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

Chapter 16: Pipe Down

With his two fully-developed arms, Whiskers reached up to touch his snout. Fingers curled around his opposable thumb. He stared at the Rat King in what could be an accusing way.

Doctor Pearson was the first to speak. "What have you done...? Um... What have I done...?" She adjusted her glasses and shifted position from foot to foot. "Um, Mister Hynten... Can I just say, I'm not going to put my name to this unless these problems can be ironed out?"

Technicians in protective gear had by now righted the keg and were securing the nozzle. As Whiskers lurched forward and then steadied on his feet, the Rat King moved forward to intercept the now-bipedal rat, careful not to let any of the liquid touch him. Brief exposure to the original ooze had made him the most powerful Hyn'tnn incarnate yet - the effect this new concentrated mutagen might have was unpredictable enough to make him wary.

As he grappled with his creation, he wasn't quite prepared for the creature's enormous strength! Whiskers lifted the Rat King off his feet and slammed him against the wall. The two of them continued to grapple, physical power almost matched.

Obey! The Rat King sent the simple command across the long-established mental link with his minion. Whiskers, however, was not the simple creature he had been.

Hi!

A simple response, so simple it took the Rat King completely by surprise and put him off balance. Then he realized the voice that replied was a familiar one...

April froze, wide-eyed.

To her alarm, the rat came closer. She instinctively tried to lean forward to keep it in view, and was painfully reminded of the loops of rope holding her pinned to the chair. She heard its light footfall behind her and felt it run underneath. It paused to investigate the rope binding her ankles, and appeared again in front of her.

"Mmmff..." Uncertainly, she offered the rat a tape-muffled greeting. It seemed only polite...

The Rat King stared into the shiny black eyes of the rat. He had not even realized that this was the rat he had sent to spy on the Foot Clan, and would not have considered it important even if he had. Was this creature... remembering?

"What are you doing, Whiskers?" The thought crossed the human's mind and was immediately projected into the Rat King's. That of the rat, too.

Whiskers...? For the rat, a name was a strange concept. Why the human would want to grant him one was a mystery. At least she seemed well-disposed toward him, unlike many of these human creatures he spent so much time observing.

Independently of his master, Whiskers – he liked that – rose up on his rear legs to get a better look at her. That seemed to surprise the human, and with a creak of protest from the chair she tried to lean forward a little despite the restraints. The shiny silver material stuck over her mouth prevented the human from communicating with her own kind, but speech made no sense to Whiskers anyway. Her projected thoughts, however, were totally clear.

"Hi. I know it's a really, really long shot, but I don't suppose you're some kind of psychic rat who likes to gnaw through rope, are you?"

What the Rat King meant by the phrase he had just muttered was anybody's guess... "What the hell is going on here?" Dr Pearson asked that question of the mercenary captain, and got a shrug. She asked it of Bryan, and got less than a shrug.

Bryan had enough going on without having to answer her questions. The voice was back. Or maybe voice was the wrong word now. Bryan couldn't so much hear the old Japanese man now, as feel his consciousness. His intellect, his integrity. His goodness. It told him what he kind of already knew. This was wrong. This had to be stopped.