The rooftops and alleyways of New York City are never truly dark. Such a state is impossible in this city that never sleeps; the city where streetlights burn until the sun rises and neon glows guide those who find their pleasure in the darker hours. The only kind of darkness known here is the deceptive darkness of shadows. Shadows which are often more than they seem. Shadows that move.

Four such shadows watched in silence as a group of robots clad in traditional ninja attire carried buckets of glowing, green ooze into the building across the street. Only when the last bucket had been carried in and the robots had disappeared into the night did one of the shadows speak.

"Where does he get it all?"

The tallest shadow moved forward, studying the building across the way curiously as it replied, "Well, the Kraang probably provide him with it due to their alliance with The Shredder, but it's also possible that he…"

"Donnie, you do realize that no one actually cares, right?"

The interruption made the tall shadow start slightly, then it turned around and began an indignant protest that was quickly cut off by the smallest shadow's eager question of, "So, we're still going in there, right?"

"Yeah, Mikey, we're going in as soon as we make sure that Dexter what's-his-face is really alone," the first shadow replied fondly.

"And we can't do that from over here, so let's go!" the stockiest of the shadows cried before rushing forward and jumping from the rooftop to the street below. As it fell, a nearby streetlamp reveled its true nature, blasting away the cloak of darkness to reveal a humanoid turtle with a red mask drawn across its face.

As the red-masked turtle began to swiftly rush across the street towards his target, the other three shadows exchanged glances and then followed after him, dropping to the street and allowing the light to show that they, too, were turtles, each masked in a different color.

This reveal only lasted for a few moments before the group blended into the shadows cast by their target and, once they were all hidden again, a fight broke out.

"Why can't you ever wait until I finish telling you the plan, Raph?"

"You weren't finished? What more is there beyond seeing if Stickman is alone?"

"Well, there's… I… We need to go up to the roof and see if there's a skylight or… something."

The red-masked turtle rolled his eyes. "Great plan, fearless leader, I never would've thought of that. Whatever would we do without you?"

"Probably train a lot less," the smallest member of the group replied, drawing a glare from the leader and a smirk from the turtle with the red mask. A smirk that was quickly replaced with a frown as the group's fourth member spoke up, interrupting the little spat with a reminder that time was of the essence if they wanted to finish the job before sunrise.

With that thought in mind, the four turtles quickly made their way to the building's roof where there was indeed a grimy skylight that provided a somewhat blurred view of the laboratory below. As the quartet looked down through the dirty glass, they saw that all was as they had hoped: there was only one being present, a humanoid fly clad in a purple sweater and jeans. This strange creature was currently standing before a large vat of the green ooze known as mutagen. All the turtles had to do was take out the fly-man and then they'd be able to take all the ooze that they needed.

Excited smiles were exchanged, silent orders were given, and then they sprang into action, breaking the skylight's glass and swinging down into the room to attack the unsuspecting mutant, subduing him in a matter of moments.

As the group's smallest member finished tying up the now unconscious fly-mutant, the red-masked turtle sighed, "That was too easy."

His words instantly made the other three turtles tense, hands flying to their weapons as their leader, a turtle masked in blue, asked, "What, you think this is a trap?"

"No," the red-masked turtle replied with a shrug, "I mean that it was too easy. What's the fun if they go down without a fight?"

The group's anxious mood promptly evaporated as the tallest of the four, a turtle masked in purple, glared at his red-masked teammate and said, "Don't worry, there's still plenty that can go wrong so can one of you please go get the Shellraiser? We need to hurry if we want to load up this mutagen and get out of here before more Foot goons show up."

The red-masked turtle returned the glare and opened his mouth to reply, only to be cutoff by the group's smallest member's nervous cry of, "Too late!"

A low chuckle made all eyes turn towards the room's doorway where a large, wolf-like mutant was standing, watching the group with hungry, yellow eyes and a wicked grin.

As soon as they saw him, the four turtles unsheathed their weapons and grouped together as their leader whispered, "Okay, guys, change of plans: first we take Rahzar out, then we go back to the lair and get to work on the retro-mutagen."

"We?" the purple-masked turtle whispered back, "What we? I'm gonna be doing all the work!"

"Not now, Donnie!" the leader hissed as the terrifying wolf-mutant let out a howl and then growled out a command that summoned a small force of ninja-robots to his side.

The sight of the robots made the four turtles exchange worried glances. This wasn't going to be an easy fight.

Those thoughts were blasted away when one of the robots threw a shuriken at the group. A shuriken that the turtles easily dodged, letting it fly by the place where they'd been standing and crash into the tank of glowing, green ooze. As soon as the shuriken hit the vat, the ominous sound of breaking glass filled the room and all four turtles turned to stare in horror as the vat burst open, dousing them in a spray of mutagen.