animegamefanatic: Yeah, Michael and Wayne, those two are always giving some criticism, when it is about the turtles' appearances, Garey's theories or the severe yet action-filled situation around of them.
- And just like I planned, the turtles - or at least some of them - are slowly standing up to their original mirage comic versions' level in killing their enemies. Usually they hold it back in case of the petty criminals such as the Purple Dragons, but here their cruelty was of that magnitude that at least Raph and Mary responded to the same extent. This is also gonna happen a lot in the future chapters.
- Future episodes should demonstrate how crazy Louie can be, especially in the action and chase events.
- And yes. As long as Garey is in charge at the Garbageman's island and runs his business for the good purposes, the homeless population has nothing to worry.

There's a gloomy and rather ominous stormy night over New York City, with the lightnings slashing across the sky.

In the city, all eight turtles were standing on the rooftop of the abandoned warehouse with the wide skylight in middle of it. In the opposite side of them was standing about sixteen ninjas, the same ninjas with that blood-red three-toed ninja-symbol they've been fighting with lately, led by their old scar-faced acquaintance, Tatsu, and Jennika, who was wearing her black yellow-eyed ninja mask on.

My name is Marietta. And tonight, we have made another run-in with our old ninja pals from our previous encounters during of these last few months, not the mention about our old scar-faced acquaintance, Tatsu, and this Kunoichi standing alongside him whom we've never met before.

The turtles drew out their weapons and readied themselves for the battle.

How we got into this mess, it's a pretty long story, but this istuation reminds me about what Master Splinter has constantly been telling us in our ninja training: When given two choices, always choose the harder path.

Tatsu, Jennika and the ninjas then moved to the sides, revealing from behind them a tall man with a silver ancient Japanese samurai armor, with the gauntlets armed with a hand-length Tekkō-kagi claws in each hand, large black cape floating in the blowing wind and Kabuto-helmet, which covered the man's faces, showing only the man's red eyes.

The turtles glared at the man they were most obviously soon going to fight.

Some people usually want to choose the easiest path to avoid all the trouble of effort and hardships if possible. And in the situation like this, I'd understand why. But somehow, if you're a ninja, or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the harder path always seems to choose you... even against your own will.

The armored man raised his arms up as the lightning intensified ominously, before he let out a maniacal laughter.

"MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAA!"

(The screen pulls away from New York City with couple spot lights waving above of it. Then a four green letters forming the word TMNT towers over the city.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES"

(The screen rises to the edge of the roof, on which was standing eight green shadowy humanoid creatures with the turtle-like features. Two of them were crouching down and all of them had by colors individual ninja masks; One had blue, second one had turquoise, third one red, fourth one white, fifth one pink, sixth one black, seventh purple and the last one orange. As the spot lights passes them, all eight turtles then leap off the edge of the roof.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF"

(The screen then splits from right to left into four narrow screens.)
"ONE, TWO"
(In the first one, the turtle in orange (named Michelangelo) is holding his Nunchucks in the air. In the second one, the turtle in red (named Raphael) is holding one Sai above his head while pointing the other downwards.)
"THREE, FOUR"
(In the third one, the turtle in purple (Named Donatello) is holding Bo-staff in front of him. In the fourth one, the turtle in blue (Named Leonardo) has crossed his sword-holding arms over his chest.)
(TURTLES!)

(Leonardo seen fighting two people dressed like ninjas and wielding Naginata-spears. The turtle slices both ninjas weapons' staves in two with his swords before kicking both one by one away.)
"MUTANT CHAIN REACTION"
(TURTLES!)

(Donatello is seen driving a speedy vehicle down the sewer tunnel, before the turtle in purple turns to smirk to the camera and holds a thumb up.)
"LIVIN' UNDERGROUND"
(TURTLES!)

(Raphael is seen making couple of flips; one over the fence and one towards the screen, before he delivers the kick at the screen, blackening it for a second.)
"NINJUTSU ACTION"
(TURTLES!)

(Widely grinning Michalengelo is seen standing on top of the large green armored car that's speeding along the street, while spinning his Nucnhacku wildly in the air.)
"IT'S A SHELL OF THE TOWN!"

(As the turtle in orange leaps off, the armored car flies in arc over the street before landing back to the ground. Then its back doors open up and two of the turtles, Raphael and the turtle in black, rocket out of the car in the backs of red and avocado green bikes before skidding them sideways to a stop.)

(In the alleyway, next to the blue armored car, the eight turtles crouch down before leaping to attack towards the camera, with the turtle in orange taking the lead and kicks the screen with his foot.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF"

(The screen splits into two horizontal screen: the upper screen shows a blue-masked face with into a glare narrowed eyes while lower shows eight turtles standing in line in front of the gray-furred humanoid rat dressed in the brown robe, Master Splinter by name.)
(In the next one, lower screen shows a purple-masked face with lightly frowned glare while upper shows Master Splinter swinging his wooden staff down at the couple of attacking robots.)
("ONE!")
"LIVE BY THE CODE OF THE MARTIAL ARTS"

(In the third one, upper screen shows a red-masked face with the deep frown, while the lower shows a large and muscular blonde-haired man, named Hun, leading a group of silhouetted street gang members from the ablaze background towards the screen)
(In the fourth one, the lower screen shows a orange-masked face with the soft stare, while the upper one shows Hun sneering at the camera, before he throws a punch towards the screen.)
("TWO!")
"NEVER FIGHT UNLESS SOMEONE ELSE STARTS"

(A red-haired young woman, named April O'Neil, is then seen winking at the camera from the cockpit of the helicopter with the rope hanging from its undercarriage, which she flies past of the blue tower with the Japanese palace on top of it. On top of it, two turtles, Donatello and the turtle in white are seeing battling six ninjas on the edge, until they're knocked off the building. Falling down, the turtle in white grabs from the helicopter's rope with one hand and grabs with his free one from Donnie's hand, cutting his falling, and they're both lifted up in the air.)
("THREE!")
"ALWAYS STICK TOGETHER NO MATTER WHAT"

(In the dark alley, the eight turtles are standing shell to shell in middle of the bright spotlight, while they're surrounded by the dozens and dozens of in the darkness standing and armed ninjas that keep coming from the darkness and rooftops above of the alley. The turtles fearlessly demonstrate their weapon skills with their weapons before taking their respective battle stances.)
("FOUR!")
"IF ALL ELSE FAILS, THEN IT'S TIME TO KICK BUTT!"

(Screen rises up to the tall buildings.)
(Michelangelo jumps from the right, making the flip in the air while spinning his Nunchucks wildly. At the same time from the left jumps the female turtle in pink with her legs bent under, while spinning around and swinging her sharp Tessens around.)
(Then Donatello jumps from the left, spinning his Bo-staff with his left hand while swinging it over his head before grabbing it with both hands and bringing it down hard. At the same time, the female turtle in turquoise jumps from the right, spinning her Naginata in her right hand, before spinning around and sending a horizontal slash with her weapon's blade forward.)
(Leonardo then jumps from the left with his Katanas crossed, before he pulls them to the sides as he delivers the kick forward with his foot. At the same time, the turtle in white jumps from the left, spinning his Tonfas in his hands before thrusting his right Tonfa forward like a stabbing movement.)
(Raphael then jumps from the left and crossed his arms in front of him before pulling them back, making his Sais to flash. Right after him, the turtle in black jumps from the right, holding his left Butterfly sword in front of him and his right Butterfly sword over his head, before swinging them forward to slash with them the air in front of him.)
(Then a 14-year-old girl with purple-dyed hair styled in pigtails, named Angel, jumps from the left after the turtle in black and throws the punch towards the screen with her left fist. Then a tall blue-haired and -eyed man with the hockey mask on his face, named Casey Jones, jumps from the right and whacks the screen with his hockey stick.)

(Leo, with swords in hands, is then seen landing onto one ninja's back, knocking him down.)
(Donnie is then seen whacking another ninja off his feet and out with his Bo.)
(Raph is then seen blocking the third ninja's kick with his left arm while holding his Sai in his fist.)
(Mikey is then seen punching fourth in the face with his right fist while holding a Nunchuck.)
(Turtle in turquoise is then seen kicking the fifth in the chest while holding her Naginata up.)
(Turtle in white is then seen back-handing the sixth with his left hand's Tonfa)
(Turtle in black is then seen blocking seventh's sword with his left hand's sword while thrusting his right towards the ninja as if to stab him in the chest)
(Turtle in pink is then seen with her arms crossed in front of her white holding her opened pink Tessens in her hands.)
(Raph is then seen again, this time surrounded by several ninjas, until he spins himself around with his hands clenched into fist around of his Sais' hilts spread out, knocking all ninjas away from him.)

(Cut to the wide shot, where seven silhouetted turtles are seen jumping and flipping along the rooftops, water towers and chimneys, as the camera follows them. One of the turtles swings over them by the chain with one hand like Tarzan. Then two narrower screens appear to above and beneath of the rooftop screen, showing the repeating line of turtles in blue's and purple's masked faces above and the line of turtles in red and orange's masked faces beneath, moving to the opposite direction.)
"I LOVE BEING' A..."
"I LOVE BEING' A..."
"I LOVE BEING' A TURTLE!"

(The turtles then land to the ground in front of the building. Leonardo is in the middle, Donatello and the turtles in turquoise and white are in his right side while Michelangelo and the turtles in black and pink are in his left side. All seven then ran towards the camera that moved between of Leo's legs.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!"

(Then, Raphael races over the building in the back of the bike and jumps off it towards and past the camera.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF:"

(The screen splits into four narrow screens again, this time from left to right.)
"FIVE, SIX"
(In the first one, the female turtle in turquoise (named Marietta) is pointing her Naginata's blade at the screen. In the second one, the turtle in black (named Lorenzo) is holding his Butterfly-swords upside down in his arms, while holding the left one horizontally in front of his face and right one over his head.)
"SEVEN, EIGHT"
(In the third one, the turtle in white (named Domenico) is holding his Tonga-holding arms crossed over his chest. In the fourth one, the female turtle in pink (named Artemisia) is holding her right hand's Tessen opened in front of her face, partially covering them behind of her weapon, while pointing with her left closed one at the screen.)
(TURTLES!)

(Marietta is seen standing in the dead end, spinning around while spinning her Naginata with her hands in front of her, before she pulls it behind her shell-back and shoots her left hand forward as two two hands, one holding a knife and one a fire-axe, appears from both sides of the screen
"AT NIGHTFALL, WE'RE COMING"
(TURTLES!)

(Lorenzo is seen riding on top of the subway car, with his Butterfly swords sunk to its roof. And as he approaches the camera, the turtle in black jumps forward towards the camera and kicks the screen into black.)
"OUT OF MANHOLE"
(TURTLES!)

(Domenico is then seen stabbing with his left and then right Tonfa at one practice dummy in his right to the head, knocking it back. Then he turns around and spin-kicks the other dummy in his left in the head with his right foot. Then the turns around and whack the camera with his left Tonfa.)
"BEWARE, THE BADDIES!"
(TURTLES!)

(The screen pulls back, showing Artemisia skating with the pair of pink roller skates along the rooftop as she is being by the dozen ninjas with the swords. Four more ninjas appear from the sides of the screen, chasing after the skating turtle in pink. Arcee peeks over her left shoulder at them, smirks and then picks up the pace, skating into the camera.)
"MUTANTS NINJAS ARE ON THE MOVE!"

(Arcee then skates towards a pretty large ninja with the sword held up and ready to strike (with her pursuers' running feet showing in the sides of the screen). However, as the large ninja tries to strike at the turtle in pink horizontally, she grabs from both of his wrists, spins around and throws him over her shoulder at her pursuers. The ninja flies towards the camera face-first.)

(Arcee then turns around and somersaults over the edge of the building. The screen then moves down in front of with the wooden boards boarded doorway, before the same green armored truck - with Domenico in the driver's seat and Marietta in the passenger's seat - smashes through it, allowing the turtle in pink to land onto its roof.)

(Screen then turns to the back-doors of the truck as it is chased by two ninjas on motorbikes, until the back-doors of the truck slam open and Lorenzo jumps out with the barrel-roll, landing on his shell to the street, somersaulting back to his feet and then lunging at the ninjas, knocking them both off the bikes as he flies face-first at the camera.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF"

(The screen splits into two horizontal screens again: the upper screen shows a turquoise-masked face with lightly frowned glare, while lower screen shows Arcee, Leo and Mary in the snowy woods, staring at the five silhouetted canine-like humanoid beings with various colored face-paints (silver, dark blue, light purple, red and dark purple) standing in line. They all hit their fists with their fist before bowing.)
(In the next one, lower screen shows a white-masked face with deep frown while upper shows the silhouetted canine-like humanoid with the light blue face-paint wielding a single Kama in its right had while fighting two hunter-looking men with the hunting rifles: It kicks the one behind of its back in the chest with its left foot, then elbows the second one in the face with its right elbow. It then turns to and snarls at the camera before slicing it half with its Kama.)
("FIVE!")
"WE'LL ALWAYS FIGHTING AGAINST THE EVIL!"

(In the third one, upper screen shows a black-masked face with the wide eyes, while the lower shows Lorenzo with Angel, standing back to shell-back in middle of the ring of the silhouetted enemies.)
(In the fourth one, the lower screen shows a pink-masked face with the soft stare, while the upper one shows Louie and Angel turning to each other and taking each other from hands, before the turtle in black swings the girl around him in the air. As the turtle in black swings Angel towards the camera, the girl kicks the screen with her foot.)
("SIX!")
"WE COME, STRIKE HARD, AND VANISH INTO NIGHT"

(A next shot shows two buildings standing next to each other, until Donatello and Marietta appear from the left side of the screen and jump over the gap between the buildings (with Marietta pole-vaulting over the gap with her Naginata). Then four turtles, led by Leonardo, followed by Raphael and Artemisia and lastly Domenico, are seen rushing forward along the streets, weapons in hands. Michelangelo and Lorenzo are then seen following them right behind: the former by zipping along the rope with his Nunchaku and the latter by swinging by the chain while spinning the other one wildly around with his free hand.
("SEVEN!")
"AS A TEAM, WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE EACH OTHER'S SHELLS."

(In the next shot, we see all eight turtles standing under the light in the darkness, with their backs turned to the camera as it pulls away from them. As they all turn around to the camera, they draw out their weapons and take their individual battle-stances, ready to face whoever is standing in front of them.)
("EIGHT!")
"AND WE'LL NEVER LEAVE OUR BUDDIES BEHIND!"

(Out of darkness appears Baxter Stockman, glaring menacingly at the camera while being surrounded by the dozens of menacing-looking Mousers. Stockman points at the camera with his finger and the Mousers lunge forward.)
(Camera moves to the right, showing Tatsu backed up by the group of ninjas behind him. The scarred man draws out a sword from his X-shaped scabbard in his back and raises it with both hands up and next to the scarred side of his faces, pointing its tip at the camera while glaring himself darkly at the camera.)
(Camera moves to the right again, this time showing a strange female creature with the pale skin, red eyes, long elf-like pointy ears, slightly hooked nose and the long-black hair, and who was dressed in a complete black tunic, pants and slippers, including a long black elf-hat like hat. With the mischievous grin on his face, the creature waved its hands over, followed by the flow of glowing various-colored stars in her left hand and the various-colored lightning in her right hand, as if it was the magic.)
(Camera moved to the right once more, this time showing a mobster-like barrel-chested man with the thick eyebrows, mustache, double chin and tidy haircut. He was dressed in the blue shirt and a red black-spotted cravat, over which he wore a mafia-like olive green suit with the golden stripes. He had a same-stylish pants and the shiny black-tipped brown shoes. He wore on his head a grayish-brown fedora hat and he had in his mouth a cigar. Backed up by several tough-looking guys in the mafia-like suits and fedora-hats - all armed with various guns or melee weapons - the man took the cigar out of his mouth and, with the nasty sneer, he pointed with his finger forward.)
(The screen turns back to the turtles, showing Donatello whacking several Mousers away with his staff while Raphael lands on one, crushing it, while stabbing his Sais through of two other Mousers.)
(Domenico then moves to stab with his left Tonfa in the ninja's guts, before he turns around and whacks with his right one in the second ninja's chest, knocking him away, after which Artemisia slices the next ninja's staff in half with her Tessens before spinning around and kicking him in the chest with her left foot.)
(The strange pointy-eared creature then flies over to strike them with with the magical lightnings, only for Marietta to lunge at her from the air and land a kick to her side, knocking the creature off the air.)
(Three mafia thugs then, one in the white shirt, black cravat, turquoise suit and reddish-brown fedora-hat, one in the black shirt, green cravat, the brown suit and with the golden fedora-hat and the large broad-shouldered one with the thick eyebrows, shaven face and dressed in the checkered blue-white shirt, red black-spotted bow tie, dark purple suit and dark blue bowler hat, rush towards the turtles, only for the turquoise-suited thug in the left to be snap-kicked away by Michelangelo, brown-suited thug in the right to be kicked in the guts by Lorenzo and the big thug in front to be kicked away by Leonardo, who spins around before crossing his swords in front of his face.)

(Cut to the wide three-leveled shot, where two silhouetted turtles are first seen running along the sewer pipe: One turtle is on foot while another turtle is skating along the pipe's rounded walls.)
"I LOVE BEING' A..."

(Shot moves upwards to the street level, where three silhouetted turtles are running along the streets: One is running on the foot, while other is riding on the bike and third is hopping along both the driving and parked cars' rooftops. Then two narrower screens appear to above and beneath of the rooftop screen, showing the repeating line of turtles in turquoise's and white's masked faces above and the line of turtles in black's and pink's masked faces beneath, moving to the opposite direction.)
"I LOVE BEING' A..."

(Shot moves upwards again, to the roof level, where two silhouetted turtles are either jumping or pole-vaulting along the rooftops.)
"I LOVE BEING' A TURTLE!"

(Three turtles (Raphael in the left, Leonardo in the middle and Domenico in the right) are seen running towards the camera along the streets. Then Artemisia and Michelangelo jumps out of the open manholes into the streets and join the run next to Raph and Dom. Then they're joined by Marietta and Donatello, who land down from the rooftops to Leo's both sides. All seven then ran towards the camera that moved between of Leo's legs.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES!"

(Then, Lorenzo jumps off the building towards the camera, spinning the chain wildly above his head before throwing it away and then swings by it over the camera in Spiderman-style.)
"TURTLES COUNT IT OFF:"

(A small square screen then appears from the left, showing Leonardo's shadowy yet calm-looking face. Another appears next to it from above, showing Donatello's shadowy yet determined-looking face.)
"ONE! TWO!"

(Third appears from beneath, showing Michelangelo's shadowy goofy-like face. Then the fourth appears from the right, showing Raphael's shadowy yet fierce-looking face with the gritted teeth.)
"THREE! FOUR!"

(A fifth square then screen then appears from the left, showing Marietta's shadowy yet calm-looking face. sixth then appears next to it from above, showing Domenico's shadowy yet deeply frowning face.)
"FIVE! SIX!"

(Seventh appears from beneath, showing Lorenzo's shadowy wildly hilarious-looking face. Then final eights appears from the right, showing Artemisia's shadowy yet determined-looking face with the smile.)
"SEVEN! EIGHT!"
(TURTLES!)

(All eight turtles are seen jumping down from the tall blue tower with the red Japanese palace on top of it, which towers over all the other buildings of the town. With the weapons in hands, the turtles spin in a circle (First Leonardo, then Marietta, then Raphael, then Lorenzo, then Donatello, then Domenico, then Michelangelo and finally Artemisia) as they fall towards the camera)
"THERE'S NO ONE BETTER"
(TURTLES!)

(In the ledge of the same tower, that is above of the blood-red three-toed symbol in middle of the bright light blue circle, a menacing-looking man in the full Samurai-looking armor and helmet looks down after them, as his black cape floats in the wind and the lightning flashes in the sky behind him. The camera moves closer of his helmet-covering head, before the man turns to the camera and raises his left arm with the gauntlet armed with two sharp claws.)
"WATCH OUT FOR THE SHREDDER"
(TURTLES!)

(The turtles are then seen standing in middle of the rooftop. With the weapons in hands, they briefly demonstrate their weapons-skills before taking their individual fighting poses: Donatello is seen standing in the middle, pointing his staff's end at the camera, while Raphael and Lorenzo are standing in his right, Marietta and Michelangelo are standing in his left and Domenico, Artemisia and Leonardo are standing behind of them.)
"THEY'RE LIKE NO OTHERS!"
(TURTLES!)

(The turtles are seen riding or skating on the various human equipment along the underground tunnel: Donnie was in the lead, wheeling with his purple-gray foldaway bike as he rode past the camera. Artemisia followed him afterwards on her own turquoise tuned dirt-bike, waving at the camera. She was followed by Leonardo on foldaway kick scooter with the blue board, hopping over the handlebar with his hands. He was then followed by Domenico on the white-tuned road bicycle, who made the high backward flip over the camera. After them, Raphael and Artemisia were roller skating along the wall of the tunnel with their red roller blades and pink roller-skates. Lorenzo then skated after them with his oversized green and black skateboard pair of rocket boosters and he was followed by Michelangelo, who skated along the tunnel's wall with his orange skateboard, going higher and higher along the wall before he jumped off it, landing in front of the camera with the smirk before skating away.)
"THOSE TEENAGE SIBLINGS!"

(First Donatello, then Domenico, then Leonardo, then Marietta, then Raphael, then Lorenzo, then Michelangelo, and finally Artemisia landed onto the rooftop with weapons in hands.)
"ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!"
"FIVE! SIX! SEVEN! EIGHT!"

(Either spinning or waving their weapons, the turtles then charged forward towards the camera, with Leonardo taking the lead and slashing his swords forward.)
"TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES"

Then the logo of "TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES" appears, with the silhouetted figures of the eight turtles with the glowing eyes behind of it.
"TURTLES! TURTLES!"

= TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 2003 =
= THE SHREDDER STRIKES Part 1, PART 1 =

A couple weeks later after the conflict with the Garbageman.

Today the turtles were training in their lair's Dōjō: Leo was training with Raph, Donnie was training with Louie, Mikey was training with Mary and Arcee was training with Dom.

On the red carpet, Leo and Raph had a bitter duel. Raph swiftly and constantly swung both his Sais at Leo, who in turn managed to block his brother's each strike with the single Katana. Raph also tried in some point send the roundhouse kick at the turtle in blue's head or sweep the legs off from under, but with his quick reflexes, Leo managed to avoid the former by leaning backwards out of the kick's way and the latter with the sideways flip before landing back on his feet to the ground. However, Raph managed one time get through of Leo's defenses by moving with his Sais Leo's Katana out of the way, before he then kicked his brother in the unprotected stomach, sending him stumbling back a little.

Louie was doing exactly the same as Raph, constantly swinging his Butterfly swords at Donnie. However, the turtle in purple resorted to dodge the turtle in black's attacks and teasingly whacked Louie to the knuckles, back of the hands, top of his head, shoulders, chest, thighs, and feet with the quick yet snappy blows with both ends of his Bo-staff at each round. Louie tried once to lunge at Donnie and had pulled his Butterfly swords back before pulling them forward to stab his brother. However, Donnie dodged them by spinning around and out of the blade's way, before he swung his staff at Louie's butt, giving a snappy blow there and making the turtle in black jump into the air and yelp in pain.

Mikey was showing off his ninja-skills by swiftly moving out of Mary's Naginata's blade's way. Mary attempted for a numerous times land a blow on Mikey either with the horizontal or vertical swings with her Naginata, even attempting some stabbing moves, which Mikey easily though sometimes narrowly managed to evade. However, during the exercise, Mary observed Mikey's movements and learned to guess and predict beforehand what move Mikey will use next and when and where Mikey was about to move next. Mary eventually managed to trick Mikey in his own game by making a fake attack, which prompted Mikey to cartwheel to his left. And that was where Mikey did the fatal mistake. After the fake strike, Mary quickly spun herself around and struck with her Naginata's blunt end Mikey to the stomach once he was on his feet. Strike was strong enough to send Mikey stumbling backwards and eventually tripping him in his own feet, causing Mikey to fall on his shell-back to the carpet.

Arcee meanwhile was battling with Dom. Just like Mikey and Donnie, Dom also resorted to withdrawing techniques and dodging the turtle in pink's attacks with her Tessens. Every time when Arcee swung her Tessens at her brother, Dom alternately leaned either backwards or to either side or bowed his head down to avoid his sister's attacks. Arcee tried also target Dom's shins which prompted the turtle in white to jump and flip backwards to avoid those particular attacks. Arcee then lunged at her brother, sending at him a various spinning, roundhouse- and hook kicks, which Dom avoided by using the same techniques while withdrawing backward.

In contrast of Dom sucking in the close combat, he was actually a pretty good doing an evasive moves... though this of course was just a friendly exercise between of family members rather than an actual fight.

There was then a pause between of Raph's and Leo's duel.

"You know what I like best about the weapons practice? The weapons." Raph declared, proudly showing off his Sai.

Meanwhile, after hearing what Raph had just said, Mikey broke his fight with Mary and ran over to Raph.

"You said it, bro!" Mikey agreed, before he jumped over his brother and swung his Nunchuck towards Raph's Sai, which the turtle in red held above his head with his left hand.

Mikey's Nunchuck's chain wrapped around of Sai's blade ashit on his feet in front of Raph. Then, Mikey grabbed from his Nunchuck's handle with bith hands and pulled it down, pulling surprised and unprepared Raph off the ground and sending him flying over his head to the other side of Dōjō.

"AHH!" Raph yelled, before he hit on his stomach to the ground.

"Too bad you're stuck with those lame toothpicks and not a real weapons like Nunchucks." Mikey laughed, holding his Nunchaku over his head while spinning it wildly.

However, his proud show off was cut short when Donnie suddenly swept his legs from under with his Bo-staff, making him to fall over.

"Sorry, Mikey, but the Bo-staff is a really attract." Donnie boasted, as he jumped next to Mikey and spun his staff to show off.

"Really? I don't think so, bro!" Dom suddenly said, as the turtle in white landed undetected behind Donnie's back and swung one of his Tonfas towards Donnie's raised left hand, whacking its backside with his Tonfa's haft.

"OW!" the brainy turtle winced in pain and dropped his Bo to the ground before pulling his hand back and rubbed it with his other hand to soothe the pain.

"Let us say that Tonfa is the top weapon of the ninja. And what makes them so special? It's because they're perfect for whacking the opponents' hands to disarm them." Dom proudly boasted while spinning his Tonfas in his hands.

"Oh, but you're so incorrect, bro, and I can fix that! How about "playing Tarzan" for a change?" Louie humorously asked while spinning his pair of Manriki-gusari wildly in his hands, before throwing them both towards Dom's to wide spread arms, wrapping the chains around of the turtle in white's wrists.

"WHATTA?!" Dom bellowed, before Louie then jumped against one of the pillars and kicked off it, flying upwards before flipping over the pipe above of the Dōjō. Afterwards as Louie was falling back to the ground, the turtle in black pulled by the chains Dom bodily off the ground and into the air.

"HEY! HEY! PUT- PUT- PUT ME DOWN!" the turtle in white demanded as he was lifted in the air by the chains around of his arms.

As Louie hit on his feet back to the ground, he pulled the chains down before briefly letting fo from them and then reached his hands up as high as they could to grab from the chains again and pulled them down again. Then, while holding from the chains tightly, the turtle in black improved his grip from the chains by wrapping them around of his arms and afterwards kept holding from them steadily, thus leaving the turtle in white dangling from them in the air.

"Sorry, brother, but the temptation was too much to resist!" Louie said fake apologetically.

"Louie! You cheated! That wasn't fair!" the turtle in white shouted in annoyance.

"What an insult for my babies, Dom." Louie defended with the sly grin, before the turtle in black suddenly whipped his chains hard, making the other ends of the chains to unwrap themselves from around of Dom's wrists, causing him to fall down.

"AHH!" Dom yelped before he landed on his stomach to the ground with the loud thud. "OFFF!"

Louie then walked over to downed Dom, while wrapping his chain weapons together before putting them back in their places in his belt.

"There, there, there, babies." Louie said as he patted soothingly his chain weapons with his hands like a pets, before he turned to Dom, pointing at the turtle in white with one end of his chain weapons. "I demand you to show some respect for my Manriki-gusari, that are the best ninja weapons around for their capability for the long distance attacks and disarming the enemy from a safe distances, not the mention about their servitude even as a grappling hook when the situation calls for that. Besides, your wooden sticks, including Mikey's and Donnie's own, are boring weapon of choices due to them having a lot of weaknesses because of their material. But these babies... "Louie said as he proceed to draw out his Butterfly swords into his hands, spinning them around. "...are much more interesting close-combat weapons because they don't have a weaknesses at all."

Suddenly, two rapidly spinning pink Tessens flew past the turtle in black in boomerang-style, knocking the Butterfly swords off from Louie's hands, disarming the surprised turtle in black.

"HEY!" Louie complained as he turned around, only to see Arcee flipping in the air towards him, before the turtle in pink landed a fall kick him on Louie's chest, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying to the ground next to Dom.

"Big words, brother." Arcee said as she held her hands up and snatched her Tessens from the air as they returned to their mistress. "You maybe can throw your itty-bitty peeling knives if you want them to go directly to their targets, but can you toss them in boomerang-style like I can do with my Tessens, huh? That makes Tessens the top ninja weapons."

Mary then attacked Arcee from behind. However, the turtle in turquoise leaped over her sister and struck her Naginata's blade in between of two stone plates in the floor. And then, as she landed on her feet in the other side of her Naginata, the turtle in turquoise pulled its haft backwards elastically with her hands before letting go. The blunt end of her Naginata's weapon swung in arc at surprised Arcee and whacked her in the forehead, knocking the turtle in pink off her feet and onto her shell-back to the ground.

"Sorry, Arcee. But nothing prevents Naginata from being the ninja's best weapon." Mary said, as she pulled her weapon's blade off from between of the plates and spun it around in her right hand for a moment before grabbing from it with both hands.

After hearing his brothers and sisters boasting about their weapons, Leo pulled his another Katana out of its sheath.

"Oh, girls and boys!" Leo said loudly, getting everybody's attention to him. "Put away a toys! Because a double Katana is the only way to play!"

The turtle in blue then leapt into the air, holding his blades up and ready for the strike, as his brothers and sisters teamed up together to face their brother in blue.

Leo then sent the slice down with both of his Katanas, knocking Arcee's Tessens off her hands with the tips of his blades and leaving the turtle in pink totally surprised. Leo then landed on his feet in front of Arcee and teasingly whacked his sister sharply to her both flanks with both his Katana's flat sides as a distraction, making her yelp in surprise. Leo rthen spun himself around and swept with his right leg Arcee's legs off from under, causing her to fall over to the ground.

Donnie then charged at Leo next and attempted to swing his Bo-staff towards Leo's head, but the turtle in blue dodged it by bowing his head down. And after that, Leo jumped up into the air and flipped backwards, pulling his Katanas up and knocking the staff out of Donnie's hands with his blades' flat sides in the process. After landing back on his feet to the ground, the turtle in blue spun himself around and sent with his left leg a snap-kick in his brainy brother's chest, knocking the turtle in purple off his feet and over to the ground.

Mikey then tried to attack Leo from behind, spinning his Nunchakus wildly in his hands. Leo, however spun himself around and swung both his Katanas alternately towards Mikey's incoming Nunchucks, capturing their chains around the tips of his blades before yanking them off from Mikey's hands, tossing them aside and out of Mikey's reach. With his little brother disarmed, Leo then spun himself around again and hook-kicked Mikey in the chest with his left leg, sending the turtle in orange flying over to the ground.

"EVERYBODY STILL ON FEET! TOGETHER!" Raph bellowed.

Raph, Louie, Mary and Dom then attempted to attack their brother from all directions all at the same time.

Mary leapt in first, spinning her Naginata wildly above her head before she grasped to it with both hands and brought it down on Leo, with its blade first for the stab. Leo, however swung his left Katana at the Naginata's blade, blocking the attack and knocking Mary's blade away. Both turtles in blue and turquoise then spun around for the next clash. As she was turning back to Leo, Mary changed her grip on her Naginata and attempted to swing her weapon's blade sideways at Leo from his right side. However, Leo blocked the attack by capturing Mary's Naginata's blade between of his blades and directed with them his sister's weapon over his head to his other side. Leo then surprisingly slapped Mary to the back of her left hand with his right Katana's flat side, making her wince with "OW!" cry, dropping her Naginata from her hands. Gritting her teeth, Mary stepped back from her brother while shaking her sore hand in the air to soothe the pain, mistakenly letting her guard down. Leo took an advantage of this and kicked Mary in the chest, sending his defeated sister over to the ground.

As this happened, Dom charged at Leo, spinning his Tonfas in his hands as he did, while Louie attempted to attack Leo from other direction by spinning both his Manriki-gusaris wildly in his hands before tossing them at Leo in hope to tie him up with his chains. However, much to Louie's surprise, Leo was expecting this and moved his swords in the way of towards him flying and sideways spinning chains, capturing both of them one by one around his swords' blades. Leo then started to first slowly and then rapidly swing his Katanas back and forth, thus unwrapping the Manriki-gusaris partially from around of his Katanas' blades before spinning around and swinging both his Katanas at Dom's direction, releasing the chains from his blades and sending them flying towards Dom. This surprised Dom so that he couldn't dodge incoming chains in time before they hit and wrapped themselves around of him by his chest and legs.

"ARGH! NOT AGAIN!" Dom cried in surprise, as the wrapped up turtle in white fell on his face to the floor.

Louie then attacked Leo right after Dom was beaten. He attempted at first swing one of his shorter blades at his brother in blue, but Leo jumped with the barrel roll over his head, landing behind of Louie's shell-back and proceed by sending a small but snappy slap in Louie's butt with the flat side of his blade, making the turtle in black to yelp in surprise.

"OW! HEY!" Louie cried in annoyance as he turned round to face Leo again.

Louie and Leo then engaged each other to the second round, exchanging several blows with each other for a while before Louie then charged at Leo and raised his Butterfly swords over his head before bringing them down on Leo. The turtle in blue, however, raised his own Katanas up and blocked his brother's own blades. With their weapons locked, Leo then took a couple of steps back to create a space between of him and his brothers and then began to press Louie's swords down, before he quickly moved his blades beneath of Louie's blades just above of his guards and then with two sudden and strong pulls, Leo managed to disarm his brother in black, sending both of the turtle in black's Butterfly swords off his hands and flying in arc to aside, surprising Louie totally. With his brother disarmed, Leo jumped forward and snap-kicked Louie in the chest, sending unprepared the turtle in black flying into the air, flipping over in the air one time before he tumbled on his stomach to the ground and remained to lie there, beaten.

Raph then attacked Leo last, jumping high into the air while raising his Sais over his head and attempted to bring them down on Leo as he fell down towards the turtle in blue. However, as the turtle in red was about to strike, the turtle in blue quickly turned around and swung his Katanas at his incoming brother and knocked with two swift swings and slashes the Sais off Raph's hands, sending them flying into the pillar where they sunk by their tips into the rock. Despite losing his weapons, Raph attempted to send the punch at Leo, but the turtle in blue turned his Katanas upside down in his hands and spun around to dodge his brother's punch before he captured Raph's left hand between of his Katanas long handles by his wrists and pulled the turtle in red over his shoulder, slamming him on his shell-back against the the ground.

After the fight, all seven turtles lied on the ground, defeated and groaning in pain, while Leo was standing triumphantly in middle of his defeated brothers and sisters.

"What did I tell you? Double Katana. Pretty sweet, huh?" Leo said boastfully yet smirking triumphantly.

The others glared at their brother with the "poor loser" look on their faces.

"Nice one, Leo." Donnie remarked sarcastically.

"Now you're lowering yourself to the level of arrogance, aren't you, bro?" Mary questioned.

"Ugh! Just a luck." Raph growled, sulking in his defeat.

"Well, not so lucky to my butt. After getting it kicked by Bo-staff and Katana, I think I'm barely able to sit for a week." Louie complained.

Master Splinter then appeared to the scene. And his presence prompted the rest of the turtles to get up from the ground and go in line next to Leo.

"Well fought, Leonardo." the rat master congratulated the turtle in blue.

"Thank you, Sensei." Leo thanked, bowing at his master in respect.

"You have won, but do you know why?" Master Splinter asked.

"Well, I have the superior weapons." Leo started to explain, holding his blades up. "I read where the sword master Musashi said 'the Katana blade holds the soul of steel and is the truest guide to the warrior's way', which is kind of how I feel." Leo finished with the pride.

Master Splinter listened patiently Leo's explanation before opening his mouth to voice his own opinion.

"Many things are said, yes, but a few are true." Master Splinter said.

"Huh?" Leo gasped, totally dumbstruck.

The other turtles saw this and started quietly snigger behind of their brother's back, finding his situation interesting.

"Ouch! I think Master Splinter just hit him exactly there where it really hurts." Arcee whispered to the others.

"So much for the pride of the turtle in blue." Mary whispered back with the smirk.

"And what's the best. Master Splinter's got that look again." Raph joked quietly, nodding with his head at the look in Splinter's face.

"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Dom asked in whisper.

"I think that somebody is gonna get his shell kicked." Donnie sniggered

"And the question is whoooo-hoooo?" Louie quietly wooed, while trying afterwards his best to hold back his laughter.

Mikey and Arcee tried to hold back their temptation to laugh at what was obviously coming for Leo, but the turtles in orange and pink eventually lost the battle and laughed quietly, though they attempted to hide it with their hands.

However, this wasn't left unnoticed by Splinter.

"Michelangelo! Artemisia! Do you two think I am funny?" Master Splinter questioned sternly, holding his own staff up like preparing to punish his son and daughter with it.

Both Mikey and Arcee stopped chuckling immediately when facing their Sensei's stern glare.

Both of them hesitated to answer for a moment, until Arcee got enough of courage to open her mouth to say something. However, she was interrupted by Mikey, who spoke first.

"Uh, yeah. I mean sometimes. There was that time you told that joke about the ox and the sparrow...it wasn't really a joke, but it was funny and-" Mikey started, though with a poorly explanation.

Arcee facepalmed herself, annoyed with and embarrassed by Mikey's poor attempt to explain themselves, before she elbowed Mikey to the stomach to shut him up.

"Be quiet, before you embarrass yourself even more." the turtle in pink hissed to Mikey, before she turned to Master Splinter. "I think what Mikey meant was... no, you're not funny, Master Splinter." Arcee replied humbly.

"Good, my daughter." Splinter said, convinced by Arcee's humbly reply.

Master Splinter then walked into Dōjō, before he placed his staff to lean against the pillar next to him. The old ninja master then turned back to Leo, readying himself.

"Leonardo, attack me with your Katana." Sensei ordered.

The rest of the turtles stepped back to give their brother and master some space.

Leo was taken aback by Splinter's order and hesitated.

"What? Master Splinter, I..." Leo stuttered, fearing that he might hurt his master and father with his swords, even by the accident.

"Do it! Now!" Splinter demanded.

Reluctantly, Leo obeyed his master and readied himself for the attack.

With the roar, Leo attacked Splinter with one Katana, swinging it towards him as fast and hard as he could. However, Master Splinter caught the blade with his two hands right before it could even touch his faces, stopping it like in the wall and leaving it only a couple inches away from his faces.

Everybody in the present, especially Leo, gasped in shock and awe after seeing this.

"Is this the great and glorious weapon of which you speak? Helpless before an old rat such as myself?" Master Splinter questioned, before he let go of Leo's Katana.

"Again, with both this time." the rat master demanded.

Leo obeyed, raising both of his blades over his head and then attacked his Sensei with both of them. Master Splinter of course dodged swiftly his son's first attack and moved fast to his staff that was still leaning against the pillar, snatching it from its place as Leo attacked him again.

The turtle in blue sent alternately with both Katanas the series of slices at the rat master. However, while standing almost motionlessly in place, Splinter blocked effortlessly each one of his son's attacks with his own staff. Despite this, Leo kept sending the countless attacks on Splinter from both sides with both of his Katanas again, and again. Again, again, again and again.

The rat master then spun his staff around before he made two quick swings and struck both of Leo's knuckles with one end of his staff, making Leo wince in pain, dropping his Katanas out of his hands. Splinter then placed the blunt end of his staff under of Leo's chin, lifting the turtle's head slightly up.

"In the hands of true ninjutsu master, anything can be a deadly weapon." Master Splinter quoted to his oldest son.

Leo looked even more dumbfounded, even embarrassed by this turn of events.

The other turtles, however, burst out into laughter after witnessing Leo's pride getting shell-kicked by their master. After their defeat at Leo's hands and him boasting about his Katanas so pridefully, they clearly enjoyed of Leo's own humiliation.

"Remember, a weapon is only as good as the arm that wields it, Leonardo." Splinter added, before proving it by skillfully throwing his staff into Raph's punching bag, impaling it.

"Until you have learned this lesson, my son, you have learned nothing." Splinter added, before the rat master then withdrawn back to his room, leaving his son to the Dōjō. Eventually, calling it for today, all the turtles departed from the Dōjō to do whatever they wanted with their free time.

Only Leo remained at the Dōjō, as he was too upset of his humiliation and completely defeated by Master Splinter's words to move a limb.

###

Later, still confused and frustrated by what Master Splinter said, Leo had gone to outside to cool down. The turtle in blue had picked the open rooftop as his sparring ground, where he began to perform some attacking movements to vent his frustration. However, it didn't ease his confused feelings about earlier.

"I don't get it!" Leo groaned to himself in frustration, before he jumped into the air and spun himself around, swinging his swords to both sides before landing a few feet away from the spot where he was a moment ago standing.

"What haven't I learned! My steels are best than they've ever been!" Leo said to himself with the growing frustrated voice, before he ran to the coming direction and jumped in the air, raising his Katanas over his head and then brought them hard against the ground in anger as he landed, creating some sparks from the impact.

Turtle in blue then kicked the stack of newspapers in the air and cut with the tip of his Katana the rope that kept them together, allowing them to rain freely down on him.

"I JUST... DON'T... GET IT!" Leo roared, as he sliced in blind anger and frustration the raining newspapers with his Katanas.

Afterwards, while breathing rapidly, Leo forced himself to calm down as the remains of the newspapers, which Leo had skillfully created the paper stars with his Katanas, rain on him and landing on the roof around of his feet.

"Master Splinter just doesn't understand how important these swords are to me." Leo said to himself a bit calmly than a moment ago.

Leo kept sulking in his confusion and frustration for a moment, before he suddenly caught the sound of the high-pitched whistling in the air, as if something was coming towards him with the high speed.

Out of instincts as the flying unknown object was getting closer, Leo turned around and sliced the flying thing with his Katana, cutting it in half and knocking it off the flight

The thing he just sliced with his sword fell in next of his feet.

Leo looked down at it and gasped as he realized that the thing he just sliced in half was a red arrow, which had been just fired at him from afar.

"What?!" Leo gasped.

The arrow meant that there was an archer nearby! Hiding in the shadows and waiting for the moment to assassinate him from the safe distance.

Leo held his ground and prepared to defend himself in case if there was more archers waiting in ambush.

However, ten-fifteen minutes later, there was not another shot fired at him.

Leo then decided to stand down and sheathed his Katanas, though he remained cautious in case for the ambush.

Leo then paid another look at the arrow in his feet, and noticed that into its haft had been attached a note. This at least proved that there was no ambush but rather the delivery of a message, probably for him.

Apprehensively, Leo picked it up from the ground.

"Okay, it's not your regular mail. I guess Mikey would call it, "Airmail."" Leo said, as he unrolled the note and started to read it.

"Warrior. If you're reading this note, you have passed the first test. I call upon you, as a point of honor, to meet with me tomorrow night at 16 South Boyle. If you follow the way of Bushido, you will come. And, you will come alone."

Leo read the message through for a couple more times, noticing that there was only a given address where he was expected to arrive but no name of the one who had sent this message for him. Several questions about the meaning of this message started to run in his mind, but all he could assume was that whatever this message was for, it must be something important... so important that its sender, whoever he was, wanted to talk about it only with him.

TO BE CONTINUED...