lucifer black: Instead of sending Donnie into the Foot-controlled futuristic world, Ultimate Drako should send Donnie into Jhanna's home planet and have the two meet a way before the People's Choice? I'll think of it. No promises though.
billsazguard: I'm glad that you loved my story!
Guest: Yes, indeed. While I personally dislike the Ultimate Drako for his pettiness to try and destroy the turtles, I sometimes do like how each turtle's adventures in the worlds they have been sent to reflects to their dreams like Mikey's and Raph's, the one's importance like Donnie's, and to help and save the friends in need like Leo's. I'm also aiming to do my own OC turtles' the same thing. I won't spoil much what I have planned for Marietta, Lorenzo, Domenico and Artemisia in the Ultimate Draco Saga, but I can at least tell what their own adventures can reflect.
Marietta has a drive to protect those who can't protect themselves from the various threats, whether it is her family or friends or a totally strange but otherwise innocent people. Her Ultimate Drako Adventure will put into Mary's hands the fate of the entire world.
Lorenzo is a prone to get himself into the dangerous situations almost without thinking, just out of his own fun or for the sport. His Ultimate Drako Adventure will put him to the wild ride of a lots of fun but also a lots of trouble.
Domenico is the violence-hating turtle who seeks to solve the situations with peaceful and diplomatic methods. His Ultimate Drako Adventure will put him torn between his pacifistic side and the usage of the violence.
Artemisia has a strong belief in goodness and loath for evil, as well as a strong bond with her family members (as she rarely if not at all gets into fight with anyone). Her Ultimate Drako Adventure will put her to the fight between good and evil, but she needs her family's help in it.
And so, my OC turtles will be setting the things right in the worlds they'll be sent too, which will affect heavily on them before they're returned to their own world. But in the end, only one of these adventures will have some sort of affect to the main course of their own world, in some way.
Guest: If I find some time for myself, maybe I will.
Guest: Yeah. The plot hole noted.
Guest: I am too very unsatisfied that Uncle Darius got away with everything he has done to the turtles and Cody a. I'm also considering of making my own versions of the cancelled Fast Forward Season 2 episodes by using the source materials I've discovered about them.
Guest: I think I'm gonna keep Traximus and Leatherhead just as the turtles' close friends and allies.
Guest: Not to worry about that. Along with Donnie, Mikey and Dom, Arcee will hardly kill anyone during the whole course of the story.
GUEST: Though Donnie too was stunned to see Mary killing that "Brutish" guard for threatening and even hurting Olivia, I don't think it will affect to their relationship negatively, while Mary will indeed kill some of their opponents in the future unlike Donnie. I think that I need some Donatello-focused episode to explore Donnie's and Mary's relationship. And as for Stockman's rather gruesome skeletal cyborg body, I ain't gonna make Bishop anywhere near a that generous guy and any less of a monster he is during the Season 3 & 4.
Guest: Well, since I gave Louie a musical number of his own, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't give Arcee her own at some point... if I find such. And Ultimate Ninja having an older sister does indeed sound a splendid idea. I just need to consider this.
ZoyeZest: I'm glad that you took interest in my story and clearly you liked it.
CT311998: Oh, yeah. Dandelion's vendetta against Louie and Arcee has drove him into extremely monstrous methods to achieve his revenge against the two.
guest: You mean Malignus flirting with Arcee? I can only imagine her disgust about that.
GUEST: I think I'm gonna keep poor Zog's story as the same, but I'm thinking of making the turtles to honor his last wish of being remembered as a honorable Triceraton warrior who died by fighting for what he believed, for the republic. And I'm highly considering of adding a little depth to Raph's and Joy's relationship than seen in the Season 5.
GancaloMorata: I'm glad that you took interest in my story and clearly you liked it.
Girl Anime Club: We shall see it here.
animegamefanatic: Yes. Dandelions have now gone too far with their campaign against Louie by having Edward and Conrad strapped up with the explosives, kidnapping Wendy and some random guy to serve as a bait for Louie.
Skully13: I'm gonna keep both Donnie's secondary mutation form as the same and Baster Stockman's skeletal cyborn body as the same, but your suggestion about the tentacles with stingers in Donnie's arm - like a Dr. Isaacs/Tyrant from Resident Evil: Extinction - will enter into the serious consideration and would actually even enter into the story.
Tornado man: Yes. I'm planning for the OC episodes for my OC turtles in Ultimate Draco arc, and while I got something in mind, I'd like a few suggestions about what kind of worlds Mary, Louie, Dom and Arcee would be sent. And I'm kinda trying to come up with the both canon and OC turtles their own love interests.
Guest99: Yes. They wouldn't betray Louie like this by their own will
.
=Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003=
=The Girl and the Turtle Part 3, Part 3=
A night earlier...
In the abandoned hotel where Wendy and the homeless children lived, the whole gang in the attic apartment was going in for the night, and pretty much everybody had their very own sleeping quarters wherever they could find a nice and comfortable one.
Jake had his so-called sleeping quarters in the lap of the giant teddy bear, with the cookie jar standing nearby for the mid-night snack.
Edward was sleeping in the sleeping quarters he had made into the hand-made "pirate" ship, which consisted of the bath tub as the hull, broom as the mast, a sheet as a sail and the pirate flag hanging from the top of it.
Conrad was sleeping in the bed he had made to the bottom drawer of a dresser, which was big enough for him to fit in there.
Laura was sleeping in one of the two beds of the attic room, which she was sharing with Minnie who slept on her left side, and Angie who slept on her right side, with Mike the Rat curled up to sleep by his mistress' side.
Jessica was sleeping on the mattress that was put inside of from the ceiling hanging bed canopy, where she had the small airplanes hanging from the ceiling as well.
Buck himself was sleeping inside of the empty trunk, from which had been removed the lid so that he won't accidentally lock himself inside it while sleeping.
Oliver was sleeping in a hammock that was hanging from two giant nails attached to the ceiling of the room, with his legs and arms hanging over the hammock's edges and a frying pan moved over the eyes.
And finally, Tito and Dino were sharing with each other a huge-sized dog bed in the corner of the room, in which they slept their nights.
Flow the collie, of course, slept in the dog house meant for her, with her name being engraved on a piece of wood attached above the entrance.
Wendy checked each other the children one of the time, adjusting the blankets over them and giving each of them a motherly good night kiss on the foreheads, before she herself withdrew into another bed of the attic room she had taken for herself.
But two hours later...
It was quiet, peacefully quiet, or maybe a little too quiet, while Wendy, the children and their pets still slept undisturbed, until...
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
Flow's ear twitched upon hearing the faint footsteps that came from outside of the attic room's door at the bottom of the stairs, which stirred her awake.
Alerted that there was someone in the house approaching their room as silently as they could, Flow took a sniff of the air to recognize the intruder/stranger. But when she didn't find any familiar scent, she began to growl at the door threateningly.
Flow's growling stirred Mike awake, making the rat to turn to look at Flow with what looked like the annoyed scowl for the dog to disturb his sleep, until the rodent saw the collie growling at the door at the bottom of the stairs just before hearing the approaching footsteps himself.
Now alerted himself of the presence of the intruders, Mike ran off from Angie's side to the other bed where Wendy was sleeping and climbed onto her face to wake her up.
The small rodent standing on her face, his fur tickling her and his loud squeaking disturbed Wendy, but not enough to stir her awake. Sleepily, she pushed Mike off her face with her hand before turning the side to continue her sleep.
Scowling at her, Mike climbed onto her again and, to stir her awake, whiped her in the cheek pretty hard with the tip of his tail.
CRACK!
"Ow!" Wendy cried out in pain upon the sensation of the sharp pain on her left cheek, which made her to jump out of her bed. Blinking her eyes sleepily, Wendy looked around in confusion as she stroked her sore cheek with her hand. "What? What? What? Who hit me? Who was it?"
Wendy, of course, saw that all the children were still asleep, until a loud squeaking made her to look down to her lap, seeing Mike standing there on his hind legs, looking up at her while squeaking rather frantically than usual.
"Mike?" Wendy said in confusion and scooped the rodent on her palms and lifted him up to her face level. "You did that? Why? What is it?"
At the same time as Mike motioned his head towards the attic room's door, Wendy heard Flow's growling and turned her head to see Flow standing on top of the door, growling and even barking at the door.
"Flow? What is it girl?" Wendy asked.
Flow ran to Wendy's bedside and placed her front paws on the edge of the bed, barking directly at Wendy, before running back to the stairs leading down to the door of their attic room and then back towards Wendy, as if calling her to the door.
Her barking was also starting to disturb the children's sleep, which made them to call Flow out of it, telling her to stop.
"Flow... stop barking, please." Jessica pleaded sleepily.
"Can somebody please silence that dog?" Conrad requested.
"Or more likely put the muzzle on her!" Oliver demanded.
"If that barking doesn't stop, I'll have the mutt to keelhauled!" Edward threatened.
"No keelhauling. Just make her stop." Angie mumbled in her sleep.
"Keep quiet! We're trying to sleep!" Tito demanded.
"Keep quiet! We're trying to sleep!" Dino repeated, shortly after Tito had started.
Wendy, putting Mike on her shoulder, got out of the bed and walked up to Flow as the dog kept standing on top of the stairs, where she kneld beside the dog and stroked her affectionally to make her calm down.
"What is it, girl? What's wrong?" she asked.
Flow, however, seemed not to calm down, as she kept growling threateningly at the door at the bottom of the stairs.
But it was then when Wendy also began to hear approaching footsteps, which sounded to be very close, right outside the door.
Now Wendy realized that both Flow's and Mike's behaviors were because there was somebody in their house, and the former's behavior told her that it was a complete stranger and not anyone whom they knew... and they didn't know a lot of anyone else except Louie and Angel.
Standing up, Wendy kept her eyes fixed on the door and started to climb down the stairs towards the door very slowly, as even more strange footsteps kept coming up to the door.
"Hello?" Wendy called out to the people outside of the door. "Is anyone in there? Who's there?"
Stirred awake of Wendy calling out to someone outside of the room, the children got up from their beds and gathered to the top of the stairs or looked down through the railing. All of their eyes were fixed on Wendy and the door, confused of what was going on but also intended for the case of few of them who had already figured out what was happening.
Once reaching to the bottom of the stairs and standing in front of the door, Wendy reached out towards the door handle, only to pull it back the moment when the footsteps suddenly stopped, making the atmosphere quiet but quite unsettling one, like in a horror movie where someone hears strange sounds from behind their room door before they suddenly stop like in the wall just before some jump scare.
Feeling her heart bumping even at the faster rate and breathing heavily from tension, Wendy reached out for the handle, grabbed to it and pulled it down. Then she opened the door a bit to leave there a small gap, through of which she then peeked outside on the dark corridor.
For a moment, she saw nothing and no one in there making her wonder if Flow, Mike and herself had just heard delusions, even though Flow has never behaved like this unless there are others in the house besides them.
Suddenly, Wendy gasped that her heart jumped up in her throat, when into her vision appeared the eye that peeked through the gap, looking directly at her.
"'Ello, poppet."(1) the stranger said with omniously and menacing voice, along with the wide smirk (The owner of the eye, face and the voice was Marcus, even if Wendy didn't know his name).
"AGH!" Wendy gasped in fright and slammed the door shut, pressing herself against it to prevent whoever that was from getting in. "Who are you?! What do you want?!"
The children gasped, feeling frightened that there was someone outside of the door, who did not appeared to be a friendly.
Wendy then felt a strong force being slammed against the door from the outside, the impact of which knocked her back and against the wall behind her.
Another such came right after, and the third one came too, and the fourth surprisingly caused the door to crack from the middle under the pressure of such of force and push the hinges off the walls as well.
Knowing that the door won't hold much longer, Wendy hurriedly climbed up the stairs and reached to the top of them just when the fifth crashed the door in, splintering it to pieces.
Looking down, Wendy saw how through the bursted doorway came several fancily suited but mean-looking men wielding automatic rifles, who stormed up the stairs after them.
"Kids! Get to the other side of the room! Now!" Wendy called to them.
The kids ran away from the stairs as the suited and armed flooded into the attic room, where they began to trash around the place: kicking the toys out of their way, flinging the toy and costume trunks over, knocking the beds and "the beds" over and tearing down just anything and everything out of their way.
The children, Flow and Wendy then huddled to the end of the toom before they turned around to face the intruders, with Wendy standing protectively before the children with the broom in her hands for self-defense.
The suited-men then formed up in two firing lines in front of the children and Wendy, pointing their guns at them threateningly, making most of the children to whimber in panic-striken fear.
Eddie, Buck, Oliver, Tito and Dino were at least brave enough to try to make a stand, with Eddie and Buck holding up their wooden sword, as Oliver held up his frying pain up threateningly, and Tito and Dino aimed their rifle-like slingshots at the suited men, with both Mike hissing at them in Angie's hands and Flow growling at them in defense of her family.
"Who are you?!" Wendy repeated, helding the broom up, threatening to hit anyone who dared to come closer.
Then a handful of people approached Wendy and the children from behind the firing line formation, which parted from the middle to give these people a way to face Wendy and the children, especially the tall barrel-chested guy smoking a cigarette.
That guy was reveal to be none other than... William Dandelion.
And by his side were standing his bodyguards, as well as Mr. Nosy, his own bodyguards, Gabriel, Dimitri Dandelion, Mr. Lasse, Johannes, Marcus and Helga.
"Wendy Clear, I presume?" Dandelion asked from Wendy directly in some what of the polite and charismatic manner, as he adjusted his coat. "And, Mr. Jake, Mr. Edward, Mr. Conrad, Miss Laura, Miss Minnie, Miss Angela, Miss Jessica, Mr. Buck, Mr. Oliver, Mr Tito and Mr. Dino, I presume?"
Wendy blinked her eyes upon hearing this strange man addressing her speaking her name. "Y-yes." she stuttered when confirming thst be her name.
The children then nodded their own heads to confirm their own names.
"And who are you? And how do you know our names?" she questioned.
"My name in William Dandelion. And about how do I know about you... well, let us say that I'd like to call myself an old friend of one called... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle known as Lorenzo or "Louie" for the short."
Wendy and the children's eyes went wide in surprise to learn that this man, known as William Dandelion, knew about Louie both by name and his identity, but remained silent just in case if he was just bluffing.
"And what I've been hearing from him... is that you, all of you, are his friends, long-time friends actually." Dandelion added with the knowing smirk. "So, between of friends of the common friends, we shall share of the certain secrets no one else needs to know about. Shall we?"
"We don't know who you are talking about." Wendy said, not buying of Dandelion's claim of being friend of Louie while denying any knowledge of him, for the sake of the turtle in black's safety.
Dandelion clicked his tongue in reprimanting manner. "It is rude to deny the truth while you know yourself it is the truth."
"But I'm telling you the truth." Wendy claimed desperately. "We don't know anything! Just leave us be!"
"Not even that you all met, what, few years back a little adorable turtle toddler, lost from his daddy in the New York sewers, who sought a refuge in this house, YOUR house, while you were being apprehented by the handful of lowlife criminals, and the turtle toddler, whom you came to know as Lorenzo, came to your rescue despite knowing that he'd disobey his daddy's orders not to reveal himself to anyone living on the surface because they won't accept the disgusting gigantic talking turtles... but you did so in gratitude. And in return for taking care of him for a few days until his daddy came to fetch him like a little boy from the school, he's been looking after you by providing you with the food, clothings and blankets to feel yourself more comfortable in living in this... ancient irreparable dump." Dandelion challenged.
Wendy and the children gasped in shocked horror, because the story of their first meeting with Louie matched exactly how Dandelion shortly described it. Dandelion saw this and smirked with the satisfiction.
"So don't bother to waste my time by denying your knowledge or Lorenzo's very existence from me... because I've met with him personally and seen him with my very own eyes not so long ago." Dandelion said, cautioning Wendy and the children from playing games with him.
Wendy and the children looked at one another, confused and unable to explain to themselves how Dandelion knew already so much about them and Louie, let alone how he knew where they even lived exactly.
However, they were at least convinced that he hadn't gotten all of this information directly from Louie himself, given to how hateful, disgusted, contemptuous and even vengeful manner Dandelion was speaking of the turtle in black, but that he had gotten them through of some other manners.
It felt very unbelievable anyway to them that Louie would've ratted them, his good friends, out to someone who claims to be his friend yet speaks about him with so unfriendly manner.
And while they didn't know how, why, or when Louie had ran afoul with this guy, they were at least aware that Dandelion apparently was seeking to hunt Louie down to kill him for some reason.
But while Dandelion managed to discover them, he doesn't seem to know where to find Louie's place. And while they didn't know that either, both Wendy and the children intended to keep it that way.
"What do you want from dear Lorenzo?" Wendy asked.
"I have a planned meeting with him, either in here or somewhere else, tonight or tomorrow night. Whichever, I don't care." Dandelion told her. "And since I know that he won't come out wherever he's hiding that simply unless he has a reason to come out, I need to draw him out." Dandelion added. "And in that, I'm gonna need your help. Cooperate with me, and no one's gonna get hurt. You have my word of honor."
"No way, you scurvy landlubber!" Edward said in the tough pirate-manner.
"Yeah! We ain't gonna tell you anything about Louie! I won't trade my knight's honor for the false promises of the low scumbag like you!" Buck swore like the noble knight.
"The only thing you're gonna get from us is blood, sweat and tears! All of you!" Oliver added, swinging his frying pan.
"So who shall be first! Come on! We dare you!" Tito challenged as he aimed his rifle slingshot at the Dandelions.
"So who shall be first! Come on! We dare you!" Dino repeated shortly after Tito, while aiming his own rifle slingshot at the bad guys.
"You're only wasting time with us, Mr. Dandelion." Conrad called. "If you want us to tell Louie that you want to see him... well, it's useless. Because we don't even know where he lives."
"Conrad is telling the truth." Wendy said. "We have no idea where he is. So, whatever you're planning for Louie, please, just leave the children out of it." she begged.
Dandelion gave a moment of thought to what he had just heard from Conrad just before he spoke up again. "Actually... we already kinda know what he could possibly, and most likely be hiding. The abandoned warehouse in the corner of the Eastman and Laird." he revealed.
Wendy and the children gasped at this revelation, but not because of the realization of where Louie was living, but because of Dandelion knowing it himself, thus putting Louie and his family in grave danger.
"And although we have been keeping an eye on the warehouse for signs of life and trying to find a secret entrance to Lorenzo's hideout both from around the warehouse and from the underground tunnels in the sewers beneath the warehouse, we have so far been unable to locate it and we dare not enter the warehouse itself in case it is been rigged with alarms and booby traps." Dandelion told them.
"So you want to use us, the children, as the cannon fodder to find Louie's hideout and draw him out?!" Wandy spat in disgust. "Don't you have a shame of using the orphaned homeless children for your own benefit?!"
"If they prove themselves... useless to me, no." Dandelion replied in matter of factly. "Anyway, the time is running. First of, I need two volunteers to be my messengers to deliver my message to Lorenzo directly, who will be first geared up and then to be dropped near the warehouse in the corner of the Eastman and Laird. And from there they will continue on their own to the warehouse and then to Lorenzo's hideout, if they manage to find the entrance inside."
"What do you... what do you want anyone of us to tell to Louie when we get there?" Jessica said, believing in fear that she'd be picked as one of the volunteers, as she hugged Minnie, who was scared as well.
"Nothing, young miss." Dandelion reassured. "Becaue I will be doing that message part through the gear thbe volunteers will be wearing on your mission."
Dandelion then held up two more fingers. "And secondly... I think that we're going to need... you, Mrs. Clear." Dandelion said, pointing his two fingers at Wendy directly.
"Me?! But... wha... for what?!" Wendy asked, completely surprised.
"If our good Mr. Lorenzo fails to receive my message I'll send to him through of or cooperative little volunteers, then there's another little surprise I have for him in the Central Park that will most certainly lure him out. So, in one way or another, he'll come to the meeting with me, either voluntarily with his own feet, or broken and dragged to MY feet!" Dandelion snarled angrily.
"So that you would get your butts kicked by him, just like those criminals he butt-kicked to save us?" Angie assumed aloud while clutching to Mike.
"You have no idea what Uncle Louie is capable of like we do." Laura added. "He won't attack you directly, but he'll strike silently and insidiously like a shadow or invisible force!"
"And you'll never eveb see him coming before it's too late!" Jake added.
"And if he realizes that you've taken us captive, or harmed anyone of us anyway, he will avenge any harm inflicted upon us tenfold against you!" Conrad warned.
"Arrh! Then it shall be YOU who're going to be the cannon fodder! And once Lorenzo gets in here to save us, what do you got to say about that, landlubber?" Eddie asked, pointing his sword at Dandelion threateningly.
"That's why a card called a HUMAN SHIELDS was invented." Dandelion said with the sweet tone, before his voice turned into one impatient and turned to his men. "Now enough of this games! Get those two kids who spoke the last, gear them up and take them to the corner of the Eastman and Laird! Johannes, Marcus and Helga, you take Mrs. Clear to the Central Park! You know what to do once you're there! And as for the rest of these brats, tie them all up and take them to the dinning room under guard, AT ONCE!"
Said and done, Johannes, Marcus and Helga moved from Dandelion's side onward and approached a horrified Wendy, who instantly began whacking them with the broom in self-defense to keep the three gangsters at bay. After whacking them for a good while, Marcus eventually managed to grab to the broom and ripped it off from Wendy's hands before tossing it aside, leaving her defenseless.
"Get off me! Get off me! Don't touch me! Get your hands off me!" Wendy demanded as Johannes and Marcus seized her by her arms, holding her still as Helga approached her with the bag in her hands.
"Come along, sister. We have work to do." Helga said tauntingly before she put the bag over Wendy's head and tied its mouth around of her throat.
And then Johannes, Helga, and Marcus lifted Wendy off the ground and carried Wendy out of the attic room together, with Johannes carrying her by the shoulders, Helga by the waist, and Marcus by the legs, while Wendy writhed and struggled in their grips to free herself.
"Get those two brats! Now!" Mr. Nosy ordered both his bodyguards, the turquoise-suited and brown-hatted mustache-goon and the brown-suited and yellow-hatted hook-nosed goon, who approached Conrad and Edward, who were hand-picked by Dandelion as the messengers to be send to Louie's hideout.
While Conrad backed nervously away from them, Edward stood protectively in front of his friend and swung his wooden sword wildly at the goons to keep them at bay, though he managed to lay a hit into one goon's stomach, causing him to gasp and fall on his knees in pain, until Eddie started whacking him in the back with his sword over and over again.
However, he didn't see Gabe sneaking behind his back, not until Gabe ripped the sword off his hands and tossed it away. Then he grabbed on Edward and lifted him off the floor before taking him away. Edward stubbornly fought against his captor, even biting him on the arm as hard as he could, which caused Gabriel to grunt in pain.
"Why, you little... little, little... little brat!" Gabriel growled angrily, before the villain pinned Edward to the bench, pulled his pants down, grabbed the map stick and gave him a rather brutal whipping in retaliation. The villain didn't bother to spare the lashes but kept going, even harder while ignoring Edward's loud cries in pain and pleads to stop.
Conrad, in the other hand, tried to run away from the goons, but his way out of the attic room was blockied by the Dandelion's goons in the firing line formation who aimed their rifles at him, before Conrad got quickly tackled down and roughly subdued by Mr. Nosy's goons, who carried him away after Gabriel and Eddie to be geared up as well.
The rest of the goons along with Mr. Nosy attacked the children.
The Japanese-African blue-suited and brown-hatted goon with the shaven face grabbed Minnie and ripped her out of Jessica's hands before lifting the screaming and kicking little girl over his left shoulder. Then he took Jessica by her left arm and forcibly dragged her away with him, despite Jessica's cries, protests and attempts to get herself free.
Another goon tried to grab on Angie, but when he laid his arms on the girl, Mike the rat wriggled out of her grasp and bit the goon in the finger, making the goon yelp aloud in pain and pull his hand back, with Mike hanging by his teeth from his finger. The goon then grabbed Mike and ripped him off his finger, before the goon tossed Mike out of the window.
"NO! MIKE!" Angie gasped in horror to see her pet being flung out of the window.
Angie tried to rush to the window to see if Mike had survived, only to be stopped when the same goon grabbed her by her hair rather painfully and pulled her back to him, before the goon grabbed for her pet sobbing Angie by the arm and dragged her out of the room, harshly telling her to stop weeping over the dead rodent.
"That bite will definitely give me some kind of disease! I need to be vaccinated!" the goon complained.
Oliver banged his frying bang against one goon's leg, making the goon to cry out in pain, before Oliver knocked him down with the strike in the head, with Buck hitting another goon in the stomach with his wooden sword, causing the goon to bent in pain, before Buck whacked the goon in the face, knocking him off his feet and onto his back with the bleeding node. Tito and Dino, meanwhile, shot with their rifle-slingshots the round stones at the approaching goons, hitting several of them right in the heads and knocking them briefly out and down.
Mr. Nosy took the control of the situation in here, and while Oliver and Buck whacked him with their frying pan and the wooden sword while the twins shot the stoned at him, the giant man brushed them off like they were nothing. First he ripped the frying pan and the sword out of Oliver's and Bucks hands before lifting them up by their shirts.
Both boys cursed him with the ugly words they could come up with, before Mr. Nosy turned around and tossed both Oliver and Buck into the arms of the other goons, who dragged the who dragged away the boys who were fighting persistently against their captors all the way out of the room. Mr. Nosy then turned to Tito and Dino before he seized their rifle slingshots from their hands and, almost effortlessly broke them both apart, before he grabbed each boy under one arm and dragged them out of the room.
Flow stood protectively between of Laura and the two goons, the short, black-suited and wide-brimmed-hatted mustache-goon and the tall, red-suited and brown-hatted broad-shouldered baldie goon, as they tried to apprehend Laura.
Flow barked and growled them, baring her teeth to warn them to stay back. But when the goons did not backed away, Flow attacked and bit the tall broad-shouldered goon in the left hand, making the goon cry out in pain and pull back, away from the dog. Flow then turned to the shortie wide-brimmed-hatted goon, who somewhat got the message and tried to ran away from the dog, but Flow lunged at him and bit him in the butt, making the goon to cry out in immense pain.
However, Flow was soon overpowered by three goons who grabbed on her from all side, holding her roughly still until one of them had put the muzzle on her and put the collie on the leash, before they dragged her along with Laura out of the room.
The goons had no much to not at all problem in dragging Jake out, for the overweight boy offered no resistance at all for he got no a warrior spirit unlike most of the other boys.
Dandelion watched as Wendy, Flow and the children were taken away to the hotel's dining room, before the mob boss walked up ti the window which overlooked both the street and the block where the hotel was located.
"Well, Mr. Lorenzo. The board is set, the pieces are moving." he quoted.(2)
###
In the turtles' Lair in the present.
Donnie, Mary, Leo, Dom, Arcee, Mikey, Raph and Splinter were staring in wide-eyed shock and horror as Edward and Conrad revealed themselves of being geared up with plastic explosives hidden underneath of their hoodies!
"WHAT THE SHELL?!" Mary exclaimed in wide-eyed horror.
"BACK! GET BACK!" Dom shouted, repearting Donnie's demands for everyone to stay back.
"WHAT IS THIS?!" Leo gasped in confused horror.
"What are those things?!" Arcee questioned, pointing at the explosives over the boys.
"The plastic explosives! And they're already armed with the radio-controlled detonators!" Donnie explained with the dread.
"These kids have been strapped with the explosives?!" Mikey questioned in confusion.
"Why would they do such of thing?!" Raph questioned in confusion, clenching his hands into the fists.
Leo immediately stepped forward towards the children. Though he didn't know why these children were doing this in the first place, but he at least hoped to discourage the children from doing what they were seemingly doing.
"Edward! Conrad! Don't!" Leo called to them, holding his hand out to them. "I don't know what you two are doing, or why you're doing this! But don't! Don't do anything rash! Don't do anything you might regret later!"
Both Edward and Conrad listened upon Leo's pleas not to do this, and both boys responded to it by giving him a silent yet even more remorseful, apologetic and tearful looks.
Seeing them, the turtle in blue could see from the boys eyes that neither of them wanted to do this.
"You don't want to do this. I can see it in your eyes." Leo said to them reassuringly. "So don't do this."
Suddenly there was another voice here, which came as if through a radio broadcast from the Edward's and Conrad's direction, catching the turtles and Splinter off guard.
"It's not in the boys' control what they're going to do next or not. It is all in my control and it's happening depends on whether I get what I want or not." the voice told to Leo as if its owner had heard him out. "Well done, Mr. Edward. Well done, Mr. Conrad. You two did exactly as I requested against all the odds, finding your way into Mr. Lorenzo's hideout, so that I could deliver him my message."
"Wow! Where did that voice came from?" Mikey questioned. "Is there someone else with these boys? Or were their not-so-guilty-sounding consciences speaking in their own heads so loud that even we could hear them too?"
"Don't be an idiot, Mikey!" Dom reprimanted his younger brother. "They weren't the ones speaking! Someone else was!"
"Exactly. And that "someone" was speaking through of those radio mics strapped on them." Donnie revealed, pointing his finger at the small radio microphones attached to the boys' shoulders, which enabled the one who just spoke from the other end of the line to both hear them and to speak to them.
"Indeed." the voice said again. "And as you can see, you freaks. These boys, who Mr. Lorenzo knows so well, are completely under my control. So YOU ARE the ones who shouldn't do anything rash, or the boys will suffer for it!"
Edward and Conrad gasped and both of yhem whimpered in fright, already scared out of their wits.
Splinter, upon hearing this strange new voice mentioning Louie's name, twice, stepped forward towards the boys with the stern look on his face.
"Who is this?! Who are you?! And how do you know my son, Lorenzo?!" he demanded.
"Ahh! And you must be Mr. Splinter, Mr. Lorenzo's father, I presume." the voice spoke. "It's an pleasure to make a new acquaintances with you, even if we're not face-to-face."
"Quit playing these "tin can phone" games of yours already! Just tell us who you are and what do you want?! Tell me or else...!" Raph snarled aloud and approached the two kids menacingly.
Though Raph's eyes were fixed on the radio mics on the kids and not the kids themselves, Edward and Conrad flinched in fright of his explosive temper and backed away from the turtle in red.
Leo then quickly stepped in and grabbed his brother by the shoulder to stop him, before he moved in front of him to keep him away from Edward and Conrad.
"Easy, Raph! Easy! You're scaring the children." Leo said, trying to calm his brother down.
"You'd be wise to listen to him, Mr. Raphael." the voice said. "Because if I lose the contact with the kids before I get what I want, things will most certain turn ugly for everyone of you."
"Well, whatever it is what you want, what it has to do with endangering innocent children by gearing them up with the PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES?!" Mary roared in outrage for this stranger's usage of children to do his dirty work for him.
Arcee then stepped forward, her eyes narrowed into a frown as she listened to the voice speaking through of the radio mics. And after listening it for a while, the turtle in pink could have sworn that that voice sounded somewhat familiar as if she had heard it somewhere before.
"Your voice sounds familiar. Awfully familiar, as if we've heard you somewhere before." the turtle in pink said.
"We have, Arcee?" Dom and Mikey both questioned, looking at Arcee who confirmed this with the nod. "Then who is this?" both the turtles in white and orange asked, turning back to the radio mics.
"Well, Miss. Artemisia, if you really think that you freaks have heard my voice somewhere before, I'd advice you not to be that surprised." the voice spoke. " I believe youhave seen a certain laundry company's owner walking out of a police station on live news broadcast on TV a few weeks ago after he was "wrongfully" accused of counterfeiting money. Am I right?"
This revelation quickly refreshed the turtles' memories of the aforementioned live news broadcast... and the particular guy it was about of.
"WILLIAM DANDELION?!" they all shouted in unison as they realized this.
"Yes. And since we're already past of the introductions and all that kind of stuff, we can finally go down to business." Dandelion spoke. "You wanted to know what I wanted, didn't you? Well, here's my demands, or should I say, my ultimatum?"
"Ultimatum?" Leo repeated.
"If Mr. Lorenzo is out there with you freaks right now, I want him to know this: I have already begun my campaign of revenge against him for destroying the Dandelion family's mansion where my family had lived since the early twentieth century, along with him ruining all of my preparations of conquering New York's underworld empire for myself after the Shredder's death, by raiding his dear little orphans friends' abandoned hotel, taken it as my fortress, and took everyone in there as my prisoners, including Mr. Edward and Mr. Conrad here, whom I sent to your hell hole so that I can deliver my message to him directly and personally. Since Mr. Lorenzo knows where exactly these kids live, I'm expecting here to come to meet with me here at the final stroke of the midnight, and he must come alone, weaponless, and all too willing to surrender himself over to me."
"And what if he refuses?" Splinter inquired.
"Well, if he doesn't come, and if he comes anyway but not alone, not without his weapons, and unwilling to surrender, I'll start to execute all nine orphan child friends of his. One. By. One. And that counts Mr. Edward and Mr. Conrad there, making it eleven orphan child frien d of his." Dandelion threatened.
The turtles and Splinter gasped in horror at Dandelion's callous intentions to kill eleven orphan children in cold-blood just to get back at Louie.
"Dude! That's seriously very un-cool!" Mikey spat, disgusted.
"You slimy bastard! Child-murderer!" Mary cursed furiously.
"Have you no morality?! Conscience?! Shame?! Even a heart?!" Arcee questioned, disgusted that Dandelion would do this to these innocent little children just because of his vengeful anger against Louie.
"You can't be serious! Y really want to kill those poor children just so that you can get back at Louie for something he did to you?!" Dom questioned in disbelief.
"They are orphaned brats! Homeless vermin! Unwanted pests like cockroaches! The mere trash of the human society! Just like you!" Dandelion snapped back. "I don't have any care of them at all, no matter what becomes of them after this. And besides, what would a whole city of over eight million people even care about if a handful of people they don't even know anything about having just gone missing from the face of the Earth?"
"Well, neither they do not know anything about us, and which is why we care, even if it is just about dozen people." Donnie spat.
"And I'd say that what Louie did to you is something you really deserved if you're really going through of this." Raph snarled.
"Easy guys!" Leo told his siblings before he turned back . "Look, Mr. Dandelion. You don't have to do this. It's Louie you want. You don't have to bring this upon a innocent orphans just to get your hands on him."
"Well, it depends on whether Mr. Lorenzo agrees to respond to my terms the way I expect, if he really cares about these people enough to choose to save them instead of saving his own disgustingly green skin." Dandelion told them.
"You bet he does!" Mikey exclaimed confidently, knowing that Louie, or anyone of them wouldn't even dare to choose to save their own skin when there's innocent at the stake.
However, Mikey's confidence then turned into an apologetic one. "Shame, though, that Louie isn't around to listen to these terms or even capable of responding to them, Mr. Dandelion, because our bro's not even at home right now..."
"MIKEY!/MICHELANGELO!" Leo, Mary, Raph, Dom, Donnie, Arcee and Master Splinter gasped aloud in alarm, before the whole family quickly pounced on the turtle in orange and slapped their hands over Mikey's mouth to silence him.
It won't do any good for Edward and Conrad if Dandelion was revealed that Louie wasn't in the Lair right now.
However, it was too late, and the damage was already done.
"He ain't home down there right now, eh?" Dandelion repeated with the ominously calm voice as if the whole revelation didn't bother him.
The mutant family held their breaths for a quite some time - and so did Edward and Conrad, who both closed their eyes and braced themselves for what's coming for them.
But after a short yet very disturbingly intense silence...
"Well, that's really pitty indeed." Dandelion then eventually said. "... because since Louie neglected to be here to hear my terms, my demands have not been responded BY THE WAY I EXPECTED THEM TO BE RESPONDED!"
Everybody flinched at Dandelion raising his voice from the composured one into so furious all of the sudden.
And then, much to everybody's shock and horror, the red lights began to flash in Edward's plastic explosives' radio-controlled detonator, starting first at the slow rate.
"WOW!/HOLLY SHELL!/UH-OH!/NOT GOOD!" the turtles gasped with dread as they and Splinter realized that Edward's detonator had been activated and it was counting on.
"ARGH! NO!" Edward screamed upon seeing this, starting to panic!
"EDWARD!" Conrad screamed in horror for his friend.
The red lights then quickly began to pick up the pace!
"NO! DANDELION, PLEASE! DON'T DO THIS! I BEG YOU! DON'T DO THIS!" Arcee, knowing what was going to happen, desperately begged the villain not to do this.
"LEAVE THE POOR CHILD OUT OF THIS!" Mary demanded.
"Dandelion! Wait! Wait, wait, wait, just the second! Louie may not be here, but we can still at least negotiate this! Can't we?!" Dom begged.
"Dandelion! Believe me when I telll you: You don't want to do this. You don't want to do this. You DON'T want to do this! YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS, DANDELION!" Leo roared, trying desperately dissuade Dandelion from doing this for Edward's sake.
"Too late. Mr. Leonardo! The detonator has been already activated and my finger is already off the button! There's no stopping it now." Dandelion replied coldly.
The red light began to flash even faster rate.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP ME!" Edward pleaded, petrified still and crying from the top of his lungs in a pure panic and crying his eyes out.
"Since Mr. Louie neglected to rescue one of his friends, he'll have to carry the consequences of his lack of care for Mr. Edward on his shoulders for the rest of his life." Dandelion added. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry for this, Mr. Edward, but you just, as we can all safely say, expired your usefulness to me. Adios."
Then the red light began to flash rapidly and fully bright, indicating that the explosions were to be set off soon.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Edward let out.
"EDWARD!" Conrad called and was about to ran up to his friend to help him, but Master Splinter quickly wrapped his tail around the boy's waist.
"No, son! Stay back!" the old rodent warned, pulling him away from Edward, whom they couldn't save anymore.
"GET BACK!" Donnie warned as the mutants jumped back.
And then... the red lights stopped flashing, setting off the explosives.
"DUCK! EVERYBODY TO THE GROUND!" Leo ordered.
The turtles and Master Splinter along with Conrad, whom the old rat master protected with his own body, ducked onto their stomaches to the ground and covered their heads with their arms just when the...
KA-BOOOOM!
SPLASH!
Edward's plastic explosives then EXPLODED, both killing and brutally tearing the poor child into a pieces and sending the bloody and burning pieces of his body flying all over the floor of the central circle of the Lair.
This was the sight that awaited the shocked turtles, and Splinter and utterly devastated Conrad when they pulled themselves off the ground and looked at the explosion zone.
"NO! EDWARD!" Conrad cried, eyed welling with fresh tears, as he quickly crawled out from under Splinter and rushed to where Edward had been standing there a moment ago.
There wasn't much left of poor Edward after the explosion, just a few burned or still burning body parts, such as his left arm and right hand, his legs blown off from the knees down were still standing in the same spot, though in the middle of the splashed stain of blood, and his head with the hair burned off and his face burned and exploded beyond recognition.
"Edward? Edward?" Conrad said repeatedly in soft whisper, looking down at his body parts in anguish while trying to come about of what had just happened, until he came into the bitter realization that Edward was gone.
Conrad's legs then gave way beneath him and the boy collapsed to his knees next to Edward's severed head, before he burst into bitter tears, sobbing for his dead friend whom he had known closely for years.
The turtles and Master Splinter watched Edward's remains lying on the Lair's floor in the silent horror - with the girls putting their hands over their mouths - and sorrow for the poor kid, before they looked up at Conrad mourning his friend, with the mutant family feeling immensely sorry for the poor boy for having just lost his old friend to this cruelty.
"GRRR!" Raph snarled, slamming his fist against the floor.
"Anyone who is still alive in there, let that one casualty to teach you freaks that how serious I am!" Dandelion's voice then called again from the radio mic on Conrad's shoulder. "Whether Mr. Lorenzo is there or not, he has but a half an hour time to respond to my terms by surrendering himself willingly to me, or Mr. Conrad will be the next casualty!"
Conrad gasped in fright upon learning that he'll be next to die if Louie doesn't give himself up to Dandelion.
The turtles and Splinter, upon hearing Dandelion's voice, quickly jumped up on their feet. But before any of them could do anything, Dandelion spoke again.
"Help me! Please!" Conrad begged them.
But before they could say anything or do anything, Dandelion spoke up again.
"And as for you, freaks! Don't move! Don't try anything funny or stupid! Stay away from the boy! Don't try to remove the explosives or defuse the detonator! Don't even try to sneak out of your filthy hiding place! Don't even try to warn Mr. Lorenzo about what's happened or what's happening! Don't. Do. Anything! Because if you try and do anything for the boy or your brother, I'll detonate the last plastic explosions on Mr. Conrad that will kill him too before I start executing the rest of these brats unless Mr. Lorenzo shows up here where I expect him to arrive exactly on the expected schedule. Everything is now up to Mr. Lorenzo himself!" Dandelion demanded.
The turtles cringed in absolute fury and disgust that Dandelion was unfairly using both Louie's absence and his ignorance of this whole situation as a petty excuse to execute innocent children unless the turtle in black shows up at Dandelion's location to surrender himself to him.
And if they can't warn Louie about this without that Dandelion will know about it and thus risk him carrying out his threat before the half an hour had passed, Conrad and all the other children would be dead by then and long before Louie would even become aware of all of this.
But they couldn't just stand there doing nothing! They had to do something for Conrad and the other children, even if it meant taking a risk that Dandelion would become aware of them trying to help the kids somehow.
"You freaks, Mr. Lorenzo in particularly, already made me to sacrifice one of my messengers and one of my hostages as a clear demonstration how serious I am! Or should I just detonate the explosives to kill Mr. Conrad and then two brats from this side of the line to make myself clear?! If you don't want this to happen, THEN DO AS I TOLD YO UTO DO AND FAST, FOR I WANT MR. LORENZO NOW!" Dandelion further demanded, shouting like a cranky baby wanting something.
Leo turned to Master Splinter, who turned to his eldest son in return and motioned for him to use silence, stealth and buying some time for Conrad.
Leo nodded to his father before he turned to Raph, Mikey and Arcee, and began to use the American sign language to give them the instructions without saying them aloud.(3)
"You three! Go to the surface, silently and with stealth! Find Louie and tell him what has happened here! Go!" Leo signed.
The turtles in red, orange and pink nodded their heads silently to their elder brother, before they turned to head for the doorway, which luckily was left open.
Keeping quiet and moving as silent as mice without letting even a slightest of sound as they go, Mikey did a series of high flips in the air, landing with barely audible soft thuds on his hands and then afterwards on his feet and continued doing so alternately. Arcee made the long leaps in zigzags, with each landing to the floor being barely audible, before she leapt on the pillar next to the doorway crawled around of it like a spider towards the door. Raph, on the other hand, got down on all fours and moved towards the door at a quiet but steady pace sideways like a crab, careful with his steps so as not to make too much noise.
Once the three turtles were gone into the tunnel, Leo turned to Conrad and motioned for the boy to look at him, before the turtle in blue began to communicate with him in sign language as well.
"You! Conrad! Look at me! Just in me!" Leo signed to him, whether the boy understood him or not. "Do you understand the sign language?"
While still sobbing for his dead friend, Conrad had at least managed to pull himself together enough to pay attention in the turtle in blue, before he communicated back in slightly clumsy beginner's sign language.
"I... can... little."
Leo then began to use the sign language in slower pace and simplier manner enough for Conrad to understand. "Everything is going to be fine! My brother will try to take that bomb apart while I keep the bad man distracted by talking. But I need you to be as calm and quiet as you can and do not make a sound to alert the bad man about what we're trying to do to save you. Okay?" Leo signed.
"Do not be afraid." Mary signed as well. "We will help you out of this. We promise. Everything is going to be fine! Just hang on."
"Okay." Conrad signed back, moved by the turtles' care for him and their firm attempts to save his life despite having brought this upon them in the first place.
Leo then motioned Donnie to go to Conrad, which the brainy turtle did by getting down on all fours just like Raph did before moving stealthily towards the boy as the turtle in blue began speaking aloud to cover Donnie up and keep Dandelion distracted.
"Dandelion! Wait and listen! Such of threats aren't gonna bring you any closer to your goal, and it will take even days before Louie will even become aware of what you have done. I'm not even sure if you're patient enough to wait for your opportunity for revenge against him for that long." Leo said in attempt to reason with the man.
"Perhaps, Mr. Leonardo, but even that changes nothing. I still got the hostages in my grasp and I can still have them all executed here and now and wait afterwards, no matter how long it'll take, until Mr. Lorenzo somehow finds out what I've done before he rushes straight to where I want him to come to surrender himself to me." Dandelion countered.
Meanwhile, as Leo spoke to Dandelion, the turtle in purple finally reached and knelt before Conrad, before he put the finger over his mouth to tell him to keep quiet, and then he too out the couple of spare screwdrivers from his belt and began to work intently with the detonator to open it and then take it carefully apart without detonating the bombs by accident.
"But if you kill Conrad right here and now and if you kill the rest of the kids right after just to deliberately piss Louie off, you're only losing one valuable thing that might have convinced Louie to willingly surrender himself to you without a fight to save them... well, maybe. But without them to bargain with, and with him having nothing left to lose except of making you to pay for it, Louie would just come straight after you, regardless of whether he has to fight his way through an entire army of goons of yours just to get to claim your head. If so, then that leaves you with nothing, no personal army or hostages still alive to bargain with, to keep you safe from Louie's wrath and vengeance." Leo continued.
"Is that so?" Dandelion challenged.
"Trust me when I tell you, Louie's not afraid to tear down the whole place just to find you and he won't spare the slashes with the guys like you. All he'll be offering to you instead of surrendering is his fists and blades, and through of them the bruises and blood." Leo cautioned.
Master Splinter, Dom and Mary were watching intently the situation unfold before them from behind the turtle in blue's shell.
"Actually, Mr. Leonardo, that either doesn't matter to me if I don't succeed in luring Mr. Lorenzo to me by the hostage method like this. I've learned from the consequences of our last encounter to not to underestimate your brother, which is why I came prepared with one card up in my sleeve. In other words, I am two or three cards ahead of you all and your brother in this game." Dandelion revealed cockily.
Leo was left dumbstruck by this revelation, because that was what he wasn't expecting to be coming out from the situation.
"What do you mean?" Leo inquired.
"Because if Mr. Lorenzo won't come out of hiding to surrender himself to me voluntarily, even if his little friends' lives are at the jeopardy, I'll use another tactic to force him to come to me, either easy or the hard way, and I don't even care which way. That's why I have other hostages, with whom I can lure him out of hiding and into the well-set trap just for him, which will leave him broken and battered so badly, that he won't be able to stand even on his own feet anymore or lift a single finger to defend himself. And in that state, it'll be easy for my guys to drag him to my feet, and even more easier for me to have my way with him. And then, my campaign of revenge will be successfully completed once I am finished with of our good old friend Mr. Lorenzo, by the every piece of him!" Dandelion revealed.
"Wait? What other hostages?" Leo questioned, taken aback.
Master Splinter, Dom and Mary looked at each other, with Donnie exchanging glances with Leo over one shoulder, all equally confused by the "other hostages" Dandelion just mentioned about.
"Who are these other hostages? Are they too some people Louie knows about and we don't?" Leo questioned.
"A rather charming yet sassy teenage girl with purple hair and pigtails, whom Mr. Lorenzo was seen with the last time we encountered. He seems to adore her over anything else, so much that he would be willing to agree to my terms even if forced, since he'd likely do that rather than allows a single hair from her hair get bent." Dandelion revealed. "Oh, and her grandmother as well."
"ANGEL AND ELLIE?!" all turtles and even Splinter exclaimed in shock.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TRIVIA
1) = Pintel's quote from the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Curse of the Black Pearl. Also the reference to the same scene.
2) = Gandalf's quote from the Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King.
3) = The second time whe nthe turtles use the American sign language as a way to communicate with each other. The first time was during of The Fallen Angel saga.