Guest: We shall see. I kinda have a different plans for Tatsu as the series goes.
Girl Anime Club: Actually two parts left of this episode. This and the next one.
Nicochan11: Till the next chapter coming soon.
animegamefanatic: Yep, Louie and Dom do love each other dearly as brothers despite their rivalry and love/hate relationship. And indeed, it's soon both Mikey's, Angel's and Stella's time to rise and shine as heroes.
=Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003=
=Notes From the Underground Part 3, Part 3=
After most of the turtles and Quarry A's whole group had gone missing, to the courtesy of the mysterious Entity that had been stalking them ever since they entered the city, the remaining survivors, Mikey, Angel and Stella looked around the city, not really knowing what to do now that it was just them alone.
"No good! No good! Everybody are gone!" Angel said in the brink of loosing her cool and panicking. "And this creep might be anywhere!"
"What are we going to do now?!" Stella was panicking as well.
"Now... now let's calm down. There's no need to panic." Mikey said trying to ease the situation, realizing he has now become somewhat of the leader figure for the first time in his life, while also trying to stay calm himself no matter how nervous he was. "Let's not now lose our cools. We need to think our next course of action."(1)
"But what is it, Michelangelo?" Stella asked. "We cannot go back with that creep standing between of us and our only exit out of here."
"And we also cannot leave the others down here... wherever they are anyway." Angel reminded.
"And I agree with Angel." Mikey said, for he neither was going to leave his family or Quarry A and his friends down here if they were all still alive somewhere. "So I guess that we just need to push forward."
"But where?" Stella asked.
Mikey looked around of the city and thought hard, perhaps even harder than he had ever done in his life, about where exactly they should try and push forward, while constantly asking from himself that "What would Leo do in the situations like this?"(1)
Angel too was looking around the city, trying to help Mikey in figuring out that where exactly they should go, until her eyes landed on something that looked somewhat familiar... maybe even too familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
"Hey, Mikey?" Angel said and touched the turtle in orange's shoulder to get his attention. "Does that tower over there look familiar to you? because it damn sure looks to me." she added, pointing forward.
Mikey followed Angel's finger's direction and saw a black tower rising above the city from its center. Mikey frowned his burrows upon recognization of it.
Stella too turned to look up at the tower. "You have seen that tower before?" she asked, confused, as she turned to Angel and Mikey with the raised brow.
"Shell yeah." Mikey confirmed. "Me and Angel have seen that tower before."
"How?" Stella asked, finding it strange that the two actually knew that tower, even though they'd never been here before.
Howeverm both Mikey and Angel beg for differ as their combined minds flashed back...
FLASHBACK
... to the dream they had seen a few days back, where the both of them stood in front of the citadel of this city, a large, ominous and a scary-looking black tower that towered high above them.
Michelagelo: "In that freaky dream we had."
From behind the tower appeared the black smoke like tentacles - prompting Mikey to pull out his Nunchucks just in case while Angel hid behind his shell - before the smoke began to mass up in front of the tower and then move towards the two, as if consciously, casting the shadow upon them both.
A glowing red mouth came out of the cloud of smoke and growled demonically at the two, closing on them as if intending to eat them.
Frightened, Mikey and Angel turned around and ran away from the smoke monster as fast as they could, while the roaring monster gave the chase.
Luckily the flashback ended just before it went to the part where the monster captured them in its tentacles and ate them, for that part was traumatizingly horrifying to go through again.
FLASHBACK ENDS
"In the dream?" Stella repeated, even more confused. "You're telling me that you two have been in this city before in the dream you two saw? Not the mention about you two having exactly the same dream? How is that even possible?"
"No time to explain." Mikey dismissed.
"But truth to be told, though, we were both as confused upon finding ourselves in the each others' dreams." Angel confessed to Stella, still finding it a freaking weird that she had somehow entered into Mikey's dream and he had entered into hers.
Well, that was a relief to Stella that neither Mikey or Angel had gone out of their minds down here, even though the whole shared dream thing between them was still largely confusing to her.
Mikey then brought the situation back up by making up the decision. "I say we push forward to the citadel. If my family and our friends are out there somewhere, it gotta be that tower." the turtle in orange declared.
"Then lead the way, brother." Angel said with encouragement and trust for the turtle in orange.
Mikey nodded his head before he began leading them, with Angel and Stella following closely behind, across the city and towards the tower.
"Creepy black tower, here we come!" the turtle in orange said with determination.
"If I remember correctly, there should be the long bridge that can take us directly to the citadel, just like it took us there from the Lair in our dream!" Angel recalled.
"Then let's find that bridge first and follow it to the citadel!" Mikey said, and the three of them went to look for the aforementioned bridge.
"Hang on, guys! Hang on, Louie! We're coming!" Angel said under her breath.
###
It didn't take long from Mikey, Angel and Stella to find the bridge they had seen in their dream, which they then set out to follow until they made it in front of the citadel of the city, a familiar black spire-shaped tower just like in their dream.
When they began ran towards the hexagonal doorway at the base of the tower, Mikey and Angel's imaginations ran wild as they approached the tower, and for a moment they both thought that just like in their dream, that creepy red-mouthed smoke monster would appear from behind the tower and try to eat them once again.
However, nothing of the sort happened, even if they kept boldly running towards the entrance. And even if the monster had appeared after all, Mikey or Angel wouldn't have even cared. Their determination to save the other turtles and monsters overcame any initial fear and hesitation.
Then they ran inside and ended up into the large circular and dark room with the rows of pillars lining along the wall marked with the symbols, just like in their Lair.
But upon entering, the very first thing Mikey, Angel and Stella ran into was three of the Fallen, Spidernok, Earth Crab and Richetorsaurus standing right in front of them.
"YAHH!" Mikey gasped in fright, staring Spidernok.
"HOLY...!" Angel gasped, staring Earth Crab.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" Stella gasped as well, staring Richterosaurus.
However, after standing there still while staring at the three monsters with the horrified looks on their faces, the three became confused that why the three beasts just stood there and didn't attack them yet... and why they didn't even move a limb.
"Whatta...?" Angel muttered with the raised brow as she walked up to take a closer look of Earth Crab. "What is this? What's happened to them?" she asked as she began to circle around the beast.
After the second look, they started to realize that the beasts were actually completely frozen solid.
"They are... frozen?" Stella questioned, astonished, as she stared the frozen Richterosaurus in the eye.
Mikey reached out his hand and touched the ice's surface near the Spidernok's face, rubbing it and making it squeak, but the beast didn't reach to it in anyway.
"Looks like it." the turtle in orange said. "But why?"
"Or are they even alive anymore." Stella wondered, turning to Mikey.
"Hey, guys!" Angel called from behind of Earth Crab, getting both Mikey's and Stella's attentions. "You better come to see this." she added, beckoning the two to follow her.
Glancing at each other, Mikey and Stella moved away from Spidernok and Richterosaurus and circled around the Earth Crab and met Angel again. Upon seeing their arrival, Angel turned to look ahead and pointed her finger to the distance, beckoning Mikey and Stella to look forward.
"Who are they?" the purtle-haired girl asked.
Before them stood at least twelve more monsters, all frozen in solid ice like the Earth Crab, Spidernok, and Richterosaurus. But there was something wrong with the picture, because none of these monsters resembled any of the Fallen or anyone from Quarry A's group. All of the monsters looked a lot more different from anything they had seen since this entire underground adventure began.(2)
"I don't remember anyone of these guys." Mikey said with the raised brow.
However, Stella did.
"But I do." she said sadly, making Mikey and Angel to turn to her as she walked forward towards the frozen monsters. "These twelve are more of the test subjects that the Foot transformed into monsters in their laboratory, but these poor souls were among the monsters that had been reported to have either died in accidents in the catacombs or mysteriously disappeared." she explained.
Taking all of this in, and remembering Quarry A having mentioned several times over that the monsters had mysteriously disappeared without a trace by this "evil that dwells amidst the crystals", both Mikey and Angel put two and two together.
"So these are the monsters Quarry A mentioned having disappeared?" Angel said.
"And they're here! All of them were here all this time!" Mikey added, before briefly turning to the three beast behind them. "But if those three Fallen are here as well, then that must means that..."
"That Louie and the others are here as well!" Angel finished, already dreading the thought of finding their friends and the turtles, especially Louie, frozen up like this.
"Then we better find them." Stella said and turned around to lead them. "And at the same time I can introduce you to these poor souls you haven't seen yet.
Mikey and Arcee then went to follow Stella, and the first frozen monster they came across with was a tall and slender yellowish-tan partially theropod- and partially meerkat-like monster with strong forearms and three large claws in each hand, two long tusks protuding out of the lover jaw, blunt snout, glowing red eyes and row of large bony spikes protuding from his head and down to his tail.
"Project Meerkatosaurus." Stella said, introducing the monster.
The next frozen monster was a huge, red and flat-bodied trilobite/ray/lobster-like monster with the armored back and flat tail, with the crab-like legs underneath, a glowing yellow eyes, a gaping mouth with two pairs of pincers and six tentacles with four star-like claws in the front.
"Project Landray."
Next one was a large green, scaled and muscular lizard/dinosaur/komodo dragon-like monster with the glowing yellow eyes and six or seven sail-like bony blade-like sails in it back, opening and closing like a pocket knife or a battle fan.
"Komodo Blade-back."
Next one was a massive green long-bodied caterpillar-like monster with the dark green backside and light green underbelly, the long rows of spider-like legs in both sides, a huge purplish blade-like pincers in both sides of the huge gaping and sharp-toothed mouth and in the end of the tail and insect-like antennae.
"Project Drillerpillar."
Next one was a quadrupedal rock-skinned and purplish-brown weasel/lizard/dragon-like monster with four volcano-like spouts along its back and two long horns on his head, large glowing yellow eyes and wide mouth with sharp fangs.(3)
"Project Magmanodon."
Next one was a large turquoise monster with three monstrous heads with glowing blue eyes and huge maws full of long sharp teeth, long necks, a body with two large dinosaur-like legs, a long tail with the snake's rattle-like tip, and a two rows of spike going down from the neck and back to the end of the tail.
"Project Hydra."
Next one was a a slender black humanoid monster with the eight glowing yellow eyes, a devil-like horns on top of the head, pincers in the mouth, and eight large-clawed spider-like legs instead of the human legs.
"Project Devilantula."
Next one bore the resemblance of Spidernok, except that it was moe of a green giant beetle-like monster with the golden armored back, glowing green eyes, a huge purplish multi-pointed/serrated pincers, multi-pointed horns and legs and sharp-toothed mouth.
"Project Terra-beetle."
Next one was a hairy and long-tailed brown anthropomorphic rat-like monster with the blunt muzzle and bat-lie nostrils, teeth and ears, large glowing red eyes and huge bat-like wings along with long curling fingers.
"Project Ratbat. And I think you know these three already."
The next three frozen monsters they came across they came across bore shockingly a striking resemblance of the three Earth Raptors that were seen amongst the Fallen, with their a grayish-purple dromaeosaurid-like, stone-fused and skull-headed appearances with the glowing yellow eyes. -
"Earth Raptors?" Angel questioned, putting two and two together. "But I thought that there was only three of them."
"No. We made a whole pack of at least six Earth Raptors in the lab, and these three are the half of the pack that went missing along with these nine others." Stella explained.
The three then continued onward, until they came across more of the frozen monsters, who looked much more familiar. The first ones being Razorfist and Insector, Dogpound and the rest three Earth Raptors, and Scalebreath and Driller Worm.
"Razorfist." Mikey gasped.
"Dogpound." Angel gasped.
"Scalebreath." Stella sighed.
The three of them then walked away and looked around, until they gasped when they came across three more of their friends. Stonebiter, Molemoth and Pickaxe."
"Oh, no! Stonebiter!"
"Molemoth!" Angel gasped.
"Pickaxe." Stella sighed.
The three of them continued walking onward, passing the frozen King Nail, King Scorpio, Omega, Cyclopsis and Groundroach Rex.
Angel's eyes then landed on two smaller frozen monsters and her eyes went wide from shock.
"Aw, man!" she gasped upon seeing Quarry B and Stonebiter B, both frozen as well with the panicked looks written on their faces. "Not you guys too."
Mikey and Stella, especially Stella, paid the sympathetic and mournful looks on the smaller monsters as they slowly, silently and solemnly kept moving.
Then, all three of them looked forward and gasped at the sight of Quarry A standing frozen before them, his face frozen into the look of sadness.
"Aw, Quarry A." Mikey said sadly and knelt down with his head bowed to pay a mournful respects to his friend.
"Oh, not you too." Angel sighed and followed Mikey's example.
Seeing Quarry A in this state while staring at the sorrowful expression on his face made Stella feel terribly awful, that it made her voice tremble so that it was difficult to bring out even a single word.
Not to mention that because of this, her earlier promise to see to it that Quarry A and his friends will be safe just crumbled before her eyes.
The guilt that gnawed at her insides for not being able to keep her promise to these poor souls, further boosted up by the fact that she was partially responsible that Quarry A and his friends had ended up like this, made her eyes well up with tears that began to flow down her cheeks.
"I'm sorry." she whispered with the broken voice and fell on her knee beside Angel and Mikey. "I'm so sorry."
All three stood crouched in front of Quarry A for a moment in silence.
Then they looked up, and the first thing they saw was the shiny crystal attached to the base of the podium Quarry A was standing.
"What is that?" Mikey asked as he stared at the crystal curiously.
"Or more likely, what's this one's purpose this time." Angel asked, recalling how they had used the crystals to power up the force fields, open up the doors and power up the cable cars and the hover scooters.
"Maybe this crystal has something to do with this." Stella assumed as she glanced up at frozen Quarry A and then back to the turtle in orange and Angel.
"Only one way to find out." Mikey said.
The turtle in orange reached out and was just about to touch the crystal, until...
"NO!" yelled the strange voice sharply.
This caused Mikey, Stella and Angel to turn to their left, and they all gasped in alarm when they saw the same cloaked figure standing on the flight of stairs nearby.
"Please, do not touch that." he said, before he began to walk down the stairs. "I am not finished the process with him yet."
All three of them narrowed their gazes into the angry glares at the man, recalling how this guy had been stalking them across the city and snatched nearly everyone of them.
"YES, YOU ARE!" Mikey rebuked.
"DEFINITELY!" Angel agreed, before she turned to Mikey. "Mikey! Gimme a boost!"
"You got it!" Mikey agreed, before the turtle in orange grabbed the girl by her waist and tossed her into the air.
Mikey then jumped onto his hands to the ground, allowing Angel to land onto the bottom of the feet, before Mikey kicked Angel higher in the air and towards the figure as he himself handsprung back onto his feet and then jumped towards the figure himself.
Only Stella remained behind by the podium, but she wasn't going to be left out of the action this time. While glaring venomously at the figure, she quickly put down her own duffel bag she had been carrying with her ever since leaving the lab and began to dig something out of it.
The figure hand just reached to the bottom of the stairs until he spotted Arcee and Mikey coming right towards him.
"HAIIII-YAAAA!" Angel let out as she threw the punch in the figure's face.
"BOO-YAAHH!" Mikey let out as he landed the kick in the figure's chest, knocking him back.
The man groaned as he landed on his chest to the ground.
"Hmph! "Ghostly Entity", my ass!" Angel scoffed as she rubbed her fist.
Deciding to see who's hiding under the hood, Mikey and Angel approached the figure and the turtle in orange took off the hood of his cape as the man turned to them, revealing himself to be a pale-faced and nearly bald human with the pink eyes and narrow irises like those of a cat. He also had a small sagittal crest on his head like the gorilla, along with the spiraling tattoo above of his right eye.
There was also a narrow line of blood streaming down from the man's nose, courtesy of Angel's punch.
Both Mikey and Angel were initially taken aback by the man's appearance, before the two narrowed their eyes as they glared down at him again.
"Entity, I presume." Angel asked, to which the man nodded as the confirmation.
Mikey then grabbed by the man's cloak, pulling the Entity up to the face level.
"Alright, baldy, where are my siblings?!" Mikey demanded with the snarl. "What have you done to them?!"
"And what you have done to them?!" Angel snarled, pointing her finger at the frozen monsters.
The Entity held up his arms. "Wait! You're terribly misunderstanding!" he pleaded. "Please, let me explain."
KLICK!
The unmistakable sound of the handgun's safety taken off behind them caught Angel's and Mikey's attention.
But before they could react, Stella came all of the sudden next to them, but she certainly didn't look like the same injured and near out of her wits scared woman they had found from the lab, and who had been through two whole years of hell down here.
Stella was looking down at the Entity with her eyes full of the seething rage and venom, and she was breathing heavily through of her bared gritted teeth. And to crown it all, she held the handgun in her hand that was trembling with anger, which she then raised and then pressed the barrel against the Entity's forehead, much to the shock of both of them.
"Wow!" Mikey gasped, pulling back as he stared worriedly at the handgun in Stella's hand.
"Stella, what are you doing?!" Angel questioned, half-scared.
Stella ignored them and kept holding the Entity at gunpoint. "Go ahead! Explain away! And you better hope your explanations will be satisfying to us, or else..." she growled angrily, pressing the handgun even harder against the Entity's head.
The Entity, apparently having never seen the firearms before, showed no fear even in the face of the threat of being shot to death by enraged Stella, while Angel and Mikey still kept staring at her in the wide-eyed shock and disbelief of her actions, worrying that where this might go.
"Stella?" Mikey called, but the red-haired woman refused to look down at him. Her venomous eyes were only fixed on the Entity.
"Where did you got that gun?" Angel asked, pointing at the firearm.
"From the Genetics Lab's armory." Stella answered without looking at them. "Yes. The Foot had an armory there too for the emergencies should the unstable test subjects escape out of control. Before we came down here, I went there to get a loaded handgun for myself just in case because I knew that if we encountered this Entity, I would need to defend myself somehow while the rest of you were able to do it without."
"Why didn't you tell us anything about that?" Mikey asked.
"Because I already knew how all of you would've reacted to the former Foot employee with the gun... even after I managed to win some of yours' trust, while most of you were still resentful and distrustful of me." Stella explained.
Looking at each other, Angel and Mikey understood her reasoning for not telling them that she secretly had a handgun in her possession, because Raph and Dom and Quarry A were all bitter, distrustful and outright hostile towards her... and rightfully so after her working for the Foot and being a part of the suffering Quarry A and the others went through... and that a handgun wouldn't have helped her status among them as an odd one at all.
"Well, fair enough, Stella, but you do not need to go through of this." Mikey said, trying to dissuade Stella from doing something stupid what she might regret for the rest of her life, even more so than her role in the monsters' creation and torment.(1)
That was something Mikey knew Leo would've done as well should he be here.(1)
"Yeah. You're not you really going to shoot this guy, aren't you?" Angel questioned, wishing that this wasn't the case.
"Only if he doesn't tell us where Louie and the rest of your brothers and sisters are KEPT." Stella told them, lightly turning her head to look at them both. "And he also confirmed that Quarry A and the others are still alive! THEY'RE ALIVE! AND HE'S BEEN KEEPING THEM LIKE SOME LIVE MUSEUM EXHIBITS!"
Despite not wanting Stella to commit an act of cold-blooded murder, they couldn't help but agree that this guy was keeping their friends, even the Fallen, imprisoned and on display like his own personal though sick collection of trophies.
And that he had likely done the same with Donnie, Mary, Leo, Dom, Raph, Louie and Arcee, even if they weren't in this room.
"So he better free them. ALL OF THEM! RIGHT NOW! AND THAT INCLUDES THE TURTLES!" Stella screamed with rage as she kept holding the Entity at gunpoint. "So this guy better start talking! NOW! Or else I will shoot him!"
Even though already feeling uncomfortable of the thought about Stella threatening to shoot the Entity if he won't start talking, even more so if he and Angel had to even witness that to happen if this comes to that, Mikey narrowed his eyes into the angry frown again as he turned back to the Entity.
"You heard the lady with the gun?! Mikey snarled at the man. "So start talking and tell us where is my family, or I have no reason to hold Stella back!"
"MIKEY!" Leo's voice called from their left.
"ANGEL-CAKE!" Louie's voice called next.
"STELLA!" Donnie's voice called next.
"STAND DOWN! HE'S OKAY!" Mary's voice called.
"PUT THE GUN DOWN, STELLA!" Arcee called lastly.
The Entity, Angel, Mikey and Stella all turned to the direction of the voice, and saw Leo, Arcee and Dom stepping out of the shadows, with Raph and Louie on their right and Mary and Donnie on their left. They were all alive and well.
"About time you three got here." Leo said. "We've been waiting for you."
"HUH?!" Angel, Mikey and Stella questioned, utterly confused to see that the other turtles were all free and not so worried.
"Uhh... what's... going on... in here?" Stella questioned as she removed the gun from the Entity's forehead and put it back into her bag.
"Yeah." Angel said. "Weren't all of you supposed to be frozen in a solid ice like everyone else after you were taken?" she asked, gesturing towards the frozen monsters.(4)
"Well, we initially were, Angel-cake. Very uncomfortable experience, though, given our cold-blooded nature as turtles. I gotta admit that." Louie confirmed.(4)
"Until our kind host here released us after finding out that we're not the genetically engineered monsters like them but an animal-born mutants." Arcee explained, gesturing towards the Entity.(4)
"HOST?!" Angel, Stella and Mikey all exclaimed in shot, with Mikey even letting go of the Entity and letting him fall to the floor.
"Can somebody please explain that what the shell is going on in here?!" Mikey exclaimed, as the Entity pulled himself up from the ground, wiping the blood off his nose.
"You guys want an explanation? Well, here you go." Dome spoke up, gesturinmg towards the Entity. "You see, guys, this Entity here, we had him figured all wrong."
"Yes. He wasn't evil after all." Mary added. "He didn't chase us through the tunnels and around the city out of malevolence."
"Indeed. And I humbly apologize for scaring you all in the tunnels and streets like that." the Entity explained as he began to move towards another hexagon-shaped doorway, while the turtles and humans followed him, although all but Mikey, Angel, and Stella did so willingly, all three of the aforementioned did so hesitantly and cautiously.
As the door opened, the Entity led the turtles and humans into another more bighter room, which was enlightened with the huge bonfire in the middle of the chamber, along with the several pairs of strange-looking turquoise suits of armor standing here and there like the artifacts on display, each of them wielding the crystal-topped spears.
"If the circumstances had been any different than they were when you arrived, I would have welcomed you to my city in open arms." the Entity told them as he turned ti face the humans and the turtles.
Mikey and Angel exchanged glances with each other wit hthe dumbfounded looks, finding all of this new information about this Entity guy being not evil or malevolent after all unlike how Quarry A had originally described him as unbelievable.
Stella, however, frowned her burrows, not wanting to believe anything good about this guy. "Then how does that explain Quarry A and everybody else being frozen alive like this?!" she yelled angrily, pointing at the frozen monsters in the other room.
"Easy, Stella! Easy!" Arcee told her shootingly. "Quarry A and the others aren't in any sort of danger. And in fact, they're actually going to be better after the process is finished." she explained excitedly.
"Process? What process?" Stella questioned with the frown.
"Well, you see, Stella, he has seen with his own eyes how the Foot had mutated Quarry A and the others and he just wants to turn them back to normal." Donnie explained.
Angel, Mikey and Stella, especially Stella, let a huge gasps to escape out of their mouths, so surprised they were of these news that their hearts skipped the beat or two.
Wide-eyed and slack-jawed of these unbelievable news, Stella turned back to the Entity.
"Is that true?" she asked him hesitantly, not just out of a little guilt that he had just held her at gunpoint and even threatened to shoot her, but more of because she was afraid to believe so naively in this newfound hope for the test subjects at long last. "You are really going to turn them... all of them... back to normal? Back to humans?"
"That is exactly why I gathered all the surviving victims of the Foot Clan's horrible handiwork here: To be healed from their monstrosity forms and to be humans again like they used to be." the Entity said with the nod, confirming this.
The thought that Guarry A and all the surviving victims of the horrible experimentations inflicted on them by the Foot in the Shredder's name will be after all these years reverted back to their original human forms left Stella so relieved and overjoyed that she began to both laugh and cry in happiness for them, putting her hand over her mouth as her eyes were filled up with tears and streamed down her cheeks.
Equally happy about that, Arcee put her hand over Stella's shoulder to share her happiness and relief, to which Stella responded by turning to smile broadly at the turtle in pink and rested her own good hand over Arcee's own, squeezing it gently.
"But how are you going to do that?" Angel questioned. "And why they are all frozen in solid ice like this?"
"As we speak, the power of the cavern's Crystal Moon is infusing them with regenerative energy." the Entity explained, as he pointed his hand upwards at the Crystal Moon that shone brightly at the ceiling of the cavern. "Their bodies are being genetically rebuilt inside each chrysalis till the process is finished. Within minutes, the last of them will be restored to their original human form."
"Thank you so much for clearing that up." Mikey said sarcastically with the facade smile before he leaned to whisper to Leo and Mary. "He's lying."
"I agree with Mikey here." Angel whispered to Louie and Dom, no less distrustful of this Entity and his generosity towards them than Mikey was. "Besides, why would he even agree to help those people in the first place?" she added, doubting the Entity's motivation to help Quarry A and the others to be solely out of goodness of heart.
"Michelangelo... Angel Bridge... and Dr. Stella Lincoln. I understand your distrust of me, but you're all three entirely safe. I ensure you." the Entity said as he touched his crystal amulet, making it glow. "This city was built by an ancient peace-loving race..."
He then turned to the nearby, a much larger crystal that was mounted on a pedestal, before it began glow green.
"Of which I am both the representor and sadly its sole survivor." the Entity said solemnly.
The turtles and humans then walked over to stand in front of the large crystal, which acted as a viewing screen.
FLASHBACK
The very first thing the crystal showed them was the Underground City in the past, when it was still full of life and vibrancy. The lights shone out of the multiple windows while the citizens, who looked just like the Entity, rode on the hover scooters above the city, while some others traveled across the city on the cable cars.
The Entity: "We have lived within the Earth for many millennia, spiritually bonded with it. It was a symbiosis that had always sustained us, for we were unable to endure the harshness of the outside world."
Then the crystal showed about twelve people like him standing around the 8-shaped pool, in middle of which stood another large crystal.
The Entity: "Then, we detected life stirring on the surface."
The people observed as the crystal showed them a couple of primitive huts on the hillside, probably from the era thousands of years ago when the people back then began to learn how to build dwellings similar to today's houses.
Then the crystal showed the ship of vikings making their first landing on the coast of the Northern America in the late 10th century.
Then the crystal showed the people, several settlers having a peaceful trading with the native americans "indians" and their chief at the border of their village.
Next thing the crystal showed was the horse-driven chariot moving through the street of some town at some point of 18th century.
And finally, the crystal showed the present day's New York City's streets, tall buildings and Chrysler Building against the full moon.
The Entity: "The new life forms fascinated us, so we began studying them from an outposts we build near the surface."
Dom: "From an outposts?"
The crystal then showed one of the aforementioned outpost the people were using to observe the life on the surface. It was a circular cavern with the round floor in middle of the which the pool was, and the outer upper level where led the four ramps. The circular causeway forming the upstairs, which, along with the dome-like ceiling, was supported by a circle of eight to ten stone pillars. And here and there were several hexagon-shaped doorways leading into various rooms.
It didn't took long from the turtles to realize that the outpost's structures matched identically to those in their Lair, thus confirming with 100% their Lair's origins.
The Entity: "Yes. Like from the one that was build below the spot to which in time rose the city of New York. The same outpost that most recently became your home."
The crystal then showed the people around the pool and the crystal, who began to disappear two by two, dwindling their numbers.
The Entity: "As the years passed, however, it soon became evident that our own time was drawing to a close."
Thee crystal then showed the vied of the city again, with the people on the hover scooters and the moving cable cars, until they all vanished while the lights died out from the windows, plunging the city into the darkness.
The Entity: "Yes, the Earth had cast its vote and our entire race faced extinction."
FLASHBACK ENDS
"They're all gone now." the Entity said sadly as the crystal's video ended.
The turtles and humans turned to the Entity, with most of the turtles and Stella feeling sorry for him - for it must have been really depressing to be a sole survivor of the entire extinct raze, something to which Stella could somewhat relate after being herself for two years a sole survivor of the Foot staff in the lab - while only both Mikey and Angel remained wary of this guy.
"I'm so sorry for that." Arcee said sympathically.
"Me too." Stella said, nodding her head. "Trust me, I know what it is like to be a sole survivor while going through a hell down here."
"How long has it been?" Donnie asked, stepping forward
"Long enough to make this a very lonely existence." the Entity said sadly.
"Is there anything we can do to help you?" Mary asked, standing by Donnie's side.
"Let's just say that you're doing it already. And so are those people back there." the Entity said and turned back towards the door leading to the room where the monsters were.
However, the Entity's words "they're already helping him" confused the turtles and humans, making them to exchange the glances with one another while wondering amongst themselves what he was talking about, that how they were already helping him before they had even asked how they can help him.
The Entity then stopped and turned back to them, while pointing his hand at the doorway. "Everything you've seen is the sole reason why I want to return those people back to normal. Only then can they help me repopulate the city." he said hopefully.
The turtles and humans were taken aback by this revelation.
"Repopulate?" Louie repeated, surprised, exchanging glances with Angel and Dom.
Stella also frowned her burrows. "That's your motivation to help them back to normal, so that they can help you to bring life back in this city in exchange?" she deduced, her sympathy for the Entity slowly turning back to suspicion.
"Well, I wouldn't count on that." Leo told him, shaking his head. "They all have lives waiting for them on the surface."
"I have to agree to that." Arcee said, trying to reason with the Entity. "Up there on the surface are the people who have most certainly been missing them. Their families. Their friends."
"NO!" the Entity snapped sharply, turning back to the turtles and humans. "They will stay! They must!"
The turtles and humans were all of the sudden taken aback by the man's sudden outburst and refusal to let Quarry A and the others go once they were back to normal.
"Wow! Wow! Easy there, pal!" Leo said, holding his hands up in an attempt to calm the Entity down. "We didn't meant to offend you. And I'm sure they'll be grateful to you for turning them back to normal, but—"
The Entity angrily cut Leo off as he walked up to them. "I refuse to let this city die! There's so much to pass on! They must stay... and so must you!" he declared, pointing a finger at the turtles and humans.
TO BE CONTINUED...
TRIVIA
1) = I kinda decided to give Mikey at least for once the role as the leader, with him trying to keep the group's cool and thinking how Leo would've handled the situations as the leader if he was around.
2) = As I said earlier that I might add more monsters, I ended up creating twelve new named monsters - Meerkatosaurus, Landray, Komodo Blade-back, Drillerpillar, Magmanodon, Hydra, Devilantula, Terra-beetle, Ratbat and Earth Raptors 4, 5 & 6 - who are those monsters mentioned previously by Quarry A of having gone missing/kidnapped much earlier by the Entity.
3) = Magmanodon's design is based on Experiment 502 Yang from Lilo and Stitch the series, along with from some Deviantarts about him.
4) = Even if it did happen in the opriginal episode while off-screen, I made it so that all the turtles experienced the same freezing process that Quarry A, his group and the Fallen went through after their were abducted by the Entity, only for the latter to release them once finding out that they were animal- not human-born mutants.