by 3 Ninja Tales (The Rise of Tiger Claw; The Casey Chronicles; Mutants in Space!) (retail) (epub)
On the bridge of the Technodrome, Kraang Prime and Kraang Subprime bared their teeth, snarling with anger. “Infested”? “Insidious”? “Mutating Earth”? Well, actually, that last part was accurate.
“In response,” Captain Mozar said, “we Triceratons will eliminate these hideous aliens, freeing you from their vile plans.”
In the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ lair, Splinter intently watched the Triceraton’s speech on a TV. He knew the Triceratons were formidable enemies. Stopping them wouldn’t be easy… .
“Unfortunately, your Earth will be annihilated as well. That is all. And please … have a nice day.”
The screens went blank.
All over the world, people screamed in terror!
On the bridge of the Technodrome, everyone was stunned by Captain Mozar’s description of the Triceratons’ plan to destroy Earth. Even Kraang Prime and Kraang Subprime.
“Holy chalupa,” Donatello gasped. “It’s actually happening! Double invasion!”
In his hiding place high above the bridge, Leo decided this was as good a moment as any to make their move—while all the Kraang were standing there with their mouths hanging open. “Let’s do this, Bishop!” he hissed.
April, Casey, Leo, and Bishop leaped down, swinging into action. “GOONGALA!” Casey yelled. While he, Leo, and April knocked out Kraang-droids, Bishop jumped right onto Kraang Subprime!
“Get off my robo-back!” the alien screamed.
Bishop punched Kraang Subprime, but the alien used his robotic arms to grab Bishop and throw him off his back. When he saw who had attacked him, Kraang Subprime yelled, “Bishop? You filthy, swindling Kraang!”
“Takes one to know one!” Mikey shouted. He thought that was a pretty good crack.
“I am an Utrom!” Bishop answered, springing to his feet, ready to fight. “Just as you once were, brother! Or shall I call you Sub-Subprime!”
Kraang Subprime looked livid. “Don’t call me that! You know I hate that!” He activated the saw blades on his Irma-bot armor and attacked! “RAAAAHHHH!”
Bishop dodged the whirring blades, shouting to the Turtles, “Hurry, my friends! Get to the hangar!” He moved toward Kraang Subprime, ready to fight.
“Thanks, Bishop!” Leo said. “Let’s go!”
When April, Casey, and the four brothers were back together, Raph said gruffly, “Took ya long enough!”
“Whatever, dude!” Casey said. “Now … how are we going to get out of here?”
“Especially with that in our way,” April added, pointing.
Kraang Prime roared and slammed his huge tentacles down on the ground, narrowly missing the group. WHAM!
“You go nowhere!” he bellowed.
As Kraang Prime moved toward the Turtles and their human friends, Leatherhead leaped up and smashed Kraang Prime in the face! Startled, the oversized alien staggered back.
“I’ll hold it off!” Leatherhead shouted. “Go!”
Leatherhead clamped onto Kraang Prime’s massive face. Flailing his tentacles, the alien fell back into the wall, smashing control panels and sending sparks flying!
The Turtles hesitated to leave Leatherhead behind. But Donnie knew they needed to get out of there. “Move it, guys!”
When they reached the hangar, Leo led the way to a row of stealth ships. “It’s too late to blow this thing!” he said. “Pair up and grab a ship!”
Mikey joined Casey in a stealth ship. They immediately took off. Donnie and April paired up in another ship—Donnie was always happy to be paired up with April. They whooshed out of the hangar.
That left Leo and Raph together.
Leo fired up the ship’s ignition and blasted out of the Technodrome just as a platoon of Kraang-droids arrived and started shooting their lasers at the fleeing Turtles!
The Turtles flew the three Kraang stealth ships away from the Technodrome, quickly putting as much distance as possible between themselves and the flying weapon.
They’d have to worry about the Technodrome later. For now, the Triceratons were their biggest concern. Destruction of the Earth took precedence over mutation of the Earth.
On their view screens, the Turtles saw a squadron of five Triceraton raptor ships flying in attack formation.
“They’re not just targeting the Technodrome,” Leo said as he steered the stealth ship. “They’re heading for the city!”
He and Raph watched as the Triceraton raptor ships branched off and flew past the Statue of Liberty!
“Then push this thing faster, Leo!” Raph barked.
In the sky above New York’s harbor, the Turtles’ stealth ships rocketed to intercept the five Triceraton fighters. Inside the raptor ships, the Triceraton pilots grunted the strange guttural sounds that made up their language.
They’d spotted the Turtles—and they recognized the ships as belonging to the Kraang, their mortal enemy!
BZZOOF! BZZOOF! BZZOOF! The Triceratons fired their energy cannons right at the Turtles’ ships!
Leo hit the controls, and they managed to swerve out of the way at the last second.
The other two stealth ships were having problems of their own, with the raptor ships firing repeated blasts at both of them. All three stealth ships were in an incredible battle with the five Triceraton fighters!
Mikey and Casey streaked by and zapped a raptor ship. Below them flew Donnie and April’s ship. They were dodging and firing with careful and precise aim, using April’s psychic ability to pinpoint the Triceraton raptors.
“Over there!” April called out. “That way! Now four o’clock! That way—eleven o’clock!” By calling out the positions of numbers on a clock, April was telling Donnie precisely where to steer the ship.
“We make a pretty good team!” Donnie said, grinning. “Even though the odds of us surviving this are 967 to one!”
April hit the weapons control, blasting a Triceraton raptor!
“Yes!” she cried excitedly. “This is too awesome!”
Donnie shot her a look. That language sounded uncomfortably familiar. “You’ve been hanging out with Casey way too much!”
Mikey and Casey had a completely different style of aerial combat. They flew their stealth ship wildly, spinning and spraying laser fire in every direction. Amazingly, they were disabling Triceraton fighters right and left!
“Check me out, dog!” Mikey yelled. “And Sensei says video games are useless! How else could I learn to do this? WOOOOO!”
Leo and Raph swept past the Technodrome. On their view screen, they saw Leatherhead and Bishop leap out a window into the ocean.
Smiling, Raph said, “They made it! But the Technodrome’s still flying.”
Leo wiped his brow. “Not for long, it’s not! Look!”
A squadron of Triceraton raptor ships zoomed toward the Technodrome and blasted it with a punishing barrage of energy! One shot grazed Raph and Leo’s stealth ship, but they slipped away undamaged.
The Technodrome unleashed a massive counterattack on the Triceraton raptors. It looked as though the Drome could prove too much for the fighters. One of its shots hit Donnie and April’s ship!
Panicking, Donnie cried, “We’re going down! Grab on to something!”
Without thinking, April grabbed Donnie. A smile flickered across his face, until he realized they were gonna die!
“AAAAAHHHHH!” they screamed.
Their ship spun out of control, diving straight toward the roller coaster at Coney Island!
CRASH! The ship smashed through the roller coaster. It hit the ground, skidded across the empty amusement park, and slammed into a carnival game.
Then it was still.
Nearby, Leatherhead and Bishop pulled themselves out of the brine onto a dock. Dripping wet, they spotted the crashed ship and ran over to it. Leatherhead wrenched off the bent door and tossed it aside.
“My friends!” he called. “Are you okay?”
After a moment, Donnie and April crawled out of the ruined ship, looking battered and d
azed. “I’ve always … hated … roller coasters,” April wheezed.
Overhead, two Kraang stealth ships streaked by, carrying Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Casey. April’s T-phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and answered it.
It was Leo. He was on his own T-phone while Raph handled the ship’s controls. “April, I need you and Leatherhead to get Splinter and the rest of the Mutanimals. Gather as many of our friends as you can.”
In the stealth ship, Leo hung up his T-phone.
“What’s the deal, Leo?” Raph asked as they flew by another ship.
“The deal is we’re gonna need all the help we can get,” Leo said grimly.
On the bridge of the Triceraton mother ship, Captain Mozar stared at a screen, watching the battle below. He did not look pleased. But then, with his face, it wasn’t clear whether he could ever look pleased.
A Triceraton commander stomped up to him. “Captain Mozar, we have the Technodrome on target.”
“Excellent,” Captain Mozar said. “Destroy it. And unleash the Heart of Darkness upon the city. We will make sure the Kraang never take this world again … by annihilating it.”
On the bridge of the Technodrome, Kraang Subprime studied a monitor and gasped. He quickly turned to Kraang Prime. “The Triceraton mother ship is powering up! We’re toast! Toast!”
Kraang Prime slapped Kraang Subprime with his tentacle, sending his second-in-command flying. “Calm down, Kraang Subprime! Begin evasive maneuvers! Ready that which is known as the EYE OF KRAANG!”
Leo, Raph, Mikey, and Casey were still busy fighting Triceraton raptor ships. Other raptors were blasting the Technodrome with lasers. Then Casey spotted something.
“Mikey, look!” he cried.
The Triceraton fleet was backing off and scattering.
“They’re leaving!” Mikey shouted. “YES!” But then he noticed something bright in the sky. “Uh-oh …”
The brightness in the sky above them was a plasma beam firing from one of the Triceraton mother ship’s huge cannons. The beam streaked straight toward the Technodrome!
KAAAA-BOOOOOOOM!!! The Technodrome exploded!
The force of the blast sent Leo and Raph’s ship flying out of control. Screaming, Leo and Raph bailed out!
Without a pilot, the stealth ship plummeted to the ground, rolled across the docks, and blew up! The noise was deafening! BOOOOOOM!!!
Raph and Leo fell through the sky. They had no glider wings. No parachutes.
But they did have grappling hooks.
They threw their hooks, catching the top of a billboard, and swung down onto a New York rooftop.
It was a hard landing. WHOMP!
The two Turtles rolled across the roof, battered and exhausted. Finally, they came to a stop and just lay there for a few seconds.
Leo’s T-phone rang. Still groaning, he answered it. “Mikey?”
His brother’s voice came over the phone. “Dude, there’s a ship holding some kind of, like, energy string. It’s carrying some kinda giant thingy!”
Leo frowned. “You’re not making any sense, Mikey! What are you talking about? What ‘giant thingy’?”
In their Kraang stealth ship, Mikey and Casey were peering at a view screen. They saw a Triceraton raptor with an energy tether trailing below it. Hanging from the tether was the Heart of Darkness, the Triceraton’s black hole generator.
But Mikey and Casey didn’t know what the giant thingy was.
Three more Triceraton raptor ships were guarding the ship with the energy tether and the Heart of Darkness.
Casey grabbed the T-phone from Mikey. “Looks like a weapon. Aw, crud! Guys, I think they’re heading for Washington Square!”
Washington Square was a popular historic park in New York with a famous marble arch dedicated to George Washington.
“Take it down!” Leo ordered over the phone. “Whatever you do, take it down!”
That wouldn’t be easy. There were four Triceraton raptor ships and just one Turtle ship. But Mikey didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the T-phone back from Casey. “I got this, chief. Aw, yeah! Turtle spaceship power!”
Mikey swerved through the sky in a wild pattern, getting the raptor ship carrying the black hole generator in his sights. “Fire!” he yelled.
Casey hit the weapon controls, sending a blast toward the Triceraton ship. “GOONGALA!” he shouted joyfully.
Mikey couldn’t contain himself any longer. He had to ask. “Dude, what is that?”
“My battle cry,” Casey said. “It’s really catching on.”
“It’s really not,” Mikey said.
Their blast was timed and aimed perfectly. But when it got close to its target, it was deflected by a bubble that suddenly appeared around the ship.
“They have force field awesomeness!” Casey gasped, impressed.
“And, like, four dudes blasting at us!” Mikey shouted.
“There’s too many!” Casey yelled.
BLAAAMM!
The Kraang stealth ship spun out of control, falling toward the streets of New York!
“MAYDAY! MAYDAY!” Mikey screamed. “WE’RE GOING DOWN, DOG!”
The Kraang stealth ship wasn’t very stealthy as it came screaming out of the sky. Struggling with the controls, Mikey was able to get the ship right-side up as it slammed into a side street. It skidded across the pavement, coming to a stop along the curb in a parking place right behind a tiny compact car.
The ship wasn’t even damaged much. Apparently, the Kraang built their stealth ships tough.
“Whew!” Mikey sighed.
“Nice job, dude,” Casey said. “I like the part where we didn’t die.”
They opened the door and clambered out of the spaceship.
Casey had been right about where the Triceratons were headed with their black hole generator. They dropped it in the center of Washington Square Park, right next to the fountain. With a solid thunk.
As soon as the black hole generator had attached itself to the ground, three Triceraton scientists beamed down from the raptor ship that had delivered the Heart of Darkness. Their ship flew off, and the three scientists immediately got to work arming the terrible weapon.
On the perimeter of the park, Leo and Raph arrived with Donnie and Bishop. When they saw the three Triceraton scientists working on the black hole generator, they ducked behind some bushes.
“What’s going on, Bishop?” Leo whispered.
“They are scientists,” he explained. “Their job is to program the black hole generator, which the Triceratons call the Heart of Darkness.”
Leo grinned. “Scientists, huh? So they’re not fighters. This should be easy.”
He started to leave the bushes and head toward the three scientists, but Donnie put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, holding him back.
“They’re not fighters,” Donnie said. “But those soldiers are.”
Triceraton soldiers carrying blasters and plasma launchers had just beamed down from a raptor ship to guard the scientists while they worked.
“And they’re armed,” Donnie observed. “Heavily.”
“Okay,” Leo sighed. “We’re gonna need the rest of the guys here fast… .”
They heard a familiar voice say, “Are we enough for ya?”
It was Casey! He and Mikey were sneaking up to join them.
Donnie noticed that the three scientists had stopped working on the black hole generator’s controls. They looked satisfied with themselves. Then the scientist who seemed to be in charge flipped one last switch, proclaiming, “For the Triceraton Empire!”
The moment the switch was flipped, the entire city of New York went dark.
“A blackout!” Mikey said. “What lousy timing! What’re the odds?”
But Donnie instantly knew what was happening. “It’s no coincidence, Mikey. The Triceratons are draining the city’s energy supply to power their black hole generator!”
“All right, team,” Leo said. “This could be our last battle. Are you ready?�
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Leo led the charge out of the bushes. They tried to run as quietly as possible but were quickly spotted by one of the Triceratons. “Earth creatures!” he growled. “Attack!”
“Take out their weapons!” Bishop called to the others.
Two hulking Triceratons rushed at Bishop, who swiftly dodged them, battering one of them. “I’ll take the Triceratons,” he told the others. “Go for the generator!”
Casey used his hockey stick to whack explosive pucks at a Triceraton’s head, but the blasts barely slowed him down. He began to charge at Casey like an angry rhino!
Leo attacked with his katana swords, but the Triceraton’s skin was much too thick. Leo might as well have been hitting the alien with plastic spoons. The Triceraton kicked Leo, sending him flying straight into the park’s fountain. SPLOOSH!
Bishop was in constant motion, kicking, punching, and firing his energy gun. He was battling several Triceratons at once, and beating them.
Then Mikey saw a Triceraton aiming his weapon at Bishop from behind! “Bishop! NOOOOO!”
FWOOOM! The Triceraton fired his weapon, destroying Bishop’s human body! The Utrom inside looked angry as he hopped out and scurried for cover, squealing.
Mikey ran right at the Triceraton who had shot Bishop, dodging his energy blasts, using his kusarigama chain to send the alien’s cannon blasting at one of the Triceraton scientists. “Eat it, dinosaur!” he cried as he attacked.
The Triceraton was unfazed by Mikey’s blows.
Mikey looked up at the beast looming over him and gave a little laugh. “Heh heh …”
As the Triceraton leveled his laser, taking aim at Mikey’s head, the teenager closed his eyes and said quietly, “Goodbye, cruel world! Goodbye, delicious pizza.”
Just as the Triceraton was about to pull the trigger … WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! Three shuriken hit his laser cannon, destroying it.
Mikey opened his eyes and saw … Master Splinter! He was standing right there in Washington Square Park, along with April, Leatherhead, Pigeon Pete, Slash, Doc Rockwell, Muckman, and Mondo Gecko! All the Mutanimals had come to help!