CHAPTER SIX
The gang assembled aboard the ship and looked down at an open hatch which contained the electronic supplies they needed.
They had been informed of the mission, they knew their purpose, they just needed to know the next move.
They turned to Bebop, who in turn turned to Rocksteady, who himself had completely forgotten the mission at hand.
"I wish the boss were here" said Rocksteady, distant and with an expression reflective of a lost puppy in need of his master.
"Should we try and take the electronics using a crane or something?" suggested an on-point Lugnut.
April reckoned, with everything so disorganized, that now was the best time to slip away and alert the authorities of what was going on.
She looked high and low for a means of contacting people as quickly as possible. Her luck paid off with a nearby communications cabin situated jsut north of her.
She entered the cabin and made use of the radio.
"Hello? Hello?" she began.
Outside, Bebop was operating a crane, attempting to lower it and lock on to the electronic cargo located in the hatch beneath the deck of the ship.
"Left, left, lower on my signal" said Rocksteady.
Bebop lowered the crane and latched on to something. He was jubilant, something was going off without a hitch.
Or so he thought.
As he hoisted the crane upwards, he heard bellowing screams, he looked down and found he had wound attaching the crane's hook to the back of Rocksteady's pants.
"Ah, lower me, lower me" he said.
Bebop was about to do as instructed, when Rocksteady realized he was being lowered towards the ocean
"You trying to drown me or something? Turn right, turn right" Rocksteady demanded.
Bebop again complied with a swift pull of a lever, resulting in the crane propelling Rocksteady straight into the side of the communications room, the impact collapsing a side of the wall and exposing April's activities.
"Hey, what is the heck is toots doing?" said Lugnut.
"Looks like she's trying to squeel on us" said another gang member.
Jersey clenched her fist and gritted her teeth.
"I was beginning to think you were alright...now you won't be" she vented as her heartache turned to quick and sudden anger.
Rocksteady detached himself from the crane, got up, and dusted himself off.
"Yeah, that's that reporter babe, April O'Neil, grab her" he said.
"Time to spread my wings, let's just hope they don't get clipped" said April, dashing off as Rocksteady and the gang gave chase across the deck.
"Hang on April" bellowed Michelangelo, as he swung in from the top of the cabin holding onto a firm piece of rope attached to the crane that Bebop was operating.
"Not a bad Tarzan impression huh?" Michelangelo boasted as he and April landed safely atop the opposite side of the vessel.
April delicately placed a finger on his lips and slapped him on the torso, "Don't go mistaking me for Jane Jungle Boy" she remarked.
"You wait here, I'll cream those clowns" said Michelangelo, swinging down to meet Rocksteady on ground level.
He grabbed his wrist in preparation to toss him over his shoulder, a standard trick of combat he'd used earlier in the day and many times before hand, only to find his strength once again diminish as the transformation to human form kicked in again.
"Michelangelo, what's happening?" yelled April from her position.
"Bummer, my body's gone schizo over whether or not to keep me green or not" said Michelangelo, as Rocksteady gained the upper hand and gripped Michelangelo's fleshly body tightly within his own hands.
"Well well, guess you had an appetite for Shredder's cookies after all wimp" gloated Rocksteady.
"Let go of me before I really cut loose on you horn-head" replied a defiant Michelangelo. Rocksteady could'nt help but laugh.
He took a grapplnig hook dangling from the crane and latched on to Michelangelo's t-shirt.
"Haul him away Bebop" Rocksteady bellowed. Bebop nodded and hoisted Michelangelo with the crane, intending to slam him hard against the ship's walls until there was nothing left of him to smear.
"Banzai" came a defiant battle-cry from behind Rocksteady as Leonardo leapt onto the ship and threw his sai blade directly at the grappling hook attached to the crane, detatching Michelangelo from it.
The remaining Turtles soon joined him, cracking their knuckles.
"Turtles fight with honor" they yelled in unison.
Rocksteady, unimpressed with this show of force he'd experianced first hand many a time, including today, climbed up to April's location, picked her up with the simplest of ease and proceed to climb up the ship's mast. Michelangelo went after her.
"Hold on April's help's on his way" said Michealngelo.
Lugnut and some of his underlings attempted to assist Rocksteady, only to have their path blocked by Raphael
"I don't know where it is you came from, but we intend to see you back to your own dwelling in pieces" proclaimed an enraged Lugnut.
"I fall to pieces at the very notion of that" said Raphael, the bite evident in his snark, before picking up an axe and cutting a nearby bit of rope, which released a net directly on top of Lugnut and his men.
"That there is what we mean by the term 'net neutrality" said Raphael.
Leonardo also made use of the ship's resources, throwing a slick cannister of paint across the deck, forming a slippery and trecherous path that felled Jersey Red and another member of the gang and sending them straight off the ship and into the murky waters below.
As Leonardo watched the pair paddle to safety, he saluted them.
"I've gotta give them credit, they litterally gave me the slip" he remarked.
Donatello finished off the remainder of the gang by blasting them face first with water from a nearby hose.
"Forgive my dry sense of humor, but you're all washed up" Donatello said jubilantly.
Bebop, sensing the end was approaching, made preperations to leave.
"Rocksteady, c'mon" he hollared to his friend. Rocksteady, however, would not budge from his posisition at the crow's nest.
He had leverage with which he could use to hold the Turtles at bay as long as he wished and he was reveling in the power he had within his grasp.
Michelangelo had carefully posistioned himself to the left of the hulking mutant and, forming the rope in his hand into a lasso, he prepared to make a move.
With careful aim and precision timing, Michelangelo latched the makeshift lasson onto to April. He tried to pull her out of Rocksteady's grip.
Rocksteady, however, was'nt budging.
"Ha, what good are you gonna do with that? You don't have any strength to hoist your reporter babe anywhere, you're just a puny human" he said.
April tapped him on the shoulder
"So am I" she said, before elbowing him in the stomach and poking him in the eye. The distraction caused Rocksteady to loosen his grip and the lassoed April found herself thrown from the crow's nest and into Michelangelo's arms.
Rocksteady lost his balance and fell into the water below, Bebop dived in after Turtles watched them scarper back to dry land.
Once everyone was assembled, Donatello sprayed Michelangelo with a special spray containing a chemical that would serve as the antidote.
Michelangelo beamed as his human form reconfigured into his far more familiar outward apperance.
"I'm yours truly again" he said, urging his brothers to join him for a group hug
"This time it's permanent" said Donatello.
"Turtle or human, you're the greatest" a grateful April said
"You were freakishly fiesty yourself" said Michelangelo
"Made of steel remember?" April remarked.
"Yeah, you sure are"
"And that means I'm tough enough to deal with whatever comes next with us" she said
"I'm not following" said a confused Raphael.
April leaned over to Michelangelo, her eyes full of sincerity and purpose, and pressed her lips passionatly against his.
The kiss wasn't brief, it lasted a while, but for the two of them, the moment felt like a lifetime in the making.
Something so perfect, so natural, and so special, was happening and neither wanted to let go of what it was, nor forget all too easily what it meant.
April eventually, and carefully, pulled back, her face awash with jubilation. Michelangelo's features were similar, only his cheers were bright red.
"What do you say? You want to try and make this work?" she said.
Michelangelo, still blushing from cheek to cheek, was unable to say a word
"Careful there April, stunts like that might turn him human again" replied Leonardo.