Calm Before the Storm

[DonatelloNinja82]

Ok...I've decided to be brave and post some of the beginning of the fan fic I'm working on to see what you all think of it...takes place in the '87 verse...about 3 years after it ends. Shredder and Krang have managed to get the Technodrome up and running again. I am going to try to keep everyone as IC as I can, but it is three years later, so they are older...I have not had this beta'ed at all, so if there are mistakes, please let me know, and if anyone wants to be my beta, that would rock! Please let me know what you think and be honest, I want honesty. (I doubt it's much good...I haven't written fanfiction since I was a kid...oh 20 or so years ago)

************************************************

Prologue

Shredder paced irritatedly across the lab of the Technodrome, his dwindling patience as brittle as dry grass on the Savannah. His cape billowed sharply behind him, echoing his mood. His mind was racing with uncontrolled, angry thoughts, buzzing of the past; constantly reminding him of previous failures and how he had not achieved what he had originally aspired to do when he left Japan so many years ago. He HATED relying on that brain for anything! He was the SHREDDER, ultimate ninja and leader of the Foot Clan. Yet here he was, as he had been for the last three years, exiled in Dimension X, where he was an outsider and reliant on a disembodied brain.

Not a day had gone by that he had not pondered and reason for his losses...his dishonor...at the hands of the accursed Turtles and his old rival, Hamato Yoshi. They had continually defeated him at every turn. If he had been calling the shots instead of running foolish errands and hairbrained "rule the world" scemes concockted by Krang, he knew that he would have long ago been victorious.

He longed to return to Earth and reclaim his former glory, to enact his revenge on those wretched reptiles. He wanted REAL ninjas under his command instead of a pair of bumbling mutant punks and rickety robots.

His goals are what kept him sane, kept him from tearing the Technodrome apart piece by piece in his indignant rage. They were the reason he had overseen the reconstruction of the battle fortress, as he knew it was his only way home. He simply had to bide his time and continue along with Krang's plan.

The Shredder ceased his pacing and stopped to regard the containment chamber before him. Inside, Krang lay dormant, as he had for the last few months. A year ago, the ex-warlord had been going over his old experiments and believed he had finally found a way to reclone himself his old body.

[DonatelloNinja82]

*Flashback*

"Shredder!" came Krang's irritating, gurgly command. "Get in here!"

Shredder growled in annoyance at the interruption. He was working on rewiring the consoles in the main control room. Fixing the Technodrome had been a long, laborious process, since it had been so horribly destroyed.

"What is it Krang?" Shredder yelled as he entered the lab. "Why must you always bother me when I'm busy?"

Krang grinned widely. "You know I love watching you suffer, Saki."

Shredder growled and mumbled under his breath, "Someday you pretentious ganglion, someday...."

If Krang heard Shredder, he made no indication. His attention was drawn to the monitor before him. His pink tenticles were undulating swiftly in excitement his wordless pointing drawing Shredder's attention to the screen.

"Look Shredder and behold the answer to my ultimate victory!" Krang's voice cracked in his enthusiasm.

Shredder crossed his arms and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Where have I heard that one before? And don't you mean our victory?"

Krang chuckled sinisterly. "Of coooooourse Shredder, our victory."

Shredder narrowed his eyes, but remained silent.

Krang took that as his cue to continue. "All is going to plan, Saki. The Technodrome's extensive repairs should be finished in about one of your Earth years. By that time, it will be stronger than it ever was based on the modifications to the systems I designed." His tenticles pressed buttons as Technodrome schematics passed on the monitor.

"However," Krang resumed, "I have been aware for a long time that my might has been weakened by my...present bodily condition. Before I was stripped of my body, when I was lord of Dimension X...long before your grandparents were a glimmer in their parents' eyes..." Krang appeared ready to go on a tangent, but he stopped himself, eager to get to the reason he summoned Shredder.

"Anyways, after many years of research, I believe I have perfected a way for me to reclone myself into my former body. No longer will I have to rely on this bubble walker or awkward androids! I, Krang, will reign again!"

Shredder chuckled in mild amusement. "This is all fascinating," he remarked sarcastically, "but why should I care, and how are you sure this will all work? Isn't doing this to yourself based on a theory...risky?"

"Risky, yes," Krang's grin reappeared, "but I KNOW this will work. This research is based on the time I cloned myself years ago. My clones ended up regrowing bodies. For years I have worked on a way to get that process to work on myself, like an Earth starfish regenerating a limb. I will in essense infuse myself with clone DNA which I saved and it should cause my body to eventually regenerate.

"And that is where you come in, Shredder. Contrary to what you may believe I think of you, I am aware you are highly intelligent for a human. Your intelligence is, of course, nothing compaired to mine, but enough to suit my purposes."

"Why should I help you, Krang? How do I know you won't just destroy me when you emerge and possibly decide you don't have use for me anymore?"

Krang chucked. "Ahh, Shredder, you are so predictable and paranoid. If I didn't have a use for you, don't you think I would have done away with you a long time ago?!? And...you WILL help me because you NEED me to get back to Earth, yesssss?"

Shredder's jaw clenched in anger. He detested it when Krang threw it in his face that there were reasons he needed that pink blob. Admitting he needed anyone was the worst blow to the ninja villain's ego.

"Very well, Krang," Shredder's voice was gravelly and full of resentment. "I will help you."

"As I knew you would, Shredder. As I said, you are soooo predictable." Krang chortled, his tone carrying a slight air of superiority which made the human cringe internally. "Now pay close attention, as I do NOT feel like repeating myself. This process will take months. I unfortunately was not able to devise a way for this to be faster. I will have to remain in stasis in a containment chamber will my body is regenerating. I will need you to observe the controls and make sure everything remains stable. I have left detailed instructions for you."

Krang turned to look at Shredder, his purple eyes intense. "And just to make sure YOU don't get any ideas about doing ME in, I will have General Tragg supervising you."

"WHAT?!?!?!" Shredder snarled. "I do not need a babysitter, Krang!"

"Not a babysitter, Shredder," Krang said, "think of it as more of an assistant, for my piece of mind."

Shredder knew that was far from the case. "A piece of mind is all you are, you annoying blob of neurons."

"Always with the compliments, Shredder! You will cooperate, or you will never return to Earth....it's as simple as that." Krang's grin grew mocking.

It took all Shredder's will power and ninja discipline to not throddle the alien brain, but he had to admit to himself that Krang was correct. However, a slight feeling of unease began to creep into his mind like an unwanted house guest.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Just continue!
It rocks!
Can't wait till the next chapter!

Once you complete the sory, you have done a fantastic job in increasing the number of fanfiction based on the 1987 TMNT show on the Internet.

But it's Dimension X, not "Dimention X".

[DonatelloNinja82]

Thanks and oops Dimension...yes :/ I will fix that! That's all I have written so far, I will work on it. The prologue is almost done. I have Chapters one finished (I sometimes write out of order when inspiration hits me) and part of Chapter two...and those Chapters are where we see our boys in green! :)

[DonatelloNinja82]

He had never known Krang before he lost his body and thus had never dealt with him at his full abilities (whatever they may be), so the prospect did make Shredder slightly nervous.

*End flashback*

Shredder ended his reverie and frowned in concern under his mask. The regeneration was almost complete, and to say Krang's new form wasn't intimidating would have been an outright lie. However, the portal was almost functioning again....

"Soon, Krang...soon," Shredder breathed. "I will put you in your place. Just you wait."

At just that moment, Krang's eyes flashed open, and his mouth opened into an enormous grin, flashing razor teeth.

[TurtleTitan97]

Pretty good story so far. Keep up the good work!:tsmile:

[DonatelloNinja82]

Pretty good story so far. Keep up the good work!:tsmile:

Thanks a lot!

[DonatelloNinja82]

Chapter 1

Patience was never one of Raphael's strong points. His brothers sometimes would joke that if it were an Olympic sport, he would be in dead last place.

"Is it ready yet?" Raph called impatiently from the table to Michelangelo who was busy cooking.

Mike donned brightly covered oven mitts and pulled the pizza out of the oven, pausing to admire his master piece as he placed it on the stove top.

"You cannot rush a glorious delicacy such as this, Raph," Mike admonished jokingly.

Raph laughed mockingly, "Mike, I would be reluctant to believe the words 'glorious delicacy' coming from your mouth."

Mike grinned slyly, "I dunno, dude, I think the ladies would beg to differ."

This caused Raph's irritation to slip and he burst out laughing. "Yah, let's push the crowd back and ask them all to take a number!"

Mike's grin grew even wider, happy to play along. "There's plenty of me to go around!"

Leonardo glanced up from the book he was reading, watching the banter between his brothers with a bemused glint in his eyes. Such conversations were normal for the two of them, and it never ceased to amaze Leo with what they came up with. His mind definitely didn't work that way.

"Speaking of plenty to go around," Leo spoke up. Mike lifted an amused eyebrow ridge and Leo's comment. Leo caught it and continued, "Meaning the pizza and not you, Mike! Where's Donatello? I'm sure he would want some dinner too."

Mike began to slice the pizza. "Where he always is, dude, his lab."

"Yep," Raph chimed in, "He's been holed up in there so long now I wouldn't be surprised if he started communicating in beeps like one of his crazy computers!"

Leonardo closed his book and rose from his seat. "I'll go check. Sometimes I swear he gets so engrossed in his projects he'd forget to eat if we didn't remind him."

"And then Michelangelo eats enough for himself and Don!" Raph quipped as Leo left the kitchen.

He heard Mike protesting as he made his way to Donatello's lab. As he drew closer he heard the familiar sounds of Don's pounding and mumbling his techno-geek babble to himself.

He stepped inside and noted that Don was hunched over some device on his desk, his mutterings noticably frustrated. A long forgotten coffee cup sat to the left of him, and a pile of various tools and machine parts were to the right. Leo could tell by Don's hunched shoulders that the bo weilding brother of his was exhausted.

Leo leaned against the wall and spoke, "When was the last time you took a break, Donatello?"

Donatello jolted in surprise, dropping his wrench to the ground with a clatter. He turned around quickly, his eyes narrowed in vexation at the disturbance.

"By Einstein's Theory of Realativity, Leonardo, give a turtle a heart attack, why don't you?" he said, his voice laced with displeasure.

Leonardo held his hands up. "Sorry, Don, just wanted to let you know that pizza's ready, and you need to eat. You haven't eaten all day." He lifted up Don's coffee cup. "Turtle cannot live by coffee alone."

Don snatched the cup from his older brother and took a sip to spite him, making a face at the bitter coldness of it. "So says the mighty Leonardo..."

Leo crossed his arms, his expression stern. Don noted it was his "I'm-the-leader-so-you-have-to-listen-to-me-no-arguments" face, but the genius was flustered with his device, and not in the mood for Leo's older brother act right now.

"No can do, Leonardo," Don stated matter-of-factly. "I have to get this interdimentional communicator functioning properly. Someone has been trying to get through to us for days, but something is interfering with the signal. I have yet to determine if it's my device, or if something is purposly jamming the frequency. So, I either have to get this working properly....or find a way to get around a block if that is the case. I've never had this much trouble pinpointing the source of the problem before!"

"Don," Leo chided, "you will think better on a full stomach. That big brain of yours needs fuel."

The blue banded turtle gently grabbed Don's arm in an attempt to guide him out of the lab and to the kitchen. Don forcefully yanked himself out of Leo's grasp and turned his shell to him.

"I'm fine Leo...now please leave, I have work to do."

Leo sighed, "Fine, Don, have it your way. I'll have Mike save some of the pizza for you in the fridge."

Don waved a dismissive hand. "Don't hold your breath, Leo. The day Mike leaves left over pizza is the day I tear up my college degree and give up inventing all together."

Leo shook his head and left. That genius could be so stubborn and obessive sometimes...

Donatello half-listened to Leo leave and let out a breath of relief. Leo could be quite insistant sometimes, so thankfully this time he gave up without too much argument.

Don grabbed his pencil and thoughtfully glanced over his notes again for what felt like the umpteenth time. He went over his calculations, meticulously checking for any error. He was aware of his fatigue and knew it was affecting his mental capacity...but he had been over his work so many times, so if there was an error, he should have caught it a while ago.

"What am I missing?" he rubbed his temples in an attempt to hold off his mounting headache. "Something must be blocking the transmission. I have gone over this device dozens of times, and as far as calculations and mechanics go, it should be functioning perfectly. So...there must be a block on a wavelength I have never encountered before. So the million dollar questions are: how do I break the block, and who is trying to reach us?"

He stood up and began pacing his lab, arms behind his shell. He stared at the ground, deep in thought. His frustration with the predicament was growing. Don was typically patient by nature, but his lack of progress, mixed with hunger and fatigue were proving to make him quite irritable. It also did nothing to lighten his mood when he heard a boisterous knock on his lab opening. Don's head snapped up and noted it was Michelangelo with a plate of pizza in his hands.

"Hey, Donnie," Mike gave a small wave. "Leo said you didn't want to be bothered, but I thought you might like some pizza, dude...and then I couldn't help but hear you mention wavelengths...are you going surfing without me?"

That earned a small amused grin from Don. He was also a little touched that Mike was offering some of his beloved pizza to him, and actually smelling it made him realize just how hungry he was.

Donatello took the offered pizza and sat down at his desk.

"No Mike," Don said between bites. "I'm just baffled with a problem....someone has been trying to get through to us on my interdimentional communicator, but something is blocking it. I cannot even find the correct wavelength to get through."

Most of the time, Don's explanations hurt Mike's head, and now was no different. "Well, bro, I really have no idea what you are talking about, but I do know that when I see a totally tubular wave, I cannot go through it on my surfboard. I'd have a major wipeout! I have to ride the wave, dude."

Donatello's eyes widened in epiphany. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that sooner? Mike, you're a genius!"

Mike was taken aback. "I am? I mean...of course I am, dude! I've always known that."

Donatello picked up his pencil and began writing more notes with avengence. "I've been so focused on trying to break through the block, when I should just pinpoint the block and run my signal along it instead of though it!"

"Glad I could help, dude," Mike said as he turned to leave. "Surfing solves all wrongs."

[DonatelloNinja82]

I decided to put this on ff.net...might be easier to follow.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8850751/1/Calm-Before-the-Storm

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Nice. Just don't forget to place it under "world: 1987-1996 cartoon".

[DonatelloNinja82]

Just posted Chapter 2.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8850751/3/Calm-Before-the-Storm

[Historia]

Nice stuff here. Keep it up :)

[DonatelloNinja82]

Thank you very much. I appreciate that.:tgrin:

[DonatelloNinja82]

I'm up to chapter 5 now :)

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8850751/1/Calm-Before-the-Storm

[BubblyShell22]

Awesome story. Keep it up.

[DonatelloNinja82]

Awesome story. Keep it up.

Thanks :tgrin: