Donnie, Raph, and Mikey tried to hold their own against Shredder. He seemed to know all of their kata combos, dispatching them without even breaking a sweat. Even with three-on-one attacks, the devious leader of the Foot Clan was showing no signs of slowing down.

They flung throwing stars at him, but Shredder was simply too fast for their attack. He dodged the sharp spinners expertly, the little projectiles whistling past him and clanking off the crates behind him.

Frustrated, the Turtles charged forward again.

Raph stepped up, swinging his sais in anger. He was tired of running from the Shredder. He landed a few strikes—and then old Shred-head surprised him with a power punch to the stomach. Raph was wrecked!

Now it was Mikey’s turn. He flung the rest of this throwing stars and then executed a series of nunchuck speed attacks. Shredder quickly countered them all and then booted him backward.

Donnie thought out his next move carefully. Clearly, a head-on assault wasn’t going to work—so he went airborne! He jumped from crate to crate, using the steel stacks to propel him into a power arc. He sprang at Shredder. His bo staff ready for smacking. But the martial arts master sent him flying with a single blow.

Knowing that he had the Turtles on the run, Shredder menacingly moved forward. His arm blades extended, ready to slice and dice. As he got closer, his voice seemed to boom from behind his mask.

“Prepare to learn why they call me the Shredder,” the masked villain hissed as he moved forward, his cold shadow falling across the Turtles.

Donnie, Raph, and Mikey weren’t the only ones staring down a blade. Elsewhere on the docks, Karai’s ninja sword was slicing just inches away from Leo’s face.

Karai wasn’t playing around this time. Leo could tell she was really trying to wound him. He wondered if his bros had gotten free, but he really had no way of knowing. All he could do was press on, parrying Karai’s attacks as best he could.

She got him with a stunner: a knee to the chin. The world went blurry for Leo, and when his vision finally normalized, he saw her disarm him, knocking one of his katanas away. She had him up against the wall. Then the familiar hum of the Kraang ship caught her attention.

It swooped in, blaster blazing! Karai backflipped out of the line of fire, ducking behind another crate for cover.

When the blaster smoke lifted, she peeked her head out to check if the coast was clear.

The ship was gone—and so was Leo.

She watched as his silhouette disappeared among the crates. And she felt the anger rising up in the back of her throat.

He had survived her sword … this time.

Donnie, Raph, and Mikey picked themselves up, preparing to battle Shredder again. They were tired and hurt, but ready for another chance to put a dent in the evil one’s armor.

Suddenly, the Kraang ship screamed low, nearly taking them all out. In its wake, the Turtles were whipped back to the ground, as was Shredder. When they looked up, they saw the ship bank, heading back for more target practice.

During their close encounter, no one had noticed a figure standing atop the crates, pointing something large at the sky.

It was Leo! And he was holding one of the missile launchers he had freshly swiped from one of the weapon crates. He looked through the weapon’s scope, putting the Kraang ship right in its crosshairs. Squeezing the trigger as hard as he could, Leo fired the missile that was about to put an end to this whole mess.

Ka-blam! The rocket flew out, arcing upward toward the ship. Inside the cockpit, radar screens screamed with warning signals. The missile was fast approaching.

Inside, one of the Kraang brain-things had enough time to say: “This is definitely that which is known as not good—”

As the rocket exploded, it blew a massive hole in the side of the ship. The craft plummeted toward the docks on a crash course, smoke spiraling out behind it. On its way down, it narrowly missed mowing everyone over—

Except for Shredder. The runaway ship hit him head-on, then pulled him under its hull and rolled him over the edge of the docks into the depths of the river.

“Father!” Karai yelled. She sheathed her sword and dove into the icy waves to save him.

Leo wanted to wait there as long as it took, watching to see if Karai surfaced safely. But his brothers were urging him to leave the shipyard while they still had the chance. Their work was done here. They had saved the city from the Kraang and gotten the better of Shredder.

But at what cost? Leo thought. Yes, the battle was over … but so was any hope of a friendship with Karai.

After a few more moments, he left the docks, hearing nothing but the waves lapping behind him.