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

Chapter 20: Public Enemy Nos. 1-4

- "The ninja turtles are enemies of the people... They must be apprehended on sight. Killed if necessary." The Rat King's message might have been broadcast across the entire city, but one man in particular was the intended recipient.

Chief Sterns felt rather than saw all eyes in the Crisis Control Room turn to him. He paused, but only for a moment, then he picked up the phone. "All units..."

Michelangelo turned from the TV. "OK... Does this mean we get to be on America's Most Wanted...?"

"I really think we should start getting ourselves out of here..." Raphael fretted.

"That's it, Leo... The truck's loaded..." Donatello slammed down the phone and turned to the others purposefully. Leonardo jumped down from the bench he had been perched on.

"OK, guys... Let's go."

***

The Foot Clan's junkyard base was in fortress mode, with their entire strength, however meager compared to the glory days of Master Shredder, recalled and standing to arms. All approaches were watched, all entrances guarded... Now, not even a rat could get in or out unchallenged.

Jake was on guard duty, the kind nobody wanted - Thanks, Freddy - and as he clambered up and over the piles of junk surrounding the yard, instead of outward he found himself glancing more and more at what was going on below... He watched as the captured Channel 3 van approached and was allowed through the heavily guarded perimeter. Settling there, he crouched down to observe as the rear doors were thrown open and several Foot ninja emerged.

Not just them... Jake started, surprise only one of a number of decidedly mixed emotions, as April O'Neil - even at this distance, she was easily recognizable in her yellow T-shirt and black leathers - was lifted bodily out of the back of the van and set down on her feet, hands once again tied behind her. From there, they hurried her to the workshop and the doors were closed and barred as sentries took up positions outside. With a limited view of the large window facing into the yard, Jake tried but failed to see what was happening inside.

Setting his jaw determinedly, he stood up and made his way around to get a better look.

***

The Rat King took the opportunity to receive the reports of his legions of rats all over the city and beyond. Letting his mind wander onto a different plane, he relaxed and breathed out slowly, giving himself over to the bewildering array of sensory inputs. Then he sifted them, choosing to exclude all but the most relevant, whittling down and down and down...

The Turtles, hurrying to execute their desperate plan... He felt their determination, the pain they all kept submerged, the loss... Their sensei was gone, and they had no time to mourn him, or even to properly acknowledge his absence...

Chief Sterns, his mind thoroughly subjugated, going about his new duties not even questioning for whose benefit he was really working now...

April O'Neil, once again imprisoned by the Foot Clan, apparently resigned to her plight and reluctantly cooperating with being tied up. Lawrence Hynten would have felt something like pity, but this Rat King experienced nothing like that... Had he lost something with the death of his old self, or perhaps gained a new perspective...?

-Nephew...

A brief image flashed before him, overriding all the others and snapping him out of the meditative state, back into the mundane reality of the waste land and the abandoned Channel 3 outside broadcast... A face. A familiar face. Lawrence Hynten - The Rat King. No... he was the Rat King. He, and no other...!