by 3 Ninja Tales (The Rise of Tiger Claw; The Casey Chronicles; Mutants in Space!) (retail) (epub)
April lay there for a moment, stunned. Then she opened her eyes and looked around. Everything was quiet. The worms were gone, and the portal to Dimension X was closed.
Casey looked at April, smiled his gap-toothed smile, and gave her a thumbs-up.
Donnie ran over to see if they were okay. April threw her arms around him and gave him a big hug, and he smiled a big gap-toothed smile of his own. “You did it, Donnie!” she said. “You saved the city!”
“I take back every bad thing I said about you, Donnie,” Casey said, grinning. “You rule!”
The two rivals bumped fists.
As the sun rose over New York City, the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reunited on the rooftop where the night’s battle had taken place. Splinter stood at the edge of the roof, taking in the beautiful sunrise.
The Turtles were catching up on what each group had done, filling in the blanks. “So the earthquakes were caused by giant worms that lived under the sewers?” Raph asked. “That sounds worse than giant cockroaches!”
“But I’m stoked you guys are back,” Mikey said, grinning. “C’mere!” He ran over and squeezed Donnie, Casey, and April together in a big hug. They laughed.
“We’re glad to be back,” Donnie said.
Leo smiled and walked over to Splinter, who was standing away from the happy group with his hands behind his back. “You did it, Sensei,” Leo told him.
Leo peered over the edge of the roof. A crowd gathered down on the street to gawk at the huge hole left by the worm when it had smashed up from the old subway tunnel. Several police cars were parked at the scene, and the police had cordoned off the gaping hole.
“With the help of my brave sons,” Splinter answered. He turned and looked at the others proudly. “Yes. We all did it.”
“But what about Karai?” Raph asked, walking over to Splinter and Leo.
“I still can’t believe that evil witch is your daughter,” April said, joining them. Then she realized what she had said. “Um, sorry to be so honest,” she apologized.
Nearby, up on the catwalk behind a huge billboard, Karai sat, listening.
“Perhaps one day she will believe the truth,” Splinter said. “But that is her decision.”
Karai looked troubled. She didn’t know what to think. Part of her believed Splinter truly was her father. But she still wasn’t sure how she felt about that….
“For now,” Splinter continued, “we celebrate.”
“Yay-uh!” Mikey agreed as they all headed off the roof. “Time for one of Antonio’s pizza!” He stopped then, having thought of a question. “So, where do you think those space worms went, anyway?”
In a strange dimension, flat-looking people walked along the street. It was the world the Turtles had glimpsed through one of the magenta pyramids earlier in the day—the one where they looked like dorky cartoon characters!
High above the street, the four cartoony Turtles sat on a roof, eagerly eating cheesy pizza. Suddenly, a blue light flashed in the street below. An inter-dimensional portal opened, and a gigantic worm came through it!
Cartoon Leo pointed down at the worm. “Hey! Do you guys see that?”
“Whoa, dudes!” cried Cartoon Mikey. “A giant freaky worm! Totally mondo bizarro!”
People screamed as they ran away from the worm, which now looked flat and cartoonish, just like everything else in this strange dimension.
“I bet that pesky Shredder and Kraang are behind this!” Cartoon Donnie said.
Cartoon Raph nudged Cartoon Leo. “You know what that means, right, Leo?”
Cartoon Leo got a determined look on his face. “We take down the creepy crawler … and then we order more PIZZA!”
They all jumped to their feet and spun their weapons.
“YES!” Cartoon Donnie cried. “TURTLE POWER!”
They leaped off the building to go fight the worm. As they dropped toward the street, they all yelled, “BOOYAKASHA!”
“I’m in charge while my father is in Japan,” says Karai.
The Turtles battle Karai’s ninjas—and the vicious Rahzar!
Donatello is tracking a series of strange earthquakes around New York City.
Shredder returns from Japan with a villain named Tiger Claw.
Raphael is ready to enter a Kraang portal to Dimension X.
The Turtles see themselves in another dimension.
Watch out for the biotroid!
The Kraang control giant worms from Dimension X called Kraathatrogons.
The Kraang are on guard.
Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo are captured by Tiger Claw!
Splinter battles Tiger Claw!
A Kraathatrogon is loose beneath New York City!
Will Casey become worm food?
Journalist Jack Kurtzman has figured out the Kraang’s plan—but is it too late?
April and Casey hold on for a worm ride!
Showdown with a villain!
Adapted by Matthew J. Gilbert
Based on the teleplays
“Target: April O’Neil” by Nicole Dubuc and
“The Good, the Bad, and Casey Jones”
by Johnny Hartmann
Man, how do I start this thing? I’ve never had a journal before. I guess I could kick it off with DEAR DIARY.
Nah. Too girly.
What about Awesomeness Journal? I could open with “Welcome to Awesomeness Journal! I’m your host—”
Never mind. That sounds like a TV show. And as crazy as the words on these pages are gonna be, I guarantee you this isn’t a TV show. This is as real as it gets.
Oh, I know! How about True Life Memoirs of a Teenage Bounty Hunter? That sounds totally killer. I could write a bunch of case numbers at the top and mark them solved or unsolved. Maybe include a picture or two of me and my prisoner paper-clipped to the top? You’ll look at it all impressed and be like, “Wow, he caught THAT SUPER-DANGEROUS BAD GUY ALL ON HIS OWN? Clearly he did! Look at the photographic proof!”
Crud. Wait a sec.
I forgot; I don’t own a camera.
You know what? I’ll just start this up by introducing myself. The name’s Casey.
Casey Jones.
And these are The Casey Chronicles.
On the off chance you’ve never heard of me, let me enlighten you. I’m the best hockey player Roosevelt High has ever seen. Ever since I was old enough to play sports, all I wanted to do was put on a mask and a jersey and hit somebody. I’ve got some sick skate moves and a major gift for the stick. Nothing can take me out of a game.
Except trigonometry.
Oh, who’s that, you ask? Is that an exchange student named Vladimir Trigonometry?
No. I’m talking about the actual subject trigonometry. It’s like a math-splosion of numbers and letters. It’s a bunch of formulas and junk that make my head hurt worse than a puck straight to the jaw.
I’m flunking hard-core. And Mr. Frowny-Face School Principal said he’d throw me off the hockey team if I don’t pass this semester.
So I needed a tutor. And that’s how I started hanging out with Red. You probably know her as April O’Neil.
Shredder might have left the country on urgent business, but his presence still ruled over his minions back home.
No one felt this more than his daughter, Karai. Although her father was thousands of miles away, she found herself staring at him, thanks to a video feed broadcast by the M.O.U.S.E.R.S., small robots with projectors in their skulls. The droids’ transmission cast Shredder’s face in a pixelated glow, making him appear more monstrous than usual. And magnified to the size of a movie theater screen, his disappointment was all the more obvious.
Karai hung her head in shame.
“So, Daughter,” Shredder’s voice boomed. “Not only do you disobey my orders in my absence, but your petty scheme failed miserably.”
Karai knew she was in deep trouble. Over the past few weeks, she had tried to make her father proud by doing her best to capture the Teenage Mutant Nin
ja Turtles. She knew it wasn’t her responsibility, but she wanted to be the one to exact vengeance upon them.
She just didn’t have the right tools for the job.
“It was those stupid Footbots!” she protested, staring daggers at the inadequate ninja robots that surrounded her. “They couldn’t keep up with the Turtles. But one good thing: the Kraang have been upgrading them! So—”
“Hear me, Karai,” Shredder growled. “You will have no more dealings with the Kraang until I return.”
“Understood, Father.”
“Wait for my command and do not defy me again. The consequences would be … unfortunate.”
Karai clenched her fists in anger. She couldn’t be seen as a failure—not by the Foot, and especially not by her father. It was time for drastic measures.
And waiting for permission was not an option.
Karai led two Footbots down a long tunnel, mulling over her plans. She was intent on making things right, and for that, she needed the extra-dimensional beings called the Kraang. They were scientists, soldiers, and notorious criminals known throughout the universe. And ever since Shredder had saved them from the wreckage of their space station, they were considered allies.
They still give me the creeps, Karai thought.
Even though Shredder had struck an unlikely alliance with these slimy invaders, she felt uneasy around them: they were cooperating for the moment, but they were also aliens with their own agenda.
Karai and her bots finally arrived at the lab. Kraang-droids, the metallic exoskeletons that housed the brainlike Kraang, patrolled the area. Other Kraang floated in mobile pods, free to swing their tentacles wherever they pleased. A dome in the middle of the room was hardwired into various computers.
With the flip of a switch, steps
materialized out of thin air. Karai climbed them to an observation deck as the dome opened. Smoke billowed out, and a giant robot rose from the floor. Its form was familiar to her: a suit of armor adorned with jagged spikes. It wasn’t even po ered up, but it sent a shiver along Karai’s spine. It was the ultimate in cybernetic warfare: a Dark Ninja Robot.
“Not bad,” Karai said. “How soon until it’s online?”
One Kraang-droid stepped forward to answer her. “By Kraang’s calculations, nine Earth-hour units before—”
“Nine hours?” Karai exclaimed. “I want to test it on someone now. And I’ve got the perfect target … April O’Neil.”
The Kraang gasped. The mere mention of April’s name sent a psychic shock across their hive mind. Karai didn’t know that April was the key to funneling the Kraang’s telekinetic energy, that she was their secret weapon.
Karai glared at the droid. “Is there a problem with that?”
Sensing her frustration, the Kraang-droid hesitated, knowing it was unsafe to reveal the truth about April. Finally, it said, “Kraang sees no foreseeable problem, one called Karai.”
“Good. Now let’s speed up the process,” Karai demanded. “You don’t want to keep the Shredder waiting.”
In a city of over eight million people, April O’Neil felt totally alone.
She didn’t really speak to any of her classmates at school. She avoided making small talk with her teachers. And since her father’s unfortunate mutation, she had done her best to ignore her former best friends, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
April was mad at the world, so being on her own was exactly what she wanted. She walked down the street, keeping to the shadows, enjoying the silence. She didn’t realize that high above her head, someone was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, tracking her every move.
April entered a dark alley and heard a loud thump behind her. She tried to shrug it off, but some insistent rustling told her she had company. She turned to look and caught a glimpse of green out of the corner of her eye.
“I know you’re following me!” April shouted, whipping out her trusty tessen. “Come out so I can see you!”
But her mystery stalker didn’t answer. April scanned the area, choosing her moment carefully. She took a breath and, just as Master Splinter had taught her, expertly launched the fan.
The war fan flew and—wham!—clocked her target square on the head, forcing him into the light.
It was Donatello.
April’s face clouded over with anger. “Donnie?”
Donnie froze. He hadn’t spoken to April since the incident: a canister of mutagen had doused Kirby O’Neil in green goo, turning him into a grotesque creature of the night. That accident had ended Donnie and April’s friendship. Donnie went for his emergency plan: act as casual as possible.
“Hey, it’s funny how we both happen to be passing through this shady alley at the same time,” he said, striking a not-very-relaxed pose. “So … how’ve you been?”
“Oh, you know, the usual,” April replied. “Homework, chess club, dealing with a father who turned into a homicidal mutant bat!”
“April, it wasn’t our fault,” Donnie insisted. “I’m sorry that—”
“Not as sorry as I am! I want to be left alone, Donnie! No more talking mutants in my life. I never want to see you again!”
Donnie winced. He could tell she meant it, and that hurt.
He watched her turn and walk away. Afraid this might be the last time he ever saw her, he tried to reason with her.
“April!” he cried. “Some things are just beyond our control.”
But it was no use. April just kept walking.
Heartbroken, Donnie wandered back to the Turtles’ lair, hoping to have some quiet time in the lab. Unfortunately, his brothers had other plans for the evening. Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo were surrounding the television, settling in for a marathon of Super Robo Mecha Force Five, an anime show Donnie absolutely hated.
“Great,” Donnie mumbled to himself. “And I thought my night couldn’t get any worse.”
Too tired to complain, Donnie sat quietly and watched: Princess, one of the best space pilots, was angry with the rest of her team for forgetting her birthday. It hurt her feelings so much that she quit the Force.
As much as he hated to relate to this show, Donnie winced. He knew exactly how it felt to see a best friend and trusted teammate slip away. He feared that things with April would never be the same.
Mikey looked up from the screen at Donnie. “Whoa, dude, this show, like, totally paradoxes your life! Kinda owie in the corazón.” He paused, then added, “By the way, corazón means ‘heart.’”
“You mean parallels, not paradoxes,” Donnie corrected him. “And it has nothing to do with me. It’s just a cartoon.”
Leo tried to defuse the situation. “Princess has quit the team like twenty-seven times!” he explained, remembering the last few episodes they’d watched. “She always comes back.”
“Yeah, but let’s face reality,” Raph said, realizing who they were really talking about. “April’s gone for good. We’ll probably never see her again.”
Donnie shuddered at the thought. He couldn’t bear the idea of losing April forever.
“I’ll be in my lab,” he sighed.
The moment he walked through the doors to the lab, he noticed a strange purple light blinking across the room.
“The Kraang communicator!” Donnie inspected the machine their outer-space adversaries used to transmit messages. The Turtles had recovered one from the sewers shortly before the Kraang tried to invade Earth. After weeks of radio silence, the alien device was pulsating with life once again.
“Guys!” Donnie yelled. “We have a problem!”
The Turtles patrolled the streets in their vehicle, the Shellraiser, looking for signs of the Kraang. Donnie stared at a stack of papers in his lap, trying to stay focused. He needed to stop thinking about April long enough to wrap his head around these Kraang translations he’d decoded. After all, it wasn’t like April was thinking about him at that exact moment.
Wait, is she? No. Stop it! Donnie scolded himself. Get your head out of your shell! He zeroed in on
the numbers on the page before him.
“From what I could translate from the orb,” he explained, “it seems the Kraang are building some kind of advanced heavy weaponry.”
Leo looked up from the road. “Any guess what it could be?”
In the back of the van, Mikey’s hand shot up like he was trying to catch the teacher’s eye in a classroom. “Oooh!” he exclaimed, convinced he had the answer. “Lasers disguised as … burritos! Yes! It all makes sense now.”
Mikey’s “solution” was met with silence and eye-rolls.
Raph knew how to handle this. He unbuckled his seat belt and approached Mikey. “It does make sense,” he said, “if you have an avocado for a brain!”
“All right, guys,” Leo said from the front seat. “Let’s stay focused.”
Everyone took a breath and returned to his battle station. It was time to get serious. The Kraang were out there, and that was bigger than any brotherly bickering or moping that was happening.
“We find the weapon and destroy it,” Leo told his brothers. After a brief pause, he added, “And then we get Mexican pizza.” All this talk of burritos and avocados had made him really hungry.
They all smiled. Finally, something they could agree on!
Our first study session was a walk in the park.
Literally.
Apparently, Red loves to study at the park. She said she’s been doing it for a few years. The fresh air helps her think clearly or something.
