Video linked above: Previously on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... Not mine. A good summing up of what leads in to my story, with fun editorial comment. Useful if you're not so familiar with these movies or it's just been a while. Not essential, but it will help with your mental picture.

GOLDEN HARVEST does not present With absolutely no involvement from GARY PROPPER An ALAN SMITHEE Non-film TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES DAY OF THE RAT Starring PAIGE TURCO LANCE HENRIKSEN PAM MAP MARK DOERR RAYMOND SERRA COVEY L BOYD STEVEN FENNELL SILAS BURKE JOSH GRASSE and TOSHISHIRO OBATA as Tatsu Special appearance by JUDGE REINHOLD as Benny Based upon characters created by KEVIN EASTMAN & PETER LAIRD and JIM LAWSON Screenplay by GENERIC SCREENWRITER's NAME Produced by GENERIC PRODUCER's NAME Directed by ALAN SMITHEE

In between movies II and III - The Secret of the Ooze has been revealed, and the Turtles' image is out there. As the Foot Clan rebuilds, an even worse threat strikes from beneath the streets. In a city under siege by an army of rats, Splinter comes under the influence of a mysterious force while April is kidnapped and held hostage by the Foot. Soon, the Turtles must face their deadliest challenge yet... Combat against their own sensei.

***

NOTE: This is set in the universe of the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, between movies II and III.

DISCLAIMER: The Turtles and associated characters don't belong to me. Where you see real actors mentioned, that is of course only hypothetical casting - No offence to real people (or fictional ones) is intended. The story is for my own entertainment and hopefully that of a few others. I don't own any of these toys, just playing with them.

***

Once, there was a town, and that town was overcome by a plague, a plague of rats so numerous and so fierce that nothing could be done. Food stores were devastated, and no man, woman or child dared walk the streets alone.

Till one day a stranger arrived, a man who promised to rid them of the rats. For a price...

Once, there was a princess, who lived in a tower and yet could still see clearly all the great wrongs in the world, and she knew that something must be done. All the dark deeds done in dark corners must be brought into the light, and the princess decided she would be the one who would shine that light.

Till one day the evil Baron Oroku, the worst wrongdoer of all, decreed the princess must be silenced...

Once, there were four warrior brothers, who lived in a great city, and they protected the city and overcame much hardship and strife. They were trained in the arts of war by a wise creature - half-man half-animal - who in his wisdom saw the brothers were not united. There was not harmony, and without that they could never achieve the true unity they needed.

As the forces of evil gathered around the city once more, their wise mentor sent the brothers forth on one final test. If they could succeed in that test, then and only then would the brothers be truly ready for their destiny...

***

New York, the 1970s...

He could hear it again. The scrabbling. Far off, but coming nearer. He opened his eyes, and closed them again against the intense glare.

"He's coming 'round..." He felt hands adjust the layers of cloth covering him. Covering him - He was lying down. In a bed. He heard, faintly, a P/A system - What was that, how did he know what that was? - Where did that phrase come from...?

"Doctor Howard... Doctor Howard to Ward C20... Doctor Fine to Cardiology... Repeat - That's Doctor Howard to C20 please..."

The scrabbling was still there. Coming nearer...Thinking about that could wait. His mind was being flooded, overwhelmed, with these sensations and he needed to cope with them one at a time. One of the hands which wasn't his took one that was. It felt his wrist, held his hand in the air...

"I got a hundred and twenty-five... That's too fast... Golda...?"

"Yeah...?"

The scrabbling was still there. Coming nearer... He wondered if these others could hear it too.

"This guy's pulse is a little fast and erratic. I think we should call"- The voice choked off and gasped in pain, and he wondered why, a moment before realizing it was because of him. He had grabbed the wrist firmly, a little too firmly, and he felt a delicate bone snap under the pressure. The nurse - it was a nurse, he could only be in a hospital - tried to snatch her hand away, only succeeding after a few seconds of struggle.

He didn't know his own strength. That was a cliché, he thought, then wondered what a cliché was.

The scrabbling was still there. Coming nearer... He also found himself wondering what that was.

Feeling he could bear the pain of the light now, he opened his eyes. A round face with large dark eyes, a woman around forty, stared back at him, nursing her damaged wrist. "He's awake," she said. "Mister Hynten... Can you hear me? Mister Hynten?"

Hynten. Was that his name? It didn't seem wrong, it seemed somehow incomplete. Like it was true, but only covered a tiny portion of who he was. He was Hynten, he realized. Lawrence Hynten had been his name. There had been other names before that, though... So many names...

The scrabbling stopped... No need to worry about it then.

He suddenly felt an unbearable urge to move, to get out of this bed, this prison. He clawed at the confining sheets, pulled the device out of his arm, scarcely noticing the pain, lurched to his feet and stood on unsteady legs, swaying.

"He shouldn't be able to do that... Golda...?! Need some help here. Mister Hynten, please listen to me. My name's - Ow - Nurse Marjean... You can't... You shouldn't be out of bed. Please don't touch the bandages, Mister Hynten. You were attacked, you've got some injuries, you'll be OK, you really will. But you have to leave those bandages alone..."

Attacked...?

Lawrence Hynten took a step back and wiped the sweat from his brow with the sleeve of his overall. He smiled. "There. That's it done. Boy, I can't wait to get out of this place. It's like a sewer down here." He laughed, started to run a hand through his hair, and then remembered it was covered in gunk...

She was right about the bandages. His face was half-covered, wrapped around with soft bands of linen. Underneath... No, no, he had to leave them alone, leave the bandages alone, that was important, he must obey that.

Lawrence Hynten took off one glove and carefully sniffed the substance on it. "What is this stuff? Well, it's not toxic, that's for sure. Nice shade of green..." Hey, what was that noise? That scrabbling...

"What... What attacked me?"

"We're not sure. Look, sir, it's best you just lie back down right now. We've got you fixed up, you just need to rest now... Golda, hi, could you get... Mister Sanders, please?"

"Mister what? Oh, yeah, right..."

The creatures came out of nowhere. They were on Lawrence Hynten before he could call out, not that anyone could hear him, before he could even take a proper breath. He panicked as they climbed his body, as new waves of them covered him and enveloped him in a stinking furry mass...

He took a rattling breath, reassured to find he could breathe properly. The nurse looked concerned. "Can you remember anything about what happened, sir?" she asked. A sudden insight told him she was playing for time.

Time for what?

Mister Sanders... An official euphemism, mustn't alarm people... Security. Security for what? Was someone around here dangerous? Then he realized, and his eyes snapped round to the nurse with something new in them. The vagueness was gone. Lawrence Hynten was no longer alone in there.

They wouldn't understand. He had to get out of here. But how? That was when the vent in the wall launched itself across the room and the confined mass of creatures poured out.

They had come for him again. This time, though, he wasn't afraid.

***

"Security? Hi, it's ward J54 here... We've got a patient who might be a bit of a problem. No, I don't think so, it's just a precaution. It's a sewer maintenance guy, he's had some kind of accident, a few bites, but he's traumatized... Yeah, please..."

Golda walked quickly back into the ward and stopped. Stared at the mess left behind; her colleague staring back at her, a detached look like she was hypnotized or something. There was no sign of the patient.

"Marjean? You OK? What happened here?"

"Oh, it's OK." The blank stare. "They came for him. I think he's gonna be OK now..."

Notes:

- Imagine this as the pre-titles, set in a very grim, grimy, shadowy New York, with the same ultra-grainy look as the flashbacks in the first Turtles movie.

- Lawrence Hynten is played by Lance Henriksen c.1991/92. I refuse to allow you to picture him any other way...!  :)

- As for how the rats would have been achieved pre-CGI, I'm glad I don't have to figure it out.

- Dr Howard, Dr Fine, Dr Howard... Keeping up the tradition of Three Stooges references in TMNT.