The Casey Chronicles (4 page)

Casey Jones had been on the ice
for many years, but he'd never seen action like this. He teed up a few more pucks and skated toward the three Footbots still standing in his way. He was running on pure adrenaline. He felt like more than a hockey player.

He felt like a hero.

“Wrist shot!” Casey called out, striking down two Footbots with a lightning-fast trick play. He readied the next puck and swung with fury. “Slap shot!”

The disc flew like a missile, knocking the final Footbot down on the ice.

Casey laughed, taunting his attackers: “You might wanna get that looked at!”

The Footbots collected themselves. Their learning technology enabled them to study Casey's movements and mimic them instantly—which meant they were now skating like pros! The bots glided around the net, throwing blades that hummed at Casey with scary precision.

Casey dodged the flying knives. He was preparing a perfect high-speed body check.

THWACK!
The hit was so hard a bot's head came loose! Casey caught it with his stick and fired into the net!

“One–zip!” Casey celebrated. “Home ice leads! Who's next?”

The remaining Footbots drew backup weapons, but it didn't faze Casey at this point. These robo-ninjas were on his turf, and on this ice, he had a reputation for being undefeated.

“Come get some,” Casey told them.

April couldn't run anymore. Her legs felt like jelly, and she was out of breath. But she couldn't stop. One relentless Footbot chased her off the main street to the park.

She climbed over the merry-go-round, narrowly escaping the bot's grasp. She ran toward the shadows, searching for a place to hide until the Turtles arrived.

Then she heard something cut through the eerie quiet—a familiar buzzing sound like a spinning saw.

She turned, hearing another set of blades.

And another.

It was a trap! A squad of Footbots surrounded her, each ready to slice-and-dice her with his saw blade. April knew there was no escape. All she could see was a wall of ninjas encircling her in the dark.

This was no random attack, she realized. Someone had programmed these robots to lure her here. But who? And for what purpose?

April wanted answers. In spite of being outnumbered, she stood her ground, drawing her
tessen.

“Fine,” she said defiantly. “You want a fight?”

But out of nowhere, a Footbot snuck up on her and pinned her arms behind her back. Her war fan fell limply to the ground. April's fight was over. But the Foot's was just getting started.

The bots moved in unison, like a pack of wolves, closing in on her from all sides. More weapons began to appear: an arsenal of scythes,
katanas
, and spikes. The bots' eyes burned red.

April struggled to break free, but the Footbot held her with an iron grip. April feared her bones might break under the pressure. She winced, bracing for the worst. …

But a familiar weapon pierced the Footbot right in front of her. The bot collapsed into a heap of scrap metal.

“Donnie!” April exclaimed. He was holding the
bo
staff that had just saved her life. The same one that was about to finish off the rest of the Footbots.

In a blur of green, Donnie somersaulted through the air, taking out Footbot after Footbot. He cracked their CPUs with his staff, then stomped their circuits into oblivion. Donnie deployed his secret
bo
staff blade and destroyed the bot holding April with a sharp strike.

“Took you long enough,” April joked, with a sigh of relief.

“I'm sorry! I had to figure out your coordinates on the T-Phone—”

Before Donnie could finish his thought, two ninja stars flew at them.

Karai!

Shredder's daughter was flanked by more Footbots. “Well, I was hoping for
all
the Turtles to see this … but I guess one's good enough.”

Donnie readied his
bo
staff once more. He'd just gotten April back in his life, and he wasn't about to lose her again!

At that exact moment,
Leo, Raph, and Mikey were facing down a hailstorm of blaster fire. White-hot lasers whizzed by their shells as they fanned out.

Leo was the first to strike. The incoming blasts were so rapid he had no choice but to keep his distance and launch ninja stars. He could hear the metal projectiles connect with a screech. He vaulted forward and unsheathed his trusty
katanas
, slicing a droid at the knees.

Raph bolted next. He surprised two Kraang-droids with a stiff-arm
sai
attack.

The Turtles were feeling pretty good … until a dozen more Kraang-droids arrived. The fresh droids shot up the room, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

Mikey took a deep breath and sprang into action. He released the secret chain from his
nunchucks
and caught the barrel of a Kraang-droid's blaster in one swift move. The droid squeezed the trigger, releasing a steady bombardment of laser-fire. Mikey quickly pulled back on the chain and spun the droid. The whirling dervish took out every other droid in the room. Their systems were fried before their exoskeletons hit the floor.

Leo dispatched the final shooter with a crane kick. Victory was theirs!

All that was left were a few defenseless Kraang brains in their tiny floating pods. These aliens hovered around their dormant cybernetic secret weapon, the Dark Ninja Robot. They tapped some commands into their computers.

The Dark Ninja Robot looked exactly like Shredder. It stood nearly eight feet tall, with barbaric proportions and a steely mask.

Mikey couldn't believe how cool it was. “Whoa, that thing is awesome!” he exclaimed. And then he added, “In an evil kind of way.”

The sound of popping cables and depressurized air startled them all back to reality. A cluster of wires detached from the Dark Ninja Robot, allowing its platform to shift so its boots could touch the ground.

It was powering up!

“Ummm, guys,” Leo said nervously. “The giant robo-ninja just finished charging!”

Its eyes suddenly glowed red.

“You don't look so tough!” Mikey yelled as he ran toward it, spinning his
nunchucks.
He went airborne for a dive attack, when—

The Dark Ninja Robot's head snapped up to attention, tracking Mikey's trajectory. A shape made of brilliant light materialized in its hand. It was a thin, curved beam crackling with white-hot energy.

It was a plasma whip!

The robot cracked it masterfully, slashing Mikey to the floor with a thud.

Raph gasped. “Mikey!”

The Dark Ninja Robot's head swiveled toward Raph. Its red eyes emitted a heat ray! Raph cartwheeled out of its scorching path.

Leo joined Raph for a two-on-one battle. Both Turtles pulled their weapons, ready to attack. But the robot had something else up its sleeve—
literally!
With a flick of its wrist, it suddenly released a plasma sword!

The Dark Ninja Robot parried every one of Leo's sword strikes, knocking him down again and again. This gave Raph enough time to jump up and land on the robot's back, digging his
sais
into its spiked shoulder mounts.

But the robot was unharmed. It tossed Raph into the air, then kicked him like a rag doll. As Raph lay wounded, he heard Leo reenter the fight. He charged bravely with his
katanas.
But the Dark Ninja Robot caught him with its plasma whip, slapping him down with an electric jolt.

Leo was shell-shocked and unable to move. The plasma whip tightened around him, searing his arms and sending electric shocks through his body.

“Let me go!” he groaned.

The Dark Ninja Robot lumbered toward him, its eyes burning red with heat. Nothing was going to stop it from vaporizing the Turtles!

Leo's heart was racing.
He felt like the plasma whip was roasting his insides and scrambling his mind. He gritted his teeth, trying to stay strong, trying to think of a way out. But it was no use. The Dark Ninja Robot came closer.

Suddenly, it stopped. Its head snapped up awkwardly, almost like it was rebooting.

“Subroutine program taking over,” the Dark Ninja Robot said aloud, confirming its new system priorities. “April O'Neil located.”

The plasma whip retracted, freeing Leo from its stranglehold. He watched the Dark Ninja Robot's boots ignite like boosters on a rocket, carrying the robot through the glass ceiling with the speed of a missile.

“It's going after April!” Raph said. “C'mon!”

Raph helped Leo up and headed for the exit. Mikey was about to follow when he noticed a Kraang blaster on the floor. He excitedly picked it up. “Too awesome!” he said, squeezing off a few blasts by accident. The weapon was so powerful he could barely control it. Energy bolts flew everywhere, a few nearly zapping Raph and Leo!

They turned angrily, staring daggers at Mikey from the exit.

Mikey gulped. He gently set the blaster down on the floor and decided to stick with his
nunchucks.

Unaware that his brothers were on their way to back him up, Donnie was bracing himself to face an army of Footbots alone. If that was what he had to do to protect April from Karai, then so be it.

“Stay away from April!” he warned Karai.

Karai's lips curled into a smile. “Footbots, keep the Turtle busy!”

All around him, Footbots swarmed in an attack formation, making it hard for Donnie to cover April. He had no choice but to break away and take them on. He swung his
bo
staff, clocking one bot upside his dome and scissor-kicking another. As he traded punches with two more bots, Karai cat-walked across their shoulders, making a beeline for April.

“This is between us girls,” Karai said, landing gracefully before April in a fighting stance. She twirled a scythe and readied its blade.

Anger filled April. She had bested Karai once, knocking her down a subway stairwell. She could do it again.

April pulled out her
tessen.
The two
kunoichi
began to brawl—their fight picked up right where it had left off. After swapping a few jabs and kicks, Karai booted April to the cement with a bicycle kick.

April yelped in pain, rolling away to safety just as Karai's scythe came down, cracking the ground. April tossed her fan.

It whiffed wildly into the air, missing Karai by a mile.

A wicked smile played over Karai's face. “Your skills are weak, April. I've had years of training—”

THWACK!

The fan darted back like a boomerang, nailing Karai in the jaw. She was stunned into silence as she watched April catch the fan like a pro.

“You talk too much,” April told her with a smirk. But there was no time to gloat. Karai was enraged. She charged April with her scythe and knocked her down, the scythe blade swatting away the fan.

April was defenseless. She raised her hand in front of her face, anticipating a vicious attack.

WHAM!
Donnie's staff came down just in time to shield April from Karai's blade.

“You're not gonna touch her!” Donnie yelled. He whacked the scythe out of her hands and unleashed an expert-level
kata
that sent her stumbling backward.

Now it was Karai who was defenseless.

Donnie spun his
bo
staff, moving in for a finishing blow, when he noticed something odd swooping through the sky—it looked like something out of a comic book: an armored man with rocket boosters on the bottoms of his shoes.

But as the flying figure came closer, Donnie realized it wasn't human at all. He took in its oversized proportions and glowing red eyes. Then he recognized it as the Kraang's secret weapon: the Dark Ninja Robot.

And it was coming in for a landing.

Donnie's jaw dropped. He had never seen weaponry so advanced.

April shivered at the sight of the robo-monstrosity. “Donnie, I'm thinking …
retreat!
”

As April and Donnie gazed at the robot's fearsome face, Karai collected herself and walked with a newfound confidence. Her protector—her
creation
—had been completed and was here to do her evil bidding.

“Like my new toy?” Karai asked, her eyes meeting April's. She couldn't have been happier that the time had come to field-test her little battle machine. She turned back to the Dark Ninja Robot and commanded: “Robot, eliminate the girl!”