HACKING STOCKMAN
We begin our story with a lovely homage to the 2003 opening, with the turtles running around the city rooftops in silhouette. Mikey's being loud though, waking up the city in the process. There's a turtle missing though; Don's still in the lair, working on finding Master Splinter. Before they can dwell on this for too long, an alarm goes off, prompting the boys to rush in. It looks like a jewelry heist by two Purple Dragons, but they're packing some serious weaponry -- namely, "shock hammers" (for lack of a better name). The boys get knocked back and see that Hun is there too, with "shock gloves." Uh-oh.
Theme song!
The boys try to fight back, Mikey calling Don for backup, but Hun blows a hole in the floor, sending the turtles falling to the basement. There they see an open vault with the Foot symbol, and a bunch of Foot soldiers bound and gagged. They also find about a dozen more PDs, all with shock weapons. It doesn't look good, but then the Turtle Chopper smashes through the skylight, firing on the PDs and sending down ropes for our heroes to escape. But instead of Don, April's flying the chopper. She explains that Don forwarded Mikey's call to her, since he was busy. Worried expressions all around.
Back in the lair, Don doesn't even notice his brothers walking in -- he's still obsessively looking for Master Splinter. He's apparently found a few that are in danger of being purged, so that means another trip to cyberspace for him, despite his brothers' protests that they need to be focusing on the Foot/PD situation.
In the Shredder's cyber-lair, a holographic representation of Khan is explaining what's been going on with said Foot/PDs -- namely, the PDs keep robbing Foot strongholds, with vastly superior weaponry. The Shredder decides to hack into their computer to see what's going on, and who does he see? Baxter Stockman!
Stockman tries getting into the Foot database to see where the next heist will be, but the Shredder hacks him, taking over his body! They have a little exchange, but then Shredder starts tearing Baxter's computers apart to make a facsimile of a Shredder suit. And Hun books it.
Outside, the boys are all dressed up in what looks like actual ninja garb, preparing to infiltrate the PDs lair. I'm so happy with the scenes that follow because they actually use STEALTH (and distraction) to get in. They get through the first door and are puzzling how to get through the second when an alarm goes off. It's not for them (good little ninjas that they were) -- the doors blow open and reveal ShredderStock, looking a lot bigger and a little pieced-together (apparently he's put on a pair of shock gloves, among other things), who goes on the attack!
ShredderStock goes after the turtles, despite a little internal bickering -- Shredder wants to kill them, Baxter just doesn't want the paint scratched on his robot body. Hun and the PDs try to get in on the action too, but ShredderStock throws grenades, which takes care of their weapons and most of the PDs. Hun attacks anyway, which gives the turtles a little time to regroup and wonder how on earth they're going to defeat this guy -- especially without Don.
Speaking of Don, where is he? He's in cyberspace, and has just reached what looks like a massive virtual tornado/whirlpool that is apparently the place where the data is being purged. He grapples onto some floating datablocks and starts climbing up, promising Splinter that he won't let him down.
Back in the real world, Hun is not doing so well. He gets thrown around and out, and ShredderStock tears apart the truck the turtles were hiding under. ShredderStock is about to fire some shoulder missiles, when Stockman decides this will DEFINITELY scratch the paint, and ejects his headpiece out of the robot body (I'm not making this up), leaving the Shredder blinded for a moment. The shot misses, and Baxter tells the turtles to follow him as they all run for an elevator. The Shredder finds some backup eyes in the body, and shoots the missiles again, just missing as the elevator doors close. In the ride up, Stockman endeavors to explain what's going on and how to fix it. He says that the Shredder likely isn't entirely uploaded into his body, and thus is controlling it remotely. If they can sever the connection, Stockman can reboot his firewall and lock the Shredder out. He says they can do this from Hun's master computer, which is at the top of the elevator ride. (There's also a glass table that's just begging to be smashed.) Mikey laments that Don is in cyberspace and can't help.
They reach the top of the elevator and Baxter gets to work, while the turtles prepare for the Shredder -- but he followed too fast. He fires some missiles at the turtles, knocking them into the table (called it!), and uses the shock gloves to attack Stockman and therefore fry the computer. The turtles attempt to buy Baxter some more time, despite his protests that he's not a miracle-worker. He finds that pretty much only the wireless is still working, and decides to try getting a message to Don, so he can sever the connection from within cyberspace. The Shredder's having none of that though, and goes after Baxter, while the turtles play hot potato with his head. Eventually he gets the computer bit working, but not before all the turtles are thoroughly KO'd.
In cyberspace, Don's finally reached Master Splinter's data, and is about to start collecting them -- only to get a message from Stockman, which surprises him so much he nearly falls into the whirlpool. After regaining his footing, he discovers via Stockman's message that his brothers are in trouble -- and that if he follows Baxter's instructions to the letter, he can save them. But Master Splinter's so close...!
In Hun's room, the Shredder is milking his victory (as always), but before he can attack --
-- Don zooms through cyberspace towards the Shredder's cyberlair, jumping from his cycle and slicing right through the connection with his bo --
-- which makes the Shredder-in-Stockman's-body have a seizure. The turtles aren't quite sure what's happened just yet, but Stockman urges them to get his head back to his body so he can activate the firewall.
Meanwhile in cyberspace Donny is kicking SERIOUS AMOUNTS OF SHREDDER a**. He may have lost his father, but he won't lose his brothers too!
The brothers in question start hitting the Shredder again, and get Baxter's head back to the body. Baxter activates his firewall and locks the Shredder out --
-- and Don hits the road (so to speak), leaving the Shredder to yell a Darth Noooooooo in frustration.
Back at the lair, everybody's happy Don came to the rescue, and Don meanwhile has learned a lesson about not taking his brothers for granted. So he'll still continue the search -- assuming his brothers don't need to keep being rescued. Warm fuzzy feelings all around.
To Be Continued...
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Okay, DON KICKED SERIOUS a**. That was like his best fight scene ever. biggrin THIS GRIN WILL NOT LEAVE MY FACE. I liked Stockman's little "really?" while talking with the Shredder too. Poor guy keeps getting jerked around by life. I really liked this episode. It started a little awkward but it just got better and better. ^_^
STILL GRINNING, MAN.
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