Juniper Montage and Bandit Raccoon were confronted by a panther mutant named Panther, who Bandit seemed to know. Juniper spoke, "Bandit, who is this guy?"
Panther answered, "I am Bruce Chesney, but please call me Panther, as I'm sure you know why. And Bandit and I were best buds back then."
"We were not buds!" Bandit denied, "You used my abilities to help you rob places."
"You know as well as anyone when you're a mutant you can't do anything the way you used to anymore. Stealing is the only option." Panther reminded him.
"Not to me anymore." Bandit replied.
"You were always weak sauce!" Panther growled, as he pounced the raccoon mutant and the two started fighting, as Juniper watched hoping Bandit wold be ok.
When the rest of the ninjas minus Raph arrived, they observed the scene, "Dudes, is that a panther?" Casey asked.
Juniper answered, "Yes, and his name's literally Panther. Bandit and him used to be partners."
"Good thing Raph isn't here to make it worse." Sour said, knowing he'd never stop saying 'I told you all so'.
Panther knocked Bandit away and into a wall. Before he could finish him he was almost nailed by shuriken courtesy of Leo, "Back away from our friend!" he aimed his sword at Panther.
"More mutants? Will the surprises never cease?" he asked humorously.
"All right, Panther, fess up," Mikey began, "How'd you end up becoming a mutant?"
Panther answered, "It was about a year ago. I had just gotten back from my part time job from working at the zoo. My job was to give the panther it's bath. Then a canister of ooze fell onto me and I turned into this. Since then I used my new abilities to steal what I could to make a living. That's how I met Bandit. We were an unstoppable duo, until he betrayed me."
Bandit answered, "Because I was tired of stealing from those weaker than us!"
Panther growled at him, "You never got it, Bandit. We're mutants now. We're higher up on the food chain. People like us deserve to have whatever we want."
"Says you." Bandit frowned.
"Well, we're not letting you lay a paw on our friend." Twilight said, as the group armed themselves.
"I'd like to see you all try." Panther attacked the group who fought back.
Each of them were trying to avoid Panther's sharp claws and teeth, while he was dodging most of their weapon strikes. Bandit watched his friend getting tossed around and nearly hurt, and guilt was piling up on him. Suddenly he frowned and shouted, "Panther!" Everyone turned their attention towards Bandit, "Leave my friends out of this, your fight's with me."
Panther looked back at the group before turning to Bandit, "If that's the way you want it."
"That's the way." Bandit confirmed.
"Then you're mine!" Panther growled.
"You've got to catch me first!" Bandit challenged, as he used his Raccoon abilities to shimmy up a pipe to the roof of a building. Panther went after him, as the raccoon boy led him away.
"He's leading Panther away." Donnie gasped.
"We have to go after him." Rainbow said.
"Come on!" Leo ordered, as they followed the two.
The ninjas followed the trail leading to the docks. They found Bandit and Panther by one of the docks still going at it, "There they are." Sunny gasped.
"Look at them go." Pinkie said in shock.
"I don't think Bandit's going to last forever at this rate." April feared.
Bandit gained some distance between Panther and saw the group from afar, "Guys, kill the lights!"
The turtles caught on, before they and Sunset hit the dock lights with shuriken and kunai breaking them. This blanketed the docks in darkness, as Panther spoke, "Clever move, Bandit. But you forget I can still see in the dark."
"Well, so can I." Bandit reminded him.
"Then let's see who can see best." Panther challenged him, as the two fought in the dark.
"We can't let him fight alone." Fluttershy said in worry.
"We have to help him." Starlight added.
"Then let's get in there, ya'll!" Applejack ordered, as they jumped in.
"let's play, cat!" Mikey called.
"With pleasure." Panther said, as he pounced at several of the girls and turtles through the dark.
Luckily they managed to avoid his teeth and lethal scratches. When Panther saw Juniper he started charging at her, "Come here!" Juniper cried seeing there wasn't enough time to get away. Panther knocked her to the ground and glared at her, "I could use a late night snack." he licked his lips.
Bandit who was behind frowned, and acting fast grabbed Panther's tail, and bit it. Panther's eyes widened, as he roared in pain, "YEOW!"
He turned and growled with anger at Bandit who removed the tail from his mouth, "When was the last time you bathed?" he gagged.
He grabbed Bandit by the throat and held him up, "Hope you're prepared to have your face bitten off!"
Bandit braced himself, until who else but Raph jumped in and kicked Panther, causing him to drop Bandit. The aggressive turtle spoke to the black cat, "Paws off the Raccoon!" he looked at Bandit before smiling, which the raccoon returned.
Bandit got up and spoke, "What brings you here at the last minute?"
"After I got all that biased hate out of my system I realized I was the one being the jerk."
Bandit spoke to the others, "Does he always go through this?"
"Dude, we could tell you stories." Mikey replied.
Panther growled, "I'll tear you to shreds!" he engaged them again, but this time they had a plan.
As the ninjas distracted Panther, Fugitoid positioned himself, "Time to bag a cat!" he launched a net that captured Panther, and the net itself began shocking him until he fell unconscious.
"That got him." Sunset said.
"So what do we do with him now?" Twilight asked.
Raph looked at one of the ships and spoke, "I have an idea."
Panther woke up, and when he tried to stand up he hit his head, "Ow!" he looked around seeing he was boxed in with a few air holes, "Hey, where am I? What is this?" he started pounding on his surroundings, "Let me out of here! Let me out!" as it turned out he was packed in a crate on board a ship bound for Africa.
Back on the docks, the ninjas watched the ship go out to sea, "Hope Panther likes his new home."
"He should fit right in." Mikey replied.
Juniper then hugged Bandit, "Thanks for the save, Bandit. I really appreciate it. She pecked his cheek.
"Oh, well, uh. You know. Just doing what I can for a friend." Bandit answered, while blushing.
Raph approached, "Bandit, I'm sorry for what I said to you. It just felt like being around you was like being around another Mikey and Pinkie Pie, and one of each is more than enough for me to take."
"Hey!" Mikey and Pinkie called taking offense.
"Hey, forget about it. And sorry for biting your arm."
"I did deserve it," Raph admitted, "So we cool?" he held his fist out.
Bandit smiled and pounded it, "Frosty... But talk smack about me like that again, and I'll bite you more than once!"
"What?!" Raph growled, until Bandit laughed.
"I'm just joshing ya... But seriously lay off the insults."
"Fair enough." Raph replied.
"We appreciate you helping us back there, Bandit. If you ever need help just give us a call." Leo said.
"Thanks. And if you guys need a paw, I'm your bud." Bandit offered.
"Come on team. Let's go back." Sunset said, as the group left the docks.