Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Day of the Rat (A 90s Movies Story)

Chapter 1: Rat Rampage

Still New York, almost 16 years later...

All was quiet and still in the now disused subway station. Or perhaps not quite disused... In one corner, a beat-up sofa and a battered television set. In another, a work bench with disassembled electrical appliances and tools scattered around. Nearby, a table covered with crumbs and congealed traces of cheese and tomato and other ingredients less easy to identify.

A subterranean Mary Celeste.

The silence was interrupted by a loud click. After a brief pause, a tinny voice crackled forth from the answering machine's small inbuilt speaker -"Hi, Master, it's Donatello. Hey, I know you wanted us to stay incommunicado up here... We were worried..." - The message went on for a while, and the spy listened right to the end.

Dropping to the floor, the rat scurried away.

***

The streets of New York on this particular Thursday evening, just as it was getting dark, were frenzied and chaotic. Car horns blared, voices yelled, people pushed and shoved each other.

Which was fine, this was normal. But what wasn't normal was the sudden arrival of-

-Rats! First a few, then a hundred, then a thousand. Scurrying out of storm drains, out of dark alleys - In one unfortunate case, out of a car window into the face of a baffled onlooker. Rats. Lots and lots of rats, and more rats. Rats.

Rats.

Not much could faze the people of New York, but this was too much. A hot dog vendor abandoned his stall. Drivers left their cars in the middle of the road. A mother snatched her baby from its buggy and ran. It didn't matter where, just away from the rats! A panicked man fell over that buggy in a tangle of arms and legs.

It got so bad one guy even abandoned the takeaway pizza he was eating.

It got that bad.

A magazine stand was up-ended and its contents spilled out onto the street. One magazine that landed face-up in a shallow puddle showed a grainy picture of four bizarre creatures on a stage next to a man with flattop hair. "NINJA TURTLES NO MORE: ANATOMY OF A FLASH IN THE PAN," read the bold text.

***

One rat among the multitude had a separate purpose. It ran along the side of an apartment building, darted up the wall and jumped onto a fire escape, then up onto the roof and then down a drainpipe... It jumped onto another fire escape, and through a window, passing through the narrowest of gaps, spine crackling as it achieved access.

The chaos outside was audible, but even so the apartment was an oasis of calm. It was open-plan, with a spiral staircase leading to an upper floor. No one was around, and the rat scurried to and fro. All its senses attuned, focused on... what?

Jumping onto the sofa, the rat landed on a remote control and switched on the television. Attention caught, it watched as the screen lit up and, after a moment, with a faint buzz of static, a picture resolved...

- "So, tell me, Miss, uh, Miss McWilliams, how did you first meet, um, this giant Turtle? It was a Turtle, that's right? You're sure about that?"

- "I assure you, Miss O'Neil, that I know a Turtle when I see one. My ex-father kept dozens of amphibians, and I'm not likely to mistake a Turtle for, say, a terrapin..."

- "And, let me see if I've got this right, this Turtle was approximately six and a half feet tall - hmm - wore a red band around his eyes - red, huh? - and spoke with a..."