They were young. They were green. They were a little bit strange, but they were definitely an awesome foursome. They were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Michelangelo peered through his orange mask at the thieves Keno had been fighting.

"Boy, I really hate it when guys wear tights," he complained to Donatello while swinging his nunchakus.

Donatello, wearing a purple mask, slammed against one of the thugs with his bo - a ninja staff.

"You know, you should try Sheer Energy," Donatello advised the thug, who crumpled at the blow. "It'll make your face feel less tired at the end of the day!"

Don and Mike winked at each other and finished off the thugs.

Nearby, Raphael took out three thieves by himself and whisked his sai, three-pronged daggers, at a fourth, who was waiting for his own defeat.

"Man, this is too easy," Raphael complained to Leonardo, who was working next to him.

Leonardo got an idea. "Hey! Splinter says the true ninja is a master of his environment. Stow your weapons!"

"I'm game!" Raphael agreed. He tucked his sai into his red sash. He loved his sai, but he could fight without them, too, and this would be more fun.

Leonardo, who always fought with katana, long ninja swords, slid them into their scabbards across his back. He attacked with punches and kicks. It was all he needed.

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Michelangelo found himself fighting off three thugs at once. They backed him right through a plate-glass window into a delicatessen. When he looked up, all he could see were sausages and salamis.

"Great," he said to himself. "These guys have knives, and I've got cold cuts!"

Then he got an idea. He plucked a string of frankfurters from a hook above him and began whirling them - just like his beloved nunchakus. That was being a master of his environment!

"Good thing it was hard salami," he told the motionless form of the final thug.

Donatello crashed through the door of a toy shop. Five thugs were hot on his tail. He looked for something to master. All he saw was a yo-yo. It was enough. Slipping the loop over one of his three fingers, he disarmed the first attacker with a 'shoot the moon', and two more by snapping the toy in the classic 'round the world'. The thieves never knew what hit them. The other two ran for their lives. Don looked at the box the yo-yo came in. "Hmmm - 'Safe for indoor use,'" he read.

"Your serve," Leonardo said, picking up a tennis racquet. He was in a sports shop. He faced off with one of the stocking-masked thugs.

The thug swung wildly at Leo. He missed.

"Love-fifteen," Leo announced as if he were scoring a tennis match.

The racquet swung past him again.

"Love-thirty. Keep your elbow stiff," Leo advised.

The thug grunted with anger. Then he used every bit of his power and swung at Leo again.

Leo ducked. "No, no. Follow through more. Love-forty."

This time, the thug tried to bring the racquet straight down on Leo. Leo stepped aside. The racquet smashed to the floor and shattered.

"That's game," Leonardo told the infuriated thug. "Well, look, you gave it your best shot."

Leo offered him his hand, as if to shake it, just the way tennis players did at the end of a match. The confused thug instinctively responded and reached for Leo's hand. Leo grabbed the hand and yanked the thug towards him. He then smashed his own racquet down over the thug's head. The thug fell to the floor, unconscious.

Even Leo was surprised that old ploy had worked. "Rent a brain cell!" he told his inert opponent. Leo was then distracted by the familiar sounds of a basketball game taking place on the next aisle.

Raphael dribbled the ball, feinted to the right, moved to the left. His stocking-masked opponent was quick enough to get right in Raph's path. Raph tossed the ball aside and delivered a punch to the thugs midsection, doubling him over. Raph picked him up and, using a trampoline for extra bounce, tossed the bewildered thug up, over, and right into the basket, where he dangled.

"Yes!" Raph cried out. "There it is! Raphael wins it! The crowd goes wild, the world goes crazy. They name a sneaker after him! He demands a new contract!"

Leo slung a congratulatory arm across Raph's shoulders and the two of them made their way out of the sports shop and back into the alley. They found Mike on a pogo stick, chasing down the few remaining thugs. They joined in.

Raph noticed that the dropcloth on the rubbish bin was beginning to open up. The pizza delivery boy was about to emerge - and that could mean trouble for him.

The last flap of fabric was pushed away and the first thug came up to attack.

"Hey, kid, look out! You're going to get-"

Raph didn't have time to finish. Keno sprang up from his crouch and delivered a deadly kick to the thug's jaw.

Keno turned to Raph. "You were saying?"

Being smug didn't help Keno at all. While he was gloating, two more thugs attacked. Leo helped Keno. He delivered them to the pile of defeated thieves.

"He was saying you're going to get hurt. Now, get out of here and let us take care of this!"

Keno hesitated.

"Look, kid, go and find a phone," Raph advised him. "Some of these guys are going to be waking up soon. Call the police. We'll start tying them up."

"But-" Keno protested. It didn't work.

"Yeah, yeah, but go!"

It took Keno only a few minutes to make the call. Then he ran back to the alley, refreshed and ready to start fighting again.

But there was no fighting to be done. All he found there were dozens of thieves, tied up and hanging, like ornaments, from the lampposts.

He did find something else. He found his pizza warmer was empty. All it had in it was money to pay for the missing pizza, plus a lousy tip!