Chapter 6: The Rat King returns

Leonardo and Shredder fought for their lives. It was a long, desperate play about life and death. Shredder was strong and skillful, but Leonardo wasn't going to give up. Leonardo got his strength from his strong determination. still, it didn't help him when Shredder hit him. He flew against the wall. Leonardo had been beaten by Shredder. Shredder smirked at the turtle who sat in a dark corner. He raised his hand to give him the final strike. Leonardo, however, was faster. He stood up and kicked Shredder so fast that he didn't realize what happened. He flew right through the window and started to drop down.

"Aaaaaaaa...!" he screamed. Leonardo ran to the balcony to see what he had done. Shredder dropped to the ground and stayed there like he was dead. Leonardo was upset. How had it happened? Had he killed Shredder? He didn't know what to think? Had he finally beaten Shredder?

Suddenly he felt he wasn't alone. He turned around and saw several Foot Soldiers in front of him. They had swords but Leonardo didn't care. He took Donatello's bo and said:

"You'd better go out and see if your boss is OK. He might need your help."

"What do you mean?"

"Let me show you."

He brought the Foot Soldier to the balcony, and the Soldier was upset when he saw his master lying on the street like that.

"Master Saki!"

He ran out of the door, and all the other Soldiers followed him forgetting Leonardo. Leonardo smirked and went to search for April.

Splinter, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ninjara and Casey came to Shredder's headquarters. They saw that a group of Foot Soldiers had surrounded their master who was lying on the street.

"Oh my God! What has happened?" Splinter was upset.

"I think that someone had kicked some butt here!" Raphael replied.

"If that's true, Leo is still alive!" Casey said. They saw that the Foot Soldiers took their leader and carried him away.

"But if he's alive, where's he?" Michelangelo asked.

"Probably saving April", Casey replied.

"We have to wait for him", Splinter said.

Leonardo had found the dungeons. He walked there and looked for April. Suddenly he saw a dungeon where she was. She was unconscious. Leonardo walked to the dungeon. No guards seemed to be there but there was no key either. He tried to kick the door open but the door was too strong, and he hurt his foot. He tried to think hard how he could rescue April. Suddenly he stepped on a sharp thing. He looked what it was- a pin. He took that and broke the lock of the door with that. Then he took April and and carried her away. He had to be careful when he was walking out. There were lots of Foot Soldiers... but somehow he carried to carry her to the street. He carried her to the park where he let her wake up. He chose a road that Splinter and the others didn't see, so they still thought he was still in the building. He watched her when she was unconscious. He felt something weird in his heart. This feeling had followed him for several years, and now it was stronger than ever. He had to admit it- he was in love with April. But he had to keep it secret. He didn't want to ruin a good friendship. And what would he, a mutant ninja turtle, give a human woman? Nothing but danger. No, he had to make sure that April was in safe. Yes, that was his job, not fall in love with her. It hurt him. He felt a great sorrow hurting his heart but he tried to think of something else really hard. It was difficult because his feelings were really strong. While he was fighting his feelings, he didn't realize that April wake up. When she saw Leonardo thinking something really hard, she touched him and whispered:

"Leo?"

"A-april?"

"Are you alright?"

"Yes... I guess."

"What happened? How did I come here?"

"I rescued you."

"Alone? Oh, that's so brave! My hero!"

She hugged Leonardo without knowing that Leonardo prevented himself really hard from kissing her. They were hugging when Splinter and the others went by them.

"Ah, let's go home. We won't see him. Maybe he has gone home already", Splinter said.

"There he is! With April!" Michelangelo shouted.

"APRIL!" Casey shouted.

"Oh my God, Casey!" April screamed and went to hug him. Leonardo stayed there and looked how April hugged everyone else too, starting with Casey. He felt jealousy in his heart. Why couldn't he be a human being like Casey? It would be much easier to allow romantic feelings as a human than as a turtle. Donatello came to Leonardo.

"Leo, are you alright?" he asked.

"Me? Yeah. I'm fine", Leonardo answered.

"We have to go home. There you must tell us everything about your plan", Splinter said.

"Of course", Leonardo sighed.

"I want to hear it too!" April said.

"We all want to hear it!" Casey added. Leonardo looked at them but didn't say a word. Donatello was pretty sure that something was going on because Leonardo had looked at Casey much more murderous than even, and in another way than usually- this look seemed really serious. Donatello wondered in his mind what would have happened between Leonardo and Casey.

A man stared at Shredder when he woke up.

"Uh... What happened?" Shredder asked.

"Take it easy. You dropped quite hard, you have to recover if you want to take over the world", said the man.

"R-rat King? Is that you?" Shredder asked.

"Yes, it's me, Shredder. I've come back... and I'm going to help you to destroy the turtles!" the Rat King answered.