"Yer a coward, Leo!"

Blood-red fluid spilled from Raphael's mouth, sizzling as it hit the ground. He was inches away from Leonardo's face, confronting his brother the only way he knew how.

"Uh, actually," Donatello piped up, "I think that ring chose Leo because he can overcome great fear..."

Raphael whipped his head around, splattering the wall with his red venom. "Keep outta this, Donny!"

"I did what I had to do, Raph, and you know it!" Leonardo defended himself. "The Shredder had us on the ropes. Every trick we had, he could counter. Don was the only one whose ring could stand up to the Shredder's, and he can't do everything!"

"We coulda taken him down!" Raphael protested vehemently. "I coulda taken him down! But, oh no, only Leo can be the big hero an' take down the bad guy!"

"That's enough, Raph!" Leonardo shouted, beginning to lose his temper.

"What, did I strike a nerve?" Raphael sneered. "Face it, Leo, you just don't want to lose your title of 'Turtle Who Took Down the Shredder'!"

Leonardo's lips pulled back into a formidable grimace, and his ring-generated swords began to shimmer into his hands. Before they could form completely, though, Donatello interposed himself between his bickering brothers.

"Guys, chill out! All will be well!"

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Say that one more time, Don, an' all won't be well fer you, got it?"

"Raphael!"

Splinter had finally come to see what all the fuss was about.

"I take it your trip to the surface was eventful."

Splinter was not only a master of ninjitsu, it seemed, but a master of sarcastic understatement.

Leonardo quickly filled the wise old rat in on the night's events, with pointed comments from Raphael about how things should have gone. When the tale was finished, Splinter sighed and shook his head.

"If the Shredder controls such power, then he must be stopped, or the entire world is in great peril."

"But, Master," Michelangelo protested, "he kicked our shells big-time! How can we beat him?"

"Good question..." an unfamiliar voice sounded.

The Turtles and Splinter whirled to face a group of seven beings, each wearing a different colour of the rainbow. More importantly, they were all wearing identical rings to those worn by the mutants and the Shredder.

"More importantly," the unfamiliar voice continued, now showing itself to belong to a brown-haired man clad in a green and black uniform similar to that worn by Leonardo who somehow reminded the Turtles of Captain Kirk from Star Trek, "how did you all get these rings in the first place?"

TO BE CONTINUED...