique on Tatsu here is based on the way how Leonardo defeated Ra's al Ghul in Batman vs TMNT movie.

6) = Splinter's line "My master once said that taking a life is like a splinter that gets under your skin and will bother you for the rest of your life." is based to Ancient One's line "Vengeance is like a splinter; it gets under your skin and can poison your life." from the episode Tales of Master Yoshi. Truthfully, the guilt over ending someone's life (mostly by accident but still) can be a really bothersome burden that can haunt anyone for the rest of their lives.