Raph felt mystical crackling energy run through the veins of his forearms as his tonfas clashed together in his fists. It traveled up to his shoulders, head and his eyes began to glow while he flashed his snaggletooth to the enemy. The mutant eel he and his brothers were fighting hissed and arched its long noodley back, causing a few florescent lights to explode around them. Leo, Mikey and Donnie braced for the incoming shards but were shielded by their head honcho's double armored shell. The youngest turtle darted around the eldest and let his kusari-fundo let loose, its cackle lighting up the office floor in a bright blaze, causing the eel to shriek as its skin sizzled.

"Mikey, wait!" Donnie called out but was abruptly cut off when the fire alarms sounded and the sprinkler system activated, dousing the heat rather quickly, they were only mystical flames. "We're in its conduction field!" The purple clad turtle shielded his head from the drizzle as the eel grew in size with its frilled fin began to whip around rapidly, glowing white hot.

"AAHH DANGER NOODLE!" Mikey retreated to the not as safe vantage point behind his brothers' shells given they were soaked.

"ROASTED REPTILE ANYONE?!" The eel bared a Cheshire grin and released an electric shockwave from its body.

"PORTAL!" The turtles screamed as Leo ripped a hole in the floor with his sword that they fell through mere seconds before the shockwave could fry their carapaces to crisps.

The next moment, they found themselves landing on the roof of the skyscraper which from the ground seemed to touch the now dawning sky. It was almost time to split, how had they been fighting this eel for so long…? Well…Raph thought to himself, they did pull an all-nighter waiting outside a Gamestart store for a new Lou Jitsu remake pre-order when they'd caught sight of the mutant heading to Times Square. Donnie had figured that the eel was looking to absorb the electrical output that lit up all of the monitors in the square. Why Times Square and not a power station. Mikey had cutely suggested that it was because it was all pretty and sparkly, and everyone just went along with it. Some oozequito turned mutants were only so smart…

"You're welcome my dear brothers for saving our lives!" Leo jeered coyly with a devilish smile, hoisting his blade over his shoulder in a triumphant pose, the guise dropping with a loud crackling snarl emanating from a melting generator several feet away.

"Not quite safe yet, Leon! Donnie, is there any way to get Shockey Soba not…uh…zappy?" Raph fumbled slightly on the question, readying his stance to fight again alongside the other three, his mystical form needing to recharge.

"You mean draining its electrical discharge?"

"Not the time for being snippy, Einstein!" Leo barked, the eel manifested itself in pure electrical energy, taking physical form.

"Tesla would be a more fitting descriptor!" Donnie quickly fiddled with his wrist console, and a handy dandy gadget popped off his battle shell, quickly extending and anchoring to the roof. Four extra little discs popped off the shell as well, and he tossed three of them to his brothers. "We need to attach these remote electrodes to its body so I can fire up the coil!"

"You got it, D! One pepperoni pizzap comin' up!" Mikey launched away from the pack, drawing the eel's attention as it gained its footing and snapped its maw giving chase after the lithe box turtle. He effortlessly twisted and turned around poles and pipes, climbing to the top of the spire as the other turtles flanked the remaining three sides.

Donnie rolled his eyes and propped himself up on the tip of his bo, attaching the electrode to the other tip before using the hammer's thrusters to send him flying high, the rising sun haloing his cranium.

Leo simply dashed forward and threw the electrode like a Frisbee, expertly boomeranging around and planting itself on the eel's thigh.

Raph, falling behind, risked getting electrocuted by grabbing the eel's tail right before Mikey became fish food. Using his stealth training, he attached the electrode quietly as the tail slipped through his six-fingered dual grip.

Two electrodes down, two to go. Codename Pruple Rain literally rained from the sky, narrowly missing those venomous jaws before jabbing his bo against the eel's chest, getting flung away by a wayward flailing arm as the eel looked down and realized its new sticky circular modifications.

"Hey Mr. Danger Noodle!" The high pitch voice led the eel to look straight up, seeing the orange clad turtle doing a one handstand on the spire's tip. The eel yelped at the sharp sting as he was bopped on the snoot with a bright red electrode. "BOOPED YA!"

"LET 'ER RIP, DONNIE!" Raph cried out confidentially as the four regrouped together and the mutant prepared another shockwave.

"EAT AMPERES, YOU SON OF A GLITCH!" The tesla coil contraption began spinning rapidly, and when the eel fired its bolts, the current redirected to the central rod and the fish mutant shrieked as it began to grow weak and shrink down in size, crumpling to the rooftop in a heap of rotten smelling fish scales, the glow dying completely.

"AWW YEAH!" Leo cheered as they all shared a four-way high three.

"Donnie, you were amazing!" Mikey bear hugged his whiz-kid brother, feeling pride and adoration fill his little being.

"Ditto on that D, you really came through back there!" Raph wrapped his eldest younger brother in a head lock, noogeying his goggles off.

"AAGH RAPH quit it!" He laughed, feeling a honeyglow brush along his cheeks. "I can't believe it actually worked! That piece is still in alpha, I haven't ever tested it."

"Yeah, who'da thunk that the day would arrive when Donnie wouldn't screw up a mission with one of his inventions." Leo shrugged before lightly punching his twin in the shoulder, "Great job, I guess." He smirked

"Dear Nardo, is that hint of humility I'm detecting in your tone, because I couldn't quite catch that, would you mind repeating?" Donnie leaned down, over exaggerating the gesture of bringing a hand to cup his lack of ear.

"Ha! Don't push your luck, nerd."

"Guys! We gotta hurry, the sun's almost up and we'll miss the Lou Jitsu pre-order!" Mikey cried out, bouncing up and down. "Donnie! You gotta fly us there!"

"Sorry Michael, but that's a no-go, my pack took some hits in that fight, and I highly doubt it could carry all of us in its condition." He examined his battle shell, mentally noting the damages he'd repair later. "And you all used up your mystic energy for the time being, we'll have to take the sewers on foot."

"AWW I don't wanna walk! Maybe we could skate there instead! Let's make it a race! Last one there has to do the chores in the lair!"

"Let's actually make it to the tubes first, Miguel, but you're so on!" The two youngest turtles playfully butted their foreheads together with a competitive fire in their eyes. A fire so strong you could hear the embers literally crackling! …

…wait a minute…

An electric hiss sounded, but not from the eel. Raph turned around, seeing that it was from Donnie's machine, its metal coil now burning white hot. Donnie was the second to notice, eyes widening at the sight of the internal structure buckling from the heat and pressure. It was too much energy stored in one place! It was going to overload!

The eldest brothers grappled onto the youngest, with only three seconds to haul them away from the danger. Raphael roared, "HIT THE DE-"

They all lost consciousness in sync for 2 seconds due to the sudden pressure change around their skulls when the blast came.

When the turtles regained focus, they were falling.

As they fell, Donnie's analytic brain slowed time and began processing statistics and information at a breakneck pace.

They were falling,

They were falling from the New York Times building, the tallest in times square at 52 stories,

They were falling 52 stories at sunrise, without any form of disguise.

They were falling 52 stories at sunrise, in their full turtle mutant glory, in the heart of the busiest area of NYC…

…and they had set off a bomb…

NYPD would be on the scene in seconds.

The chances of survival of such a fall were surprisingly likely for mutants like them, if they braced properly and tucked into their reinforced shells.

The chances of being conscious despite that however, were slim to none.

…they could not afford to all be out cold in broad daylight in the middle of Times Square when an army of SWAT, bomb patrol, and federal agents arrived on the scene…

…What would the humans do? Dad had told them stories as children. He didn't like to admit how much they had affected him…because he was soft. Dad had told them if the worst case, they should hide in their shells for protection…but Donnie's was soft, at least before his upgrade.

-no, focus, there's not enough time, no areas of leverage, this was no time to be pondering his…damaged…battle…shell…

The brothers screamed as they hurtled towards the ground.

…until they weren't…

Sputtering rockets propelled the orange, red, and blue clad turtles towards one of the advertisement displays, slowing their fall to a halting stop.

Raph looked at his arms, noticing two segments of Donnie's armor shell latched onto his heavy boned wrists. Leo and Mikey had the other two out of the four segments.

"One…two…where'sthree…Donnie…where'sDonniewhereishe?" It was a quiet anxious whisper that all trailed into a single unpausing breath, the leader's eyes darting all over the sign, trying to find-

-All three turtles felt their blood run cold at the sound of a sickening guttural CRACK from far...far beneath where they were hung.

They froze, and the city seemed to fall silent, if only for a moment.

And then…

A second impact, a cacophony of crumpling aluminum and glass shattering into micro crystals, followed almost immediately by the shrill cry of a car alarm and the roar of several dozen screaming humans.