Mikey drove up in time to see Leo land safely on the street, right in front of Dogpound.
“Is that all you got?” Leo challenged, drawing his katanas.
Dogpound hunched over, ready to attack.
“I’d say that’s a no,” Mikey observed. He abandoned his buggy and leaped to Leo’s side.
Dogpound balled his enormous fist and began swinging and punching away, trying to squash the Turtles. With every punch that missed, Dogpound smashed holes into the pavement, twisted streetlights into pretzels, and sent the Turtles flying into buildings.
Running out of places to hide, Leo and Mikey poofed their way onto some nearby scaffolding to try to escape Dogpound’s fury for a moment. Leo scanned the street below and saw a Foot Soldier setting up one of the tanker’s hoses to pump acid into the sewers!
“Mikey, don’t let him dump that acid!” Leo ordered.
As Mikey climbed back down to the street, Dogpound’s fist grabbed the scaffold. The mutant started to pull his muscle-bound form up to Leo, but his immense weight nearly toppled the structure.
On the street, Mikey fought the Foot Soldier as best he could, trying to keep him away from the acid-filled hose. Leo hopped down to help. But Dogpound wasn’t finished with him yet.
The beast chased after Leo. It picked up a parked car and swung it around easily. It nearly took Leo’s head clean off his shell! Before Leo could strike back with his katana, Dogpound grabbed him by the wrist and threw him into the truck. Leo’s sword accidentally sliced the tanker! The explosive acid—a putrid, neon-green goop—sprayed out like a geyser.
Something occurred to Leo as he watched the toxic fluid spray out. What did Donnie say about this stuff? Explosive when mixed with water?
“Mikey, throw the water balloon!” Leo yelled.
“What water balloon?” Mikey asked in an innocent voice.
“The one you were going to hit me with!” Leo answered.
Mikey’s eyes widened. “Dude, you are good!” he exclaimed. He pulled a fat balloon from his shell and sent it soaring.
The water balloon popped and—
KABOOM!
The tanker erupted in a huge green explosion that burned up all the acid instantaneously. The blast sent a shock wave that knocked everyone off their feet.
The sewers were saved!
When the smoke cleared, Leo stood up, searching for Dogpound. But there was no sign of him. He turned and looked at Mikey. He was proud of his brother. And right as he exclaimed “Nice shot, Mikey!” Mikey saw his chance and nailed Leo in the face with another water balloon.
“Dr. Prankenstein for the win!” he crowed.
“You had two of those?” Leo asked him, dripping with water. “Where do you keep them?”
Mikey waited for retaliation, but there was none. Leo was too happy about their victory to be annoyed.
“Looks like we missed the fireworks,” said a voice.
They turned to see Raph and Donnie jogging up to join them.
“Donnie, the go-kart worked great. Nice job,” Leo said.
“Thanks, Leo,” Donnie replied. And then he quickly reminded him, “Oh, and . . . it’s a patrol buggy.”
Whether or not they realized it, the four of them stood a little taller now. As they watched the tanker flames burn up the rest of the chemical, they felt like their fears and worries had also gone up in smoke. They had rescued their best friend, protected their home and their master, and defeated Dogpound.
They felt like they had reclaimed their power.
While the Turtles were watching the flames, blocks away in the old abandoned church, Dogpound was the one who was about to get burned. The massive mutant kneeled before Shredder, begging forgiveness.
But Shredder wasn’t exactly in a forgiving mood.
“They defeated you with go-karts and a water balloon,” he growled with contempt.
Dogpound attempted to plead his case. “I know it sounds absurd, but—”
The sound of Shredder’s gauntlet blades coming out was enough to stun Dogpound into silence. The ferocious mutant looked up, frightened to see Shredder aiming his knives straight at him.
“It won’t happen again, Master,” Dogpound yelped. “I promise you.”
Dogpound could sense the rage swelling up behind Shredder’s mask. Few had failed him so spectacularly and lived to see another day. Would this be the end of the line? Had Shredder finally run out of second chances to give to him?
Shredder came closer. “If you break that promise—”
SNIKT! Shredder slashed, slicing off the tip of one of Dogpound’s backbone spikes.
The massive mutant squealed in pain. With that kind of a warning, Dogpound trembled like a scared puppy.
“I understand, Master,” Dogpound said.
Shredder returned to his throne, showing Dogpound mercy by letting him live. For now.
The mutant mutt left the lair with his tail between his legs.
It was Pizza Time back at the Turtles’ lair. Mikey admired his slice, his mouth watering.
“Nothing says victory like the sweet taste of pizza,” he announced proudly.
Right as Donnie was about to bite down on his slice, he caught a whiff of something odd. Something stinky.
“This pizza smells kind of funky. Where’d you get it?” he asked.
“It’s the one April threw out,” Mikey replied, oblivious.
All at once, the other Turtles spat their pizza out and tossed the slices aside, disgusted.
“What? We live in a sewer!” Mikey reminded his bros. “And now you’re clean freaks?!” He gathered up their discarded slices, shrugging. “More for me.”
Master Splinter entered the lair to join his sons. He was proud of them for their victory, but his stern face suggested he had something else on his mind.
“My sons, I owe you my gratitude . . . and an apology,” he told them.
“An apology?” Leo asked.
“Fear clouded your minds. However, it was not Shredder who fueled that fear; it was me,” Splinter confessed. “You overcame that fear and performed admirably.”
Splinter looked at his sons with great pride. He could see they were deeply touched by his words. And he knew they’d be even more excited by the shocking announcement he was about to make.
“No training today,” Splinter proclaimed.
The Turtles cheered, but Master Splinter stopped them with a warning.
“Unless Michelangelo throws that water balloon.”
As Master Splinter turned and walked away, the Turtles all jumped on Mikey, tackling him to the ground to save the most important thing in their universe at that moment: a much-needed day off.
DIMENSION X
In the farthest reaches of the galaxy, past every starfield and through every wormhole, there is a cosmic realm unlike any other in the universe . . . Dimension X! Here, the icy vacuum of space is powerless against the smoldering meteors. Here, clusters of comets ignite the cosmos like an intergalactic fireworks display. Here, there are no actual stars, and hence, no planets capable of supporting life.
Except for one.
But it isn’t a real planet. Real planets aren’t made of titanium armor and grinding gears. A living world wouldn’t have all-terrain tank wheels and rocket boosters. This is a planet-sized war machine with rivers of glowing mutagen pulsing through it. This is an extra-dimensional space station capable of destroying solar systems. This is . . . the TECHNODROME.
Inside the control room, Kraang-droids—robotic exoskeletons that housed the blobby, brain-like Kraang, a race of alien villains—mapped the Technodrome’s flight plan to a secret location. At the very moment they were setting the coordinates, a holographic video display flickered to life. The droids stopped what they were doing, as this could mean only one thing—
“A message from Kraang’s glorious leader,” a droid announced, “Kraang Prime!”
The Kraang respectfully saluted their commander: “Kraaaaang! Kraaaaang! Kraaaaang!
Kraaaaang!”
Suddenly, a hologram appeared like a window floating in the middle of the control room.
The distorted transmission allowed the eldest Kraang to see its loyal subjects bowing to it in unison. It looked at its surroundings. A wall of video displays stood before it. On one screen, a satellite image slowly came into focus. It was a live feed of a small planet far, far away: a tiny blue world nearly covered in water.
“The invasion,” Kraang Prime proclaimed, “that is known as the Invasion of Earth begins now.”
“Prepare the Technodrome,” one Kraang- droid commanded.
With a rumble, the Technodrome glided forward through Dimension X as every Kraang on board cheered, “Kraaaaang! Kraaaaang! Kraaaaang!”
Meanwhile, on Earth, businessmen hailed cabs and tourists posed for photos, all completely unaware that just underneath their feet a team of mutant ninjas was springing into action.
Deep down in the sewers, where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lived, Donatello and April O’Neil—the Turtles’ only human ally—rushed into Donnie’s high-tech lab. At that very moment, it seemed like every piece of technology he owned was going out of control!
“Holy Toledo!” Donnie panicked.
The network of computers he had programmed to intercept Kraang transmissions was on the fritz. And why wouldn’t it be? Donnie knew the gear he’d gotten from the local electronics store was no match for alien tech that was light-years ahead of anything on the market! The dual-core processors could barely keep up with the volume of Kraang symbols scrolling on the screen. And the Kraang Sphere—a strange device the Turtles had recovered a few weeks ago—was emitting a piercingly loud sound.
Over the noise, Donnie managed to hear April yell, “What’s with the alarm?”
“The Kraang communication orb’s going haywire,” he explained, trying to get things back under control. “Which means those little brain-blobs are up to something big!”
April stared in horror at the Kraang symbols as they continued to download. What more could these slimy creatures want? They had already kidnapped her father and nearly ruined her life. “Can you decode this stuff?” she asked.
“Guess we’re about to find out,” Donnie said, typing a long string of commands into his computer. “Translating . . . now.”
Donnie and April called the other Turtles—Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo—into the lab. Leonardo, the leader of the group, was in no mood for entertaining Donnie’s techno-babble if it meant missing the season finale of his favorite TV show, Space Heroes. Captain Ryan was about to sacrifice himself to save his crew, Leo thought, and I’m missing it for what? What could be so important?
“April and I have been sifting through all this Kraang chatter and, well, listen to this,” Donnie said. He keyed in a code and brought the Kraang translations up on a screen.
Suddenly, the robotic voice of a Kraang-droid boomed over the computer speakers. “The final phase of the plan known as Kraang’s Invasion shall commence in the unit of time that is six hours. The Technodrome shall arrive from Dimension X through the portal.”
Leo, Raph, and Mikey glanced at one another, dumbfounded.
“Are you sure this is the translated version?” Mikey asked.
Donnie shot him an exasperated look. He began to translate for the group. “They said, in six hours, something called the Technodrome is coming through the portal. This is the final phase of the Kraang invasion!”
Leo was confused. “Wait, but I thought April was the key to the Kraang plot,” he said. “And they don’t have her.”
It was true. A few weeks earlier, the Turtles had uncovered a Kraang storage device that was similar to a hard drive. It contained two very important things: encrypted instructions to terra- form the earth . . . and images of April! It was clear she was meant to be part of their evil plan, but the reasons why were still a mystery. At least to the Turtles.
“Guys, if that Technodrome comes through the portal . . .” Donnie hesitated. “Well, it sounds like the end of the world.”
“So what do we do?” Raph asked Leo.
“We’ve got to find a way to shut that portal down,” Leo answered. “It’s up to us.”
“To save the world?” Mikey asked.
“Leonardo is right,” a voice said from the shadows.
The Turtles all looked up to see Splinter, their wise ninja master. He looked even more serious than usual. After all, it wasn’t every day that a parent sent his children out into the world to stop an alien invasion. Controlling his emotions, Splinter faced the Turtles and readied his words of wisdom.
“When you first went up to the surface,” he began, “I feared you were not ready. But I have come to realize that not only were you ready to become heroes . . . it was your destiny.”
The Turtles hung on his every word.
“And if the fate of the world must rest in somebody’s hands,” he told them, “I am grateful it is yours.”
And with that, they respectfully bowed to Master Splinter, knowing what time it was—time to shell out some justice!
Splinter pulled Leo aside. “With the world at stake, the only thing of importance is that you complete your mission,” he privately instructed.
Leo understood. “Yes, Sensei.”
Splinter’s eyes locked with Leo’s. “No matter what you have to sacrifice . . . or who.”
“Good luck, guys!” April said, watching the Turtles gear up for their big mission. Without thinking, she gave Donnie an innocent hug—which made him absolutely euphoric. He’d been crushing on her since the day they’d met, and now she was actually hugging him! He had stars in his eyes—until he saw April kiss Mikey on the cheek.
Filled with jealousy, Donnie started in on Mikey. “How did you—?” he stammered. “Why did she—?”
Mikey paused, and then confidently said, “Some dudes got it, and some dudes don’t.”
“Gentlemen,” Leo said to his brothers, in a voice that would make the Space Heroes proud, “let’s go save the world.” In formation, the Turtles boarded their battle cruiser, the Shellraiser, ready to kick some Kraang butt!
Nearby, April and Splinter stood together and watched the Turtles head out into the unknown.
In spite of the odds stacked against them, Splinter saw that his sons were ready to charge into battle. It was a truly heroic moment.
Until the Shellraiser’s door suddenly opened to let Mikey out. He waddled past April and Splinter, disappearing into the bathroom. They looked at each other, wondering what was going on.
Moments later, they heard the toilet flush.
Leo emerged from the Shellraiser’s doorway. “Okay, does anybody else have to go?”
Mikey quickly returned to the van, slamming the door shut. The Shellraiser roared to life and headed down the sewer tunnels into battle.
Splinter and April were completely alone.
Something had been troubling April all night, but she wasn’t sure how to bring it up to Splinter. Sure, she was his friend, but she was also his student—Splinter had taken her on months ago as a kunoichi, a student of ninjutsu—and asking her teacher anything personal could be seen as dis-respectful. But April had to say something.
“Um, Sensei, why aren’t you going with them?” she asked.
Splinter was caught completely off guard. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, the Turtles are out there risking their lives,” April said. “Don’t you think they could use your help?”
“I am their teacher,” he told her. “My role is to prepare them for the challenges they face.”
That’s not good enough, April decided. She needed to know why he wasn’t prepared to fight alongside his sons. “But, Sensei, you said yourself that this time the fate of the world is—”
“Damare!” he shouted, which is Japanese for Silence! He glowered at her. “I do not have to explain myself to a child!”
Enraged, Splinter stormed off. And not a moment too soon, as he could no longer hi
de his shame. The master’s usual cold, stoic expression was now one of embarrassment. April’s words hadn’t hurt him because they were disrespectful—but because they were true.
The Turtles drove the Shellraiser out of the sewers and through the city at top speed. They knew exactly where to find the Kraang: their secret headquarters, located on the top floor of the Techno Cosmic Research Institute. That building, once a top-secret science facility for the U.S. government, was now a gateway to another dimension . . . Dimension X!
“All right, guys, we’re going to keep it simple,” Leo told his brothers. He gestured to a strange-looking device that Donnie had stowed inside the Shellraiser. “We go to T.C.R.I., and we use the Micro-fission Omni-disintegrator, which Donnie calculates is powerful enough to destroy the portal with a single shot.”
“Then why didn’t we use it last time?” Mikey asked.
“Because we didn’t have it last time,” Donnie explained.
They’d only been in the Shellraiser a few minutes, but Mikey and Donnie had already had enough of each other. Maybe it was the pressure of having to save the entire world. Or maybe it was April’s kiss.
Mikey muttered, “You have an answer for everything, don’t you, Donnie?”
“Yes, I do,” Donnie replied. He was usually the rational, scientific type, but this argument was really steaming his shell!
“Good one, Donnie!” Raph smirked. “Speaking of ‘good one,’ you sure this plan will work, Leo?” he asked.
A hush suddenly fell over the van. Leo kept his eyes on the road. “It has to work.”
Back at the Turtles’ lair, April was nervously pacing around the room when a feeling of dread washed over her: she wasn’t alone! A tall, slender man was right behind her.
“Hey, April, where is everybody?”
April breathed a sigh of relief. It was only her dad, Kirby O’Neil, who—just a week ago—had been rescued by the Turtles from a secret Kraang detention center.
The Crime Fighter Collection Page 6