"Get her out of here, Donnie," Leo mumbles.
Donnie glances around the room. No other exits. He sighs, knowing his only option is to attempt to leave the way they entered.
As soon as Donnie began running, the fighting began. Karai and the rest of the mutants were being held back by Raph and Leo, but they could only do so much. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to contain Baxter. Donnie needed to climb, which meant Carrie needed to hold on, but that was found to be exceptionally hard with a fly mutant flying after them.
"You're going to have to hold on tight," Donnie says. "And don't pass out."
Carrie nods in response. Donatello begins the climb. He has to move faster so as not to get caught by the fly, but also not too fast as to lose footing. He must keep a steady pace so Carrie also doesn't pass out on their way out. That would be really unfortunate.
As Donnie ascended the lab, Carrie watched as the other two turtles battled below. She glanced over at her father. He was smiling at her. She offered a smile back.
The happiness and relief only lasted a brief moment. Baxter had caught up to them. The fly knocked into Donatello, resulting in the turtle losing his balance and almost falling. He held tightly onto one of the pipelines that ran across the walls but Carrie also lost her grip. Before she could fall, Donnie quickly reached down and grasped her wrist. With one hand the turtle held the pipe and with the other, he held the girl.
"Well this is unfortunate," Donnie groans.
"He's coming back, Donnie!" Carrie shouts frantically.
The turtle attempts to hoist Carrie up but only ends up almost slipping. Carrie screams, taking her other hand to grab Donnie's wrist. She tries to lift herself. Instead of succeeding, she becomes dizzy and stops trying.
"I'm going to try to swing you and-"
"No!" Carrie yells. "I will pass out."
"We don't have many options!"
Carrie looks to the fighting below. Her eyes glance at Baxter who was quickly flying right towards her. She looks back at Donnie. "Get ready!"
"For what?!"
Carrie lets go of Donnie's wrist. "Let go!" She shouts.
"No way!"
"Please!"
Donnie's eyes flicker from Baxter to Carrie. He knew what she was thinking and he didn't like it one bit. But, it was just as he said: he didn't have many options.
He sighs. "Ready?!"
Carrie nods and holds her breath. The turtle releases her. For a moment she's free-falling through the air. Baxter catches her quickly. Donnie, however, climbs to the ledge just above him. He takes his bo staff and begins running along the ledge towards Baxter. When Donnie gets as close as he can, he takes a leap of faith.
The turtle lands on top of Baxter, causing the fly to struggle in his flight. Donnie places his weapon in front of Baxter's neck. The turtle was able to angle the fly towards the ground. At the last minute, Donnie twists his staff so that Baxter flips upside down so that the turtle hits the ground first, not Carrie.
Carrie crawls out of Baxter's arms and Donnie kicks the fly off of him, leaving Baxter unconscious on the floor.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Carrie says, holding a hand up to her mouth.
Just as Donnie is about to offer another escape plan, the main doors to the lab swing open. The fighting slowly fizzles. The mutants and Karai back away from Leo and Raph and make way for their master.
Shredder looks across the room and notices Donnie and Carrie towards the back. He notices the orange turtle is nowhere to be found.
"It's a pity only three of you are here," Shredder growls. "Your pathetic lives end today."
Leo and Raph initiate the attack on Shredder in hopes of buying Donnie enough time to get Carrie out of there.
Donatello grabs Carrie's hand and begins sprinting towards a back door. As they run, he grabs his T-Phone and calls Mikey.
"Oh, hey dude," Mikey says.
"We need you and April down here now!" Donnie yells. When they approach the door, he sits Carrie on the ground and begins hacking the screen pad that seals the door. "I need you two to try to get this back door unlocked."
"I thought we couldn't?"
"We have to try. Unless Leo and Raph can clear a path through the main entrance, we're stuck."
"Why don't you let them clear a path?"
"Because Shredder's down here!" Donnie yells.
"Oh." Mikey sighs. "Then I should maybe tell you April's missing."
Donnie rests his forehead against the wall, his eyes narrow. "What?!"
"It's not my fault, dude! I'm the only one out here! I haven't seen anyone else! I've walked around the entire building and she's gone!"
"Find April," Donnie says.
"Are you sure?"
"Find her," Donnie grumbles. "I'll get this door open myself."
"Got it," Mikey affirms. He hangs up and begins his search. April couldn't be far.
"April!" Mikey screams. "Why'd you leave?!"
There was no response.
The turtle shivered. It got fairly cold at night. Now he was thinking he would rather be inside facing Shredder than be cold. Anything to avoid being cold.
Mikey walked around the building once again, following the path he and April walked to patrol the perimeter.
"This isn't funny, dudette!" Mikey shouts.
He heard rustling behind him, across another rooftop. It sounded like footsteps. Mikey jumped across to the rooftop parallel to Shredder's lair.
The turtle grabbed his nunchucks cautiously in an attempt to not make any loud noises. He began swinging them as he walked across the roof.
"Who's there?!" Mikey spins around, hoping to catch the culprit. "What did you do to my friend?!"
The attacker comes up from behind Mikey and tackles him to the ground. The hooded figure flips the turtle onto his back, holding a blade to the teenager's neck.
"Please, let me go!" Mikey cries. "I'll give you anything you want!"
"Give me access to Oroku Saki's lair and I'll make your death quick," the figure snaps.
Mikey notices the man's thick Japanese accent and frowns. "Who are you, dude?"
"It's none of your concern, Foot Soldier," the man grumbles. "Now give me access to the building."
"You got me all wrong! I'm not a Foot Soldier! My brothers and I are on a rescue mission!"
The hooded figure remains silent, but only for a moment. "To rescue who?"
"I don't know how much I should spill to a stranger like you."
The man presses the knife against Mikey's neck. "Talk."
"Okay, okay! There's this girl we've been hiding because she's got some sort of crazy power! She got captured by Karai and they're going to use her to get her dad to work on this crazy serum! I'm guessing it'll give Shred-head crazy superpowers too."
"What's this girl's name?" The man questions.
"Carrie! I told you basically everything! Please don't kill me!"
"What's the father's name?"
"Noah!"
The man lets out a small, quiet gasp. He steps back, releasing Mikey.
"No need to be all dramatic, dude."
"You're here to rescue Emiko?"
"I just said her name is Carrie."
The man shakes his head and grabs Mikey's shoulders. "Who are you working for?"
"Uh. I guess my older brother Leo? He's the leader. But if you mean our Sensei, that's Master Splinter."
The man is taken by surprise. His grip on the turtle loosens. "Hamato Yoshi," the man whispers.
"Yeah. That's him. That's our father."
"Father?!"
"Dude. You are freaking me out."
"You must lead me to where they're holding Emiko - I mean Carrie. I'll help you and your brothers."
"No can do." Mikey takes a step back and crosses his arms. "I was ordered to find April first."
The man runs across the rooftop. He leans down behind a water tower. He takes his blade and cuts the ropes he used to tie April up and tears the tape from her mouth.
"Is this your friend?"
April steps out, brushing dirt off her shirt and shorts. "What was that for?!"
"I thought you two were Foot Soldiers," the man explains.
"We aren't even dressed like one!" April shouts, stomping her foot. "You didn't even let me explain myself!"
"We gotta get down there, April," Mikey says. "Donnie needs our help."
April stomps away from the man towards her turtle friend. "Let's go."
"I must come with you two," the man says, racing to catch up with them.
"We don't know who you are," April snaps. "We can't trust you. You tied me up!"
"I will explain as soon as we rescue Emiko and you take me to Hamato Yoshi."
"No way are we taking you back to our secret hideout!" April whips around, arms folded.
"Oroku Saki is down there, beating on your brothers. He will kill them. I am not your enemy. You need my help."
"He makes a really good point," Mikey says.
April sighs. "I know."
"We're running out of time."
"Then let's go. We'll lead you through his lair," Mikey says.
The newly formed team of three jumps back across to Shredder's lair. Mikey leads the way as they crawl through an entrance to the building. They begin making their way down the many levels of the lair to meet up with the other three brothers and Carrie.
Down in the lab, Leo and Raph were doing all they could to keep the Shredder at bay. Donatello could feel that he was getting close to hacking the door and getting through but his time was cut shorter every time Shredder managed to inch closer.
"You should hurry, Donnie," Carrie says. She takes a deep breath. Her vision blurred every so often. She regained focus.
"I'm working on it."
Only seconds pass before Donnie was able to hack through the door and unlocks it. He shoves Carrie through and looks back at his brothers. They struggle to hold Shredder back. They can hardly stand back up when he knocks them down, but they get back up anyway.
"Take these," Donnie says, handing Carrie two of his knives. "Run. If you see anything that isn't us, stab it."
"But I don't know where to go." Carrie shakes her head. "Get them to come with us!"
"They may not make it out," Donnie whispers. "Our mission was to rescue you. Get out, Find Mikey and April and go home."
"But what about you?"
Donnie looks back at his brothers. "I can't leave them." He glances back at Carrie and pushes her further through the doorway. "Now go!"
Donatello turns his back on Carrie, grabs his bo staff, and races into the fight. He takes Shredder's attention away from his brothers. He swings his weapon at Shredder, landing a couple of blows, but is kicked away into Raphael.
Leonardo forced himself up from the last blow. While Shredder was focused on Donnie and Raph, the leader ran up behind Shredder. But the master ducked below the turtle's katanas and kicked him back once again. The Shredder turned, walking over to Leo. He groaned and attempted to get up once again but was stopped. Shredder grasps the turtle's neck, lifting him into the air.
Shredder faces the other two brothers, dangling their leader before them. "Pathetic."
Donnie and Raph hoist themselves off the ground. They ready their weapons.
"Run," Leo chokes out. "Get-"
The Shredder squeezes Leo's neck, forcing the turtle to stop his sentence.
"Your time is up, turtle," Shredder says. He readies his blades and swiftly strikes.
But no death came about this strike as Shredder was unable to complete it. Something held him back, a force. He couldn't move.
"Stop!" Carrie yells, her arms outstretched towards Shredder.
All eyes turned towards Carrie. Her eyes were clouded by darkness. The knives Donnie had given her for defense were encased in the same shadowy darkness that fogged her eyes. Karai and the other mutants tried to charge at her and stop her but they too were stopped. They couldn't move and were held in one place.
Leo could feel the slow release of Shredder's fingers around his neck. Shredder's grip loosened so much so that Leo was able to escape. He fell to the ground coughing and rubbing his neck.
"Finally," Shredder mutters.
In a fit of anger, Carrie flung the two knives at Shredder and charged him. Her control over Shredder became weaker as she attacked him, so he was able to deflect the blades. Carrie was fast and strong. Shredder had trouble keeping up with her advances. But he could also feel himself slowly regaining control of his own body. He knew Carrie was weak and this burst of energy and power could only last a couple of minutes.
Shredder was right. Her energy quickly dwindled. He managed to regain control and fight back. As powerful as Carrie was, she wasn't trained and had no idea how to control the power.
Carrie didn't stop attacking, though. She continued to throw punches. Shredder caught her wrist and blocked all her other attacks. Carrie struggled to try to get free but she only grew weaker and weaker. Her struggle stopped and she fell helpless in Shredder's grasp.
"It's over," Shredder snaps.
He turns to the turtles. Raph and Donnie kneel over Leo, trying to get him to stand. They weren't left with many other options. What they had just witnessed may have been their only chance. There just wasn't time.
Leo sat on his knees. His breaths slowed and softened. "This isn't over."
The Shredder looked down on the leader and his brothers. "You failed."
Before any more words or actions could be made, Mikey, April, and the man in the hood fell from a ledge above. The man was quick to charge Shredder. His moves were swift and precise. It caught Shredder off-guard and he stumbled back, releasing Carrie. April caught her. She had fallen unconscious.
"Say hello to our new friend!" Mikey exclaims. He turns to his brothers. "You guys look horrible!"
Shredder ignores Mikey's comments. His attention turns towards the mysterious man in the hood. It hides any recognizable features.
"Who are you?" Shredder demands.
The man stands up straight. There is a brief moment of silence. He slowly lowers the hood, revealing himself.
Shredder narrows his eyes. "I thought you were dead."
"Noah sent me to help Hamato Yoshi and his family protect Emiko."
"How did he-"
The man smiles. "I wouldn't trust all of your soldiers in Japan, Saki." From his pocket, he pulls a small token. He twirls it through his fingers. The symbol resembles that of the Hamato Clan, but with very distinct changes to its shape. Shredder recognizes the symbol as the reformed Adachi Clan. "Most of them are mine."