by 3 Ninja Tales (The Rise of Tiger Claw; The Casey Chronicles; Mutants in Space!) (retail) (epub)
“Dude! Why’d you stop?” he asked, lying on his back and kicking his feet in the air. “That was better than, like, a hundred million roller coaster rides through outer space!” Mikey jumped up and grabbed on to Mozar’s horn, then got down on his knees and clasped his hands together, pleading. “Can I do it again? Can I? Please?”
“Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!” Captain Mozar roared, furious. He wheeled on the Triceraton officer at the control panel. “What knowledge did you extract?”
The officer studied his console. “Very little useful information, Captain. The only thought the creature seems to have is for a substance called ‘pizza.’”
“Yeaaahh!” Mikey cried. In his blissed-out state, he jumped on Mozar’s leg, hoping for a ride. The Triceraton captain shook him off angrily.
Turning away, Mozar snarled, “Bah! DESTROY the pathetic alien!”
Commander Zorin grabbed Mikey roughly with one hand and tossed him back into the Psionic Extractor’s seat. The metal cuffs slammed down on his arms.
“Whoa, whoa, hold up!” Mikey yelled. “I know stuff!”
“You know nothing,” Captain Mozar snapped, still walking away with his back turned to the desperate Turtle.
Mikey had to think fast—as fast as he’d ever thought in his life. He blurted out, “I know all the secret bases where the Kraang hide in Dimension X!”
Mozar stopped in his tracks. He turned back and stared at Mikey. “Perhaps this creature is of some use to us. We shall see.”
He started walking back toward Mikey, who was sweating, knowing his lie would only buy him so much time… .
Back on the surface of Earth, April ran from hiding spot to hiding spot, gradually making her way toward the entrance to Shredder’s lair. Wearing a hood, Splinter appeared next to her, moving silently through the night.
“So we’re actually doing this,” April whispered. “Are you a hundred percent sure this is gonna work, Sensei?” She still couldn’t believe they were going to try to form an alliance with Shredder, their greatest enemy.
Splinter glanced at her. “No one can ever be sure about anything, but that does not mean one should not try new things.”
The rat smiled, but April was still extremely nervous about walking right into Shredder’s lair and asking for help fighting the Triceratons. For one thing, how were they going to get in?
Just as she thought this, a door creaked open a few inches. Odd …
Splinter looked wary but nodded to April. She slipped through the open door.
Inside the dark lair, April looked around. She saw no one, but then she heard footsteps! She opened her tessen, ready to throw the metal fan. Her eyes darted back and forth, trying to spot the source of the footsteps inside the gloomy hall. Suddenly …
… someone grabbed her arm! Dressed in full ninja gear, the figure had been invisible before it attacked April! “HAA HAAAA! Who do you think opened the door for ya?” the figure crowed. “It was me—Bebop, baby! Be to the bop!”
Splinter sprang into the chamber, knocking Bebop aside with his staff. “AUUGGH!” Bebop yelped as he fell to the ground in a heap.
Tiger Claw leaped down from the shadows, facing off against Splinter. “Bad move, rat! Breaking in here during an alien invasion? Are you desperate …”
He drew his blaster out of its leg holster and aimed it at them.
“… or just FOOLS?”
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Tiger Claw’s weapon fired blasts of heat and cold at Splinter and April, who dove out of the way.
April sprang to her feet. “We’re not here to—whoa!” She backed right into Rocksteady, a mutant member of Shredder’s team of assassins who looked like a gigantic rhino!
“Ha! Is Rocksteady late for party time?” he asked in his Russian accent.
He grabbed for April, but she ducked out of the way, running between his legs to escape his grasp. She looked to Splinter for help, but he was busy avoiding Bebop’s blast and kicking him away.
“Stop!” called a deep voice.
Shredder stepped into the chamber.
“I wish to know why Hamato Yoshi has come here,” he said, referring to Splinter by the name he had gone by as a man in Japan, before he mutated into a rat. “Perhaps to end his miserable existence?”
Splinter stood motionless between Shredder’s blades and Tiger Claw’s blaster. He spoke forcefully, without a trace of fear in his voice. “Our feud is meaningless in the face of this invasion, Saki.” He chose to call Shredder by his old Japanese name, too. “The world will soon be destroyed. Will you sit by and watch? Or will you help us save it?”
Through a window high in the chamber, Shredder could see Triceraton ships streak by in the sky. But he ignored them. Instead, he held his blades close to Splinter’s throat. “What have you done with Karai?”
Shredder claimed Karai as his daughter, having raised her since she was an infant. But in truth, she was Splinter’s child.
Splinter looked down, pained by Shredder’s question. “We searched for her, but she is gone. Alive, but vanished from the city.”
SHINNNNG! Shredder shot the blades out of his gauntlet and raised them toward Splinter. “YOU LIE!”
April spoke up. “He’s telling the truth, Shredder! Karai’s still out there somewhere. And if the Earth blows up, guess what? You’ll never see her again!”
April’s eyes blazed, furious at the absurdity of Shredder’s stubborn ways. “So maybe you can do the right thing for once in your evil life! Even be a hero for a change! That is, if you still love Karai!”
Shredder stared at April, stunned by her words. But he did not lower his blades from Splinter’s throat.
On a New York street, Leo, Raph, and Donnie ducked next to a parked car. Carefully rising to the level of its windows, they peered through the car and saw a Kraang stealth ship wedged between two other parked cars.
“There’s Mikey’s ship!” Leo said. “Told you I saw it come down this way!”
“Wow, not a bad parking job, either!” Donnie said admiringly.
Hearing the Turtles’ voices, a man and a woman who had been hiding in the car popped up and screamed! “YAAAHHH!”
Startled, the Turtles screamed, too! “YAAAHHH!”
“More aliens! Run!” the man cried as he slipped out of the car and scrambled away, followed by his terrified wife.
“Ugh,” Raph grunted. “Humans are so annoying sometimes!”
The three Turtles hurried into the stealth ship. Leo hit the controls and the ship came to life.
In just seconds, the stealth ship had broken free of Earth’s atmosphere. Without gravity, the three Turtles floated around the inside of the ship.
Raph felt sick to his stomach. “Ugghhhh. Turtles were definitely not meant to go into space… .” As if to prove his point, Raph hurled!
“Hold on!” Donnie said, strapping himself into a seat. “Lemme turn on the artificial gravity!” He punched a button and his brothers fell to the floor. THUMP! Donnie laughed, until Raph’s puke landed right on his head! “AUGGHHH!” he screamed, frantically wiping it off.
Leo looked out the view screen. “Guys, I see it! The mother ship!”
The other two looked up. And there it was, looming before them, the huge cone-shaped mother ship, guarded by several smaller Triceraton ships.
“Okay, but where’s Mikey?” Raph asked.
“I’m detecting a unique life signature,” Donnie said. “It’s gotta be him! And check it out! I think I finally figured out the cloak on this baby! Ha! They’ll never find us now!”
Outside, in the bright light of the moon, the Kraang ship with its dangling tentacles, suddenly disappeared!
But the Triceratons were not fooled… .
On the bridge of the mother ship, Captain Mozar watched as Commander Zorin zoomed in on an image of the cloaked stealth ship, using high-tech imaging to render it visible.
“Idiots,” Captain Mozar sneered. “They think they can hide from us. Tragic mistake.”
He turned to his second-in-command. “Commander Zorin, deploy a squadron of fighters. Sergeant Zark, activate the plasma cannon!”
Outside the mother ship, four Triceraton raptor ships peeled off, flying toward the Turtles’ Kraang stealth ship. The pilots looked as though they were enjoying the murderous task they’d been given.
On his screen, Donnie saw them coming. And that wasn’t all he saw… .
“Okay,” he said, his eyes widening. “This is disturbing.”
Raph groaned. “Don’t make me throw up again!”
A beeping from the control panel was getting faster and faster. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP!
“I think the Triceratons are locking on to us with their weapons,” Donnie said.
The Turtles screamed as they swerved and weaved, trying to dodge the firestorm of laser blasts coming at them from the four raptors!
“HOW CAN THEY SEE US, DONNIE?” Leo yelled.
“Let me text them and find out,” Donnie answered sarcastically. “I HAVE NO IDEA!”
A blast hit the ship! “OOOF!” the Turtles cried as they were thrown around the inside of the ship—which was now completely visible!
Leo took command, frantically trying to lose the four ships. “Raph! Man the defenses!”
“I’m on it!” Raph cried. He punched controls, sending blasts back at the pursuing raptors. FWOOM! FWOOM! FWOOM!
But the Turtles were taking more hits than they were dishing out. Finally, they steered right into one of the Triceraton ships! WHAM! Raph punched the control board over and over. Outside, the metal tentacle of the Kraang ship punched the raptor ship. A blast from a raptor knocked the stealth ship off. Raph fired a continuous blast until the raptor ship exploded!
“Aw, yeah!” Raph cried.
But there were still three raptor ships after them, and they were getting hit with more energy blasts than ever!
“We’re not gonna make it!” Donnie cried. “There’s just too many of ’em, Captain!”
But Leo grimly kept going, taking more and more hits from the raptors, energy crackling all around the outside of their craft.
Then, as the Turtles stared in horror, energy bands around the base of the mother ship started to glow. The ship rotated in space until its sharp tip was aimed right at the Turtles!
Donnie said, “I don’t like the looks of—”
FWAAUUUGGHMMM! A huge blast of plasma shot toward the stealth ship. The Turtles screamed!
And in a blinding flash of light, their ship exploded!
There was nothing left of the Kraang stealth ship. It was obliterated. Where it had hovered, there was only cold, empty space.
But seconds before the explosion, Donnie had grabbed his two brothers and hit the button on the device he’d taken from the fallen Triceraton back in Washington Square Park. ZAAAAM!
Inside the mother ship, the three huddled brothers beamed onto the bridge, still screaming. “YAAAAHHH!”
Donnie was the first to stop. He looked around and sighed with relief.
“We’re alive!” Leo said. “We’re … alive? How?”
Raph saw the object Donnie was holding. “You … you snagged a teleporter?”
“Uh-huh,” Donnie said, nodding.
“You mean we could have just beamed here?” Raph shouted, outraged at all the trouble and danger they’d gone through when they could have just zapped themselves onto the mother ship.
“There’s only one charge,” Donnie explained. “And I—” He looked up. “Oh, man, we’re in trouble!”
Armed Triceratons surrounded them.
In Washington Square Park, Triceraton soldiers patrolled the edge of the green, making sure no one came in to stop their scientists from repairing the Heart of Darkness.
Just for fun, one Triceraton passed a police car and casually punched it, sending it flying. CRASH!
On a low rooftop, another Triceraton watched for intruders. He heard a voice cry “Hoo hoo!” and whipped around, yelling “Halt!”
Above him, on another rooftop’s water tank, Bebop was waving. And dancing! He shook his hips. He pumped his fists. He moved his feet, all the while laughing. “Ah ha ha ha!” He even balanced on his head for a moment!
Holding his weapon in his arms, the Triceraton watched Bebop, fascinated. He even chuckled, amused by the Earth creature’s dance. Then …
WHAM! Rocksteady punched the Triceraton, knocking him off the roof and onto a parked truck. CRASH! “Only room for one horn-head in these parts, cowboy,” Rocksteady said quietly.
The sound of the alien crashing onto the truck alerted another Triceraton guard. “Huh?” he said, turning toward the noise.
But that turn, that small shift in his attention, was a mistake.
Shredder came out of the darkness, attacking with his blades! He sliced the soldier’s weapon in half. The Triceraton managed to dodge his first few blows but then took a savage kick to the chest and was knocked unconscious.
“We must remain stealthy,” Splinter warned in a low voice as he, April, Shredder, and Shredder’s henchmen moved deeper into the park. To April’s astonishment, Shredder had agreed to this temporary alliance. Maybe he really did love Karai… .
The group of unlikely allies slipped behind a parked garbage truck. April peeked around the corner of the truck at the Triceraton scientists working on the black hole generator. Then she pulled her head back and whispered to the others.
“Whatever we do,” she said, “we’d better do it fast. I think they just fixed the timer on that thing!”
The others spied on the scientists, who looked pleased. One of them pressed a triangular button in the center of the timer. The countdown began… .
For once, Tiger Claw found himself agreeing with April. “We must not waste time, Master,” he said to Shredder. “We must— Oh, no.”
Even as the assassin urged haste, he saw that more Triceraton soldiers were beaming down into Washington Square Park. Two of the soldiers bumped massive fists.
Now there were more guards to overcome if they were going to disarm the black hole generator! And they were already severely outnumbered… .
On the bridge of the mother ship, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were reunited—as prisoners of the Triceratons. They were forced to kneel on the floor before Captain Mozar.
Donnie spoke in his most logical, convincing voice, “Captain Mozar, please. Don’t destroy Earth! Our world has so much potential!”
Mozar glared at them. “The humans of the world are as thoughtless as the Kraang!” He pointed an accusing finger at them. “They pollute the planet and erode its ozone willingly, and they don’t even need mutagen to do it!”
He turned to the guards. “Escort them to the air lock and be done with them!”
The guards grabbed the Turtles and roughly hauled them to their feet. Leo was the last on his knees. He stared at the floor, furious.
“You can destroy us, Mozar. That’s okay … ,” he said, controlling his anger.
Mikey looked at him, shocked. “It is?”
Leo raised his head and looked Mozar right in the eye, speaking with the utmost seriousness. “But I’m asking you one last time before I take this whole ship down: let Earth survive … or be destroyed!”
His brothers stared at him. They knew when Leo was telling the truth and when he was bluffing. This was no bluff.
“Empty threats!” Captain Mozar scoffed. “Get him out of my sight!”
A huge Triceraton guard reached down to grab Leo. But the ninja grabbed the guard’s wrist, as thick as the branch of a tree, and whipped around it. As he fell back toward the floor, he snatched a teleporting device off the guard’s belt. Landing on his feet, Leo took two steps, ready to hurl the teleporter at the wall of the chamber—an exterior wall, the only thing separating them all from outer space.
“What’s this?” Mozar shouted. In a flash, he saw what Leo intended to do. “No! Stop!”
But Leo didn’t stop. When he said he was going to take the whole ship
down, he meant it. He hurled the teleporter at the wall with all his strength.
WHAM! The teleporter hit the wall and activated! FFFFWOOM! The part of the wall touching the device was beamed away, leaving a gaping hole.
The vacuum of space sucked everything in the chamber toward the hole—including Triceratons and Turtles!
The chamber was immediately filled with a roaring sound as air rushed through the hole. Several Triceratons were sucked across the room, screaming “NOOOO!” before they passed through the hole into the silent, deadly emptiness of space.
As the Turtles were yanked by the force of the vacuum, Leo grabbed a console. Donnie grabbed Leo’s feet, Raph grabbed Donnie’s feet, Mikey grabbed Raph’s feet, and they all hung on for dear life. It was a Turtle chain!
But as Captain Mozar was pulled toward the hole, he grabbed Mikey’s feet. Mikey desperately tried to hold on to Raph’s feet, but the force of the flying Triceraton captain yanked him away. “AAAAAAGGHHH!” screamed Mikey as he flew through the air with Mozar, heading straight toward the hole.
Captain Mozar was big enough to straddle the hole for a moment, facing the room with his back to the black void outside. That moment was just long enough for Raph to act.
“Mikey!” he called, whipping his grappling hook toward his brother. Mikey snagged the hook, and Raph pulled him free of Mozar’s grasp.
As Raph hauled his brother away from Mozar, Mikey managed to snatch a device off his belt.
“Guys!” Mikey called, holding up the teleporter he’d snagged. “Check it out! BOOYAKASHA!”
The four brothers touched hands and activated the teleporter! ZWOOPT!
They disappeared!
“YAAAAHH!” The four Turtles hurtled through the air and landed on the ground, hard. THWUMP!
As they stood up, checking to see if they were all still in one piece, a plasma beam hit a truck next to them, blasting a huge hole through it. Mozar’s teleporter must have been set for Washington Square Park, because they’d beamed right into the battle between the Triceratons and Splinter’s forces!