- "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...!

The Rat King wiped the sheen of sweat from Bryan Bryant's ashen face.

***

As they walked down the long corridor, Michelangelo watched while Donatello clipped a strange-looking device to his belt. "Hey... What's that...?"

"Surprise, Mikey..."

"HEY...!" They turned to see a group of uniformed cops run in at the far end of the corridor and start chasing them, guns drawn.

"What gives...?" demanded Raphael.

A bullet impacted on the wall near them, gouging chips of plaster that impacted on Leonardo's shell. "I knew it wouldn't last," said Michelangelo philosophically. "Them being nice to us," he added in explanation.

"Got a plan, Leo?" asked Donatello.

"Run sound good?" Leonardo led the way. "Motor pool, guys...! And let's hope they're not there waiting for us!"

***

Yeah, there she was, he could just see her head and shoulders... As well as April, Jake could see the two Foot ninja guards standing watch over her. Oh yeah... Remembering he had them, he pulled out the small binoculars from the pouch attached to his belt and, making sure first he wasn't being watched, took a closer look.

Her face was turned away, toward the back of the workshop, but as he watched April turned her head - Dark hair spilled from her shoulder to reveal tell-tale loops of rope taut against the black leather of her jacket, and also visible now was the strip of silver tape over her mouth. Obviously armed guards and barred doors just weren't enough... Why had he ever joined an outfit like this...?

Yeah... And why did he keep wondering that when he knew the answer better than anyone?

***

I heard you almost let her escape," said Freddy casually as he and Matt walked around the yard and slowed as they approached the workshop. Ignoring the sentries, he turned to look at Matt in an unsettling way that could just as easily be light-hearted or deadly serious.

Matt chose to take the reproach lightly, and replied in an amused tone. "Well, you know how it is, some fool got careless..."

***

"There was never any danger..."

On the other side of the doors, April could just faintly hear their conversation, and that last statement made her eyes narrow in pained annoyance... as if she didn't have enough to be annoyed about already. Back to square one, she thought unhappily. No, scratch that... Back to square minus ten! Everything she had been through, just to be landed back here...!

Fingers cautiously exploring the coarse rope around her wrists, she looked accusingly at her guards... Why did they have to tie her quite so tight...? Why did they have to tie her at all?

Oh yeah, they didn't. It was just that the Foot tended not to recruit nice people... Then the concerned look on Jake's guileless face came to mind, and it occurred to her that even when they did it was so weird you almost wished they hadn't. Where was Jake, anyway...? Could he really be the only Foot ninja, among all these young guys, with a soul?

Cautiously, April decided to try something. "Mmmmfff," she moaned softly through the duct-tape, tilting her head, as though aiming to make them feel bad for her - Some hope. Then, a little more brightly, as if trying to start a conversation, "Mmm-mmmmmm-mff...? Mmmfff...?"

The two guards looked at each other briefly, although what they expected to see in the other's faces, hidden beneath the masks, was anybody's guess.

"Do we even need her any more...?"

As Freddy and Matt started talking again, April listened carefully. They really were speaking far too quietly for her liking.

***

At Matt's question, Freddy tilted his head a little, with the beginnings of a trademark smirk. "Does that mean you think we should let her go, or...?"

Matt drew back. "What I think doesn't matter."

Freddy let the smirk loose. "And what about young Jake?"

Matt paused for a moment. "He'll follow orders. I promise you that."

"We got a call," Freddy said abruptly. When Matt looked bemused at that, he added "From Japan. They're sending someone. Flight's already left Tokyo. He'll be here tomorrow, early..."

Matt exhaled slowly. He didn't talk for a good few seconds. "New boss? He knows what's happening?"

Freddy nodded. "Most of it. Wants the Turtles alive."

"But our... ally is gonna kill them..."

"I certainly wouldn't be selling them life insurance right now."

Matt smiled faintly. "OK. That could be a problem, if you want this new boss to leave you in command here."

"That could be a problem if I want him to leave me alive here." Freddy had a faraway look for a moment. "You know, the Turtles didn't bring down the Shredder totally alone. What if there was someone else I could hand over...?"

***

April was startled as her chair was dragged away from the doors, the guards embarrassed at having realized so late she was listening to the conversation outside - Anxious to appear more alert, one of them checked again that her ropes were secure.

She tried to listen again, with a sinking feeling like whatever was being discussed on the other side of those doors somehow concerned her - Why that gave her such a strong sense of foreboding, she wasn't sure, but it really did.

***

The Turtles were squeezed into the cab of a large truck, driven at speed and with some skill by Donatello. Their destination – the junk yard. The entire city might be out to get them, but one way or another there was definitely going to be a reckoning.

"Hey, it's a good thing that rat guy's mojo doesn't work on us," mused Donatello. "Otherwise we'd be trying to arrest ourselves right now..."

"Just when I was getting used to being welcome up here..." said Raphael with regret.

"Why don't we have a truck...?" pondered Michelangelo. "We need a truck. Or a van... How cool would that be...?"

"Yeah, Mike..." said Raphael sarcastically. "Maybe we could put a giant Turtle symbol on it, and maybe the Chief could shine a big light in the sky when he needs us... Or more likely now, shoot us..."

"Raph..." cautioned Leonardo, but didn't press the matter.

"Yeah...!" Michelangelo responded, enthusiastically. "You know what, Raph, you're full of great ideas right now..."

"You got that bit right..."

"Uh, sorry to be pedantic..." offered Donatello, "but we sort of do have a truck. This one..."

Sirens. Urgent-sounding police sirens. Getting closer. The Turtles looked at each other. Uh-oh.

"Anybody know any short-cuts...?" asked Donatello.

***

The Rat King left the camera set up unattended in the no man's land of the disused housing blocks and walked out into the massive landfill site. The Foot's junkyard was at the other side, a mile or so away. The wind picked up, but the place was otherwise quiet and calm. Perfect for his needs.

He had to concentrate. All across the city, his rats had taken up their planned positions. The people under his influence mostly stood back and let them. The city was his. Before long, work on mutating the rats could begin again, this time without resistance. First, though, the Turtles had to be dealt with...

***

"What can I say...?" Freddy playfully taunted. "You keep trying to leave us... We're gonna take it personally."

April just looked anywhere but at him, a faraway look in her eyes, willing Freddy to go away. The two Foot ninja sentries stood either side, and whatever they might have thought of their leader coming in here to taunt the prisoner they kept it to themselves.

"You think you know what's going to happen, don't you...?" he mused, pacing slowly around the interior of the workshop, before spinning on his heel. "I can tell." Despite herself April couldn't help glancing at him briefly. "This is only for a little while, right...? Your friends are coming here, they're on their way, right...?" He smirked cruelly. "Yeah, I saw that, that hope right there... They'll turn up, they'll defeat me, and they'll rescue you, right...?"

"M-mfff...!" April confirmed, riled into a response and immediately regretting it. Even now, more out of habit than anything else, her bound hands were busy behind the chair-back working to get free - to no avail.

"Wrong," he said abruptly. "A lot of things might or might not happen here soon, but whatever else... I'm talking worst-case scenario for us... I've made sure you won't be getting freed... There isn't going to be any rescue for you, April... Sorry."

April met his gaze again, and this time she found it tough to look quite so defiant - Shifting position slightly in the chair, she flinched and gave a low tape-muffled cry as the ropes dug in.

"Well, I didn't want you getting your hopes up..." Freddy said, on the edge of laughter. "That would just be mean."

***

Chief Sterns walked briskly down the stairs of the Municipal Building and out to his car, grim-faced. The building had been searched. They were no longer there. Worse still, the truck was missing. The truck containing the M-

-"Chief!" a voice yelled. "Chief Sterns...!" Irma came running, Todd half-running half-limping behind her.

"What...?" he said irritably. That headache was back, and he felt weirdly confused like he was half-asleep or something. Now he had to get a migraine.

"Have you seen the Turtles...? They said they would be here..."

"Yes" Sterns replied, suddenly very serious and intense. "They did. You have any idea where they are now...?" He stepped close to Irma, intimidatingly close.

"Uh... No..." she replied, looking at his chin. "You OK, Chief? You don't seem..."

"Fine." He clicked his fingers. "Get these two into cells. I'll want to talk to them later once we got the Turtles dealt with."

"What...?!" Irma found herself grabbed by the accompanying cops and bustled away, as did Todd. Every time she thought she had a handle on what was going on...

***

Freddy walked along the line of Foot ninja, fully-dressed and armed for combat. Some fidgeted nervously as he passed them, betraying their youth and lack of experience. He had to admit they were a motley bunch now, a shadow of the force commanded by Master Shredder just a few weeks ago.

"You're trained. You're ready..." he told them. "Now, let's see what you can do..." The one of them pointed toward the gates of the yard, and Freddy knew what he would see. He was smiling even before he found himself confronting the Turtles.

Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo spread out as they passed through the gate and entered the yard. Weapons ready. Contained and alert for the slightest sign of a trap.

"You got my little message then...?" Freddy asked.

"Just let April go, and we'll be on our way." Leonardo didn't even make eye contact, as though to underline how little he thought of this particular opponent after confronting the Shredder twice. His gaze swept over the Foot ninja, not too impressed with them either. "We don't wanna have to hurt you guys..."

"Not too much anyways," added Raphael.

"What...? Just like that...? What kind of negotiations are these...?"

"Huh...?" Leonardo was genuinely confused.

"Look at it this way..." said Freddy. "The Foot Clan is here to stay. So are you. We recognize that. I think we owe it to ourselves to stop this senseless conflict and come to some form of arrangement. I mean, what is this all about...? A feud between two people who are both dead...?"

"Can I break some heads, Leo...?" Raphael urged. "Can I, huh...? Can I... Can I...?"

"I'm with Raph," said Michelangelo.

"This is a trick, Leo," was Donatello's contribution.

"I don't blame your advisers for being suspicious," Freddy conceded. "But what do you think...? Leo..."

Leonardo considered that, carefully and for a good few seconds. "OK..." For the first time, he looked Freddy in the eye, and again he said, very precisely, "Just let April go, and we'll be on our way."

***

The Rat King felt a twinge of angst. Something unforeseen, unexpected... A presence crossed the threshold of his awareness, and then it was gone... What...?

No...!

Bryan Bryant made a break for freedom at that moment, and though the Rat King easily subdued his feeble effort to regain control of his body it distracted him and threw him off-balance for a few precious moments. No. As a host, Bryan was nowhere near as suitable as his uncle Lawrence had been. He was a temporary expedient at best. For now, however, he would have to do.

***

"You know," Leonardo began, moving in on Freddy slowly, "If you'd wanted to be friends, apart from all the other stuff you've done, I mean forgetting all that, kidnapping our actual friend as bait is not the best way to get on our good side."

"Watch it, Leo," Donatello warned. "He's trying to bait us..."

"Wait just a minute..." Michelangelo was confused. "First April's the bait, now we're being baited... Could somebody just decide who the heck is the bait here and who isn't...?"

"Mikey, c'mon..." Donatello said incredulously. Sometimes he really didn't know when his brother was actually for real. "It's a metaphor... You know, like with the fishing...? The little worms."

Something about Freddy changed. He appeared slyer, if that was possible. "Is that what you think?"

"Is what what we think?" Leonardo demanded irritably.

"April's not the bait..." said Freddy.

"Who is the bait?" pondered Michelangelo. "I'm not the bait, am I?" As the others looked at him curiously, he added "Hey... Way to make a guy paranoid."

"Stop with the tricks, OK," said Raphael, getting more menacing looking by the second. "Just hand her"-

-"I was the bait!" Freddy laughed. "And you're all on the hook... Now!"

One of the Foot ninja dived for a strategically-placed barrel and set off a waiting flare gun, firing into the sky where the flare shone and fizzed for several seconds. They all paused. "Was that it...?" asked Raphael, unimpressed.

The Turtles sprang into action, and a fight broke out. The Foot ninja fought desperately, knowing they were outmatched even if they had superior numbers. The Turtles, knowing this, had fun with it.

"Hey, Raph!" yelled Donatello, seeing his brother's aggressiveness. "Don't rush. You know you should chew your food..." Turning to the ninja he was fighting effortlessly he said "Yeah... That's right. We eat people. Bet ya didn't know that..." Knocking the man on the head and jumping over his unconscious form he added, "That joke never gets old."

Looking over at Michelangelo's exploits, he commented "That's great, Mikey... You know, we almost never see you use those 'chuks anymore. Why is that...?"

Freddy made for the open manhole into the tunnel below, and stopped short as Whiskers jumped out and blocked his way. Leonardo ran across and blocked his only other potential escape route.

"Check and mate," said Leonardo grimly. "Now..."

At that moment, Whiskers became dizzy and cried out in confusion. He fell over.

"You OK, Whisk...?" asked Donatello.

"Whisk...?" demanded Raphael, appalled. "Give the guy some dignity, Don."

Whiskers seemed to recover and looked round them, perplexed. "He... He is near..." he said cryptically.

With attention off him, Freddy took the opportunity and ran