Back at the Turtles’ lair, April was nervously pacing around the room when a feeling of dread washed over her: she wasn’t alone! A tall, slender man was right behind her.

“Hey, April, where is everybody?”

April breathed a sigh of relief. It was only her dad, Kirby O’Neil, who—just a week ago—had been rescued by the Turtles from a secret Kraang detention center.

“The Kraang are making their move,” she explained. “The Turtles are on their way to T.C.R.I.”

April watched her father carefully as he reacted to this news. She was happy to be reunited with him, but lately she’d noticed something different about him. Something strange. Clearly, his experience with the Kraang had traumatized him.

“T.C.R.I.?” Kirby said, weary. “Oh no . . .”

“What’s wrong?” April asked as her father began to twitch uncontrollably.

“The Kraang are aware that the Turtles are coming for them,” Kirby insisted.

“How do you know?” April grabbed her T-Phone and started dialing the Turtles, when Kirby snatched it away from her.

“Don’t!” he yelled.

After a long pause, Kirby composed himself and tried to put on a calm face for his daughter. “The Kraang have cracked the T-Phone’s encryption. We’ve got to warn the Turtles in person.” He looked at April meaningfully. “I’m your father, April. You have to trust me.”

Those words really got to April. How could she say no to her dad when he was only trying to help her friends? So she let Kirby lead her out of the lair, toward the surface.

Just then, Splinter emerged from the shadows. “April, where are you going?” he demanded.

April stood up to her sensei. “The Turtles are in trouble. I’ve got to go warn them.”

“But you know it’s dangerous for you to be on the surface,” Splinter reminded her.

April forced herself to stay strong. “Well, some of us can’t just sit around and do nothing.”

And with that, April caught up to her father, ascending to the wide-open city above their heads.

“Dad, what are you doing?” April asked as she noticed they were getting farther and farther off course. “This isn’t the way to T.C.R.I.”

“We have to go this way so we won’t be spotted,” he assured her. “Hurry!”

But April didn’t want to go any farther. Not until he started acting like her father again. “What are you talking about?” she asked him. “Dad, what’s going on?”

Kirby put his hands on his daughter’s shoulders. And now that April could feel how much he was trembling, she could tell he was struggling with some intense, indescribable urge.

“I’m sorry, April,” he said sadly.

She was confused. But then she watched his eyes glaze over until they were as vacant as a robot’s.

“For what?” April asked.

Threatening figures in black suits appeared and quickly surrounded her. It was a Foot Clan ambush!

“Hey there, princess,” a voice called from the crowd. A beautiful teenage kunoichi stepped forward with the confidence of a highly trained assassin. It was Shredder’s daughter, Karai!

“Miss me?” she asked April.

“Yeah, actually,” April said through clenched teeth.

Their previous encounter had been neck-and-neck ninja battle. The two kunoichis had exchanged kicks and power-punches in the street, fighting for their lives. April had finally managed to gain the upper hand by sweep-kicking Karai down onto the subway tracks.

“Last time I saw you,” April started, “I forgot to give you this!”

Thwaack! April knocked Karai to the pavement with a swift kick.

The Foot Clan quickly overpowered April, preventing her from unleashing any more blows.

Karai eyed her adversary with grudging admiration as she got back up on her feet.

Splinter has taught you well, she thought.

Karai signaled for the Mousers—Baxter Stockman’s miniature mechanical minions—to gather around Kirby.

“You’ve performed admirably,” she snarled at him. “Now take the message to Splinter.”

It was clear to April now: her father had been hypnotized into some sort of trance by Shredder’s army. On autopilot, he began marching back toward the sewers with the Mousers in tow.

“Dad, what are you doing? Dad?!” April pleaded. But it was no use. The man she called Dad was merely a puppet under the enemy’s control.

“You brainwashed him!” April yelled.

“I know,” Karai acknowledged. “Pretty cool, right?”

With just a nod, Karai commanded her Foot Soldiers to drag April away, screaming into the darkness.