That night, the Turtles hit the surface, scouring the streets for anything they could learn about Shredder’s evil plan. Their search led them to an alley outside an abandoned church. But this was no place of prayer—this was a front. Instead of priests or nuns walking up the steps, the Turtles watched Purple Dragon after Purple Dragon enter. They were being greeted by groups of black-masked ninjas. It was clear to Leo: they were looking at the Foot Clan’s main hideout!

“This is the place,” Leo said, giving his brothers the signal to come closer and form a huddle.

Leo was shoved forward as his brothers rushed up behind him at once. They were way too close for comfort. Donnie and Raph were practically shell to shell!

“Donnie, you’re crowding me,” Raph grunted.

“Sorry,” Donnie replied, backing off. But the moment he moved, he accidentally bumped into a trash can. Mikey screamed.

The other Turtles gave him the death stare for making so much noise. Was he trying to get them discovered?

“Sorry,” Mikey said sheepishly. “All that Splinter-talk about how we’re not ready has me thinking: maybe we’re in over our heads.”

“You’re always in over your head,” Raph said coldly.

“I’m saying now we all are,” Mikey responded. “And that scares me.”

Leo tried to comfort him. “It’s okay to be scared, Mikey. Raph is scared, too.”

“I’m not scared,” Raph countered.

And then, just as Leo was about to prove how scared Raph actually was, a monstrous voice growled, “You should be.”

Leo was the first to see the deformed figure at the end of the alley: it was a blur of fur, a hideous dog-man with bulging muscles and one gigantic fist. The mutant walked like a man and sounded very familiar. It was their old enemy, Chris Bradford!

“Look what I found . . . four soon-to-be ex-Turtles,” the Bradford mutant snarled, seemingly growing bigger with every step it took, until he towered over them.

Mikey shrank behind his brothers. “I’m sure glad it’s okay to be scared,” he said, his voice quavering with fear.

“You and me both,” Donnie agreed, trying to back away from the Bradford Mutant.

They needed a plan—an escape plan. Leo tried to keep his head, but he found it difficult to concentrate with an enormous mutant staring him down. Being in a dead-end alley made them sitting ducks. The only way to get out was to face this monstrosity head-on.

Leo drew his katanas. “This is no time to panic,” he told his brothers.

The Bradford Mutant stepped closer. He seemed to be ten feet tall.

“He keeps getting taller!” Mikey exclaimed.

“Then I’ll cut him down to size,” Leo said, leaping up to unleash his airborne katana attack. He swung the blades downward with all his strength and—SLAM!—the Bradford Mutant effortlessly blocked the blow with his impenetrable, two-ton fist.

This wasn’t going to be easy. Leo had no choice but to backflip out of the fray, retreating to his brothers. “Uh, let’s stick together on this one,” he said, now just as frightened as they were.

THWACK-THWACK!

Donnie delivered a series of fierce bo staff strikes, trying to distract the dog-man on one side while Leo went to work on the other! But power punches and speed kicks appeared to do nothing to the monster. He overpowered Donnie and nearly crushed him with his massive fist. Then he swatted Leo around like a puny rag doll.

Seeing his brothers losing their ground, Mikey opted for the high road—and wrapped his nunchucks around a power line. Hanging on for dear life, he zip-lined down. He slid with both feet out, ready to deliver a forty-mile-per-hour dropkick, but the Bradford Mutant stopped him cold, using his gargantuan fist like a battering ram. He grabbed Mikey and tossed him to the back of the alley as easily as skipping a stone.

Picking his head up off the ground in time to see Mikey sail through the sky, Donnie yelled, “This is hopeless!”

“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.