TMNT Half Heart Hero Out of the Shadows

Chapter 3

Deep in the police building, the guards had Shredder into his seat and climbed out of the truck, leaving the doors open. Standing outside the truck were the deputy warden who transported the Shredder into the car. In his lab, Baxter looked at the screens to track down the boss. "Here we go. Shredder's on the move!"

As the van headed down a highway the warden in the front was telling the driver all about a hockey game he'd played in. The driver reached over and turned up the volume on the radio, ignoring him. In the back, behind the barrier separating the prisoners from the driver, one of the prisoners spoke to Shredder. "Hey, Mr. Shredder. Big fan of your work. Especially your early stuff. My name is Bebop. This is Rocksteady. I know it's a crazy name, right, but his ancestors are from Finland," he said.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm Finnish. Because when I start a beatdown, I always "finish" it!' " said the other prisoner. He and his partner laughed. They both fist bump until they were interrupted by a metal bang.

"Hey! Shut up back there," the warden yelled back in front of the truck. "World works in mysterious ways, don't it, Shredder? Now you get to spend the rest of your life behind bars with these two knuckleheads."

"Or not," murmured Shredder, smirking to himself. The man just laughed it off and noticed a motorcycle in the rearview mirror.

At that moment, a dozen Foot Clan soldiers rode up on sleek motorcycles, surrounding the prisoner convoy. The Foot slapped magnetic explosives to the bumper and this happened. In the cab, the warden grabbed a walkie talkie. "We need immediate backup." Outside, Foot soldiers leaped from their motorcycles onto the truck clamping on with magnetic gear. As they began using lasers to cut through the truck's heavy armor, headlights suddenly flooded the scene. The Turtles had arrived.

"There they are!" Donnie cried. "And the Foot Clan is already trying to break Shredder out!"

"We'll see about that," Leo said calmly, hitting a switch on the center console of the Shellraiser. Manhole covers fired from the truck's front grille. They slammed into the Foot Clan's motorcycles, sending them flying. One dropped back needed the truck to deploy a spiked chain. Another button was hit to pull the chain in, but nothing happened. "Donnie!"

"Sorry," Donnie said, reaching under the dash and pulling out a tangle of wires with unconnected ends. "I told you the truck's still a work in progress!"

"But which one should I pick? There's so many of them!" Shira retorted, bluntly.

Donnie manually sparked the wires together before telling her, "Number three!" A Foot soldier on a three wheeler drew closer, pulling out a buzz and aiming for the tires! Donnie hit another button.

The walls of the truck dropped down, revealing a pair of large mechanical arms one on each side. The arms opened up and spun a pair of kusari fundo. Mikey used the joysticks to control the arms while Manako used the other. The kusari fundo swept through the air, slamming into a three wheeler and swatting it off the road like a bug. The arms hit an overhead sign and broke off!

"Good job, Mikey," Tomoka grinned. "Those things are pretty awesome, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty awesome!" Mikey laughed.

"It's like playing a video game!" Manako recalled.

But the moment didn't last soon because the Foot are turning their attention to them. Above the van, one of them had placed a bomb on the van, causing it to explode. Leo held Shira close and shield her from the shaking.

"I don't like those a-holes," Reika snarled.

"I'm not being used to my full potential here, Leo," Raph huffed, even though he never liked it.

"Hey, just chill, Raph. We're a little busy," Leo reminded him.

"Uh, guys, they're coming back," Tomoka murmured nervously.

"Well," Reika answered, as Leo turned to her. "It's up to Red to do it." She turned her head to Raph. "Raph, kick their asses for me,"

With that, he opened the back of the van and Raph flipped out of the truck. As he twisted through the air, he clotheslined two Foot soldiers off their bikes. Raph landed, straddling a third whom he then booted off the bike. He jumped back inside the van, rolling with the stop.

"Anything else I can do for you?"

Reika shrugged. "Meh, just good."

Suddenly, a Foot Clan helicopter dropped down out of the night sky. Lowering. an industrial magnet, which the Foot attached to the truck's roof. "What is that thing?" Leo realized.

"It's a big-ass magnet," Donnie said.

The helicopter flew forward, first lifting the truck's back wheels off the ground then ripping the roof off! In the transport truck, the warden held on to the dead life. Through the windshield he saw what looked like a souped up garbage truck with TARTARUGA BROTHERS written on the side. Who are they? he wondered.

Above the roofless truck, the Foot lowered a rescue harness from the helicopter, the transport driver swerved hard, trying to keep the harness out of Shredder's hand. "Secure the prisoners!" he shouted to the warden. He upholstered a taser and slammed through the metal gate to the rear of the truck.

Already free from his shackles, Shredder reached for the dangling harness, As the warden fired the taser at Shredder, Rocksteady knocked the weapon away from him. The warden turned on Bebop and Rocksteady drawing a pair of brass knuckle bowie knives from sheaths strapped to his thighs. Bebop swung his powerful legs up and locked them around the warden. He pulled the guard toward him and slammed his face with a vicious headbutt. They grabbed the keys and unlocked their shackles.

Rocksteady headed forward into the truck's cab, and Bebop took the knives, appreciating their health and gleam. Rocksteady tossed the driver out of the moving truck and settled into the driver's seat, steadying the truck so the helicopter could hover above it and lower the harness.

Shredder climbed onto what remained of the truck's roof to grab the harness.

"Oh, God." He's getting away!" Shira cried out.

"I got him," Leo said, spotting Shredder. He keyed in the truck's targeting system. A pair of throwing stars shot out from the front fenders. They sliced through the harness cable.

"It's all you now, Mikey." Donnie told his brother, pulling a lever. Harnesses automatically strapped Mikey to his seat. Donnie began to pull the lever but the hatch didn't open and Mikey was hit on the head repeatedly.

"What the?" Tomoka gasped in shock.

"I'm sorry!" Donnie apologized. "It's stuck." He pulled the right lever this time and opened up the hatch of the door.

The roof opened. Mikey rose up in a gunner's chain manning a 20 inch cannon. But they were driving so fast, the wind blew his chain. Bending and twisting it dangerously. Manako grabbed him for dear life.

"DONNIE!" Manako cried.

As his chair whipped around in the rushing air, Mikey cried, "I don't wanna die! So much life left to live!"

Leo climbed into the back and used all his strength to hold steady. Donnie nodded to him. "Targeting systems are online," Leo called up to Mikey. As Mikey lined Shredder in the crosshairs, Manako popped outside. "Come on. Come on."

Shredder readied himself to jump up and catch the helicopter's landing skids. "One shot is all you've got!" Leo shouted to Mikey "Take it!'

Mikey began to shoot the cannon just as Shredder leaped off the roof. The cannon's missile rocketed straight at Shredder. But then... Shredder disappeared. The van came to a complete stop and stared at what had happened. "What the..?"

"Where'd he go?"

In the lab, Stockman was glad that Shredder had escaped but he was completely stunned as to why he disappeared through the portal. "It worked. But... Shredder's location is unknown?"