The Crime Fighter Collection

by Matthew J Gilbert (retail)

  “Hey, stay in the game!” Leo shouted back, trying to rally.

  “I just wanna keep my head on my body!” Donnie screamed.

  The Turtles were losing this fight badly. They were on the defensive, using their remaining strength to dodge the dog-man’s crushing punches.

  Raph was getting angry at his brothers. “C’mon!” he yelled. “What are we retreating for?”

  The Bradford Mutant delivered a haymaker to Raph’s jaw that sent him flying into a Dumpster.

  “That’s a good reason,” Raph admitted in a punch-drunk daze.

  Backing up toward the wall, Leo looked at each of his brothers, trying to think up their next plan of attack. How were they going to survive this? Their weapons were scattered. They had no strength left. All they had remaining in their ar-senal were . . . Mikey’s smoke bombs! Maybe they had an escape plan after all!

  “Mikey! Smoke!” Leo commanded.

  Realizing he was about to help them perform a daring, last-second escape, Mikey grabbed one of his homemade ninja smoke bombs. But he was so nervous, it slipped right out of his hands! A teensy poof of purple dust came out before the smoke bomb rolled into the sewer.

  “What was that?” Raph asked.

  “I’m stressed!” Mikey answered. “Excuse me if my aim’s a little off!”

  “How hard is it to hit the ground?!” Raph roared, throwing his own smoke bomb, which rolled weakly into the gutter.

  Mikey felt vindicated! “Not so easy, is it?”

  Leo couldn’t hold off the Bradford Mutant anymore. His brothers were too busy fighting each other to help him fight off the dog-man.

  “Oh, for the love of—” Leo said, and threw down his own smoke bomb.

  It worked! The Bradford Mutant was left alone and confused in the alley, his prey disappearing into purple air.

  Defeated, the Turtles found themselves back at the lair, sitting in silence with April and Master Splinter. Their battle with the Bradford Mutant had left them hurting, and worst of all, ashamed. They were no closer to discovering Shredder’s plan. Their home, along with everyone and everything in it, was in danger.

  Leo sighed. “We couldn’t do anything right.”

  “Dogpound was just too powerful,” Mikey said sadly. “I came up with that name because he’s a dog, and he pounded us into the—”

  “We get it,” Leo interrupted. “I don’t see how we’re going to get close to that Purple Dragon meeting now.”

  “Maybe we just need to find a new place to hide. I hear the sewers in Florida are nice this time of year,” Donnie suggested.

  “No,” April protested, which made them all look up. Judging by the seriousness in her voice and the determination on her face, she had a plan.

  “I’m not letting you guys give up,” she said, knowing the last thing they wanted to do was go back up to the surface. “I’ll spy on the meeting.”

  Her suggestion was met with a wave of nooooo’s from the Turtles. There was no way they were going to let April risk her life.

  “I can do this,” she pleaded, looking at Mas-ter Splinter. “You’ve been training me to be a kunoichi.”

  “But only for a few weeks!”

  “What choice do we have? Shredder’s going to attack your home, and we need to find out how. And I’m the only one who can do it,” she declared.

  No one wanted to admit it, but they all knew she was right. The bad guys would be expecting four Turtles, not a redheaded high school girl.

  A short while later, April found herself disguised as a pizza delivery girl again.

  The Turtles watched from a nearby rooftop. The plan was simple: plant a pizza inside the Foot Clan’s hideout with a hidden transmitter and listen in on Shredder’s evil plans. It had worked for April before, but Donnie wasn’t convinced.

  “I don’t like this,” he said.

  “Me neither,” Mikey agreed. “Giving the enemy a free pizza?”

  They watched April knock on the front door.

  A Foot Soldier answered, and April launched into her spiel. “Did somebody here order a totally delicious—”

  The Foot Soldier slammed the door in April’s face before she could finish. She turned back down the alley and removed her T-Phone from her pocket. T-Phones were high-tech smartphones that Donnie had built for the Turtles and April. She called Leo. “Looks like the Foot Clan are smarter than the Purple Dragons,” she reported.

  Mikey sighed with relief. “At least we’ve still got the pizza!”

  But April wasn’t ready to call it quits. She eyed the old church building, looking for a way in.

  “I’m not done yet,” she said, hanging up the phone.

  April spotted an open window that led into the hideout, but it was several stories up. She’d have to scale the fire escape next door just to try to leap over to it. It was a risky move, but it was her only choice.

  Donnie watched April run to the opposite building. “What is she doing?”

  Mikey peered over the roof in time to watch April throw her baseball cap and the pizza into a Dumpster.

  “No, not the pizza!” Mikey lamented. “She’s gone rogue!”

  April ran up to the building and knocked on the door. An old man answered.

  Lowering her voice, April launched into character. “Sir, I’m with the Firefighters Association.” She flashed her school ID as if it were a badge. “We’ve received reports of some faulty wiring in this building. Mind if I have a look-see?”

  Baffled, the old man said, “Well, I don’t think—”

  April shoved her way past him, heading inside and upstairs to the fire escape.

  As he watched April climb out the second-floor window, Donnie had stars in his eyes. “She’s so cool.”

  April stood on the guardrails of the fire escape, ready to put her kunoichi skills to the test. From this height, the jump over to the Foot Clan building looked like a one-way trip to the hospital, but she knew she had to make it.

  April gulped, summoned her courage, and vaulted across the alley.

  Her foot missed the ledge, but she managed to grab the edge and haul herself through the open window.

  She was in the Foot Clan’s hideout.

  April couldn’t believe her eyes.

  Down below, Shredder stood on a walkway over a floor-wide moat. Swimming inside it was the slimy, fish-faced Xever Mutant, a six-foot-long monstrosity that was now trapped in captivity like a pet.

  April hugged the wall, trying to stay as quiet as possible while Shredder addressed his followers: the Foot Clan, the Purple Dragons, and his new mutant guard dog, Dogpound.

  She carefully took out her T-Phone and dialed so Leo could listen in.

  “Five of you will hijack a tanker truck coming down Houston Street in approximately fifteen minutes,” Shredder announced. “It’s filled with an extremely rare chemical, so you will not get another chance.”

  Across the street, the Turtles listened closely.

  “Chemical? What chemical?” Raph asked.

  “How about we listen and find out?” Donnie argued.

  “How about I break my shell on your knee?” Raph threatened.

  Leo glowered at his brothers. “How about you two shut it for a minute while we try to hear the evil plan?!”

  That got them to quiet down, but it was too late. They only caught the tail end of the plan.

  “. . . which will destroy them once and for all. Now go!” they heard the voice on the phone say.

  “We missed it! Nice going, guys,” Leo scolded them.

  Donnie was more concerned about April at the moment.

  “We’ve got to get her out,” he said.

  “No,” Leo said firmly. “If we rush in there, we put her at risk. We wait.”

  On the street, Dogpound led the group of Foot Soldiers and Purple Dragons to a van waiting by the curb. They didn’t notice April quietly slip out after them, then duck behind a Dumpster in the alley.

  “I’m gonna hitch a ride,” she whispe
red to the Turtles over the phone. “See where they go.”

  “No. You’ve done enough!” Leo replied. “Now get out of there!”

  April slid into the shadows, unaware that Dogpound was scanning the darkness, his ears pricked up at the sound of their voices. His heightened senses were detected her breathing . . . her scent.

  April sat, waiting for her chance to follow the van. Just when she thought the coast was clear, she looked up. The snarling mutant was looming over her, baring his razor-sharp fangs.

  It was so quick, she didn’t even have time to scream.

  The Turtles saw it all from their perch.

  “No!” Donnie yelled.

  The Turtles hopped from the rooftop, their sights set on the van. Every passing second meant life or death for April.

  They hit the street and sprinted full speed. Down the block, they could see Dogpound strapping April into the van’s passenger seat.

  The Turtles ran harder.

  Donnie watched in horror as Dogpound’s van disappeared into the night.

  “We’re too late!” he cried.

  “April!” Leo yelled into the T-Phone. “April, are you there?”

  There was nothing on the other end but static.

  Donnie tried to reason with him. “She’s not going to answer. What do we do?”

  Leo started to panic. He couldn’t breathe. He didn’t have a plan. He began to think out loud.

  “We’ve got to get April out of that van. But Dogpound’s in the van. And we’re not ready to fight that guy!” Leo’s eyes darted from brother to brother. “Splinter was right! We should’ve stayed below!”

  Raph had never seen Leo act like this. Normally, he would’ve made fun of him or knocked him back to reality. But this was different. Leo was clearly losing control. He knew there was only one way to get through to him: Space Heroes.

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Raph muttered to himself. He turned to Leo, lowered his voice, and snapped, “Get it together, Captain! You’re our leader, so act like one!”

  That made Leo feel like a hero.

  “You’re right, Raph.” Leo smiled. Then, with a newfound confidence, he quoted the rest of the scene back to Raph, “That was the anxiety ray talking.”

  The rest of the Turtles were relieved to see him back in fighting shape—even if it meant sitting through a dorky Space Heroes reenactment.

  “Let’s save April,” Leo said.

  “And our home,” Raph agreed.

  “But we’ll never catch them on foot,” Donnie pointed out.

  Leo didn’t seem worried at all now. His eyes were focused on the road ahead. “Oh, we’re not going on foot.”

  At sixty-five miles per hour, Donnie’s patrol buggy zipped out of the lair and onto the downtown streets.

  “It’s not ready!” Donnie shouted over the dull hum of the road.

  And he was right. The entire vehicle rattled the moment Leo hit the gas. The tires were wobbly, there was no windshield, and the seats were uncomfortable. But it was their best chance of catching up to Dogpound, intercepting the tanker, and rescuing April.

  “This thing is awesome!” Mikey shouted with the wind whipping his face. “Does it have a radio?”

  “No, it does not have a radio!” Donnie yelled impatiently. He tinkered with a stray wire that was poking out below the dashboard and hastily reminded them, “I’m telling you, it’s not ready!”

  “Seems ready to me!” Leo said confidently—just before pulling the steering wheel off!

  The other Turtles all looked on nervously, their hearts racing.

  “Okay, let’s get busy.” Leo said, frantically trying to shove the steering wheel back into place.

  Dogpound’s van sped down to Houston Street.

  April, still strapped in, struggled to break free, but it was no use. The Foot Soldiers were holding her down, and she could barely move a muscle. All she could do was watch helplessly as they drove through red light after red light.

  They were gaining on the tanker trunk. Once they were in position, Dogpound leaped off the van and landed in front of the tanker, blocking its path.

  The tanker’s driver hit the brakes.

  “Get out!” Dogpound growled, ripping the tanker’s door off with one brutal swipe. The driver ran screaming into the street.

  A Foot Soldier dashed over from the van, taking the wheel of the tanker. Dogpound planted himself on the side of the truck as it drove off, pleased that the hijacking had been successful.

  “Call Shredder,” he told the Foot Soldier in the driver’s seat. “Tell him we’ve acquired the tanker and we’re on our way. No problems encountered.”

  The blasting sound of a revving engine made Dogpound look up at the street ahead—just as an off-road vehicle spun around the corner into their lane! The Turtles’ patrol buggy raced directly at the tanker.

  “Hold that call,” Dogpound boomed. “Run them down!”

  “Raph, get ready!” Leo said, speeding up.

  “Ready for what?” Raph asked.

  “THIS!” Leo shouted.

  Right as the two vehicles were about to collide head-on, Leo pulled a release lever that split the buggy into two separate cars!

  “Whoa!” Raph screamed, turning his own steering wheel to safety and swerving past the oncoming truck.

  Leo and Raph’s buggies zoomed down either side of the tanker in one wild high-speed move. They spun around, tires tearing asphalt. Now they were behind the truck.

  Raph pulled up alongside Leo’s buggy, pacing him. “You could’ve given me a little warning!”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Leo winked.

  As they closed in on the tanker, Donnie read the warning on the back of the vehicle.

  “Chlorosulfonic acid?” he read aloud. “Oh no! Leo, I think I figured out Shredder’s plan! That acid reacts violently with water!”

  Leo gasped. “If he dumps it in the sewer—”

  “It’ll all be incinerated in seconds,” Donnie finished, cutting him off. “Including the lair!”

  “And Splinter!” Leo realized. “We gotta stop them!”

  Eyeing the other lever on his console, Leo knew what he had to do next. He turned to Donnie in the backseat. “You and Raph stay with the van and save April!”

  He looked at Raph’s buggy, catching Mikey’s eye. “Mikey, you’re coming with me! We have to stop that tanker!”

  “Uh, if you haven’t noticed, I’m stuck with Raph!” Mikey pointed out from the backseat.

  “No problem,” Raph said, taking a cue from Leo. Without warning, he yanked the detach lever on his buggy and shot Mikey out on his own set of wheels!

  “Whoaaaaa!!!” Mikey yelled, barely getting his vehicle under control.

  “That was fun,” Raph admitted.

  “Told ya,” Leo responded, detaching Donnie’s sidecar as well.

  All four vehicles zoomed toward their targets, racing to save the day!

  Gunning their engines, Leo and Mikey caught up with Dogpound and the tanker. They needed a way to stop this bomb on wheels from getting any closer to the sewers they called home.

  Leo noticed a firing switch on his patrol buggy and sent a silent thank-you to Donnie. “Mikey, let’s slow this thing down! Fire grappling hooks!”

  “Got it!” Mikey said, his finger already on the button.

  They fired at the same time, smiling as the hooks plunged into the truck with a direct hit. They waited for the tanker to be pulled back, but nothing happened.

  The grappling-hook chains weren’t connected to anything! They unraveled uselessly, falling to the street with a thud.

  “Donnie did say the buggies weren’t ready!” Mikey reminded him.

  “I know!” Leo grunted.

  Maybe taking this tanker down wasn’t going to be so easy.

  Speeding alongside the Foot Clan’s van, Donnie spotted April in the passenger seat. There was no telling where the soldiers planning on taking her, so he had to get her out of t
here—fast!

  Donnie pulled a ninja smoke bomb out of his shell and got his buggy close enough for April to hear him over the headwind.

  “Hold your breath, April!” Donnie instructed.

  POOF!

  The smoke bomb exploded inside the van! The driver slowed down to keep control. Seeing an opportunity, Raph shot forward in his buggy, dropping a trail of jagged spikes along the road ahead. The van didn’t have time to stop. It drove over the spikes, popping its tires instantly.

  The second the van came screeching to a stop, Donnie and Raph sprang out of their buggies to rescue April.

  “Let’s club these Feet!” Raph shouted.

  “I think they’re called Foots,” Donnie corrected him.

  Raph readied his sais. “Just hit ’em.”

  The Foot Soldiers jumped out of the van, brandishing weapons. But it didn’t matter. Donnie and Raph were just too fast for them. With a few quick punches, the Turtles made short work of their ninja enemies.

  April kicked the passenger-side door open, knocking out one of the Purple Dragons in the process.

  “Nice shot!” Donnie said, untying her.

  “Nice wheels,” April replied, geeking out over the patrol buggies.

  “I built them, you know,” Donnie bragged.

  Donnie was feeling pretty proud of himself . . . until his buggy suddenly fell apart behind him.

  “They’re, uh, not ready yet.” He blushed.

  Dogpound jumped from the tanker truck and tore off a manhole cover to finish the job. As a human, he had failed Shredder time and time again. But now, as a mutant, Dogpound would finally make his master proud.

  Leo and Mikey’s buggies rolled into view and sped toward the tanker.

  With a super-powered throw, Dogpound spun the manhole cover like a flying disc. Leo took his hands off the wheel and somersaulted into the air, saving himself at the last possible moment. The manhole cover sent Leo’s cart spinning backward.