by 3 Ninja Tales (The Rise of Tiger Claw; The Casey Chronicles; Mutants in Space!) (retail) (epub)
… the small worm that had nuzzled up against April’s leg just moments ago! Where had it come from? Startled, Donnie slapped the small worm and ran. The worm didn’t seem to mind. April and Casey followed the sprinting Turtle.
But so did the huge Kraathatrogon! When it felt the vibrations of its prey running in the opposite direction, it turned its bulky body around and scooted back the way it had come.
April was getting exhausted. “We gotta slow it down,” she gasped.
Casey responded instantly. “I’m on it!” he cried, releasing the skating wheels on his gym shoes.
April and Donnie looked over their shoulders, watching Casey skate toward the rushing worm. “Casey, no!” April yelled.
But Casey kept on skating toward the Kraathatrogon. He pulled out a can of yellow spray paint and shook it up. When he was a few feet from the worm, he hurled the can into the monster’s gaping mouth.
The can exploded inside the worm’s mouth, spraying yellow paint over its teeth and chin. A yellow cloud rose from its mouth as it reared back and then fell onto the track.
Casey skated up to the fallen creature. “YES!” he shouted, thrilled that his paint-can maneuver had succeeded.
Or had it?
The worm lifted its head just as quickly as it fell, opened its huge mouth, and roared at Casey.
“NOOOOO!” Casey screamed, turning and skating away. The worm chased after him, not slowed a bit by the paint can now rattling deep inside its belly.
April looked back and urged him on. “Casey! HURRY!”
He skated as fast as he could, but the worm was getting closer.
Donnie spotted a ladder leading out of the tunnel. He jumped, snagging one of the rungs. Right away, he whipped around and extended his bo staff toward April.
April flung herself toward the staff, grabbing it with her right hand. Donnie hauled her onto the ladder.
Hanging onto a rung of the ladder, Donnie extended his bo staff as far as he could, holding it out toward the subway tracks. “JONES!” he yelled above the roar of the rushing worm. “The staff!”
Casey forced his legs to push harder. He launched himself toward the staff with his arms outstretched …
… but the giant worm heaved forward and swallowed him!
“NOOO!” April screamed.
“CASEY!” Donnie shouted.
Donnie and April could only watch, stunned, as the worm rushed on down the subway tunnel, turned around a bend, and disappeared.
“He’s … gone.” April choked out the words. “He’s gone.” She closed her eyes and laid her head against Donnie’s shell. He put his arm on her back and drew her close.
“I’m so sorry, April,” Donnie said sincerely. “I truly am.”
April shut her eyes tighter, trying to forget the sight of the Kraathatrogon engulfing Casey Jones.
Back in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ secret lair, Leo was tightly wrapping a bandage around Mikey’s green arm. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, … OWWW!” Mikey cried. Leo ignored his brother’s complaining and kept bandaging his arm.
Mikey wasn’t the only brother with complaints. “This is YOUR fault, Leo!” Raph insisted, tossing down the ice pack he’d been holding to his head and pointing an accusing finger at Leo. “If you hadn’t called Splinter, we wouldn’t be in this mess!”
Leo answered his brother’s accusation patiently. “I didn’t have a choice, Raph. It was him or Mikey. I thought … I thought Sensei would take care of himself.” Leo looked away. He felt just as bad about what had happened to Splinter as Raph did.
But Leo’s answer did nothing to calm Raph’s anger. He crossed his arms and said, “Well, ya thought wrong!”
Leo stood up, trying to look as commanding as possible. “We know where they took him,” he said, facing Raph. “Shredder’s lair! We do this for Splinter!”
Mikey thrust a finger into the air. “There comes a time, brothers, when history is forged like …”
He paused, trying to think of something history could be forged like.
“… melted cheese!” He pressed his hands together. “It sticks together, as ONE!” He worked his hands as though he were squeezing a lump of melted cheese. “But it’s still soft and squishy in the middle!”
Mikey licked his lips and closed his eyes, thinking about the hot melted cheese on a delicious pizza. He could really go for one from Antonio’s right now….
He opened his eyes, again aware that he was giving his brothers an inspirational speech about going on a dangerous mission, only to see them staring at him. He decided to wrap it up, and raised a defiant fist in the air. “ARE YOU WITH ME?”
Raph just shook his head. “Lamest. Speech. Ever,” he said. “But … I’m with you.”
The three brothers put their hands in, pressing one on top of the other. “Let’s do this!” Leo said.
They started preparing right away.
Raph put thick metal bands around his hands with jagged claws extending from them.
Leo carefully coiled a rope with grappling hooks on the end.
And Mikey got out his trusty old box of fireworks. He opened it, gazed at the explosives, smoke bombs, and bottle rockets, and chuckled to himself slyly. This mission to rescue Splinter was dangerous, but Mikey saw no reason why it couldn’t also be fun….
Donnie and April climbed the metal rungs of the subway ladder up the wall until they were right underneath a round manhole cover. They were still shocked by what had happened to Casey. Donnie lifted the heavy steel cover and climbed up onto the street. He looked around and saw no one.
“Okay, coast is clear,” he told April. He helped her climb out of the manhole.
She was clearly upset. “This is so terrible,” she cried. “Poor Casey!” Then she got a determined look on her face and placed her hands on Donnie’s shoulders. “We have to find a way to stop those space worms once and for—”
But before she could finish her sentence, the ground started to shake! “WHOA! WHAA!” she and Donnie yelled as they lurched backward and forward, falling to the ground. Trash cans and debris rolled by.
When the shaking stopped, Donnie got to his feet and helped April up. “You’re right about stopping those worms!” he said. “And we know one man who knows more about the Kraang than anyone!”
Donnie and April were soon perched on a fire escape outside an apartment window. Sirens blared in the distance. Donnie kept a lookout as April knelt by the window and gently rapped on the glass with her knuckles. No one opened the window. April looked up at Donnie and shook her head.
She stood and looked in the window, leaning against the glass. Donnie joined her. Suddenly, a light snapped on, shining right in their eyes!
When their eyes adjusted, they could see who was shining the light from inside the apartment—Jack Kurtzman, the man they had come to see. The rest of the apartment was dark as the man with gray hair, thick eyebrows, and large, intelligent blue eyes held the powerful source of illumination.
When he realized who was outside his window, he lowered the flashlight. “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” he said. “Quick! Get in before you’re spotted!”
He unlocked the bolt and raised the window. April and Donnie climbed through and stepped into the dingy apartment. The gray walls were covered with photos and newspaper articles connected by strings and thumbtacks, and the furniture was old and worn.
Kurtzman shut the window and looked out to see if anyone had seen Donnie and April come in. Then he turned and faced them, looking concerned. “This is about the earthquake situation, isn’t it?”
As he crossed to a bulletin board on the wall, April said, “You’re never going to guess what’s causing it, Mr. Kurtzman.”
He snatched four black-and-white photos off the bulletin board and examined them for a moment. “Call me Jack,” Kurtzman said, tossing the photos down on a table. April and Donnie leaned in to look. She gasped. They were pictures of the Kraathatrogons in the subway tunnels!
It was clear that Jac
k Kurtzman was well aware of what was causing all the earthquakes.
He stared at the photos. “I named the Kraang’s little scheme ‘The Manhattan Project.’”
Splinter groaned and slowly opened his eyes. He felt terrible. Where was he?
As his vision came back into focus, he saw Tiger Claw standing over him with a bucket of water. “Wake up, little rat!” he snarled as he threw the cold water in Splinter’s face.
Tiger Claw tossed the metal bucket aside. Fishface came into Splinter’s view to join Tiger Claw and stare down at him. The purple mutant grinned, showing his jagged teeth. “Nice work, Tiger Claw!” he said fawningly. “You finally captured the great Splinter!”
Splinter tried to move his arms, but they were chained behind his back. He was lying facedown on cold stone. He realized where he was: Shredder’s lair.
Rahzar stood next to Fishface and Tiger Claw. The three made a nice, bizarre trio of mutants. They were watching Splinter carefully.
“So, is the poison going to finish him or what?” Rahzar asked in his gravelly voice.
Poison, Splinter remembered. From the dart in my neck. The one shot by … Miwa. My own daughter shot me with poison.
Tiger Claw frowned. “Most men would have expired by now, but it’s only weakened him. He may be small, but he’s tough as iron.”
Shredder marched into the chamber followed by Karai. If the leader of the Foot Clan was happy to have captured his greatest enemy, he didn’t show it. As he approached Rahzar and Fishface, he dismissed them, using the names they went by before their transformation into mutants. “Bradford, Xever … leave us.” They bowed obediently and slinked out.
Splinter managed to rise to his knees. Tiger Claw towered over him with his arms folded across his chest, keeping a watchful eye on the ninja.
Shredder came to a stop right in front of Splinter. “Hamato Yoshi,” he said in his deep voice, sounding highly satisfied. “So you have come to this: a wretched rat-man waiting to be put out of his misery.”
Splinter showed no fear, even though he still felt sick from the poison. “At least I do not wear a mask, hiding what little humanity I have left.”
“It is because of YOU that I wear this mask!” Shredder snarled, remembering the long-ago battle and fire in Japan.
Splinter shook his head sadly. “All these years,” he said. “You continue to deceive yourself … and everyone around you.” As he said this last part, he looked directly at Karai. She looked surprised, and then remembered what Leo told her about her real father.
Shredder was enraged by Splinter’s last remark. “You DARE?” he said. Long, lethal blades shot out of the armor he wore over his hands. He raised one hand high above his head. “NOW IT ENDS!” he bellowed.
Splinter prepared himself to die.
But as Shredder roared in triumph and sliced the razor-sharp blades through the air toward Splinter’s exposed neck, Karai flung out her hand and cried, “No, Father!”
Shredder stopped his hand fractions of an inch from Splinter’s neck. He glared at Karai, shocked. “You would stop me?”
Karai looked Shredder in the eye, holding his angry gaze. “You’d kill your greatest enemy while he’s poisoned and chained? What about honor? Everything you’ve taught me!”
Tiger Claw stood next to Karai with his powerful arms crossed over his chest. “The girl is right, Master Shredder.”
“Hmph,” Shredder grunted, retracting his blades into his armor. He turned his back and started walking toward the door. “Very well. Gather the Foot. I will offer Hamato Yoshi one last fight.” He left, with Tiger Claw behind him.
As Karai passed Splinter, he asked her, “Why did you help me?”
She paused, staring straight ahead. “I don’t know.” Then she shot him a scornful glance. “Maybe because you looked so pathetic!”
She started to walk out, but Splinter had something more to say to her, though it still pained him to speak. “You have your mother’s spirit,” he said in a low voice. “So fierce, and yet … so scared.”
Karai wheeled around. Anger flashed in her eyes. “Never speak of my mother again!” She hung her head and closed her eyes. “You ruined my family! You ruined all our lives!”
She strode angrily out of the chamber.
In a soft voice full of pain, Splinter said, “No. It was … Oroku Saki.” He repeated Shredder’s Japanese name. “Oroku … Saki …”
He collapsed to the floor.
Back in Jack Kurtzman’s apartment, April was looking at a copy of Weekly Weird News. The headline on the cover screamed, “BAT FREAK FOUND IN TUNNEL!” Kurtzman seemed interested in every odd thing that came his way—including mutant Turtles and giant space worms.
Donnie was sitting on Kurtzman’s ugly green couch, pumping him for more information about the Kraathatrogon. Jack seemed eager to share. “So, these worms are only children?” Donnie asked. “How big are the adults?”
“Huge!” Kurtzman answered, spreading a well-worn diagram across his stained coffee table. It was covered with drawings of the worms and notes about their size and habits. He set a saltshaker on the paper to keep it from rolling up like a scroll. “Some are hundreds of feet long! The Kraang have been importing the worms from Dimension X to suck out their mutagen. It’s kinda like milking a cow….”
He demonstrated by using his hands to pretend he was milking a cow.
April was grossed out. “Okay, okay, we get it. Thanks. How do we stop them?”
Kurtzman shrugged. “No clue how to stop ’em. But I know the Kraang ride these puppies.” He pointed to a drawing on his diagram. “You see these antennae on its head? The Kraang grab ’em and pull on ’em to steer the worms, like using the reins on a horse.” He picked up the saltshaker and moved it over the drawing like a worm. Salt spilled onto the paper.
“Why didn’t I think of it before?” Donnie exclaimed. “Salt!”
April looked confused. “Salt? What do you—” Her cell phone rang in her back pocket. She pulled it out, saying “Hold on a second….”
When she looked at her phone’s screen to see who was calling, she saw a picture of … CASEY! She stood up, amazed. “It’s CASEY!” She answered the phone. “Casey?”
“Uh, hey, April!” he answered casually, despite the situation he found himself in. “So, I’m kind of, uh, trapped inside this giant worm thing. It’s cool. I’m alive and stuff …”
Inside the Kraathatrogon, purple coils wrapped themselves around Casey tightly.
“You’re inside the worm?” April asked. “You get a signal in there?”
“It’s, uh, trying to digest me, I think,” Casey said, straining to talk. “Could use … a little help …”
“Sit tight, Casey!” April said. “I mean, um, don’t go anywhere!”
She covered her phone with her hand and turned to Donnie. “He’s alive! He’s ALIVE!”
Leo stealthily climbed up the outside of Shredder’s lair, his two katana swords strapped to his shell. He pulled out three sharp throwing stars when he reached the top of a spire and hurled them at one of the Footbots standing guard. The stars neatly lopped off his mechanical head.
As the other Footbot looked at the guard’s fallen head, Leo flipped over him, landed at his feet, and swiped his swords at the bot’s legs. The machine fell, and Leo slammed his swords down on it, dismantling it completely.
Leo climbed up a wall and slipped into the lair through a broken window. He immediately spotted his sensei lying on the ground unconscious and quickly made his way down to the floor to get close to Splinter.
“Sensei!” Leo whispered. Splinter didn’t stir. Leo repeated the term of respect a little louder: “Sensei!”
Splinter’s eyes slowly opened. He looked up to see his son. “Leonardo!” He managed to lift his chin a few inches from the floor. “Go! NOW!”
But it was too late for Leo to escape. All around the hall, torches burst into flame, lighting the chamber for the battle between Shredder and Splinter.
Shredder stepped into the hall with Karai and saw the Turtle. Leo tried to draw his katana, but Tiger Claw was suddenly right behind him and grabbed his arm. Behind the assassin stood Rahzar, Fishface, and Baxter Stockman. Leo struggled to get free, but Tiger Claw held him tight.
“Hello again, my friend,” Tiger Claw purred in a low voice.
Shredder leaned in and demanded, “Where are the other Turtles?”
Tiger Claw sniffed the air. “It’s just him, Master Shredder. He’s alone—I sense no one else.”
Leo glared at Shredder, but the villain wasted no more time on the young Turtle. He turned and walked swiftly to Splinter, who still lay on the stone floor. Shredder shot the blades out of his wrist armor and cut Splinter’s chains.
“Watch, Turtle, for it will be the last fight you ever see … the destruction of your master, Hamato Yoshi!”
Leo struggled to break loose from Tiger Claw’s powerful grasp.
Splinter shook his head, trying to shake off the effects of the poison that lingered in his system. He assumed a martial arts stance, but his vision was blurred. He blinked, trying to clear his eyes.
Shredder pounced, thrusting the long blades that extended from his hands at Splinter. The poisoned rat managed to slip away, dodging three blows and a flying kick.
“You can do it, Sensei!” Leo called.
But it was a struggle for Splinter just to stay on his feet. Shredder came whirling at him, catching him with his armored knee and sending the sensei flying, landing on the hard stone floor with a loud whump!
“Sensei!” Leo cried, desperate to help his master. Tiger Claw let out a cruel, pitiless laugh.
High above them, on a ledge just inside the broken window, Raph and Mikey peered down at the fight. Mikey held a few of his favorite fireworks in his hands.
Groaning and gasping, Splinter managed to get to his feet and raise his arms. Karai looked at the ground, unable to watch.
Shredder rushed at Splinter, easily knocking him to the ground. He reached down and lifted the rat. Holding him with one arm, he drew back his other arm, aiming the twin blades at Splinter’s head. “I will put you out of your misery.”